Joan’s second newsletter – Feb. 21-March 29
This is quite late because events intervened between March 29 and today (May 7). I am in Rochester, MN midway through a train trip, which will be the subject of newsletter #3. In the meantime, here’s the second part of my first trip, 36 very full days. I traveled in Arizona, New Mexico, West Texas, southern California desert areas, and a teeny bit in Nevada only by necessity (to get cheaper gas and find lodging for a Death Valley trip because the park was crowded with people looking at wildflowers).
Snowflakes fell on the van 4 times (Truth or Consequences, NM; Alpine, TX; Prescott Valley, AZ and Walker Pass, CA) so I left for lower altitudes ASAP.
Experienced some, but not a lot, of rain, and enough sunshine to provide a very nice early tan. My journal is more than 40 pages, so here’s a 7-page summary – 4+ pages of trip highlights and 3 pages of hints for travelers, so you can read only what’s of interest to you.
WILDFLOWERS GALORE
About those wildflowers – they were out there everywhere! I started seeing and learning about them in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, AZ in late January, saw Texas bluebonnets and blooming yucca in Big Bend National Park in mid-February, and they just got more varied and prolific as it got closer to the end of March and closer to home. An Arizona highway between Phoenix and Quartzsite was especially colorful, and then they were everyplace I went in California: Joshua Tree National Park, Mojave National Preserve, Death Valley, Red Rock Canyon State Park, Desert Tortoise Preserve, Carrizo Plain National Monument, Pinnacles National Monument, and even driving along the highways (although it’s dangerous to stop and look closely at them). Death Valley got national publicity and became overrun with flower-seekers and stupid drivers. Joshua Tree had more variety of flowers and the visitor center has an excellent brochure identifying the most common. My favorites were pink desert five spots, desert candles with their inflated stems, delicate purple thistle sage, everything in the lupine family, beavertail cactus blooms (a showy brilliant fuschia), and Joshua trees.
MY SPACE ODYSSEY
That’s a play on words because I’m traveling in a Honda Odyssey, remember?!
I was fortunate enough to know two astronomers both working for organizations headquartered at the University of Arizona in Tucson. David Lien accompanied me on the tour of the Steward Mirror Lab where they were finalizing polishing the second 8.4 meter mirror for the LBT (large binocular telescope) to be installed before the end of this year at Mount Graham north of Tucson. It was absolutely thrilling to see the mirror from the observation area, and 8.4 is not a misprint. They had also begun the painstaking process of preparing a mold for their next mirror project. When I learned from Glenn Morrison that he would be observing at Kitt Peak while I was in Tucson, I offered to give him a ride up the mountain and got the insiders tour of several telescopes up there, including the 4 meter Mayall and the solar telescope. At McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains in Texas, I saw the world's third largest optical telescope, the Hobby-Eberly which has a hexagonal mirror array made from 91 segments with an effective aperture of 9.2 meters. (The world’s largest, the Keck telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, is 10 meters, and Glenn will be moving to Hawaii this summer so the lucky guy will get to observe there more easily.) Seeing the VLA (Very Large Array) radio telescopes out on the plains of San Agustin west of Soccoro, NM was pretty awesome. The VLA consists of 27 radio telescopes in a Y shape; each arm is 13 miles long. Darn, I couldn’t take a picture of the whole thing.
Okay, that’s enough science for now. I balanced this with a trip to Roswell, NM to see the UFO Museum and Research Center. Even though the street light globes near the museum are shaped like alien heads, the rest of the town seemed fairly sane. The Chamber of Commerce says the median home price is $81,000 and median household income is $49,000 (same median income as Phoenix, AZ where new homes sell for just over $200,000). Oops, didn’t mean to segue into economics. Let’s switch to literature.
COWBOY POETRY IS NOT AN OXYMORON
I spent one day at a cowboy poetry gathering in Sierra Vista, AZ in February and two days and nights at another gathering in Alpine, TX a few weeks later. I had to keep my mouth shut about being a vegetarian – these folks are real working ranchers and cowboys and probably skilled with a lariat.
Their poetry and music was often amusing, sometimes emotional, kept the audience’s attention, and it rhymed! Cowboys spend their working lives outdoors, so they see a lot of nature and its beauty and changes. Maybe that’s where the poetry comes from. Here’s an excerpt from the song "Nightrider’s Lament" that explains it for me:
Tell me why do you ride for the money
And why do you rope for short pay
You ain't gettin' nowhere and you’re losin' your share Boy, you must've gone crazy out there.
Ah, but you've never seen the Northern Lights, You've never seen a hawk on the wing You never spent spring on the Great Divide, And you've never heard ole' camp cookie sing.
