Some ancient history that never got shared. All these images are borrowed, I no longer know where to find the pictures I took on this trip. Just be patient, UK and Italy will appear soon.
This will be our second attempt at reaching Key West, Florida. For those of you followed our previous escapade you will remember we only made it as far as West Texas. To avoid the same problem of having too much to see we decided to beat feet for Florida and take our time coming back. The first day out was none to auspicious, they closed the pass over the Siskiyious due to snow. Being ever so resourceful and somewhat impatient we decided it would be fun to take the route over to the coast and down highway 101 into San Francisco and on to Redwood City to see the kids. Not so simple as you might think. Somewhere outside of Grants Pass, in the snow and on a narrow two lane highway, traffic came to a
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| Grants Pass in the Snow |
Made a quick stop in Arcata to check out the facilities in the Co-op (Ashland should be jealous) and stretch our legs and then on down the highway. Spent the night in Ukiah cuz we simply didn't feel like driving any further. Should recommend the motel if I could remember the name, clean and neat and a pretty darn good continental breakfast in the morning. Of course the price of $50 a night might have a lot to do with that. Their claim to fame, a garden full of Redwood Burl sculptures and I mean those great big ones, bears and eagles and giant benches with all kinds of creatures carved into it. Apparently even the spa had burl sculptures.
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| Smith River Canyon |
Birthday celebrations in the Bay Area meant we got decent Chinese . . . there is no such thing in all of the Rogue Valley! And of course there was a trip to Trader Joes (another of those things you miss when you choose to live in Southern Oregon) to pick up some essential like Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup and Triple Ginger Cookies to stock up the tent trailer before we hit the road in earnest.
As I write we are three days out of the Bay Area and in San Antonio, Texas. A humdinger of a storm chased us down I-5 and up and over the Grape Vine day 1 (the Grape Vine for you non Californians is the road out of the Central Valley in to the Los Angeles basin.) No putting up a tent trailer in all the wind, and fortunate we were too, since the next morning they closed the pass due to snow and it poured rain in L.A. We headed east again across the desert and in to Arizona.
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| Jedediah Smith Redwoods |
The deal was make it for Florida, no stopping and sightseeing lest we not make it. It was kinda hard not pulling off to see places we had missed before or wanted to revisit but we held strong. Texas has helped a lot, the road goes on and on and on and there doesn't seem to be much to see. A quick stop at the Tourist Information Center in Demming N.M. demonstrated why we shouldn't stop, spent 20 minutes just gossiping with the volunteer who was raised there about how it had changed. At least the bathrooms were clean and free. There's a business there that does nothing but process chili peppers . . . I'm going back for the tour someday!! Her guess as to why they stopped growing so much cotton in Demming . . . people prefer polyester because you don't have to iron it.
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| Demming N.M. |
El Paso Texas felt like something out of a dystopian movie about the end of
the world. All smoke and grime, mesas and canyons, strip commercial and Mexican
shanties. Mexico is just across the river and whatever that city is named it
stretches on and on as far as you can see. Lots of heavy industry and the
"urban decay" that goes along with it . . . all I really needed to do
was take out my camera. It would have been a great photo shoot. It didn't help
much that road out of Las Crusas and in to El Paso was lined with feed lots.
Not exactly a pleasant smell but just possibly better that the smell around
Tillamook Oregon. Do you suppose Beef cattle smell better that milk cows?
You know how they say that things are bigger in Texas, well not to be
out done by the Wienermobile, in California, a giant tire was seen rolling down
the highway. Well maybe not truly rolling but it was a very giant tire all the
same. The roads are certainly bigger (for the giant tire perhaps). Highway 10
is two lanes each direction with a median probably three or four lanes wide in
between the east and west bound lanes. A lot of the median could probably be driven
on in a pinch and there are shoulders wide enough to carry traffic as well. As
if this were not enough considering the volume of traffic (oh, at a stretch you
might have twenty vehicles in an single linear mile on a busy piece.) on one
and sometimes on both sides of the travel lanes were what amounted to frontage
roads. In effect 6 lanes of traffic not counting shoulders or medians. Wonder
in which administration this road was built, can you say pork.
Things I have learned(?)
Things I have learned(?)
- Palm Springs looks like someone watered and whole
bunch of houses and shopping centers sprung up.
- The Oscar Meyer Wienermobile's license plate is
"I wish I were" . . . it passed us on I-10 somewhere in the
dessert
- You cross the Continental Divide somewhere in New
Mexico and there are no mountains to be seen
- Before reaching Van Horn Texas you go through two
time zones
- You can't get to Camping World by taking Exit #2 in Texas no matter what the billboards say.
- If you want fireworks just drive I-10 in New Mexico and Texas, you can buy them year round.
- Speed limits in Texas as 80 mph but you really don't want to do more that 70ish pulling the tent trailer
- Last but not least, according to my spouse the reason we stopped seeing some many wind farms once we got well in to Texas, they don't put beans in their chili.
Sightseeing tomorrow in San Antonio . . . remember the Alamo! More
coming your way soon
Oops, didn't get this sent in time . Forget the Alamo but there
are other things of interest in San Antonio.
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