Arizona - Red Rock Scenic Byway & AZ State Capitol

Mesa/Apache Junction KOA, Apache Junction

Sunday, 13 February 2022

It was seriously cold during our walks early this morning, feeling much colder than the forecast 22° suggested.  I was glad we were leaving for the warmer climate in southern AZ.

today's route

Today was another 200+ mile drive.  I know that doesn't sound like much, but on these roads it feels worse than it should be.  I took the interstate south, except for the detour on the Red Rocks Byway, and the road surface was really rough, not counting the snow and occasional ice still on the road.

Besides being rough, the road included 18 miles of downgrades - 4% to 6% per their signs - and dropped us 3,000' in elevation between Flagstaff and the beginning of AZ-179.

Red Rock Scenic Byway

This road is officially the Red Rock National Scenic Byway and has been designated an All-American Road.  It's just over 14 miles long and really was worth going back for.  It goes through The Village of Oak Creek, which has an HOA and seems to be incorporated somehow into Sedona, though they're 11 or 12 miles apart.  It looks wealthy, and probably is.  And it looks like its main industry is tourism, though they've kept that within scenic bounds so far.

I stopped to walk the dogs (luckily it was Sunday and I could park at a small mall that would, on a business day, have certainly kicked us out), and took photos of the scenery.  You can see that all these loom above the town/village, but I'm not sure what their names are.  I've labeled them as my best guesses from what I found on the internet, but there weren't any signs to tell me.

I don't know what these are, besides impressive.

I think this is Bell Rock.

I think this is Courthouse Butte.

The rocks along the roadway were mostly this same red color, so I was able to get my red rock fix.  This road was narrow, and lots of people seemed to be out early on Sunday to go hiking - lots of the parking areas along the way were full.

This 14-mile road consisted of 11 traffic circles at varying intervals.  Maybe they think this will slow down traffic, but each one also gives access to side roads.  They mean you have to stay alert on this drive.

I went up to Sedona, learning where I'd missed the turn in town the other day, and headed back down again.  I was interested to note that gasoline was cheaper in this Oak Creek Village than it had been in Flagstaff.

Back on the interstate, the hills were all white rocks.  From there, you'd never imagine all the red beauty that lies just over a hill or two along that road.

Back on the road

I've been noticing a lot of Alaska license plates lately.

The road passed from the Kaibab National Forest to the Prescott National Forest.  For having so much desert, Arizona has a lot of large national forests.

I had time to see a drawing on the back of a tractor-trailer that showed a man with an angry expression pointing at me, saying, "Did You Pray Today?"  I have a hard time understanding a religion that thinks people should be scolded into praying, but that's just my idea.

I noticed we were starting to see saguaro cactus along the road, telling me we were coming out of the mountains (even if all the __% grade next __ miles signs hadn't been a clue).

And I saw several of those yellow highway warning signs showing what looked like a mule or donkey and saying "next 20 miles."  Online I found that there are lots of wild burros in far northwestern AZ, but I couldn't find anything about them showing up in this area.

And then down in Phoenix, where the signs showed we were at 76°, about 20° to 30° warmer than if we'd stayed in Flagstaff.  The bougainvillea was blooming beautifully.

Arizona State Capitol and grounds

I've figured out why AZ politics are so squirrely: they don't have a state capitol.  The building that was originally built and used as the state capitol is now exclusively a museum.

Arizona Capitol Museum

That pretty building in the center is what was built in 1901 to be the state capitol.  As the state grew, the building became inadequate to house all the state functions, so the buildings on either side and behind were built.  This next photo is of the building behind.

I think the letters over the door say:
State Capitol Legislative Tower

As I understand it, the governor's office is also in this tower.  And these buildings - the tower and the 2 flanking the original capitol - have been sold by the state to private investors.  

In other words, Arizona doesn't have a capitol building that's the seat of their state government.  They've talked about building a new capitol, but so far it's just in the talking stage.

And now all the bizarre political behavior we've been seeing from AZ over the last few years seems to make sense.  How can you have a center of gravity as a state if you literally don't have a center?  With all the offices scattered out like this - and apparently these buildings are not aging gracefully (including the plumbing) - I'm not surprised politics are also so scattered around here.

It's really a shame.  Look at this beautiful building.

Wikipedia says the statue on top of the dome is a weathervane that's similar to the Winged Victory of Samothrace.  I have no idea why that would have been chosen.  The original is a 9' statue found on a Greek island north of the Aegean, dating back to the 2nd century BC.  It's supposed to represent Nike, the goddess of victory.  Okay.  The building's still beautiful.

Across the street, and covering 2 or 3 city blocks, is a grassy area that's filled with various memorials.  All kinds.  There's one to firefighters, for instance, and one to police dogs that died in the line of duty (a surprising number of them), and a peace officers memorial.  Then there were these.

The plaque on the side reads:
"In Honor of Those Who Served This Great Nation
in the Silent Service of Military Submarines
in the United States Navy."

This man lived a very long life, considering the
conditions of the time, and it sounds like it was
a very good life.

Father Albert Braun

I've never seen a Vietnam memorial like this.

According to a nearby plaque, this Korean bell is dedicated
to those Arizonans who gave their lives in the Korean War.

And finally, this 9/11 memorial.

