Escaping Texas - New Road

After hanging with the kids in Austin for the weekend, we hit the road for three days on I-10 through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and southern California. All of this travel was on what I refer to as "new road" for Nancy and me. That is, highway that despite our many past trips around and across the country, we had never driven on before. Exciting. Here are some highlights.

The first challenge was making it out of Austin. This required several conversations with our beloved GPS (whom we refer to as "Naggo", in deference to her sparkling personality), a couple of coffee stops, a marital love-spat (let's downgrade that to tiff), and more time than we'd hoped. Seems there is no direct way west out of Austin. This shot was the first of the day and is of the main intersection of Burnet, Texas. We took it because we wanted a keepsake of our circuitous route that morning.

With perseverance and a u-turn or two, we eventually made it to Texas Highway 290, headed toward I-10 and New Mexico. There were a couple of other interesting sites in our early going. One was passing close to this noteworthy venue.

Being a student of presidential history, I was tempted to pull off and explore this unexpected find, but I was out voted by the women in the party (that would be my Bride and the aforementioned Naggo).

A little later on we came across this interesting structure in the town of Fredericksburg.

I can't help but wonder what the little perch on the third floor was for. Perhaps a private retreat for cocktails and pitching woo? Or maybe the builder had a little extra lumber he didn't want to go to waste. In any event, I'm thinking about a little alteration to Wiser Times.

We remained on Highway 290 for a couple more hours until we got to I-10 and encountered this piece of news.

 

It was a little startling to leave the middle of Texas, head west for nearly three hours on state highways, and realize that we were still 472 miles from the border. They really do do everything big in Texas.

On the bright side, the countryside was interesting and much different from our usual fare through the eastern forests. Here are a couple of shots of the rocky, rolling hills that are west Texas.

 

Here's another interesting site we had on the trip that day.

Yes, that is the speedometer in the Traverse with the cruise control locked in at 80 MPG, a personal best for me. But, lest you fear I was going rogue, here's the rrrrrrrrrrrrest of the story.

 

Those crazy Texans. This windfall did save us an hour or so on the day's workload.

Shortly after hitting I-10 we stopped for lunch at this roadside tourist trap. I had high hopes, but there was no sign J.R., Bobby, Sue Ellen or even Cliff Barnes had ever been in this joint.  

Finally, we reached the end of the Lone Star State and made it into New Mexico. However, not long after entering The Land of Enchantment, we were caught in this Homeland Security snare. All vehicles were forced into this inspection station. Apparently, traveling New Mexico highways comes with a price.

Fortunately, my senior visage was non-threatening enough for the border guard peering through my windshield to wave me through without a full body pat down or even a "you're in a whole heap a trouble now, boy" (oh yeah, that's Georgia; my mistake). We also made it through without our contraband Wiser's being confiscated. We were thankful for this break as this is precious cargo that has already traveled from its origin in Canada to Florida where it was procured from my connection (yes, my mother), then smuggled back to Michigan during one of my "six-pack" runs, and now moved on to Texas and California to keep the extended family well stocked. Think Traverse posing as cigarette boat.

Shortly after our close encounter with the Federalis, we pulled into Deming, New Mexico, for the night. Deming was founded in 1881 and marks the site of the completion of the second transcontinental railroad in that same year, with the driving of what is known as "the silver stake". 

Before turning in that night we caught some authentic southwestern food (a BLT and a bowl of cream of broccoli soup) at this elegant establishment (remember our effort to upgrade our road trip dining habits from my previous post The Getaway).

 

It was a restaurant, like the sign says. Grand....not so much. But passable road fare. We actually had metal utensils.

And for the record, the most important component of our cargo, pictured below, spent the night in the hotel room, as it has every night since we left home. We couldn't leave Cathy's cello out in the cold New Mexico night, which was in the 30s, if we wished to remain her parents.

 

On Tuesday morning the 11th we arose, repacked the cello and our luggage, and hit the road.  The new Mexico landscape was different from Texas, sharper hills and a bit more rocky. Here's a shot of the hills behind a rest area with the Traverse in the foreground enjoying a short respite from the rigor of I-10.

