Well, not right now, but in the morning we head across the Colorado River into Arizona. Today we played golf at Huukan Golf Course - weather was in the mid-50's and the high winds they forecast never did materialize. Fun day, not crowded and we were able to play at our own pace. Came back to the Golden Nugget and relaxed with a little football and a little gaming. We enjoyed dinner at the Claim Jumper in the Nugget.
Tomorrow, we're traveling to Tucson by way of Kingman and then on thru Phoenix. We have reservations at Davis-Monthan AFB just outside of Tucson. From there, it looks like we'll continue on Wednesday to El Paso, TX. Although we prefer not to travel on Interstates, we may be forced to stay on I-10 - something about the mountains through AZ, NM and TX. No good shortcuts. Should be good weather, although it sounds like Pensacola has been getting quite a storm. Perhaps it will clear out before we get there.
Monday, January 2, 2017
Monday, February 15, 2016
Reno, NV
Margaret Higgins Clark kept us company on the trip up 395 today from Ridgecrest to Reno. It's a neat drive along the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada. Still have one disc left to finish up the story.
When we started out, we passed the Boy Scouts placing flags along the main street for Presidents' Day. Kind of fun to see them up early and involved with that project - give the parents credit for the supervision and truck driving! Along 395 all the small towns (Lone Pine, Big Pine, Independence, Bishop, etc.) had their flags out flying also. The only sad feature was that the main flags were all at half-staff for Justice Scalia. At least he passed away doing something he loved!
We stopped in Lone Pine for a bite. Interesting place - it's the jumping off spot for hikers going up Mt Whitney as well as the turning point to head over to Death Valley. Within an hour's drive, you have the highest and lowest spots in the Continental United States. Lone Pine also has a Movie and Film Industry Museum because it was the location site for many western movies. We have never visited the Museum nor have we gone to Manzanar - the Japanese relocation center from the 1940's. Have to put both of those stops on our to-do list next time we head south. Manzanar must have been a real culture shock for the Japanese families relocated from Los Angeles, San Francisco and other west coast cities. It's in the middle of the high desert and all they had were old wooden barracks to live in for the duration of the war.
Arrived home mid-afternoon and it was good be back in the house where everything was safe and sound. No snow on the ground - quite a bit different than when we left! Fairly warm, but that's supposed to change in the next couple of days.
Take care. Our love to all.
When we started out, we passed the Boy Scouts placing flags along the main street for Presidents' Day. Kind of fun to see them up early and involved with that project - give the parents credit for the supervision and truck driving! Along 395 all the small towns (Lone Pine, Big Pine, Independence, Bishop, etc.) had their flags out flying also. The only sad feature was that the main flags were all at half-staff for Justice Scalia. At least he passed away doing something he loved!
We stopped in Lone Pine for a bite. Interesting place - it's the jumping off spot for hikers going up Mt Whitney as well as the turning point to head over to Death Valley. Within an hour's drive, you have the highest and lowest spots in the Continental United States. Lone Pine also has a Movie and Film Industry Museum because it was the location site for many western movies. We have never visited the Museum nor have we gone to Manzanar - the Japanese relocation center from the 1940's. Have to put both of those stops on our to-do list next time we head south. Manzanar must have been a real culture shock for the Japanese families relocated from Los Angeles, San Francisco and other west coast cities. It's in the middle of the high desert and all they had were old wooden barracks to live in for the duration of the war.
Arrived home mid-afternoon and it was good be back in the house where everything was safe and sound. No snow on the ground - quite a bit different than when we left! Fairly warm, but that's supposed to change in the next couple of days.
Take care. Our love to all.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
Ridgecrest, CA
Quiet trip up to Ridgecrest from El Centro today. Started out in the farmland around El Centro through the Medjool date tree farms and citrus groves We had started the audio book Happy Birthday yesterday (coincidentally on my birthday). The books certainly make the travel time go by quickly. Passed through Palm Springs and Desert Springs and passed by Big Bear. Interesting to be traveling through the desert and see snow-covered peaks rising up.
Because of the heat, a lot of the shopping areas had covered shed-type parking, even the Walmart we stopped at. Some had solar panels on top, so they served a dual purpose. The drive north went from desert to highly-populated areas, back to desolate areas. After driving up Cajon Pass on I-15, we turned on 395 and that will be the route we take home tomorrow. No need for any more maps, it is just one road heading north!
