Winding Down

The Last Week

The calendar is our enemy. Day by day it steals irretrievable seconds. It reminds us we have only one more campsite before home. I sit here bawling like a baby, trying to stop the tears, not wanting this fabulous journey to end. Then I'm reminded of the experiences that never made it into the blog. So I dry my eyes, blow my nose, and take a deep breath...

Alabama

•  Can it be that over 2 months ago we pulled into our campsite "resort" at Lake Eufala, AL? It seems forever ago that we hiked along the lake at this little camping area, hoping the wind was blowing away from us because they were conducting a controlled burn. Seems someone would have told us before we saw all the smoke...
• We loved our time at DeSota State Park, AL. Time with great friends, Keith and Pam, and a joke that won't go away: Whenever we build a campfire, no matter where Keith sits, the smoke finds him. He moves and the smoke follows. I was thinking last night as the smoke from our fire was drifting in one direction, "We know where Keith would be sitting!"
• Fruit trees, both wild and domesticated were in bloom, as were dogwood, red bud, and azaleas. Lovely Spring in the South!
• While staying at DeSoto we drove to Little River Canyon, described as The Grand Canyon East of the Mississippi River. 
  

Azaleas

 

Little River Canyon Falls

Mississippi

The only thing Mississippi had for us was the Harrowing Narrowing.

Another view of the Harrowing Narrowing bridge.

Tennessee

• Memphis, Tennessee is the site of the world's largest Bass Pro Shop. Heaven on earth! 

• We also enjoyed celebrating our anniversary with Pam and Keith at Charlie Vergo's Rendezvous BBQ in Memphis. You enter through a back alley. Kinda sketch. But the food was great. We bought some Rendezvous rub and sauce to remember the flavor when we get home.

Bass Pro is in The Pyramid.

Pretty bridge over the Mississippi River
at Memphis

"Still crazy after all these years..."
-Paul Simon

Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas

• There are only two bathhouses where you can actually soak in the hot springs. 
• Kristi did the whole soak-and-spa treatment when she visited, and discovered the meaning of "spa drunk." 
• We chose to hike the Promenade and Goat Rock Trail instead, but as the weather was chilly, a soak in the springs would have been delightful.
• We showed great restraint NOT patronizing Fat Bottomed Girl's Cupcake Shoppe. But we were tempted!
  

Crossing the Mississippi at Memphis.

Gotta have "the sign"

The trail was longer than 0.2 miles.
It was a pleasant 2.6 mile hike.

One of the original tubs at Hot Springs, AR
People thought the hot spring water had therapeutic healing value.

Table Rock State Park, MO

• What a beautiful park - on a lake with a marina, a riverboat, and lots of good hills for hiking. 
• The redbud and dogwood trees were splendid, as was the sunset. I would come back here again! 
• We also enjoyed Branson, MO and the shopping at The Landing at Lake Taneycomo. Although we only drove through "the strip" area on the way back to the camper, it looked like it could be fun in warmer weather. 

Flowering Dogwood
Table Rock State Park, MO

One of a gazillion Eastern Red Bud trees
Table Rock SP, MO

Oklahoma

• When I think of Oklahoma I think of cows, rain, wind, flat land, wind turbines, and tornado sirens. 
• I also think of the solemnity of the OK City museum. 
• Perhaps next time we will investigate Tulsa.

Rainy entrance into Oklahoma.

"May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity."
OKC Memorial

March sunrise over Lake Thunderbird

 

In the Texas Panhandle

• In just a few hours the temperature changed from 28 to 73 degrees. Ah, the importance of layering clothing. Did you know a pair of yoga pants under jeans cuts the wind?
  
• A stockyard was at least 2 miles long. Full of black Angus cows. Smelled... like money!
• We learned the difference between buttes and mesas.
• The ranches were incredibly huge! Many had solar and/or wind turbines, irrigated areas for hay, but mostly just immense expanses of nothing.
• The daredevil road bikers at Palo Duro who risked their lives riding down the steep roads and switchbacks into the canyon. And (huff) then (puff) back (umph!) up (made it!).
  
• Orange soil, reminded me of Georgia red clay.

 

Entering Texas.
(Remind me to Photoshop that car outta there.)

I like big buttes and I cannot lie.

 

Definitely a mesa.
I wish I had a dollar for every one we saw.

