Wyoming - Missouri - New Mexico Loop: Fall 2023

 After spending the entire summer stationed at home, we are ready to get back out on the road!  Our Fall 2023 plans take us on a huge loop throughout the Mountain States, starting with Salt Lake City, then Cody, Wyoming, to the Black Hills of South Dakota, and then down to the Ozarks for a stay in Branson, Missouri.  We then look forward to finally spending time in New Mexico on our loop back to California.  Woohoo!  Let's Roll!

With some rain in the works, we got an early start on Friday, September 1, of Labor Day weekend.  We were wondering if our timing might not be well-planned, but here we go anyway.  Hitting I-80 on a long weekend usually is a little dicey, but we beat the crowds.  By the time we passed Auburn, we were joined on the road by a rainstorm, which accompanied us all the way up to Donner Pass.  The front stalled out then at the summit, so we got ahead of it for the remainder of our trek across the Tahoe Basin and western Nevada.  As we drove past the Pyramid Lake exit west of Reno, we had to wonder how the Burning Man Festival was going to fair, as we saw the rain was predicted over the area on the weather map.  Yikes!  One big lake-bed of mud.

Stopping in Reno at a Del Taco for lunch, we discovered their "street tacos" on the value menu. Not bad!

Onward to Winnemucca!  Planning to stay in the area, we decide that if we make good time and are still up for a few more miles, we'll push on to Battle Mountain.  Sure enough, we're doing great, so onward. This will give us a few extra hours tomorrow in the Salt Lake City area to visit Phil's brother John & family.

No campgrounds anywhere around Battle Mountain, except an RV park at the Flying J Truck Stop.  After talking with the clerk in the truck stop store, we decided to snuggle in alongside the trucks; the clerk said it was perfectly safe, and we'd save $38 by not staying at the RV park.  Okay, I guess.  She said that she was on duty til 3am and we were welcome to come inside if we felt any sense of danger.  Okay, I guess we're up for the adventure.  Our first stay at a Flying J Truck Stop!

  How about a night-cap?  We walk over to the diner, settle in booth seats and try to order decaf coffee, but that was not on the menu.  So, we order two hot chocolates and a side of tater-tots.  So much for our "diet".  But, it is a road trip after all.  OMG the tater tots were good!  I saved the last one for Phil.

September 2:

A train whistle and rain on the roof woke us at 6:30am, great timing to get up and hit the road for Salt Lake City.  Apparently yesterday's rainstorm finally made it over the Donner Summit and across Nevada and caught up with us.  We drove in its company for about a hundred miles.  There was no traffic, so we enjoyed the the rain on this stretch of the road.  This kind of rainstorm was not that common at this time of the year, so we were grateful for it, as it dampened the sagebrush and trees and removed all the dust from the air.  No fires will start this week!

We pulled off the highway just past Wells to make up some lunch and take in the beautiful desert scenery of Nevada.  We finally got ahead of the rainstorm.

Making good time, we hit the Salt Flats around lunch time.  This is always a tough stretch of roadway, because once you hit Wendover in east Nevada and the Salt Flats in Utah come into view around the last mountain peak at the state border, you think you're there!  You're in the great Bonneville Basin!!  The home of the Great Salt Lake, and Salt Lake City.  But, unfortunately you are actually still a few hours from your destination, and the mundaneness of this stretch of road is maddening.

The glaring of the sun on the expansive whiteness played with our eyes, as we saw mountains across the playa get swallowed up in what seemed to be a levitating body of water.  Hills appeared and then disappeared in this mirage, and we had to keep squinting to re-interpret what we were seeing.  This is not a drive to make if you are at all sleepy!  The road is straight as an arrow for 100 or so miles across the salt flats, so with the mirage images being the only thing changing in your vantagepoint above the roadway, it would be very easy to get hypnotized by the white dash lines giving way under the hood of the car.  

But, yay!  We made it!  As we drive through Salt Lake City and head for Provo, we notice how much this area has grown since the last time we came, driving from the north to south.  Huge office buildings, high-rise housing structures, and warehouses were now everywhere, for the entire stretch south of SLC, all the way to Provo.  I remember it being much more rural.   Am I starting to sound like an old person?  

In Provo, we stop in to visit nephew Daniel and his wife Tiffany and their two sons, Henry and Harrison, and of course their dog Coda.  And the chickens too. And the beehive. (Thanks for the eggs and honey, Daniel and Tiffany!).  We love visiting them, and share in the joy that they are expecting a baby girl in just a week or so.  I somehow forgot to get my camera out, doggone!  No pics to share :-/

We then all headed over to John and Nancy's, where they have graciously invited us to stay.  Space was going to be a little tight.....   Well, this is actually a play-sized General Store they built for their grand-children.  

 

 Right next to the beautiful play house.  Check out the interior of the play house!!!  I am so very impressed!

   

With six+ grand-kids, John and Nancy have gone all out to make their home a child's dreamscape, and the kids love it.   Their real house is nothing short of palatial, as they have added on a few times over the 38 years they've been there.  Nancy truly has a gift for decorating.  It's a surprise that House Beautiful hasn't discovered their wonderfully restored home from the 1860's.  It is worthy of being featured in their next issue.

  

 

  

We had a delicious dinner and a very nice visit; time spent together was long overdue. Breakfast was delicious as well.  Thank you John and Nancy for such gracious hospitality.

September 3:

Next stop: Dinosaur National Monument near Vernal Utah.  As we headed up route 189 toward Heber City, we got a very loud alert on our cellphones (we had no cell coverage at the time, so it was quite the surprise!).  

  Life-threatening flood warning?  The challenge was that we were just passing over the ridge separating us from the Salt Lake basin, so we weren't sure if the warning was for the area we just left, or the area we were heading into.  Without cell coverage, we couldn't check our weather maps.  So, we kept going eastward, on a hunch that the storm behind us was just catching up again.  We didn't see any rain all the way to Vernal.  Phew!

The landscapes in Utah are just spectacular.  Geological examples of faults, dykes, folded beds, where ever you look.  Geology 101 would have been a cinch if we had these scenes to look at in-person.

    

 We stopped for lunch next to Strawberry Reservoir.  Good to stretch our legs a bit.

Dinosaur National Monument is spectacular!  The geology of the area is literally twisted, where rock beds are tilted nearly vertical, giving the most jagged and unusual profile against the sky.

  

One of the vertical sandstone beds had been the horizontal lake-bottom when dinosaurs roamed here 220 million years ago.  A drought caused many dinosaurs to die while trying to dig in the sand where the lake water had receded.  Their bodies were quickly covered with more sand and mud, cementing and preserving them in the landscape before their bones fully decayed.  After a few more layers were laid and then faulting/folding occurred in the area, this layer of sandstone was pushed into its current vertical position.  The famous paleontologist Earl Douglass discovered this fossil-rich layer in 1909 when he saw two apatosaurus femur bones sticking up out of the ground, where the sandstone around them had worn away. With a little bit of excavation, they uncovered a vertical wall filled with dinosaur bones.  This is one of the most amazing fossil displays we have ever seen.

The entire park landscape was just beautiful also.

  

    

  

  

September 4:

In the morning, we got a text from Nancy asking if we had survived the storm.  Although we had a little bit of rain in the morning, the Provo area where they were had gotten hit by a huge rainstorm with dramatic thunder all night long, and runoff filling the creek in their back yard.  :-0

We needed one more day at Dinosaur National Monument; we weren't ready to leave just yet.  So, as a "lay-over" the next day, we drove up Harper's Corner Road, that took us out around the far reaches of the park.  The scenery was a feast for the eyes.

 

 

 

 

    

 

We camped our second night at the Green River campground, and in the morning we took our breakfast down to the river's edge.

 

September 5:

Before leaving the park, we drove down the road past our campground to enjoy just a few more sights in the park.

  

  

Onward to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.  I can't imagine, with a name like that, that the scenery will be any less amazing.  We drove back to Vernal, Utah to head north on route 191.  Vernal is a very pretty little town.

The drive north along route 191 from Vernal is registered as a scenic drive, and for the geology enthusiasts, there are street signs that inform you what geologic formation you are driving past at any given time.  

The route is truly beautiful.

And then, you are presented with a spectacular sight

where the Green River is dammed, which makes up the Flaming Gorge Recreational Area.

We drove up the west shore of the reservoir and camped at Buckboard Crossing campground. 

 Once settled in, we met our neighbors Mark and Anne, who invited us to share their campfire, since there was very little wood to be had.  Mark and Anne are from North Carolina and are on their first two-month road trip.  Anne is an ordained Catholic priest.  Yes, you heard me right, SHE is a Catholic priest!  Although Rome does not approve, there are over 400 women Catholic priests, all ordained outside the archdiocese.  That took true grit, the kind that it takes to change the world.

Our other neighboring campers, Jill and David also joined us, and we had a lively conversation through the evening.  Meeting people on the road is one of the best parts about road trips.

In the morning, we packed up and headed north on route 191, then cut northeast on route 28 to Lander, then through Riverton, and north on route 26/20 to Thermopolis.

September 6:

Our destination today is Thermopolis.  Seeing the "ribbon of highway" stretch out before us was breathtaking.

We crossed the Green River and then drove into the town of Green River to stock up. 

If you drive a mile from the highway and pass by all the big stores, you find a quaint old downtown.

We found a little grocery store, which was much more fun talking with the storekeeper than going into a Walmart.  We then headed north on route 28 past Farson, and enjoyed more of Wyoming’s breathtaking scenery.

At the little town of Hudson, we saw a sign for fresh goat milk.  That sounded like such a treat.  We called the number on the sign and got directions down a farm road to meet Quincy out front of his barn.  He and his wife Diane had moved here a few years ago and are building a homestead, starting with raising goats.  They’ve named their abode “Birdsong Ranch”.

  

They are thinking of becoming hosts with Harvest Hosts, so we shared our great experiences with them regarding our past Harvest Host stays.  I hope to see them on the host list soon.

Oh my gosh, fresh goat milk is absolutely delicious!  In Wyoming a farmstead law was passed that allows small farmers to sell goat milk, among other farm produce that is otherwise heavily regulated, or even not permitted at all.  Lucky us!  We’ll enjoy it while in Wyoming.  Now, if there was a moose farmer anywhere her, we’d be in heaven.

Continuing northward along the Popo Agie River, and then rounding northward on route 20 past the Boyson Reservoir, we took in yet more gorgeous scenery.  I’m starting to think that every road in this area of Wyoming should be registered in the Reader’s Digest Most Gorgeous Roads registry.

  

  

Alas!  We arrive in Thermopolis.  The landscape includes the Bighorn River flowing right through town, and an outlet of hot springs lining the east side of the river.  Surrounding the hot spring fumeroles is the Hot Spings State Park.  This is a beautiful park with grassy lawns, paths, and three hot spring baths.  Then, uphill from the bathhouses are the thermal springs and fumaroles, where water bubbles up and flows across the surface at 141 degrees, cooling as it runs downhill to feed into the bath houses.  

  

Two of the bath houses are privately run, and one is public.  The private bathhouses offer multiple pools of differing temperatures, with slides, ambient music, lawn chairs and such, all for a visit fee of $12.50.  The public bathhouse is free.  But, it is run so well, with an indoor and outdoor pool (both the same temperature of 104 degrees), with showers, lockers and such.  Not especially fancy, but extremely functional and very nicely maintained.  We were surprised at the niceness of this bath house,  given that it was a public site and entrance was free.  We learned that, when the state of Wyoming obtained the land from the Arapaho and Shoshone tribes to build the Hot Springs State Park, they were obligated in the deal to serve the public, all the public, including Native Americans, local settlers, travelers, everyone that requested the use of the bath house, for free.  So, funding was developed to build and maintain the bath house into perpetuity.  Yay for all of us!

