Road Trip

Las Vegas & Hoover Dam

Here are some more photos of that whirlwind driving tour of Arizona in 1989. The first 4 pictures are of Las Vegas. I know we spent the night there, but I couldn’t tell you which one it was. I might not even have been any of these for properties. The Flamingo is the only hotel of these four that still stands from 36 years ago. The Sands was torn down in 1996 and was replaced by The Venetian. The Dunes closed in early 1993 and one of the towers was imploded later that same year with the second tower coming down early in 1994. The Bellagio was built on the site and opened in 1996. The Frontier closed in July of 2007 and the 16-story tower was imploded in November of that year. The property it stood on has to this date not been built on.

Next four are of the Hoover Dam. Look at that water level! Pretty near full and right now the level is about 160 feet lower. We even took the tour. Even though 112 people died during its construction, none of them are entombed in the concrete despite that popular myth. When the bottom of the large concrete bucket opened up, pouring 8 cu yd out, a team of men worked it throughout the form. Each bucket deepened the concrete in a form by only 1 inch (25 mm), and Six Companies engineers would not have permitted a flaw caused by the presence of a human body.

Monumental

So, for episode 2 of “Driving Ms. Sally” in late April I’ll be driving down to Santa Fe instead of flying. Because after we get back to Santa Fe from the Hammond visit, I’m leaving Sally there and I’m going to continue driving around the country visiting folks. On the trip down I want to visit Monument Valley. Sally mentioned that she wanted to go there and see it someday, so I’m going to reconnoiter the place.

I have driven through the area twice recently and I actually visited it a long time ago. Back in 1989 Donna & me were deciding whether to quit our jobs in Florham Park and move to a sister plant in South Carolina or just stay in NJ and think about buying a house there. To help clear our heads and think on it we took a couple weeks of vacation and flew into Phoenix, AZ, rented a car and circumnavigated the state. One of the stops was Monument Valley. We arrived late afternoon and they were no longer running the Jeep tours, so we thought we were out of luck, but things were a bit more laid back then. The guy behind the counter handed us a map and said, “Just stay on the roads and be back here before 6 to leave, because they lock the gate.” We got back in our little red 1989 Ford Escort and bounced along on several miles of dirt road. That would never happen now.

Road Trip Day 2 – San Angelo to Houston

Yesterday evening while refining today’s route I found a bit of Roadside America in the the town of Lampasas. There was a park that offered a a spot for a short leg stretch walk and it included an art sculpture garden that included a old rusty pickup truck with a giant catfish in the bed. The giant catfish did not disappoint and there several other art pieces that were worth a few minutes of contemplation too.

About 2/3rds of the way into the day’s drive, we stopped for lunch. My first plan from the night before was for us to get some pizza or some Chinese food in the town of Temple. But I changed when I saw a sign for Zaxby’s just as we entered the town of Temple. I always enjoyed their chicken fingers while Donna and I lived South Carolina. Sally was agreeable to go there, so we plugged the restaurant into Google maps. I should have called an audible to find another spot because when we found it the parking lot was practically empty a 12:30 PM on a Saturday. It was disappointing on practically every level, the cole slaw was as I good as I remembered it and the frozen lemonade was pretty good too.

We had passed a drive through car wash on the way to lunch and thought it would be nice to wash the dirt off the car that we gathered on the snow-covered drive yesterday. While looking for maybe a different car wash that was more along our way out of town, I found out there was a Buc-ee’s in Temple. Originally the Buc-ee’s visit was slated for on the way home when we spent the night in Amarillo. Even though this would add several extra miles to the drive to Houston, who could refuse?

Road Trip Day 1 – Santa Fe to San Angelo

We left real early with just enough light to see, so the first hour was spent driving south during the golden hour. This gifted us a sky with all the beauty of the southwest landscape illuminated by the predawn sun. Unfortunately, the previous day’s weather gifted us hard-packed snow and ice with all the danger of sliding off into a ditch along the side of US285 South.

After leaving the city proper on the way to Clines Corner we were traveling gingerly at about 40 MPH on a road with a speed limit of 75, passing a couple of vehicles stuck in the snow off the side of the road. Past Clines Corner the roads intermittently became clear or snow packed making the speed a lot higher overall until we got 20 miles north of Roswell when the road became all snow/ice covered, so it was back to a steady 40 MPH creep.

We did get lucky on our direction of travel too because some miles south of Ramon, NM the north bound lane was blocked by a semi that got stuck making a turn onto US285 North. There were a couple dozen cars stuck behind it, with three State Troper cars sitting there in the middle of the median, doing who knows what. About 5 miles later there was a fire truck angled across both of the north bound lanes with probably 100 cars backed up behind him. It wasn’t until just now as I write this in the San Angelo hotel I realized what the fire truck was probably doing, it was just past a rest area and a pass thru to our side of the divided highway, so as to make it easier for a wrecker to get to the semi and move it off the road.

