Lazy Days of Summer: Zion National Park, UT 6/25/08

Today was one of those perfect summer days. We got up about 9ish, made coffee, hung out for a bit and then decided to ride our bikes into town to find an internet connection. The wind had kicked up a bit last night, enough to really cool things down this morning. It felt great to go for a spin before the heat of the day made the ride unbearable. Because we are in a remote location and in a canyon, it was a bit tricky finding a reliable internet connection. We stopped by several motels and coffee shops before we found one that would allow me to upload our picture and blog from yesterday. By the time we finished it was close to noon, we hadn’t eaten anything yet today and were starving. We rode back to the campsite and decided to make our first official pancakes of the trip. For the record, they were blueberry and scrumptious! We hopped on our bikes again and rode along the Pa’rus Trail that parallels the Virgin River. We found the perfect swimming spot and spent the next hour or so just swimming and playing in the cold river. It felt marvelous. We so appreciate a nice cool swimming hole. One thing that was hard to get used to in the South were all the really warm and muddy lakes – and find one without gators! Ned suggested we hop on a shuttle and head up the canyon to do the Narrows Riverwalk. What a great suggestion. We spent 3 or 4 hours on this adventure. (See photo of us as we start up the Narrows). After a mile hike on a paved trail there is a set of stairs that lead into the river. The walls of the canyon become narrow and it is so much fun to walk up the river, over rocks and thru the fast current. At some points the river was up to about my mid-drift. This is a very popular activity in the park and we had a great time watching the human masses. I would say the majority of the people were visiting from other countries (Sweden, Germany, Japan, Italy) and it was very entertaining to see their different styles of negotiating the trek. Our favorite was the group of older Swedes, at least in their mid-70’s, who took on this hike with great earnestness and vigor. They were dressed from head to toe in long sleeve pants and shirts, floppy hats, scarves tied around their neck, all with matching walking sticks. They were determined to venture up the river as far as they could go. Meanwhile, Ned and I were wearing swim suits, carrying improvised walking sticks, stopping frequently to swim, and taking a break to munch on sandwiches at the bend in the river. These old guys were definitely showing us up! We eventually headed back to the visitor center, disembarked from the shuttle, hopped on our bikes and rode into town in search of liquor. (All in all, we rode about 13 miles today). One of the more annoying aspects of Utah is that it is really hard to find “adult beverages”. Ned finally settled on a great beer called “Polygamy Porter”. The tag line on the bottle says “Why have just one” and “Bring some home for the wives!” HA. I finally settled on ice tea – sigh. Back at the campsite, I took a nap in the hammock, Ned made us omelets for dinner and then we decided to go for another swim in the river before heading off to bed. It’s great because it stays light to well after 9. Was this a perfect day or what?! Tomorrow we meet up with Polly and Eric. I guess this means we are going to have to find a way to get cleaned up for company.

National Park Tour: Zion National Park, UT 6/24/08

We got up pretty early this morning (6:30ish), had breakfast on the picnic table outside of our funky motor lodge and then headed for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I really enjoyed being in the higher elevation among all the pine trees again. It reminded me of home and I realized, once again, how much I love living in Nevada City. We arrived at the visitor center about 9:00 and had a great time just hanging out and taking in the vibe of the place. We tried for a camping spot in the park, but were told that everything was booked solid. So, we decided to just hang out for awhile, go on a couple of short walks, scope out the views and visit the lodge. (See one of the few joint photos of us taken overlooking the canyon). It felt great to be in the cool mountain air once again. Knowing that we needed to set up camp somewhere tonight, we decided to venture on to Zion National Park. It was a gorgeous drive thru the mountains, down into a desert valley and entering into the Eastern side of Zion. Wow, the drive thru the park completely knocked our socks off! We were fortunate to get a camping spot in the park and decided to just hang out for 3 days! The challenging aspect will be no showers or electricity. We spent the rest of the day and early evening exploring Zion. This included visiting the Canyon Visitor’s Center, watching a movie at the Zion Human History Museum, and taking the shuttle thru the whole park. We were particularly interested in scoping out all the areas for biking, swimming and seeing if the lodge would be a fun place to have dinner with Polly & Eric when they arrive on Thursday. By the time we got back to the campsite it was a little after 8. It’s definitely hot here. It reached 98 degrees today and we are hoping that it will cool down this evening. The first thing I did upon returning to the campsite was put on my bathing suit. I figure that I will be living in my suit and t-shirt for the next 3 days. Ned just fired up the barby & I’m drinking a “bottled” margarita. Geez, it feels good to be settled in.