We arrived just as the bathhouse was closing for the day, so we walked up to the thermal springs and fumaroles dotting the fields in the park.  They have built raised boardwalks so that we can walk right over some of the flowing water across the  pools.

  

  

Some of the hot spring water runs down the cliffs into the Bighorn River.  There is a footbridge built across the river that gave us a great view of the water running down the cliffs.  You can see all the mineral deposits from the springs building up on the cliffs, creating stalactites dripping downward toward the river.  An amazing geologic site, we’re loving this.

We had a chance to talk with the host at the public bath house before she closed up, who let us know that the town allows for dispersed camping on a few streets in town so we didn’t have to drive out of town to camp.  So, we landed in a spot in front of the senior center, next to the train track.  Just after parking, a train came by.  Holy Cow, it was close!  Our van rocked and rattled until the train had passed.  We hoped they didn’t run all hours of the night.

September 7:

First thing in the morning, we headed for the public bath house.  Oh my, what a splendid way to start a day.

Afterward, we strolled around town, checking out these two really unusual structures, one on the front lawn of the high school, and one near the bath houses.  We couldn’t figure out what they were.

  

It turns out, when the bath houses were originally built, the water was moved around in pipes underground.  Thermal gasses would build up in the system and interrupt the water flow, so they built these tall gas escape towers to remedy the situation.  Over the years, as both water and gasses were emitted from these towers, the water deposited minerals on the outside of the towers.  This created those lovely stalactite structures on the outer walls of these steam towers, and the towers are now completely covered with mineral deposits.  Here is a picture of the history of these towers.  See how the flume shape developed over time.

Time to head northward again.  We headed northwest on route 120 toward Cody.  On the route, we turned westward on Cottonwood Creek Road to visit the Legend Rock State Petroglyphs Site.  Again, the drive is just beautiful.

We pass antelope darting off the road into the adjacent field.

 

The petroglyphs were carved into a rock wall that paralleled the most beautiful stream.

The rock wall went on for a few hundred yards.  Here is a pano-shot of the area where the petroglyphs were located.

There were so many drawings! I can't display all of them, but here are a few representative samples.  This site is renowned for the Dinwoody petroglyphs found here, which date back 3000 to 10,000 years.  They are believed to be carved by the ancestors of the Shoshone nation.

  

  

Onward to the town of Cody.  Like usual, we were enthralled with the scenery on the drive.

We arrived in the afternoon, and drove around the town to get our bearings.  Cody, Wyoming was founded by William Cody, also known to the world as Buffalo Bill. 

 Mr. Cody was a talented scout and businessman.  His scouting stories were legendary, and even used as entertainment by traveling theater groups.  During the winter, he was invited to star as himself in the traveling shows, which were a smash hit; stories of the wild west were very popular in the eastern and central-state cities.  So, he continued performing for years in the winter months, and scouting and running his ranch in Wyoming for the rest of the year.   At one point, he decided that the stage plays were not presenting the true experience of life in the west.  He had also developed and perfected a stage presence, and wanted to bring a more grandiose performance to the world, not just the eastern states.  So he founded the "Buffalo Bill's Wild West" show, which was instantly a hit throughout the US.  He took the entire performance around the world, and became globally famous, while promoting his version of the life in Wyoming and the western states.

We found the Buffalo Bill State Park campground just a few miles to the west of town and grabbed a spot for the night.  It was along side a beautiful reservoir.

 

September 8:

There is a huge museum complex in Cody, the "Buffalo Bill Center  of the West", which is made up of five different museums, each one with a different focus.  There is the Buffalo Bill's Wild West museum, an art museum, a firearms museum (the largest in the world), a regional history museum, and a gallery of current featured artists.  Mr. Cody was a man of high culture, and mixed socially with high-profile artists, inviting them as guests at his ranch frequently.  As a result,  Remington paintings and bronzes, among so many other artists are in the collections.  The grounds outside the Center are adorned with monumental sculptures as well.  This museum is a MUST-SEE if you are ever in Wyoming.  When you buy a ticket to visit the Center, it is good for two days.  Good thing, because it will take two days to cover everything!

Some of my favorite things from the museum:

  

  

  

  

After a full day at the museum, we went to dinner at the Buffalo Bill's Irma Hotel and Restaurant in downtown Cody.  Irma was Mr. Cody's daughter, hence the hotel was named after her.  The bar and most of the restaurant still looks like it would have a hundred years ago. The bar and pantry woodwork was original. 

Behind us, the sheriff was having dinner with a colleague.  Both were wearing full western gear with loaded guns.  

Adjacent to the hotel on 12th Street, they close the street to traffic and stage a shoot-out.  So, we got to keep an eye on the dueling cowboys out the window while eating a hearty barbeque dinner inside.

Down the street, there was a Country Music Songwriter Competition going on, and the bar next to the theater had open-mic for all the contestants to sing their tunes to the local public on their patio.  We really enjoyed walking around after dinner.

Then, we found a life-size bronze of Mr. Cody sitting in the central park on a bench.   I was ready to have an enlightening conversation with this fine gentleman.

 Cody is just a lovely place, with lots happening at museums, theaters, nightclubs, and just out on the street, so much going on and so much fun.

September 9:

One more night at the Buffalo Bill State Park on the lake last night, and now we head north and spend the day driving on two of the absolutely most scenic stretches of highway that we have ever seen before.  Heading north from Cody on route 120, we turned up route 296 east, aka Chief Joseph Scenic Byway.

We crossed over Dead Indian Pass, and had to stop to catch our breath from both the the thinness of oxygen, and the scenery that just stops you in your tracks.

 

When they called this road a Scenic Byway, they weren’t kidding.

 

 

 

 

 

We intersected route 212  (Beartooth Pass Road) headed up to Island Lake campground.  Now at an elevation of 9000ft, the air was crisp and cool. 

  

 

We chatted with the camp hosts for a bit, and they told us they would be closing down the campground the next morning, so don’t go on any long hikes or we’d be locked in for the winter.  Yikes!  We talked with them again about hikes to take (assuming that we would have moved our Lexy outside the campground entrance, in case we were out past 11am the next day), and they updated us on bear sightings in the area.  Bummer; we can’t hike around the lake, ‘cause a bear decided to settle in at the trailhead.  We can’t hike to a nearby summit because a bear and cub had settled in on a carcass on the trail.  These are grizzlys we’re talking about!  There’s no messing around with grizzlys, you avoid them at all cost.  We noticed that everyone in the campground that was just walking to the lake’s edge, not even heading down trails, were donning pistols.  We decided that we’d save our hiking for later, in less treacherous terrain.  

September 10:

We awoke to the sound of little hailstones falling on the camper roof, and it was cold!  Lucky for us, we have a propane heater built into our Lexy rig!  

 

There was a slight frosty crispness to the area now.

We waited just long enough to be sure that there was no ice on the roads, as we were heading up to the Beartooth Pass, still a higher elevation than where we were.  We bid our camp hosts good-bye, and headed to the summit.  On the way, we met a fox who was taking our presence in stride.

We reached the summit (10,830' elevation), which lies just south of the Wyoming/Montana border.  The view was peaceful, quiet, senses-filling, overwhelming.

The Montana side of the mountain looked slightly different.

As we pulled over to take in the canyon view, a Corvette club streamed past us.  Now, THAT'S how to travel this road!

Following the road down the canyon, we reached the town of Red Lodge. 

 How about a quick lunch at the Red Lodge Cafe and Casino?  Food was tasty, not fancy.  Perfect for a quick meal.  Then, how about some sights around town?  The candy store first.

 

 

Then, we checked out the Red Lodge Clay Center Gallery, as Phil and I are both avid pottery appreciators.  This place was as fine as any museum collection regarding pottery as art.  Amazing pieces!  We didn't want to be too obnoxious with taking photos on account that these pieces were for sale.  But we took just a few of our very favorites. 

 

  

We had a long conversation with Max, who was working as shopkeeper as part of his apprenticeship with the Clay Center.  Max had finished his Master's in Fine Arts, and was honored to be chosen to create pieces that will be included in the Clay Center gallery.  We're awaiting to hear that he will be a featured artist in the fine arts gallery on the second floor.

Heading east on route 308 toward Belfry, we passed an apparent ghost town on the left of the road.  Looking for info on this, we discovered that the location was a mining operation and there was an fire accident underground where many of the mining operators were killed.  The mining company closed down the mine and left the surface buildings visible from the highway as a memorial to those who died that day.

At Belfry, we turned north to Bridger, then took route 310 south to Lovell, and then took route 14A to the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.  There, we found a fabulous boondock spot, near the wildlife refuge lake next to an old cemetery.  We were set up just in time to watch the sun set over the hills, changing color and shadow on the landscape before us.

 

  

And, of course, we had to check out the cemetery.  This is one type of place where Phil loves to gather clues to life back in the times.....  So much history recorded on the tombstones.

 

 

September 11:

In the morning, we decided to drive to the northern tip of the Recreation Area, up route 37.  Once you are within the designated park, the roads are dirt, albeit they are nicely maintained.  But, it does change the pace of movement.  Instead of miles to minutes, you adjust to estimate travel time to miles to tens-of-minutes.  Which very effectively gets you in the be-here-now mode; always good for that change of pace.

The light and shadow again highlighted this beautiful terrain in the low morning rays.

 

 

We were on the lookout for wild horses throughout the Recreation Area, as this is an area where the counts of wild horses is managed, as part of the wildlife refuge program.  We did see a few, but also saw such beautiful vistas on our hunt for horses.

 

 

Caroline Lockhart was a reporter, and many might say she was a thrill-seeker, looking for exciting situations to write stories about.  From the east coast, she came westward to interview Buffalo Bill Cody and other big western dignitaries.  Once here, she fell in love with the landscape and the culture, and bought a ranch to settle in the area.  We stumbled upon her original ranch house and other buildings, and we can see how she picked this area to live in.  A little eccentric, she kept bobcats and other wild animals as pets, and wondered why her guests had trouble sleeping at night.  We truly enjoyed walking around her ranch and learning about this formidable person.

 

  

 

 

Continuing further into the park, we met Ranger Mike McArthur.  He was a retired school teacher and now spends his "office hours" out here on the ranch.  We had a great conversation about the custodianship of this wildlife preserve and the history of the land it now covers.

Devil's Canyon Overlook was a phenomenal spot!  We could have been in Canyonlands, the vertical drop was immense and the views were spectacular.

 

 

 

Onward, heading east on route 14A.  We are going into the Bighorn Mountains to camp for the night.  This route takes us up a 10% grade, into the hills.  We promised Lexy an oil change when we get out of the mountains; this was hard work going up this slope!

Heading down towards Sheridan on the east side of the mountain, we had some time left in the day, so we drove up to Little Big Horn to pay homage to Custer at his Last Stand, and the ensuing tragedy to the Native American population.

  

Standing on the hilltop, one can imagine the doom of looking down and being surrounded by an enemy.  Here is the actual battle site where Custer and last of his soldiers succumbed to the Indian warriors.

Recently, the memorial to the Native Americans was added to the site on the north side of the hill.

All of our days since leaving Salt Lake City have reminders of our Native American tragedy.  There had been a chance of peace between the new white population and the native Americans in the Dakotas with the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, of which Custer was instrumental in negotiating.  This treaty issued all the Dakotas area off-limits for new white settlers and preserved it for the Native Americans already established in the area.  But, with terrible luck, General Custer found himself also instrumental in the breaking of this same treaty.  During his exploration to establish a new fort location to protect trade routes (ordered by the US Government), he discovered gold in the creeks and rivers.  The word quickly spread that the Dakotas area was a new motherlode of gold, and the area quickly became inundated with settlers and gold miners, which went directly against the Fort Laramie Treaty.  Conflict between the new settlers and the Cheyenne, Lakota, Dakota, and Shoshone tribes quickly escalated, and the bonding of these tribes created unbeatable opposition for the US Cavalry.  And the rest is history.  Sad history.  It is a somber day to watch the sun go down.