We also saw several of these, all seemed to be a hundred cars or more. Probably a pretty ordinary site out here, but something we never see back home.

 

Another interesting feature of taking I-10 is that for a long while you're just a couple of miles from the Mexican border and can see the hills of northern Mexico quite clearly. You also run into these guys on a regular basis. Duh.

We finally made it to Arizona a little before noon, as corroborated by this colorful greeting,

and continued on to Tuscon where we had lunch with Nancy's nephew Brian and his wife Bess who have now been Arizona residents for several years. We had a lot of fun catching up as we don't often get see these two without a Skype session in progress. 

Continuing on through central and western Arizona, we found the country side full of saguaro (pronounced sah-wah-roh) cactus, which we learned (through our mobile Google machine) can grow to 60 feet tall. Here's a more modest example from our road pics, only about 15 feet tall I would guess, but handsome nonetheless.

The Arizona landscape also sported these strange looking trees that Nancy snapped at a rest area. Haven't yet been able to identify them, but we thought they were interesting, and a nice color.

This is probably a good time to comment on this phenomena that we encountered on the Arizona segment of I-10, and that we have all seen on highways a gazillion times.

This is in my opinion the cause of almost all slowdowns on the freeway - a truck going 65 miles an hour passing a truck going 64 miles an hour.

Here's one more shot of scenic Arizona as we approached the Sierra mountains.

Close to dusk we reached the end of our run through the Copper state and slipped across the border into California. It was a little trickier than I thought it would be, as we had to go through another one of these.

But I just flashed my AARP and Pilot rewards cards and the officer waved us through. It's good to pack a little extra plastic.

About an hour in we headed up to the north side of Joshua Tree National Park, taking a room in the Twentynine Palms Hotel on Twentynine Palms Avenue in the town of - you guessed it - Twentynine Palms. Catchy. 

The next morning Nancy and I headed off to the park. Here's a shot of me flashing my new senior lifetime pass to all national parks, a hefty $10 investment. The pass also allows me to take anyone with me who is willing to get into my car.

We then took about a three hour drive through the heart of Joshua Tree, a pretty unique place. For starters, it has several hundred square miles of these,

Joshua trees, so named by the Mormons who felt they looked like the Biblical Joshua waving them on to their new land (?!?!?) Here's another shot with a familiar personality standing in for perspective.

The park is also home to a seemingly endless variety of incredible rock formations. Here are a couple of pics from the many we took during our 50 mile drive through the park.

Joshua Tree is also home to a sprawling garden of cholla cactus plants located about two-thirds of the way through the park. Here's a shot of these stubby little beauties.

Another unexpected feature of this park is a campground located about in the middle, high in the rocks. Curious about the attraction of this location, we slowly made our way through the various pop-up campers, RVs, fifth wheels and travel trailers strewn through the 100+ campsites, but took no pictures so as not to offend the resident clientele (this looked like a pretty rugged group). It seemed strange to see lawn chairs, barbecues and other outdoor equipment (in one case a dart board) set up in and amongst nothing but naked (and often huge) rocks. No water, no forest, no apparent wildlife with which to commune. And about 50 miles from anywhere. Maybe that's the draw.

Once we made it through Joshua Tree, Nancy and I hit the trail for our last leg on I-10 all the way to Disneyland, about a three hour drive. It was very hilly, much like western Arizona. As we approached the LA metropolitan area we came across this impressive forest of man-made giants.

The wind farms went on for miles, in valleys, on the hillsides, everywhere you looked; there were big ones, slightly smaller older-looking models, three bladed, two bladed - it was impressive. And not a cooling tower in sight.

We ended the day by checking into the Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland and having a light dinner at the Market Place. And that's where I'll pick up the story in my next post - Our California Adventure.

Grosse Pointe Charles

Austin - Playtime

After two days on the road (see The Getaway) Nancy and I spent a couple of days visiting son Ted and his issue Leili (5 going on 6) and Cyrus (3 going on 4). The weekend consisted of activities that, oddly, small children and seniors have in common - playing games, working puzzles, taking the fresh air and eating.

Here's an opening shot of Nancy and Leili getting reacquainted.