Making It Up as We Go: Lee’s Ferry Lodge, AZ 6/23/08

This is Ned again, taking my occasional turn as blog scribe. The sun woke us up this morning at 6 a.m. and we got up at 6:30, eager to explore the canyon on our bikes before the sun warmed things up too much. After breakfast, we drove Winnie down to the visitor center, and started our bike tour of the Chaco ruins. We almost had the place to ourselves. Walking around the ruins, especially Pueblo Bonito, was really magical. Having first visited here about 15 years ago, I am still amazed with the intricacy of the stonework. We both marveled at being able to walk through some of the actual rooms in the pueblo, with their very low doorways (actually, almost perfect height for Debi), and try to imagine what it would have been like to live here about 1000 years ago. About 10:30, having logged 10 miles on our bikes, we were ready to attempt our exit from Chaco over the dreaded 16 miles of washboard road. Rather than repeat the disaster of the night before, we stowed the bikes inside the van. With Debi praying the whole way, and me driving like an old lady (35 mph on our way in and 15 mph on our exit), we mercifully made it to the paved road after a very long hour without losing any parts or bikes. We made several comments for the rest of the day regarding the amazing technological marvel of asphalt roads. We drove to Farmington, a very large city seemingly supported by an economy associated with the creation and maintenance of oil wells and natural gas fields. The upside of this was that we were quickly able to locate an auto parts store where I purchased some very long stainless hose clamps. I set up shop in front of a nearby motel that offered free Wi-Fi, so that Debi could upload her blog and support her political junkie habit. After about 30 minutes of futzing, and only one failed attempt, I was successful in getting the mysterious smog control canister reattached to the frame of the van, where I trust it will stay for the duration of the trip. After stopping for gas, and getting an impressive amount of black grease washed off of my hands, we headed down the road towards the Grand Canyon. We drove past lots of very wide open landscape, most of which is in the Navajo Nation in the northeast corner of Arizona. Our plans were rather vague at this point, and upon reaching the fork in the road of Highway 89 reading “Grand Canyon, South Rim / North Rim”, we chose North Rim! Neither of us has ever been there, it is considered “the road less traveled”, and it is closer to Zion, where we are planning to meet Polly and Eric on Thursday afternoon. We drove past dramatic multi-colored cliffs, under fluffy white clouds, until we arrived at the Navajo Bridge, which crosses the Colorado River right at the beginning of Marble Canyon, just upstream from the Grand Canyon. Having not had showers or electric power the night before, and uncertain of the prospect of a campsite with showers tonight, we pulled into a funky little Route-66 vintage cabin motor lodge, called Lee’s Ferry Lodge. We decided to have a picnic dinner in front of our room with our leftover wine, cheese, bread, apples, and brownies. (See photo of me dining, while watched adoringly by the very mellow, resident dog, “Took”.) It still feels a little like camping, with the pine paneled walls, lack of TV, and microscopic shower, but Debi was VERY pleased to have a shower tonight! We hope to view the Grand Canyon from the North Rim tomorrow morning.