Red soil along the Prairie Dog Town fork
in Palo Duro SP, Texas

 

From Amarillo to Albuquerque

• Cacti, gray grass, mesquite, junipers, and sagebrush along the road for miles and miles
• Ubiquitous orange soil - but a lighter color than Texas
• I discovered a laundromat that cost $5.00 for washers. Ridiculous! But only cost $.50 for dryers.  I came out about the same as other laundromats I used on the trip.
• I learned to spell Albuquerque

 

Typical view on I-40. The back end of a truck.

Lots of shades of brown on this part of the trip

 

From Albuquerque to Holbrook, AZ 

• Volcanic rock along the road; I googled it and discovered there were several different types of volcanoes in the area.
• There are caves carved out of the mesa sides. It reminded me of Mesa Verde, which was seasonally closed in May. Next time...
  
• Route 66 was everywhere! Sometimes it joined I-40, sometimes it went through small towns. Pixar/Disney's "Cars" movie was inspired by John Lassiter's actual cross-country road trip.
• Lengthy freight trains with double-stack containers, or conex boxes, as some call them. J.B. Hunt was the most common name seen on the containers. For good reason.
  
• Ft. Courage, a small town with a pancake house. Do you have the courage to eat here? Not me.
  
• Numerous dried up creeks and washes. As it was spring, I thought we would see water in these. Nope.
• A sign advertising Minnetonka moccasins. Kyle, do you remember your pair? I think you wore them out.
• No trees. We laughed that Dave would never get an arborist job here.
• We went across the Continental Divide!

 

We are a little late for the Centennial celebration...

So... I have a lot of Photoshopping to do.

From Holbrook to Williams, AZ 

• Sign for a dog walk at a rest area: "Keep Dogs Between Signs. Caution: Rattlesnakes and Scorpions May Be Present." I guess some people don't like their dogs...
  
• We passed through Flagstaff. Snow on roofs and in shady areas. Lots of pine trees. A nice change from cacti and sagebrush.
• The Sunset Mountains and Humphrey's Peak were so pretty in the distance as we crossed the desert. I would like to come back to explore what this area has to offer.
• Dave bought me a hematite stone bracelet from a local native vendor at the Grand Canyon. It has all kinds of healing power and keeps you out of trouble. At least that's what the Internet says. He bought it because it was pretty, so that kept him out of trouble. See? It works! 
  

Humphrey's Peak near Flagstaff

Grand Canyon, South Rim

 

From the Grand Canyon to Grand Canyon West

• The Skywalk was really cool. Not scary at all.
  
• Sign "Expect Cattle on the Road." We chuckled - it broke up the monotony of the regular old cattle crossing signs.
  
• Dust devils
• Cacti, cacti and more cacti. Prickly Pear jams, jellies, juice, candy, cocktails, you name it. I tried a prickly pear vodka and tonic. Not so great. Maybe it was the tonic... 
• Pistachio tree farm in the desert. We asked our campground owner about it. She said the farmer moved his operation from California to Arizona. The locals were concerned about how much water the farm would take from their water supply. Turns out there was plenty of water for all.

Prickly Pear Cactus just beginning to bloom.
As we journeyed into late spring and lower elevations
we saw this plant in various stages of blooming.

 

From Grand Canyon West to Valley of Fire State Park 

• The land is desolate. Rocky, mountainous, no trees. But, in spite of that, it was absolutely beautiful.
• We crossed the Colorado River just south of Hoover Dam. Next time we'll stop and see the dam.
• Driving through Las Vegas on I-15. Horrible road. But we did see palm trees! Again, a nice change from cacti and sagebrush.
• We saw the Las Vegas Motor Speedway www.lvms.com. From the picture on their website you can see how bare the mountains are. But pretty in their own way. Rick, when are you racing your Porsche here?
  
• Solar farms galore. One was Gemini Solar. www.primergygemini.com. Check out the video on their website's home page. You will get a great idea of the landscape we drove through.
• There is a rust-colored grass that makes the land look red. At first I thought it was the orange soil we saw in Texas and New Mexico. Definitely the grass.
• One side of the highway has green mountains. The other side has the gray and brown mountains seen in the Gemini Solar video. We were seeing the Rain Shadow Effect, where one mountain range receives rain, but it blocks the moisture from other areas. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/rain-shadow/
• We turn a corner in the highway and Boom! the bright orange rocks of the Valley of Fire are on both sides of the road! We experienced several Boom! moments on the trip.
• Prickly Pear in more advanced stage of blooming.

