Christine wrote a blog about our cross-country trip. She wrote about a lot of stuff I had forgotten about, some interesting/funny things that happened, and posted some more pictures – I’m even in some of them! 🙂
It’s a multi-page deal, so click on the next page link at the bottom. You can view the pictures larger by clicking on them.
This entry ain’t no sissy boy.
We just recently returned from a journey across 8 states, over the course of 16 days, spanning 5999 miles. Christine, Sam, Rece and I (yeah, we really do need to come up with a traveling group name) drove from Costa Mesa, California to Asheville, North Carolina and back again.
More kicks on Route 66
We made plans to explore more of the Mother Road, picking up from where we left off last year on our Grand Canyon trip. So from the Petrified Forest National Park in New Mexico to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma that’s just what we did.
As we learned all too well over a year earlier, the old road isn’t always easy to find. Not only that, but the damned thing had been rerouted so many times since it was started that there are multiple pieces along the same area — often miles apart. I found a set of Route 66 maps that did a pretty good job of helping us find it, for the most part.
To help put us more into the mood of the old highway, Christine did a great job of finding historic Route 66 accommodations and attractions to see along the way. Old hotels, cheesy roadside attractions, and classic diners helped give us a taste, if you’ll excuse the pun, of how it was to travel the road back then.
One significantly long section that had been bypassed was the loop up to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Taking that loop meant leaving another rerouted section of old 66 near the I-40 unexplored. I figured that I’d be more likely to be driving across the I-40 than around Santa Fe, so I could leave the smaller bits for another trip.
This journey left us with only one more stretch of Route 66 to explore at a later time. Maybe some time in the next couple of years we’ll get to finish it by driving up the Oklahoma City to Chicago portion.
City Slickers
Christine was very creative in her choices for places to stay along our journey. One of the highlights was a stay at the Flying W Guest Ranch, just outside Sayre, Oklahoma. After a relaxing night’s sleep we went went for a morning horseback ride.
The owner and his daughter were very friendly and made us feel right at home. Their ranch is quiet and beautiful. What a great place to go and get away from it all.
World record family
My mother is a wonderful artist and does a lot of traveling to shows and events, mostly around The South. She and her partner and will do all sorts of artistic things like portraits, caricatures, and face/body painting.
For the 4th of July they attempted to create a Guinness World Record by body painting 900 people and arranging them into an image of the American flag in Kingston, Tennessee. Unfortunately the support they seemed to get from the people of the town wasn’t what it appeared to be and they didn’t make it.
We met them there and camped out for a night. It was what you might expect from a small town patriotic celebration in the conservative South — complete with speed boat races (Earl won). Honestly, I wasn’t impressed and the people seemed very closed to strangers. I didn’t feel the least bit welcome, except by the people wanting money. So much for breaking a stereotype.
Fire and light in the dark
My family, at least the ones that had met up at the campgrounds for the body painting event, went back to my mom’s place to hold our own celebration of the 4th. We were in a fairly remote area with little light in the sky, which made the fireworks all the more brilliant. During the pyrotechnics, I tried to capture the fun with long exposure shots. They turned out pretty good. After we ran out of things to burn, my brother Danny and I experimented with the long exposure (bulb) setting on my camera and a flashlight. The results were quite interesting.
Flexibility of plans
Christine and I did a lot of planning for the trip. Well, actually Christine did the majority of planning, seeing how it’s one of her strengths. Despite all the planning, we still had plenty of spare time to make unplanned stops and to deal with the inevitable unforeseen delays. This allowed us to enjoy our trip and see all that we wanted to without feeling stressed for time.
All the flexible planning came in handy while we were in Tennessee and decided to drive to Asheville, North Carolina to see more of the family that couldn’t make it for camping. I had an absolutely wonderful time getting the chance to spend some time getting caught up with the family.
Eat here, get gas
Gas prices fluctuated a bit in price across the country, but even in the middle of nowhere the price of a gallon of gas was much lower than we were used to paying in California — and thankfully much lower than the $5.00/gallon that I had budgeted to pay by the end of the trip.
