CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME! Saturday, February 4, 2017 - Day Six - Van Horn, TX to Gallup, NM

On the road by 8:30 but really it was 7:30 as we quickly crossed into Mountain Time and gained an hour. We'll have to remember that we'll be losing hours on the drive home. We debated about where to stop on our way today. There was the National Border Patrol Museum - no TOO controversial, Desert Peaks National Monument - just made a National Park in '14 by former President Obama but it was not opened -on a Saturday????  - TOO new?  Anyway so we settled on White Sands National Monument. It was a bit out of the way but we try to have at least one stop a day so we aren't just driving. On today's drive we added two states - New Mexico and Arizona - that bring us up to 15 states - 3330 miles and 56 driving hours. This area of the country is very desert like with lots of scrub brush that I believe Ron is allergic to based on his consumption of Kleenex and sneezing, but it is more scenic than what we drove through yesterday. We try to spend half of our days' travel on the back roads and off the Interstate.  While not green or lush there is a certain beauty in its starkness and a lot less garbage than there was before. You drive miles without seeing a house or store.  Thankfully Ron found and pulled into a gas station at Fort Hancock as the ping of the low fuel light sounded. Most of the small towns that we do pass through seem very poor and depressed. We passed Fort Bliss and Holloman AFB in our travels today. The weather started to heat up and I'm finally without a jacket or sweatshirt - it feels good. 

In New Mexico we had to stop for a Border Patrol checkpoint and I was sure we would get pulled over with all the junk we had in the back of the truck. They just asked if we were US citizens - they didn't ask for any ID - and let us through. I think it's Ron's honest face.  While driving we listened to the Duke/Pitt game - GO Duke! We stopped at White Sands National Monument in NM. It was declared a national monument in 1933 by President Hoover. The park is 275 square miles of white sand and is the largest gypsum sand dune in the world. It looks like big mounds of snow and there were dunes of all sizes. It was really beautiful with the mountains in the background. People were sledding down the dunes. We passed on that but did climb up one of the dunes. I'm still finding sand in my shoes and the truck - after this trip it needs a good heavy cleaning. We also drove through the Valley of the Fires where all the rocks look black like they've been burnt. On our way to Gallup we stopped at Denny's for a breakfast for our dinner meal. It hit the spot. We were settled into our hotel room by 8.  The manager told us it might be snowing tomorrow morning and I can believe it as the temperature upon our arrival was 32 as we are over 5200' in elevation.  Time to blog and rest up for the Super Bowl tomorrow! Since we're in Gallup should we take a poll on who you are rooting for tomorrow?
As I read over my musings I think my time in Oxford and visit to Faulkner's house must have influenced me as this is very much stream of consciousness.

 Views along the road today

The Valley of the Fires

Views of White Sands National Monument

The more mature dunes

No this isn't snow although it sure looks like it - this is sand!

But you can sled just like on snow

We made it to the top

Less mature dunes are taller - they look like snow moguls

  

Some vegetation does survive

CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME! - SUPER BOWL Sunday, February 5, 2017 - Day Seven - Van Gallup, NM to Henderson, NV

A chilly wake up this morning. It was 30 degrees in Gallup when we got on the road and you could see snow by the mountains. We passed Indian City, the largest Indian Reservation, on our way to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park.  It wasn't too far off route 40W on the way to Vegas so we stopped. Ron was thrilled that we got to use the senior pass (62+) he bought yesterday at White Sands. For $10 you get a lifetime pass for you and 3 other adults in your car for entry into all national parks.  If you qualify, hurry and get yours soon because the cost is going up to $80 but they don't know exactly when. Painted Desert is 7500 square miles and Petrified Forest is within that area. The painted desert got its name from Coronado who called it el Desierto Pintado. The Petrified Forest has the greatest concentration of petrified wood in the world.  Locals began to realize that the area should be protected in 1895 but it wasn't made a national park until 1906 by Teddy Roosevelt. Even though it was made a park the resources weren't well protected until much later. The opening of historic Route 66 in 1922 "brought America to the desert". We drove the 28 miles through the park which reminded me of a moonscape or even the Badlands. There is a lot of "freaky" landscape out west.  We walked the mile loop through the Crystal Forest with all the Petrified logs. After leaving the park we passed through Holbrook AR, which still looked like a page out of the 50s. There were dozens big dinosaur statues outside stores, wigwam hotel rooms and vintage retro looking motels. Outside of Flagstaff there was deep snow on the side of the road. The roads were clear of snow but 40W after Flagstaff was pot hole ridden - hard to believe speed limit was still 75. From there it was on to Henderson, NV. - just passed the Hoover Dam.  We were going to Vegas but because we made an unplanned, but totally worth it, stop at the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest we were running behind even with gaining another hour as we just crossed into Pacific Time Zone. I wanted to catch the whole game, halftime and commercials so we stopped at Railroad Pass Hotel and Casino. That's how we roll - we have an open schedule subject to change at any moment. Of course we watched the Super Bowl rooting not so much for the Falcons as against the Patriots. And no we didn't gamble. Glad we didn't bet on the game as it wasn't the outcome we had hoped for. Went down to get some dinner at the Casino - I had the Prime Rib and Ron had a chicken wrap and just walked around checking out who frequents Casinos. Time for bed as we are approaching the end of our trip. Not sure if we'll get to Sacramento tomorrow or Tuesday. It depends on what we see along the way tomorrow.