We arrived in Ridgecrest early enough so that we could check in and then go play nine holes of golf. Interesting golf course. The tee and greens were grass, but everything else was what they call dormant fairways. I think the literal translation of dormant fairways is dead grass. At least it kept the clubs and balls clean, almost like sandpaper.
We're looking forward to getting back to Reno tomorrow. Seems like the weather is fairly good right now, nothing like the cold weather being experienced in the Northeast.
Take care and enjoy life.
Because of the heat, a lot of the shopping areas had covered shed-type parking, even the Walmart we stopped at. Some had solar panels on top, so they served a dual purpose. The drive north went from desert to highly-populated areas, back to desolate areas. After driving up Cajon Pass on I-15, we turned on 395 and that will be the route we take home tomorrow. No need for any more maps, it is just one road heading north!
We arrived in Ridgecrest early enough so that we could check in and then go play nine holes of golf. Interesting golf course. The tee and greens were grass, but everything else was what they call dormant fairways. I think the literal translation of dormant fairways is dead grass. At least it kept the clubs and balls clean, almost like sandpaper.
We're looking forward to getting back to Reno tomorrow. Seems like the weather is fairly good right now, nothing like the cold weather being experienced in the Northeast.
Take care and enjoy life.
El Centro (#2)
My post yesterday had an unexpected result yesterday. Tom III wrote and told me that he was cancelling his subscription to my blog because he was tired of hearing about temperatures which were 100 degrees higher than he was experiencing in Vermont! So for the time being, I'll refrain from any talk about high temperatures and low gas prices. Besides, we're back in California and the gas prices are going back up, surely but not slowly.
Perhaps I was a little harsh about my description of El Centro yesterday. After all, the Imperial Valley is the vegetable capital of the West Coast (and perhaps further east than that). The farm fields are a great testament to the value of irrigation water from Northern California and also the Colorado River. Without that water, this all would be desert.
Some of you may know that Fallon, NV is known as the Oasis of the Desert. On the gate at El Centro Naval Air Facility is the term "Pearl of the Desert". Guess you have to make the best of a bad situation (oops, there I go again, denigrating El Centro area. My bad!).
Enough for now.
Perhaps I was a little harsh about my description of El Centro yesterday. After all, the Imperial Valley is the vegetable capital of the West Coast (and perhaps further east than that). The farm fields are a great testament to the value of irrigation water from Northern California and also the Colorado River. Without that water, this all would be desert.
Some of you may know that Fallon, NV is known as the Oasis of the Desert. On the gate at El Centro Naval Air Facility is the term "Pearl of the Desert". Guess you have to make the best of a bad situation (oops, there I go again, denigrating El Centro area. My bad!).
Enough for now.
Saturday, February 13, 2016
El Centro, CA
El Centro is an old Spanish name for "In the Middle of Freaking Nowhere"! Left early this morning this morning, gassed up at Costco ($1.27 a gallon). Sorry, I just can't get over the low price of gas down in Tucson.
Went north on I-10 to I-8 and crossed the desert over to Gila Bend where we had breakfast. The landscape along that road is pretty flat with the occasional mountain rising straight out of the flat desert floor. Passed by Picacho Peak which is a landmark used by old-time travelers going from Mexico to California. After leaving Gila Bend, we went on to Yuma right on the Colorado River. Although it's not very wide, it seemed to be pretty full. We stopped and took a walk down to the River just to stretch.
Upon leaving Yuma, we passed through the Imperial Desert Recreational Area. I think every off-road vehicle which had been up in Parker for the Best Ride in the Desert moved down to the Yuma area. The sand dunes there are amazing and even from I-8 it was fun watching the off-road vehicles charge up and down the dunes. Lots of campers and RV's out in the desert dry-camping. Guess it pretty well clears out when the weather starts to get warmer. As it was, we enjoyed the 85 degree temperature.
It was interesting as we entered El Centro to see a line on the water tower about twenty feet off the ground marked "sea level", so we are a little below sea level here. We're just south of the Salton Sea which was formed years ago when the Colorado River broke through its' banks and established it. Since then it has not received any substantial inflow and keeps getting more salty year after year.
Tomorrow we're heading north up through Bakersfield to hit 395 and head north. Probably stay somewhere around China Lake and head home either Monday or Tuesday. Not anxious to hurry back to the cold weather.
Take care.
Went north on I-10 to I-8 and crossed the desert over to Gila Bend where we had breakfast. The landscape along that road is pretty flat with the occasional mountain rising straight out of the flat desert floor. Passed by Picacho Peak which is a landmark used by old-time travelers going from Mexico to California. After leaving Gila Bend, we went on to Yuma right on the Colorado River. Although it's not very wide, it seemed to be pretty full. We stopped and took a walk down to the River just to stretch.