Food is always part of the fun on any trip, if you’re like Christine & I. We go out of our way to eat at locally/family owned food establishments instead of (inter)national chains. Most of the time we found ourselves enjoying a tasty meal with the comfort of knowing that the money we spent was going directly back into the local economy. It also meant that we were getting a taste of something new or a slightly different variety of an old favorite.
At least it’s a dry heat
The weather turned hot the week before we left for our trip. Even though the temperature was lower than it was back home for most of the trip, the humidity more than made up for the difference. I’m a huge wimp when it comes to the heat, even more when it’s muggy. 85° F with 95% humidity in Tennessee felt far worse than 101° F and dry in Arizona. It’s no wonder that things move at a slower place … who wants to move around much in that!?
Needless to say, I spent a good amount of time trying to stay cool on the trip. The rest of the gang didn’t complain nearly as much as I did about the heat and I’m glad they were able to tolerate my whining.
Science and history
You can’t help but see a bit of days gone by along Route 66. The boom and crash of small towns that once lined The Mother Road is rather astounding, but helps one understand how fickle business can be and how the economy can change over time. The history of the road wasn’t the only education we received, though.
We visited museums and national parks and stopped at historic placards along the way. Here’s a quick list of the places we stopped:
Zuni Pueblo/Reservation – We drove around a small Zuni Indian settlement (pueblo) and saw some Indians in tribal/ceremonial outfits walking about.
Devil’s Rope & Route 66 Museum – I was completely surprised by this one. A top-notch museum about barbed wire and how it changed the world. It also included a small pictorial display about the dust bowl that really moved me.
National Route 66 Museum – For a new museum, this wasn’t very good. In fact I felt oddly detached from the information they were trying to present. The short film about the evolution of America’s highway system was very good, however.
Hot Springs National Park – Not only the oldest of the national parks in the country, but the only one contained within a city. A great place to come if you enjoy hot springs and spas – and also learning a little bit about history.
Texas Snake Farm – An unusual place with an amazing diversity of animals.
Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch – Drive through and get up close to the animals. If you’ve ever wanted to have a zebra poke its head in your car window to say hello, then this is the place to go.
The Alamo – You should have no trouble remembering this piece of history after you’ve spent some time exploring the site.
Carlsbad Caverns – Incredible! This is a must-see. Who would have thought that a cave could feel so spacious? Do yourself a favor when you visit and go on at least one of the guided tours (reservations needed).
NRAO Very Large Array – A deliciously geeky place to learn about radio astronomy and see some very cool (and large) radio antennas (don’t call them satellite dishes!).
Titan Missile Museum – Want to see an nuclear missile up close? This decommissioned Titan II missile silo has been converted into a museum. Take the tour and go down into the silo and learn more about these cold war weapons.
The end of the road
16 days in a car can really put people to the test. What’s good is that we all had a good time, even during the long and boring stretches of driving. You know you’re with good company when the trip is over and you’re still getting along just as well (or better) as you did before you left. This will be a trip we’ll all remember for a lifetime.
Be sure to check out the set of photos from our journey.
Christine also wrote about the trip on her travel blog.
This entry dislikes living in California even more, now.
Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone. Christine, Rece, and I made our pilgrimage (snicker) to Mimi’s Cafe for the annual stuff-your-face-with-turkey fest. As usual, Mimi’s didn’t disappoint.
Quinn flew out (who says turkeys can’t fly?) to drop off his kids after their visit. We managed to get a good amount of time to hang out during his visit. It was nice to have a chance to catch up with Quinn. I’m really looking forward to him moving back to California next year.
On Saturday the 4 of us (Christine, Quinn, Rece, & me) found ourselves in front of the TV, watching 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later (skip the sequel — it sucks). There’s nothing better than hanging out with the people you care for most while watching end of the world flicks!
This entry is a bit more than thankful right now.
Last week Christine, Sam, Rece and I went to Yosemite. We camped out 4 nights and enjoyed getting away from the rat race for a spell. As usual, I took a bunch of pictures, though not quite as many as on other trips. For those who want to check them out, you can find the Flickr set here.
Here’s how the trip went (warning — this is a very long story):
Day 1: Tuesday
We took off in our rented minivan after work. Our goal was to get through the traffic of SoCal and stay in a motel somewhere up in the high desert. The traffic was awful, so we opted for the (longer) scenic route over the San Bernardino mountains. The timing of it would bring us to Crestline in time for dinner. The original plan was to visit Cappelletti’s Pizza, but they were closed (which was unusual), so we settled for Billy Bear’s Restaurant instead. The food wasn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t Cappelletti’s Pizza.