The plaque is headed with a quote from then-Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani from 2001: "We met the worst of humanity with the best of humanity."  (What do you suppose happened to him that that person should have become the person he is today?)

You can see from the photos that there was a lot of nice green grass all over this area, so the dogs and I had a pleasant walk from one memorial to another.

From there I drove east past the suburb of Mesa to Apache Junction along Superstition Highway, which I think is named for the nearby Superstition Mountains.  I passed several official highway signs that flat-out lied.  One batch, for instance, said the exit I wanted to take was closed, so when I took an earlier one, it funneled me back onto the highway in time to take the supposedly closed exit.

I started seeing huge RV parks and mobile home parks, reminding me that Arizona is a prime spot for snowbirds and retirees.

Arizona - in Flagstaff

Flagstaff KOA, Flagstaff
Tuesday, 8 through Saturday, 12 February 2022

(The font is weird because I couldn't pick up an internet signal for hours this morning, either on the campground's wifi or on my hot spot.  So I wrote this on my computer's word processing program.)

For several days, I saw 3 couples staying in the campground, each couple with 2 big dogs.  I couldn’t help but be a little envious that none of them had to manage both dogs at once.  Walking mine is not a relaxing event, what with both of them wanting to go different directions at different speeds and do different things when they get there.  But I can’t imagine not having them, either, and do not look forward to the day when Gracie will die from that probable brain tumor.  She’s still falling down now and then, but I can see she’s still happy.  And she never loses an opportunity to get dirty.

a sample of her no-longer-black coat

We went into town one day so I could get my second shingles shot.  I got the first back in Utah, where they told me I’d need to wait a few months to get the second.  I was pretty proud of myself for remembering.  Of course I got lost getting there because the streets weren’t labeled as I’d expected them to be, and of course I had trouble finding a safe place to turn around in, but we made it.

I  went back to Bushmaster Park so the dogs could walk.  Some folks were playing tennis (temps in the mid-50s!) and I was almost stunned that Gracie didn’t seem to mind it at all.  In the past, the sound of the tennis ball ponging back and forth has sent her into a frenzy of fear where Dext and I would have trouble keeping up with her mad dash in another direction.  But not today.  I do hope that’s a sign that at least some of her early fears are finally starting to dim.

In the park I saw an official sign saying: "Possession or Consumption of Spirituous Liquor Prohibited."  I've never seen that idea phrased quite like that.

And we stopped by a laundromat, where I went so I could wash my comforter in their bigger-than-normal machines.

I’ve been having a lot of trouble with what you might call heartburn lately.  Probably the result of all that extra weight I gained in Dallas, but it still meant I was having to use 3 pillows to prop my head up at night, and sleep with my head at the foot of the bed because the slant of my campsite raised that end higher than the head.  Given my history of stomach ulcer and pre-cancerous esophagus condition, I of course started worrying.  A check of my old calendars made me realize I haven’t had an endoscopy done since Toledo, OH, almost 2 years ago.  So I decided to locate myself near Tucson and found a gastroenterologist there who agreed to take me next week (instead of waiting until April or some other future month).

To keep that appointment, I made travel plans to get down there.  I went through my list of places to visit while in Arizona and made a short list of those I definitely didn’t want to miss.

The only place in Phoenix that was a must-see for me was the state capitol building, and the only place in Tucson that ditto was the Saguaro National Monument, and I wanted to look for the Red Rock Scenic Byway on the way south, so I planned a driving route and places to stay to fit those places in.

The Tucson KOA was one of those enormous places that charges a lot and refuses to guarantee a campsite near a dog park or dog walk – so I opted to go back to the Benson KOA where I stayed when I first came to Arizona in December.

And while I was in Flagstaff, I spent an entire morning figuring out who to vote for on my primary ballot.  Since I vote in Texas, I always vote in the Republican primary, figuring the one who wins that contest will most likely be the winner of the general election (this being Texas).  It was a very long ballot and took me hours to look up each of the candidates for each of the offices – and a surprising number of them didn’t have anything like an official website, making it harder to figure out what kind of people they were and what they purported to stand for.

Once I’d gotten done with that (including a break to walk the dogs, because it was taking so long), then I had to figure out how to follow the convoluted instructions for mailing the ballot.  They changed the procedure and added new requirements for what to put on the ballot envelope, so I had to be careful.  I’ve read since then that those convoluted measures are exactly what’s causing many absentee ballots to be rejected.

I have a college eddication and still had trouble; and let’s face it, lots of voters using absentee ballots are elderly (we’re almost the only ones allowed to vote absentee in Texas now) and may also not be literate enough to figure out the directions.  I really hated the hoops they were making me jump through to exercise my right to vote.  And nobody can tell me these hoops will make the voting process safer or less open to fraud.  I vote in Collin County, which was one of the 4 counties that were selected to get a special audit to locate fraud in the 2020 election (the only one not heavily Democratic), so I know for certain fraud wasn’t the driving factor in these stupid ballot requirements.  Grrr.

Arizona - Grand Canyon and Sunset Crater Volcano

Flagstaff KOA, Flagstaff

Thursday, 10 February 2022

today's route

I misunderstood the directions for getting out of Flagstaff and ended up creating a shortcut by taking roads I'd already traveled on.  Guess that means I've been doing a lot of driving around town.  I left at 7:35 because Google said it'd take me nearly 2 hours to get to the Grand Canyon, meaning it might take me longer, and I wanted to be there before the main lot of tourists started showing up.  (And it did take me almost exactly 2 hours.)

