Day 35: Pendleton to HOME

Triple A arrived right on schedule and started the car. Good thing they had long cables because when the battery is dead, we couldn't switch it out of "park." Found out later that you can, but it requires a screwdriver and about 8 steps...

Anyway, the Nissan started right up. We had already packed everything so we wouldn't have to turn off the engine. I checked out and made a running leap to get in as Jim drove by.

Homeward bound, we were in familiar territory and soon came to the Columbia River and started down the gorge. Visiting the Grand Canyon and the other national parks has really raised the bar for us with respect to scenic beauty. Even so, the Columbia River Gorge passes the test with flying colors. I never get tired of it.

Soon we saw Mount Hood peaking over The Dalles. We stopped at Multnomah Falls for a rest and to take some pictures with fall colors in the background. Then we proceeded to Portland and crossing the I-205 bridge headed down the home stretch to Ridgefield. Funny thing is, although it feels good to be here, we both could jump in the car and leave again tomorrow. This trip was so enjoyable, we can't wait for the next one.

We got home at a little after noon on day 35. We were gone exactly 5 weeks and travelled 8,979.3 miles. We have a list of places we want to visit again: Padukah, Buffalo Valley, Pensacola Beach, Sedona, etc ... And a few places not to visit. All and all, a great trip.

So until we next hit the road -- I've enjoyed sharing our experiences with family and friends. Thanks for taking the journey with us.

Day 34: Twin Falls to Pendleton

As we left Twin Falls, we travelled over the Perrine Memorial Bridge which spans the Snake River Gorge. The bridge is 486 feet above water. Daredevil Evel Knievel attempted to leap across the Snake River Canyon a mile east of the bridge in 1974. Interesting story. Check it out at: http://weirdscifi.ratiosemper.com/evelknievel/canyon.html

We got back on I-84 and headed towards Boise. There was a lot of construction, but we were past the rush and made it through Boise and to the Oregon border in good time. Still no trees on the horizon, but we knew we would find them in Oregon. We stopped at Baker City and drove through the historic downtown area which was nicely restored and had some beautiful old houses, commercial buildings, and the Geyser Grand Hotel. Gold was discovered in Baker County in 1861. A number of mining towns sprung up throughout the county and many of those are now ghost towns, but Baker City survived.

Then we went through the Blue Mountains, descending abruptly at a 6% grade into Pendleton. We stopped at a view point to get a look at Pendleton in in the distance. At the stop, we saw a trucker who looked like the incredible hulk with four tiny dogs, three on a leash. The fourth came over to say hi. The large man with four tiny dogs seemed oddly mismatched.

It was early, so we decided to turn off at the Wildhorse Resort and Casino. From the highway we could see advertisements informing us that Tuesday was Senior Day, and that they had Free Child Care. We thought that was an interesting marketing duo. When we parked in the parking lot, a small bus pulled up behind us to give us a ride to the casino. We waved him off and walked. I guess they want to make sure they get all the seniors into the casino.

Jim and I are not gamblers. I haven't played the slots in 20 years and all the machines looked unfamiliar -- no arms. We found a nickel machine and tried to figure out how to play. We managed to get a dollar each into two machines. But no matter which buttons (some flashing, some not) we pushed (including the "spin" button) the machine would not spin. There was a "help" button that brought up a display that really did not help us. I finally pushed the "cash out" button. Still nothing.

Jim went over to get some help and managed to go into the dealer area -- mistake. They acted like he was a terrorist and shooed him out. He thought they were going to arrest him. I finally found a dealer that told me to look at the top of the machine where it had printed a ticket. She said we could put that ticket back in and try again -- I said no, thank you. So we went over to the cashier to cash in our two, one-dollar tickets. She smiled and said, "Would you like that in large bills. "

Then I spotted some machines with arms in the "non-smoking" area. We found a nickel machine that was much simpler to operate (and no "help" button). So we got the hang of it and managed to make one dollar last for about 30 minutes. But that was enough. I concluded that the secret was to choose a machine that did NOT have a "help" button.

We decided to go to the Pendleton Woolen Mills next. The Mills had a small museum of Indian art which I enjoyed. And beautiful Indian blankets and a variety of other items. We finally headed up the hill to the motel.

Later in the evening Jim discovered that the car wouldn't start. We figured that we left the lights on or something -- the car has an alarm, but it is in the audio range that Jim can't hear. Triple A will be here at 8AM tomorrow morning to hopefully start the car. If all goes well, we will be home tomorrow.

Day 33: Lehi to Twin Falls ID

Lehi (pop 19,028, elev 4,550) was named for a Mormon saint. The polygamous practices of the Mormons were vigorously prosecuted by the feds in 1870-80 and many went into hiding near here. Legend claims that when federal officers ordered a small boy to take them to a polygamist, he lead them to a chicken house and pointed out a rooster.

We got to Salt Lake City about 10 AM. We saw a sign for the left-hand lane that said "HOV/Toll only." After our Houston experience we shuttered at the word "toll." After seeing another sign that said "2+ or Toll," and seeing no toll booths on the horizon, we gingerly moved over into that lane and got through town with no trouble.

We've been through Salt Lake City a number of times, but never really seen the lake. I had a brochure for Antelope Island State Park, which is on the lake. So we decided to take the turn off and headed out to the Island. By the time we got to the entrance, we had lost all other traffic and were the only car in sight. There was a $9.00 fee at the lonely toll booth and we headed across the causeway over the lake to the island.

The great Salt Lake is called America's Dead Sea. It is all that is left of pre-historic Lake Bonneville, a huge lake that covered 20,000 square miles during the Ice Age. The lake has four rivers flowing into it and no outlet, so the water evaporates and leaves salt and other minerals behind. The current lake is 75 miles long and 28 miles wide. It is so salty that only brine shrimp, brine flies, and several types of algae can survive.
Speaking of brine flies, we got out of the car at a view point and immediately were swarmed by these creatures. They are everywhere. Fortunately they do not bite, but they swarm around you. I found myself using my arm as a windshield wiper walking along. They travel close to the water and the beach. I don't see how anyone would want to swim here, although there is a swimming area. I've placed these creatures into the same category as no-see-ums from Florida.