SPECIAL ANIMAL SIGHTINGS
Driving down to Big Bend National Park in Texas, I spied a roadrunner crossing the road – they really are speedy critters! Another one dashed about the campground in the park occasionally. I smelled, but did not see, javalina there too – small pig-like (but they’re not pigs) peccaries that nibble on vegetation at night. Three deer were tippy-toeing around the lawn at the lodge in Chisos Basin in Big Bend. I saw not one, not two, but three desert tortoises in California, and only one was in the Desert Tortoise Preserve north of California City. Experienced thousands of kamikaze butterflies (painted ladies migrating north from Mexico, many of them ending up as hood ornaments). Also saw many birds and lizards that were too fast for me to identify, one bald eagle in a tree near Casa Malpais outside Springerville, AZ, and lots of road kill (primarily rabbits and skunks).
While the white-winged dove is a beautiful bird, its call can be very annoying after a few days
These sightings got me thinking about how people are encroaching on their territories. This was especially evident at the Desert Tortoise Preserve, which was right next to an off-highway vehicle area. The story I heard (but have not been able to verify) is that the OHV area was there first and the preserve was established because tortoises were getting killed. I think OHV riders should become endangered species so desert tortoises, and the desert itself, will no longer be endangered.
TALE OF TWO CITIES
My favorite sizeable city was Las Cruces, NM, which I visited because of a Saturday night concert by the duo Still on the Hill. I’d seen them perform 10 years ago and then never heard about them again (probably because they’re based in Fayetteville, Arkansas). So, when I saw an advertisement for this concert, I put it on my itinerary. Small audience (about 35) at a Unitarian Universalist church, and I got to meet most of them because I helped the duo sell their CDs. The next day I attended the church service which consisted of more Still on the Hill, a 15-minute play reading, and later a roundtable discussion about secular humanism. Next I went to a rag rug exhibit and weaving demonstration at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, followed by a movie at a historic theatre in the old town of Mesilla nearby.
My Las Cruces experience culminated in a Sunday night stay in the largest and poshest lodging situation so far in the trip. The Plaza Suites advertised rooms for $32.99, and mine really was a two-room suite with tons of amenities. As a comparison, other Las Cruces motel prices were either $54 and up or in the $20 range but real dumps. But let’s disregard those fleabag motels. Overall, I got a very favorable picture of Las Cruces because of the area of town I was in, near the university and historic Mesilla, and the friendly people I met at the UU church and elsewhere. But on Monday as I drove east I saw mile after mile of new housing and franchise businesses that looked like any other city affected by a growth spurt. Too bad, but it won’t keep me from visiting again.
My favorite small city is Arcosanti, population about 65, a sustainable living eco-city designed by 80-year-old Italian architect Paolo Soleri in the high desert about 70 miles north of Phoenix. It is a work in progress, interns continue to build it and also make ceramic and bronze wind bells which are their major source of funds. Excellent bakery and cafeteria too – I had vegan mushroom barley soup and delicious bread pudding for $3.50. The website is arcosanti.org
WHAT I'VE LEARNED
I enjoy camping very much, especially early morning tea outdoors listening to birdsongs and watching the day begin. I became an early riser because the sunsets were between 6 and 7 pm, after which it was easiest to just listen to books on tape until my eyes wouldn’t stay open any more. The cot in the van was very comfortable and the new thick dark green and plaid flannel sleeping bag was always warm enough. When I set up the big tent, I used it for changing clothes, preparing and eating meals, and shelter from cold, wind and rain (and it stood up to it all). If you’re interested in the tent – brand name is Sportz, it’s an SUV tent that attaches to the back of an SUV, van or minivan or stands alone, is 7’ high, the floor is 8-1/2’ by 8-1/2’, it cost $200 from an on-line dealer and was well worth it. Oh, and very easy to put up after reading the directions (see my first newsletter!). Other campers were always friendly, and since it was winter were mostly retired or on disability (both groups get free admission and half-price camping at national parks, monuments & recreation areas). Spring break in late March brought out the educators and students. I met about 6-8 women between the ages of 50ish and 79 traveling solo. I don’t think I ever got in a conversation with any folks from the huge homes on wheels – they mostly stay inside. Maybe even campers are class-conscious.
I prefer small towns and lesser used state highways. I knew this before driving on I-10 through El Paso for about an hour (road construction, not rush hour). Avoiding the fifth largest city in the U.S. (Phoenix) was difficult because I wanted to visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West in nearby Scottsdale, so I did that on a Sunday after camping the previous night at a KOA at Apache Junction just east of there. Neither the KOA nor the long drive to Taliesin West were optimal experiences, but the destination was worth it. The Wrights’ living quarters are now included in one of the tours and that was very special.