But leaving at that hour meant I was driving in rush-hour traffic, Flagstaff's version.  The route I took went past several schools, including lowered speed limits and school buses and parents dropping kids off, as well as the adults going to the University of Northern Arizona, which I also passed.

Flagstaff is home to a senior living facility called The Peaks, that bills itself as "a Montessori-inspired approach to assisted living."  It's won some national awards for excellence.  I tried hard to figure out from their website what that "Montessori-inspired" program consisted of and still have no idea.  

I saw a bumper sticker that said: "Keep Calm and Let Karma Finish It."  Now that's my kind of attitude.

On the drive north I passed many miles of snow, making me glad I'd waited a few days before making this trip.

I went through parts of Coconino National Forest and Kaibab National Forest, through areas of high plains desert (I think that's what it is) with cactus, juniper and low grass.

From town (elev. 7,000') the road climbed to more than 8,000', then dove with an 8% grade over a 3-mile stretch back down to the 7,000' elevation of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  (The North Rim sits at 8,000'.)

Grand Canyon National Park

Visitors from around the world are drawn to this canyon,  which is unique in the world because of its width, depth, length, variety of colors in its layers and its many side canyons.  It's 277 miles long, 18 miles wide at its widest point, and 6,000' deep (more than a mile) at its deepest point, though the average depth throughout its length is about 4,000'.  

All very impressive stats, but to me what's fascinating about this place is the staggering size and beauty of it.  My photos don't do it justice because the early morning sunlight wasn't bringing out the colors as much as I've seen them.

my only photo that includes the river

I took those last 2 photos on the drive east from the main visitor area.  It's remarkable to me how this canyon isn't what you might call a one-shot-wonder - it's not incredible in just a small area but instead is incredible for nearly 300 miles.

I took a video, hoping it might help show some of the grandeur of this place.

Sadly, all it really shows me is that you can't imagine what this place is like without actually seeing it for yourself.  But I tried.

At the visitor center there were exhibits that explained all those layers of rock.  I had trouble getting these photos because of the angle of the sun, but I think you can read them.

These first 3 are part of an exhibit labeled: Formation of Rock Layers.

These next 4 are from an exhibit called: Geology of Grand Canyon.

I'm no geologist and don't understand anything on those diagrams except the age.  But it doesn't take a genius to figure out that 1,840 million years ago was a long time.  What an amazing place this is.

I'd parked in Parking Lot #1 (it has RV parking), and it's called the Raven lot.  So it was no surprise to me to see several Ravens hanging around the area.  I heard a small boy say to his parents, "Look at that huge bird!  I hadn't thought about it but a Raven is about a third the size of a young boy, which would look a lot bigger to him than, say, a sparrow.

As I walked the dogs around the area, Dexter pointed out to me a Mule Deer in lot #2.  Surprisingly, that's all he did.  No barking, no lunging.  He's going to become well-behaved if he's not careful.

I was delighted to see receptacles for recycling.  I asked at the visitor center and they told me they accept even glass, so I dumped everything here.  Such a relief to get rid of it all.

I drove another 52 miles, mostly alongside the canyon, heading east, then picking up US 89 to go south to a couple of other national monuments.

Wupatki and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monuments

These 2 places are right next to each other and are managed as one by the National Park Service, including a scenic drive that took me through both areas.  The way they see it, it's important to recognize the interdependence of the environment and the people who live there.

Apparently, around the 700s or 800s (AD), Wupatki people began moving into this area to farm.  Scientists think they were warned by earth tremors to vacate the area when, between 1040 and 1100, nearby Sunset Crater erupted.  As it happened, the thin layer of ash from the volcano's eruption actually improved the farming by absorbing moisture and preventing evaporation, plus the climate change resulted in more rainfall.  By 1180, there were thousands of people living and farming here.

These monuments protect both the remains of pueblos from the farming community and the volcano itself.  Before this, looters took souvenirs from the lava flows and the archeological sites.  According to the Park Service, in 1928, filmmakers who wanted to create a landslide at Sunset Crater inspired activists to convince Pres. Hoover to protect the area by declaring it a monument, which he did in 1930.

Sunset Crater is a cinder cone volcano, like the Capulin Volcano I saw in New Mexico.  I was too tired to visit any of the pueblo remains, but I couldn't miss the volcano since the road went right by it.

Sunset Crater Volcano

What began as a crack in the Earth's surface resulted in this 1,000' high volcano.  All that black stuff is cinders from the eruption more than a thousand years ago.  In fact, there were cinders all over that area.

cinder field

I drove past many places like this.  You can see from these photos that plants have started to come back in the area, but those cinders are going to take a lot more time before the lichens can break them down enough to support life.

When we stopped at one of the visitor centers, I was walking the dogs and saw a kind of sparrow I hadn't seen before.  I was lucky enough to run across a park ranger who knew what it was.

Sagebrush Sparrow

Cute little guys.  There were a bunch of them and I rarely saw them fly.  Instead they skittered across the ground from one bush to another, never leaving cover for long.

Ever since leaving the Grand Canyon I was dealing with strong squirrely winds.  Down here, they weren't just blowing tumbleweeds across the road - they were shooting them up into the air maybe as high as 10'.  It was weird to drive through areas like that.

