San Antonio TX to
Quartzsite AZ
We generally found Texas along I-10 to
be rather boring, miles of nothing but sand and scrub. In all the
other states so far the interstate highways have been punctuated by
numerous small towns, rest areas and truck stops, not Texas. The
only city we enjoyed was San Antonio (www.visitsanantonio.com).
While researching the others we did not find much to attract us, let
alone keep us.
We stayed at Fort Stockton
(www.ci.fort-stockton.tx.us)
for two days only because of the weather. It was well below
freezing overnight and did not warm up appreciably during the day.
Worse, rain and freezing rain was forecast. Not wanting to chance
driving a fourteen tonne RV on a skating rink we hunkered down. As
it turned out, most of the bad conditions were northeast of us and we
could have left. When we did leave the wind was gusting so hard that
it unfurled one of our slide-out awnings and ripped it. With 25 to
30 miles an hour of wind right on the nose fuel economy plummeted to
about five miles per US gallon. At the RV park they display a small
placard which reads, “Does the wind always blow like
this...no..sometimes its stronger”.
We thought that El Paso would be
different, and were going to spend some time there. After spending
one day battling the horrific traffic, we decided to move on. We
were as disappointed in El Paso as we were delighted by San Antonio
(previous report). Unlike San Antonio, which made a feature of its
downtown river and spillway, El Paso has a huge fence along the Rio
Grande. Driving around, we did not see many parks. One gets the
impression that it's a big money machine; people go to work. This is
perhaps an unfair assessment, based on only a short visit, but that's
what we saw.
As soon as we entered Arizona we
noticed a difference in scenery. This is the start of the Sonoran
Desert (www.arizonensis.org/sonoran),
the only place on earth where the giant saguaro cactus grows wild.
There are more hills, vegetation and interesting rock formations
along the interstate. And the weather was warmer and sunny. It was
such a pleasant drive that we did not stop all the way to Phoenix.
With little wind and a bit of downhill terrain en-route the RV
averaged ten mpg.
Phoenix, like El Paso has no interstate
bypass around the city. Being the fifth largest city in the USA,
this should be a recipe for trouble. Sure enough, once we turned
north onto I-17 we encountered huge traffic jams, some caused by the
massive highway construction projects and accidents. Thankfully, the
accidents were in the southbound lanes, not in ours. Surprisingly
though, in subsequent trips downtown and along I-17 we noted that
getting around Phoenix is relatively easy. This was a good stop for
us, mostly because our good friends Frank and Fay guided us around
the area; we saw far more than we would have, had we relied only on
our touring skills. At a native American art exhibit we bought his
and hers 'healing bracelets', in celebration of our 38th
wedding anniversary. We also saw some beautiful paintings that we
could neither afford nor have any place for in the RV. The Desert
Botanical Garden (www.dbg.org)
is a gem, when we were there enhanced by a showing of Chihuly glass
sculptures (www.chihuly.com).
We went around once in the afternoon and again after dark. The
lighting on the sculptures was spectacular. We toured the Orpheum
Theatre
(www.friendsoftheorpheumtheatre.org),
a stunning example of early 1900s architecture; our friend Fay is a
volunteer there. We spent all day at a collector car auction,
salivating over restored cars of every sort.
A side trip up to Prescott (pronounced
Pres-cut here) with our friends Frank and Fay was interesting. In
only an hour's drive we climbed in elevation into an entirely
different climatic zone, cooler. Almost like someone had drawn a
line there were suddenly no more saguaro cactus. Prescott has some
interesting old buildings, including a saloon rebuilt with the
original long bar. Apparently, many years ago the saloon caught fire
and the patrons uprooted the bar and hauled it to safety.
We really enjoyed Quartzsite
(www.ci.quartzsite.az.us),
although it would not be for everyone. Quartzsite is little more
than a crossroads in the desert, surrounded by unfenced public land
(Bureau of Land Management-BLM) and RV parks. The few streets are
lined mostly with mobile homes. The permanent population is only
about 3600 persons; but during the winter, thousands of Rvs arrive,
filling the RV parks, and tens of thousands more camp out on the BLM
land. On the BLM land there is no electricity, water or sewer, but
mobile service companies sell water and operate “honey wagons”.
