New Years Eve in Death Valley…

The lovely Tina was up early… not quite with the sun… but early… and voluntarily… 

We checked out, stopped for some $5.11 per gallon gas (a few gallons to make sure we had gas on arrival at Beatty…), stopped at the visitor’s center for an orange window tag (so they know you paid your entrance fee… we have a magic card… aka a National Parks Annual Pass, so no fee was required for the orange tag) then headed north toward to Ubehebe Crater, and Scotty’s Castle… Immediately we pause to visit Harmony Borax works… and its 20 mule team wagon set…  Back on the road, as we drive north the Lovely Tina was admiring with awe the scenery… the starkness… the vastness… the strangeness… 

We drive out to the crater first.  While volcanic, it’s not like other volcanic features we are used to…  Some brave souls are hiking to the bottom…  We don’t… (while Tina’s knee might allow a descent into the crater, getting out would have involved additional equipment up to and including a rescue team… we thing better of the idea and pass)

Back to the main road and a mile or two further we reach the castle… A tour would be starting in 2 minutes… I buy tickets and stash Tina’s purse in the Jeep (no purses or bags allowed on the tour) and we make it to the front door as the ranger starts to gather guests.  The tour is interesting… The guide good… the building and its stories fantastic…    We check the gift shop, then start to leave, but pause when we see Marvin the Coyote (it turns out Park Rangers name their coyotes too) in the picnic area waiting for a handout…  We take pictures but leave no gifts… Then back on the road now headed east towards Nevada and Hwy 95…  Past Bonnie Clare and its dry lake… to the Jct with 95… then south towards Beatty…

In Beatty we picked up gas ($3.39 a gallon) and had lunch at the Happy Burro, then headed to Rhyolite… stopping first at the Goldwell outdoor museum, then up into town to see the bottle house, railroad station and a quick look at the ruins… Then on to Titus Canyon…

Titus Canyon is a dirt road, which leaves the road from Beatty to Death Valley just west of Rhyolite… It is one way, from east to west… 26 miles or so… first up an alluvial fan, then climbing the ridge among low hills, then switch backs up and down to Leadfield, a short lived mining town, now ghost town… then down through Titus Canyon narrows emerging in Death Valley.  Signs say 4 wheel drive high clearance only… but if you tried you could do the road in a regular car… it wasn’t that bad…  It was that spectacular…  particularly at the narrows at the end…

Once back on paved roads we watch the sun drop below the surrounding peaks as we arrived at the dunes near Stovepipe Wells… we walked out a bit, but on this evening the dunes were crowded, and the spectacular feeling of solitude was lost… There was still the sense of space… but no solitude…

From the dunes it was a short drive to Stovepipe Wells where we were spending the night…  We were in room No 1, in the oldest part of the complex… small but nice and clean… the restaurant had a New Years Eve special dinner… we got reservations for 6:30 (the earliest available) then walked about and shared something bubbly in our room before dinner… Stovepipe Wells has free internet, but it was very slow… so slow that most sites error out before loading…  such are the ways of remote places…   

Now New Years Morning, January 1^st 2014…  we got up late…  We will hit the road just after 9:00… with luck and a following wind we will reach home about 6:00 and I will post this thing….

Now home… The trip home, 499 miles, took a bit over 8 hours… first west though the Panamint Valley (Carl the coyote was not to be seen...) and on to the Owens Valley, heading south on 395 at Olancha…  We tried to find somewhere to eat in Mojave, but between New Years and restaurants going out of business, ended up heading to Tehachapi, where New Years limited choices and we settled for Denny’s… 

Back on the road… there was a train on the loop but we didn’t stop.  We cut across Bakersfield on Stockdale Hwy…  then north on I-5…  The drive home was an anti climax… music a bit louder… and talk about the next trips… and planning needed… We already had a trip to Glacier planned for July, but now we are thinking about a long weekend in Sequoia…  Travel leading to travel…  Such is the way of the road.