Antelope Island is home to a herd of 500 - 700 bison who roam freely. The herd started in 1893 when a rancher brought in 12 animals. In 1926 they held the "last great buffalo hunt" on the island and almost wiped out the herd. Fortunately there were enough animals left to re-populate and no more hunts. When the state bought the island, the bison came with it and became one of the largest public herds of buffalo in the country.

The visitor center had an interesting video on the animals. Every October they round them up using helicopters. Modern cowboys? They herd the bison into a coral, check the animals, vaccinate them, and choose animals to sell off. They keep the herd at a stable size so they won't overrun other animals on the island.

As we left the visitor center, we saw about 5 buffalo close to the road. Although we made a lot of noise they didn't seem interested in us at all. I guess we were not as noisy as a helicopter.

We left the island, got back on the Interstate and soon hit Idaho. As we turned onto I-84 we felt we were getting closer to home. When we saw a sign for Shoshone Falls we turned off the freeway. We crossed over the Snake River Canyon and headed up the river about 9 miles. We had come to the falls in 2003 on our return from Kansas, but there was no water. So we wanted to see it with water. And we found it. Shoshone Falls is 212 feet tall and called the Niagara Falls of the West. With water, it was quite impressive.


Twin Falls (pop 34,469, elev 3,745) was only a few miles away and we stopped there for the night.

Day 32: Bryce Canyon to Lehi

Since Ruby's was the only motel on this trip that did not provide a complimentary breakfast of some sort, we got an early start and arrived at Bryce Canyon National Park at 7AM. We decided that this was the perfect time to arrive at a national park. No crowds, no traffic. This park has a shuttle, but it was nowhere in sight and you can drive to all points of interest. So off we went to Sunset Point. We found ourselves on the rim of a canyon some 8,000+ feet high looking over a vast sea of hoodoos. I think they should call it hoodoo canyon. It was just amazing.

There was a path that lead down among the hoodoos, but we decided to do that on our way back since the sun was good for pictures and we wanted to stay ahead of the crowds. We passed a tour bus coming in as we exited. Bryce Canyon is not just one canyon but a series of semi-circular canyons with brilliant colors and spirals, balanced rocks, and all sorts of formations. All the view points were from the rim, looking down at the cliffs.

We stopped at a natural bridge formation and saw a raven sitting on one of the fence posts. I gingerly rolled down the window and snapped some pictures. But as we got out of the car, the raven stayed put. So I got closer and closer. He still stayed put. Having read somewhere that animals that are not afraid of humans are dangerous, I stayed back about 3 feet, but he wasn't budging. Instead of "never more," we named him "never move." He was still there when we left.

After getting our fill of canyon views, we went back to Sunset Point to take that path and get an up close and personal look at some hoodoos. The Navajo Loop sign said that it was 1.3 miles -- didn't sound so bad. So we started down into the canyon. It was very, very steep and windy trail with a number of switch backs and great views along the way. I kept stopping to take pictures and Jim kept saying, "you know we have to go back UP sometime." And, "Everybody is going down, but nobody is coming back up." We kept going until we finally reached the floor of the canyon and the trail leveled off. We took a break in the old river bed and turned around the bend. And then we encountered the UP part. The trail had about a 10% grade, was in the sun and at 8,000 feet gave a new meaning to the "breathtaking view."

We went slow and rested every few switchbacks, but it was a long climb back up. As we finally surfaced and were sitting on a short wall resting, along came a bus-full of Japanese school children with guides and a video photographer bringing up the rear. We decided to wait until they passed us, but I think we still ended up in their video.

Having exerted more than our daily ration of physical activity, we took another rest at the Visitor Center and headed out of the park, on our way home. We passed through the Red Canyon State Park. Just more beautiful Utah scenery. Also passed the exit for the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. According to my AAA book, hundreds of movies and TV shows were filmed there.

It was only 20 miles to the Interstate and we were back in the groove. After viewing the beauty of the national parks, the views from the freeway seemed desolate. Trees were gone and we were in desert hills all the way to Lehi (just north of Provo) where we pulled off for the night.

At our first stop in Arizona we noticed that the motel room clock was an hour earlier than Jim's watch. I just knew we couldn't be in the Pacific Time Zone. We checked my cell phone and it agreed with the motel, so we changed the watch. The only thing I could figure out was a daylight savings time change -- but we encountered it on a Tuesday or Wednesday -- we have trouble with what day it is too, but I know it wasn't Monday. Anyway, when we got to Lehi, the motel clock was one hour later -- back where we started from. So we threw up our hands and now just look at the motel clock when we check in to see what time it is.

We went over to the grocery store across the street from the motel and bought some TV dinners and tried to buy some beer. That's when we found out it was Sunday.

It's homeward bound tomorrow -- should take us about 3 days to get there.

Day 31: Page to Bryce Canyon via Zion NP

It was not as cold this morning. I guess that extra 3,000 feet makes a difference. We headed north on highway 89, immediately crossing into Utah. The country was beautiful. We were near the Vermilion Hills National Monument and that describes it pretty well -- layers of different colored rock (pink, red, orange, tan, etc.) sculpted into hills and mesas.

These layers were laid down at different times as this area was at the bottom of a great shallow lake -- and later a vast dessert with sand dunes thousands of feet high. Eventually the sand turned into sandstone. Then the whole Colorado Plateau was raised up from 8,000 to 10,000 feet. Rivers formed to drain rain and snow and carved out the beautiful canyons in this area. Iron in the sediments rusted resulting in the vivid colors. The different layers of sandstone were composed of different material eroding at different rates. So the spires and pillars (called hoodoos) formed in many interesting shapes.

As we travelled along the road leading to Zion National Park, we saw about six small mule deer dead along the highway. Jim named it "dead mule deer road." They must be like possums here. We saw a number of live deer as well. Once we entered the park, the ranger told us to drive 12 miles to the visitor center and park. There was a shuttle to take us from there.