A Few Bumps in the Road: Chaco Canyon National Park, NM 6/22/08

This morning we got up a lot earlier - partly because I was excited about exploring so many new things, and partly because we hadn’t adjusted to the time change (gaining an extra hour). We were up at 6:30 and left the campground by 8:00. Our first destination this morning was Tecolate Café. We had seen Guy review this restaurant on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. It really impressed us and we didn’t want to miss it. I had the pine nut blue corn pancakes and Ned had a breakfast burrito with Christmas (red and green) chili sauce. This place knocked our socks off. One of the best breakfast places we have ever eaten. The staff was friendly, funny and amazingly attentive. The food spectacular! This is one of the few restaurants that actually live up to the hype. We got to the restaurant at about 8:30 and were seated right away. By the time we left, there were at least 25 people waiting to get in! Our next stop was exploring the neighborhoods of Santa Fe and the Old Governor’s Palace Museum. To tell the truth I was really disappointed in the museum. Ned and I have seen our fair share of museums this trip and this one was particularly mediocre, especially considering the $8 entry fee per person. It was two rooms of placards that really didn’t tell a cohesive story. I think back on the museum in Little Rock that was fantastic – it had history about Little Rock, all the governors, an amazing country music costume display, a women’s exhibit, and you also got to view the chambers of the senate and house of representatives. Heck, the Roger Miller Museum was even better. Sorry Santa Fe, you need work on this one…We then continued to stroll thru Santa Fe, checking out all the vendors that were set-up in the plaza for Sunday morning, and even strolled by the oldest house in the U.S. We decided we had enough of Santa Fe and headed for Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos. This is the cliff dwellings of the Ancient Pueblo ancestors (used to be called Anasazi, but that term has fallen into disfavor by the Pueblo people). We had a fantastic time exploring the kivas, climbing ladders into the caves (check out the photo of me poking my head out), and viewing the petroglyphs. Of course watching the 15 Chinese Buddhist women in straw hats and long gray smocks giggling, singing, and exploring the caves was highly entertaining too. We then decided to do the long trek (4 hours) to Chaco Canyon. It was a stunningly beautiful drive thru a plethora of scenery. We went by a huge caldera, over a mountain range passing some of the first legitimate looking pine trees we’ve seen in weeks, passed by several Indian pueblos, descended to 7000 feet and paralleled the Colorado plateau over the Continental divide. Whew! We finally reached the turn-off point for Chaco Canyon. It’s 16 miles of the worst washboard road I’ve ever been on!! It was so bad that we passed a new pick-up truck that had broken down on the bumpy road. We offered to help, but they were waiting for a tow truck (how it was getting there with no cell phone service was news to me). We ventured on and finally made it to the park entrance only to realize that we had lost one bike (mine), were dragging the other bike (Ned’s) and poor Winnie had something shaken loose from underneath. The campground radio broadcast stated that the campground was full and there was no way in hell I was going to drive that bumpy ride back out the same day. So, we took inventory of Ned’s bike, decided it was ride-able and I hopped on it in search of a campsite while Ned returned to locate my bike. Turns out there were plenty of campsites (the radio broadcast was old). In the meantime, Ned located my bent bike and spent some time trying to tie up something underneath the car. We finally reconvened at the campsite, Ned jacked up the car and managed to secure what we think is the smog canister. (We donated parts of our campfire “toaster” for this). He also worked on straightening out my bike’s wobbly back wheel. Meanwhile, I worked on getting dinner together (grilled swordfish in mango teriyaki sauce, spinach salad, fresh sourdough bread, corn on the cob and if you promise not to tell the ranger, a bottle of wine). So, here’s hoping that we can take the bikes for a spin thru the park tomorrow and visit the Chaco Canyon ruins and more importantly be able to drive OUT of the park without losing any parts). Stay tuned for part 2. On the plus side, we are in the middle of the high desert with no civilization close by, and the stars are so bright you can touch them!

Land of Enchantment: Ranchero Santa Fe Campground, Santa Fe, NM 6/21/08

Once again we got up about 10ish. Geez, you’d think we were on vacation or something. By the time we left the campground and worked our way out of the canyon it was close to 12:00. Our first stop was Cadillac Ranch, and yep, it’s 10 cars stuck in the dirt. You park your car on a frontage road next to the freeway and walk thru a recently plowed (and muddy field from the rains) to get a close-up view of the cars. They are all heavily covered with graffiti, and it is encouraged for people to add their own markings. It’s a work of art in progress, so to speak. We continued traveling on I-40, getting off at various towns to pick up the Historic 66 route. My favorite town was Tecumcari, TX that seemed to have the most preserved/undemolished vintage architecture. The best was a motel called Blue Swallow wherein each unit came with it’s own one-car garage. It was also billed on the neon sign as “100% Refrigerated” – classic. We also had fun looking at Route 66 souvenirs and chatkis at the Tee Pee Curio shop. We finally made it to Santa Fe at about 5:30. We found a private campground that is fairly close to downtown that is pretty good. Turns out the state park doesn’t have showers and only has pit toilets. Yeah, that ain’t gonna work! The best thing about this campground is that it has free wireless and laundry facilities. After taking advantage of both, we headed downtown to check it out. I LOVE IT! This is definitely my favorite city of the trip so far. The architecture, artistic vibe, amazing history – this place has it all. Seems like everyone was out tonight and it was fun to ride our bikes around the Old Santa Fe square checking out all the musicians playing, people eating outside and strolling through the streets.(I snapped this photo when we first came into town). After riding our bikes for about 4 miles, we decided to stroll through all the courtyards and find a fun place to sit outside and have dinner. This place is really magical and I completely understand why New Mexico is called the Land of Enchantment. Ned thinks I’m just gaga over the place because there are no mosquitoes, no humidity, and it’s the summer solstice. (Yes, there was also some drinking involved). I’m liking it so much that I’m hoping to spend an extra day here. I really enjoyed seeing the Oldest Church in the US, and tomorrow we’d like to check-out the History Museum and some other churches. So, if you hear from me manana we stayed in town. If not, we’re headed to Chaco Canyon National Monument where there is no water, no electricity and obviously no internet. We’re playing on spending sometime exploring the Anasazi Culture. I’ll keep blogging and post when we reach civilization. In the meantime, Happy Summer everyone!

