I had an early rise this morning, to take pictures of the sunrise from Yavapai Point. As it ends up, there was a beautiful, slender crescent moon to grace some of the shots. Watching the sun’s orb rise from behind the ridges and buttes was truly amazing!

We hurried off to an early breakfast, and took a little time to get cleaned up and decide what to do with our day. This was the first day we didn’t have to travel, so we had the luxury of time to plan, and time to rest.

We elected to take the free shuttles on the route to Hermit’s Rest. The buses were supposed to run every 15 minutes or so, so that shouldn’t be a problem, right? Well, we got off the bus at the first stop, and waited forever for a bus to come by, only to have to stand up through the next few stops. We quickly elected to ride that bus all the way to Hermit’s Rest, and see if we wanted to stop anywhere along the way back.

Hermit’s Rest was beautiful, and gave us our first views of the Colorado River. We could see rapids from here, along with the scenic views that the Grand Canyon is famous for.

We finally got back to the lodge, and took a quick catnap, in preparation for the trip on Desert View Road for the sunset.

We headed out on the Desert View journey, and wound up at Lipan Point. As I discovered later, this was allegedly one of the best sunset spots. It didn’t disappoint! The biggest challenge was the wind. The gusts were easily over 35 miles an hour, and were depositing dust all throughout the camera gear. Not a big deal, and relatively easy to deal with. However, the bigger issue was significant cloud cover right at sunset. I shot and shot, using the wide angle, and just before the sun set, it peeked out of the clouds, and it was back to my long lens. After the sun set, I switched to the wide angle again, and shot the clouds until most of the light was gone.

We met a delightful couple from near London, and talked with them throughout the set of the sun.

Returning to the lodge, we had dinner, and crashed… hard!

This morning, we awoke in Holbrook, and went to a local café — ??? – for breakfast. This café has been featured on documentaries about Route 66, and there was tons of Route 66 memorabilia all over the place, as there was in the whole town.

We drove through Holbrook, and headed toward the Petrified Forest NP down Highway 180, stopping to smell the roses (or petrified wood) as we went.

The Petrified Forest NP (and Painted Desert) didn’t disappoint. It’d been over 10 years since I last was out here, and it was just as beautiful as I remembered. To cover the 28 miles or so of road took us over three hours! Needless to say, we smelled roses – plenty of them – along the way.

Probably the most intriguing thing to me in the park is Newspaper Rock. Here, the ancients carved petroglyphs into the rocks, which have long since tumbled into a gorge. From the observation point, however, I got some great photos of them – a real link to the distant past.

We rejoined I-40 at the north end of the park, and drove west toward Holbrook again, where we ate lunch at Mr. ???. This was an amazing Mexican restaurant! I had a combo plate, which was slathered in some of the hottest red sauce I’ve ever had. I keep forgetting that red sauce is HOT out here, unlike my days at Taco Bell. I ate it, though, enjoyed it, and carried on the next stop.

Our next stop was a corner shop that dealt in petrified wood, and had many, many dinosaur statues surrounding it. Becky found a piece that she liked for the hearth, and I picked up a couple of geodes for Sio and me to crack open later. I didn’t take any pictures of the dinosaurs – a quarter to snap a photo solo, 75 cents to snap a photo with a dinosaur and you, and 98 cents to put your head through a standee and have your photo taken. A little too rich for me! 🙂

We had originally planned to stop in Winslow AZ to look at the statue depicting the line from The Eagles’ “Take It Easy” (“…standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona…”). However, we didn’t know which of the three exits was the right one, and we were really wanting to see Meteor Crater before it closed, so we skipped it. BTW, in case you’re wondering, it’s exit 252.

As we pulled off I-40 for Meteor Crater, we discovered it would close at 5PM – it was now about 4.15! We barreled down the two-lane, headed for the “other” big hole in Arizona, and arrived about 4.20, just in time to buy tickets ($12 *each*!). We walked to the high observation deck, where the wind nearly knocked us over. Of course, we were huffing and puffing, too – the altitude and attendant thinner air out here is really a killer. We took our shots, and headed down to the lower observation deck, and looked around again.

We jumped in to the theatre, which was showing the last film of the day at 5PM, and enjoyed sitting down for a few minutes. Good film, and free (after paying the $12 to get in!). The gift shop was a little disappointing – lots of stuff, but like so many others out here, very oriented toward rockhounds.

As the place was closing, we escaped from the parking lot, and headed toward the Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. We had reservations inside the park at a lodge that purported to be only a half-mile from the rim.