September 12:

We'd headed back into the Bighorn Mountains to camp last night, and stopped at Sibley Lake Forest Campground.  This put us within an hour or so drive to Hyattville in the morning, where cousin Tim just bought a ranch.  Driving out of the mountains on route 14, we spotted a moose in a stream close to the road.  Score!!

Pulling into Hyattville, we just had to figure out which dirt road to follow that would lead us to his ranch.  After trying one road that petered out in the middle of a field, and a second road that took us to an empty homestead, we finally scored on a third road that took us to a barn and a group of cabins, which in one lived Maddie and Dan.  They pointed us down a fourth road to the new ranch house, where Tim was working on setting up a Sporting Clay range.  This was going to be fun.  Tim hired friends Dick, a renowned Sporting Clay designer, and his son Jim,  also well-known in the sport, to build the shooting stations and install them up on a ridge on the south side of the ranch property.  Today was the day to move all the stations up onto the ridge.  So, we joined in the fun.

Load them up.......

Head out to the range on the south of the property.

Build a stable base where each station will sit.

Place the stations in position.

 

Slowly, slowly....

Tim is happy.  Eight stations installed, and ready to be fine-tuned to create a sporting clay shooter's paradise!

On the ride back to the house, we could take in the beauty of this ranch.  

Tim calls this his retirement project. He purchased the land from the ranchers, and is leasing it back to them, so the previous owners are still herding cattle and growing alfalfa and sorghum on the land.  In the areas that are not used by the ranchers, i.e. the stream and swampy pools lining the south of the property, and the dry ridge and basin on the far south, Tim is building his dream sport retreat.  This includes remodeling the main ranch house, adding horse corrals, pastures, and fencing, and getting the raccoon population down to a count that would be considered balanced with the other wildlife populations inhabiting the area.  Tim has asked Dan to add the title "coon-slayer" to his long list of trades, and it so happens that Maddie is also a taxidermist (as well as dairy husbandry expert, bartender, and a few other skills that keep her gainfully employed), so she will make good use of the hides that are produced from the endeavor.

September 13:

Tim takes us on a drive up the Sprint Creek Canyon, which again is just beautiful.  At this point, our eyes are nearly fatigued, looking at such absolutely beautiful landscapes for two weeks now.

 

We come back to the ranch  and meet up with Jim and Dick, who have completed the installation of the stations and were trying out the targets for fine-tuning.  Tim got Phil and me all suited up and gave us each a lesson in shooting.  This is the first time I have ever fired a gun with live ammunition.  What a charge, this could become a pastime.  We both finally hit a target, and felt we didn't want to waste any more bullets or targets, so we let the experts take over and show us how it's done.  

 

 

We stopped in back at Tim's cabin (the ranch house was being renovated, so he had settled into a fishing cabin on the property until the main house was done).  Matt and Sam stopped by; they had installed new fencing around the sporting clay range, to keep the cows out of the area and knocking over the new shooting stations.  Everyone here is a cowboy, even if they are building fences for their day-job.

In the evening, we all headed down to the one restaurant in Hyattville, the Paintrock Inn for a delicious dinner and great conversation.  

 

 

We met the chef, who had recently moved to the area from Boston.  He was trying out the cowboy landscape and lifestyle, and getting used to working in this small kitchen at the Inn.

Tim then notices an old local singing cowboy named Joe that came into the bar, and described how he really enjoyed the last time they were both in the same bar, and Joe pulled out his guitar and started singing these incredible ballads.  I drummed up the initiative to go and ask Joe if he happened to have his guitar in the car with him.  He said, yes, and he'd be glad to get it out and play a couple of songs for us.  Yipee!

Joe plays the guitar laying flat, like a Hawaiian guitar because he injured his wrist years ago and it doesn't bend far enough to wrap around the neck.  So, he re-learned how to play in the new posture.  Joe played for a half-hour for us, and we (and the rest of the diners) loved it!  What a treat.  What a day.  What an adventure.

September 15:

It's time to mosey on down the road; we had more horizons to cross and Tim had to head back to Idaho.  But, we have the morning to hang out.  After breakfast at the cabin, we accompanied him back to the main house,

 and tried to be helpful with some of the remodeling tasks.  The best we did was to spot for him while he waved around a paint sprayer while up on a ladder.  The place is coming together nicely!  I love how every window in the house frames a beautiful view.

 

We can't wait to come visit again, and feel honored to have been able to see the "before" picture.  Tim is a gracious host, and we had the time of our lives while visiting.  Maybe same time next year?

We head back into the Bighorn Mountains, this time on route 16, on our way to Buffalo, Wyoming.  We stop at Meadowlark Lake for the night.

 

The east side of the mountain was, of course, beautiful.

 

September 16:

We were planning to pull into the KOA in Buffalo, as it was time to recharge, refill, and do some laundry.  But, when we saw their nightly pricing, we had a cow.  Just 1/2 mile down the road, we found the Deer Park campground/RV Park, which was just as nice and had all the facilities we were looking for, for half the price of the KOA.  Why people still flock to the KOA is beyond me.  What we will do, and pay, for familiarity.

Tim told us about a number of museums to check out in Buffalo, Big Horn, and Sheridan.  So, we headed up to the Brinton Museum in Big Horn to start our museum trek. There, the original farm house had been restored and filled with art pieces from famous western artists.  Wow, to imagine living in this old house with such great artwork on the walls; a delightful fantasy.  There was also a new building which housed a fabulous collection of western art. But, we started at the house.  Phil and I had our tour guide, Cristy all to ourselves.  What a beautiful house.  It reminded us a lot of Phil's Aunt Kate's.

 

 

 

Also on the grounds was a leatherwork shop, where we met James Jackson, a renowned leatherwork artist and educator.  He described the two prevalent styles, one that emerged from King's Saddlery in Sheridan (Sheridan style) and one that had a Hispanic origin (Valencia style).  He showed us how the Sheridan style has been picked up by Japanese artists and, even though the designs look more Asian in style, you can still depict the swirled ribbon pattern that deems it specifically "Sheridan".  Fascinating.  Mr. Jackson's showed us many covers of leather toolers' trade magazines where his pieces were featured, and one particularly gorgeous saddle was on display at the museum next door.  What an honor to meet The Master.

 

Onward to the Brinton Museum building across the lawn.  This was an incredible campus with the ranch house, the leatherwork shop and the museum.

 

  

On the way back to Buffalo, we stopped at Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site.  There, we met John tending the visitor center shop.  He was practicing his guitar (the visitor center was pretty slow right then) because he had a big breakthrough gig up in Sheridan tonight, and he wanted to really impress the audience.  We got to talking about music and performing, and then it turns out, he was born in New Haven, just like I was!  John and I chattered away while Phil checked out the historic site.

 

 

Back in Buffalo at dinnertime, and we remembered that Cristy told us to go to the Cowboy Saloon for the absolute best hamburgers on this planet.  We're game!

 

September 17:

Today is a pure lay-over day, put toward some badly needed tasks on the van and on our psyche.  We made full use of their fabulous coin-free showers and the reasonably-priced laundromat.  We also taped our window screens to make them more mosquito-proof.  Actually, we had taped the screens up while in Alaska last year, but we only had green painter's tape.  It was time to take down all the little pieces of green tape, and replace it with black trim.  Oh how nice and fancy the van looks again!  We also replaced the solar controller; we noticed that the coach battery wasn't getting charged by the solar panels on the roof.  I'm getting  pretty good with a voltmeter and was able to isolate the problem to the solar controller (that we had just replaced about six months ago!).  So, we ordered one and had it shipped to Tim's PO box in Hyattville.  Now was the time to fix it.  Success!  We're now getting solar power to the coach battery again.

  

In the afternoon, we drove into Buffalo to fill our propane tank, and went downtown to see the Occidental Hotel.  This hotel has  been around for a hundred years, and has hosted lots of famous people.  It is also well-known that it is haunted by a number of spirits.  I'm just glad we were there in the afternoon.  I don't sleep well after being spooked at night.  The hotel was charming, with that late-1800's decor.

 

 

 

The rest of downtown Buffalo was also very quaint and inviting.

 

 

 

What a fun and functional day.

September 18:

Destination:  Devil's Tower.  I picked up a bug so I'm not feeling too well.  It is a strange thing, being a thousand miles from home and not feeling well.  You can't exactly decide just to go home.  So, I spent the day lounging in bed while Phil drove.  Just as well that I stay back in the bed area of the van; keeping my germs away from Phil, if he wasn't already pretty exposed.  Just yesterday I was thinking that we are lucky to be on the road, as we're hearing that a lot of friends back home were coming down with the flu or covid.  I tested negative, so it's just a light flu I caught.  Anyway,  I still got out and took in the spectacular sight of Devil's Tower.

  

It is a strange phenomena; while you're around it, you can't help but stare at it.

  

Phil took a hike around the tower and got some great shots.  Crazy people climbing the tower, even.  Crazy.  I just don't have the climbing gene in me.

  

  

A sculpture of circling smoke is positioned beautifully in the park.

The campground had spots available.  I love traveling just off peak season.

  

September 19:

The Black Hills of southwest South Dakota is an area where we want to spend a few days.  There is so much to see here.  The topography is phenomenal, with granitic chunks of rock sticking up in every direction and weathered hoodoos and spires reaching upward, underground tunnels extending for miles, and sculptures in the mountains with our historic icons cast bigger than big.  It is formidable to behold.

We begin at Mt. Rushmore.  Our four presidents, Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt, and Lincoln carved into the mountain for all eternity.  As FD Roosevelt said at the dedication, "Ten thousand years from now, what will our descendants think about us?  We hope that they will give us the benefit of the doubt that it was our intent on leaving them a decent land to live on, and a decent form of government to operate under."

Phil hiked around the presidents (while I took a nap in the van).

  

The clouds started gathering in the afternoon, and I was very entertained by the play of the sun on one cloudburst.

We stayed around for the evening presentation, which was very moving.  At the end, all active and veteran service men and women were invited up to the stage for the retiring of the flag.  It was an honor to honor them.

   

 

September 19:

Mount Rushmore is not alone in our monumental human imprint on the mountains.

Enter on the scene:  Crazy Horse.  Still in progress, perhaps for another fifty years.  Larger than Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse rides over the land of his ancestors, reminding us of the presence of our Native American brothers and sisters, both in his time and in all time going forward.

There is an entire town centered on this cultural awareness at the base of the Crazy Horse monument.  It includes a museum, university, and of course an immense visitor center and gift shop.  I am always a little shy to go to places that have tour bus loading zones in the parking lot, but I'm glad we persevered and went in the museum.  The art and artifacts on display were definitely worth the visit.

 

  

 

Here is a scaled replica of the intended finished sculpture of Crazy Horse in the mountain.  

At the front entrance of the museum, there is this bronze statue that will haunt me forever. 

Standing next to his horse who has collapsed from exhaustion, this Lakota warrior stands with his hands outstretched, singing the Death Song.  He has taken his spear and poked it through his long leather belt ties, and stabbed it into the ground, as a commitment to hold his position, stand tall and strong and face death head-on.  Shivering.

September 20:

Jewel Cave National Monument is a must-see

place to visit, but order tickets for the cave tour ahead!  They were sold out, so we couldn't get into the caves.  Save for next time.

The town of Custer is a central place to be in the Black Hills.  It is a very fun place, with coffee shops, book stores, gift shops and basic essentials.  On the street corners down the main street, they have buffalo bronze statues, each painted a little differently.

 

 

 

 

Time to drive south to Custer State Park, where we hope to see more wild animals.  

