Numbbutts Adventures

We must begin this entry at the end.

Through a major oversight on my part, we ended up driving 650 miles today and almost running out of gas. See the title? Twelve hours in a car creates numbbutts. Nearly four hundred miles between gas stops means squeezing the last bit of fumes from a tank of gas, and that is adventurous.
Go back to the original plan. Leave Tucson on Friday, the 23rd, have lunch with family in Cottonwood, then press on to St. George, Ut. Not much of a push, really. Last year, pulling the trailer, we made that many miles the first day.
Forward to revised plan. Drive to Cottonwood on Thursday, the 22nd, have a more leisurely visit with family, and go only as far as Kanab on Friday. We could leave late, arrive early, and be well rested.
Now we get to the oversight. Two things. First, we gassed up in Kanab, not St. George, making Tonapah nearly four hundred miles, instead of three hundred. Secondly, we did Zion in the morning, feeling lots of time, so we stopped often (it was worth it) arriving in St. George at noon. We were then three hours off the original schedule. No red flags, no alarm bells, no hairs on the back of the neck, we pressed obliviously on.
Now let's go to the beginning. We took our time, but got out of Kanab before nine. We got to Zion and the ranger confirmed that it was, indeed, Free National Park Day, so we saved $25 on admission. The road is narrow and twisty, and the scenery is breath-taking (you must look at the photo album when it links-Peggie experimented a lot with the new camera) so we were going slowly and stopping often.

I think that arch is Zion's eye, keeping a watch over the park.

Being a professional animal spotter, I saw the butt end of this bighorn sheep on a rock face as we came around a curve.Luckily, there was a place to get off the pavement. After we got out of the car, he started to move. This is just one of the poses he gave us. Check out the album for more. I looked up on line, and sightings of bighorn are rare in the park, so we felt privileged. All the other cars went by without a clue.
After the big tunnel, we stopped to let the long line of cars go by and got great shots of the cliffs, including this now dry spectacular waterfall. We lunched in St. George and continued on our way. (Cue ominous music)

Here is Peggie at the entrance to the Extraterrestrial Highway. As you can see, many previous travelers have found it necessary to leave their personal marks on it. Shortly after this sign was another that announced "no gas for 150 miles." (increase volume on ominous music) I checked the odometer, did a quick calculation and decided we could make it, if our mpg held at 17 or better. The drive is beautiful if you like wide open spaces. In the one hundred miles of the Extraterrestrial Highway, we counted 16 vehicles going the opposite direction, and one (stopped fixing a flat) in our direction. There were a few free range cows, including a group in the road, but no sign of UFOs. The low gas warning light came on when we had 50 miles to Tonapah. Always before when the light came on I could put 18 gals in. That means there are four gallons remaining, and at 17mpg, we only need three. (cue nervous sweat)
The drive into Tonapah was uneventful other than the wild horses we saw. At the first station we came to, I put 21.456 gallons of gas into my 22 gallon tank. What, me worry?
Now we get to the numbbutts. It is five o'clock and we still have 250 miles to get to the motel we have reserved with no possible refund. Not to mention there are no motels for the first 200 of those miles, anyway. Off we go.

One benefit of driving late was this sunset. We needed to stop and get circulation into our lower extremities, anyway, so why not snap some pictures. These shots are iconic Nevada. One detriment to driving late, is we covered an hour and a half in the dark. What good is traveling when you can't see the landscape? It is 53 miles on I-80 from Battle Mountain to Winnemucca. We passed two slower moving vehicles, but otherwise saw no other cars on our side of the freeway.
I am writing in the morning. I was asleep 30 minutes after checking into the Holiday Inn Express. Today I feel like a rocket surgeon.

Bill and Peggie Have Left the Homestead

Here is the marked-off space equal to the back of the jeep. Everything we want to take with us has to fit in this space.

The night before we need to load up, the space looked like this and I was busy drawing a schematic for the actual loading.

And this is what it looked like loaded. The sign says "Alaska or Bust". Beverly Hillbillies eat your hearts out.

We were headed out of town, getting fueled up, when Peggie's phone rang. Her new shoes were in. We could drive 12 miles across town in the wrong direction to get them or have them mailed. We, of course, took what turned out to be the one hour detour. After all, we are retired, we have lots of time, and we were already leaving the day before the original departure date. So what's an hour here and there?

We were impressed with the green hills. Those of you from east of here, this is green to us. The hills below here were yellow from the blooming brittlebush. We can't remember ever seeing so many blossoms.

We spent the night as scheduled at The Beach House Resort and Spa. Mom is doing very well.

Liz and Molly came for dinner. The next morning Vada and all her kids came over. We got off midmorning, still well ahead of the original timetable. The clouds were low hanging and threatening.