Flagstaff is a beautiful town, and I wish we had more time to spend in it. We zoomed through, and continued up Highway 180, looking for Highway 64, and eventually the park.

We saw beautiful pine vistas, dotted occasionally with stands of birch trees, all above 8000 feet. Since there’s only a little bit of that span that is above 8000 feet, the birch trees quickly passed us by, but the dying sunlight upon them was truly beautiful.

We also saw evidence of a damaging fire atop the mountain. Whole glades scorched, with nothing but burned trunks, limbless and barren, were on both sides of the highway. I’m sure that nature will recover – it always does – but this was particularly painful to see.

We finally traversed the last miles to the park, discovering that when the park entrance station is closed, you can just drive in! We did, and finally found Xanterra (sp?), and our rooms. A quick dinner in the cafeteria, and we were off to bed.

BTW, the highest gas we’ve seen was here — $2.139. We’d seen $1.939 at the Petrified Forest, but that was chump change by comparison! The cheapest, by comparison was in Hereford TX, at a lowly $1.519.

Today, we awoke in Santa Fe, and went to the old town section to wander among the galleries and enjoy the early morning sun. As we discovered, not much is open there until 9.30 or 10.00 AM! We wandered around, looked at some native wares, and headed toward the Turquoise Trail.

The Turquoise Trail winds between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and is dotted with small towns full of southwestern and international flavor. Our first stop was Cerillos.

In Cerillos, we spoke with a woman whose home was used as part of the film Young Guns. In fact, I think the town was used as the set for this film. I guess I’ll have to rent it and see what it looked like for the film. The town has tons of old town charm, with dirt streets and old buildings, stuffed with knick knacks and art. Very nice place to visit – wouldn’t want to live there!

Farther south on Highway 14, we came to Madrid. This little town is an artisans dream, filled with galleries and shops. We wandered along the crooked streets, drifting in and out of the shops, peeking at rugs, ornaments, and other hand-crafted goodies. Endeavoring to help the economy, we walked away with a few.

We stopped lastly in ???, looking at a strip mall of shops. Beck found a couple of nice items, and I bought a stone pendulum device (insert picture and website here). This is a very cool device, a huge one of which exists inside a giant cavern at Meramec Caverns. Very cool device.

After hitting I-40 again, we headed west through Albuquerque and points westward. The drive was nice, but man was it windy! We were getting blown all over the place. We stopped at the Arizona Welcome Center, and discovered that the town we’d originally planned to stop in — ??? — only has one hotel, and they wanted a fortune for a room, so we drove on to Holbrook, and spent the night.

It was nice to see that the same weird signs, warning of poisonous insects and animals, were still in the rest areas.

We ate breakfast at the restaurant at the Holiday Inn. Eggs, steak, hash browns and an English Muffin – delicious! By far, the best meal of the trip!

When we got back to the car, I had voicemail from Wendy that the house inspection was back, and it was just a few minor things. We left her a phonemail with the hotel fax number, and ran off to explore Truth or Consquences.

I learned from the hotel manager that T or C had purchased the traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and put it on permanent display next to the Veterans Hospital. I’d never seen the memorial, despite it having traveled through towns I’ve lived in. It’s a somber reminder of those who gave their all so that we could be free.

Once we discovered there would be a delay in getting the fax from Wendy, we went ahead and headed to our destination for the day: the Very Large Array, west of Socorro. The drive was the drive. Driving through this beautiful country in the desert southwest somewhat numbs you to the vast beauty of it all, so it starts to look ordinary – what a shame!

So, we traveled through the desert, climbing higher and higher, and finally reaching an open plateau…. And there were the dishes! I was reminded of discovering Stonehenge when we were in England in ’98 – just top the hill and there it was!

This is the same array that was used in the film Contact – there was even a good bit of information about the filming of the film and the production company’s use of the site. Beck and I saw Contact in the theater when it was released, and it really struck a chord with me. To visit this site was a real treat for me!

We stopped for lunch at a little place called the Big Bear Café in Magdalene. This was authentic Mexican food! I had a pair of tamales and a taco – delicious, well spiced, and a bargain.

The rest of the drive from the VLA to Santa Fe was uneventful, although there was once again beautiful scenery, and a terrific climb into the mountains. Santa Fe is supposed to be a great city, and tomorrow, we plan to give it a good looking over.

After a train-filled night, we got up, and headed south to Roswell.