We immediately found ourselves on a winding road in the midst of colorful mountains -- snaking through the peaks. This offered beautiful views for me, but not the driver. Jim said he could usually look around when driving, but was not going to do that on this road. They did have scenic pullouts here and there, so we stopped to gaze at the towering mountains and steep cliffs rising in front of us.

Then we saw sign for a tunnel. And what a tunnel it was, straight through one of the mountains, dark, curvy and ONE MILE long. They had carved about six side windows through the side of the mountains. The semi-circle in the rock in this picture is one of these tunnel windows. They were spaced so that just when you eyes adjusted to the light, they would blind you again. Great for those with claustrophobia, not so good for the driver. We finally emerged and entered the hairpin curve section of the road (five) until we leveled out at the bottom along the river valley.

We got to the visitors center at about 10:30 and got one of the last parking places. There was another gate to the Park right next to the visitor center -- so we figured we came in the back door. Later we saw a sign saying that the parking lot was full and you needed to park in town (near the front door)....then take another shuttle from there.

The park shuttle was great, but crowded. Each shuttle was a double bus and one came by every 6 minutes or so. They took you to all the points of interest and stopped both ways on the route which made it easy to get anywhere you wanted to go. Getting Jim onto a crowded shuttle was about the same as getting him near the edge of the Grand Canyon. Fortunately, folks dispersed quickly and Jim really enjoyed being able to get places without worrying about driving and parking.

After an enjoyable visit, we left about 2:30 back on the tunnel road to make our way to Bryce Canyon. On our way, we saw a roadrunner run across the road. Later we saw a dead coyote-like animal beside the road -- wondered if that wasn't Wyle Coyote. We stopped at Ruby's Inn on the road to Bryce Canyon National Park about 1 mile from the entrance. We decided that one park per day was our quota. We would get up early and hit Bryce first thing in the morning.

Ruby's Inn is quite a place and I highly recommend it to anyone going to Bryce Canyon. In 1916 Reuben Syrett (Ruby) and his wife bought a ranch on the land where the current Inn is located. Some friends told them about the nearby Canyon, and when they saw it, they were enthralled. They told all their friends about it and ended up pitching a tent called a "tourist rest" to host them. More and more people came and they built a lodge and kept expanding as the Canyon became a National Monument and then a National Park. The current Inn is huge and is run by Ruby's children and grandchildren. There is a huge gift shop and grocery store, restaurant, swimming pool. Down the street, they have a camping/RV area with its own swimming pool, and across the street there is an old fashioned main street with more stores.

When we checked in they explained that the electricity would be off from 11:00 pm to 6:00 AM. It had something to do with the power company repairs. They didn't offer a discount, but they had hot water (until 11:00) After dinner, Jim went to the room to watch football and I toured the gift shop.

Day 30: Grand Canyon to Page AZ

It was downright cold this morning -- 26 degrees. Our car kept raising a "Warning: Cold Temperature" alert. (We aren't quite sure what our car expects us to do about it...) Gary and Kathy gave us both TEXAS sweatshirts, and those came in handy. Thanks, Gary and Kathy.

We packed up early and headed back to the Grand Canyon Park. What a difference between 2 PM and 7;30 AM. No cars in the parking lot - we were the first one. The Canyon was as gorgeous as yesterday, but more enjoyable without the mass of humanity.

We caught the shuttle to Yaki Point and enjoyed another great view. This is the point they recommend for sunset views. Morning views aren't bad either. The shuttle driver was very enthusiastic about the Park. He said he worked in law enforcement for 50 years and just couldn't take it anymore, so he moved to the Canyon and started working for the Park. He said that he now loves his job and described all the view points on the desert trail that we were taking out of the park. We hadn't seen the Colorado River yet, but he said there were several good views coming up.

So we had to stop at all the view points and at the Indian ruin and museum. We saw the Colorado River. Our final stop was at the "desert view" area. You view the desert and canyon from a 4-story tower built from native stone and decorated inside with Indian art. Spiral stairways lead to a view balcony, and a 360-view area on top. We paid a fortune for a hamburger at the snack bar and headed out of the park at about 1pm. The temperature had elevated to about 65, but seemed much hotter. We just aren't used to all these clear skies and bright sunshine. With a 40+ degree difference between night and day temps -- we discovered that layering is the way to go.

Highway 89 passed through the Navajo Reservation. It reminded be of the Reservation we passed through in Montana -- very desolate and barren land. It was a sandy pink desert with no vegetation. The monotony was only broken by small houses and trailers and the numerous roadside stalls used to sell Indian crafts and jewelry. Most of those were empty now (drat!) but I imagine they are quite active during the summer season.

The land gradually developed more character with multi-colored cliffs in the background. Actually quite pretty by the time we left the reservation and headed to Page and the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

The GCNRA includes the Glen Canyon Dam (on the Colorado), Lake Powell and the surrounding area -- located in both Arizona and Utah. The dam is adjacent to a bridge spanning the canyon walls. We went to the Info Center just across the bridge and enjoyed a bird's eye view of the dam holding back the mighty Colorado on its way to the Grand Canyon.

The dam was built in the 1950's and the town of Page was founded so that the workers would have someplace to live. The town is uphill on a mesa with a fantastic view of the river valley, dam, and Lake Powell. Our hotel was right on the edge of the mesa and we could see all this from our window. We thought it would be expensive, and were surprised to get very reasonable off-season rates. I guess the Grand Canyon doesn't know about off-season.

When we got back to our room from our tour, we saw the message light blinking. Not knowing who would know where we were, we checked with the front desk. Turns out that there was a plumbing problem and we had no hot water. The motel offered to give us $20 off the room if we stayed. So we decided we could bathe tomorrow.

There is a lot to do here. Just down from the Dam is a marina and a huge lake to explore with fantastic canyon land scenery (they had pictures hung up in the motel.) There is also horseback riding, fishing, camping and rafting down the Colorado. And it is much less crowded than the Grand Canon. The only language we heard was English. It is not entirely a secret though because we saw several tour buses prowling the area.