And then back to Flagstaff.  A nice day, though a tiring one.  It was a 223-mile drive, up and down hills, partly in the snow.  Too bad the dogs couldn't get as tired out as I did.

Arizona - trip to Sedona

Flagstaff KOA, Flagstaff

Wednesday, 9 February 2022

today's route

I had 2 directions I wanted to go while I was staying in Flagstaff, and Sedona and Montezuma Castle National Monument were those in the south.  We were still getting below-freezing temps at night, but today was forecast to be in the mid-50s, so I decided to put off the Grand Canyon for one more day and hope the ice will have melted from the roads when I go north.

Of course I took the scenic route - AZ-89A - that runs right through the town of Sedona, and was once more thankful I'd chosen a small RV.  A sign at the beginning of this highway prohibited any vehicles over 40' for the next 40 miles, which gave me a sneak preview of the kind of road to expect.  It's called Sedona-Oak Creek Canyon Scenic Road, because it ran through beautiful Oak Creek Canyon on its way down to Sedona (how do they think of these things?).

There were lots of hills and Ponderosa pines, patches of snow in the fields and frost here and there on the roadway.  Then I came to a "7% grade, next 3 miles," followed by 7 switchbacks, 5 of them hairpin turns.  So yeah, no long vehicles needed here.

This whole area is part of the Coconino National Forest, running from north of Flagstaff south to the Tonto National Forest.  I passed several Forest Service campgrounds, one of them full; Slide Rock State Park, elev. 5,000'; a batch of resorts, homes, other places to stay; and lots of red rocks.

And then the town of Sedona, with 9,684 residents per the 2020 census.  I remembered coming through here in 2008 with my friend Paula when I was moving from the Seattle area south to Austin with 2 dogs and 2 cats (sadly, none of them the same ones making today's trip).  I remember lots of stunningly red rocks, and lots of narrow lanes from road construction - a problem because I was renting an RV and had never driven such a wide vehicle before.  It was here that I hit one of the orange cones in the road and worried the rental people would dock me for the damage, which actually turned out not to be visible so okay.

Anyway, I wanted to go back and round out my memory.  The red rocks are still there, but I was stunned at how very expensive and tourist-y the town looks.  I don't know where they find people to work in all those tourist shops and businesses, because I'm sure those folks don't get paid enough to afford the houses I saw.  All very attractive, but not the sort of place I want to spend much time in, so we kept going.

And it was then that I made a big mistake.  I'd planned to pick up the Red Rock Scenic Byway from the town, figuring I'd see more red rocks along a road with a name like that.  Somehow I missed the turn and ended up on the Dry Creek Scenic Road instead.  I was reassured by passing Red Rock State Park, but I ended up going about 20 miles down a road I hadn't intended to drive down that wasn't nearly as beautiful as I'd expected to find.  I was finally suspicious enough that I pulled over and looked at the map and found that yes, the town of Cottonwood, which I'd just reached, was on the wrong road.  But it looked like I could still salvage my travel plans by going from there on a different road and still get to Montezuma Castle National Monument.  There was even a highway sign telling me I could.

But once I'd made the turn onto that road, well, that was the last time I saw a sign mentioning the monument.  I went for miles and miles with no hints about where I was or how far still to any place.  I wasn't even positive about which road I was on.  It was very disorienting and frustrating and finally made me mad.  Okay, I made a mistake, but why couldn't they bother to put up even one sign to tell me where I was somewhere along all those miles?  I was getting almost as peeved with AZ's highway department as I had been with NM's.

Finally, we did in fact get to the visitor center for Montezuma Castle National Monument.  And there I discovered they were charging $10/person and the parking lot was almost full.  I walked the dogs around the parking lot, fixed lunch for everybody, walked the dogs again, and decided I just didn't want to find out whether my Golden Age pass would get me past that $10 fee and then go walking around in the rocks where I couldn't take my dogs.

Montezuma Castle, established in 1906, was the 3rd national monument created to preserve Native American artifacts.  It protects a 20-room high-rise building carved into a limestone cliff and is probably fascinating to visit.

an internet photo of Montezuma Castle

But not for me, at least not today.  Some place to come back to next visit.

From there I decided to take the interstate back to Flagstaff, and that turned out to be not as fast a route as I'd've expected.  I traveled from Camp Verde (near the monument) at 3,150' all the way up to Flagstaff at 7,000' in about 55 miles.  Quite a stiff climb, complete with a chain-up area (which we luckily didn't need today).

I was surprised at how very many Washington state license plates I was seeing in AZ.  

Back in Flagstaff, I took the dogs back to Bushmaster Park for a walk, then stopped by the Safeway, where I was surprised to find their selection was much better than it'd been at Fry's.  And then back to the campground.

I took a close look at the map and decided when I go south to the Phoenix area in a few days I'll try to find the south end of Red Rock Scenic Byway and take it north to Sedona and figure out where I went wrong, besides seeing the scenery I missed today.  I learned way back in Utah that I'm just a sucker for red rocks and it'd be a shame to miss these.

returning to Flagstaff - a more winding road than I expected

I planned to take the drive back to Flagstaff in fairly short hops, afraid to strain my eyes too much.  I made reservations for the first night in Abilene, 3 hours from David and Anna's house; then I planned to stay 5 nights in Lubbock; then 1 night each in Tucumcari, Bernalillo, Grants, then on to Holbrook in AZ for a night, ending in Flagstaff - a 10 day trip in all.  Instead, the trip took me almost 2 full weeks, thanks to the winter weather.