Monday, Kingman to Death Valley

We took our time getting up, particularly Ms Tina… who has a fondness for sleeping in… Leaving Kingman we used the phone to find a Starbucks (for which Ms Tina also has a fondness for…)  It was up what might have appeared to be a side street, then across the freeway… and it showed us a extensive well developed part of Kingman which as tourists we would likely never have found…  but rather than exploring the suburbia of Kingman, we instead found the freeway entrance, then the exit for Las Vegas and headed northeast…

The area between Kingman and Boulder (or Hoover) dam is not exactly uninhabited desert… there are mobile homes on 5 acre lots and lots of 5 acre lots to be had… signs for the old mining town of Cloride…  an abandoned Santa’s village… located next to a junk yard...  (we might have stopped and taken photos.)  In general this route is a a place of clutter…

The country gets interesting as you drop down towards the lake and the dam and the new bridge…  Driving across the new bridge is underwhelming… with high double guard rails you don’t see what you are crossing… on the north side there is a exit which will take you to the dam and a view of the bridge, and a chance to walk across the bridge, but it is a long two lane road which on this day was quite congested…  we passed…  We did however get our penalty hour back as we returned to the Pacific Time Zone…

Beyond the bridge you first see a casino, then reach the town of Boulder… (as in Boulder Dam)  The town was built to house the dam workers, but the view from the highway is of a modern suburban community with big houses… You have to turn off the main road towards “historic Boulder” to find the older town of older houses and smaller cute shops… with a bonus…  really good street art… I suspect the art came from transportation enhancement funds as compensation when the new road to the new bridge bypassed the older town… the art is in the form of bronze statues… there are lots… statues of dam workers… statues of a kid on a tricycle… and my favorite and the one we were looking for, the  Statue of Alabam the “Belatedly Appreciated Outhouse Cleaner”…  was a Hoover Dam worker who cleaned and restocked the outhouses. The bronze statue depicts him as he often looked in life, with rolls of toilet paper draped over his shoulder.  It was worth the detour…

Beyond Boulder you reach Las Vegas… on a whim we detoured and tried to drive down the strip… tried being the operative word… the strip on this day before New Year’s eve was gridlocked… we made it about 4 blocks before turning off and finding the freeway via equally gridlocked side streets.

It was near lunch so Tina brought the phone out and tried to find somewhere to stop… there were issues…  a “nearby restaurant” search covered a circumference of 20 miles and all the dining possibilities in Las Vegas…  While we have visited Las Vegas several times, we don’t really know the neighborhoods, so narrowing the search was a challenge… as we she would narrow the search we would pass candidate restaurants as we drove up I 95… Eventually we found a good target…  Wine-5-Café… great reviews, but not many…   What Tina didn’t pick up from the reviews was that it was a Kenyan-Fusion restaurant…  It was a spectacular lunch… 

Now back on I-95… I wanted to come it to Las Vegas from the junction off I-95, not the short cut through Pahrump…  So we stay on I-95… We had a bit of excitement passing Creech AFB at Indian Springs… Tina noted an unusual airplane to our right… It was a Predator drone…  The scourge of Afganistan… landing at the base… 

Beyond we reached the Jct, with the Area 51 Alien Visitor Center… complete with store, bar, gas station and whore house… next door is the fireworks store with the “world’s largest fire cracker” (in reality the water tower painted red and decorated….)  We stopped, took a couple of pictures and went into the store, which adjoined the bar (and the house out back)…  the girls from the house outback were wandering about, adding a bit of reality to the visit… 

Back on the road, this time headed south… we pass a large fiberglass cow… a sign for a casino… then reach Death Valley Jct… one time railroad junction, with the Amagosa Opera House, café, and hotel… we look about, then head westward into Death Valley…  We detour to visit Dante’s View, high above the valley floor…  Then drop down the canyon towards Furnace Creek… pausing again at Zybrinski point as the sun dropped behind Telegraph peak…. then to Badwater in twilight…   This was the lovely Tina’s first visit to Death Valley…  While she has traveled in the desert, Death Valley was a surprise… for its vastness, for its complete lack of vegetation, and for the geologic features…

Back to Furnace Creek to check in… drop bags at the room, then we went over to Airport road, to look for Coyotes (none spotted) but also to get a bit away from anything to look at stars…  Back to Furnace Creek to find dinner (we ate in the bar, the “Corkscrew Saloon”) then walk back to our room, through the gift shop (nothing compelling) through the museum’s outdoor exhibits (whatever is identified by sign post 61 is still missing….) stopping at the corral (a single mule was a bit social and came over to visit) then out onto the golf course to again get away from lights and stare at the sky…  the sky alone is worth the visit…