LEARNING TO MOSEY
In late February, I still hadn’t learned to slow down. This became apparent when I was walking briskly to the counter of a gas station convenience store in Alpine, TX and almost bumped into the customer in front of me, a cowboy who knew how to mosey. Learning to mosey became a goal at that point. I also need to avoid planning too far in advance – it actually limited me; I missed some things I learned about along the way because I had a timeline to meet. In the future, I’ll try to allow more time between "appointments" (events or meeting people). That would allow me to meander and discover along the way. For example, I hadn’t planned to go to Poston, AZ, but since I was close, I did. It is the site of a Japanese internment camp during WWII, population 17,867 by August 1942 (6 months after FDR signed Executive Order 9066). It is now very barren, just a monument with an explanation of what took place there, and a water fountain with a list of the Japanese people who paid for it.
POEM FROM POSTON
This poem is on that monument. I really began to understand it while writing it down because my mind lingered on each word, and it was very powerful, so I suggest reading it slowly.
We Cannot Always Fail
By Lloyd Fujimoto
When tears are wrung in worlds of strife; When lives are wrecked by wanton greed; A weary throng, bent, disillusioned, Turned to dull black barracks in the dust as home:
Then they faced the world anew,
And here, they started life afresh,
We are the outcast, making life –
With dreams ahead – and dreams behind;
Confronting trials with small relief;
But we’ve gained much with more to find – And now we live, and make a life, The best we ever can.
We have left – some homes behind,
Crushed – broken in the wind that passed But we have others there – ahead.
We come to trials and ruts in life;
We tackle them;
We often fail. But on we go
For well we know
By faith,
We cannot always fail.
HOW TRAVEL BECOMES ADDICTIVE
The last book I read on the road was "Down Under" by Bill Bryson (2000). He is traveling through Australia and meets Mike and Val who run the telegraph museum and café in a remote area on the western coast:
"They were novice grey nomads – retires (often these days early retirees) who sell up, buy a motorhome of some description and spend their lives on the open road, stopping from time to time to earn a little money, but never tied to anywhere and essentially ever on the move. Six months earlier this would have seemed to me the dreariest punishment imaginable – endlessly driving across a landscape that is mostly hot and dry and empty. But now I understand completely. … There is always something just down the road … you never know what it’s going to be but it is nearly always pretty good.
(He flips through a guidebook on Australia and reads about a range of hills called the Bungle Bungles.) "I had a sudden powerful impulse to go there.
When would I be this close again? Besides, it would be a chance to drive into the Pilbara and visit little Marble Bar … see the landscape where Stan Awramik found and lost his fossilized stromotolites. From there it was but a hop along the Victoria Highway to Darwin. The wet season would be over soon, so I could go to Kakadu National Park … why, I could do this forever."
If you’re not planning a trip, feel free to stop reading as the rest of this is PRACTICAL TRIP TIPS Here are the stats for the 27 nights I camped, which may give you some ideas for your own trip:
Cheapest: 6 were free, Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, BLM-run, NM, cost $1
Costliest: $22 (Apache Junction, AZ, KOA and my least favorite – too many people in a flat, urban-feeling area – but it was the cheapest Phoenix-area
accommodation)
Longest in same place: 4 nights at Joshua Tree National Park in CA (pay showers available at a hippie store in the town of Joshua Tree), 3 nights at Big Bend National Park in Texas (pay showers available at an in-park store) Two included hot springs: Faywood Hot Springs in NM and Tecopa Hot Springs in CA south of Death Valley, both highly recommended Fewest amenities: Quartzsite, AZ BLM land, and east side of Red Rock Canyon State Park, CA. Both free, but bring your own everything including portapotty.
Noisiest: Dumont Dunes, CA – dune buggies at 3 a.m. (That’s when I learned it was for off-road vehicles – well, it was dark when I arrived.) At Afton Canyon east of Barstow, I heard off-road vehicles before I paid my fee and skeedaddled right out of there – after a short hike first.
Quietest: Datil Well BLM campground, NM – I was the only camper. Maybe I should have left when I saw the instructions in the bathroom about what to do in case of a bear attack, but I figured they were still hibernating so I stayed (I had already paid my $2.50), although I did not do any hiking the next day.
Smallest: Walker Pass BLM campground, CA – two sites for drive-in camping and 8 for Pacific Crest Trail hikers. It’s where the Joshua trees meet the pines.
Most interesting small places: Cochise Stronghold, AZ – two easily accessible interpretative trails, one about Cochise (legendary Apache), the other about the trees and plants. Longer hikes are possible, also technical climbing – met a father and son from New York who came to do just that.
Also Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, NM, with more than 20,000 petroglyphs.