Wednesday, 26 January 2022

Abilene KOA, Abilene

Dallas to Abilene

The only eventful part of this drive was trying to get out of Dallas in one piece.  I was driving down Loop 12 in town, minding my own business, when someone with a large truck and overhanging mirrors smashed into my right-hand mirror.  That effectively rendered me blind on that side, which meant I couldn't move into the right lane to find somewhere to pull off the road and fix it.  

Loop 12 is a very busy 4-lane road normally, and there was still some leftover rush hour traffic to boot.  Since I couldn't turn right, I turned left the first chance I had, which turned out to be a mandatory entrance to the Dallas North Tollway.  And the first exit off that was all the way down to Mockingbird Lane, even more in the heart of town - and the old part of town, heavily residential with narrow streets and lots of old trees.  (Trees are hard for me to negotiate because my sides are taller than they're usually pruned.)  I still couldn't turn right, so I turned left when I got off the tollway and took the first left turn I could find that was on a street wide enough for my RV.  And from there I turned left again onto a residential street to get out of traffic and - finally - was able to stop and readjust my mirror.  

It actually took me 2 more days before I finally got it back to its original position, but at least I could see some of what was on my right side.  Very scary situation.  Back in the old days, when I drove a passenger car that had windows all around, I had no idea how luxurious all that range of vision was.

The only other thing of note from today's drive was a billboard I saw between Cisco and Abilene.  It said:

            Stop Gun Violence

              Protect Yourself

     Get A Concealed Gun Permit

The lack of logic in that message is breathtaking.

That drive, that Google said would take me just over 3 hours, actually took me 6 hours.  But that's because most of it was on an interstate, and I don't like going faster than 65 mph, while Google's calibrated to the 75 mph speed limit I guess.

Thursday, 27 January 2022

Lubbock KOA, Lubbock

Abilene to Lubbock

The route I actually took that's shown on the map isn't the one I was supposed to take.  I missed a turn in Abilene and ended up on a road I wasn't supposed to be on.  Fortunately, I figured it out after not every long, stopped to look at my trusty AAA map, and turned onto an alternate road that likely didn't result in many extra miles.  That's what I get for not paying attention to my directions.

During my (4) month(s) in Texas, I somehow didn't get to Abilene, so this whole area was new to me, as you can see from the blue line.  Not that I saw anything different.  This area is still West Texas and, let's face it, West Texas looks like itself pretty much all over.

Driving through the town of Post, pop. 5,376, I passed the Garza County Courthouse and was surprised to see a statue in front showing a man sitting in a chair.  People in statues are usually shown standing so I was curious about this one.  I didn't stop but found this information online.   http://texasescapes.com/Garza-County-Courthouse-Post-TX  That statue turns out to be C. W. Post, of breakfast cereal fame.  The town was named after him because he helped organize it.

I remember seeing information about Mr. Post when I was in Michigan (see my post from July 12, 2019) and started to wonder what was he doing down here in West Texas if he was busy manufacturing cereal in Michigan.  I found the Wikipedia page about him and learned that he lived a fairly bizarre life, treating many other people in a fairly despicable fashion.   https://en.wikipedia.org/C.W.-Post  Not the sort of person who would these days get a statue (2 statues actually, 1 in MI and 1 in TX) erected without a lot of public controversy.

This whole area is resource-based: farming, ranching, wind, oil.  There are of course a few decent-sized cities out here - Lubbock, for instance, has 264,544 residents - but it's still very sparsely populated.  And I guess that's because there's just so dadgummed much land out here.

Friday, 28 January through Monday, 31 January 2022

Lubbock KOA, Lubbock

I planned to stay the extra nights here mainly because I wanted to go next to Tucumcari, which I didn't get to during my month in New Mexico.  The Tucumcari KOA was closed for the month of January, so I decided to wait until February 1st so I could stay there.  Besides, I thought I might need some extra time to get us all used to the idea of being back on the road again, and we've stayed here before and found it comfortable.

I heard on the radio that the National Butterfly Center, that I passed in McAllen but didn't make time for, has closed for the weekend.  Some QAnon folks are having a conference nearby and claim that this Center is part of an operation that traffics kids across the border with Mexico.  The Center director heard about threats against the Center and against her personally.  In fact, the friend who alerted her suggested she carry a gun or leave town - pretty alarming suggestions for someone who spends her life protecting butterflies.  So they decided to close the Center temporarily.

This didn't make sense to me (a lot of QAnon stuff doesn't) so I looked it up and learned 2 things.  One is that Trump's border wall was supposed to go right through the Center's grounds, cutting it in pieces, so they've been resisting it, which made the QAnon folks suspicious and actually believing they were ferrying kids across the Rio Grande on boats at their property.  The other is that there's a project in the Philippines rescuing trafficked kids, who are called "butterflies."  That information came up on Bing immediately under the first article about the Butterfly Center closing, so I wondered if a few weeks ago someone had done a similar search for the Center and decided this Philippines stuff was related.  You know, butterflies = trafficked kids, making the McAllen Center a front for child trafficking, if you have a brain that rejects logic.

