Amarillo this Morning, Up From Elk City

Elk City, Oklahoma

The motel last night was new and very nice. We had dinner at Portobello Grill, a nice restaurant, really, with a decent bottle of pinot grigio. I had cedar plank salmon and it was outstanding. Must try this when we get back to the cabin in the woods. In case you are not friends with me on Facebook, this is a picture of that place that I took while we were home. The stream pictures are of the Watauga River that we cross getting to the cabin.

But I digress. We left Elk City at 7:30 a.m., gased up in 19 degree weather with a 9 degree chill factor and hit the maybe-icy trail. There was still snow in shady spots and where it had melted, icy spots. For people who have spent the biggest part of the past three winters in FLA this is bone chilling. The sun was coming up behind us and the full moon was still high in the sky in front of us. Quite lovely. Elk City is just 40 miles from Texas, so we quickly got to the panhandle.

 

Texas Panhandle

 

We have been trying to take a picture of every state’s welcome sign. What a joke. Either my camera is too slow or too fast or a truck gets in the way. That’s one reason there aren’t many of them on the blog.

 

  

Talk about flat. There is no other place we have seen that is this flat. We stopped at a beautiful rest area that had a little history of the area. One fact: This is the largest expanse of flat land on earth, which explains why we hadn’t seen another place this big and flat. Another fact: When settlers moved to this area they discovered that there was water, but it was well underground. This led to the development of the windmills you see all along the landscape. They pumpwater from underground to irrigate crops, like cotton, and water for cattle and horses.  Luckily the cotton boll does not live here. We saw bales of cotton wrapped in yellow plastic that were as big as the trailer 9 a semi. I expect they just load them on a truck and take them to wherever they process them. I suppose that could be in NC textile mills. Connections, connections. And way back, NC had water to power the textile industry. Ain’t history grand?

 

It is 9:50 a.m. CST and we have indeed made it to Amarillo this morning. We passed the Big Texan restaurant which we had seen advertised on billboards since entering Oklahoma. The signs say something to the effect of a free 72 ounce steak. If my math is correct, that is 4 ½ pounds of steak. I think I have seen that place on TV. In order to get the free part, you must eat the entire steak in one sitting.

 

So  this is Amarillo? Flat land, tall granaries, windmills for water and electricity in the distance, horses, cattle, and more flat land. Oh, another thing I learned at that rest stop in Texas, these electrical-producing windmills are spaced to allow for crops and cattle. And apparently the soft whirring of the blade does not bother the cattle.

 

Oh Shew!!! Another feed lot. Looks like 10,000 holsteins on about 20 acres of land, just standing at feed troughs. We have seen this in several places…New Mexico, California, now here. And lord the stink. It gets in the car and hangs on for miles. Makes you really enjoy your Big Mac.

 

Old Route 66 runs right alongside I-40 for many, many miles in this area. There is some good history associated with that road too, but I’ll let you learn that for yourself. Afraid my teaching tendencies are getting a little old. But it is weird to look over from our wide highway to that little two-lane road and know it was the first way west. I would love to get some old tapes, DVD’s, whatever of the  old Route 66 TV show. Does anything like that even exist?

I am going to publish this even though it is unfinished. At least I'll have up something.

Returning to Cali

Having enjoyed as much family as they could stand, we are heading back to our little tin home in Cali. We had packed to go from Doug's in Knoxville right after Christmas Day. We had hoped to go back via I-70 through St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Las Vegas and back to Menifee. But weather made us go back to Banner Elk and wait until December 27. And then we decided that going I-40 was the least likely to produce a weather hazard.

So as I write this on Friday, December 28, 2012, we are between Little Rock and Fort Smith. There is a BUNCH of snow still on the sides of the road. There has been rain in various forms since we left Memphis this a.m., heavy  rain, drizzly rain, mist, and maybe a little frozen something. The temperature has hovered around 36 degrees. You know how they say writing can help you relieve emotions. Well, this little post is just perfect to keep me from screaming, "Get this car off the road." But on we go, him driving and me writing.