Here is the old snow and the light frosting that fell last night on the way to Flagstaff. For those not from this area, we are amazed to see new snow this late in the year. Temps in Tucson were almost in the 90's last week. We both needed a bathroom break heading across the reservation but the blowing sand and lack of cover discouraged Peggie so we had to look for the next trading post. We paid Alaska prices for a bag of jerky, and the use of the restrooms, then went outside. A friendly local man struck up a conversation, offered me $30,000 for the jeep. I said I would accept it in cash, but he could only offer an IOU. Then he hit me up for a couple of bucks for "a cup of coffee." During the conversation I discerned that he had already had quite a bit of "coffee" today, so I said goodbye and left.

We stopped at the scenic overlook and got this shot of the storm over the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Vermillion Cliffs are across the gorge. Six hundred feet down at the bottom of that gorge runs the Colorado on it's way to the canyon.
Just outside of Kanab, UT, tonights rest stop, we couldn't resist this unique gate in a picturesque rail fence. We fought cross winds all day. Semis passing in the opposite direction felt like they were sucking our roof off. We got a little bit of low blowing sand, but could see quite a cloud of it over the Painted Desert.

After hours in the car, we decided to walk to a restaurant for dinner. It was about four blocks through the old residential part of town. The houses are beautifully taken care of. On the way back we went down a different street and saw a beautiful old house that looked like it was being restored. It had a sign saying it was built in 1890. The owner was trimming some trees in the yard, and we talked with him for a while. He is a rock and relic collector and a retired doctor. He said we could come back sometime and he would direct us on some great roads in the Strip to the North Rim. We think that's a great idea.

After tomorrow, if you don't hear from us, suspect that we have been abducted by aliens while driving past area 51.

Life is good.

That slogan is one of the choices for spare tire covers on Jeeps. It is appropriate.
I just finished a four week sub job for a teacher on maternity leave. It was a great job, and I made enough money to pay the ferry fare to Skagway. Sweet.
Now I am on vacation (Peggie has not worked at all since we came home last year) until my job begins in Skagway on May 4th. Then I will begin another five grueling months shuttling tourists back and forth over the same old road, watching the plants change and counting bears.
We will depart the Old Pueblo on the 22nd and drive all the way to Cottonwood that day. We have reservations at The Beach House Resort and Spa. This is our favorite B&B because they treat us just like family.
The next day we will plan to spend the night in Kanab, UT, home of The Greatest Earth On Show. This will allow us to transit Zion National Park in the morning, see St. George, then head into the wilds of central Nevada, where we will take our chances on The Extraterrestrial Highway and other remote routes. After what we are sure will be an exciting night in Winnemucca, (with a name like that it has to be good) we will enter Oregon in Malheur County. Malheur means "unfortunate" in French, so we can't wait to see what adventures we can find there. We get to Washington in time to RON in Walla Walla, where we hope to discover why they named their city twice. We plan to visit the Grand Coulee Dam because it is famous for some reason. We will spend one additional night in an-as-yet-to-be-determined town on the East side of the Cascades so we can take the scenic Route 20 in the morning. Evening sun in your eyes on scenic mountain roads is not recommended. We then should have a few days in and around Seatle before catching the ferry on the 30th for a three night and day trip up the inside passage. We have brief stops in Wrangell, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Juneau, and Haines. All stops are during daylight so we will be able to see something, though no chance to disembark.
If our hotels are Wifi equipped, we hope to post pictures on the way. Peggie will want to play with her (our?) new camera, anyway.
Figuring out what to take and how to pack it into the jeep will occupy much of our time over the next few days.

Springtime in the desert

AAAHHH-CHOOO AAAAAHH-CHOOOOO AA-AAAHH-CHOOOO

I awways sndeeze trweee tibes. Den I ab stobbed up foa wyle.

We went to Phoenix for the Bice family Easter-in-the-park picnic. We always play a rousing game of "Who's that over there talking to whathisname?" intermingled with "Whose kids are those?" All of my cousins keep getting older looking and their children and grandchildren grow up. I still recognize my aunts and uncles, though. Of course, they don't move around much so I can study them for a while.
We met and liked Bruce's fiance. He is so happy we couldn't even rib him about how great retirement is.
The spring flower display is in full bloom, so we came home on the Florence Hiway. It is SPECTACULAR!!! There are six shades of globemallow along with the lupine, poppies, desert marigolds and other stuff. Except for all those colors, the desert is green.
Yesterday we went down (over?) to Benson and came up (north), which is down (stream) along the San Pedro to San Manuel. The hills are awash in poppies there, too. North of Redington there are saguaros that must have started growing before Columbus sailed, they are massive, with too many arms to count.
So this has been a road weekend. Sitting in the park all afternoon is what brought on the allergy attack. It was worth it.