Upon leaving Yuma, we passed through the Imperial Desert Recreational Area. I think every off-road vehicle which had been up in Parker for the Best Ride in the Desert moved down to the Yuma area. The sand dunes there are amazing and even from I-8 it was fun watching the off-road vehicles charge up and down the dunes. Lots of campers and RV's out in the desert dry-camping. Guess it pretty well clears out when the weather starts to get warmer. As it was, we enjoyed the 85 degree temperature.
It was interesting as we entered El Centro to see a line on the water tower about twenty feet off the ground marked "sea level", so we are a little below sea level here. We're just south of the Salton Sea which was formed years ago when the Colorado River broke through its' banks and established it. Since then it has not received any substantial inflow and keeps getting more salty year after year.
Tomorrow we're heading north up through Bakersfield to hit 395 and head north. Probably stay somewhere around China Lake and head home either Monday or Tuesday. Not anxious to hurry back to the cold weather.
Take care.
Friday, February 12, 2016
Awesome Views - Tucson
The awesome views came this morning on a trip up to Mt Lemmon. We got lonesome for snow and Vi had seen an advertisement for skiing up at Mt Lemmon, just northeast of Tucson. So this morning after breakfast, we headed out to find Mt Lemmon. We started up a road which was reminiscent of the Virginia City highway.
Even though it was only twenty-five miles to the peak, it was a twisting and turning road - I swear I saw my own tail lights a couple of times :-). There were various vista turn-outs along the way and each view was more stupendous than the last. There was only which looked out over the entire city of Tucson - beautiful. Others were notable for their rock formations. I'll send pictures on my One Drive later this evening.
Almost at the top there was USFS (United States Forest Service) Visitor Center. There was a lone USFS Ranger on duty. She said she lived there alone throughout the year, but didn't get lonesome because there were always plenty of visitors. Reminded me of when we visited a fire-lookout station in the Sierra Nevada several years ago. Beautiful views, but very lonesome. At the top of the mountain, there was a small ski area. Not very long lines - as a matter of fact, we didn't see anyone go up the lift the entire time we were there. There's a small town, Sommrhaven, at the top which seemed to be mostly ski homes. Not exactly Vail or Heavenly, but kind of neat in a small town way. Couldn't have been more than 100 homes up there.
On the way up we passed many cyclists - those people had to be in great shape. The Ranger said many of the Canadian teams came down during the winter to practice because they couldn't cycle at home. A lot easier (and faster) on the way down - they really zoomed down the mountain road. Top altitude was about 8100 feet. There was a back road down called the Control Road, but they said it was a rough, primitive road about twenty-five miles down to a town called Oracle. If Peter had been with me, it might have been a question of whether we attempted it. However, luck was with us because it was closed because of snow and landslides.
Looks like we're leaving tomorrow. Can you believe they are heartless enough to kick us out on my birthday? There's just no empathy these days. We're heading over I-80 through the Mojave to El Centro. If we like it there, we'll stay for a couple of days. Otherwise, we'll head back up toward Reno along the backside of the Sierra.
We'll keep you posted. Stay in touch.
Even though it was only twenty-five miles to the peak, it was a twisting and turning road - I swear I saw my own tail lights a couple of times :-). There were various vista turn-outs along the way and each view was more stupendous than the last. There was only which looked out over the entire city of Tucson - beautiful. Others were notable for their rock formations. I'll send pictures on my One Drive later this evening.
Almost at the top there was USFS (United States Forest Service) Visitor Center. There was a lone USFS Ranger on duty. She said she lived there alone throughout the year, but didn't get lonesome because there were always plenty of visitors. Reminded me of when we visited a fire-lookout station in the Sierra Nevada several years ago. Beautiful views, but very lonesome. At the top of the mountain, there was a small ski area. Not very long lines - as a matter of fact, we didn't see anyone go up the lift the entire time we were there. There's a small town, Sommrhaven, at the top which seemed to be mostly ski homes. Not exactly Vail or Heavenly, but kind of neat in a small town way. Couldn't have been more than 100 homes up there.
On the way up we passed many cyclists - those people had to be in great shape. The Ranger said many of the Canadian teams came down during the winter to practice because they couldn't cycle at home. A lot easier (and faster) on the way down - they really zoomed down the mountain road. Top altitude was about 8100 feet. There was a back road down called the Control Road, but they said it was a rough, primitive road about twenty-five miles down to a town called Oracle. If Peter had been with me, it might have been a question of whether we attempted it. However, luck was with us because it was closed because of snow and landslides.
