The Last Leg

                                                                THE LAST LEG

Oklahoma City proved to be a fun and sobering stop. The fun was our visit to The National Cowboy and western Heritage Museum. It far exceeded my expectations. Their collection of western art included well-known classic masters such as Russell and Remington as well as many modern artists who were nothing less than phenomenal. In addition art work there were displays of Native American headdresses, Rodeo, Cowboys, Cavalry and even an old recreated western town with sheriff’s office as well as saloon.

The sobering part was the Oklahoma City Memorial and Museum. Words can not describe the feeling one gets when you see the wreckage that resulted from that horrific attack on an otherwise beautiful spring day.

On to Arkansas, the only state in this quadrant of the country I have never previously visited. This was fall color time in the South East however given our New England background we were disappointed by the lack of vibrancy to the color change. The first night was spent camping at a small vineyard. After sampling the wine it was more than apparent that we were not in California. Next stop was a State Park outside of Hot Springs Arkansas. Hot Springs National Park showed a lost part of our past. The hot springs bathhouses were not only for recreational purposes but an important component of the medical treatment regime of the time. The hot spring water just bubbles out of the ground.

I have to mention that we found a microbrew, with good beer, in an old repurposed bathhouse.

Continuing in a southeasterly direction we visited Selma Alabama and also Tuskegee Alabama. Selma, a small town outside of the Capital Montgomery, appears to have changed very little over the last half century. The National Park has several interpretive centers along the path of the famous Selma To Montgomery Voters Rights March of 1965. In 1961 only 156 of the county’s 15,000 voting age black people were registered to vote. The displays were even more poignant given the recent political rhetoric that seemingly giving credence to racism and the fomenters of hatred. On our brief stop in Tuskegee, we visited The Tuskegee Airman’s Museum and Tuskegee Institute founded by Booker T Washington. George Washington Carver a famous professor of botany, who incidentally did his graduate studies at Iowa State University, developed countless patents here.

The last stop on our long road trip was Andersonville, Georgia home of infamous Civil Was Prison. Andersonville was built to house 10,000 prisoners on 14 acres but eventually housed 45,000 prisoners and was expanded to 22 acres. 11,000 POW’S died of disease and starvation. The National Park Service has a museum devoted to Prisoners Of War covering the entire time from the start of recorded history to now. Again a moving and well-done museum that words can’t do justice to describing the feelings one experiences.

We arrived in Titusville Sunday November 6^th and quickly learned that our HVAC system (heat/air-condition) was not working. Good news we got someone here Monday morning bad news the problem was not a quick or inexpensive fix. We have opted to go with a new and upgraded system due to the age of our existing system. It has been nice to catch up with friends that arrived before us and those that are filtering in. In the mean time we have been busy settling in.

The 2 videos are self-explanatory. Due to unreliable internet we were unable to include them previously.

National Cowboy Museum

Great Steakhouse outside of OK City Stockyard. Great local atmosphere

Warren Spahn and David

OK City Memorial

Men's Bath Facility

Woman's Music room in bathhouse

Brown Chapel Selma Alabama site of meetings leading historic march

Edmund Pettus Bridge

Paul M Grist Lake SP

Paul M Grist SP where we had the entire 1,000 acre park to ourselves

 

Gym at Fordyce Bath house

Fordyce Bath house

P 51 Fighter at Tuskegee Notice red tail that's how other airmen knew it was them

  

Hangers at Tuskegee

At Andersonville Prison this brook served as sole water source, one end drinking and other end toilets.

Front gate inside as seen by prisoners in Andersonville

Has it snowed in GA? No it's King Cotton 

Rows of graves at Andersonville

Booker T Washington's Home

Campus at Tuskegee Institute

Bryce, Zion and More

The "Cowboy"

                                                           Bryce, Zion and More

Because we missed seeing both Bryce Canyon and Zion Canyon stops on the caravan, we turned around in Santa Fe New Mexico, headed back west instead of starting our trek back to Florida. This westward sojourn also worked out perfect for a rendezvous with Zach. Los Angles is only a 6-7 hour car ride from South Western Utah. The place we picked for our get together was Snow Canyon State Park, arguably beautiful enough to be considered a National Park.

We allowed 3 days to get back to Bryce Canyon. The first night we made it to Winslow Arizona, a famous stop along RT 66. The next 2 nights we went to Kanab Utah the gateway to The Grand Staircase, Escalante National Monument. This is a very large track of land of more than 3 million acres as compared 38,000 acres of better-known Bryce Canyon. We hiked and drove through only a small portion of it.

Bryce Canyon was spectacular and more unique in its landscape than many of the other parks we have visited. In fact it is not a canyon but is composed of many smaller (that’s a relative term) amphitheaters. Geologically speaking the landscape was a large plateau that eroded away over time creating these amphitheaters filled with tall stone structures called hoodoos. Typical of my behavior our first day was frenetic, the day started with a 3-½ hour tour of the park and ended with a Ranger guided moonlight hiking tour down into the Canyon. A ½ day horseback ride into the canyon was sandwiched between. Needles to say were exhausted and a bit sore the next day.

After 3 nights at Bryce we’re off to Zion NP, perhaps one of the more visited parks in the system. Our first day we rented special boots and walking sticks to enable us to hike the Narrows, a “trail” up and in the Virgin river through a narrow canyon. We slept well that night after this 10-mile hike. The next day we explored more of the park.