Spent 3 nights in hostels, at Riverbend Hostel in Truth or Consequences, NM which included free hot tub use (outdoor natural hot springs); and in Beatty, NV. When I asked why there was a sink in my private $20 room, the manager replied: "This used to be a brothel." Met friendly travelers at both places and plan to return to Riverbend. I recommend the Beatty hostel for anyone going to Death Valley, but the town has no grocery store and the restaurants are not smoke-free.
Motels were only necessary 6 times, when it was rainy, late, no camping or hostel available, or I needed to shower, recharge my electric toothbrush and re-freeze the icepacks for the cooler. Five of ‘em had small refrigerators and microwaves. Always ask to see the room before paying your money. Not all surprises are pleasant! (Ants, bare light bulbs, saggy mattresses,
etc.)
Speaking of showers – 11 of the 19 campgrounds had showers, and only one was coin-operated. I got used to brushing my teeth and washing my face outside or in a public restroom. Only once did I go to a rec center just to shower (in Barstow, cost $3 and was worth every penny). Here’s an actual conversation I had on Sunday March 20 as I came out of the shower room at the Joshua Tree hippie store. A young guy was sitting on the bench waiting to use a shower.
He: Must have felt really good.
Me: Sure did. How long you been in Joshua Tree? (meaning the park not the
town)
He: I flew in from Maine on Tuesday.
Me: Climbin’?
He: Yeah. I’m at the peel stage of burn and peel right now.
Me: That’s right, you don’t have sun in Maine.
He: Not until June.
I went to a laundromat about once a week, and usually got into conversations with other customers who were often fellow travelers. The laundromat in Quartzsite, AZ is huge and plays country western CDs for the customers; it also had pay showers available and a pizza stand out front.
Finding palatable food while traveling in less-populated areas was a problem. Heck, it was usually a problem in populated areas because I don’t eat meat. Therefore, when I ate in a restaurant it was usually breakfast.
Most big chain gas station convenience stores have a large assortment of beverage machines. I enjoyed trying out different flavors of capucchino, and they’re cheaper in your own travel mug (Mine says Historic Route 66).
I always had plenty of non-perishable food with me, and stopped at supermarkets for perishables such as fruit, salad greens and veggies, bread, cheese, and juice. I ate a lot of peanut butter sandwiches, sardines or cheese on crackers, huge salads, sometimes canned soup (when I could wash the pan easily), instant oatmeal or other cereal and soy milk for breakfast, or bagels and cream cheese. Here’s how to toast a bagel over a propane stove: Cut bagel in half, shake off all crumbs, insert sharp knife in side of bagel, hold one side over the flame briefly, turn and repeat on other side, turn again and repeat until just before it starts to burn. I began every day with a leisurely cup of tea (usually chai), and tried to stop for teatime around 4 p.m. or hot chocolate later in the evening. I’m glad I took along a Brita pitcher as purified water vending machines weren’t always handy. And remember, everything tastes better eaten outdoors while enjoying the scenery.
COMMUNICATION AND BANKING
Even small town libraries have computers for public use for free. Don’t go right after schools let out, and expect an occasional wait. Some chambers of commerce or visitor centers have computers for tourist use, also New Mexico welcome centers on I-10. Forget wi-fi and Internet cafes – they’re in cities and it’s bring-your-own-laptop. Hotmail and Yahoo e-mail can be accessed from any computer. Before you leave, learn how to check credit cards and bank account balances online so you can keep abreast of your finances and either pay online, by phone (there may be a fee), or set up automatic electronic fund transfers at least 3 months before the trip. I avoided paying ATM fees at gas pumps and "foreign" ATMs by using my ATM card only at supermarkets. That’s where I got cash too, from $20 to $100. I used credit cards a lot and avoided carrying much cash. Speaking of supermarkets – you can apply for a club card on the spot. I now belong to four of ‘em and hope I’m covered for a while.
If you’re dependent on a cell phone, look at the map of your provider’s service area before leaving home. You can’t use them everywhere. (I had to drive out of a park and closer to an interstate to get service.)
Gas costs less in every state outside of California. While traveling in Arizona in mid-March, I was paying around $2 a gallon for 86 regular unleaded. Then I re-entered California at Blythe where it was $2.55 near the freeway exits and $2.33 further away. I asked the guy changing the van’s oil where to get cheaper gas, and he said "Go 5 miles east into Arizona." So I did, and paid $2.08 at a very busy Pilot truck stop.
Warning: if you’re driving on I-15 to Las Vegas, always gas up in Barstow to avoid paying too much in Baker, whose economy must be based on the 5 or 6 gas stations and the Mad Greek Restaurant. Gas was 45 cents more per gallon in Baker than in Barstow, and the Union 76 restroom was the worst I’d been in the entire trip.