Throughout much of it there aren't even roads. It's an amazing sight
to come over the hill into Quartzsite and see the land dotted for
miles around with Rvs. While we were there, several annual shows
were gong on, including a huge flea market, a rock and gem show, a
pow wow and a massive RV show. The RV show was great and we bought
quite a few things. On the other hand, we were disappointed that
well over half of the exhibitors were touting household and personal
gadgets, rather than RV equipment.
We've just decided to stay here a third
week. Maurice needs the time for his knee to heal and Louise-Ann has
a bad head cold. Walking so much around San Antonio injured the
knees. They had nearly healed when we got to Quartzsite. Then like
damned fools we walked miles every day at the RV show and he
re-injured himself. Anyway, this is a good place to be stuck.
Yesterday they had a jam session, where nearly everyone who could
play an instrument or sing participated...but you gott'a like C&W!
And they have periodic concerts by itinerant performers.
Quartzsite AZ to
San Diego CA
Brenda AZ. In our last report we
advised that we decided to stay here a third week for our colds to
subside and for Maurice's knees to heal. We ended up staying yet
another week, as a mail packet that we were waiting for did not
arrive as early as we had hoped. And our colds needed a bit more
time. While we did mostly lay low, we took a day to drive to the
Joshua Tree National Park (www.nps.gov/jotr).
This park is oriented towards camping and hiking. We only walked
the shortest trail near the park's southern entrance; it was very
interesting, with many plaques explaining the flora and fauna.
While in Brenda we drove three times to
the nearest movie theatre, at Blythe CA. We
saw 'Taken', 'Gran Torino' and 'Paul Blart Mall Cop'. Taken was
excellent, as the critics said it would be. We thought that Gran
Torino was also good, although we can see why some people might not
like it, as the Clint Eastwood character takes Archie Bunker to a new
low. Finally, Mall Cop was a surprise; the critics hated it but we
liked it. Taken in context, a mindless comedy full of one liners and
pratfalls, it was well done. But a work of art it ain't!
Our last event at Brenda was the
Valentine's Day dance at the RV park. The resident C&W band
played foxtrots and waltzes for a couple of hours, along with a few
jives. We had a good time and danced quite a bit. Maurice paid for
it for a few days afterwards and had to take Advil again for his
knees. It was a bit odd, actually, he could dance without problem
but had some pain walking to and from the dance floor.
Yuma AZ (www.ci.yuma.az.us).
The first thing we did was go to the Yuma Territorial Prison (click
here for URL), now a state park and museum. Our first
reaction was disappointment, as the first thing one sees upon
clearing the entrance lobby is some really crummy facades of
canteens, a jail and other hokey spots for tourists to take
photographs. However, the rest of the prison is excellent and we
spent all afternoon there, exploring the old cell blocks, museum and
cemetery. We looked for evidence that Ben Wade was actually
incarcerated there (movie '3:10 to Yuma' 1957, remade in 2007 with
Russel Crowe). It turns out that there was a Ben Wade at that time in
US history, but he was a US senator, perhaps a coincidence or maybe a
little joke by the author.
Yuma has an historic north end area
that has been restored to period architecture. There are covered
walkways with tin tile ceilings, lots of craft and antique shops, and
a few interesting cafes. The most
interesting is Lutes Casino (www.lutescasino.com),
which was isn't a casino, was a pool hall at one time, but is now a
bar and restaurant. The interior is
completely covered with interesting memorabilia. Their signature
special is a combination cheeseburger and hot dog covered with hot
sauce. We gave that a miss and went down the street to a little cafe
cum novelty shop, where we had coffee and Medjool date pie. Date pie
is a regional specialty, dates being a a big thing in this part of
Arizona and neighbouring California.
Medjool dates (click
here) are sweet, fat-free, cholesterol-free and high
in fiber and antioxidants...should be able to live on this pie!