We are going to visit Zion National Park tomorrow (and take a bath).

Day 29: Casa Grande to Grand Canyon

After enjoying a beautiful desert sunrise, we started out early and headed north. Phoenix (pop. 1,200,000+, elev. 1900) was sited on an old Hohokan village and named Phoenix to symbolize the new city raising out of the dust of the old ruins. And as we drove towards the city, it certainly rose out of the flat dusty desert in front of us.

We hit Phoenix at rush hour, and even though we took the "loop," we found ourselves in stop-and-go traffic through Tempe, Mesa, and Scottsdale. By the time we actually got to Phoenix, things had thinned out, but a major construction project managed to take up the slack and keep us going at a snail's pace.

We didn't really get a view of the skyline because the freeways are low, surrounded by tall concrete walls. It wasn't bad though because they had decorated the concrete in that southwestern "overpass" style using Spanish/Indian motifs. It was very attractive and left us a good impression of the city despite the traffic.

The architecture in this area is very non-intrusive. The houses are of stone or stucko and painted in warm shades of brown that blend into the landscape. This seems to make up for the lack of vegetation and looks very nice.

We turned off the Interstate to take a scenic drive from Cottonwood to Sedona. Just before we got to Sedona, we had a fantastic view of the red hills and stopped at a scenic view area. Here I had to balance my fear of snakes with my desire to take a good photo. In order to get a good shot, I had to climb the hill behind the parking lot -- watching carefully where I was stepping. I was nervous because there was an insect that kept making a distinctive rattling noise. Then when I hopped up onto a rock, Jim helped by saying, "Snakes like rocks, you know."

We turned off at Red Rock State Park and drove through some beautiful country with red rock canyons and pillars. Did you know that the red color in these hills is rust? Yep, iron oxide. It sure looks prettier on mountains than old cars. We thought we were on a loop until we saw the sign that said, "pavement ends." So we continued on carefully -- still managing to scrape the underside of the car (visions of our buffalo experience). The Nissan is just NOT comfortable being mistaken for an SUV. So we turned around.

Sedona is a beautiful town, nestled in the red rocky hills, surrounded by beautiful scenery on all sides. It has an intersting and scenic tourist area with shops/restaurants. We didn't stop, but Sedona is definitely on my list of places to revisit. (Wilcox -- not so much.)

The drive from Sedona to Flagstaff took us up about 3,000 feet in elevation around a number of hairpin curves. Flagstaff and Grand Canyon Area are at 7,000 feet. We drove through some beautiful country. Jim had been missing trees and wondering if he would ever see one again. Totem cacti just didn't do it for him. His wish was answered today. We started seeing the usual mountain variety of trees and some beautiful fall colors.

We got back on the Interstate for a few miles at Flagstaff and then took the exit for the Grand Canyon. Just a few miles from the entrance we discovered a Best Western and a few other hotels and tourist shops, plus an IMAX theatre. We got a room and suffered from sticker shock. This was more upscale then we were used to. The hotel lobby played music in the background and had a full dining room and gift shop right off the lobby. You needed a ticket to get into the complementary continental breakfast searved in the dining room. They also had several spiral staircases that reminded me of the cruise ship we took to Alaska. But the real shock was that our room glasses were made out of real glass, not those individually wrapped plastic cups.

We stopped at the IMAX theater on our way to the park an discovered that we could buy a park pass there. Jim went off to the restroom, and I got in line to get a ticket ($25 per vehicle). I asked if they had a senior discount -- never hurts to ask -- and the woman asked me if someone in my party was over 62. I said, "yes." Then she said she would have to see ID. I said the person was in the restroom with it, but I would come back with him. When I took him over there, she sold him a $10 pass that is good in any National Park or Monument. And she said told him to hang on to it, because it is good for life. Now that's a senior discount. And it applys to anyone in Jim's vehicle.

So we went off to the Grand Canyon to try out Jim's new pass. We got into the park about 2:00 and stopped off at the first parking area. We managed to get the last parking spot. The place was packed with people speaking all different languages -- but the view was spectacular. There are really no words in any language to describe the sight of that canyon. They had a large platform with guard rails that hung over the canyon (a shire drop of a mile down). I got out my camera and moved to get close to the edge to take pictures. When I turned around, Jim was not behind me. He was back against the steps. I had forgotten that he is afraid of heights. He told me if I couldn't find him, he would be huddled against the back wall. As he said this, another person said, "me too." So Jim started a support group for acrophobics in the corner.

Getting off the view platform, we started walking along the rim trail. Soon the guardrail disappeared -- good for photographers, bad for acrophobics. But little by little Jim got closer and closer to see the view which was phenomonal. We were both tired, so we returned to the hotel and then went to see the IMAX movie -- which was great, but the first scene was a plane zooming around the canyon -- Jim turned green.
But he really enjoyed it after that.

We are going back to the park tomorrow, then on to Utah.

Day 28: Anthony to Casa Grande, AZ

We got on the road again, immediately crossing into New Mexico and across the desert towards Las Cruses. It is hazy, but I think it must be dust since we ran into numerous highway signs warning of possible dust storms and zero visibility. Although we had a Strong wind, no dust storms materialized. Just another beautiful sunny, warm day.

Las Cruses ( pop. 74,000, elev. 3,908) was founded on a site that was covered by a group of crosses marking the graves of members of a caravan that was ambushed by Apaches. The name means "the crosses."

A little further down the road we were stopped at an inspection station. All vehicles had to pass by an officer and a dog. I guess if the dog gets excited, you get stopped. Fortunately, the dog wasn't interested in us at all.

About half way to Arizona, we passed through a "riverless valley", the Mimbres Valley. The Mimbres River stops flowing north of here and goes underground, surfacing again in Mexico. This is the first of many rivers -- with no water that we encountered. It is a dry, thirsty area.