On a pleasanter note, the California Zephyr train trip which began on April 19 has been comfortable, pleasant, scenic, and clean. You’ll read about that next.
Snowflakes fell on the van 4 times (Truth or Consequences, NM; Alpine, TX; Prescott Valley, AZ and Walker Pass, CA) so I left for lower altitudes ASAP.
Experienced some, but not a lot, of rain, and enough sunshine to provide a very nice early tan. My journal is more than 40 pages, so here’s a 7-page summary – 4+ pages of trip highlights and 3 pages of hints for travelers, so you can read only what’s of interest to you.
WILDFLOWERS GALORE
About those wildflowers – they were out there everywhere! I started seeing and learning about them in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, AZ in late January, saw Texas bluebonnets and blooming yucca in Big Bend National Park in mid-February, and they just got more varied and prolific as it got closer to the end of March and closer to home. An Arizona highway between Phoenix and Quartzsite was especially colorful, and then they were everyplace I went in California: Joshua Tree National Park, Mojave National Preserve, Death Valley, Red Rock Canyon State Park, Desert Tortoise Preserve, Carrizo Plain National Monument, Pinnacles National Monument, and even driving along the highways (although it’s dangerous to stop and look closely at them). Death Valley got national publicity and became overrun with flower-seekers and stupid drivers. Joshua Tree had more variety of flowers and the visitor center has an excellent brochure identifying the most common. My favorites were pink desert five spots, desert candles with their inflated stems, delicate purple thistle sage, everything in the lupine family, beavertail cactus blooms (a showy brilliant fuschia), and Joshua trees.
MY SPACE ODYSSEY
That’s a play on words because I’m traveling in a Honda Odyssey, remember?!
I was fortunate enough to know two astronomers both working for organizations headquartered at the University of Arizona in Tucson. David Lien accompanied me on the tour of the Steward Mirror Lab where they were finalizing polishing the second 8.4 meter mirror for the LBT (large binocular telescope) to be installed before the end of this year at Mount Graham north of Tucson. It was absolutely thrilling to see the mirror from the observation area, and 8.4 is not a misprint. They had also begun the painstaking process of preparing a mold for their next mirror project. When I learned from Glenn Morrison that he would be observing at Kitt Peak while I was in Tucson, I offered to give him a ride up the mountain and got the insiders tour of several telescopes up there, including the 4 meter Mayall and the solar telescope. At McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains in Texas, I saw the world's third largest optical telescope, the Hobby-Eberly which has a hexagonal mirror array made from 91 segments with an effective aperture of 9.2 meters. (The world’s largest, the Keck telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, is 10 meters, and Glenn will be moving to Hawaii this summer so the lucky guy will get to observe there more easily.) Seeing the VLA (Very Large Array) radio telescopes out on the plains of San Agustin west of Soccoro, NM was pretty awesome. The VLA consists of 27 radio telescopes in a Y shape; each arm is 13 miles long. Darn, I couldn’t take a picture of the whole thing.
Okay, that’s enough science for now. I balanced this with a trip to Roswell, NM to see the UFO Museum and Research Center. Even though the street light globes near the museum are shaped like alien heads, the rest of the town seemed fairly sane. The Chamber of Commerce says the median home price is $81,000 and median household income is $49,000 (same median income as Phoenix, AZ where new homes sell for just over $200,000). Oops, didn’t mean to segue into economics. Let’s switch to literature.
COWBOY POETRY IS NOT AN OXYMORON
I spent one day at a cowboy poetry gathering in Sierra Vista, AZ in February and two days and nights at another gathering in Alpine, TX a few weeks later. I had to keep my mouth shut about being a vegetarian – these folks are real working ranchers and cowboys and probably skilled with a lariat.
Their poetry and music was often amusing, sometimes emotional, kept the audience’s attention, and it rhymed! Cowboys spend their working lives outdoors, so they see a lot of nature and its beauty and changes. Maybe that’s where the poetry comes from. Here’s an excerpt from the song "Nightrider’s Lament" that explains it for me:
Tell me why do you ride for the money
And why do you rope for short pay
You ain't gettin' nowhere and you’re losin' your share Boy, you must've gone crazy out there.
Ah, but you've never seen the Northern Lights, You've never seen a hawk on the wing You never spent spring on the Great Divide, And you've never heard ole' camp cookie sing.
