High Desert RV Park, Albuquerque NM, November 18th.

Our Last Propane Fill this Trip

We buzzed through New Mexico stopping briefly at Billy the Kid’s grave near Fort Sumner and camped at High Desert RV Park.   As usual on a long day’s drive, we arrived late and found a site in the dark.  The next morning we explored the small campground and took long hot showers.  The laundry and rest rooms share one well heated building.  We packed up, met the manager who filled our propane tank, and then we were on our way.

   

Our First View of Snow West of the Mississippi

We were greeted with snow in the higher elevations as we drove west.  We saw a dusting of snow on the roads as we drove, but the roads were clear with daytime temperatures well above 40 degrees.

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, Arizona

We buzzed through Arizona or tried to.  We had a “wicked” head wind and side-to-side buffeting that reduced our speed, cost us mileage, and wore the driver out.  I had hoped to make it to Needles that evening.    The lure of the painted desert and petrified forest was too much for us. We agreed to take an hour out to tour the park. We had great fun soaking in the views of the painted desert from the scenic road, stopping at the old inn, and  walking some of the petrified forest.  The petrified forest in Arizona is the largest most extensive one in the world! It is so extensive, it is nearly impossible to take in the vastness.  The marked turnout overlooks a huge valley full of petrified tree trunks, but the stone trees are visible from the road all the way to the southern park entrance and beyond.  We were amazed.

The painted desert is vast and very colorful.  I wish we could have stayed for sunset and the magic light on the landscape.  That will have to wait for a tour of the southwest.  The petrified forest viewed from a distance is vast.  But it is only when you walk among the stone  that you realize how beautiful these “monuments” are.  The stone tree trunks, look like a tree trunk. The core sparkles with varied colors of the silica that infused the trees.  The core can be gem-like, or be worn away to look like a spider’s web.

Our planned one hour excursion became two and a half hours.  We skipped a number of marked points of interest and hurried through others.

Here are a few of our photographs of the painted desert:

and a few of the old inn that was in operation until the ’60s

It felt like this fellow followed us around.  We saw one or two wherever we stopped:

We would have loved to find our way down to get close to Newspaper Rock and the petroglyphs.

 

 

 

We absolutely LOVED the petrified forest.  It’s fascinating.

A Stone Tree

Up Close, Amazingly Colorful

The Entire Trunk, Petrified

Gem Like in Its Beauty

A Sea of Stone

 

  

A petrified tree embedded in stone.

 

America moves by truck and rail.  They were “everywhere”

 

   

Sunset November 18, 2015

November 19, 2015

We drove the 630 miles home today.  It was a long haul, but we wanted to be home to setup for a family get-together on the weekend.  This made for an extremely long day with no time to dawdle.  We stopped for diesel only.

The View Driving into California

A Remarkable Sunset Welcoming Us Home

Track our Travels ends in California.  We’re home now, planning a trip to San Diego for Thanksgiving.  Our next adventure takes us to South America: the Galapagos, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, and the Amazon.

We had a wonderful trip.  We had a wonderful time with family and old friends, and new acquaintances.  We drove 9,126 miles and could easily have taken another month exploring New England and visiting with people.  Often we cut our visits short.  We left California thinking that six weeks would be “about right”.  The two full months we were on the road were not enough.  We should have left mid  August.  As our first extended trip in “The Beast” we were experimenting with taking a fully unplanned trip of extended duration together in a confined space.  We had not idea it would be so interesting and all consuming as it was.

The United States are extensive.  Flying from city to city for work or vacation does not do it justice.  To truly get a sense of the size and varied terrain of our wonderful country, you have to take a road trip.  But it must be a slow trip taking time to stop and actually visit interesting or unusual places as you go.  The marathon drives that I took in college, driving two thousand miles in two days swapping drivers every four hours just does not qualify.

If all goes as planned, we will tour the south, the south west, the north west, Alaska, and perhaps some of Mexico over the next few years.  We will also return to New England.  I did not connect with my family in Cambridge (assuming they have not scattered to the winds) and we could easily have dallied for days with friends and family.  Then there were the places we had to skip as our time was running out.  Perhaps more significantly, we toured so late in the season that most of the little special shops were “Closed for the Season”.

9,126 miles.  It seems like a long way to drive.  It was not.  The anticipation driving east starting our adventure made the long days go by in a flash.  Our tour of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts  consisted of small hops of thirty to one hundred twenty miles.  That was fun.  By the time we turned south toward South Carolina, we were driving long days to make time, first to visit Jessica, then to turn west and go home.  The last two very long days homeward were a slog; we were worn out when we arrived home.  Ideally we would have taken another two days.