Portland!

We arrived in Portland about noon today and got settled into Elsie’s friend’s condo. Thanks Jean! We’re just kicking back a bit and enjoying not being out on the road this afternoon. I think I’m going to take a little hiatus from posting here for the time being also. See ya soon!

Last day of driving...

...for awhile.  We go to Portland today, less than 2 hours away, and we have use of a condo there for a couple of weeks before we have to head back to Michigan.  We drove as far as Eugene, OR yesterday, stopping in northern California to see some more redwoods along the way.  I am amazed by the size of those behemoths every time I see them!

We also happened along an "Elk Feeding Area" where we saw about 12-15 Elk feeding right up next to some cabins.  There were also 8-10 people standing around taking pictures, etc. and the herd of Elk was not the least bit concerned.  Evidently this is a pretty common occurrence there and they have gotten used to people being nearby.  There was only one small bull in the group, which I found odd; he seemed pretty immature to have such a large herd of females.  As we were leaving though, we saw another herd of 20 or so lying in the shade. so I can only assume that there were more bulls there.

So we made it safely this far...only a hundred or so miles to go and we can settle in for a couple of weeks.  I don't know how much I'll be on here, so if you don't see any posts for awhile, don't be concerned.  Bye for now.

I'm Baaacck!

I've been neglecting my blog for a few days here, so it's time to catch up a bit.  We stayed 3 nights in a Days Inn in Novato, CA, about 40 minutes north of San Francisco.  The first morning there, Buddy and I went up to visit Rhonda in Rohnert Park.  We had a nice visit and caught up a bit more with what's been going on in each other's lives.  That evening Elsie and I drove into San Francisco and had a great dinner in Chinatown.  The restaurant was pretty authentic and we were fortunate that the hostess/waitress was fluent in English and helpful in suggesting dishes we might like and describing them to us.  Thanks Tiffany!
We were planning to continue our drive the nest morning but decided instead to extend for one more night and do some wine tasting.  It was a good (but expensive) decision.  We visited 3 wineries and came away with 5 bottles of wine, all of which cost considerably more than what I usually pay at Costco, but you only live once, right?  Any way you look at it, it was a good time and a mind-broadening experience.
Finally leaving Novato, we headed toward Guernville to a state park to see some Redwood trees.  On the way we passed the Korbel winery, which is most known for it's champagne, and decided to stop.  What's breakfast without a little champagne tasting, right?  With 4 bottle in hand, we finally set out again to see the trees.   I had seen them as a kid but going there again was mind boggling to see the massive sizes of the mature ones. I've included the second picture here, with a pickup truck in it, for perspective as to the size of the trees.

From there we headed west to Highway 1 and continued north; this stretch of highway was every bit as twisty-turney as the stretch north of LA and was a challenging drive.  The scenery along the Pacific coast is just spectacular though!  We ended the day in Garberville, CA at a Best Western that is probably the nicest place we've stayed this entire trip.  Upon check in we were greeted with the news that there was a complimentary wine and cheese tasting going on in the breakfast room, and of course we went to partake.  There was a nice spread laid out of wine, cheese, salami, bread, and crackers, and the lady running things there was extremely kind, friendly and generous.  What a great way to begin a stay here!

I don't know what we will find along the route today, but we don't have anything planned other than getting closer to Portland.  We can get into the condo there tomorrow, so tonight will likely be our last night in a hotel until we head back to Michigan.  Bye for now friends!

Pacific Coast Highway

We're working our way north, taking the PCH as much as possible.  It merges with the 101 freeway at spots so it's again a combination drive.  The two lane portions have been pretty cool; some of the towns we've passed through have been pretty awesome...some not so much.   We've seen numerous signs announcing a town's name and population has been less than the elevation.  One in particular listed only 18 people as it's inhabitants.
One of the stops along the route was at an old Spanish mission that has been restored.  Dr. Canas' sketches of some of these mission sites inspired me to make the detour to see it, and I was surprised by the size of it.  I was expecting some tiny little settlement with one or two small buildings but there were several buildings and some of them were well over a hundred feet long.  All were surrounded by thick adobe walls that also contained courtyards, corrals and other outdoor areas, and all the buildings had the overhanging roofs that provided shade and helped keep the adobe buildings cool.  I found the visit very enjoyable.