[I've since heard the Center's closed indefinitely, until they can figure out how to provide adequate security for the staff and grounds.  I found this NY Times article about it, if you're interested.   https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/06/butterfly-center-tx]

Gracie is still falling over from time to time, but at least she's starting to get in and out of the RV on her own.  That might be the glucosamine at work on her joints.

The window over the sink came apart while I was here.  I was able to put it back together, but I'm no longer able to prop it open.  I only have 3 windows that open (not counting those in the cab that don't have screens): the big one by the table, the medium one by the bed, and the small one by the kitchen sink.  Losing that one makes getting a cross-breeze much harder, and also makes it hard to vent cooking odors.  One of these days I'll get an RV place to fix it properly.

I hadn't used the laundry facilities when I'd been here before, so I was dismayed during this visit to discover that they operated only by credit card.  There wasn't even an option for using actual money or for getting some kind of pass card at the office.  It was a credit card or don't do laundry.  I was really peeved, especially because they hadn't warned us even on the door to the laundry room, let alone in their instructions for guests.  So my VISA bill for that period includes 4 charges of $1.75 each.

The Tucumcari KOA had told me to check the weather before calling them for a reservation, because the interstate is sometimes closed in the winter, they said.  I ended up spending a lot of time trying to figure out whether I'd be able to beat the winter weather that was forecast for early February.  The Tucumcari folks told me to come on ahead, that they'd be open, but I could see that there was weather coming up.

Tuesday, 1 February 2022

Tucumcari KOA, Tucumcari

Tucumcari NM. . .

. . . from Lubbock TX

I took a route from Lubbock that I hadn't taken before, heading into the Panhandle (which the AAA map separates from the rest of the state for lack of room), and then west into New Mexico.

Today begins the Lunar New Year, and this year is the Year of the Tiger.  Apparently it's the equivalent to the astrological sign of Aquarius and shares many characteristics.  

I passed cows, grassland, cotton, crops, hay bales in fields.  Lots of dairies and dairy cows.  Twice I saw a whole herd of cows grazing in fields by the road - and the fields weren't fenced.  The town of Springlake (pop. 108) is proud of Springlake Potatoes.  I don't think of potatoes being a Texas crop, somehow.

Near Amarillo, I started picking up an NPR station that called itself High Plains Public Radio - they were broadcasting from Kansas.  I'd forgotten that up in the TX Panhandle I was closer to Kansas than to most of Texas.

And when that reception stopped coming, I found lots of religious stations.

As I crossed the NM border, I saw a sign so large it completely crossed the interstate, and it said, "Welcome to New Mexico - Land of Enchantment."

A little way farther along I saw a billboard that said:

      #1 in Nuclear Weapons

      Child Welfare - #49

                 New Mexico Leadership Failure

I'd forgotten how much I don't care for NM road conditions.  Even on the interstate the road surface was lousy and, combined with a strong wind, it made driving hard.

I really wanted to push on to Albuquerque, which was less than 3 hours farther along the road.  The weather forecast was for snow to begin overnight, and I figured it'd be easier to make the trip today.  But this was only my 3rd day for wearing my contact lenses since my eye appointments and I didn't want to push it.  Plus I needed groceries and propane and needed to dump my waste tanks, and I didn't want to be doing all that tonight in ABQ.  I was now on Mountain Time and farther north, so sunset was an hour earlier than it'd been in Lubbock.  So, for better or worse, I stopped in Tucumcari.  

I stopped at a tire shop because I'd been hearing a noise from my right rear tires.  They told me the repair job someone did on it long ago to keep the mud flap from interfering with the tires had stopped being repaired.  The mud flap had worn down so far from rubbing up against the tires that it was just a nubbin.  They took it off for me.  And I got groceries and filled up with gasoline.  The entrance ramps to businesses in Tucumcari were so steep that, even when I tried hard to find the best ramp, I still dragged bottom over and over.  Do they think everybody has a high clearance vehicle?

There weren't many folks in the campground overnight besides some long-term campers.

Wednesday, 2 February 2022

Albuquerque North/Bernalillo KOA, Bernalillo

Tucumcari to Bernalillo

So it did snow overnight, and it kept on snowing for much of the day.  As a result, the 3-hour drive per Google actually took me about 6 hours.

I had trouble sleeping during the night and finally got up at 2:00, only to realize hours later that I was then on Mountain Time and I'd gotten up at 1:00.  But by then it was too late to go back to bed.  You'd think that'd be a drawback for this drive, but I got so much adrenaline from the driving conditions it worked out fine.

The overnight snow wasn't much, and I don't worry about driving in snow anyway (just ice).  Still, there was a strong crosswind, so instead of going 75 mph I went 60 mph and turned on my emergency flashers.  As the day went on, I saw that I wasn't the only doing that.  Conditions went from not so bad to pretty terrible.

Many of the bridges had been sanded, which was a relief to me.  And although it continued to snow, it wasn't always heavy.  But I ran into a problem when my windshield wipers developed a coating of ice, so they couldn't be very effective at clearing my windshield.  And water kept streaming across my field of view that I couldn't deal with.  On top of which, I found my windshield washer fluid wouldn't squirt.  I thought the guys hadn't topped it off at my last oil change like they said they did, though I learned later the squirter or something had just frozen.