There was a detour on the route Google was sending us to circle around Roswell and I missed a sign for a detour turn necessitating a quick U-turn. This was the first of three with me at the wheel. After Roswell, the rest of trip was clear sailing, except for me driving right by where we supposed to turn south in Plains on Texas 214. This one was because I always keep the voice muted because it interrupts the music playing. Secondarily, I also keep Android Auto showing what music is playing full screen. After that incident it was suggested to me by my passenger to at least keep the map visible. Because we were long past the correct route Google had me U-turn (#2) go back part way towards Plains and head south on some random Farm to Market road. U-turn number three happened after passing one of the turns along the zig-zagy correction route. I may have had the map full screen, but mute was still. I was suggested to me by my passenger that perhaps it would be good to unmute madam Google too.

Without further incident we made it to our late lunch meeting at KD’s Bar-B-Q in Midlands with one of Donna’s older brothers who lives about 50 miles west, in Monahans. The BBQ there is in fact quite terrific all three of us piled more food on our trays that a normal person, if 30 years younger than us could eat, but that was okay because they had readily available to-go boxes for us to take the leftovers with us. I’m not sure I want to have my leftover ribs for breakfast in the morning, so maybe there should be a more sensible sized lunch tomorrow allowing us to eat that stuff at tomorrow’s Homewood Suites outside Houston.

41,000km2 of Oregon’s Outback

This is a post about a road, OR31, something the Oregon Department of Transportation and its counterpart the Department of Tourism have designated as a scenic byway. This 150 mile stretch of road runs between La Pine and Lakeview and travels through some very rugged and beautiful high desert.

We really weren’t drawn to this road because of its destination, but because we could take a 350 mile 2-day road trip and take photos of 8 more Oregon Post offices. Sunday we headed east towards our first stop, Bly and then through Lakeview, the biggest town we’d see all trip, with about 2,500 people and onto the town of Adel whose population is defined as sparse. Then back to Lakeview where we had some lunch at Burger Queen, so named because, I guess, Burger King was already taken. Three post offices down we finally got on OR31 and headed north and west. The fourth and last post office of the day was in the town of Paisley home of the annual Mosquito Festival that raises funds for vector control.

Our stopover for the night was the Lodge at Summer Lake in the “town” of the aptly name of Summer Lake, population 80. The lake itself is nothing but a wildlife refuge with some sporadic marshy areas. I think the small pond behind the Lodge has more water in it than what’s in the refuge. Because it too has a post office we were going to get a photo, but the light was wrong, so we aimed to get it in the morning on our way north.

Monday, after a very good breakfast at the Lodge, we snapped that Summer Lake post office before heading to Christmas Valley. Christmas Valley is the largest town in this part of Oregon and was named after another dried up lake. The biggest attraction in Christmas Valley are their sand dunes east of town. We were going to drive over and look at them, but following our Delorme atlas, the road that was supposed to be paved turned out to be not, so we turned around we headed for our next post office in Fort Rock. After quickly visiting the state park day use area, by looking at what is left of a extinct volcano that was in a prehistoric lake which is no longer there. Our last post office of the trip was off OR31 in the town of Silver Lake that is once again named for a lake that no longer exists. Done with the photo taking we headed home from there on a meandering 50-mile road over to US97 where we turned south to get to Klamath Falls.

Somewhere in the town of Lakeview while driving around pondering our dining options, Mini #2 surpassed the 41,000 mile mark.

Home Again For A While

We took that 4 week road trip and stayed home for just a couple of weeks before spending another week away, so we will probably be chillin’ at home for awhile. Last year for this trip up to Washington and back for a family 4th of July picnic, we stopped at the same place in downtown Bend for lunch, but this time we chose two different locations for the midday meal.

On the way up we drove right through a busy Bend and stopped at the next town north, Redmond, where we ended up at an eclectic little place called One Street Down Café. The temperature was in the middle seventies and we sat outside to eat under the trees in the side yard. I had a Cuban that was made using a savory french toast and Donna had a half and half ham & cheese sandwich and chicken tortilla soup.

On the way back we drove right through a busy Bend and stopped at the next town south, La Pine, at a place called Cinco de Mayo Mexican Restaurant. We had a hard time finding a parking spot because there was a Porsche Club event that was having lunch here too. Fortunately we were seated and order taken before everyone that was there in a P Car hadn’t arrived yet. We split some chicken fajitas that were served with delicious, made fresh on site, tortillas.

Heading Home

Day one of our 2-day return trip back to Klamath Falls. On the way up to Granite Falls we took the shorter quicker route through Washington by taking I-90 West and WA203 north, but on the way home today we abandoned that short quick version because the surface of I-90 was awful. I swear the concrete contractor took a few shortcuts because it is deteriorating badly. Of course the amount of traffic it receives is probably a whole heck of a lot more than the further north US2 too. From Monroe we used US2 this morning heading east and it was a great little drive until it got a little later in the morning and we got to the fake Bavarian town of Leavenworth, WA. Even after getting past Leavenworth, the traffic was fairly steady.

After the drive up, and now halfway back, we both think that this will be the last time we come up to visit over the 4th of July. We are going back to visiting in May when there are a lot fewer folks on the roads and practically zero RVs.

On the way up 3 days ago we crossed the Columbia river via a different bridge. We usually cross on US197 right out of The Dalles where the Holiday Inn Express is, but this time we used US97, about 20 miles further east. On the way up the hill in Washington we noticed a sign for a Stonehenge memorial and thought that maybe we should stop in on the way back. So we did.

Here is the interesting origin story of the monument.