So we stopped near San Simeon last night, where the Hearst Castle is located.  I'd love to tour it but I don't think it's going to be possible considering the logistics of having Buddy with us.  Unfortunately we can't even drive past it and get any photos of it, but we stopped and got some pics of the coastline yesterday.  It was gray and overcast, so the rocks along the shoreline looked even more foreboding than they otherwise might.

We're going to continue north today, with the plan to get past San Francisco.  We plan to stay in San Rafael for 2 nights and I will take Buddy for a visit with Rhonda tomorrow.  Hopefully we'll have time to go back into the city for a little bit of sightseeing too.  Adios for now friends!

The End of the (Mother) Road

After 17 days of traveling, including a few we took off, we made it to the end of the Mother Road today.  The End Route 66 sign was right next to Mel's Diner in Santa Monica, so we got out to take our pics and went in to have a celebratory drink.  Buddy was waiting in the car, so we shared a Mel's Route 66 White Ale and went out to take a few pics with him too, then hit the road to start driving north on the Pacific Coast Highway.

One of the coolest bridges we saw along the whole drive was just a few miles from the end, in Rancho Cucamonga.  One side was embellished with old cars and the other paid homage to the eight states that are part of Route 66.  I decided I had to turn around to get pics of both sides, and it turns out that a portion of the original road was saved as part of the park next to the bridge.  I thought that was a pretty cool thing for the city of Rancho to do.

We drove alongside the ocean for a couple of hours and made it as far as Oxnard, CA before pulling off for the night.  We plan to take our time heading north, as we can't get into the condo in Portland until July 1, so the plan is to continue taking our time and maybe checking out a couple of wineries along the way.

The 2 days we spent visiting family here in the LA area were a great time.  Chris and Frances were great hosts and Evelyn was THE most charming almost-5 year old you can imagine.  I had never met 1 year old Jack, except on Skype, so I didn't have high expectations of him wanting anything to do with me, but he was surprisingly friendly.  He's got the biggest, darkest eyes you can imagine and a happy go lucky personality.  I had a ball with them all and only wish we could have spent more time with them all.

I'll post more about our adventures as they occur.  Bye.

Into California

I was lazy this morning and didn't post about yesterday's travels.  We had stayed in Williams, AZ and set out fairly early (at least for us) and our first stop was Seligman, AZ.  Along the way we encountered numerous series of Burma Shave signs.  I have vague memories of seeing some of these on vacations with my parents and the signs were old then, but these have been installed new to add to the ambiance of the 66 drive in that area.  Here's an example:

After we got through Kingman, AZ we hit the oldest still drivable stretch of original 66 that we've seen so far. We wound up going through the mountains on a twisty, turny, two lane road with big dropoffs.  Many times there was a posted speed limit of 30 mph and a lot of the switchbacks had caution signs warning drivers to keep their speed down to 15 mph, sometimes even 10!  As gorgeous as the scenery was, I couldn't take my eyes off the road to enjoy it for very long.  I did pull of to take a few pics though!

Shortly past the summit we drove into the town of Oatman,AZ.  The claim to fame there is all the wild donkeys that congregate there. We didn't see anyone feeding them anything but someone must be.  It was kind of a clustered mess of souvenir shops and donkeys roaming the streets and tourists gawking at the whole scene.  Following that we just drove through the desert, where the outside temps got as high as 118 degrees!  I was paying very close attention to the gauges in the Camaro making sure I didn't overheat anything!  

I probably won't be posting much for the next couple of days.  We're staying close to Chris and Frances' home and I plan to catch up with them and their kids.  I haven't even met Jack yet and tomorrow is his party for his first birthday!  See ya soon.

Petrified Forest and Painted Desert

Yesterday we doubled back about 20 miles to hit the Petrified Forest National Park.  There's a 28 miles loop road through the park with numerous turnouts and stopping points and the trip was well worth the 4 hours or so that we spent traversing it.  I shot lots of pics and it even has me thinking about trying my hand at painting when we get back to Michigan.  I've always admired people who can create art, and I've watched Bob Ross enough times...he makes it look so easy, right?
I've also rediscovered my love of Southwestern architecture.  The stuccoed buildings with rounded corners and matching privacy walls in place of fences are pretty cool.  The weird thing is seeing immaculately kept places right next door to other places that are on the verge of falling down and whose properties are covered with years worth of accumulated junk.  Evidently there are no blight laws here or they aren't enforced very uniformly.
We stopped for a photo op in Winslow, AZ, where a girl in a flatbed Ford slowed down to take a look at me...evidently they don't do eye tests here for driver's licenses either!  Seriously, the town from the Eagles song made a big deal of this, and it draws a lot of people in.  Check out the mural on the building, including the couple in the window and the bird on the window ledge-both nice touches to add to the "reflection" of the truck in the window.   If only 10-20% of the tourists who stop like we did spend money there, it's got to be a huge windfall for the town.  Obviously not every town gets mentioned in a hit song, but these folks really figured out how to capitalize on it!