SPECIAL ANIMAL SIGHTINGS
Driving down to Big Bend National Park in Texas, I spied a roadrunner crossing the road – they really are speedy critters! Another one dashed about the campground in the park occasionally. I smelled, but did not see, javalina there too – small pig-like (but they’re not pigs) peccaries that nibble on vegetation at night. Three deer were tippy-toeing around the lawn at the lodge in Chisos Basin in Big Bend. I saw not one, not two, but three desert tortoises in California, and only one was in the Desert Tortoise Preserve north of California City. Experienced thousands of kamikaze butterflies (painted ladies migrating north from Mexico, many of them ending up as hood ornaments). Also saw many birds and lizards that were too fast for me to identify, one bald eagle in a tree near Casa Malpais outside Springerville, AZ, and lots of road kill (primarily rabbits and skunks).
While the white-winged dove is a beautiful bird, its call can be very annoying after a few days
These sightings got me thinking about how people are encroaching on their territories. This was especially evident at the Desert Tortoise Preserve, which was right next to an off-highway vehicle area. The story I heard (but have not been able to verify) is that the OHV area was there first and the preserve was established because tortoises were getting killed. I think OHV riders should become endangered species so desert tortoises, and the desert itself, will no longer be endangered.
TALE OF TWO CITIES
My favorite sizeable city was Las Cruces, NM, which I visited because of a Saturday night concert by the duo Still on the Hill. I’d seen them perform 10 years ago and then never heard about them again (probably because they’re based in Fayetteville, Arkansas). So, when I saw an advertisement for this concert, I put it on my itinerary. Small audience (about 35) at a Unitarian Universalist church, and I got to meet most of them because I helped the duo sell their CDs. The next day I attended the church service which consisted of more Still on the Hill, a 15-minute play reading, and later a roundtable discussion about secular humanism. Next I went to a rag rug exhibit and weaving demonstration at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, followed by a movie at a historic theatre in the old town of Mesilla nearby.
My Las Cruces experience culminated in a Sunday night stay in the largest and poshest lodging situation so far in the trip. The Plaza Suites advertised rooms for $32.99, and mine really was a two-room suite with tons of amenities. As a comparison, other Las Cruces motel prices were either $54 and up or in the $20 range but real dumps. But let’s disregard those fleabag motels. Overall, I got a very favorable picture of Las Cruces because of the area of town I was in, near the university and historic Mesilla, and the friendly people I met at the UU church and elsewhere. But on Monday as I drove east I saw mile after mile of new housing and franchise businesses that looked like any other city affected by a growth spurt. Too bad, but it won’t keep me from visiting again.
My favorite small city is Arcosanti, population about 65, a sustainable living eco-city designed by 80-year-old Italian architect Paolo Soleri in the high desert about 70 miles north of Phoenix. It is a work in progress, interns continue to build it and also make ceramic and bronze wind bells which are their major source of funds. Excellent bakery and cafeteria too – I had vegan mushroom barley soup and delicious bread pudding for $3.50. The website is arcosanti.org
WHAT I'VE LEARNED
I enjoy camping very much, especially early morning tea outdoors listening to birdsongs and watching the day begin. I became an early riser because the sunsets were between 6 and 7 pm, after which it was easiest to just listen to books on tape until my eyes wouldn’t stay open any more. The cot in the van was very comfortable and the new thick dark green and plaid flannel sleeping bag was always warm enough. When I set up the big tent, I used it for changing clothes, preparing and eating meals, and shelter from cold, wind and rain (and it stood up to it all). If you’re interested in the tent – brand name is Sportz, it’s an SUV tent that attaches to the back of an SUV, van or minivan or stands alone, is 7’ high, the floor is 8-1/2’ by 8-1/2’, it cost $200 from an on-line dealer and was well worth it. Oh, and very easy to put up after reading the directions (see my first newsletter!). Other campers were always friendly, and since it was winter were mostly retired or on disability (both groups get free admission and half-price camping at national parks, monuments & recreation areas). Spring break in late March brought out the educators and students. I met about 6-8 women between the ages of 50ish and 79 traveling solo. I don’t think I ever got in a conversation with any folks from the huge homes on wheels – they mostly stay inside. Maybe even campers are class-conscious.
I prefer small towns and lesser used state highways. I knew this before driving on I-10 through El Paso for about an hour (road construction, not rush hour). Avoiding the fifth largest city in the U.S. (Phoenix) was difficult because I wanted to visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West in nearby Scottsdale, so I did that on a Sunday after camping the previous night at a KOA at Apache Junction just east of there. Neither the KOA nor the long drive to Taliesin West were optimal experiences, but the destination was worth it. The Wrights’ living quarters are now included in one of the tours and that was very special.