Had a great Christmas with Andy, Doug and family. The grandboys were terrific. And the older one is really growing up.

Doug is still such a kid, and Suzanne isn't much better. Santa put these down for just a minute and they had to hop on.

And Papa almost settled down for his long winter's nap long before he hit the bed.

 

We were able to go to Grant's soccer practice. Boy things have changed since my boys were little and played soccer. Back then it looked like a knot of monkeys with their tails tied together running down the field. I honestly think these kids knew something about playing a position. Not that if they were backfield they paid attention, but at least they didn't take off to get into the action. 

 

All decked out in shin guards and the works. Fired up! Ready to Go!

 

 

Getting busy on the field

 

But, coach, I thought I was playing back field.

Best thing about soccer?? Running

 

And I can sit and listen too.

And since it is the last practice, he got a medal. My grammy thought I should have gotten a big trophy just for cuteness.

Next time: Tyler's basketball practice and maybe the game. 

Back to present:

 

So, lunch was fried catfish and fried chicken at Charlie’s Chicken in Checotah, Oklahoma. Not your five-star rest-o-rawnt, but it was local and the waitress was friendly. Just as we finished eating, it started snowing. So for about 40 miles we drove in a blizzard. That was Larry’s estimate of the conditions. If you know Larry, you know that exaggeration is his forte. He’s never been sick; he nearly dies with every head cold. He’s never seen a rain storm; it was either a tornado or a hurricane. Anyway, our blizzard produced no accumulation and I could see everything within a quarter of a mile or more. I will say his visibility was limited. However, if he had taken off his sunglasses, the blizzard conditions might have been lessened.

 

So now we are driving across Oklahoma with a light dusting of snow on the roadsides, full bellies, Norah Jones on the radio, and old timey oil wells pumping away. I am as contented as the Angus beef grazing in the fields we pass and just about as stuffed. Life is good. It would be naptime if I could be sure I was the only one in the car who could nod off. Writing serves many purposes. For now it will keep me awake. But you are not obliged to stay awake with me though.

Larry keeps talking about getting back to the “land of no water”. That is another amazing thing I have learned on this trip. So much of this country is amazingly dry. When we got to Tennessee we constantly marveled at the abundance of rivers. We had not seen water freely flowing, making its own path, for such a long time. It really is a beautiful thing. I guess we are all drawn to water. I used to believe it was just the ocean that pulled us. But after being separated from flowing rivers for a few months, I had a new appreciation for their sinewy beauty.

 

Evening: 5:30 p.m.CST, Elk City, OK

We are relaxing at a Hampton Inn watching a prairie sunset from out window. Please tell me what you are doing.



Otay Mesa and Lakes

We spent three weeks in Pio Pico RV Resort in an area named Otay (procounced Oh Tie) Lakes What an abosolute change of pace for us. We were approximately 30 miles from San Diego, but it felt as if we could be on the moon. We had no phone service and had to buy internet service. We had to drive winding canyon roads to visit San Diego or to go the grocery store. It was not unlike West Texas in its isolation. And the hills. They were basically brown and gray, with a few low-growing green bushes. Not at all like home.

 

This is a view of the road we took into the RV Park. The road was really scary in a 40-foot RV with a tow, but it wasn't so bad in the Jeep. But we never could go fast enough for the locals. We learned to ignore them or pull over to let them zip by. Speed limits in California are merely suggestions apparently. No one expects people to abide by them.

 

Our stay at Jamul (pronounced ha mul) was unique to say the least. Behind the RV park, up across the mountain were narrow, dirt roads that were literally alive with white Border Patrol SUV's. Some nights we even had helicopters. Apparently we were a mile or two from the Mexican border and this area was a crossing point for Mexican citizens. Although we never saw anyone being arrested, there had to be many arrests here or they wouldn't have spent so much time here.