Sadly, the downtown has a lot of empty buildings, which did not
surprise us as hardly anyone was there and nobody was buying much.
Just west of Yuma, in California, is an
area called the Imperial Sand Dunes (click
here). We took a day-trip in our little car, up one
side, across the middle and down the other. This is the kind of
place that most people imagine when they hear the word 'desert'. The
dunes are huge and shifting, which makes them a fantastic place for
4WD vehicles, dune buggies and ATVs. They made the movie 'Scorpion
King' here (it doubled for Egypt) and parts of the movie 'Jarhead' (a
war flick about Iraq).
Now that we have been through the
desert we are amazed at the diversity. We expected sand and cactus,
and they are there, in abundance for endless miles. We did not
expect agriculture. In Canada, we have plenty of irrigated areas; in
the main, these allow the growing of crops that would not normally
grow there. Not much of it would likely be considered desert. In
the southern desert of the USA we were amazed a the amount of
agriculture, and even more amazed at the quantity of produce being
grown. The farms we saw in the Imperial Valley (click
here) were the most stunning examples; they produce
everything from carrots to cattle.
The last 35 miles of the drive from
Yuma to Boulevard took us up the Jacumba Mountains (click
here for URL) from below sea level to over 3000 miles
elevation. Along the highway there are numerous places to refill
radiators, but we made it all the way up. Had it been any farther we
would have had to stop, as the engine was up to 217 degrees F by the
time we reached the top. The area around Boulevard is extremely
remote. The first question the folks at the RV Resort asked was,
“How did you find us?” The locals have created a bumper sticker
that reads, “Where the hell is Boulevard CA?”
From Boulevard to San Diego was
initially uphill to over 4000 feet, up the In-Kp-Pah Mountains (Wiki
URL), then downhill all the way, or nearly so through
some of the most stunning fractured granite formations and vistas
we've ever seen.
San Diego CA to Amarillo TX
Mojave
Desert. The Mojave Desert (URL
here),
northeast of LA, is locally called the High Desert. It is mostly
situated in southern California, but spills over into neighbouring
states. Just as the saguaro only grows in the Sonoran Desert, the
Mojave is typified by the Joshua Tree (URL
here),
a type of Yucca that only grows here. It's way colder up here,
dropping to freezing at night, or even below, even in March. On the
other hand, we had some days of 29 C degrees.
Barstow
CA. Barstow www.barstowca.org)
is a railroad town; we were told that over a hundred trains a day
pass thorough. There is a small but good Route-66 museum. We took
a day drive in our car to Rainbow Basin (URL
here),
a national landmark. It's a beautiful and mysterious location of
folded and tilted rocks, nonconformities providing a great display of
diverse geologic features, and sedimentary structures of many hues.
First the road went from paved to gravel, then to a one-way dirt loop
punctuated with a series of washed out areas connected by a goat
path. Now, the sign said “Road Legal Vehicles Only”, which led
us to believe that we could make it in the Saturn, and we did. We
drove slowly and only bottomed out once. Near the end, though, we
were followed by dozens of dune buggies racing through. Clearly,
road legal means 4WD in this case!
Route-66
From Ludlow CA to Fenner CA was interesting. It is well off I-40, so
most of the towns became ghost towns and then eventually disappeared.
Baghdad CA is little more than a lone tree and a few foundations.
The most interesting sights are the volcanic craters, the most
impressive of which is at Amboy (URL
here).
The Amboy Crater is a symmetrical, volcanic cinder cone surrounded
by hardened lava flows and cinders. The only other things at Amboy
are a US Post Office and Roy's Cafe (www.rt66roys.com),
currently being restored to period condition. Roy's is open for
visits but is not yet operating as a café.
We
took a drive to Lake Havasu City south west of Needles, to visit the
London Bridge (URL
here).
The stones on the bridge were numbered, then it was dismantled and
transported from London England to Havasu. Although most people say
the bridge was put back together in the USA, we were told that an
exact replica of the bridge was first made in concrete. Then the
faces of the outer stones were sawed off and cemented onto the
concrete structure. On the top edges they used the entire stones.