Great...er, Grand Weekend

I expect that very few people who read this don't already know that Greg, Tomoko, and Ariana were here for a few days. So we had a Grandparents' weekend.
We picked them up in Phoenix on Thursday and drove on up to Cottonwood to see the family there. Mom was doing well and everybody else is healthy so we had a good visit.
Friday we played and visited. Greg and Tomoko took advantage of free childcare to go see a movie. Ariana is tireless, so we decided we should keep her here as our personal trainer. Saturday we had a little cookout with family and friends. Weather was perfect. Food and company were great. Then, today we took them to the airport. Casey came yesterday and stayed today to work on a quilt for her friend's baby.
I have 3 more weeks on a sub job, then we will leave for AK. Peggie has four or five projects in process, so I'm sure she will stay busy.

Sharpening those skills

Today was one of those run-of-the-mill absolutely perfect first-day-of-spring type Tucson days.

Ho-hum, what to do, what to do.
The air show at DMAFB? Too many people, traffic, yada yada.
Renaissance Festival? Too many people, traffic, dust, yada yada.
Fourth Ave. Street Fair? Too many people, traffic, yada yada.
Peggie suggested a Sunday drive. Yay! I'm always up for a drive. Poppies are blooming.

We decided to head over to the San Pedro valley to see if the hills are all golden yellow yet.
Yes, they are. Not at peak, but gorgeous, still. Also lupine, daisies, penstemon, and several others we don't know the names of. The hills along the highway to Winkleman from Mammoth, the self proclaimed "Wildflower Capital of the World," are golden poppy yellow and new grass green along with the new green of the cottonwoods along the river. So we were having fun.

Then we came to Aravaipa Canyon and Peggie says, "Let's go up that road, I've never been on it." That's why we are still married. Going "up that road to see where it goes" is my purpose in life. It is my mantra. My rezon d'entendre. You get the idea. So I flipped one of those police-chase U-ees in the road and headed up Aravaipa Rd. I had been part way up twice before. Once with the rock hounds to gather alabaster, and once just to see. I didn't go far enough either time.

We came to the end of pavement, but continued intrepidly on. We were in a Jeep, after all. I have always thought that the road ended at the mouth of the canyon where only permitted hikers were allowed to continue into the wilderness. Instead, we could now see water in the stream bed, always a pleasant sight, and a sign announcing the next eight miles (eight more miles?! outstanding!) were private property, so no camping or hunting. Okay. These are people who have found the good life. Maybe thirty properties right on the creek. All with acreage in pasture or orchards. Some rustic, some modern, all way cool. An additional 3 miles brought us to the wilderness trailhead, beyond which is permit hiking only. Peggie walked back up the road a quarter mile to get pictures of rustic fences and such. I read the info about the wilderness area.

My eyes perked up (if ears can do it, why not eyes?) at the mention of bighorn sheep on the ridges. So I hauled out the binoculars and began to scan. I was, and soon will be again, a PROFESSIONAL WILDLIFE SPOTTER. It behooves me (see the little pun, there?) to keep up my skills. No luck. But the cliff I was scanning was stunning in its coloration and erosion. As Peggie was returning from her jaunt, I turned around and scanned the shaded cliff on the other side. REWARD!!! Bighorn sheep. Standing right there snacking on a bush. He looked at me, so I knew, that he knew I was there. I spoke softly. "Peggie, bighorn." She said, "Quarter." She was photographing a flower, and had spotted a quarter. Then she took the binoculars and watched the bighorn for a while. The quarter was forgotten. I have never ever seen a bighorn in the wild before. Grand Canyon doesn't count because they are practically zoo animals there. Most bighorns live out in places you can't drive to. Like on ridge tops. So, although the road never crossed the creek, and our tires stayed dry, the bighorn made it a great outing. It was already a really, really good outing, just discovering where "that road went."

Peggie did not tip me with the quarter. So this was a nonprofessional outing.

March-ing on

It is March, so we must post a new entry.
Last week I took the trailer to Cortes, Colorado. Our friend Greg wanted to go interview home builders and I volunteered to provide the housing. You all know this was a real hardship for me 'cause I hate road trips. We drove up on Sunday, March 7 with beautiful weather between all the storms we've been having. We located an RV park and went to check out his lot. It was buried in thigh deep snow. We know that because, of course, we had to walk out there.
For the next three days, we visited homes with the builders to check out their work and to get to know them. It snowed off and on the whole time. We found time to visit the Anasazi Heritage Museum, but decided not to try Mesa Verde. It was cold.
We saw some interesting homes, and I think Greg selected a builder. When it was time to come home, voila, the skies were clear again.
I stayed in Cottonwood an extra two days to help Mom celebrate her 85th birthday. Because some people in the family still work for a living, we had to have one party at lunch and another at dinner. Nothing wrong with that. Vada made a truly ugly devil's food cake with fudge frosting that fell apart and didn't set right. But it tasted great. Once you cut it up, the original appearance doesn't matter. And we have had uglier cakes baked by Mom, herself. The famous Silver City cake of 1958 was remembered fondly.
While I was gone, Peggie quilted....then she quilted some more...after which, she decided to quilt.
Good thing we got that table finished. I've been home for three days. What do you think Peggie has been doing all day, and is doing right now?

a) quilting
b) quilting
c) quilting
d) all of the above