After an afternoon of keeping up with Olympic developments, Nancy and Leili spent a little time making up stories with one of Leili's favorite games,

while Ted and Cyrus engaged in more boy-like play.

Our little group then moved on to a round of Richard Scary's "Busytown - Eye Found It", a game we like so much, we sent it to the kids for Christmas two years in a row (we did that one time with a book for Leili, too; so much for keeping track of that sort of thing). 

We wrapped up the afternoon with a little outside time. In this pic Leili is basking in the joy of her stomp-rocket. This involves stomping on a sort of balloon pump as hard as she can (fun in itself) that shoots Styrofoam rockets up in the air, sometimes 30 or 40 feet. This of course, depending on the direction of the wind, requires Dad to retrieve the rockets from a variety of unintended landing sites, like the landscaping, the neighbors' yard and in one instance the neighbors' roof (see Ted rummaging in the background about ready to secure Leili's latest launch which he has just shaken out of a tree).

 

Here we have the grandparents enjoying the festivities in the way we know best - with a couple of Wisers Manhattans on the deck. Hey, playtime is playtime.

 

For dinner on Saturday night we went to Rudi's, a local Texas barbecue place. The kids love it not only for the food, but because everyone sort of eats like a one year old.

Note that no plates are involved. You just pile beef brisket, spicy sausage and other goodies on sheets of butcher paper and have at it. There are plastic utensils available, but they're optional. Here's a shot of Cyrus demonstrating his "shove it in your mouth and slowly chew it down" technique.

And as if to prove the point, here is Leili confirming that Cyrus is not making it up, much to Grandpa's chagrin (either that or I have a mouthful of dill pickles, can't remember which).

But a good meal (and time) was had by all, as indicated by this post-gluttony shot.

On Sunday, it was more of the same. Here's a shot from the morning "icebreaker" period. Leili is including Cyrus in a virtual baking game (I think cupcakes were the delicacy of choice this weekend).

 

Grandpa had sort of opened the issue by popping for donuts on Saturday (several topped with the ever popular multicolored sprinkles).  Note that Cyrus has brought one of his current best friends to the activity, whose name is, actually, "Bunny with Pants".

Sunday being a beautiful day, we started right in on the outside activities. Here is a shot of the "Texans" enjoying a classic backyard apparatus.

And one of Cyrus fully into an attempt to achieve escape velocity.

But, after awhile, it was time to take our game up a notch and head to the park (a couple of blocks away). Here's grandpa serving as cart mule.

 

Of course, the park visits always start with the same stop; something about swings and numerous parents/grandparents always willing to push.

With the preliminaries over, Cyrus moved on to practicing his foot dribble,

 

and Leili her hopscotch, first being coached by Grandma, 

 

then turning the tables, helping Grandma remember her groove.

 

Eventually, little feet get tired (let alone senior tootsies), and it's time to catch the wagon home, courtesy of Dad.

 

We wrapped up the weekend with dinner at a local Thai eatery called Mama Fu's, which in Leili's opinion, is the "best restaurant in Texas". As kids eat free on Sunday at Mama Fu's, Ted tends to agree. Here's Leili expressing her approval after her usual feast of "ninja noodles".

That night we tucked the kids in and packed up our bags for the third leg of our trip - New Road. Watch for the follow-up post in a day or two.

The Getaway - Thawing Out

Well, now just why would a retiring (and shy) couple of reasonable intelligence leave a perfectly good home and take on an adventure? This might be why.

Or this.

 

 Or even this.

And most definitely this.

 

So last Thursday, we packed up the Traverse with the usual moderate load, consisting primarily of wedding gifts being relocated to California,

and departed the deep freeze for a 19 day cross-country trek to parts south and west. Here are a few notes on the first leg of our journey.

The first order of business was to thaw out. Unfortunately it took over 1000 miles and several states to accomplish this. We headed west on I-94, then south on I-69 until we encountered this milestone.

Here we took lunch at this upscale eatery,

and promptly headed across the state to - you guessed it -

where we hung around long enough to have dinner at another upscale classic.