Part of one row of solar panels.
See the website above.

Prickly Pear Cactus at Valley of Fire.

In Death Valley and on to Joshua Tree National Park

• Elevation decreases were marked every 1000 feet all the way to the bottom of Death Valley at -282 ft.
  
• At the bottom was an area named "Devil's Golf Course." Dave thinks he's played a few of those before.
• Some interesting road names: Zzyzz Road and Ghost Town Road sparked our imaginations.
• We came down from a mountain pass and Boom! There were Joshua trees everywhere! They only grow below 6,000 ft.
  
• Joshua trees populate lower elevations, but junipers are found at higher elevations. Joshua tree leaves are made into baskets, sandals, and the like. Juniper berries are used locally in herbal teas.
  
• We saw lots of small compounds (communities?) made from broken down RVs and old trailers. Were these homes? Spare parts? We weren't sure.
• Tumbleweeds were piled up on the windward side of fences. Apparently these are non-native nuisance plants.
• Rusty metal artwork in yards, along fences, for signs, anywhere a piece of rusty metal could be used. A restaurant sign was made from an old car door. I was wondering why no one hauled off all this old iron to cash-in. Ideas, anyone?

Joshua trees

One of the nicer pieces of rusty metal art.

El Segundo

• Coen, who was 1 month old when we visited, is now 2 months old, wearing 6 month size outfits, is smiling, and rolled over from tummy to back. He's in the 99.9 percentile for weight, and the 98 percentile for length. Oh, boy! 
• The El Segundo Blue butterfly is an endangered species, whose limited dune habitat has been reduced by the construction of LAX, mining, and oil refineries, among other things. Kyle showed us a small area adjoining LAX where there are attempts at restoring the original habitat.  (https://xerces.org/endangered-species/species-profiles/at-risk-butterflies-moths/el-segundo-blue butterfly)

This cutie is now 2 months old and BIG!

 

The elementary school's mascot is the Blue Butterfly.

 LA to Sequoia and Kings Canyon

• Dave is driving at least 50 MPH along narrow, winding mountain roads. No guardrail on the passenger side! Steep drop-offs! Slow Down! Oh, he's only going 30 MPH and the speed limit signs allow 40. I still have white knuckles.
• There were several hang gliders taking advantage of the thermals rising from the valley floor. At one point we drove through one's shadow.
• We were again surprised by the vegetation changes as elevation increased and decreased.
• At our campground outside Sequoia, near a ton of blooming orange trees, we met a couple from near Branson, MO. Really nice people, we invited them over to our picnic table and taught them how to play Rummikub.
  
• Wildflowers! I must do an entire page on these colorful little gems along our route.

A meadow in Sequoia NP.
I think these are Desert Brittlebush.

 To Yosemite National Park

• We almost hit a free range chicken! Asign advertised Eggs for Sale. So, cage free and pre-scrambled!
  
• There was another Boom! moment. Lots of wind-y, twisty, mountainous roads and then Boom! We came over a rise and there were gently rolling hills, a little town, and antique stores. Quaint, and unexpected.
  
• There is a flat Helispot on one side of the road going into Yosemite. I'm assuming this is where emergency vehicles from the park bring injured or ill vacationers for air transport to a hospital. So glad we didn't need this important service.
• Dave and I loved Yosemite more than any other park. The waterfalls, meadows, bushwhacking, El Capitan, Half Dome - it all was spectacular beyond what we could imagine. Pictures just don't capture the feel of the place, nor the immense-ness of everything. I would go back in a heartbeat.

Yosemite to Great Basin National Park, Nevada

• To get across Nevada we took US Highway 50, called "The Loneliest Road in America." It certainly had very little traffic, but the views were amazing! One area was Fallon, NV, with salt flats and even a mound of salt!
• We stopped halfway across Nevada and stayed at a little Baptist church parking lot before heading on to Baker, NV and Great Basin National Park.  
• It was very cold in the desert at night. Trooper agreed!
• Once we arrived at Baker, NV, and Great Basin National Park, we discovered some of the trails we wanted to hike were seasonally closed. So we hiked on Bureau of Land Management lands, and let Trooper off leash. He was one happy pup!
• We were able to take a tour of Lehman Cave at the park. Pretty!
  