King of the Road: Palo Duro Canyon State Park, TX 6/20/08

Well, it never did rain last night (poor Winnie could really use a shower), but it did cool down enough to sleep comfortably without the fan. We were all fired up to continue down Route 66 and left camp about 9:30. Ironically, we didn’t get very far because we were just having too much fun puttering around the old towns, spotting the bygone icons and stopping at museums and roadside stands. On a whim, Ned pulled into the town of Erick, Oklahoma to drive by the Roger Miller Museum. This is a one stoplight town and looks completely deserted. We thought, what the heck, let’s go inside and poke around. One of the best decisions of the trip! We were greeted by a very sweet woman who gave us a personal tour, including a description of every piece of memorabilia, and told us more than one could ever hope to know about Roger Miller. He’s from the town of Erick and they are VERY proud of this home town boy. We thoroughly enjoyed her stories, seeing original lyrics written out on scraps of paper, the clothes, posters, record albums, motorcycle – you name it. To fully appreciate the ambiance of this place, let me explain. The entire “museum” is one room and then we were lead into an adjoining room that had cloth covered card tables. We were asked if we would like a soda (served in a styrofoam cup with ice) and watched a 50 minute video on Roger Miller. All this for the price of $3! (Once again, Mr. Ned was singing along to the songs, even the more obscure ones.) By this time it was after 1:00 and we decided to eat lunch at the Main Street Café next door. The waitress took our order while holding her one year old daughter, Madison, on her hip. The good folks at the next table, two men dressed in denim overalls and baseball caps, struck up a conversation with us. They were telling us about the weather and how everywhere it seems to be flooding, but in this piece of the world they were experiencing a drought. They wanted to know where we were from, what we’ve seen and where we were going. They completely approved of us heading out to Palo Duro Canyon State Park, but thought we were crazy to want to see Cadillac Ranch. As one gentlemen put it, “It’s just a bunch of cars stuck in the dirt, what do you want to see that for?” By the time we left, we realized that we had traveled maybe 45 or 50 miles in 4 hours! At this rate, we were never gonna make Amarillo. Still not feeling hurried, we continued to explore the old Route 66 towns (while singing along to our new Roger Miller CD – “King of the Road” - and some Johnny Cash), seeing leaning water towers, 150 foot steel crosses, and old cowboy signs. Too much fun! We finally reached Amarillo and decided to visit Cadillac Ranch tomorrow and instead head straight for Palo Duro Canyon State Park. WOWZA! This place is amazing! It is 120 miles long, 800 feet deep and the second largest canyon in the United States. It’s so beautiful that you swear you are on a Disney wild west set and this is make-believe. (The photo really doesn’t do it justice.) The cool thing is that our campsite is way down at the bottom of the canyon and we are surrounded by these great, bright red claystone and white gypsum cliffs. We couldn’t wait to jump on our bikes and go for a ride. They allow bikes on the trails and we had a blast riding through the canyon floor, up and down trails, through Juniper and mesquite trees, and over wooden boardwalk bridges. We even passed a place called “Toad Suck Bog”, not sure about that one… At one point I had to get off and walk my bike up the trail it was so steep. (Ok little bro Scott, if you’re reading this I know you could have taken it straight up but I’m pleading girl and being 50). We only did about 6 miles, but it still felt good to stretch our legs. Turns out it was a good decision that we headed right for this State Park since there were only two spots left on this Friday night. It would have been a shame to miss this. There are a lot of activities to choose from this evening: a Texas Hoe-Down Bar-b-que, A Texas Musical put on at the amphitheatre, and an interpretive night hike along the canyon floor with flashlights. Of course, there’s also hanging up the hammock and doing some chill time. Right now this ol’ cowgirl is gonna hop in the shower and get rid of some serious road dust. Addendum: it’s the next morning and we had the most spectacular lighting and thunderstorm last night! The storm passed right over us and the blinding lighting, booming thunder and torrential rains were really thrilling. Ironic that we didn’t encounter any rain in the south, but caught up with it in the desert. It was also a bit of an adventure getting out of the canyon this morning. We had to ford through FIVE waterways where the flash floods took over the roadway. I was a bit nervous, but Ned calmly steered our way up and out of the canyon. Poor Miss Winnie is more red then white!