Snow Canyon SP in St Georges Utah is only an hour drive away from Zion. We reserved a campsite for 4 nights to allow time for a visit with Zach. Here we hiked many of the trails exploring the varied geologic features including slot canyons, some with ancient petroglyths and a lava tube. This stop was special most of all because we got to spend some quality time with Zach, a rare commodity where he lives on the west coast and we are on the east coast.

This is where we start our journey southeast to Florida to spend the impending winter. Instead of making a beeline east we plan to stop along the way and see the sights. The first is the Petrified Forrest/ Painted desert National Park, recently combined into one park. On our way east the next day we “had to” stop in Gallup for lunch so we could get another southwestern meal at Jerry’s restaurant. It was as good as we the last time! After lunch we headed on one of our long hauls, went through 3 states, ending in Oklahoma City. Here we are going to spend 3 days exploring the city along with getting laundry and grocery shopping done. 

Inside Bryce Canyon

Zion Canyon NP

Zach peeking out of the lava tube(it extends 1/2 mile into the earth)

American Dipper thinking about dipping

Slot Canyon Snow Canyon SP

Virgin River Zion Canyon NP with Navajo Sandstone Cliffs

Diana and Zach Slot Canyon Snow Canyon SP

Moon Rising over Bryce Canyon NP

Snow Canyon SP

The start of the Narrows Hike

Log at Petrified Forest NP

Looking down into Bryce Canyon

Big Horne Sheep grazing on slope at Zion

Canyon starts to narrow Narrows Hike

Cross section log at Petrified Forest NP

Looking down into Bryce Canyon NP

The Hikers

The Narrow Canyon

Rainbow captured driving east of Albuquerque

Our rig Petrified Forest NP

Painted Desert

The "cowgirl"

Caravan Ends

               The Caravan Ends and The Last Phase of The Road Trip Begins

The last stop for the caravan is a small town north of Santa Fe, New Mexico called Pojoaque. The trip up there from Albuquerque was along what is known as Turquoise Trail. We made the trip in the company of 2 other trailers from the caravan. We made several interesting stops along the way. The first was at what was billed as a Turquoise Mining Museum in a very small town with only 1 paved road and a series of dirt roads. The museum turned out to be a collection of mostly junk that was run by a suffer dude from New York. The next two stops come under the category of B and B. The first B was a small café lunch spot that made the best cinnamon rolls(Bakery) and the second B was the Santa Fe Brewing Company.

We made several trips into Santa Fe, a city with a rich history and a strong arts culture. It was the terminus of the famed westward route known as the Santa Fe Trail. We managed to visit the Georgia O’Keefe museum and the Albuquere museum of art.

Just north of Taos is a development known as Earthship, a project that produces and espouses the construction of homes with recycled materials that are environmentally friendly and self sustaining. They collect rainwater on rooftop collectors and manage to use the water 4 times to meet the needs of the homes and their gardens. These people were passionately devoted to their lifestyle. After our visit at Earthship we stopped to see the Rio Grand gorge as we headed back to Taos for lunch where we found another B, the beer and fire oven lunches were great.

Just a short distance away from Pojoaque is Los Alamos, the home of the Manhattan Project, where the first Nuclear Bomb was developed that subsequently was dropped on Japan bringing World War II to an end. Most all of the original buildings from that era are gone but there is a great museum and the National Parks had an interesting lecture on the subject.

One morning we had some free time so we went birding in Espanola. There were several, we believe, man made ponds along the Rio Grand River. Here David finally got the elusive Cinnamon Teal Duck along with about 20 other birds seen previously. One of which was migrating overhead, we saw 2 Sandhill Cranes flying south. After which we joined up with the rest of the group for a fabulous lunch at a ranch. Then as we headed back to our RV Park we had to stop at the local weavers. One had local apples that we had never heard of. David loves tart; well for him they were good.

Our last official caravan visit was to Bandelier National Monument, a large park that features ancestral puebloan structures both free standing and dwellings in alcoves high up on the cliffs. We did a great hike into the canyon that provided stunning views of the surrounding area as well as the canyon below with an array of ancient structures.

The caravan culminated with a banquette where we presented our 4 leaders, 2 couples, with special gifts as a token of all our appreciation for their hard work. Diana along with several others made 2 pillow covers out of kerchiefs depicting the 4 corners area. She had everyone sign the kerchiefs. She then sewed them on a piece of deer hide that was fringed on the edges to make them into pillows. She also made special earrings for one of the leaders and the other needed a lanyard for her badge.

We departed the Caravan with many sad goodbyes and headed west to visit Bryce Canyon NP and Zion NP that we missed due to our wedding trip to New York. The first night on the road was spent in Winslow Arizona, a town made famous by the Eagles song in the 70’s. We meet friend from Florida there and had a delightful dinner at the famed La Posada Hotel.

Reo Grande in New Mexico

Note Ruins at bottom of canyon Bandelier NM

Alcove with cliff dwelling

ruins at Bandelier

Foyer at Earthship the stained glass are old wine bottles and soda cans

Climbing up to cliff house at Bandelier

Standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona

Food Production at Earthship

Fall colors in New Mexico