New Mexico and Arizona have those friendly welcome signs -- like Florida. Even though it is hot here, I decided to wear jeans and tennis shoes instead of flip-flops. I'm particularly sensitive to rattling noises too. Jim said these signs remind him of why he likes Washington.

About 50 miles into Arizona, we pulled off to find a tourist information center in Wilcox. Looking at an information kiosk, I discovered that Wilcox has an "historic district." In fact, Warren Earp (brother of Wyatt) was killed in a shootout in one of the saloons and buried outside of town. Envisioning a wild west town -- restored to look much as it did in the days of the Old West-- I asked for the city walking tour brochure. The lady said they were out of print, but managed to find me one. This should have given me a clue, but with western cowboy songs playing in my head, off we went.

When we got there, Jim said he thought that we would do better making it a driving tour. There was a block of old buildings facing the railroad tracks and station on the other side of the street. the original buildings were there, but had been remodeled and occupied by other businesses. The Saloon where Warren was shot was now PINK and occupied by a Candle and Gift shop. I thought I heard Warren turn over in his grave... Most of the other buildings had been turned into something related to Rex Allen, a famous cowboy singer/actor from Wilcox. His horse, Koko was buried in railroad park across the street.

We got back on the trail and managed to get through Tuson (pop. about 500,000) without incident. The downtown area looked very pretty with a mix of modern and Spanish architecture against the backdrop of the mountains. Ever since El Paso, we have noticed that the overpasses are decorated in nice colors and Indian motifs. They are really nice and much more pleasant to look at than the usual cement.

We stopped for the night at Casa Grande, half way between Tuson and Phoenix. It is a very nice little town ( about 25,000 ) with Spanish architecture and a varied industrial base. Our hotel looks out on the desert -- flat land with a few mountain peaks in the distance.

The town was founded in 1879 and named for the Casa Grande Ruins near by. The ruins are a National Monument and contain the remains of a pre-historic (1300's) Hohokan farming village. In fact it was the first such ruin to be taken over by the Feds for preservation ( late 1800's). In the 1930's they built a roof over the main ruins to protect it from further erosion. Archaeologists are still recovering more remains of the villages from nearby fields.

We saw our first of many totem cacti. They are amazingly tall, sort of like trees. We also saw a number of cotton fields - which surprised me. And we saw a mechanical cotton picker in action producing large truck bed-sized bails of cotton.

Tomorrow we head to the Grand Canyon. We are really looking forward to that.

Day 27: Junction to Anthony

We continued on I-10 towards El Paso and found ourselves on a sparcely populated stretch of highway. The rolling hills turned into desert mesas. According to my Roadside Geology book, the entire area has the same kind of rock. The difference is rain fall. Evidently more rain rounds and greens things. There is a striking difference.

Towns are getting smaller and farther apart. We passed by an exit for Ozona which, according to my AAA book, is the only town in the whole of Crockett County. (Named for Davey who died in the Alamo.) And Crockett is the 8th largest county in Texas.

The country varied from hills to flats and back again many times. It's sort of like Houston -- there is no zoning. After Ozona, we saw groups of mountains (like those island mountains in Montana) then flats that looked like plains, then hills. The country is getting more arid. No trees. Just sagebrush, cactus, and, strangely enough, palm trees -- although short ones (cleaverly disguised as palm bushes.) It appears that the height of a palm tree depends on how much water it gets. The palm trees that are in areas with water(motels, yards, etc.) are tall.

At this point it seemed that it was just our Nissan and trucks on the highway -- and not all that many of them. Trucks have a speed limit of 70; cars of 80. So we found ourselves playing a game of truck leapfrog. I-20 from Dallas joined I-10 adding more trucks to play with.

Van Horn was the last town before El Paso (100+ miles beyond). So we got off the freeway to look at Van Horn and get some gas. We took the business loop and discovered that town was essentially one road with a line of motels on one side and railroad tracks on the other. The motels were of the "economy" flavor, old ones, one-story variety. "Hotel Alley" was lined by a row of street lights that looked like they should be in a high-end housing development on the motel side of the street. This must have looked very interesting at night.

We decided to go on to El Paso and arrived about an hour or so later. There are 500,000 folks in El Paso. After travelling in the wilderness for the last 2 days, the sudden appearence of civilization rising out of the desert was a shock to our system. We planned to stop on the south side of town, but found ourselves in the middle of a huge shopping area, and encountered those nasty veer on's and veer off's that we will always remember Texas for.

So we went on. Then we saw the oncoming traffic at a halt, going through some sort of checkpoint. It didn't look promising. But we passed by the exit for Mexico and went through down town with no problem thanking our lucky stars we weren't going south through town. We kept going all the way to mile 0 and got off at Anthony, Texas.

Coming up on El Paso we followed the Rio Grande and could see Mexican mountains in the distance. Hard as we looked though, we couldn't really see the river -- just a glimpse here and there. So after we checked settled in, we went for a drive towards the river. And there it was: the Rio Grande. We crossed over into New Mexico -- no passports required -- and drove around the part of Anthony that was in New Mexico. We saw cotton fields and El Paso in the distance under the backdrop of the mountains. Quite picturesque and a good way to end the day.

Day 26: Houston to Junction TX

We changed our route through Texas because we were rather tired of the great plains and didn't want to go through flat country for the next 3 days. Texas is a big state, so we had options and chose to go east to San Antonio and then northeast to El Paso. This would put us into the "hills" and then the "Big Bend" area which has mountains, plains, mesas, desert, etc -- quite varied. We started off about 9 am well-provisioned (Thanks, Kathy!) and planned to retrace our steps to I-10 and head west to San Antonio.

In order to understand this story, I need to tell you about Texas freeways and frontage roads. Most freeways here have parallel roads running on both sides called frontage roads. These are two-lane, one-way roads, one on each side of the freeway. They are going in the same direction as the nearest lane on the freeway. It's like an extra two lanes that serve as feeders for entries and exits . I call these "veers" -- "veer on" (to the left from the frontage road onto the freeway) and "veer off" (to the right from the freeway to the frontage road).