BTW We added two more states - Arizona and Nevada. Only need to add California now!!! I'll update our mileage and hours at the end of our trip.

PS I forgot to say that we passed over the Rio Grande yesterday.

I do get into a few pictures

Petrified wood

Painted Desert

Painted Desert Inn

Found by workers looking for sandstone - when they turned it over they found this

Ceiling in the Painted Desert Inn done by the CCC

Mural done by a famous Hopi artist

The striations show the different periods of the rock

Glad none of these fell while we were driving through

Wood from the Petrified Forest

Hard to believe this started as wood

View from Crystal Forest

Looks like a gem

Some of the logs are huge

Views along our drive

Views of the San Francisco Mountains

CALIFORNIA HERE WE ARE! - Monday, February 6, 2017 - Day Eight- Henderson, NV to Sacramento, CA

Still reeling from the conclusion of the Super Bowl last night we hit the road. We discovered a few things in our stay in Nevada. First, smoking is legal in the casinos here and there seems to be a high correlation between gamblers and smokers. Second, their gas seems like it's the most expensive in the country at $3.29 a gallon - it cost $68 to fill up the truck. Ron thinks it was a tourist trap station as prices were lower past that place but they lead you to believe it was the last chance to fill up. The gas is even cheaper in California. The lowest it has been was $1.95 in South Carolina. Third, after the Super Bowl the big news story in Henderson today was the beginning of the trial against the Bundys and their followers. Clive Bundy was that rancher who grazed government land but didn't want to pay and started a standoff.  It was cloudy today and very windy for the drive. It's amazing how much open, uninhabited stretches of land there are out west. You look and you see nothing but mountains in the distance  for miles and miles. Drove through a large portion of the Mojave desert which I'm sure everyone has heard of, but did you realize there was a Mojave River? We didn't until we approached a bridge indicating the Mojave River.  We drove over it. It was as dry as the desert. We also drove over our first tumbleweed of the trip and saw acres of solar panels and 1,000's of windmills. We added our last state - California - and as we got further into the state we noticed that the landscape was suddenly very green in comparison to the last few days of our journey. It also appears that the drought is over in this area as there is standing water in many of the oranges and almond fields. We thought of the grandkids when we passed the fields of "halos".

The off the interstate portion of today's trip was a jaunt to the Giant Sequoia National monument - home of the oldest living things on earth - the giant Sequoia.  It was kinda on the way to Sacramento except for the back roads part and back roads it was!  A 60 plus mile winding path through the Sierra Nevada mountains in the dead of winter.  We must be empathetic for our friends back east and their battle with all the snow.  After two harrowing hours we arrived but the visitor center just closed so we meandered on our own discovering Grant's tree (2nd largest on earth) and a grove of Sequoias.  Was it worth it?  Sure.  Why not?  When would we ever have the opportunity to see such majesty - both the daunting Sierra's and the incredible trees. 

A quick stop for some pizza after we left the park and then it was on to Sacramento. It was raining pretty hard and I think we are in far rain all week. I thought it never rains in Southern California - oh I guess we're not in So Cal anymore. We arrived about 9:30 tired but pleased that we had a nice cross country trip and thrilled to see Jason, Chris and CJ. I may not post for a few days - I have baby rocking to do but stay tuned for more of our Cali adventures.

Views along the road

Views of Sequoia National Park

CALIFORNIA HERE WE ARE! - Tuesday, February 7, 2017 - Friday, February 17, 2017 - Days Nine through Nineteen - Sacramento, CA

I didn't post during these days because we weren't seeing any big landmarks and we were busy enjoying the day to day routines with our granddaughter C.J. Our days consisted of morning smiles, diaper changes, napping on Grandma, taking walks, tummy and tubby time and lots of snuggling. Our activities weren't earthshaking but there was nothing more precious to us than spending time with Jason, Chris and C.J. Grandpa was busy as always doing yard work - planting flowers, trimming - and working on little projects around the house. We took a trip to IKEA and bought some storage shelves for the back hall, 4 spice racks, shelves for C.J.'s room, and a storage piece for Chris and Jason's bedroom which Ron installed along with hanging up some pictures. Chris and Jason got to have an adult date for Valentine's and go out for some sushi while on another night  Ron and I went out to Pangea for some great burgers and microbrews, followed  by ice cream at neighboring Gunthers, a Sacramento institution. Twice I got to watch C.J.'s swim class and I took lots of pictures and video. During this time Jason was on jury duty which ended up dragging on much longer than they thought. It was an attempted murder trial. Chris was also busy following up on a job offer which unexpectedly came her way. 

Somebody just loves tubby time!

Successful tubby time

This was Grandma's view of C.J. as she took her nap

Doing a great job with tummy time

Playing in the jungle

C.J. says I'm getting the hang of this

Having fun with my swimming buddies

What are these? I think I've discovered something fun!

Now I can hold my toys

Asleep again on Grandma - Boy she is comfortable!