Fun and Games Dept

Earl and I are staying in the Holiday Inn Express in Scottsbluff, Nebraska tonight. Since it’s only a one night stay, it’s a given that the only room available was the huge “Executive Suite”; three rooms of hotel goodness, complete with hot tub.

I think that’s the rule for those that travel: if you’re spending one night, you get the largest room in the place. Spend the week, get jammed in the broom closet or the room next to the elevator, take your pick.

Actually, I can’t complain at all as our rooms have been wonderful on this entire trip.

I had to remind Earl that he couldn’t go out on the “private” balcony in just a towel, after all, the balcony overlooks the lobby and front entrance to the building.

Coal Bank Pass, Colorado.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl and I trekked through the Rocky Mountains today, leaving Durango, Colorado around 9:00 a.m. MDT. The weather was pleasant in the low 50s and I wore the same clothes that I wore yesterday, so I was still in my “desert gear”.

As soon as we left Durango we started the climb up several mountain ranges along US 550, with our first summit at Coal Bank Pass. We pulled off at the tourist center (which was closed) and took a bunch of pictures. To get to the lookout point we needed to hike through about a foot of snow.

Wicked cool. Especially in “desert gear”.

After our first stop, we continued along up and down and winding all around. The scenery was breathtaking. I never expected the view to be as beautiful as it was. I will never look on the Adirondacks in the same way again, as now they are just really big hills.

We made our way to Grand Junction, Colo. and jumped onto I-70 east towards Denver. I-70 is somewhat of an engineering marvel, maintaining it’s status as an interstate freeway without intruding on the landscape as much as possible. Short tunnels, long bridges, sharp curves, steep grades and overlapping roadways make this a very fun road to drive. I highly recommend it.

Once in Denver, we headed north toward Cheyenne, stopping at a Texas Roadhouse for dinner and then jumping the state line into Nebraska, where we’ve set down roots for the night in Scottsbluff. Eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska have nothing but uninterrupted fields as far as the eye can see. And while much different than the mountains we passed through earlier today, I find the prairies to be quite beautiful as well.

Tomorrow we meet up with friends in Deadwood, South Dakota.

No Beauty Left Behind.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl and I left Phoenix around 9:00 a.m. MST and started the journey northward to our next planned destination, which is Deadwood, S.D. We originally planned on sticking to the interstates, going up to Flagstaff, over to Albuquerque and then up to Denver. However, about half way to Flagstaff we took a look at the map and decided it would be fun to go through Four Corners, where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah come together. There’s a monument there and everything and it would make a nifty picture to have me straddling two states holding Earl’s hands while he’s straddling the other two states. One of our legs would be an hour behind the rest. More on that in a moment.

We had a nice little lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Flagstaff (the name escapes me unfortunately) and then jumped on I-40 for a bit until we reached US 191 North. From there we drove across the wide open desert, drinking in the beauty and reveling in the desolation. Earl took a bunch of beautiful pictures, including the one pictured above.

After several hours, 5:08 p.m. Arizona Time to be precise, we arrived at “Four Corners National Monument.” I was ready to take this wonderful picture I’d been thinking about all afternoon.

The friggin’ place closed at 5:00 p.m. I don’t know if it closed at 5:00 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time (NM, CO, UT at that point) or Mountain Standard Time (AZ).

It’s so nice when we mess around with time, isn’t it? For example, I had a hamburger at 4:00 p.m. and belched it out at 3:05 p.m.

But I digress.

Anyways, the Four Corners National Monument is apparently on a Native American Reservation and they aren’t going to let you see this little manmade wonder unless you pay first. And they weren’t having any at 5:08 p.m. MST or MDT, we’re still not sure. There were several other tourists there, all equally disappointed that we couldn’t get into this unique piece of American geography enclosed in a “fee area”. Some ignored the fences and climbed passed the “No Trespassing” signs and hiked in, but Earl and I decided to skip that opportunity. We weren’t in the mood to spend the night in jail or pay an Indian fine that didn’t have the promise of a jackpot on it.