Around Santa Rosa, not quite halfway to ABQ, all traffic started going between 30 mph and 40 mph.  At first I thought there was a snowplow ahead, but I never saw one and the snow didn't seem to be cleared from the road.  It was just that even the semi drivers didn't want to go very fast.  By then, the roads were getting a little slushy and the snow accumulation was getting deeper, while the road became more winding and hilly.  Maybe that's all it was.

I passed a car that was upside down and way off the road.  Two other cars had stopped by the side of the road with their flashers on, and 4 people were walking back to the car, including a woman who had a blanket slung around her shoulders, but no coat.  I didn't see anyone in the upturned car and wondered why these folks had stopped.

Farther on I passed 2 semis on the shoulder with one of them almost jackknifed.

I learned later that today there were 2 serious accidents on the other side of the highway in this general area.  One was a multi-vehicle crash that resulted in at least 1 death, and the other started with 2 semis colliding that likely caused the multi-car pile-up behind them, and that resulted in 2 more deaths.  Traffic ended up being diverted into Santa Rosa.  I didn't see any of this and maybe it hadn't happened when I went through the area.  But I could sure see how it might have happened, given the conditions on my side of the road.  The state patrol kept begging people to stay home, and I'd've been glad to if I had a home I could stay in.  As it was, I kept going in my slow careful way to tonight's campground.

We stopped in Moriarty to take a much-needed break, and the dogs got to run around in the snow in the park there.  Then it started snowing again, so we kept on heading west.  Oddly, by the time we got in the vicinity of Bernalillo, the roads were completely clear.  Either it hadn't snowed there at all or it had all melted by about 12:30.  

It may not have snowed earlier, but once we got settled in the campground, it started up.  By 2:45 I noticed an accumulation had started, and by 5:00 it was snowing heavily.

Today was Groundhog's Day.  I understand Punxsutawney Phil predicted 6 more weeks of winter.  Today sure looked like that was reasonable.

Thursday, 3 February through Friday, 4 February 2022

Albuquerque North/Bernalillo KOA, Bernalillo

I'd intended these 2 days would be spent getting to Grants, and then to Holbrook, but that didn't happen.

When I got up this morning, there was 4" to 5" of snow on the picnic tables with a heavy layer of ice underneath.  I checked NM's website about road conditions and learned that the last place I wanted to be was out on I-40, thanks to lots of ice coating the road for miles.

So I called the next 3 campgrounds to change my reservations, first to move them over one day, and then on Friday calling back to move them over still another day because the ice situation hadn't improved much.  The Grants KOA told me that when their FedEx guy brought their delivery, he reported he'd driven to ABQ this morning to pick up his delivery load and, on the way, he'd seen more than 20 semis that had slid off the road.  I was sure glad I'd decided to stay over.

On Thursday, Dexter decided to liven things up first by vomiting twice on the passenger seat (fortunately covered with a towel) and on all 3 beds that were stacked between the seats - while I was still cleaning up one of the beds, he threw up on the next one down, and when I picked that up to clean it, he threw up on the bottom bed.  It took me a long time to clean it all up, though I actually couldn't really clean it up because I couldn't take the beds outside because everything was covered with snow.  It was an awful experience, because of course it smelled bad and I'm overweight now and I was wearing extra clothes because of the cold weather so it was hard to bend over, plus my asthma/coughing was extra bad all day.  Then I had to take the trash out because the contents smelled so bad, only to find that I was out of trash bags.  One of those days.

Of course, vomiting wasn't Dext's only trick.  He also had several big liquid bowel movements that were really hard to clean up - I mean all I could do was try to scoop up the snow and that didn't always take care of it.  What an incredible mess.  He'd obviously eaten something he shouldn't have, and he never wants to listen to me tell him not to eat whatever he's found on our walks.

Speaking of walks, it was taking me at least 10 minutes to get dressed for them.  I was wearing long underwear under my jeans and I put on long heavy socks over them but under my rubber boots.  Then over my t-shirt I wore a thin insulated vest Anna gave me, then a heavy flannel shirt, then a heavy sweatshirt, plus a wool scarf, then a fleece jacket topped by a heavy vest I bought in Connecticut when it got really cold during my month there, and then a hat and mittens.  I had trouble moving after I got dressed, making me think of those old cartoons showing a little kid all bundled up and not being able to move.  It seemed to take as long to get dressed/undressed as it did to walk.

The internet kept going down or being ultra-slow or not being available at all.  I guess it was the weather but it sure made things harder.

My skin has gotten so dry that on Thursday the skin next to the nail on my right index finger split open so it looks like I sliced it with a knife.  I finally had to bandage it up because it kept splitting open and bleeding.  The humidity these days is in the neighborhood of zero, despite all that precipitation sitting outside.  And on Friday my cuticles and knuckles started breaking open, just because they were dry and not because I'd touched them or anything.  Weird.

Also on Friday my water stopped working.  My pump was trying and the tank was full, but nothing was coming out.  It reminded me of having no water a year ago during that Deep Freeze that Texas (and I) lived through.  What a mess.

The good news was that, even though the air temps were near freezing, the sun was warm and helped to thaw things during the day.  I figured it'd be safe for me to get back on the road again on Saturday, as long as I didn't leave the campground too early in the morning.

