May 2006

Earl and I arrived in Phoenix this afternoon after a short drive across the desert from Tucson. I’ve been reading articles lately about where Tucson and Phoenix might combine to become one big megametropolis within the next 20 years. I don’t see where that would be happening, there’s a lot of empty space between the two cities. I hope “progress” doesn’t ruin the beauty of the desert.

We are in town until Sunday for a bear event. It’s kind of weird not knowing anyone amongst the crowd of men, but in a way it makes us more mysterious. I find that kind of cool. As I mentioned to Earl this evening, I have no problem being whispered about or known as “the quirky guy”. I’m proud of my eccentricity.

Tomorrow we’re going to do some touring of the sites and hang with the bears in town. It should be a good time.

Sabino Canyon.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl and I decided to get a bit of exercise today and visit Sabino Canyon outside of Tucson. Nature’s beauty is breaktakingly wonderful in these parts. Sabino Canyon is a wonderful place to do some hiking and just enjoy the outdoors.

There is a tram that will take you into the canyon, with nine places to exit or get back on along the way. The tram runs a little less than four miles into the canyon, climbing about 700 feet during it’s journey to the far end.

We exited at tram stop number nine, the furthest the tram would go, and decided that we would walk back to the visitor’s center. Did we opt to walk along the paved path? Of course not. We took a look at the map and saw the “Phoneline Trail”, which followed the ridge of the canyon about 600 feet higher than the paved road. It looked to be just a small challenge at just under 3.2 miles.

Mother Nature can be so witty.

The trail ended up being over 5 1/2 miles, as the 3.2 mile marker was just at a convenient place to exit the trail. The path was a small dirt path that winded it’s way along the canyon, about two-thirds of the way up the canyon wall. There were beautiful cacti in bloom. There were little reptilian things running around. There were warnings of mountain lions becoming more aggressive towards humans, but we didn’t see any of those. Armed with a bottle of water and a camera each, we made our way along the canyon wall and across the patch of desert between the canyon and the visitor’s center. Come to find out it was 95 degrees when we got back to the Jeep.

“But it’s a dry heat.”, my favorite quote of the day.

We both survived the hike just fine and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. After lunch at BJ’s Brewery Restaurant (pics on the moblog) we headed to Phoenix.

Getting ready to hit the road.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl and I hit the road fairly early this morning, both suffering a little bit from jet lag. You wouldn’t really think that we would be affected by jet lag since we’re not flying on this trip at all, but nonetheless, passing through the time zones is confusing our biological clocks or something. I think I ate lunch before breakfast this morning, after showering during supper.

Anyways, we left Tucumcari, N.M. and headed west on I-40, getting to Albuquerque at lunch time. We opted for the Route 66 Diner on Central Avenue where I had the always healthy “Frito Pie”, a bowl full of chili, cheese and onions on top of a bed of Fritos.

Heaven.

Gut wrenching.

Yet tasty.

Burma Shave.

Following Bugs Bunny’s directions, we made a turn at Albuquerque and headed south on Interstate 25, passing through Socorro, which is the exit for the VLA or Very Large Array radio telescope where the movie “Contact” with Jodie Foster takes place. Earl and I visited the VLA back in ’01 so we waved a familiar hello to Socorro and continued on through Truth or Consequences and down to Hatch, where we cut through the desert on Highway 26 to Interstate 10.

From there we headed west on I-10, passing through some fabulous dust devils which were strong enough to knock the Jeep around a little bit and obscure our visibility better than a Lake Ontario snowstorm, but only for a few seconds. It was all good fun.

Before we knew it we were in Arizona, The Grand Canyon State.

Earl and I have been in Arizona a couple of times before, back in ’01 and then again in 2004. Like the previous visits, we’ve fallen in love with the climate, the geography and the natives and are hoping to retire here someday. We want to call Tucson or Phoenix home.

We arrived in Tucson and checked into our hotel around 6:00 Mountain Standard Time (another time change!) and headed to a local restaurant and bar called Rusty’s on Grant Rd. The restaurant had been recommended by the Hampton Inn desk staff and it was a good recommendation. We’d go back again without hesitation.

After dinner we headed to a local casino, where there were two blackjack tables and a couple of slot machines scattered about. It wasn’t as fast paced as we were used to, so we went a little further up the road and found a bigger casino. We took more money out than we brought in and for a change it was because of my winnings. A slot machine treated us well. Let’s hope the lucky streak continues.

Tomorrow morning or afternoon depending on any further change in time zones were are going to go to Sabino Canyon for a brisk walk before packing up the Jeep and heading to Phoenix for the weekend.

Earl and I have settled for the night in Tucumcari, New Mexico.

After a wonderful night’s sleep, due to the fact that we were in the Central Time Zone, which is perfectly in sync with my body’s time clock, Earl and I were up and about early this morning. Eager to make progress on the journey west, we hit I-44 early, leaving Lebanon, Missouri behind.