Arizona bound and back… A desert drive part II

The alarm goes off before the sun rises… We have 700 miles ahead of us and a deadline to get there… my nephew is throwing a party, and we are invited…  We are due at 6:30… This gives the trip a sense of urgency… It becomes a time and distance problem…

We are mostly packed, so throw the things in the Jeep, and head out… it is exactly 6:00 am (or not…) We travel approximately 1,500 feet and pause at the Starbucks for coffee and food…  then east on Hwy 46…  

Within a mile of Hwy 101 we pass a sign saying no services for the next 50 miles…  25 miles out of town we pass through the “James Dean Memorial Intersection”…  We would have paused for a photo but it was still dark… Sunrise comes as we start over the top, and head into the Central Valley… we pass through the Lost Hills oil field, a industrial wasteland in the style of Mad Max… Here we pause for a photo.

Soon after we reach Interstate 5 and turn south…  There are wisps of valley fog, most rising from irrigated fields or in one case from an irrigation ditch…   It is wonderful and a bit surreal… We pause for gas in Buttonwillow…  someone figures out the Jeeps clock is 4 minutes slow, and we accept the first of the time penalties of the trip…

Soon we pass the sadly misnamed Best Western Hotel (More on them in a  later blog)while before climbing the Grapevine, out of the Valley. 

After miles of hypnotizing straight rcads, climbing up the grapevine, with extra lanes, very slow trucks and RV’s and curves is its own form of excitement.  We passed but didn’t pause to visit Fort Tejon, a 19^th century cavalry fort, with a stable for camels.  Once upon a time the US Army had a Camel Corps, traveling and patrolling the southwest.  Also on site is the grave of the fur trapper Peter Labec (more likely Lebecque), with“PETER LEBECK / KILLED BY A X BEAR / OCTR 17 / 1837” carved into an oak tree.  Most of us don’t associate southern California with the Cavalry, fur trappers and such, but this if fact was the history of this place.

Beyond the Fort and the mostly abandoned town of Lebec,  we reach the pass at Gorman and drop down the ridge route past the Pyramid Lake full of Northern California water, while reservoirs in Northern California are dry…

We take I-210 around LA, pausing at San Bernardino, to visit We could stop at Original McDonald's Site, Museum…   It is a privately run museum (by the gentleman who founded the Juan Pollo chain), honoring both McDonalds and Route 66 (its located on Rt 66) It is pretty silly…  the original building is gone, but the sign remains.  Inside the building is a miss-mash of McDonalds and local memorabilia. Outside are some wonderful murals, more memorabilia, and behind are a couple of Juan Pollo gag delivery cars.   The Museum is free… I don’t know if I would visit again, but I am glad I have visited… Address:  1398 North E St., San Bernardino, CA 

Back  on the road, we climb towards Beaumont Pass.  We are now checking the phones (our Android phones are smart, and will calculate and re-calculate the time from where we are to Tuscon… ) to check progress… So far the phones say we are good for an on time arrival.

At the top of the pass at Cabazon, Steph snaps a photo of the Dinosaurs of Cabazon… said to be the world’s largest dinosaur statues…   The place has changed greatly over my life time… it once was a deserted bleak place with only a Hadley’s Nut store…  Apparently Hadley’s is still there, but overwhelmed by an Indian Casino, wind mills and other development.

By now its 1:00 and we needed to stop for lunch so we get off the freeway and head for Shields Dates… It is pretty old school, with hand painted signs and a dirt parking lot, now surrounded by subdivisions…  a little island of the past… We have lunch in the café… then buy a date milkshake for the road and a box of dates…  pick up gas and hit the road eastward. 

Traffic is heavy, with trucks passing trucks and trucks passing RV’s…  the phones continue to say we are doing well…    We pass General Patton Memorial Museum… Chiriaco Summit, CA  we didn’t stop… Note… if driving this way, this is the last gas before Banning…

We cross the Colorado River, and the border with Arizona at Banning… at take a 1 hour time penalty as we enter the Mountain time zone…   The phones still think all is well…

We leave I-10 at Buckeye, and head south towards Gila Bend and I-8… The route is a bit longer but you avoid Phoenix and possible traffic issues…   We picked up gas in Gila Bend, then headed to Tucson…  We arrived almost 5 minutes early at 6:25… after 702 miles and 11 hours and 29 minutes on the road…