Saturday, 5 February 2022

Grants KOA, Grants

Bernalillo to Grants

Thanks to yesterday's sunshine, I was able to scrape the ice off various RV parts, which was a relief.  And I'd no sooner gotten on the highway than the frig started beeping at me.  I have no idea what makes it decide it's time to beep.  I don't think we went over any particular bumps or jerked around or anything.  It just decided it couldn't figure out where its power source was coming from and insisted I take care of it immediately.  So very irritating.

The KOA sits 14 miles north of I-40 just off I-25.  As I drove south on I-25 - relieved to notice that the road was completely clear despite all the snow and ice we'd had - I saw a very large windowless building off to the right labeled "I-25 Studios."  Turns out it belongs to NBC and they're offering it for use in filming projects.  Not sure why ABQ was a good location for this but I'm sure they had a plan.

I'd originally planned some sightseeing on the way to Grants - places I'd missed during my month in NM because I didn't make it out to Grants or Gallup.  A few miles east of Grants is the Malpais National Monument, and down their scenic drive is access to La Ventana Natural Arch ("la ventana" meaning the window in Spanish), one of the largest natural arches in NM.  The drive from Bernalillo to Grants is such a short one that I figured I could usefully spend some time on a side trip.  But even though the main highway turned out to be completely clear of snow and ice, I was pretty sure the side roads into the national monument wouldn't be so great.  A shame to have to miss it a second time, but I'll be sure to make the third time the charm.

an internet photo of La Ventana Natural Arch

I left Bernalillo at 9:40 and didn't get to the Grants KOA until 4 hours later, including a stop at a grocery store.  There wasn't anything wrong with the roads; I just wanted to take the drive carefully.

And good news - by the time I'd gotten into the campground, I found my water had thawed again!  Such an event, running water.  We've gotten so spoiled.

When I was getting groceries, I heard a couple of women talking who had both been waitresses before the pandemic.  One was the check-out clerk at the grocery store and the other a customer, and both agreed decidedly that they were happy to no longer be waiting tables and wouldn't go back to it willingly.  Sometimes I think the people who moan about all the jobs going unfilled are the same ones who haven't done those kinds of jobs and have no idea what incredibly hard work they are for not a lot of money.  I've waitressed before, and I'd do it again if I was hungry but not before that.

I learned a couple of things during our stay here.  One is that the town was named for 3 Canadian brothers named Grant, who had a contract to build part of the Atlantic and Pacific railway line through here. 

The other is that the KOA is home to what was once a volcanic bubble, and there's still a large mound of volcanic rubble at the site, fenced off from the rest of the campground.  All of these photos were taken at my eyesight level, which I hope will show you how tall they are.

The campground's rules include one that says to please not take these rocks home - they already have a home here.

Another of their rules says open campfires, fireworks and gunshots must be kept inside your RV or tent, which is an interesting way of pointing out that nobody wants these activities near them.

Sunday, 6th February 2022

Holbrook KOA, Holbrook

Grants NM to Holbrook, AZ

The Grants KOA still had some snow (as you could see in one of the photos above) and ice around the campground.  My water froze again overnight, and all I could do was hope it thawed out again after a few hours in the sun.  In case there was still some on the roads as well, I didn't leave town until after 10:00 this morning.

A short way along the road the frig started beeping again.  I guess it's just the rough NM roadways that's doing it.

I stopped in Gallup again, this time doing a better job of finding a place for us to stop and walk and eat lunch.  Where I parked was near a bank building that was closed for Sunday.  I saw a young woman and her dog sitting on the sidewalk there and I'm pretty sure the young woman was on some kind of serious drugs from the way she was acting, her coordination and so forth.  She had some food from somewhere and ate, though her dog didn't.  When I left she was sleeping on the sun-warmed sidewalk, as was the dog, and there was litter all over from her lunch.  I worried about both of them a lot but couldn't figure out what I could do to help.

As I was leaving town, I couldn't find any signs telling me where to turn to get on I-40 W.  Once again I ended up going several miles out of the way, turning around only with great difficulty, before heading back to the highway.  There really weren't any signs - I looked for them specifically.

Then Welcome to Arizona - The Grand Canyon State.  I got to Holbrook, elev. 5,000', where I'd stopped when I was last in AZ in December.

Monday, 7 February 2022

Flagstaff KOA, Flagstaff

Holbrook to Flagstaff

Google said this drive wouldn't last much beyond an hour so I decided to run some errands before going to tonight's campground.

I stopped at Fry's Foods, but this time found a jam-packed parking lot and store and a lot missing from the shelves.  This is a Kroger store, and most of what I found available were Kroger branded items.  My general rule is to avoid such items as much as possible, mainly because these stores so often refuse to carry national brands - or any other brands than their own - and claim they offer lower prices so their customers are happy with it.  I'm never happy with a lack of choice - and since that goes for choice of religion and choice over my own body, it certainly goes for choice in the foods I eat.  Anyway, I couldn't find a lot of what I wanted.

I went from there to Bushmaster Park where the dogs and I could walk around a bit before going to the campground.

I had water all morning!  Despite last night's sub-freezing temperature.  It gave me hope for the upcoming days when it's forecast to be quite cold but not as bad as it was.

And 2 months later, we were back in Flagstaff to pick up my month in Arizona where I left off.