At this point I should explain a major change in our travel habits and why these pictures are significant. Up until our last trip to Florida in December, we embraced what for years has been known as "the Cathy plan". That is making it from home to our destination (usually somewhere in Florida) as quickly as possible. We would customarily arise at 5:00 am, depart at 6:00 and drive 1200 miles (about 18 hours) in one blast, stopping only for nature calls, gas, and the fastest food we could find. The Cathy plan was so named because while we were checking into a motel one night during an earlier family trip, Cathy asked "why are we stopping here, we're not there yet, can't we (read you) just keep going?" I didn't have a good answer, at least not an answer that impressed her. So for the next trip the Cathy plan passed without filibuster, and became habit.

You have to remember that while Nancy and I were sharing the driving work on these trips, Cathy, Christy, often Ted, and sometimes a guest vacationer were spending their time in a deluxe full-sized conversion van watching movies, playing video games or cranking out tunes with their Walkmen, Diskmen or iPods (depending on the decade). So why stop at a boring motel? Who needs to rest up from sitting still? I've always thought that an important part of parenting is seeing the world through your kids' eyes. But I admit, occasionally, it can get away from you.

Finally, after all these years, as we were putting the finishing touches on our December Christmas trip plans, we reinvented ourselves. We knew that weather conditions were iffy, and that the Cathy plan won't work if you have any delays. Also, a slower pace, with meals out of the car and an extra stop or two to stretch our (aging) legs sounded attractive. And like all retirees, we have all the time there is. So the Cathy plan was mothballed and replaced with the new "senior plan" (or as I like to refer to it - the old man plan). Thus, instead of driving through a Mickey D's or Wendy's and digesting our grease burgers and fries in flight, we are now able to dine more leisurely, digesting slightly less unhealthy food sitting down inside of a restaurant. So you see, compared to what we had been doing, Subway and Denny's are upscale.

But back to the first leg of the trip. We headed west through Illinois to Missouri. Here is a perhaps less than prime shot of the St. Louis arch as we crossed the Mississippi. The lighting could be better, but if you squint a little and turn your computer just a bit clockwise, you can make out....naw. Forget it. Just take my word for it. The arch is there.

The highest temperature we attained on our first day out was 13 degrees. We kept warm through the magic of modern auto technology and a few hot beverages sipped from these old friends.

 

We spent the night in Lebanon, Missouri, in a road-side Best Western not quite prepared for the extremely cold weather (near zero just before dawn). The little wall heating unit cranked its heart out all night, but it still took socks, a hoodie and a bit of survival huddling under the thin blankets to make it through the night. Brrrr.

We arose early on the second day and headed to Oklahoma. My photographic prowess was suffering as we crossed the state border because my fingers had not yet thawed out, but I managed this shot of the "Welcome to Oklahoma" sign.

Okay. I missed the sign entirely. This photo-through-the-car-window shtick is trickier than it looks. To prove I was actually in Oklahoma, I was able to get this shot of the sign marking the Oklahoma City turnoff to good old OU.

 

What?

Finally we made it to the Lone Star state,

 

but were distressed to see several signs displaying this message.

Are you kidding? A 1000 miles and six states and we're still threatened with winter storm warnings? Uh...what's a couple of seniors to do? Oh well.

Here's a shot of my dash as we motored into Waco for dinner. Note the temperature.

Yes. Still freezing. You'll also notice the mileage for the day - 599 - with still a little over 100 miles to go to Ted's. And if you look closely, you'll see that I'm taking a picture of the dash while cruising on I-35 at 75 MPH. I guess I was ready for a dinner break, this one at an El Chico. I had the pork taco plate, definitely a step up from our past road fare.

We made it to Ted's just fine and on time around 8:00 pm, and cleared our road dust by having Wisers Manhattans and catching up with our Austin friends Sue and Jesse (Ted was actually out at a concert last night, an "instrumental post-metal" band called Russian Circles; like you, I've never heard of them).

Today, it's finally warmed up to the 60s. It feels great. And the next few days look even better.

That's it for the first leg of our trip. We'll be relaxing in Austin for the weekend, then heading west on Monday. I'll keep you posted - literally :-)

GPC