The lamps on the bridge are the real ones. You can just imagine
yourself crossing a bridge in London.
From
just east of Needles CA nearly to Kingman NZ there is a nice stretch
of Route-66 that passes through Oatman AZ (URL
here).
Unfortunately, there is a road restriction against large vehicles,
as the road twists and bumps over the mountains; so we drove it in
our 'toad'. Oatman was a mining town, then a ghost town and is now a
tourist town with staged gunfights and period buildings. The town
probably would have died but for the wild burro (donkey) herd,
descendants of the burros that worked in the mines. They beg for
carrots and became a tourist attraction in their own right. The
easterly drive into Oatman is interesting, especially close to town;
but the road through the mountains out of Oatman is absolutely
stunning. This stretch of Route-66 is so narrow and windy that it is
posted at 30 mph, with curves posted at fifteen. This is a don't
miss for anyone driving this way.
One
of the must-see attractions on Route-66 is the Grand Canyon. Our
original plan was to see it from the new Skywalk (URL
here)
in the western canyon. Alas, this is a tourist rip-off of gargantuan
proportion. We were willing to pay the high price for a few minutes
walk on a glass pavement overlooking the canyon, that is until we
found out about the rip-off. While the actual price to walk the
Skywalk is $29.95 a person, the natives have added a series of
surcharges $50 to get onto their reservation, $20 to park and so on.
So we gave that a miss and drove to Williams AZ, a town on Route-66
known as the gateway to the Grand Canyon. It was our intention to
drive up to the park and do it ourselves, until we stumbled across
Marvelous Marv's (www.marvelousmarv.com)
all day tour. This is the way to see the canyon. He is interesting
and exceptionally informative.
In
many ways, the drive we took in our car through Oak Creek Canyon (URL
here)
on highway 89a south to Sedona, then east on AZ-260 to I-17 north is
as interesting as the Grand Canyon, but in a different way. While
nothing beats the majesty of the Grand Canyon, you see it from afar,
whereas the drive through Sedona puts you right down in the scenery.
Also, Sedona (www.visitsedona.com)
is a pretty little tourist town worth a visit in its own right. On
the way we stoped at Oak Creek Canyon Vista for
a bird's eye view of the canyon. Here we enjoyed the Native American
jewellery and other craft items displayed by local artists. We
bought a white clay canoe etched with petroglyphs and burnt horsehair
designs.
The main reason we stayed in the
Root-66 RV park was to visit the Petrified Forest National Park
(www.nps.gov/pefo),
on yet another bit of historic Route-66. We drove the entire park
and pulled off into every attraction, and walked the short trails,
all in a half day. It was fascinating; this is a super little park
where one can see a lot in a short time. Unfortunately for us, the
wind was howling at 60 mph with gusts to way over 80 producing the
worst sand storm the park rangers had seen in years, but we did it
anyway. We entered at the north gate and first saw parts of the
Painted Desert (URL
Here), which derives its name from the multitude of
colours both dull and vibrant. It is a long expanse of badland hills
and buttes forming many interesting shapes and patterns. It runs
about 250 km eastward from the SE corner of the Grand Canyon to the
Petrified Forest. About halfway down the park we saw the ruins of
Puerco Pueblo (URL
here), built by ancient Indians, now assimilated, and
the petroglyphs (URL
here) they left. The southern half of the park
contains the petrified remains of giant redwoods, millions of years
old.
Near Albuquerque NM (www.cabq.gov),
we rode on the Sandia Peak Tramway (www.sandiapeak.com),
supposedly the world's longest aerial tramway. It's quite a ride to
the top at over 10 thousand feet above sea level. The view was
spectacular.
A tour of Albuquerque's
Old Town (URL
here) is a must. In a small
space, maybe six blocks square we found hundreds of curio shops,
galleries, cafés and interesting squares. Although the ubiquitous
T-shirt shops were in evidence, they were not overpowering, like they
are in so many tourist districts.