Following dinner was a scenic drive down the backside of the mountain, down to the high desert. We drove by Silverwood Lake, which brought back memories of a bike riding adventure my friends and I had more than 22 years before. Our drive ended at the SpringHill Suites Victorville Hesperia (our motel), where we were happy to find air conditioning.
Day 2: Wednesday
After filling up on a delicious breakfast at the motel, we began our long desert drive up highway 395. For those of you who don’t already know; this stretch of road goes through the very heart of BFE. The high desert does have its charms, but how much sand, dirt, rocks, scrub brush does one need to see?
It wasn’t until we were at the base of the Sierra mountains before the towns we passed through became quaint and interesting. Of note were Lone Pine, Big Pine, and Bishop, where we stopped for lunch. We drove by a place named Bar B-Q Bill’s-Oney’s (I’m tickled that they have a website), and it just called out to our adventurous food nature. The place is an old-style BBQ place with (real) wagon wheels and old west paraphernalia decorating the place. With our bellies full of shredded BBQ beef sandwiches and fixins, we continued on our journey north.
Along the way we were reminded of an episode of California’s Gold when Huell Howser visited Mono Lake. We spotted signs for the lake and noted on our map that it was at the base of the mountain where we’d be camping. There was no way we were passing up a chance at checking it out for ourselves. I just realized how big of a dork that made me seem. Hmm. Spotting Mono Lake to our right and highway 120 leading up to the Tioga Pass and into Yosemite National Park, it was a no-brainer for us to decide that Mono Lake would have to wait … and so it did.
Driving into Yosemite National Park I was in awe; the rugged granite mountains and glacier-cut cliffs — the Sierra Nevada mountains are a sight to behold. Even this late in the summer one can still see areas of ice/snow in the high peaks. We had to laugh at ourselves as we realized we had all gasped aloud as we rounded a corner of the road and came into view of Ellery Lake, at an elevation of 9538′. The views just kept on coming, too.
We arrived at the park entrance just short of 4:00 in the afternoon. I was a bit worried that we’d be stuck with a bad campsite, since the reservation I had was for an unspecified campsite at Tuolumne Meadows — they assign you one upon arrival. As luck would have it, there were only a few sites still open, but it didn’t make much of a difference; our campsite seemed just as good as any other.
We quickly set up camp and stowed our food items away in the bear proof food locker provided by the park at each campsite. We then went about the business of making dinner (delicious fillet mignon!) and getting settled in. Rece and Sam went to the campfire circle to join other campers in whatever it was they decided to do around a campfire.
After dark, we all walked to Lembert Dome in order to participate in a star gazing session with one of the park rangers. It started with a short walk in near-total darkness up a path through the woods (we weren’t allowed to use our flashlights), up to a huge slab of rock where we could sit or lay down and take in the star-filled sky. We learned about some of the stars and constellations and where to find Polaris (the North Star), among other things. Having had quite a full day, we turned in right after the star gazing.
Day 3: Thursday
As I type this, I’m realizing how incredibly long this story is — and I still have 3 more days to go! Believe me, I’m doing my best to keep it brief while providing enough detail to go over all the main points of the trip. Anywho …
Thursday was a day for something different, and not at all within Yosemite. We decided to pay a visit to Mono Lake and the old, abandoned mining town of Bodie. The Mono Lake museum and visitor center was a very nice facility and provided some fascinating information of the lake and other local history. From the museum we drove around to the South Tufa, where we viewed the odd tufa formations.
After a short visit (but longer than we anticipated — it really was more interesting than we had originally thought), we drove up to Bodie. The signs warning that snow was not removed beyond a certain point didn’t deter us one bit, we braved the paved road, which eventually became a well-graded dirt road a few miles away from the town.
The town of Bodie is a very interesting place to visit. Not only is it fairly remote, but the idea that people traveled to it on foot, horse, and wagon more than 100 years ago is simply amazing. The other thing that boggled my mind was that the population got as high as 10,000 people! We did the self-tour and took some pictures of the place. It was a warm day and we were still feeling the effects of being at a much higher altitude, so we weren’t as motivated to check out every little detail as we might have, but it was a very cool experience, nonetheless.