It's likely that we'll hit the California border today, but a lot of our route is going to be 2 lane roads again, so we'll see how it goes.  And there's always photo ops and other attractions to stop and check out, so this whole unplanned, stop wherever we feel like it means of travel is working out pretty well.  I'm not missing the goal oriented road warrior mentality at all!  I hope you like the pics,

Holbrook AZ

So it appears we're going to backtrack a bit this morning...we were both hungry and tired and wanted to get off the road yesterday and bypassed stopping to see the Petrified Forest.  Fortunately it's only about 20 miles back, so we think it will be well worth the time to go back to see it.
We covered a lot more ground yesterday than we have been, about 350 miles, including crossing the Continental Divide.  Now that's not much by my road warrior standards, but this trip has been all about back roads and taking our time.  Plus, driving through the heart of all the cities rather than blasting around them on the interstate takes up a lot more time too.  There are areas where 66 is completely gone or so badly deteriorated that it's impossible to drive, so the alternate routes are usually the freeway, but generally those stretches have been only 5-15 miles long.  We missed a turn yesterday and wound up doing about 10 miles along an old frontage road better suited to pickup trucks than my Camaro. but I think we managed to get through it without damage.  I'm thinking really strongly about buying new tires on the west coast though, because the road surfaces here are really abrasive and the skins are certainly showing their age.  Even with only 26K miles, they're reaching the end of their useful life. I'm not looking forward to seeing that bill!
We sat outside last night and watched the sun go down.  I got a few pictures of a very pretty sky that I hope you all will enjoy.  Bye for now!

Santa Fe

We spent 2 nights here so that we would have time to explore the city a bit, as well as catching up on our laundry.  We visited the Georgia O'Keeffe museum; after visiting Ghost Ranch it was interesting to see some of the paintings the place inspired.  I gotta say though, that I don't understand abstract art.  That's not to say I didn't find it interesting, just that I don't get it.  I guess I'm just too shallow a guy for that!
There were lots of art galleries in the area of the museum and we wandered through several of them.  One thing became very clear to me, and that's that I am too poor to be a collector of fine art.  Holy crap!  Everything is just so expensive, but we saw some truly beautiful stuff.  I can always find painting that speak to me but what really jumped out at me was some of the furniture (mostly lamps and tables) made out of wood that grows in the desert.  The pieces were all so bent and twisted by Mother Nature, then crafted into usable pieces by truly talented people...impressive!
Well. it't time to start packing things up and heading out on 66 again.  Good bye for now!

More Taos & Ghost Ranch

Before we left Taos I washed the car and noticed there was an Artist's Collaborative gallery that was open on Sunday morning, so we decided to go check it out.  It was a really nice place with lots of mixed medias represented and a very personable artist who explained the basic concept of Sumi painting.  It's a bit deep for a shallow guy like me, but Elsie really got into it.  Afterwards we found a little local restaurant and got breakfast and our adrenaline rush for the day...there was a hell of a car crash right in downtown that wound up with one of the vehicles coming to a stop about 100 feet from us!  Pictures are included below.  The guy in the little Kia went away in an ambulance but didn't appear to be seriously hurt.  The airbag beat him up pretty well and he was bleeding from the face and arm, so I gave him a handkerchief I was carrying, but he wasn't pinned in the vehicle, which is surprising when you see the pictures.  The guy driving the truck and trailer said the Kia came into his lane and he swerved to keep it from being a head on collision.  He and all his passengers were unhurt but still pretty worked up by the experience.
After leaving there we went to Georgia O'Keeffe's Ghost Ranch.  The history of the place is pretty incredible but nowhere near as incredible as the scenery.  I shot about a zillion pics of the surrounding mountains, so I'm including a couple of them here today.  We journeyed on to Santa Fe and got a room for 2 nights so we're staying here today to check out O'Keeffe's museum as well as other galleries and get caught up on our laundry.  Not bad...10 days without doing laundry...all in the trunk of a Camaro!  Bye bye.