Not to be deterred, I took the first left once we were in Colorado and made a quick side trip to Utah. Once we snapped the obligatory photos, we headed back to Colorado and continued on to Durango, where we have installed ourselves in the Hampton Inn for the night. It’s decidely cooler here, but nowhere near uncomfortable in our “desert clothes”. Tomorrow we drive through the Rockies as we continue on to South Dakota. I’m looking forward to the experience.

The Shadow Over Phoenix.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl and I are packing up and getting ready to hit the road again. We were originally going to stay until this afternoon, but we’ve decided that while we’ve had an absolutely wonderful time with the other bears here in the desert, we are ready to move on to our next adventure. We met some wonderful people at our little stop in Phoenix and we look forward to following new found blogs and chatting/exchanging e-mail with our new friends.

Earl took this picture yesterday on South Phoenix Mountain. I love the creative look to it, especially the natural framing from the lookout tower. It has such a Frank Lloyd Wright feel to it. If you click on the picture and look on the biggest version, you’ll notice that you can see the Phoenix skyline in the background. Very cool.

Traveling through the desert has put me back in touch with my spiritual beliefs; the dancing of the desert wind, the sound of silence in a canyon, the natural beauty of it all, all of this has made me love the Universe, and myself, again. I am looking forward to taking a little piece of that grounded feeling home with me.

Today we head toward Flagstaff and then over to Albuquerque before starting north toward Deadwood, South Dakota. It looks like we’ll have a lot of desert scenery ahead of us today before moving up into the Rockies tomorrow.

South Phoenix Mountain.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl and I took a trek south of Phoenix today to the appropriately named South Phoenix Mountains. Or perhaps it’s just “mountain”. I’m not sure. Nevertheless, there’s a wonderful park that encompasses the area and there are countless outlooks with breathtaking views.

We had visited this park during our trip in 2003, in fact, somewhere on my hard drive is pictures of me doing yoga poses on one of the lookouts during a beautiful desert sunset. I’ll have to find those and post them someday.

Today has been another day of relaxation. The bear events included a pool party, which was good fun and tonight there’s a banquet and the usual bar hopping fun. We’re getting to know people and trading e-mail addresses and blog web addresses and whatnot. I don’t think this hotel has had so many computers in use at once before, the internet connection keeps crapping out. Hopefully this blog entry will make it to the site!

We haven’t decided if we’re heading to South Dakota tomorrow or early Monday morning; I guess it depends on how we feel when we get up.

I keep telling Earl how this is truly the trip of a lifetime for me; I am having the time of my life.

Earl and I haven’t done much today. And that’s on purpose. I just got back from lounging by the pool, soaking up some desert sun and trying to get rid of the “lily white”/pasty look I’m famous for.

It’s not working so well.

Now I’m medium rare, pink on the outside with a warm center. Having lived with this complexion for the past 37+ years, I know my fun in the sun limits, so I’m not worried about having a bad sunburn. I just won’t let it happen.

We did do a little bit of shopping, picking up a few shirts and pairs of shorts at a local Super K-mart (I miss Super K-mart. So much better than Super Wal*Mart). I also picked up a new pair of sunglasses as the pair I had picked up in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. back in March were making my nose break out. I guess that’s why they were only six bucks, the gritty nose piece was free of charge.

We also went to the laundromat and caught up on laundry in less than 90 minutes. Traveling light and occasionally doing laundry is so much easier than lugging a closet full of clothes in the back of the Jeep. The laundromat was clean and state of the art, requiring the use of an internal debit card that you recharge when needed, for all of the machines there. They had free wireless internet access too, I wish I had brought the PowerBook along. Who needs an internet cafe when you can do the same thing at the laundromat with a computer, a box of Tide and a bottle of Fresca?

Now I’m going to relax from relaxing in the sun and get ready for the evening festivities.

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.