We took an interesting
drive, through the Cibola National Forest, in the mountains on the
east side of Albuquerque. Quite by accident, we 'discovered' the
Salinas Missions and pueblos, and we walked through the Quarai
Mission (URL
here). It is fascinating that the
Indians there thrived for so long, then suddenly left. It is even
more interesting to see that a handful of priests were able to
convince them to build massive churches, now in ruins.
Albuquerque's Central
Avenue (URL
here) is a bit of quintessential
Route-66. The sights range from dilapidated old motels to restored
funky restaurants. Had we the time, we would have roamed the
streets, but we settled for a drive. Unfortunately, after dark, it
becomes a somewhat dangerous neighbourhood. We were there just at
dusk, when the night life and the police were already emerging.
We literally blew to
Amarillo on the back of a strong westerly 'tailwind' Unfortunately,
about thirty miles out we encountered strong and gusty northerlies
and yet another dust storm. So, we were unable to stop to see
Cadillac Ranch (URL
here), the only thing in Amarillo
that we had on our must-visit-list. We stayed an extra day and got
some neat photos of the Cadillac cars buried nose down in the ground,
and covered with graffiti. Since Amarillo is a seizable place, we
spent the rest of the day shopping for things on our list that we
just could not find in the many small towns we've visited lately.
Amarillo TX to Ottawa ON
We stayed two days at Elk City because
of high winds; in nearby states there were tornadoes. After arriving
at Oklahoma City, we fell ill with bad head colds and did not
recoverer fully for weeks. While we were there a bad fire broke out
in a nearby suburb; we heard the fire trucks but did not realize
until seeing the news that a huge storm had sparked a blaze. There
were several attractions that we wanted to see, but apart from two
trips out for food and medicine we never saw or did a thing. Then,
having killed so much time in Oklahoma City, the next few weeks
became a passage-making exercise, which was a shame, as we could have
stopped longer at many lovely RV parks right up to Canada.
Going through St. Louis MO was nearly
a bit of a disaster. First, we missed the bypass and drove through
the centre of town. Then, we took a wrong turn at one of the many
interchanges and somehow ended up going west instead of east. Our
trusty TomTom GPS noticed this right away and immediately took us off
the free-way to U-turn, right into one of the seediest neighbourhoods
one could imagine. The turn-around lane we had to use was only wide
enough for a car and it had a tight turn entering. Getting the RV
around it with the toad attached was an exercise in tire scrubbing.
Once we got turned around we stopped for a minute at the side of the
road, whereupon when a big man in a white truck pulled up behind us
and motioned us out of the RV. Oh crap, a cop...what had we done
wrong? He was a good Samaritan (or maybe an undercover cop) that had
noticed our wrong turn and had stopped to help us. His first advice
was to get out of that neighbourhood...now, adding, “I'm not trying
to scare you but you really don't want to be here”! He explained
how to get back on route then stayed behind us until we took the
on-ramp to the highway.
From Saint Louis to the Canadian
border there is not much to report. The weather was good and the
driving was easy. We could easily have taken much more time
sight-seeing along the way, had we not been pressed for time. Of
course, had we done that, we might well have been caught in several
late-season winter storms that both preceded us and followed us.
We were dreading the entry into
Canada, thinking that the officials would give us a hard time. We
had no duty-free goods, gifts, etcetera, and thought they would not
believe that anyone being away for six months would re-enter Canada
with so little to declare. Our experience was the reverse. Once
they determined that we had no significant tobacco or alcohol on
board, they just waived us through.
Trip Summary:
- Date Started: 26 October 2008
- Date Ended: 30 April 2009
- Route: Ontario, New York, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Arizona, New
Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan,
Ontario.
- Distance Travelled: 6851 miles (11,026
km)
- Driving Time (RV only): 133 hours
- Average Driving Speed: 51.5 mph (82.9
km/h)
- Fuel Used (RV only): 872 US gal. (3301
litres)
- Average Fuel Economy: 7.9 mpg (29.94
l/100 km)
- RV fuel cost: $2280.09 CDN
- Camp-ground cost: $5867.32 CDN