September 21:

Awoken by rain, we count our blessings that we are in a camper van.  No tents to take down, no hitches to set.  Get up, have breakfast, and off we go!  

The rain had dissipated by the time our wheels were rolling; what a beautiful day.  We are driving the scenic wildlife route around the park today, on the lookout for a buffalo herd.  Stopping at a nature interpretation site, we can really stop everything, get out of the van, look around, and listen to the quietude of the meadows.  

Alas, antelope!

and wild turkeys!

As we drive down to the southern area of the park, we spot a buffalo up on a hill.

Then, we come across a pack of wild burros.  They are hanging out on the road, and checking out the cars as if to beg for hand-outs, or collect a fee.

 

 

Then, just past the burros, we spotted the herd of buffalo.

The prairie dogs were also out a-gabbing in the field as we drove past.

We headed around a hill, and met up with another herd of buffalo.

 

 

Two buffalo decided to break away from the herd and headed across the street to check out the grass on the other side.

People that were parked nearby watching the herd were just frozen, watching these buffalo walk right past them.  I think I would be shaking after that close an encounter.

 

On the way back north, we passed the same burros in the street.  I think they must have been getting treats from the car passengers, because they were a little more stubborn about moving aside to let cars pass.

 

 

And then, the first herd of buffalo moved a lot closer to the road.

I swear, this has been better than any day in Yellowstone!  Incredible!

We drive down to the Wind Cave National Monument, just south of Custer State Park.  Our luck with cave tours has not been good on this trip; the elevator down to the cave is being repaired so they cancelled all tours for the month.  But, we do enjoy the visitor's center at Wind Cave.

We then drive down to the town of Hot Springs.  It is a nice little town.  They have a wooly mammoth fossil exhibit that we just missed the open hours.  There did not seem to be any access to the natural springs that we could find, and the bath houses were closed.  So, checking out Hot Springs might need to wait for another visit.

 

We headed back north and stayed at the Wind Cave campground.  The camp host let us know that the StarLink "train" would be visible at 8:05 if we happened to look at the sky at that time.  StarLink had launched about 30 satellites two days ago, so they are still circling the earth together, before their orbits take them far apart from each other.  This we gotta see!

Sure enough, at 8:05, we saw a line of light in the sky heading from west to east.  As they approached our zenith, we could see all the individual little lights.  It reminded me of Santa Clause and his reindeer; they sailed across the sky as if harnessed together pulling a sleigh.

What a day! What spectacular sights we saw.

September 22:

The early sun on the hillside at our campsite was so pretty.  Good Morning Star-shine!

We're heading north, on the way to Sturgis.  Driving back through Custer, it rained pretty hard, but then let up enough for us to walk a bit and find this old bar/cafe for a nice cup of coffee.

On the search for post cards, the only selection was at the drug store.  All the other stores sold just about anything that you might want as remembrance of the Black Hills; coon hats, cowboy hats, t-shirts, lasso's, every type of dish with a picture of Mt. Rushmore or Crazy Horse, shot glasses, you name it.  But, no post cards.  So, if you're in town and just want a few post cards, go straight to the drug store.

We headed north on route 385 and camped at Roubaix Lake.  It was off-season so most of the park was closed.  But, we found a nice spot, and found out there was no fee for off-season camping.  Yay!  There was a small fishing pond in the park.  We went down and just listened to the wind in the trees and the soft chitchat of the fishermen floating around on the lake.  They were using this new kind of boat I had never seen before.  Like an inflatable unit, too small for their legs to be folded into, so I assume that maybe their legs drop down in watertight sleeves under the boat.  Looking at them, knowing that their legs went down vertically from the boats, I could see the general form a a person.  Otherwise, they looked like cute little cartoon characters tootling around in these tiny little boats.

  

It started raining, so we retreated into the van for the rest of the afternoon. The rain then turned to pea-sized hail, which kept our interest.  Would it lighten up?  Would it get worse?  We were in for the night, for whatever was to come.

Fortunately, the hail and rain stopped in about an hour, and we decided it was a nice time to have a little fire.  Someone had left wood in the firepit, so it was an easy task.  We also watched as this empty campground suddenly filled up.  We chatted with our new immediate neighbor, Levi, who was from Rapid City.  He said that since it was Friday, the place would fill up full.  And that it did.

Standing around our fire as to lean into it for warmth, we could hear some of the soft conversations from our fellow campers.  Across from us was a man and his 5-year-old son having a guys' night in the wilderness.

"Daddy, you are my favorite person!"

"Now, I know that's not true.  I know your favorite person is Mommy.  But that's okay with me.  As long as you love me too."

"Daddy, I love you!"

"I love you too, son.  Good night."

September 23:

Taking the scenic route toward Sturgis, we pull into the town of Lead (pronounced "leed").  Historically a gold mining boom town, it now hosts the Sanford Lab at Homestake Mine.  This is a physics research center that is using the underground mine caves 4800 feet down, to learn more about neutrinos and dark matter.  Now, why has this place never been mentioned in Big Bang Theory?

This place is fascinating!  The visitor center is open, and we eagerly go through every display.  Here is a 3-d model of the Homestake underground mine, looking at it from bottom to top, with the wavy surface above representing the ground surface from underneath.

A note about the Homestake Mine:  it was co-owned by George Hearst, who also developed the Comstock gold mine and Tonopah, Nevada. With the success of these mines, he was richer than rich. His son, William Randolph Hearst is renowned as the California newspaper magnate.  His wife, Phoebe was the philanthropist in the family, and developed the health care system for the mining staff, built the Homestake hospital, library, opera house, school system, and developed a pension program for the mining staff that was the first in the nation.  She also helped fund the development of UC Berkeley, established scholarship programs, and the list went on and on.  A heroine in my books; we need Phoebes in this world to make our capitalist society the true gem of a system that is meant to be.  

This huge bracket used to hold a fluid tank used in the experiment station.  It looks like a Stargate.

Can you see Phil emerging from another planet?  That might explain a few things.

The town of Lead was huge in its hey-day.  It is very hilly, so buildings hug the steep inclines.

  

We meandered along to the town of Deadwood, another boomtown nearby whose economic structure was shared in mining, ranching, and banking.  It had a substantial downtown with 3-story brick buildings, surrounded by Victorian houses of all sizes.  

 

You can see why the tv show used this town as the base of the story line, just from the history of the buildings walking around downtown.

 

 

  

We took a tour of the Adams House, a large Queen-Anne with turrets and wrap-around sun porches, fabric wallpaper and plaster friezes in every room.  Quite the status symbol of the day.  The house was also one of the first ever in the state to have electric lights and indoor plumbing.

W.E. Adams and his wife Mary were the third owners of the stately home.  When William died, Mary decided to move back to California and walked away from the house without packing.  Everything sat in place, soap and pills in the medicine cabinets, and cookies in the glass cookie jar.  When the Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission purchased the house from the family in 1992, they restored the original furniture, wall treatments, everything to its pristine condition when William and Mary lived there.

 

 

 

 

What's a trip to an old town without a visit to the cemetery?  The Mount Moriah Cemetery is residence for dignitaries such as Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane, the W. E. Adams family and others of notoriety.

 

 

W. E. Adams had lost his first wife and two daughters to illness and childbirth.  He added this stone in the cemetery to honor them.

 

The cemetery is perched up on a hill that overlooks the town of Deadwood.  I suppose ifyou lived in town, you could always look up and know that your dear ones are literally looking down over you.

We're off to Sturgis to see the Motorcycle Museum.  The largest motorcycle rally occurs in Sturgis every year in August.  There was still a hum in the air from the gathering here in September, as everyone remembers and plans for next year.  There are some very fine motorcycles in this museum!  Here were a few of my favorites.

 

 

 

They had one painting on the wall that I just loved.

After a long day of sight-seeing, we were starved.  We went to the Knuckle Saloon and Restaurant for some hors d'oeuvres, but ended up staying for dinner.  No surprise.

 

They had a country singer performing, and he was great.  Bryan Loweree, seems he's on spotify already. Singing most of his own compositions.  We saw him when....

While mulling over the menu, I admired the new "rock" Phil bought me at the Homestake mine.

Quartz crystal mounted on a ring base; a lot of fun.

Our campground was out in an open field, and here was our neighboring camper.

September 24:

Today we  plan to spend the day in Rapid City. Our first stop is the Chapel in the Hills, a Lutheran chapel that is an exact replica of the Borgund stavkirke in Laerdal, Norway.  The original stave church was built in 1150 and still stands.  That says something about the architecture.

 

Looking up, you can see the construction design inside.

 

We visited just after the regular season closed, so no service on Sunday morning.  So, we said our own prayers and sang a taize.

 

The prayer walk up the hill behind the church was the perfect meditation for the morning.

 

 

We learned a little about rhune stones and their symbols.

 

On to Rapid City.  They have a nickname, "the City of Presidents."  And, they do their best to live up to their name.  They have installed all the presidents from George Washington up to Obama as life-sized bronze statues on all the street corners.  They do have Trump in the works, but I think they are holding out on installing it until after the election to avoid street calamities.

It was really a treat, walking up to each of these statues.  I felt the desire to hold a conversation with each of them.

  

  

 

Rapid City was the first real urban center that we have visited since we left Salt Lake City on this road trip. By comparison, it is a small and humble city, with a modest downtown.  We were there on a Sunday afternoon, which might have explained the quietude in the streets. The calmness was pleasant, although not quite expected for this major city in the area.

We also visited the memorial that houses a section of the Berlin Wall.  I recall the day the wall was to come down.  History in the making.

 

 

For our last stop of the day, we are heading for Wall, South Dakota.  There are two phenomena located in or near Wall;  one is a topological phenomena.  Facing southward, there is a sixty-mile-long escarpment, or cliff that follows a line east to west, passing just south of the town of Wall.  We are traveling eastward, out of the Black Hills and into the northern Plains; expansive flat prairies that extend past the horizon.  The top layers of the geologic bedrock are tilted slightly southward, hence the rain runoff flows southward.  As it runs downhill, it erodes away the top layer of softer rock.  The escarpment is the "terminal" line of erosion; the point where water has broken away the top layer of rock and washed it southward.  When standing on the lower level looking northward, it looks like you are standing in front of a sixty-mile long wall that is about 100 feet high.  Hence, it is named,  "the Wall".  The area just south of the terminal line is bumpy, with spires and eroded hills and gullies; a one-mile band of moon-like surface running along the lower level of the wall.  This area is known as the South Dakota Badlands.  (pictures to follow tomorrow).

The second phenomena is a man-made entity, and it begs for a Social Studies term paper to be based on it.  This phenomena is Wall Drug.  The establishment started out in 1931 as a humble drug store in the town of Wall, owned by Ted and Dorothy Hustead, a freshly-graduated druggist and a school teacher from Canova, SD.  The town alone would barely support the business, so the couple needed something to lure customers into the store.  They decided to give away free glasses of ice water, to thirsty travelers, as their store was on the main road that people took when traveling westward to Yellowstone.  They put up a series of signs that announced their offering, one phrase at a time, the signs were 100 yards apart. The signs worked instantly.  So, they offered free ice water in the summer, and free hot coffee in the winter.  They put up a few more signs.  They started advertising ice cream cones, and other road-trip "necessities".  They put up more signs.  They opened a restaurant and added gifts to the drug store offerings.  They put up more signs.  They expanded and added fun attractions that made a nice travel break for the kids.  They put up more signs.  They lined the store windows with memorabilia that you might find in a 1931 drug store anywhere on the prairie or in the mountains.  They made things fun to look at.  They added a substantially-sized chapel for a quick prayer.  They put up more signs.  As you are traveling along interstate 70, you will see the first sign:  "Only 500 miles to Wall Drug".  Then, "Only 495 miles to Wall Drug".  And so forth.  By the time you arrive in Wall, South Dakota, you can't pass by without stopping.  Wall Drug signs have been your travel companion for the last few days.  It's like the chance to meet your distant pen-pal; you have to stop and "meet" this entity that has kept you company for all those hours of driving.