The "veers" are very short -- about a 45 degree angle from one road to the other. So you find yourself going along on the freeway and when you see a long line of cars going in your direction on the frontage road, you start wondering when they are going to "veer on" in front of you -- or hope that when you exit ("veer off") they will let you in.

Since frontage roads are one-way, you can find yourself getting off down-wind of your destination. In that case, you just follow the road until the next under or overpass which usually has a stop light. You then go over/under the freeway and start going back on the frontage road on the other side. It is sort of like a merry-go-round -- but you eventually get where you want to go.

So... We retraced our steps back to I-10. The first fly in the ointment was a sign that said to turn right for "I-10 HOV. " We weren't sure if this was just for the HOV lane, so we continued on. (Mistake #1) When we got back to the freeway, there was no entry ramp or sign for I-10, but there was a frontage road. We figured that we knew the drill and turned right onto it. Almost immediately we encountered a "veer on" to the left, so we took it. (Mistake #2)

Almost immediately things seemed wrong. There were no signs for I-10 and all sorts of signs related to a "tollway." Then we came to a "Y" in the road and had to choose either "north" or "south" (we wanted "west"). Panic started to set in as we chose "south" and immediately found ourselves in a toll island area. There were about 6 lanes of freeway and 3 of them were for folks with toll tabs. Knowing that they take pictures of cars without toll tags who go through those lanes and send tickets, we managed to get into the "cash" lanes.

Unfortunately, we did not get into the "gives change" lane. (Mistake #3) So we ended up in the middle lane of a 6-lane freeway during rush hour, faced with a wire-mesh bucket and directions to deposit $1.50. I only had 50 cents in change and Jim threw that into the basket and then tried to stuff a dollar bill into every possible orifice on the machine. No joy. The machine evidently did not accept bills. So we started rummaging through our pockets, my purse, and the glove compartment to find coins. Here we are, in the middle of the freeway, with cars piling up behind us, madly throwing pennies, nickels, anything we could find at this machine. I'm having visions of appearing on the morning traffic report and waving to the hovering helicopter covering the massive traffic jam caused by these clueless Washingtonians.

Jim even threw in his two lucky pennies and lucky dimes -- and miraculously, the gate raised and released us. I'm not sure if we had thrown in enough money, or if the machine had pity on us, or if the lucky coins were responsible, but it didn't matter. We were free!

In no mood to get our money's worth on the tollway, we took the next exit and managed to work our way back to I-10 by following the I-10 HOV signs. So an hour later, we were finally back on I-10 -- and going WEST.

We became concerned about freeway rest stops -- we didn't see any and we saw lots of signs advertising clean restrooms. So we got off the freeway at Columbus and rest stopped at a MacDonald's near the freeway. The MacDonald's happened to have some interesting framed, black-and-white photographs of trees hanging on the walls. Before leaving, I made a tour of them and a man (looked like a rancher) stopped me and asked, "Do you like those pictures?" I said, "yes." Then he told me that if I liked that sort of thing, I should go see the "oldest tree in Texas" which was near by. He gave me directions and I thanked him, went off to tell Jim and we were on the trail.

Well, the trail turned out to be about 20 miles longer than it needed to be. Confusing highway 90 with Alternate-90, we went the wrong way. Finally, we stopped to ask and were directed back in the other direction and into the town of Columbus. We found a tree with a sign, but the sign had nothing to do with the tree. So we asked again and a woman in her car said that she knew where the "hanging tree" was, but not the "oldest" tree. We thought that the "hanging tree" might be more interesting, but we followed her to the Chamber of Commerce on the town square. The Information Center was locked up, so I took some pictures along the town square. I don't know if Texas is a battleground state in the upcoming election, but Columbus Town Square certainly has a battle ground corner.

As I was getting in the can, the visitor center woman came back and she knew where the tree was. It is the "second largest" live oak in Texas. It is 75 feet tall and estimated to be 500 years old. It was across from the post office, next to a white house. We finally found the tree, took a picture and then we got out of town and headed to San Antonio.

Not really looking forward to another freeway experience, we took the widest loop around San Antonio we could find. Even so, we could tell that this was a huge city. It reminded me of Kansas City metro area. I looked at the population and discovered that over 1 million people live here. That is the population of entire states we have been through. So I looked up Houston, and found it has close to 2 million people. They certainly do things BIG in Texas.

Travelling north on I-10 out of San Antonia, the traffic dispersed and we found ourselves in a sparsely populated stretch--50+ miles between towns. The country pretty. Rolling hills covered by small trees. As we continued, the country got noticeably dryer and we saw our first cactus on the trip. We stopped at Junction for the night.

On to El Paso tomorrow.

Day 25: Houston area.

We got up early and headed out with Gary and Kathy to the Renaissance Festival in Plantersville, about 50 miles northwest of Houston. This is a medieval theme park that is open on weekends October through Thanksgiving. Check it out at http://www.texrenfest.com/dialup/home.html

All of the park folks and many of the attendees were in costumes, elaborate, extreme, or simple. You could rent costumes, buy costumes. I bought a crown of flowers, but Jim refused to wear it. Just kidding. Kathy and I wore flowers. The park is huge and filled with all sorts of food and craft vendors as well as a number of arenas for the numerous shows and even a jousting ring .

We enjoyed juggling shows, jousting matches, belly dancers, the Washer Women, and Ded Bob - a skeleton puppet. Everyone was in high spirits and speaking in olde English ( m'lord, m'lady, etc.). All the park employees joined in a grand parade at noon. We enjoyed walking through the park, watching the shows, and eating. We had fried mushrooms on a stick and Jim had a giant turkey leg.

After we left the festival, Gary and Kathy took us for some authentic Texas BBQ at Rudy's and a tour of the area. We had a great time.

Day 24: Beaumont to Houston

On January 10, 1901 at 10:30 AM, the first great American gusher roared like a connon from a wooden derrick named Spindletop and forever changed the way we live. Beaumont is now a center for the oil and gas industry (and recently the center of hurricane Ike). No wonder there are so many refineries around here -- and there were supply problems after the hurricane.