 

We even drove to the top of the mountain one day. The road itself was scary enough because it was so narrow and there was a cliff off one side.  But I'm sure we were being watched by the Border Patrol from some other vantage point so I didn't worry about being accosted. When we got to the top our phones started pinging and we got messages that said, "You are now in Mexico. Charges will apply." I don't know that we were actually in Mexico, but we were close enough to ping off their towers. At least they had phone service.

 

Another day Larry went up alone and talked to one of the patrolmen.  He told Larry that they had arrested 16 people the night before. Two more were in the group, but they got away.

 

We had Thanksgiving Dinner at Pio Pico. What a disappointment. Cold food is never a great meal.

 

 

Surprise!!! We're Home!!!

I'll Be Home for Christmas

I don't know who thought we could stay away at Christmas. Was it you? It probably never was us. And it sure wasn't Doug because he offered to fly us home.  But that was way too easy, so on Saturday, December 8, we packed the jeep with several things that we felt were superfluous for our journey and battened down the RV. Sunday morning we emptied the frig into a plug-in cooler. Then we parked the RV in the storage area at Wilderness Lakes RV Resort in Menifee, CA and hit the road. 

Western California, Palm Springs Area 

  We found windmills again in western California. I think this is the San Gorgonio Pass. Here is a link to Wikipedia about the wind farm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gorgonio_Pass_Wind_Farm  Among many other things it says there are over 3,000 windmills.  And they were all sizes. Some looked older than others. Ken Hoffman, our friend who visited us in San Diego, had told us about windmills that were built in the 80s and I think we found them here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is Ken with some old guy in Old Town San Diego, back in November.

 

People Have Died From Stupidity

After leaving the Palm Springs/Palm Desert Area we pretty much headed into real desert. Every 30 miles or so we might have seen a little oasis town, but they were few and far between. And that is when we started really watching the gas in our tank. We passed several abandoned gas stations on this long, long undulating road. And at one point we passed a station that appeared to have gas...at over $4 a gallon. Anybody know Thrifty Sue? Well she was in charge of using Gas Buddy to find gas, calculate distances and compare that to the number of miles our car said we had before empty. Can I just say, technology is a wonderful thing. But it can kill stupid people. Long story, short, we cruised into Needles on fumes. But we didn't pay $4 a gallon. $3.95, maybe, but not $4. This pattern continued across the country, but never again did we cut it this close. And I'm bragging here, Thrifty Sue saved us a bunch of money. She may have cost us a few years in stress, but I'll bet we have that $5 to leave the kids. I may have discovered a flaw in my plan.

 

 

First Night: Flagstaff, Arizona

We checked into the Hampton Inn and had a lovely night, except for Larry's 2 a.m. trip to the car to unplug the cooler for fear the battery would die. (This little story could fit in the last subheading.) It was about 15 degrees and he had to leave a warm bed. Don't tell him, and God knows he will never read this, he is pretty tough sometimes. When we left Flagstaff the next morning the temperature was 12 degrees F. And we had to stop for gas before we left town. Again with the Stupidity subheading. I'm thinking of changing the name of this post.

 

Albuquerque: City, Huge City, In a Bowl

 

One of the more interesting things we saw was Albuquerque. As we traveled across New Mexico, we were able to track our altitude on the GPS. As we traveled to Albuquerque, I think we were as high as 7,000 feet and then suddenly, lying in this huge bowl of land in between mountains was Albuquerque. It was like we drove over the lip of the bowl and there was a huge city.

 

These pics were made with my cell phone from a moving car, but you get the idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It took us four days and three nights to get to Knoxville. And it was so worth the effort. I can say that because I only drove about a hundred of the nearly 2200 miles. But this country is so huge and so different from what you believe if you have never driven through the southwest. The hills, the deserts, the reservations, the animals...they all were a continual source of amazement for us.


I have more info about Memphis, Arkansas, trains, trucks, my grandkids. I know I will see you back. Ha.