Taos

Before leaving Tucumcari yesterday, we did a drive around town to see and photograph some of the murals.  We got quite a few of them and the quality was very impressive.  I have no idea how the town finances stuff like this, but it looked like it may have all been one person's work.  Needless to say, it is a pretty cool way to draw attention to your town and improve the look of it.  Surprisingly I didn't see any of them defaced with grafitti, although a number of abandoned buildings are covered with it.  Interesting...

Anyway, we changed plans for our destination and came to Taos, NM instead of Santa Fe.  I have wanted to visit this place for years to check out the artists' vibe and it only made sense to come up here first since it's the destination that's off the 66 tour.  I was impressed by the quality and quantity of the stuff here, although the prices caused me to choke a bit.  Good thing my walls are already decorated with my own work!  We'll leave here today and go to Santa Fe and be back on America's Main Street again.  I want to visit the Georgia O'Keefe museum there and I know other galleries are in abundance too, so I'm looking forward to it.

They call New Mexico the Land of Enchantment and I can certainly see why.  The desert in the southern portion of the state, with the red rock formations, the mesas and buttes, and wide open spaces are really a sight to behold.  And the mountains we drove through getting up here to the northern part of the state are equally beautiful.  There is an abundance of wildlife up here and I enjoyed seeing the mama and baby deer along the route.  I'm just happy they weren't on the road.

I'm signing off for now.  I hope you're enjoying the pics!

Further west...

Leaving Elk City, OK yesterday we encountered a restored Old Town that was very well done.  There were probably 8-10 buildings, nicely restored and grouped together to make a nice tourist stop.  We didn't stay to look around, just snapped a few pictures and got on our way, but had we been driving for awhile and ready for a break, that would have been a nice place for it.
Oklahoma quickly faded into the rear view mirror and Texas loomed large in the windshield.  The terrain became flatter and the horizon widened.  We pulled into Shamrock, TX and one of the first sights we saw was a restored Art Deco styled Conoco station/cafe.  It's current purpose is visitor center (pet friendly, by the way) and is very well done. Elvis Presley once ate there!  Anyway, we bought a couple of bottles of water and a postcard that depicts their neon sign all lit up against a night sky, visited with the staff member for a few minutes and got on our way again.
There are many deserted buildings and homesteads out here.  The homesteads in particular always make me wonder at the back story surrounding them.  How did they come to be deserted?  Did someone die without heirs, or did they simply move away because they couldn't make a living there?  Obviously many of them have been deserted for years, as evidenced by the crumbling of the structures; this is not the kind of deterioration that happens overnight.
On a related note is all the cars, trucks, and equipment that is setting out in yards and fields.  Judging by all the grown up weeds and vegetation and the rust accumulated on the steel, these have been there a long time.  Evidently the culture here is to just retire these relics and hold onto them rather than sell or scrap them out.  I imagine many a hot rodder has gone knocking on doors asking to buy that old car or truck...and since they are still sitting there, I assume the answer was no.
We knew the Cadillac Ranch was coming up in Amarillo, but we took a short detour off 66 to get gas and discovered a VW Ranch near Claude, TX.  Just like the Caddys, the VWs are buried nose-first into the ground and have been spray painted numerous times by graffiti artists.  It only made sense to stop and snap a couple of pics there since we already had plans to shoot the Caddys too.  The big difference was ease of access and much smaller crowds.  The road was lined with parked cars at the Cadillac Ranch, and the attraction was actually a couple of hundred yards off the road.  Nevertheless there was a steady stream of visitors making their way back there to take photos and leave their own graffiti on the relics, in 100 degree heat no less!  Even the ground was painted...evidently some people came with more spray paint than they needed.   We made the walk too, but didn't stay long, and Buddy was one happy dog to get back into the air-conditioned car!  He stood with his front paws on the console letting the A/C hit him full in the face.  I had the fan on high and it was even blowing his ears back!
I was amazed at the number of windmills we saw as we went through the Panhandle of Texas.  It's no exaggeration to say that there were well over a thousand!  Mile after mile, there were rows upon rows of the giant structures, most turning and churning out clean electricity.  At one spot, there was an array of the things all sitting idle, and I bet there were at least a hundred in that bunch.  It boggles the mind sometimes.
We pushed on across Texas and made it to Tucumcari, NM last night.  Had a great dinner (Mexican food of course) and retired to our room to rest up for today.  The plan is to get to Santa Fe and spend a couple of days there.  I have long wanted to go see Taos, NM and get a feel for the art that is supposed to be there and see if I can soak up some of that creativity by osmosis!  I just discovered a brochure in our hotel lobby that touts Tucumcari as the mural city and it includes a map.  Maybe before we get back on 66 we'll do a bit of exploring here.  Anyway friends, that's all for today.  Bye.