Wall Drug is nearly an amusement park, with an indoor old-time mall with old storefronts selling western ware, gifts, and other things that would be attractive to travelers.  

 

  

The phenomena is that Wall Drug doesn't really have to offer anything historic, significant, or worthy of being a destination.  It just has to entertain you for as long as you wanted to stop and stretch your legs, and then get back in your car, on your way.

We joined a handful of other rv'ers parked in the back parking lot and spent the night.  Wall Drug doesn't officially host rv'ers in their parking lots, but it's known that they are lenient with any that do decide to spend the night.

September 25:

Waking up in the parking lot of Wall Drug, we allowed ourselves to be tempted to go to their restaurant for breakfast.  For a moment, imagine the kind of food that you would crave if you had just ridden into town after a 10-mile ride on horseback or buggy.  Yep, they had biscuits and gravy as the daily special, plus eggs over easy and toast, batter-fried hash browns, bacon, ham, and more bacon.  They did offer coffee for 5cents per cup, which was very quaint.  Being on a diet and following a gluten-free regimen, I ordered an egg and toast (Phil gets the toast) and a small side salad with dressing on the side.  It was actually decent, and I felt victorious.  Phil indulged in the Wall Drug special, and we were happy campers, ready for today's adventures.

Onward to the Badlands!

So, you are driving along, and then you come up to the edge of the grass, and there is this sixty-mile long cliff.  Yes, that's what it's like finding the Badlands.

 

 

As you drive through Badlands National Park, the road takes you from the upper plain winding through the cracks and gullies down to the lower plain.  You now find yourself looking up at these immense rocky edges reaching upward, surrounding you.

 

 

 

 

We just can't stop looking and staring.  The rock formation is as tantalizing to look at as a master painting.

 

 

 

 

 

We got a camp spot in the Badlands park campground.  It looked out over the prairie.  Loved our spot!

We went into the town of Interior, which was just outside the southern entrance to the park.  The Wagon Wheel Bar and Grill was open, so we went in for a soda.  The bartender's name was Lina, from Colombia.  She had married a cowboy that owned a ranch nearby.  Her college degree was in fashion design.  I don't think she could be further from the design industry than living in Interior.  But what a delightful demeanor and beautiful smile she had.

 

There were a few other buildings in town, but this one was the most picturesque in the fading sunlight.

After we returned to the campground, we watched the light show from our camper., as the sun started to set.

 

 

 

September 26:

As we drove back through the Badlands to exit the park, we said a somber good-bye to the mountainous terrain that we have been traveling through so far on this road trip.  Once we pass east of the Badlands, we are in the Plains, and the feel of traveling in the prairie is different than being in the mountains.  We both have not been in the central states before, so we're starting a new adventure going forward.

Before you know it, we are in Nebraska.

Our next major destination is Kansas City, Mo.. We decided to take local routes rather than follow the interstate system.  South on Route 73 through Long Valley, we pulled through the little town of Merriman.  There was a small cluster of buildings including a bank, a post office, and another building being used as a yoga studio.  All were closed and looked recently abandoned.  We wondered what the story was for this little town.  One thing of interest was between the bank and post office, there was this wall that displayed all the local ranch branding symbols.

One thing about these Nebraska state highways that we should warn everyone about:  The roads are made with expansion bands that cut across the road bed about every thirty feet or so.  This is not unusual for most roadways, but all these state routes that we took in Nebraska had one thing in common.  The expansion bands were deeper than most, so as you are driving along, you have this constant ka-thunk, ka-thunk, ka-thunk as the tires hit each band moving forward.  These roadway stretches are long!  So, you have to get used to the jarring ka-thunk, ka-thunk as it goes on for hours.  My spine and my psyche are still recovering.

 

The scenery is pleasant, as the crops shift between corn, alfalfa and soybean every couple of miles.

 

We stayed in the Nebraska National Forest, at the Bessey Sports Complex campground near Halsey.  Forest in Nebraska, you ask?  Well, yes!  But this is a unique forest, as the trees were all hand-planted.  Then, there was a fire a few years ago and sadly, half the forest was lost.  But, the trees we saw and camped in looked healthy and happy to be alive, so the Nebraska National Forest lives on.

September 27:

We roll into Broken Bow, Nebraska around lunchtime.  Around the town square we find a little Mexican restaurant, "Juanito's".  All the customers inside were speaking Spanish, so we figured it might be pretty good, although we were skeptical of ordering Mexican food in Nebraska.  Well, let's just say, the food make us pine for good tacos back home.  The "salsa" served with the chips was basically tomato sauce with a few leaves of cilantro in it.  The meats were very tame, in fact my tacos were just plain ground beef with a little lettuce on it.  Phil then asked the owner "mas caliente", and he smiled and nodded.  Then, he brought out the most flavorful and doggone hottest salsa we have ever tasted.  I guess he had us measured up to be total gringos, and made the food accordingly.  I gotta learn more Spanish!  Can't be eating that bland gringo food.

Pulling into Grand Island, we decide to take our luck visiting thrift stores, to replace a small glass frying pan that broke (lesson learned:  you can't use a glass frying pan to hammer an ice block).  One that we came across was "Mary's Basement".  It turns out, it's like a permanent rummage sale in the basement of St. Mary's Cathedral.  We didn't find a replacement frying pan, but we did sneak upstairs and had the chance to visit the sanctuary.  Love taking pictures in places of worship.

 

Out front, there was a status of Mother Teresa, sitting on a bench.

 

Looking for a place to camp, we found the Pioneer Trails Recreation Area, a state park in Aurora, just east of Grand Island.  Heavenly, we were one of two other campers in the whole park.  There was a beautiful little fishing lake, and even electricity for our camper.  Divine!

 

September 28:

Onward toward Kansas City.  We are now moving through Nebraska into Kansas, zig-zagging southeastward, on state highways.  All highways in this region run either directly north-south or east-west.  There are practically no curves in the roads, all are just straight as an arrow.    There are lakes, but instead of curving the roadways around them, they just build very long, flat bridges and cross over them.

 

We pull into Fairbury and find a very nice park, which actually has a frisbee golf course in it.  Downtown Fairbury is also very pretty.

Just south of Hanover, we saw a monument commemorating the Pony Express.  This was one of the "relay" stations where riders and horses were swapped on the Pony Express Trail, which stretched from St. Louis to San Francisco.  Fascinating feat, and an interesting chapter in our history of trans-continental communications.

Driving toward Topeka, it's starting to get dark, so we find the Wyldwood Cellars Winery, a Harvest Host site in Paxico.  We met Tammy, the manager in the parking lot, as she was taking a short break before closing up for the day.  We got talking about how Phil and I went to school in Sonoma county, and she invited us back into the tasting room and showed us her vintages.  A few were made from grapes, but most of them were made from fruits like elderberry, apple, peach, and blackberry.  Still containing 12% alcohol, you have to be careful drinking blackberry wine because it goes down like fruit punch.  Most of the wines we tried were very tasty, so we purchased one bottle of her driest red, and a bottle of honey-blackberry, which really tasted like mead.  Tammy was a delightful conversationalist, and she was so sweet to let us taste, and to park in her parking lot for the night.

September 29:

Onward into the city of Topeka, the Capitol of the state of Kansas.  We always like visiting the Capitol buildings as we are traveling; they are rich with state history and usually full of great art works and the fanciest specimen of architecture in the area.  Also, walking around, you can feel the buzz of excitement where everyone is actively advancing their civic endeavors and indulgences.  Here in Topeka, there is a formality, where those working in the Capitol are wearing coats and ties, and black is the color du jour.  That's always refreshing to see, as we've been camping now for nearly a month, and our attire was ready for a spruce-up.  So, we tidied up a bit, and headed into the Capitol.

Kansas was one of the new states added during the Civil War, casting their ballots as a free state.  Abe Lincoln is extremely prevalent here in the Capitol.

 

 

  

An interesting style of mural painting in the main floor lobby, combining brushwork of pointillism, outlining, and blended hues.

Here is a mural that was not entirely completed.  The artist was appalled at the criticism of his depiction of the struggles during the Civil War and Kansas rising from a great flood.  His intent was to show resilience, but his critics wanted a prettier picture.

Phil went into the Office of the Governor.  She was not taking visitors, but he got to talk with the administrator for some time.  There on the desk was an exact copy of our statue that Phil's parents gave us, we call "Buffalo Woman".

It's fun to peek into some of the meeting rooms and chambers when congress is not in session,  You can almost hear the conversations emerge from the silence in the rooms.

Next stop:  Kansas City.  The city straddles the state line between Kansas and Missouri., divided by the Missouri River.  The Kansas City side is more industrious, and from what we can tell by driving through it, has a strong Latino population.  This side of the river is a little bit lower in elevation, and was completely submerged under water by a great flood in 1951.  The central business district is on higher ground across the river, in Missouri.

 

There were some beautiful old brick buildings downtown, in the Library District.

 
Walking around the Library District, we found a great taco shop called Wrap-It-Up Tex-Mex Grill, and got some fabulous tacos.  We chatted with the shop owners, Roberto and Valencia from Guadalajara.  What a lovely couple.  Another customer said that we had to have the home-made chocolate chip cookies, she is addicted to them.  Maybe next time; we were truly enjoying the flavor of chorizo on our palettes.

Being it's a Friday, we decided to find a campground near the city and check in before the weekend rush hits.  We were lucky to get one of the last spots available in Blue Springs Lake State Park, just a few miles out of town.  On Fridays, they required a two-night stay, and we were happy to stay two nights, as we had some sight-seeing to do around Kansas City.  Yay!

As we were setting up, we reviewed the weather report.  The area is being hit by a high pressure dome, and the heat is on.  It's 95 degrees, and the dome is expected to last for about five days.  Yikes.  The only thing to do  when you are living in a 20ft van is stack your day with museums and such things that are air-conditioned during the day, and hope the temperature drops a little in the evening.  The humidity is about 80%, so evening temperatures just don't drop that much.  A few tough nights of sleep are ahead of us.

Goals for Kansas City:  have a barbeque dinner and listen to jazz.  Take in some historic sites and museums.  Get the tires rotated at Costco.  Tires all taken care of in the afternoon.  So, Friday evening, we head to BB's Lawnside Barbeque, where not only are they serving fabulous food, but they have a live jazz band playing too.  Coyote Bill is on the docket tonight.

BB. the owner greeted us at the door.

As an appetizer, Phil ordered the Barbeque Sundae.  Apparently, it was Guy Ferrari's favorite when he came to visit a few years back.  Pulled pork, slaw, roasted baked beans, and a pickle, served in a mason jar.  I got rice Boudin balls.  Just rice in balls with spices and deep-fried.  I thought it would be the closest I could get to a bagnette without eating wheat.

The band was great.  Bluesy, jazzy, even a little edgy.  Loved it.

 

During the intermission, I ran into the vocalist/harmonica player in the back.  She rocks!!!

Her name is Kelsey Miles, and she invited me to join her fan club at kelseymiles.com.  I'm a fan!!

After the show, we headed back to the campsite.  What a great evening.

September 30:

We didn't sleep much with the heat and humidity, but we were determined today to have a great time even in this blistering heat.  We drive to Independence, just south of downtown, and visit the Harry Truman museum and library.