LEARNING TO MOSEY
In late February, I still hadn’t learned to slow down. This became apparent when I was walking briskly to the counter of a gas station convenience store in Alpine, TX and almost bumped into the customer in front of me, a cowboy who knew how to mosey. Learning to mosey became a goal at that point. I also need to avoid planning too far in advance – it actually limited me; I missed some things I learned about along the way because I had a timeline to meet. In the future, I’ll try to allow more time between "appointments" (events or meeting people). That would allow me to meander and discover along the way. For example, I hadn’t planned to go to Poston, AZ, but since I was close, I did. It is the site of a Japanese internment camp during WWII, population 17,867 by August 1942 (6 months after FDR signed Executive Order 9066). It is now very barren, just a monument with an explanation of what took place there, and a water fountain with a list of the Japanese people who paid for it.
POEM FROM POSTON
This poem is on that monument. I really began to understand it while writing it down because my mind lingered on each word, and it was very powerful, so I suggest reading it slowly.
We Cannot Always Fail
By Lloyd Fujimoto
When tears are wrung in worlds of strife; When lives are wrecked by wanton greed; A weary throng, bent, disillusioned, Turned to dull black barracks in the dust as home:
Then they faced the world anew,
And here, they started life afresh,
We are the outcast, making life –
With dreams ahead – and dreams behind;
Confronting trials with small relief;
But we’ve gained much with more to find – And now we live, and make a life, The best we ever can.
We have left – some homes behind,
Crushed – broken in the wind that passed But we have others there – ahead.
We come to trials and ruts in life;
We tackle them;
We often fail. But on we go
For well we know
By faith,
We cannot always fail.
HOW TRAVEL BECOMES ADDICTIVE
The last book I read on the road was "Down Under" by Bill Bryson (2000). He is traveling through Australia and meets Mike and Val who run the telegraph museum and café in a remote area on the western coast:
"They were novice grey nomads – retires (often these days early retirees) who sell up, buy a motorhome of some description and spend their lives on the open road, stopping from time to time to earn a little money, but never tied to anywhere and essentially ever on the move. Six months earlier this would have seemed to me the dreariest punishment imaginable – endlessly driving across a landscape that is mostly hot and dry and empty. But now I understand completely. … There is always something just down the road … you never know what it’s going to be but it is nearly always pretty good.
(He flips through a guidebook on Australia and reads about a range of hills called the Bungle Bungles.) "I had a sudden powerful impulse to go there.
When would I be this close again? Besides, it would be a chance to drive into the Pilbara and visit little Marble Bar … see the landscape where Stan Awramik found and lost his fossilized stromotolites. From there it was but a hop along the Victoria Highway to Darwin. The wet season would be over soon, so I could go to Kakadu National Park … why, I could do this forever."
If you’re not planning a trip, feel free to stop reading as the rest of this is PRACTICAL TRIP TIPS Here are the stats for the 27 nights I camped, which may give you some ideas for your own trip:
Cheapest: 6 were free, Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, BLM-run, NM, cost $1
Costliest: $22 (Apache Junction, AZ, KOA and my least favorite – too many people in a flat, urban-feeling area – but it was the cheapest Phoenix-area
accommodation)
Longest in same place: 4 nights at Joshua Tree National Park in CA (pay showers available at a hippie store in the town of Joshua Tree), 3 nights at Big Bend National Park in Texas (pay showers available at an in-park store) Two included hot springs: Faywood Hot Springs in NM and Tecopa Hot Springs in CA south of Death Valley, both highly recommended Fewest amenities: Quartzsite, AZ BLM land, and east side of Red Rock Canyon State Park, CA. Both free, but bring your own everything including portapotty.
Noisiest: Dumont Dunes, CA – dune buggies at 3 a.m. (That’s when I learned it was for off-road vehicles – well, it was dark when I arrived.) At Afton Canyon east of Barstow, I heard off-road vehicles before I paid my fee and skeedaddled right out of there – after a short hike first.
Quietest: Datil Well BLM campground, NM – I was the only camper. Maybe I should have left when I saw the instructions in the bathroom about what to do in case of a bear attack, but I figured they were still hibernating so I stayed (I had already paid my $2.50), although I did not do any hiking the next day.
Smallest: Walker Pass BLM campground, CA – two sites for drive-in camping and 8 for Pacific Crest Trail hikers. It’s where the Joshua trees meet the pines.
Most interesting small places: Cochise Stronghold, AZ – two easily accessible interpretative trails, one about Cochise (legendary Apache), the other about the trees and plants. Longer hikes are possible, also technical climbing – met a father and son from New York who came to do just that.
Also Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, NM, with more than 20,000 petroglyphs.
Spent 3 nights in hostels, at Riverbend Hostel in Truth or Consequences, NM which included free hot tub use (outdoor natural hot springs); and in Beatty, NV. When I asked why there was a sink in my private $20 room, the manager replied: "This used to be a brothel." Met friendly travelers at both places and plan to return to Riverbend. I recommend the Beatty hostel for anyone going to Death Valley, but the town has no grocery store and the restaurants are not smoke-free.
