Month: April 2022

Last Time

Nevada Desert

This morning’s breakfast was at Mike and Rondas The Place, which we ate at the last time we were in Flagstaff in November of 2021. We were very pleased with that meal, but this time not so much. It was the eastside location of the restaurant that we ate at then and I don’t know if it was just this downtown location or what, but this time the food was bland and turned cold before we finished eating it. We have vowed that this was the last time we eat at Mike & Rhonda’s.

This might be an easy vow not to break because of Las Vegas. In November when we traveled this route back home we got into heavy traffic on I-515 into downtown and it was a major pain. So, this time I thought that maybe if we got on I-215 which looped around the west of the city it would be better even if it was a dozen miles longer. Ha, not so much, and it might have been worse. We have vowed not to come this way at all ever again. From now on when we make this trip we will just drive home the way we came via the Loneliest Road.

The shift to this ‘there and back on the same route’ plan was also enhanced by the negatives of having to drive in through downtown Albuquerque in the morning to catch I-40 west. Plus I-40 presents its own negatives as well, what with the shear amount of truck traffic that uses this cross country highway and the rough road surface cause by all these heavy vehicles.

On the plus side of the Klamath Falls to Carson City to Ely to Moab to Santa Fe route is it will give us an opportunity, on one of the legs, to visit the lower portion of Canyonlands National Park. Come back in November of this year and see how we do.

So Long La Casa de Sally

Last Night’s Santa Fe Sunset from Fort Marcy

After 7 days of hanging curtains, repairing several stools damaged in shipping, changing a few light bulbs & hunting for just the right bookcase for a certain wall, Donna and I are on our way home. Hunting bookcases took us into nearly every consignment and or thrift store in Santa Fe before we finally hit paydirt at a little, one-man operation in corner lot just about a mile from La Casa de Sally.

While in Santa Fe we also ate at two different Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Restaurants, breakfast at the Tune-Up Cafe1 an lunch at Back Road Pizza.

Tonight we are in Flagstaff and the drive was mostly I-25 to I-40 with a couple of forays onto Old Route 66 for some geocaching and sight seeing. On the last bit, from outside Winslow to the hotel, we took a lovely back road for the last 61 miles. According Google maps this route was about 13 miles and 20 minutes longer, but the time might have actually been less than taking I-40 in. This is because unlike our last day driving into Santa Fe a week ago we were not caught by surprise with a construction slow down. Arizona had a sign a hundred miles from Flagstaff letting us know the road dropped to 1 lane from 2 at mile post 205, so we got off a long way from there and looped into our hotel. And right now looking out the Holiday Inn Express’s window we can see I-40 and traffic is creeping.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Santa Fe Edition of SORT
As of Monday, April 4, 2022 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1974 Porsche
914		 1991 Land Rover
Defender 90		 1969 Volkswagen
Karmann Ghia
It was between this and a 2016 Boxster, also in orange, but the 914 is just the right size. With Wranglers, FJs and Defenders to chose from I think the Defender 90 would the winner. I bet this wouold not be the best cross-country tourer, but I’d live with it happily because of the way it looks.

Here is what two weeks ago’s cars sold for, or bid to, if the reserve was not met.
Sports: 2015 Ferrari California T Sold for $148,000 on 3/25/22
Off-Road: 1996 Suzuki X-90 4×4 Sold for $8,800 on 3/27/22
Touring: 1949 Ford Custom Convertible Sold for $69,500 on 3/27/22

25,000 Cholla Plants

A small story from Thursday’s drive:

When we were getting ready to leave the small corner of Colorado we pass through, Donna was driving, so I asked, “Hey, if there is a big ol’ Welcome to New Mexico sign, pull over so I could take a picture?” I was looking at the GPS watching the the border approach and I could see on the left side of the road the back of the Welcome to Colorado sign, but I couldn’t see anything on the right. As we passed the spot there was a stone marker, about the size of a fairly decent headstone, that read “Boundary / Navajo Reservation / US Dept Interior.” I might have taken a picture, but by then it was too late…maybe next time.

Somewhere not too far into the Navajo Reservation the rental CX-5 passed the 25,000 mile mark.