 

You can't help but learn a little bit more about Harry Truman coming here, since I really didn't know much about him to start with.  He lived here in Independence, Mo.  He was a local hero in that sense, after he served two terms as president and came back to reside here for the rest of his life.  Yes, he ordered the first attack using the atomic bomb, dropping them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  War is ugly.  Many difficult, inhumane moments and many global players, with high stakes in every action as it changes lives of everyone of the world.  If I were reading the events as a fictional novel, our history would be absolutely intriguing, but because it is real, it's hard for me to take in. Most likely this is why I'm such a bad history student; I don't want to hear about wars.

But, I did learn lots about Harry Truman today.  

Here is a mural outside his office, depicting the historic development and challenges of the state of Missouri.

Here is a replica of his Oval Office in the White House, set up here at the museum.  He designed this room, so all the stuff on the walls and desk were what he actually had in the real Oval Office.

Here is his actual office, here in Independence, that he used after retiring here to build his library.  Everything was left exactly how he had it.

Mr. Truman also had a nice collection of cars.

 

He and his wife are buried here in the courtyard of the museum.

Apparently Truman's library is not open to the public.  I was really looking forward to browsing the shelves.  Is this how all presidential libraries are run?  This is the first we have visited, so we're still learning.

Onward, to the Kansas City Museum.  This history museum used to be a large mansion owned by R.A. Long and his family, and it is sitting in a neighborhood with extraordinary houses.

Here are some of the neighboring houses, still owned by individual families.

I loved walking around the museum's first floor, which displayed items that were from the Long family.  I could fantasize, imagining living in such opulent luxury.

The china...               the tapestries and furnishings.

 

They actually had a Knabe player piano in the drawing room.  That was exactly the same as the Knabe piano that I owned!

 

The stained glass in the building was beautiful.

 

The upper floors contained artwork and historic displays, mostly from the last 80 years.

Norman Rockwell's illustration of Kansas City after the 1951 flood, when a rebuild was necessary.

 

Here is Storage Room 308.  It is a 3-D display, with forced perspective and surrealist impressions, giving the message that perhaps no thought is complete or the same for everyone, and its truth is different depending on where the viewer is.

Success!  The heat averted for the day.  We didn't get to the Kansas City Music Hall, but we did feel that we'd had a good visit to this city.  We'll catch more next time we're in town.

October 1:

Still under the weight of a heat wave, we drive with our air conditioning running, and move along to the Harry S Truman State Park, near Warsaw, Mo.  Beautiful lake, fabulous campground.  All the state parks we have been staying at in Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri have had lovely campsites and electricity, with showers and laundromats.   So, we just spent time driving to escape the heat.  We are now in the Ozark Highlands, enjoying the green hills and beautiful lakes the area is known for.

 

October 2:

We moved along to the Pomme de Terre State Park.  Still hot, but we can actually get to the lakeside to go swimming here in the campground (the beaches all closed after Labor Day).  This park is beautiful.  I vote that we stay an extra day; we're due for a lay-over.

The Missouri State Park campgrounds are exceptional.  All are set in beautiful landscapes, and have electric and water available, with showers (not even coin-operated), and they even have all had laundromats.  Beautifully maintained campgrounds with very friendlyhosts.  It's been a delight camping here.

October 3:

The sun finally gave way to a warm front, and clouds moved in to give us a blissful break from the heat.

We took a nice swim in the lake,

and Phil made the favorite faire, tacos.

And, we watched the sun go down.  Beautiful day.

The reflection of the sunset looked great on our van.  Better than a painting.

 

October 4:

Waking to rain pounding on the rooftop, we readied ourselves for the drive to Branson.  We are checking in today with the Pleasure-Way East-Meets-West get-together, where we little Pleasure-Way owners take over a whole RV park and share stories, maintenance tips, and fix-it solutions for four days.

The rain did not dampen the beauty of the drive south.  

We are in the Ozark Highlands now.  The Ozarks are like a dome-shaped mound in the otherwise horizontal rock formations of a 400-mile wide area, taking up southern Missouri and the northern half of Arkansas.  It is described as a "karst" terrain, with lots of bends, sinkholes, underground rivers and water-carved caves.  It is somewhat rugged even though it is more hilly than mountainous, with the higher peaks reaching just over 2500 feet in elevation.  But although we don't climb that high in altitude, the roads are extremely hilly, with hairpin curves and 10% grades throughout the area.  It is really exciting and it takes a lot of concentration to drive in this area!

We pull into Branson, and go directly to the America's Best Campground, where our Pleasure-Way get-together is taking place.  Checking in, we meet Ryan from Pleasure-Way, the technical lead that has walked me through the removal/replacement of a converter breaker switch, a Spyder instrument panel, and a solar controller on the phone during while we were on the road over the last two years.  He is our hero.  And here he is, we get to meet him in-person! 

Being at an RV park where all the RVs are camper vans like ours is a bit surreal.  There were about a hundred of us at this park.   We learned so much about our van from other owners and from the Pleasure-Way staff that joined us in Branson.  This was worth the whole trip.

October 5 - 7:

While we are staying here, we decide to check out downtown Branson, which is known for its music scene and amusement-park like features.  The music shows tend to focus on the 60's and 70's era (great!  I know all the words to the songs!) and from what we could see, the restaurant scene is rather standard Americana.  There is an old-town section of downtown that is truly quaint.

  

... and then then dozens of huge theaters surround downtown that are interspersed with water log rides, Ferris wheels, and other entertaining attractions.  There is a Dick Clark Theater, a Tony Orlando Theater, and lots of others representing a big name music business from the last century.  It seems this is the place the big names come to enjoy their last big bang. 

The architecture is beyond entertaining; you might strain your neck catching all the bizarre buildings as you drive down the main street.

I think that if I ever owned a building that needed a face-lift, I would visit Branson just to get some outrageous out-of-the-box ideas.  Any of these would truly be a head-turner if it were located in Walnut Creek. I think some of these even top Vegas for bizarreness and originality.

In contrast, back at the Pleasure-Way RV event, they unveiled the 2024 top-of-the-line XLTS model van.  They said that the market is asking for plain and non-flashy van designs, so that the vans might be more accepted by HOA's and allowed to be parked in owners' driveways.  Here is what they built.  I think it looks like a milk truck, personally.  But they are right, it doesn't really look like an RV, so maybe HOA's won't even see them. (??)

By the way, it is gorgeous on the inside.

The last night of the rally, we had a Hillbilly Ho-Down at the club house.  A local group came to perform, and we had a great time.

 

We were enamored by this one gadget that one camper set up.  It's a multi-colored party light, shining on the tree nearby.  We're such magpies; shiny stuff attracts us.  Phil wants one of these.

Other cool gadgets were a hammock stand that hooks onto the front bumper, a swing that hooks onto your tow hitch, all kinds of awnings, a bike rack/stow-away and spare tire rack that mounts to the back door, now that sounds useful!  Being here at the Pleasure-Way rally has been very rewarding, as we visit other campers and share little tidbits of info that help us in our ongoing maintenance on Lexy.  One woman helped me fix our door curtain by simply finding a screw that was just a little bit bigger than the one that keeps falling out.  Presto, it's fixed!  Why couldn't I think of that, how simple!  Others shared their neat gadgets, and we learned about all the maintenance that we were supposed to be doing that we promised Ryan we'd start doing right away.  It was good to be focused on our van for a few days.  This van is carrying us in our dream road trips; we need to give our trusty steed the attention it deserves.

September 8:

As we pull away from our comfy spot of the last few days, we get back into the road-trip mentality.  Looking back now, we chuckle at how up until Branson, the trip was all about the places we see and the people we meet.  Once we were in Branson, it was all about the RVs.  With over 150 people here together, all we talked about was the vehicles.  And the dogs.  Everyone brought their dog.  I met so many doggies in the campground, it was heart-warming to see them all greet me as their best buddy by the end of the rally, they knew me well by then.  All these 150 people that came from all over the country, and it seemed the only thing we had to talk about were our vans and our dogs.  People mostly our age and a little bit older, some with stories to tell but for the most part, we just talked about our vans and our dogs.  Perhaps that's how it should be.  But it seemed there was so much more that could have been shared.  I'll ponder some ideas and share them later with the group leaders.  In the meantime, it made me pretty homesick for our pup that we left in the good hands of Tony back home.  Thankfully, Tony has been sending pictures of their escapades while we're traveling.  

Puppucino at Starbucks.... chilling on the grass at the park,

 

taking in the vibes at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival,

hanging with Tony at the beach on a hot day.  

observing the day's bounty from the garden, and watching his favorite tv shows.

   

We miss Porthos, but he is having the time of his life back home.

Back on the road, we are on our way to Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas.  The road to get there was beautiful; we are deep in the Ozarks now.  It's very green, hilly, and lovely. 

Here is one thing you don't see every day back home.  Here, it's a simple identity of being in the south.  Not simple for me though, but we're the visitors here. Observe, then move along.

Crystal Bridges is a gorgeous museum and education complex that is funded by the Walton Family, owners of Walmart Stores.  This museum serves the community here in Bentonville and neighboring town of Rogers where the first Walmart store was built.  The museum and grounds are open to the public, no tickets needed.  It houses a collection of exclusively American paintings and sculptures, from classics like W. Homer to modernists like A. Calder.  Not only do they house their standing collection and great visiting exhibits, but they also developed miles of outdoor paths with sculptures, light shows, and other interactive features throughout the grounds.  We spent Sunday afternoon in the museum luxuriating inside, taking in the Anne Liebowitz exhibit and the other art collections.  We came back on Monday to walk some of the outdoor paths and to visit the Frank Lloyd Wright house on the campus.  Unfortunately, some of the interactive outdoor exhibits did not run on Mondays so we didn't get the full effect of the displays, but we could follow along pretty well with what the designers were getting at.

Here are some of our favorites....

  

 

 

There was a room with mirrors and lots of polka-dotted spheres.  This was a blast.

 

Unfortunately, they would not allow us to take pictures of Anne Liebowitz's collection :-(.  But I will say, I was so very inspired to improve my photo-taking after being immersed in her works for an hour and a half.  WOW!!

September 9:

We camped nearby at Prairie Creek campground, just east of Bentonville.  On day 2 of our visit, we went to the Frank Lloyd Wright house "Bachman-Wilson".  This house was moved from its original site in New Jersey.  Again, no pictures inside, but we could take pictures of the outside.  Inside, we just let the architecture enfold around us.  How did it feel to pass through the hallway and be presented with a beautiful view of as garden through the big glass windows with mitered corners.  The built-in light fixture of repeated curved shapes cascading from floor to ceiling next to a corner where the glass meets the walls; it was awesome to feel the beauty in this space.  I was gob-smacked with how the room made me feel.  I want to be that sensitive to every space with which we have the power to create and design, and work every edge and curve of the space to massage and comfort the psyche of all who come inside.

 

 

In some of the garden paths, there were Chihuly glass sculptures.

  

There were sculptures that were artists' interpretations of housing design concepts.  These were more like artwork than functional.

  

 

And, some eye-catching sculptures scattered everywhere.

 

  

 

What an enlightened two days here.  The town of Bentonville is also a very attractive town.  It is apparent how the Walton family maintains and supports this entire community, and it makes it really sparkle.

Onward, we drive, now heading southward on route 7, then westward toward Tulsa.  We find the Fairview Recreation Area to camp at. It's a lovely campground that had been retired but still in use as a trailhead for hikers.  No bugs here!  We had a camp fire and enjoyed the evening.

 

September 10:

Before heading out, we take a short hike on the Ozark Highlands Trail, being that we were camping at the trailhead.  The terrain is rolling hills, and the ground is very rocky.  Small  4-8 inches in size, cubic in shape.  It is like there is scree covering the entire forest floor.  You really have to keep focused on where you are putting your feet.  It's amazing that a forest can grow in this rocky soil.