Back in the saddle

Ok, so to put this delicately, we took a day's hiatus from driving...not sure if it was something I ate, but something certainly didn't sit right.  Anyway, we got back on the road again yesterday,  As usual on this trip, we saw lots of small towns and some cool old architecture.  They just don't make buildings with the same style they did in the old days.  I guess that makes me sound like an old codger but it's undeniably true.
One structure in particular that we saw was a round barn.  Pretty unusual and for the life of me I don't see a practical reason for round as opposed to rectangular or whatever, but the workmanship that went into this place was incredible.  Built in 1898 and restored in 1992, this place is really something.  The lower level is a museum and gift shop and the upper level is wide open, with the exception being a raised bandstand right in the center of the floor.  They rent it out for events and I imagine they do a nice business there because of the unique design, even though the place is kinda in the middle of nowhere.  The roof structure is all exposed and even though my picture isn't the greatest I managed to keep the camera still long enough to get an adequate shot.

We stopped in Chandler, OK at the gallery of the author of my guidebook (per the invitation in the book) and met him and his wife.  Nice people!  Jerry McClanahan and his wife Mariko were gracious and friendly and even let Buddy come inside with  us so he wasn't stuck in the car outside in the sun.  Jerry signed my book and updated a few detours and re-routes that have taken place since publication and we also got to see quite a bit of his artwork.  He's very talented and appears to have carved out a nice living for himself documenting the Mother Road and producing drawings, prints, and photos of 66-inspired stuff, including a very nice coffee table book.  I may order one when I get back home.
One of the things about following 66 is that in a lot of places Interstates have been built along the same general route, so frequently we are crossing over or under the freeway to the frontage roads, which are the old 66.  Crossing under at one point yesterday we saw hundreds of birds swarming around and as we got under the bridge, we saw that they had build nests.  We think the birds might have been Swallows and the nests almost looked like oversized mud-dauber nests.  It's amazing that with the number of birds flying, I didn't capture any on them going in or out of their nests, but I do have a picture of the nesting area.

A bummer that I have discovered on this trip involves lodgings.  I have developed an allegiance to LaQuinta over the past few years because of their pet friendly policies,  They have had a change of ownership recently and now they all have an upcharge for pets, versus it being a part of their regular cost.  Incidentally the regular charges haven't seemed to drop; it's more a matter of the overall price has gone up.  To put this in Buddy's language...GRRR!

Day 4

Note: I've decided to start writing these posts in the morning, as I'm generally awake at the ass crack of dawn and Elsie likes to sleep in a bit.  So my references will mostly be referring to yesterday...
Anyway, Tuesday was a day of more driving and fewer stops.  We got kind of a late start out of Springfield, MO and our first stop was soon after, and for me it was also the most entertaining.  The place was in Paris Springs, MO, and was called Gay Parita.  The proprieter told us that there was originally a town/settlement there called Parita, MO, and the woman half of the couple that started the gas station had the first name of Gay, thus the name was born.  Eventually they sold it to another couple who kept the name, and when they died, their family took over the business and are still there catering to the cruisers who stop to shop and chat.  Incidentally, I got a nice long sleeved Henley shirt with the obligatory Route 66 stuff silk screened on it at a very reasonable price, and the best part is that they sell only American made shirts!  Way to go George and Barbara!  See pictures below of their well kept operation.
We also stopped for a minute in Galena, KS where the real life inspiration for Tow Mater (from the movie Cars) resides.  I got a couple of pics of myself next to is and shot a short video on my phone for my granddaughter Evelyn...it's her favorite character from the movie.  We also stopped at an historical marker near there and learned a bit about the Civil War activity there, specifically some of the attacks by Quantrill's Raiders.
And the stop at the Blue Whale in Catoosa, OK can't go without mentioning.  It's this huge figure that is half in a pond, and looks like a whale.  Considering the wooden Ark that is also on site, but not in the water (and looking like it's about to fall down), I've come to the conclusion that the whale must be tied to the biblical story of Jonah.  I have no idea why this stuff was built, because it was no small effort or expense and there is no admission charge, but it's there just the same.
Well, it's time for a fresh cup of coffee.  More travels in Oklahoma today. See ya!