Roswell is one of those places that I’ve always wanted to visit, for no other reason than the legendary images and stories it invokes — probably much like Graceland does for Elvis fans. What we discovered is that the town has really played up its extraterrestrial link — even the streetlights have visitor heads!

We started at the visitor center, and got suggestions for breakfast, and for things to do and see.

The restaurant we were pointed to for breakfast was the Crashsite Cafe. As expected, everything inside had an ET connection, along with the menu items. Good food for breakfast!

We toured the museum, bought souvenirs, and wandered around the downtown area. It was all amusing, and fun in a campy sort of way. All it needed was a guy in a Godzilla outfit, and thousands Japanese extras running through the streets.

We continued on to White Sands NM, and enjoyed the quick drive. A nice sunny day (for a change) accompanied our drive. White Sands is an amazing place. The dunes are as white as could be. We wandered through, taking shots of this and that. We even got to watch an F-117A flying around from the next door base — fun!

For lunch, we decided on a picnic near a dune, and made a nice leisurely, long lunch out of it. We even kicked off our shoes, climbed a dune, and sat and enjoyed the beauty of the fine gypsum sand. It was surprising cool on our feet, and comfortable. There were folks with radios, sliding discs, frisbees and their pets — a very nice place to relax.

We left White Sands, and tried to visit the missile museum, but they seemed like they were not open for business. I got very nervous — after all, White Sands Missile Range is a slightly restricted place! — so we turned around and hit the road again.

While driving up I-25, we were forced to pull over through an immigration inspection station. I guess there’s a lot of illegal immigrant traffic through that corridor. Obviously, we looked like tourists, so we passed right through, but still, it was an interesting experience.

We watched the sunset over the mountains as we drove north. This was the first day we’d had reasonably clear skies, and the sunset was gorgeous.

We arrived at Truth or Consequences, discovered that there are few choices for hotels, and that they are all way too expensive for what they are. However, it being late and us being tired, we signed on the bottom line, and put ourselves to rest for the night.

We awoke somewhat refreshed this morning, grabbed some breakfast, and hit the road.

Our first stop was at the Cherokee Trading Post on I-40W. I couldn’t tell you if it was really Cherokee in nature, but it was a good place to stop and refresh ourselves…. and pick up some rubber snakes (souvenirs).

We continued across Oklahoma in the cold, cold weather, and found our way to Texas. On a lark, we decided to stop at a small picnic area off the interstate, and found our first and only roadrunner. Those little guys are very odd to look at, with an almost reptillian head. Those that claims birds are descended from dinosaurs could use this guy as the poster child for the claim!

Driving on, we stopped at a rest area that was focused on the uses of wind power for generating electricity. They had a large windmill that, despite the high winds, wasn’t really turning. Hmmm!

We referenced our Route 66 book, and discovered that there is a leaning water tower in Britten TX, which is visible from I-40W. It’s there, it’s leaning, and we drove on.

Our next stop was just a couple of miles down the road. This stop was for a giant cross, 150 feet tall, and visible for miles and miles. Not only was this giant testimony of faith here, but there were also life-sized bronze statues depicting the stations of the cross. And, if that weren’t enough, there was also a life-sized crucifiction scene, and empty tomb. How very appropriate to stumble across this on Easter! It was moving, and obviously quite a powerful statement of faith.

We were hungry, so we drove on to Amarillo, and stopped at The Big Texan Restaurant. Now, we’d been seeing signs for this place for hundreds of miles, with their claim being that if you could eat a 72-ounce steak (along with a potato and salad) inside 60 minutes, you’d get the meal for free — if not, it cost you about $55. Sure enough, when we walked in, someone was on the clock, trying to eat the meal. (BTW, this guy was bigger than me, and was only able to finish about half of it.) Our lesser meals were good, and we made our way through the gift shop. I noticed that there have been hundreds of people who have passed the challenge, with the latest ones scribbled on a board. There were all ages, and weights….. and one who completed the challenge in 35 minutes! I don’t see how you could possibly swallow that fast. Of course, this contestant rolled in at a cool 400 pounds, so I suspect he’s had some practice!

Just outside of Amarillo is another site the Route 66 book pointed us to: The Cadillac Ranch. This is a farmers field, with a path through it to ten old cadillacs, half buried in the ground, covered with graffiti. As they sit a good ways off the road, if you weren’t looking for it, you’d miss it. And, of course, since we’d been in rain for two days, the path was a total mess, with mud that acted like quicksand! Still, it was an impressive sight, and something fun to look at.