Looks like we're leaving tomorrow. Can you believe they are heartless enough to kick us out on my birthday? There's just no empathy these days. We're heading over I-80 through the Mojave to El Centro. If we like it there, we'll stay for a couple of days. Otherwise, we'll head back up toward Reno along the backside of the Sierra.
We'll keep you posted. Stay in touch.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Tucson, AZ (Again, #3)
Well, first the good news - today gas was $1.31 at Costco and the high temperature was 83 degrees. What more could you ask for!
Today we decided to take a tour around Tucson. Started out East to the Saguaro National Park in the hopes that the cactus would be in bloom. Alas, that was not to be. But it was still fun and interesting to drive around the park and take a walk through the cactus. The SNP is a huge park with lots of hiking trails, but there is an eight mile driving loop which gave us a great idea of the various saguaro cactus. We read in the Visitor Center that it takes almost thirty-five years before they bloom and they can grow to over 100 feet tall. It's nice that they saved the area because otherwise it would have been developed like the rest of the area around the park.
After lunch, we drove out to the opposite side of Tucson. We were looking to go to Old Tucson which is an old move set built back in the 1930's and used for Western's like Tombstone. Turned out that it was more like a tourist trap. No, let me rephrase that - it was a tourist trap. Kind of like Virginia City on steroids! We decided to pass it by and drove around the Tucson Mountain Park. There is a road over the mountain through Gates Pass which was really interesting. The road over the mountains was built in the late 1800's for a cost of $1000 (five miles winding over the mountain and down into the valley). Try building a road for that price today. At the top was a scenic view area which had spectacular views in both directions. There were some rock cabins and fences which had been built in the 1930's by the Civilian Conservation Corps. As we have traveled around the country, we have seen some great buildings and art done by the CCC. It was a big effort by the government to put people to work and do some constructive work.
We have been lucky enough to stay on Davis-Monthan AFB here in what they call a Temporary Lodging Facility. Primarily designed for families moving into the area, they are available on a space available basis. Makes it nice because it's like a one-bedroom apartment, with full kitchen, bath, and living room. Also convenient because the Exchange, Commissary, and golf course are close by. They fly A-10 Warthogs out of here - they were supposed to be phased out, but the war in the Middle East has given them a new lease on life. We haven't been to the Graveyard across the street from the base, but we may go there in the next day or two. However, I think golf is on the agenda for tomorrow.
Hope all is well with everyone. Take care and enjoy life.
Today we decided to take a tour around Tucson. Started out East to the Saguaro National Park in the hopes that the cactus would be in bloom. Alas, that was not to be. But it was still fun and interesting to drive around the park and take a walk through the cactus. The SNP is a huge park with lots of hiking trails, but there is an eight mile driving loop which gave us a great idea of the various saguaro cactus. We read in the Visitor Center that it takes almost thirty-five years before they bloom and they can grow to over 100 feet tall. It's nice that they saved the area because otherwise it would have been developed like the rest of the area around the park.
After lunch, we drove out to the opposite side of Tucson. We were looking to go to Old Tucson which is an old move set built back in the 1930's and used for Western's like Tombstone. Turned out that it was more like a tourist trap. No, let me rephrase that - it was a tourist trap. Kind of like Virginia City on steroids! We decided to pass it by and drove around the Tucson Mountain Park. There is a road over the mountain through Gates Pass which was really interesting. The road over the mountains was built in the late 1800's for a cost of $1000 (five miles winding over the mountain and down into the valley). Try building a road for that price today. At the top was a scenic view area which had spectacular views in both directions. There were some rock cabins and fences which had been built in the 1930's by the Civilian Conservation Corps. As we have traveled around the country, we have seen some great buildings and art done by the CCC. It was a big effort by the government to put people to work and do some constructive work.
We have been lucky enough to stay on Davis-Monthan AFB here in what they call a Temporary Lodging Facility. Primarily designed for families moving into the area, they are available on a space available basis. Makes it nice because it's like a one-bedroom apartment, with full kitchen, bath, and living room. Also convenient because the Exchange, Commissary, and golf course are close by. They fly A-10 Warthogs out of here - they were supposed to be phased out, but the war in the Middle East has given them a new lease on life. We haven't been to the Graveyard across the street from the base, but we may go there in the next day or two. However, I think golf is on the agenda for tomorrow.
Hope all is well with everyone. Take care and enjoy life.
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