We just talked with Phil's brother-in-law James whose father had passed away two weeks ago.  He let us know that the memorial service was scheduled for this Saturday, and it was in Haskell, Oklahoma, just east of Tulsa.  We were going to be in Tulsa tomorrow, and in Albuquerque on Saturday, but we decided to change plans so we could that meet James' family and pay respect to his father.  So, we have a few extra days to spend here in the Ozarks.  Let's head down to Hot Springs.

There is an Arkansas Grand Canyon, but from the looks of it, it's covered with trees.  Maybe we got the location wrong.  Either way, the hills are beautiful.

Continuing south on route 7, we camp at Nimrod Lake.  It was just warm enough to enjoy swimming in the lake.  Here on a Tuesday, the place is practically empty.

 

After a nice swim and delicious dinner, we watched the sun set over the lake.

September 11:

Back on Route 7 heading southward, we enjoy more of the Ozark Highlands beauty.

One thing that is prolific here in the Ozarks is the amount of road-kill you see.  Possums and raccoon make up the majority of the poor victims, but occasionally you encounter the unfortunate scene of a skunk carcass (peeyoo!) or the sad sight of a deer lying on the side of the road.  We actually saw a large tractor trailer pulled over, just past the largest hoofed animal I've ever seen, lying on the side of the road.  It must have been a bison or a huge moose; I couldn't really see the entire outline of its shape.  It had just happened.  I think I now understand the old hillbilly joke about making "road-kill stew"; there is certainly a lot of supply around here.  They just need to get to it before the buzzards do.

Pulling into little towns along the way, it was not uncommon to see homes like this.  Some actually had little signs at their driveways saying, "Flea Market" if they were entertaining the notion of selling off some of their stuff. Sort-of like a permanent garage sale.  This house doesn't seem to be selling anything.  Maybe they should think about that.

 

And we arrive at Hot Springs.  Throughout the town there are fountains and faucets that have the hot water running through them.  Many people bring big jugs to the faucets to collect the spring water.  There is no sulphur in the water here, and the mineral content is considered good to drink.  So, I'm sure people fill up and serve it or use it in spas and restaurants all around town.

 

There is an historic Bath Row right downtown, which is on National Park land.  The Parks department has been working to restore the historic bath houses since the Park Service took over the land in the late '80's.  The bath houses were in their heyday in the 1920's as retreat and healing centers, with the spring water believed to have healing powers.  With the discovery and distribution of penicillin, many of the maladies that brought people to the baths could now be cured with antibiotics, so the flood of patrons at the bath houses declined.  All but one had closed down by the late 1970's.  So, these beautiful buildings sat vacant for years until the National Parks Service acquired the land to manage the natural springs and figure out what to do with the bath houses.  With a new rise in interest in healing waters, they were able to find businesses to run the bath houses and one by one they are being restored to their former glory.  The Park Service kept one of the buildings as a museum, spiffing it up with all the original bath and gym fixtures.  We took a tour of that one.

 

 

 

 

We also visited one of the restored spas that was open for bathing.  Very nice!

 

But, we didn't indulge in a bath because it was getting late in the day and we wanted to walk around the natural springs park area.  You know, we're geographers first, and bathers second. :-0.

 

The water is 132 degrees at the surface!  Ouch!

 

Onward from Hot Springs, we head northwest to Charlton Recreation Area and find a beautiful campsite right on the bank of Walnut Creek.  We felt a little nostalgic for the evening.

 

September 12:

Heading toward Oklahoma, we decided to take the Talimena Scenic Drive, which took us up and along a narrow ridge that gave us incredible views to both the right and the left.  

With a little bit of weather moving in, the clouds were low enough that we were quickly up in the mist as we crossed over the Arkansas/Oklahoma border.

 

We stopped at a trailhead to stretch a bit.  It was cold!!

As we returned from a very short walk, I caught Phil walking out of the mist.

Once the road took us down out of the clouds, our fantastic views re-appeared.

As we moved further northwest, we left the Ozark Highlands behind and moved into the rolling hills of eastern Oklahoma.

James' family lives in Haskell, just ten miles east of Tulsa.  We met up with James and his two sisters, Becky and Barbara, at his sister-in-law Korey's house.  Now, it was time to start remembering names of everyone we were being introduced to.  Over the next four days, we'll have met at least fifty family members and friends, most of whom were coming back to town for the memorial service.  

James' cousin David invited us to stay at his ranch, where he had a great spot to park our RV.  He is custodian of two wild mustangs that he kept in the field next to us.  They seemed to enjoy hanging out with the cows.

 

Phil and I felt taken in by this entire family.  What warm and generous people they are!  We love James' sisters, and I have a few new cousins including them and Cheryl and Korey.

 

Most of the family and friends grew up around horses and cattle, and some of them are still in the horse and ranching business.  Cousin Robert and Billy wear their Sunday-best hats and jeans in respect for Snow, James' dad.

While in the area, Phil and I went into Tulsa and visited The Gathering, an indoor/outdoor wonderland for kids of all ages.  I felt like a kid the whole time we were there.  They had a Curiosity Collection,

 

and funny chairs that only fit the real kids here.

There were a number of beautiful waterfalls and koy ponds.

 

a mirror maze

and a not-altogether-there mirror that was really cool.

Back at James' cousin David's, we enjoy the company of the family.  David is binge-watching Game of Thrones, and narrating the story for us, since we didn't have all the details under our belts.  We then take a break from the story line and go over Korey's and Travis' place for a last family get-together. 

Afterwards, we went back to David's.  Today was an annular eclipse, but we were just west of where we'd see the full ring of the sun.  Clouds were setting in, but we still went out between scenes of Game of Thrones to check routinely on just a brief peek if possible.  Our request was answered...

Now getting darker, the clouds were the best entertainment for us.  The sky was ominous.  Maybe rain in the works.

October 15:  Time to head westward.  We bid our good-byes to our new family members and adieu to the Game of Thrones, and headed to Oklahoma City.

We wanted to visit the Oklahoma City Memorial, and James mentioned that the Cowboy Museum is a must-see.  Let's go!

  

 

 

  

We stayed at the Anthem Brewing Company, a Harvest Host site in town.  They were just closing when we pulled up, so we weren't able to indulge in their products, but we spent a comfortable night in their parking lot.  A neighbor across the fence had a very noisy bird that sang and swauked us to sleep.

October 16:

The Oklahoma City Memorial is surreal.  We remember it happening, we remember the horror and tragedy. Standing here in the place where it occurred brings it back, but as the aftermath wrapped in silence and mourning.

 

 

  

 

Across the street, the Parish Hall of St. Joseph's Cathedral was also destroyed in the blast.  In its place stands this statue, named, "....and Jesus Wept".

 

We went in the cathedral to wrap up our emotions of this visit, and sit quietly for a few minutes.

  

Moving westward, we had a goal to get to Amarillo by day's end.  Now that we were back in the land of historic New Spain, we craved tacos.  We had refrained from ordering tacos to avoid another meal like that in Broken Arrow, Nebraska.  But now we're in the land where even gringos are served hot salsa. Yay!! Let's do a taco review for the remainder of the trip.  And, it's lunchtime.  Just west of Oklahoma City on a side-road from I-40 in El Reno, we found a taco truck that had five google stars.  Must be good; we're going in.

 

  

Tacos Carnitas and Pastor, with Ceviche and Chicken Tostadas, and a Pastor burrito to save for later.  Flavorful, spicy, fresh, Delicious!  We rated this meal as a 5.

Past Oklahoma City, the land flattens out, and we just see occasional landmarks on the road.  We try to figure out what they are all about.  Here is what must be the world's tallest cross.

And the flatness rolled on with us for the rest of the day.  

Once we entered Texas, a new theme arose from the flat lands. Windmills as far as the eye can see.  I wonder if Governor Abbot knows that there are so many windmills up here in the panhandle of his great state.  Treacherous, making energy from the wind.  They should be outlawed.

We stayed in an old RV park just east of Amarillo.  It sufficed for us as a stop-over, but I felt like we were camping with the tumbling tumbleweeds, right next to the highway.

October 17:

Back on I-40 heading westward.  Off the left of the highway, we saw a Cadillac graveyard.

 

Why ask why.  It's Landscape Junk Art.

 

  

Then, back to flat horizons and windmills, and  watching for our next source of entertainment.

 

Once we crossed into New Mexico, the landscape changed slightly.  Are those mountains we see on the horizon?  Yay!  We headed northwest on Route 104 to Las Vegas, New Mexico and stayed at Storrie Lake State Park.  

 

We are definitely in Pueblo country; the warm dry air felt good.  We camped near the lake and enjoyed the view, both from outside and inside the van.

 

October 18:

We are off to Santa Fe.  I've wanted to visit this town for years, and finally we are on our way.  Adding to the fun of visiting Santa Fe is our date with Phil's cousin Davis and his wife Christine.  Phil hasn't seen Davis since he was about five years old, so we have a fun reunion in the plans. 

Along the way, we stop at Pecos National Historic Park, where there are Pueblo ruins as well as a Spanish mission and church.  The park office was designed to mimic the Pueblo architecture, built with adobe brick.  I thought it was striking!

 

This ancient village was built up on a hill, with kieva's encircled with stone rooms making up the outline of the villlage.

 

The church was destroyed by the native revolt, but was rebuilt about 20 years later and is now maintained as a partial ruin, but with useable space for special services.

 

  

And we're now off to Santa Fe.  We adjust to the culture shock of being in a busy city again, and get into the swing of scouting for parking spots.  But looking around, what a marvelous place this is!  The weather is unusually warm for this time of year, so we walk around town in this nice, balmy 70-degree weather.  When you are in Santa Fe, it's impossible not to notice that every single structure is made in the style of pueblo structures; boxy with flat roofs, and is either made of adobe clay, or made to look like it is, with orangey-brown stucco.  You can tell which are adobe versus stucco by how deep the windows sit within the walls they're installed in.  All front gardens of all houses that line the street are framed with a 4-foot adobe wall, and a gate or arch as an entrance.  I will admit, this makes the neighborhoods look especially tidy because you see these nicely-maintained walls versus bad garden designs or stacks of bikes and other utilitarian things that people might keep in their front porches.  It is a pleasant look, and I am sure that the Santa Fe Planning department worked hard to keep the look consistent throughout the city, and even the whole county.

 

 

The streets through downtown and all the neighborhoods surrounding the downtown area are tiny, like as if they were all walking paths before cars were invented.  I don't think even a two-horse buggy would fit down these roads, they are so narrow!

 

Our first goal in town was to see the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.  A favorite of mine, I was looking forward to "visiting" Ms. O'Keeffe by being amongst her paintings.

  

  

  

We went with the "full plan", watching a 15 minute interview with Georgia O'Keeffe before we went in the exhibit, and then followed the audio tour, and then read every plaque that described every painting.  Halfway through, I removed the earbuds and stopped reading all the plaques; the analytical and literary side of my brain was way too stimulated, and I wasn't really seeing the paintings!  I went back to the entrance of the exhibit and started over.  Ahhhh! Much better.  Now I was actually seeing the paintings as I think she wanted us to see them.  We spent hours in the museum, going back and revisiting our favorite paintings.  When the museum announced that they were closing, we gathered ourselves and bid a good-bye to the space and essence of Georgia 'Keeffe.  Time to find a place to stay tonight.

We drove way up into the hills and found a camp spot in Hyde State Park.  By the time we got up there, it was dark (not my favorite thing, to find a camp site in the dark!).  We were camped at about 8500 ft elevation, so we planned for a freeze and kept our van space above 40 with our trusty heater.

October 19:

Driving back down the hill into Santa Fe was an absolute delight.  The trees are starting to change colors.  What a beautiful drive.