Our first stop was a little side trip to get some kicks on Route 66 between Joplin, Mo. and Galena, Kan. There wasn’t much going on in Galena except that we washed the Jeep at a local car wash. The owner stopped out to say hello and tried to carry on a conversation while I was getting change out of the change machine.

“Is your wife’s name ‘J.P.’?”, noticing our personalized license plate and my wedding ring.

“No, I’m J.P.”, I responded, worried that I was going to have to go all superhero on this guy.

“Is your wife’s name Earline?”, he persisted.

“No, my buddy’s name is Earl.” I never refer to Earl as my ‘buddy’, but I didn’t want to throw this guy into a stroke, heart attack or biblical tirade. He muttered an “oh” and started to walk away when I mentioned that we were driving across the country. He smiled and wished us luck.

After our brief journey into Kansas, we hopped back on I-44 and headed through Oklahoma, with a quick stop at Sonic outside of Tulsa, to Oklahoma City. It was original intention to stay there for the evening, but it was still early afternoon. We decided to forge on to Amarillo, Texas.

So we crossed through the plains and prairies of western Oklahoma and crossed into Texas. Earl and I both checked off Texas on our “states to do list” and proceeded on to Amarillo. After our encounter with Mother Nature, we plunged westward, arriving in Amarillo still wonderfully refreshed and eager to put more miles under our belt, er, tires.

So we continued west on Interstate 40. It’s kind of neat going from the flatlands of Texas into the high desert at the Texas-New Mexico border. You’re going along flat, flat, flat, flat with land stretching in every direction as far as the eye can see when all of a sudden at Texas milepost 15 or so you go down a curve and viola, the whole eastern half of the country is apparently on a plateau and you just dropped down into the desert. The scenery changes from browns to reds, the number of trees diminishes significantly and the temperature goes up 10 degrees.

It wasn’t long before we were in New Mexico.

The first ‘major’ town in New Mexico is about 40 miles west of the state line, so we decided to call it a night in Tucumcari. We had a wonderful supper at a local restaurant called “Del’s Family Restaurant” on Old Route 66. Best food and best service we’ve both had in *years*. If you’re ever in this area, this place is highly recommended. It’s super casual, the menu has a wonderful blend of American and Mexican food and the serving staff is very friendly. Two thumbs up from the jpnearl crowd.

Tomorrow we were suppose to spend the night in Albuquerque. I have a feeling we’re going to make it all the way to Tucson.

All Hail Texas.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl and I drove through Texas today as we continued west. Always on the lookout for wild weather, I was delighted to see storm clouds gathering ahead of us on Interstate 40 between McLean and Groom, Texas. There wasn’t a peep on the weather radio about any severe storm watches or warnings, but there was quite a bit of wind and lightning dancing across the sky.

As we made our way down the interstate, we ran into a downpour. It was raining quite hard and I had to actually turn the wipers on high (which I refer to as “hysterical”). It rained for a couple of miles and then the rain stopped, but the wind and the lightning continued.

Then we heard a “bam”, followed by another and then another until it sounded like popcorn was popping. We were being bombarded with hail and it was making quite a racket on the hood. At first Earl thought he could help hold the soft top in place until his hand was hit by a hail stone; then he decided the roof could fend for itself.

After a few miles of being pelted, we came upon an overpass which was very crowded with cars, motorcycles and tractor trailers. I pulled over to the left side and wedged myself the Jeep between a car and the middle bridge support. The cars were four wide underneath. It was then we discovered just how big the hail stones were.

We also discovered the ten or so new dents in the hood of the Jeep. Thank the universe the windshield survived. Others weren’t so lucky.

After the hail gave way to rain, we got off at the next exit for some much needed fuel. A family stopped in right behind us with a hail stone in a ziplock bag to put in the freezer for safe keeping.

The hail stone was larger than a softball. The locals said they had never seen one so large.

So while we didn’t get to experience a tornado while passing through the area, Mother Nature did give us a magnificent display of her power.

Earl and I have settled for the night at the Hampton Inn in Lebanon, Missouri. Earl had wrapped up his work obligations early, so we packed up the hotel room, jumped in the Jeep and headed west. Our original intention was to stop for the night in St. Louis, but since we were way ahead of schedule, we thought we’d keep on going until we got tired. We thought we’d make it to Springfield, Mo., another 200 or so miles beyond St. Louis. Well we made it as far as Lebanon, about 50 miles northeast of Springfield. It was getting a little foggy for driving, since neither of us have ever been on Interstate 44 in Central Missouri.

Earl snapped some pretty good pictures through St. Louis, he posted a really nice picture on his blog.

Mother Nature treated us to a couple of nice thunderstorms for the ride after St. Louis. She put on quite a lightning show and gave us some showers to slide around in. The weather kept me attentive to my driving but neither of us were nerved up or anything. I was able to enjoy the mild storm.

Now I’m going to plan out the route for the next couple of days and catching up on blogs. Tomorrow we hit the road fairly early, hoping to drive a bit and get our kicks on old Route 66.