• At our campground in Baker, we met a couple from Florida. They lived in St. Pete, he worked for Raytheon. He was aware of Booz, Allen, Hamilton, the defense contractor Kyle works for. They decided to sell their home on St. Pete Beach and travel the country.
• We also met a young couple from Berlin, Germany. They had a baby about 4 months old and were taking their parental leave throughout the western USA. One evening they came by our campsite to see Trooper, and just sat down at the picnic table and talked. We enjoyed visiting with them.
  

 

Fallon, NV

 

Food for thought

Can you tell it's cold again?

Live life unleashed!

Lehman Cave, Great Basin National Park

 

On to Zion National Park, Utah

• Zion was another favorite National Park. I've shared a number of pictures from there, but now I can reveal The Squirrel. We heard this crazy bird-like noise and were looking in the trees along the trail. No bird. Then we saw it. The Squirrel was sitting on a rock barking. As I began to video him, someone walking by quipped, "That's the sound they make when they're about to attack."

•  I don't know what plant this is, but it was shedding worse than a golden retriever blowing its coat. There was so much on the ground it looked like snow.

The unidentified fluff plant

Lots and lots of fluff on the ground, in the air, on our clothes, in our noses...

Bryce Canyon National Park

We took a nice hike to the bottom of the amphitheater and back. At one point we came across a group of teenagers posing for a picture. The cameraman was off the trail, and as we approached the kids were goofing around about the kid breaking the rules by stepping off the trail. Kidding, I said, "I'm going to tell a ranger." They loved it! 

Later, they caught up to us, and someone said, "Hey, Jimmy! She's going to tell!"  "Oh, it's Jimmy, is it? Now I know who to tell the ranger about." They loved it!

Later we passed them again, and I took their picture all together, and we visited. They had just graduated, and were celebrating with the trip to the canyon. I told them I used to teach kids to make video games. Now I was the favorite teacher they never had.

We made it to the top before they did, waited to catch our breath from the last vertical push, and when they arrived, they said, "Hey! There's Kathy and her husband! We wondered what happened to you!" "We've been up here for hours! What took you so long?" They loved it!
 

Capitol Reef NP

• One of my favorite wildflowers of the trip grows in the sandy soil here. 
• Dave liked any gnarly tree. I love this picture.
  

Silver Townsendia

Fremont Barberry only grows in this area.

Gnarly Tree, Capitol Reef NP

 Colorado National Monument

• I love people who love to camp! And those who host us campers. If you recall, we arrived at Grand Junction, CO before my sister, Debbie, and her husband, Rick, due to a snowstorm in the Rockies. When I checked in at the campground office, I noticed the campsites could become "Buddy sites." This is where the RVs are side-by-side, nose-to-tail, so the doors open into the same common area. The lady was happy to reassign our sites so we could be "buddies." 
• Trooper loves Debbie and Rick. He was thrilled at the Buddy arrangement. He could run out our camper door and go straight across some grass to their camper door. I don't know how many times he ran back and forth between campers, but he definitely got his exercise.
  

The Home Stretch

• After leaving Debbie and Rick in Colorado Springs, we enjoyed 2 nights near Santa Fe, 2 nights north of Dallas, 2 nights on the Texas/Louisiana border, and 2 nights in Mississippi, all at Army Corps of Engineer campgrounds on dammed reservoirs. Oh, no! More dams!
• We also returned to Palo Duro Canyon. We decided to eat BBQ in Amarillo after spray painting Cadillacs, and found Tyler's Barbeque. Texas-style barbeque is cooked low and slow over mesquite wood. Fabulous!
• Dave let me drive! Yeee-haw! I did great on country back roads, I-20, and even a VERY narrow bridge-under-repair with concrete barriers on each side. He didn't get much rest, as it was hard to relax with a rookie behind the wheel, I think.
  
• Nothing planned to see or do, just relax by lakes and decompress, organize laundry, take inventory of remaining food, and begin cleaning various parts of the camper (blinds, shelves, cupboards, etc.) 
• Maybe find an antique store. I might need some of that rusty metal for the front lawn. NOT.
• Maybe find some fresh catfish for lunch.  (Note: we did! Weidmann's Restaurant, the oldest restaurant in Meridian, MS.

Delicious catfish, gumbo, and clam bisque.

 

Downtown Meridian. Mississippi State University
has contributed a great deal to revitalizing this town
into an arts and cultural center.

 

Next stop: Chipley, FL and Falling Waters State Park. We plan to hike with Trooper, try to adjust to the heat, and then drive home.