The amount of gas in the rental by the time we arrived at Bodie gave us reason to be concerned a little. So we made for the nearest town, hoping that it would have a gas station. Lucky for us, Bridgeport, the seat of Mono County, had all we needed. We took a short nap in the minivan at a park, then went out to Pop’s Galley for a bite to eat. This was a nice little establishment with the owner(s) working the counter and grill themselves. The burgers were pretty good (and the fried clams — mmm!) and I just felt at home there.
After lunch, we decided to head back to Yosemite and drive into the park further. About half-way between Tuolumne and Yosemite Valley, we turned around to go back. Along a straight, open stretch of road I dark form lumbered into the road, about 100 yards ahead. I stopped the car and it dawned on me that we were looking at a bear; not quite a cub, but definitely not an adult. “That’s a bear!” I marveled, which got the attention of everybody. We didn’t have much time to look at it, let alone grab our cameras, before it saw us and took off into the woods. We cautiously drove by the area it crossed and managed to spot it running between the trees. It was a very cute little fella! Having had such a late lunch, we ended up skipping dinner and turned in to bed early.
Day 4: Friday:
Friday morning was pretty damned cold — even I was cold, and that’s saying quite a bit! This helped motivate us to get up and off to a pretty early start. Today our goal was to check out the Yosemite Valley and see the main attractions of the park.
The drive there was beautiful, as one might expect. We noted at how quickly the temperature rose as we descended in from Tuolumne. Upon arriving in the valley, we also noted at how many tourists there were. I was a bit surprised, as our campgrounds, despite the fact that they were full, was not so crowded. These also turned out to be many of the same type of people I enjoy getting away from in the city. Accepting our fate, we made the most of it and checked out the local store — buying t-shirts and post cards and such.
On the way down, we had checked out the various hikes that were down in the valley and opted to try hiking to Mirror Lake. After finding a place to park in the over-crowded parking lot, we made our way to the trail head. We had a nice wander through the forest on the edge of the valley campgrounds. We inquired with a family of hikers about the lake, to which the husband replied, “It’s more a mirage than a mirror at this point,” and went on to explain that the lake was all but dry right now. Not seeing a reason to continue on with the hike in the heat without the reward of a cooling lake to dip our feet into, we went back to the car and promptly drove back to our campsite.
It might seem as though our trip to the Yosemite Valley was a total bust, but it really wasn’t. The looming glacier-cut cliffs and scenery is a marvel. Had it not been so hot and muggy, we might have tried a different hike. The biggest issue that we introverts had was the fact that there were too many people!
Later that afternoon, Christine and I left Sam and Rece to entertain themselves while we took a quiet hike along the Tuolumne River. Almost immediately we happened upon a mother deer and her two fawns foraging for food along side the river. Our walk was restoring our spirits and I could feel a sense of peace come over me.
Day 5: Saturday
Another cold morning and we busied ourselves with the daily routine of coffee (!!), campfire, and breakfast. We were preparing for our upcoming hike to Elizabeth Lake that we finally felt up to taking on as we had acclimated to the higher altitude.
Strapping on our water bottle slings and backpacks, with cameras in-hand, we made our way to the trail head to Elizabeth Lake. The trail was easy to find and we began our ascent. The first part of the trail wasn’t very difficult, until around a quarter mile in, where the grade increased. Our being a little out of shape and trying to hike uphill in thinner air made it so we had to make quite a few stops to catch our breath. Part way up we swapped the backpacks with those who were only carrying water bottles. This balanced things out, allowing us all to enjoy the trail up more.
After a little over a mile, the trail leveled out more and we no longer needed the breaks to breathe. The terrain was less rocky and we spotted Unicorn Creek that flowed out of the lake, when water levels are higher. The ground was almost as green as the canopy above, with a clear blue sky and plenty of shade. When we came out of the forest to a clearing, I knew the lake must be close.