Getting our Kicks on Route 66: Foss State Park, OK 6/19/08

This entire road trip is really about the journey and not the destination. Nothing captured that spirit more than today. We did our best to leave the campground early (for us), and managed to be on the road by 8:30. We finally caught up with Route 66 just south of Tulsa at Sapulpa by about 10ish. We had a guidebook to point out some of the old icons on the Route, but half the fun was trying to spot them ourselves. On several occasions we did a couple of laps through the small towns to find the old gas stations or motor car motels that were hidden among the modern day logos. Today’s photo was taken of a gas station in Davenport, just sitting there by itself without any history markers. I kinda liked that! (BTW- this place is for sale if anyone is interested). Route 66 from Tulsa to Oklahoma City seems to be more in tact than other sections and it’s easier to follow. It was crazy trying to follow it through Oklahoma City, especially since the Route in this location is mostly expressways or freeways through the city. I am still quite surprised at how beautiful Eastern Oklahoma is! Everything is lush and green, with beautiful rolling hills and lots of rivers and streams. I’m really glad I saw this firsthand. I always imagined Oklahoma to be like the dust bowl in Grapes of Wrath, geez was I wrong. Once we finally got through Oklahoma City and connected up again with Route 66 we enjoyed stopping at the town of El Reno. We spotted several of the original road icons and, after consulting our “Road Food” book, we settled on Sid’s a true roadside burger stand. The big “thing” in this part of the country is onion burgers. Basically, it’s hamburgers with a baseball size of onions that are grilled with the burger. The onions and burger get all mushed together and the onions sticking out become carmelized. (Glad I tried it, but don’t see it in my future.) This was washed down with a chocolate malt. (burp). We proceeded to the town of Clinton, listening to some tunes on the ipod we thought were appropriate – Patsy Cline, cowboy singer Johnny Prine, and some other road tunes I put together. Ned, by the way, has kept me entertained for 6,000 miles with his singing. Once again, he surprised me with some cowboy and folk songs. Did you know he plays the banjo, too?! I think that’s where he got his hillbilly repertoire. We spent an hour or so at the Route 66 Museum in Clinton and boy, was that fun! Each room represents a specific decade of Route 66’s past. As you enter the room, the most popular song from that time period is playing, you can read about the road’s history (such as being built, the heyday of the route, etc) and tons of period specific items are on display. At the end there is a 20 minute movie about the Route. We really enjoyed this museum, especially playing with the old gas pumps, posing near the cars, and remembering are own family vacations as kids. Both Ned and I grew up doing family road trips/camping trips and have been swapping all our stories. (Yes, both our dads strapped the canvas water bag to the radiator on the car. We had an old Rambler Stationwagaon, Ned’s family had a Pontiac Bonnieville Stationwagaon.) We enjoyed ourselves so much puttering around all day that we decided not to push it and try for Texas tonight. We looked at our trusty State Park book and found a campground close by Clinton. It’s very much a “Home on the Range” type campground (i.e. camping in a grass field), but we are just enjoying hanging out, going for a bike ride and luxuriating in the cool evening. (It hasn’t actually rained, but the weather sure feels like it). Tomorrow continues Route 66 and more fun – perhaps the Cadillac Ranch.