The country here is muddy bayou country -- even before Ike. Since we left the white sands of Pensacola Beach, the beaches have become darker and darker as we passed by the Mississippi River and other rivers that are constantly carving river channels and transporting silt down river. Because of this, the Gulf Coast has been advancing into the ocean and adding land mass to the US for the last 16 million years or so. And in the process, creating the muddy bayou of the Texas coastal plains.

It took us two hours to drive from Beaumont to Houston. My brother lives on the west side of town, so we went through town on a freeway system that consists of a number of elevated roads stacked over and under each other. Single exits/entrances are elevated and curved around each other -- It is hard to explain, but they call it a spagetti bowl -- and that's about as good an explanation as I can come up with.

The downtown area is in the middle of the spagetti bowl and quite impressive. The best word I can use to describe the rest of the city is "sprawl." There is no zoning in Houston so the city is a continual mix of different types of businesses, residences, industry, etc. It is about as far on the spectrum as you can get from Naples.

We arrived at my brother's house without incident -- Thank you Mapquest. Gary met us and took us for a tour of his business. He is a partner in a small electrical engineering firm that invents things for people and other companies -- essentially provides R and D services. Gary says that his company is not smart enough to know what they can't do, so they are always pushing the envelope and working on leading edge technologies.

I am under a strict gag order not to disclose their major line of devices. Unlike my cousin who works for Homeland Security and says that if he tells me what he does, he would have to kill me -- Gary wouldn't have to kill me -- He is just worried about being tarred and feathered and run out of town. And I don't want that to happen.

After we toured the office, we spent a quiet afternoon at Gary and Kathy's new place (Jim watching football, me doing the laundry) until they got off work. Then we enjoyed a great home cooked-meal and conversation. We slept downstairs, usually the domain of their two cats, who were none too happy about being displaced. We have a busy day planned for tomorrow in the Houston area.

Day 23: Covington to Beaumont TX

Still functioning on Eastern Time, we got an early start and headed toward Baton Rouge (pop. 222,000; elev. 60 feet). Seven flags have flown over Baton Rouge: France, England, Spain, West Florida, the Sovereign State of Louisiana, the Confederate States, and the United States.

The city was originally named by a French explorer in 1699. the name means "red stick" and referred to a tall cypress tree stripped of its bark and draped with freshly killed animals that marked the bounds between hunting grounds of two Indian tribes. I think I would have changed that name somewhere along the line -- Red Stick Draped With Dead Animals -- I guess six of the seven flags did not understand French.

At Baton Rouge, we encountered the Mississippi River again and another high arching bridge. I'm sure that Baton Rouge has its good points, but the view from the bridge is not one of them. The northern part of the city is dominated by a large oil refinery which is integrated into the city skyline. And we picked up a definite scent ( ode de Camas). On the other side of the water, we saw a mountain of junked autos in a mega junk yard.

We proceeded on to Lafayette (pop. 110,000; elev. 40 feet). When the British expelled the French Acadians from Nova Scotia in the 1700's, they settled in Lafayette. Their descendants are called Cajuns. Later, when oil was discovered off shore, the oil companies settled in Lafayette. Cajuns and oil refineries...

Outside Lafayette we found ourselves on a long (40+ miles) elevated stretch of the Interstate designated as a scenic highway. This is swamp land. It looks flooded, but the water comes and goes and changes course often. I think they call this a bayou.

Louisiana doesn't have "counties"; they have "Parishes." They don't have "city limits"; they have "corp limits." And they do NOT have "rest stops" at all on the Interstate. We finally figured out that the keyword is "tourist information" and you have to exit the freeway to get there.

Our first attempt to take a "tourist information" break was unsuccessful. The facilities were under construction -- not indicated in any way until you got to the blocked driveway. Our second attempt was successful -- well sort of. After making a wrong turn due to confusing signs, we found ourselves in a small park with a "no swimming" pond and playground equipment. There was a very old, run-down "tourist information" shed, and we finally found two restrooms. One said "men," the other said nothing. Jim described the "men's" as "two urinals and a toilet - no stalls." My unmarked one had stalls, but ... Anyway, we are giving Louisiana the prize for worst rest areas (or whatever they want to call them).

Finally, none too soon, we crossed the border into Texas and a full-blown rest stop/tourist info center. It had a nature deck trail through part of the Blue Elbow Swamp and the coldest restrooms on earth -- when air conditioners attack.

Getting tired of refineries, we decided to take a detour along the coast to Port Arthur. We were told that there was some hurricane damage in the area. That was an understatement we discovered.

As we headed toward Bridge City, we started to see piles of furniture and bits and pieces of houses piled up on the curb. We passed by some severely damaged buildings, ended up on a detour, found that the state park was closed, and finally made it to the historic district of Port Arthur. We were greeted by a "No Trespassing" sign. We did find an interesting church, the Vietnamese Martyr's Catholic Church, built in gratitude for the escape from Asia to Port Arthur.

When we got to Beaumont, we found a Best Western and were lucky to get one of the last rooms. Hotels here are not taking reservations or giving discounts because they are full with folks in town to repair the hurricane damage. We got the "handicapped" room. It has all types of equipment in the bathroom, but we don't mind and it is on the first floor.

We went for a walk and discovered a canal near the hotel where we could take a free nature tour. As I walked by, three turtles who were sunning themselves on the concrete scampered into the water. Jim and I spent an hour or so watching the turtles bob their heads out of the water, a number of large, pike-like fish emerge from the mucky bottom and return, and a baby egret wade in the canal.

We are only about 2 hours from my brother's house in Houston. We will be there for the weekend. Back on the trail Monday. See you then.

Day 22: Midway to Covington LA

We left Midway early and continued our journey on I-10 toward Pensacola. This area has a lot of limestone, springs, sink holes and caves. My geology book had a picture of a 100 foot sink hole that has a waterfall going down into it -- strange looking.