My intuition proved to be correct and we spotted the lake beyond the clearing after a little more walking. I could sense Sam and Rece’s mood change to excitement as the deep blue water came into view, our pace quickened. As we sat on some rocks along the lake, enjoying the cool breeze, we quickly put down our bags and started removing our shoes. I was the first to venture out and soothe my feet in the cold mountain waters. Christine remained on the shore, taking pictures.
We took a moment to grab a quick snack and recharge our batteries, then started off along the trail that went around the lake. We spotted some bear prints at the water’s edge, renewing our hope (and hope against) catching sight of a bear again. The entire time we spent at the lake was peaceful. We only encountered about a dozen other people total at the lake, each seeming to be as at rest as we were, enjoying the views.
Lunch was an interesting venture. We stopped at an outcropping of rocks at the base of Unicorn Peak to take a cat nap in the sun. The rest was short, but reviving, and we pulled out the things we brought along for food. This consisted of beef jerky, dried apricots, trail mix, and 4 MREs. The type of MRE we had brought was spaghetti and meat with sauce. These were warmed using chemical hot packs that were activated with water. Bracing against something disgusting, we each took a bite and were pleasantly surprised to discover that they weren’t half bad: almost the same as Chef Boyardee, but with a more mature flavor. It’s good to know that our military forces have some basic, but decent fare when out in the field.
Rece took the lead of our hike back down, followed closely by Sam. Christine and I took a more relaxed pace going downhill. It was surprising to see so many people hiking up the trail in the warm midday sun, going towards the lake. I was thankful that we had started out much earlier for this reason. After our return to the campsite, we rewarded ourselves by walking over to the Tuolumne River Grill for an ice cream cone. I then turned in for a nap.
After a restful (and long) nap, I felt great! We prepared our dinner of Dinty Moore Beef Stew and camp stove biscuits. I hadn’t mentioned it before, but Christine volunteered to be in charge of food for our camping trip. I think she did an amazing job and came up with some creative and delicious ideas to keep us fed.
After eating our fill and cleaning up, Christine, Rece, and I went out for our last walk in nature to watch the sunset over the Tuolumne Meadows.
Later that night, as Sam & Christine slept, I sat by our little campfire, I was waiting for Rece to return from the campfire circle activities, warming my hands at our dwindling campfire. I looked up, feeling the presence of something, and saw a deer standing 10 feet away, within the glow of our lantern. It looked at me in that pause, then moved off, back into the shadow of night.
Day 6: Sunday
Sunday turned out to be the coldest morning of the trip. It was just the motivation we needed to get our camp packed away and ourselves into the car. I was impressed that it took less than 45 minutes for us to all wake up and pack the minivan.
Oh, did I mention that there were no showers at near our campsite? Because of the low water levels, they were turned off. So our entire trip was without showers. I think we all smelled so bad that we didn’t notice how bad the rest smelled.
Our first order of business, after coffee (!!), on the road was to find a shower, then eat breakfast. We ended up stopping in Big Pine for the showers and breakfast. Feeling much better having cleaned ourselves, we stopped at a little restaurant (I forget the name) that looked like a cute little local family-owned business (the types I like to go to when I’m out on the road). Sadly, the staff wasn’t really friendly (but not rude), the service was horribly slow, but the food was decent enough. I just know that I won’t be going there if I find myself in the area again.
The trip home was rather uneventful, as we were all tired and cranky. We didn’t stop any place, aside from potty breaks, getting gas and once more for lunch/dinner at Pepe’s Finest Mexican Food in Fullerton.
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All in all, I’d definitely rate this trip to be on par with our journey to Arizona earlier in the year. Christine and Sam are great travel companions. I’m looking forward to our next adventure!
This entry can’t believe that it took an entire week to finally write, edit, and publish this story.
As promised, I’ve posted some Halloween Pictures on my Flickr account. I’ll post at least one more as soon as Christine sends me the one we took before I went trick or treating with Rece, Sam, & Anna.
This entry still craves sporkfuls of blood!
Went out Trick or Treating with Rece, Sam, and Anna (Sam’s friend) earlier tonight. It was a lot of fun and because I had dressed up for work, I was already in costume. Some people went out of their way to really create some spooky scenes in their yards.