We continued off the interstate, heading toward Clovis NM as our stop for the night. What we discovered is that Clovis is a big railway town, and we “slept” to the sound of trains passing by all night. Not the best sleep in the world!

Today started with Beck and me completing the loading up of the van, and doing the last check of everything to make sure we had taken care of everything. The van was stuffed, and it didn’t seem like there was anything we didn’t have with us — probably a lot of surplus items!

We left in the rain. We drove in the rain. It rained all day, which made for a tough slog.

(BTW, what’s with all the toll roads in Oklahoma? Is the state on a rent-to-own plan, paying money to Texas until they’ve payed it off?)

As we hoped we would, we got to Oklahoma City right at sunset, and drove downtown to see the Oklahoma City Memorial. From the time we got out of the van, I was struck with the sense that we were on hallowed ground. Everyone spoke quietly, and clustered in small groups, keeping kids in line.

Across the street is a memorial, with a life-size Jesus, sobbing. The statue stands atop a marble block, with “And Jesus wept” inscribed. That’s a very moving tribute, and really put the visit into perspective.

Outside the structure is a chain link fence, and covering the fence from end to end, are all kinds of memorabilia left by family and strangers, residents and visitors. Everything from keychains to license plates, photos to poems, adorned the fence. It’s obvious to me that this terror strike on US soil really hit home, years before 9/11 hardened us once more to terror on our shores.

It’s hard to realize that a building stood here once. It’s a beautiful park, with a shallow reflecting pool and two monolithic structures at either end, marked with two different times — presumably the time of the blast and collapse. These dominate the park.

There’s also a field of copper chairs, each atop a glass block, inscribed with the name of someone lost in the building. There are even smaller chairs for the children that were lost in the daycare. As tomorrow is Easter, some of the children’s chairs had Easter bunnies in them. A touching, telling reminder of the lights extinguished in this horror. As the sky grew darker, the chairs were lit in an eerie reminder of this loss.

As we walked around and read the plaques, we found out we were there just days before the ninth anniversary of this tragedy.

It is beautiful, and fitting, but a crying shame that it’s needed at all.

We were there too late to visit the museum — that’ll be on another trip.

Between the drive and trying to get our minds around this memorial, we found ourselves exhausted, and found a hotel near the airport, and crashed, hoping to be refreshed physically, spritually and mentally for tomorrow’s drive.

We went today to get our rental van. I was expecting a lackluster performance by the rental company (based on my last rental experience with them), but was pleasantly surprised.

When we pulled in, we were greeted, shown the vehicles in the class we were looking to rent, and helped with features and experiences with them. Really a class act, and a huge surprise from a low-dollar rental agency. Little do they know how many miles we’re gonna put on their vehicle!

Beck and I packed and loaded most of the night, finally collapsing into sleep with items still to pack and load. Oh well!

$1.799

Yup, you read it right. Another twenty cent increase in the price of a gallon of gas last night — the highest I’ve ever seen gas here. Unbelievable!

However, I did some figuring, and even a twenty cent hike only adds about $45 to the gas cost for our trip in a couple of weeks. That’s not horrible, but I know I’ll have sticker shock when I pay the man for the gas at each stop.

And, I’m sure that there will be places with much, much higher gas along the way. I wouldn’t be surprised to pay $2.50/gal somewhere along the way, probably the west coast or near the Grand Canyon.

$1.569

I was listening to the Gin Blossoms on the way home from work tonight, and it suddenly struck me that the desert was a catalyst for growth in my musical tastes.

I was sent to Phoenix in 1992 for an IBM OS/2 Technical Exchange — probably one of the best conferences I’ve ever been to. I rented a car out there, and after the conference, stuck a mag-mount antenna on the trunk, hooked up my HF radio (probably an Icom IC-757 GX II, I’d bet), and headed west toward Palm Springs. I was gonna meet up with someone I’d talked to on the radio for years, but hadn’t met in person.

As I tooled across the southern desert on I-10, I listened to an FM radio station out of Phoenix called “The Edge”. They played a kind of music I’d never heard in Chattanooga (which is where I was living at the time), and called it Alternative Rock.

I can’t remember all the music they were playing, but it was all new to me. 4 Non Blondes, The The, and The Gin Blossoms are all ones I remember hearing for the first time during that trip.

How appropriate that, upon the eve of our trip to the desert, I’m reminded of one of the impacts that stark landscape laid upon me.