As we got closer to Pensacola, we appeared to be going up hill (slightly) and discovered that we were following the Old Spanish Trail which went along the Florida "high ground." We near the DeFuniak Springs exit, we passed by the highest natural point in Florida -- 345 feet. Then we went over a high overpass and wondered if that might be the highest unnatural point in Florida.

We passed into the Central Time Zone and having gained an hour decided to make a detour. We got off the freeway and took highway 85 through the Eglin air Force base. This road goes to "Nicefille" which I'm adding to my list of place names. Also, at one of the rest stops they displayed a brochure for a town named "Kissimmee" -- that's going on the list too. Niceville and Kissimmee FL.

We went through Fort Walton Beach then followed highway 98 along a 40+ mile peninsula that forms the south border of Pensacola Bay (Gulf on the left, bay on the right). We passed a large gate to get into the AFB and an Air Force housing area that was right on the Gulf. We really liked the area, reminded us a little of Bremerton.

Pretty soon we could see a large island on the Gulf side with dunes of white sand resembling snow drifts, Santa Rosa Island. When I was young, my family came to Pensacola Beach on this island several times. My father trained at the Pensacola Air Base then flew a sea plane in the Pacific during WWII. He brought the family back here for summer vacations and I have fond memories of the white, squeaky sand beaches and playing in the ocean. Since I grew up in Kansas, this was the first time I saw the ocean.

We finally reached the end of the peninsula and crossed the toll bridge to reach Pensacola Beach. We immediately saw a heron on the bay-side of the road (must be good luck).

The ocean was so blue; the sand was white as snow. The sand here consists of 99% pure quartz. It has the texture of sugar, unlike sand anywhere else I've seen.The area has three roads. The one you come in on T's into a road to the right an a road to the left. From either road you can see the Gulf on one side and bay on the other. Along each road are a combination of hotels, homes, condos, marinas and miles and miles of beaches. The whole area is a public beach and just beautiful.

We stopped at several beaches and drove up to where the road was closed due to hurricane damage in 2004 and the fact that it was sea turtle nesting season. I can't get over how much the sand looks like snow, especially in this area.

We hated to leave and vowed to return. We both really liked this area. It is an ideal beach. So reluctantly, we crossed the bridge back to the mainland. Then headed for the bridge to Pensacola (6 miles long) -- they have long bridges in Florida.

Pensacola (population 56,255, elevation 39 feet) was settled in 1698. During the years since then, it flew the flags of Spain, France, England, the Confederate States, and the United States. The government changed hands 13 times. Much of the city is along the bay. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of the city as the highway (I-110) is elevated most of the way back to I-10.

Pensacola is on the border with Alabama. We went through Alabama in less than an hour. Noticed that Mobile had a cruise ship docked in the harbor. The swamp land now is more of a bayou or marsh along the coast. We got through Mississippi in about an hour and ended up in Covington, Louisiana -- north of New Orleans on Interstate-12.

We were planning on stopping at a Best Western Motel. We exited from the freeway and ended up on a six-lane highway -- noticed the BW sign up ahead on the left. We managed to get over into the left turn lane and turned. Ended up on a road that had access to a Super 8 Motel, gas station, and "Waffle House"(we've seen a lot of these in the south). BUT no frontage road or side road leading over to the BW. There was no way to go around the block either. So we tried going through the parking lots, ended up going over the curb at the Waffle House and were faced by posts with chains between them between us and the BW. So we parked in the Burger King lot and Jim went in to ask how to get there from here.

The clerk told him to get back on the six-lane road (which was packed with cars) quickly jump over three lanes and make a U turn at the Burger King sign. Then go past the hotel and make a U turn at the next intersection. We gingerly went back over the curb at the Waffle House, and decided the Super 8 looked really good. So here we are. Dinner at the Waffle House and on to Texas tomorrow.

Day 21: Naples to Midway FL

We left bright and early, refreshed and ready to get back on the road, excited to be heading north and west towards home.

Backtracking through swamp land we headed back up I-75 through Ft. Myers. As we passed by Venice, we caught the smell of sulfur coming from the hot springs there. It is rumored that this is the area that Ponce de Leon located the "fountain of youth." The springs here have a sink hole that goes down 230 feet deep and the brackish water is 87 degrees. The springs were said to cure such age-related conditions as arthritis. The spring is now part of a "healing and wellness swimming park."

Consulting my Roadside Geology of Florida book, I discovered that Florida is also rumored to be the location of the Garden of Eden. This theory was discounted until geologists discovered that Florida had a different geology from the rest of North America. In fact they found fossils in Florida that are found commonly in Africa and the Middle East. Turns out that Florida was once part of a giant continent called Gowana. Along with what is now South America, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and Antarctica. Somewhere along the line Gowana was broken up. Continents separated and moved. The isthmus of Panama formed and connected South America to North America. Somehow during this process, Florida connected to North America. Maybe that explains it's strange shape.

We made a left turn onto I-10 and headed west. We passed over the Suwanee River. The sign had the musical score below the name of the river -- so we wouldn't miss the significance.

At one of the rest stops we encountered and Egret who was kind enough to let me snap a photo. There are a lot of these birds here, but they usually don't stick around for photo opportunities.

We passed through Tallahassee the capital of Florida. ( population 150,000). Florida was originally owned by Spain and sold to the US in the early 1800's. Although it was not one of the original 13 colonies, it definitely was part of the Confederacy. It was here, in 1861, that Florida declared itself an independent nation and a member of the Confederate States. Confederate soldiers defended Tallahassee and it was the only uncaptured Confederate capital east of the Mississippi River.

We stopped just to the west of Tallahassee, in Midway. We had dinner at Lindy's Chicken -- a small local fast food place. Jim got a pork chop sandwich and I got a chicken tender dinner We skipped the various varieties of hot sauce on the table. Food was really good.

The land here is less swampy and less humid. We are out of the swamp (elevation 216 feet). We are headed across the Florida panhandle tomorrow and on west towards Texas.