My only gripe about the evening is about those people who decorate for the occasion, but don’t pass out candy. The worst offenders are those who decorate AND leave a porch light on, but don’t answer their door (come on, we can see the light from the TV!!). In my day, that would have been an open invitation for having their carved pumpkins smashed, their door egged (or worse), and other “Tricks” played on them. I just think it’s rude. At least turn off the light – or leave a note on the door letting the kids know you’re not passing out candy. Is that too much to ask?
The festivities at work were a lot of fun. This was definitely the best participation received for an event since I’ve started working there. A lot of the staff dressed up and it was entertaining to see the various ideas that people came up with.
My costume was Count Sporkula. Basically it was a vampire outfit with a large spork behind the head, like a high collar. I would plant sporks on the chairs of people when they weren’t looking, causing a bit of a mystery until I revealed my character at the potluck lunch. I’ll post some pictures to my Flickr account within the next couple of days. I’m tired from all the walking! Good night!
This entry doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, but loves Nerds,
Peanut M&Ms, and Reese’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups!
And so it came to pass that Gabe didn’t blog for 2 weeks…
What did you do during Labor Day weekend, you ask? If you can believe it, I did very little. In fact, I did my very best to do as little as possible! Improper grammar aside, and to re-quote one of my favorite movies, “I did absolutely nothing, and it was all I thought it could be.” In order to confuse the point of me doing nothing, I’m going to tell you what I did end up doing.
Friday I was at the end of my rope, as far as social interaction goes. I was earnestly craving some alone time. Of course, being the male that I am, I was more than happy to offer assistance to one of my friends (who just happens to be an extremely HOT brunette) with her laptop. I took the laptop home with me so I could work on it in comfortable solitude. The problems were minimal, mostly fixed by the basic ad/spyware scan and removal and basic updates and defragging – plus un-tweaking her manually configured wireless configuration (the problem she needed to have fixed the most).
HOT brunette friend had to postpone picking up her laptop until Monday, so most of my Saturday was spent doing some necessary errands and the rest of the time relaxing at home. One of the tasks I held myself to was picking up some incense. The incense sticks were easy enough to locate, but it was the incense holders (or “incense boats” as everybody seemed to call them) that proved to be difficult to find. Not to be deterred from the pleasure of burnt fragrance, I made due with a candle and a plate.
My dad had driven down for the weekend with his little family to enjoy some time off. He loves Orange County (the sick bastard) and comes here as often as he can. He dropped by and I helped him with a new website he’s been trying to put together. After this I announced that I was officially burnt out on helping with any computer problems and I was done for the duration of the weekend. I hadn’t eaten much, and my dad was wanting to take a walk, which lead us to drive out to Newport Pier for donuts and coffee. Along the way we stopped at Pier Records (where they sell bongs) in an attempt to locate an incense boat. They had the incense sticks, but not the boats for some reason. The guy working there suggested the Jamaican store (go figure) down the block, but they turned out to be closed. So we spent the remainder of the evening talking and dad eventually called it a night, because it was night I suppose, and took off. I forced myself to stay awake until around 3:00 am playing Civilization 4 and reading.
Sunday was spent doing even less than Saturday. The trick of forcing myself to stay awake until the early morning worked – resulting in my sleeping in until after noon. The afternoon/evening was passed by watching a couple of movies:
Lucky Number SLEVIN – a decent and entertaining movie, despite my having already figured out some of the big twists within the first 30 minutes. What I liked best was that it was a good attempt at something different.
Capote – Great acting and a good story, but honestly it was like watching a Kubrick film on Valium. It was all I could do to stay awake through the whole thing.
My dad called and convinced me to join them for dinner in Seal Beach. Dinner was very good and rather expensive, so I was glad that he paid – which was only fair considering that I would expect him to have warned me of the prices if he had expected me to pay, right? That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
Oh, so backtracking a bit… my dad’s little girl had left her sippy cup at my place the night before. I wanted to return it to her so I brought it along to dinner. Well, I drove to Seal Beach and found myself walking down Main Street with a pink sippy cup with “Princess” in big letters on it trying to locate them. Either I was rather conspicuous or it was just my paranoia, but I swear people were staring at me funny.
For some reason I felt this post would be a lot shorter and much more entertaining… but, well, it’s 4 days late and I can’t seem to find the funny button anywhere. Aw, hell…
This entry was brought to you by the elusive incense boats!