We were here for a family gathering…  Starting with my nephew’s party that evening… followed by a birthday party for a sister in law the next day…  

The ladies had responsibilities associated with the party.  This left me Saturday with the nephew to explore… we hit a used bookstore on 4^thstreet with success… we went in search of John Dillinger’s tommy gun… Dillinger was arrested by the Tuscon Police at the Congress hotel… the gun is on display in the lobby of Police Headquarters… sadly this was a Saturday, and the Police Headquarters were closed… but we could see the tommy gun on display through the window… Having seen (at a distance ) the tommy gun, we headed south to Mission San Xavier, one of the most beautiful of the Spanish Missions which are found across the southwest… Then, with time running out we stopped for a beer at Thunder Canyon Brewing before heading to his place to pick up his mom and head for the party…

Now Sunday…  The party over, we got up a bit later, took Steph to the airport to fly home, and hit the road north on part II of our adventure… We stop for gas Picacho Peak, so check out the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Farm… It was not inexpensive, so we skipped it…  I note that Picacho Peak is the site of the western most battle of the Civil War, but we didn’t go in search of evidence of the battle either…)  then through Phoenix, through Glendale (where the 49er’s were playing the Cardinals in the last game of the regular season… and a win would get us into the playoffs…)  We may have seen people and cars in red, for red is the color of choice for fans of both teams…   People were starting to arrive as we passed the stadium… tailgater’s were in evidence…

Beyond Glendale (and possible traffic issues) we stopped for lunch… then continued North arriving in Kingman about 2:30… we checked in to our motel, then headed up to the Powerhouse/Rt 66 museum.  The neighboring Mohave Museum was closed (yes, there are two local museums within a block of each other…) The Power house museum has the famous (if strange) “3,333.33 Feet Above Sea Level Marker Afterwards,  dinner, and to bed… with bloging…

Christmas Day… Packing… for tomorrow we drive…

Wednesday, December 25^th… Tomorrow we leave for a road trip… this time the “we” are myself, the wife (Tina) and the daughter (Steph), the son, himself visiting from Florida will man the fortifications, feed the vicious beasts that inhabit our home and visit with friends…  

The trip will first take us to Tucson for a family gathering, then Steph will fly home and Tina and I will explore Death Valley for a couple of days… So today I cleaned out the jeep, checking tires and such… now, late, I have packed (mostly) and Tina is packing…

Now Thursday… Boxing day for our British friends… We left the house a little after 9:00… South on Hwy 101… through San Jose, through Gilroy with its shopping opportunities… beyond to Salinas, now breaking free of the grand metropolitan area which surrounds San Francisco Bay….  We paused for gas in King City… arrived in Paso Robles a bit after noon… We looked about and had lunch at Artisan… http://www.artisanpasorobles.com/  We were pleased… Tina is talking about dinner here on  Valentines Day when we expect to be back in town… Then on to the serious business of wine tasting…  Steph wanted to visit Peachy Canyon… so we visited Peachy Canyon… they have cats… Peach and Herbie… Huge Maine Coon cats… They may qualify for their own zip codes.  We tasted, joined their wine club, and bought wine… some to carry with us… some shipped home… (wine would not appreciate a side trip to Death Valley)

Having tasted wine, and with more time to spare than would be consumed by more wine tasting we took a brake and headed over to the coast to the elephant seal rookery north of San Simeon… It is an easy place to see the seals… you are up on a cliff, 20’ or so above a narrow beach, on which are the elephant seals… males the size of a small city bus… females giving  birth (one had given birth a couple of hours before…) babies with moms…  It is a bit weird to be so close to such large wild animals in the wild.  We spent about half an hour, then headed back over Hwy 46 through Paso Robles and east to the Tobin James winery for more tasting…  their tasting room is very different, much busier, more of a party… we might have bought more wine…   

For us, two tastings a day is enough… so as darkness fell we headed back to Hwy 46, this time westbound into Paso…  (Paso being a locally acceptable name for Paso Robles…) and checked into our hotel…  It was too early for dinner… so we unpacked and repacked the jeep, and paused to check email and blog…  Eventually heading for the Firestone Brewery Tap room… 

Now back in our room… we are going to bed early… tomorrow we have just under 700 miles to go… and are expected at 6:30  for a party…  so are getting up early, some might say too early… so for now, Goodnight…