Motels were only necessary 6 times, when it was rainy, late, no camping or hostel available, or I needed to shower, recharge my electric toothbrush and re-freeze the icepacks for the cooler. Five of ‘em had small refrigerators and microwaves. Always ask to see the room before paying your money. Not all surprises are pleasant! (Ants, bare light bulbs, saggy mattresses,
etc.)
Speaking of showers – 11 of the 19 campgrounds had showers, and only one was coin-operated. I got used to brushing my teeth and washing my face outside or in a public restroom. Only once did I go to a rec center just to shower (in Barstow, cost $3 and was worth every penny). Here’s an actual conversation I had on Sunday March 20 as I came out of the shower room at the Joshua Tree hippie store. A young guy was sitting on the bench waiting to use a shower.
He: Must have felt really good.
Me: Sure did. How long you been in Joshua Tree? (meaning the park not the
town)
He: I flew in from Maine on Tuesday.
Me: Climbin’?
He: Yeah. I’m at the peel stage of burn and peel right now.
Me: That’s right, you don’t have sun in Maine.
He: Not until June.
I went to a laundromat about once a week, and usually got into conversations with other customers who were often fellow travelers. The laundromat in Quartzsite, AZ is huge and plays country western CDs for the customers; it also had pay showers available and a pizza stand out front.
Finding palatable food while traveling in less-populated areas was a problem. Heck, it was usually a problem in populated areas because I don’t eat meat. Therefore, when I ate in a restaurant it was usually breakfast.
Most big chain gas station convenience stores have a large assortment of beverage machines. I enjoyed trying out different flavors of capucchino, and they’re cheaper in your own travel mug (Mine says Historic Route 66).
I always had plenty of non-perishable food with me, and stopped at supermarkets for perishables such as fruit, salad greens and veggies, bread, cheese, and juice. I ate a lot of peanut butter sandwiches, sardines or cheese on crackers, huge salads, sometimes canned soup (when I could wash the pan easily), instant oatmeal or other cereal and soy milk for breakfast, or bagels and cream cheese. Here’s how to toast a bagel over a propane stove: Cut bagel in half, shake off all crumbs, insert sharp knife in side of bagel, hold one side over the flame briefly, turn and repeat on other side, turn again and repeat until just before it starts to burn. I began every day with a leisurely cup of tea (usually chai), and tried to stop for teatime around 4 p.m. or hot chocolate later in the evening. I’m glad I took along a Brita pitcher as purified water vending machines weren’t always handy. And remember, everything tastes better eaten outdoors while enjoying the scenery.
COMMUNICATION AND BANKING
Even small town libraries have computers for public use for free. Don’t go right after schools let out, and expect an occasional wait. Some chambers of commerce or visitor centers have computers for tourist use, also New Mexico welcome centers on I-10. Forget wi-fi and Internet cafes – they’re in cities and it’s bring-your-own-laptop. Hotmail and Yahoo e-mail can be accessed from any computer. Before you leave, learn how to check credit cards and bank account balances online so you can keep abreast of your finances and either pay online, by phone (there may be a fee), or set up automatic electronic fund transfers at least 3 months before the trip. I avoided paying ATM fees at gas pumps and "foreign" ATMs by using my ATM card only at supermarkets. That’s where I got cash too, from $20 to $100. I used credit cards a lot and avoided carrying much cash. Speaking of supermarkets – you can apply for a club card on the spot. I now belong to four of ‘em and hope I’m covered for a while.
If you’re dependent on a cell phone, look at the map of your provider’s service area before leaving home. You can’t use them everywhere. (I had to drive out of a park and closer to an interstate to get service.)
Gas costs less in every state outside of California. While traveling in Arizona in mid-March, I was paying around $2 a gallon for 86 regular unleaded. Then I re-entered California at Blythe where it was $2.55 near the freeway exits and $2.33 further away. I asked the guy changing the van’s oil where to get cheaper gas, and he said "Go 5 miles east into Arizona." So I did, and paid $2.08 at a very busy Pilot truck stop.
Warning: if you’re driving on I-15 to Las Vegas, always gas up in Barstow to avoid paying too much in Baker, whose economy must be based on the 5 or 6 gas stations and the Mad Greek Restaurant. Gas was 45 cents more per gallon in Baker than in Barstow, and the Union 76 restroom was the worst I’d been in the entire trip.
On a pleasanter note, the California Zephyr train trip which began on April 19 has been comfortable, pleasant, scenic, and clean. You’ll read about that next.
posted by Joan McCarthy at 12:20 PM
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