  

Once down in town, we drove around to get more of that experience of being in Santa Fe.  We notice that nearly every business entity is either a cafe/restaurant, an art/craft gallery, or a museum.  I think that it would take us a month to visit all the art museums that are located in Santa Fe, and we wouldn't have even started looking at galleries yet.  This city is the most artsy place I have ever seen.

We have brunch plans with Phil's cousins Davis and Christine, so we wanted to pick up a few items to contribute.  We picked up gluten-free croissants at Revolution Bakery (Oh my Gosh, what a sight!  Croissants, brownies, muffins, chocolate turn-overs, my fantasy is come true!), and some apple cinnamon buns at Sage Cafe.  Now, time to head over to see our cousins.

Davis and Christine live in an adobe house that used to be an old mill with a stream going underneath it.  They've added on and turned it into a sweet villa, with a courtyard garden and guest house, oh my what a treat to visit with them and see their house and incredible folk art collections.

 

We had such a wonderful visit, and Christine made a fabulous feast for us.

  

Davis is a folk art collector, and in fact they were leaving this Saturday for Oaxaca to meet with artisans and bring some of their work back to sell at their gallery downtown.  Christine is a curator and art director at the Living Folk Art Museum, and has written a number of books on "Santa Fe Style".  With this dynamic art couple, you can imagine their house is well-appointed with whimsical folk-art and beautiful carvings.  Oh my, is that an understatement!  Davis gave us a tour.

 

 

  

We stayed and talked for over four hours, and if it wasn't for the fact that they needed to go pick up their granddaughter at school, we most invariably would have overstayed our welcome.  I never wanted to leave, our visit was so much fun.  We had to see them again, so we offered to give them a ride to the airport on Saturday morning.  Done!

Then, off we went to explore more of the art in the streets.  Starting at Santa Fe Plaza, we got side-tracked after talking with someone about where the big church is, since they always accompany a plaza.  This person we chatted with told us the church was up one block, but as long as we're looking for it, be sure to go to the Loretta Chapel, where there is a Miracle Staircase that we had to see.

  

Apparently, the chapel was built with a choir loft 20 feet up from the chapel floor, but there was no means of getting up to it.  A staircase would not fit in the small and narrow chapel, and a ladder would be difficult for the choir to climb during services. The Reverend Mother prayed to St. Joseph (saint of carpenters) for a solution, and stranger showed up the next day, looking for work.  They hired him to come up with a solution, so he built a spiral staircase, using only wood and wooden pegs.  There were no iron supports, no central beams, just this staircase that seemed to float in place.  The man finished the work and then disappeared just as mysteriously as he had arrived.  It is believed that this man was St. Joseph himself that built such a lovely and seemingly impossible structure.  I'm not certain if the miracle was the man showing up to build the staircase, or that it actually still stands, with no structural beams or anchors.

  

The staircase was originally built without a banister, but the choir was so nervous climbing up to the loft with open steps that years later they eventually added the banister.  Here's a picture of the staircase without the banister.  Yikes, I would have such vertigo climbing that staircase and singing at the same time!

Back to hunting for art on the streets... we hardly had to hunt, as it's harder to find a shop that is not a gallery as you walk a six-block radius around Santa Fe Plaza. We saw the most beautiful glass works, stone carvings, paintings!  I may go back for this glass platter.  I LOVE this!!

 

The sun is about to set, so it's time to drive back up the hill to Hyde Park for a camp spot.

October 20:

Upon Davis' suggestion, we headed to the Museum of International Folk Art, and specifically, the Girard wing of the museum.  Alexander Girard, an architect and mid-century modern designer, was a collector of folk art from around the world.  He donated thousands of carvings, dolls, and pieces from his collection to the museum and even set up the exhibit.  I will have to say, his and Davis/Christine's styles are very similar.  Walking into the Girard Collection, I felt like I was in the most spectacular toy store.  A feast for the eyes, and more to look at with every blink and glance.  Dolls were set in spectacular settings, sort-of diorama-style.

 

We also visited the other exhibits on Museum Hill, and had a lovely lunch in the restaurant.  Phil ordered the Mole special, and I ordered mushroom taquitos.  Delicious!

We spent the entire day here at this museum complex.  What a fun day.  Now, time to head back up the hill to camp.  We missed the turnoff for Hyde Park, so we kept driving up the hill, knowing that eventually we'd reach the parking lot for the ski lodge, where we could turn around.  The sun was just about to set; the sun's low angle lit up the leaves of the aspen and cottenwood trees.

 

  We found another primitive campground just before the sky lodge, and pulled in.  I checked on the map, and we were sitting at 9700 feet elevation.  Must prepare for freezing tonight!

October 21:

Surviving a cold night, we headed back down the hill into town.  Again, we are struck by the beauty of this drive.  We are enamored with aspen trees.  They remind me of white birch from New England.

 

 

We will be taking Davis and Christine to the airport at noon, so we were bound for the Farmers' Market for the morning.  This is one of the largest farmer's market I've seen. Fresh vegetables and fruits, home-made pupusa's, and beautiful and even zany pottery/glass platters, bowls, and even sourcrout crocks.  We wanted to buy it all!  But alas, no room in the van for glass trays or crocks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a delightful way to spend the morning!  We splurged on delicious pupusa's and met so many artists and potters.  We collected their cards/contact info in case we just had to have a woven glass platter or a crock to make sourcrout in, or a skein of beautiful yarn; we'll have it shipped home if we do!

It's noon, so we're heading for Davis and Christine's house.  They are taking two huge empty suitcases to pack their new treasures in from Oaxaca; we fit everything in the van, and Davis and I sat in the back while Christine navigated Phil to the airport. It was nice to have a little more time to visit, albeit the road was pretty bumpy, at least it seemed that way from the back of the van.

Near the Santa Fe airport, there is a site of petroglyphs on a linear bluff.  After seeing the cousins off, we headed over. This is the La Cieneguilla Petroglyphs site, where the rock images date mostly from 200AD to 1800AD, with possible markings that are as old as 2000BC.  Oh my, I think I have shutter-itis.  I have to snap a picture for every single image on every rock face.  I'll just highlight a few here....

  

  

Now, we want to drive the Enchanted Circle just north of Santa Fe, which started at Taos and if following counter-clockwise, ran eastward on route 64 to Angel Fire, then northward to Eagle Nest, then westward on route 38 to Red River and Questa, then southward back to Taos on route 522.  So, off we go toward Taos.  

We stop at Las Trampas on the way, to visit an old church, the Church of  San Jose de la Gracia, built in 1760.

 

We knocked, but nobody was there, except this village dog check us out.

 

Phil reached up to get a few shots from a window.

 

And, we captured a few shots from the cemetery next to the church.

 

Continuing our drive, we enjoyed the fall colors in the mountains.

 

We arrive at Rancho de Taos, just south of Taos-proper, and visit another old Spanish church, San Francisco de Asis.

 

 

Again, the doors were locked, and no windows that we could reach :-(.  Starting to get hungry for dinner, we asked a woman that was parked just in front of the church if she knew any good restaurants nearby.  She directed us to a taqueria just up the street.  Yay, tacos!  We got talking, and she said she had gotten married in this church, and was just reminiscing the day now, trying to get past an argument she just had with her husband.  It turns out, she had lived in Walnut Creek during her middle-school years, and then in other spots around the Bay Area until later as an adult, she decided on a life-change and moved to Taos.  She owns the mattress store in Rancho Taos, and everyone refers to her as Mattress Mary.  Mary took a pic for us in front of the church.  I'm hoping that our conversation gave her a little levity in her thoughts.  She did leave smiling!

 

After a great conversation with Mattress Mary, we headed to her recommended taqueria, the Trading Post Market.  Yumm!

 

Off to Taos for a drive through town.  Lots of stone and adobe buildings; it was quaint.

 

It's now starting to get dark, and we don't have a place picked to camp tonight.  As we head east on route 64, we're passing all the National Forest campgrounds that we had targeted for the night's stay, but they are closed for the season.  We continued driving through the mountains up a very windy road, and it's dark, and we were starting to have that sinking feeling.  The road was very narrow and there were no pull-outs or driveways anywhere to turn around in.  At one point we could see that there was a sheer drop down from the roadside.  We pushed on until we passed the crest of the mountains, and breathed a sigh of relief when the road straightened out as we crossed into the cradle of the summit area.  A few miles further, we reached Eagle's Nest Lake (at 8200' elevation) and found a great campground to pull into.  Phew!

October 22:

Being that we had pulled in after dark last night, we had no idea what the scenery was, here in Eagle's Nest.  What a treat for us to wake up to this!

 

It was very brisk when we woke up.  Still just above freezing, we weren't worried yet about our water system in the van freezing.  We can camp in temperatures as low as 20 degrees, as long as we keep our heater on, and the daytime temperatures rise up to over 50.  So far, so good, so we can stay in the mountains a little longer.  On this road trip, we had a back-up plan to head to southern New Mexico if the mountains were too cold (which typically by late October they are pretty chilly, but we're having a warmer-than-normal year, lucky for us).

Continuing in the Circle of Enchantment, we enjoy the views.  The cottonwood and aspen trees are turning lovely yellows and golds, and the grasses almost glow red in the sunshine.

 

The town of Red River is a delightful ski village, but here before the snow season they are all dressed up for Halloween.  We had to stop into the general store.  Such great things for sale!  Chatting with the store owner was a kick.  She seemed a little goofy; maybe the thin mountain air had gotten the best of her.  But she was fun!

 

We continued on our drive, through the mountains .......

  

We then broke out of the circle, following route 64 westward. 

 Soon, we came across crossed the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  Holy cow! It's like, you are driving along, you see a bridge ahead, and then as you start to cross it, you see how far down the river is from the bridge.  Just after we crossed the bridge, there was a rest stop.  We pulled in, mostly because we had to grasp the enormity of what we just crossed, and walk back to look. It was truly as tall as the bridge over the Hoover Dam. 

 

  

Walking back to the rest stop, we visit with Corey and Kelly, who are operating a Suicide Memorial bus, parked here beside this bridge.  I hadn't thought about the suicide statistic of the bridge until they mentioned it.  Their story is, going through COVID, they were broken by the number of people dying, both from the disease as well as from suicide during that time.  They sold their house, bought this bus, and are running the Suicide Awareness program, doing their best to steer the dismayed away from suicide and at the same time, honor those who have passed.  People stop and write letters to loved ones who they have lost; the bus is covered with letters and pictures glued on the fenders.

 

Also at this rest stop was a young officer stationed here to keep an eye out for potential jumpers.  What a somber thing.  We talked for a bit.

Walking back to our van, we couldn't help but notice one man deep in thought, at the rest stop.

A sad moment; was he thinking of someone who had taken their life here at the bridge?  I asked for a blessing that he be held close to God's heart for a bit.  We left him in his solitude.

Continuing westward on route 64, we came across an area of the most unusual houses.  A whole community of Earth Ships.  These are houses that are built partially bermed underground with passive solar energy as the design theme, and all building materials are recycled/reused items such as tires, bottles, soda and beer cans, old doors and windows, etc..  Although those are the rules for building an Earth Ship, the aesthetics are anything but controlled.

 

These houses ranged anywhere from 1200 square feet, to over 10,000.

 

The community built a visitor center, so that passers-by (like us) would stop trying to tour around their private property.  Very cool.

 

  

 

We continued westward on route 64, enjoying the absolutely stunning views, until we took a side-road over to Heron Lake to camp for the night.

 

 

 

 

October 23:

Good Morning!  We had a great chat with our camp host, Ryan.  He grew up in San Ramon, believe it or not.  He will be staying here at Heron Lake through the winter. Brrrrr!

We're off, following route 64 north, through Chama and Dolce, all the way to Bloomfield, and then dropped south on 550 past Nageezi, on the way to Chaco Canyon today.  Chaco Canyon was a major center of the ancestral Puebloan culture, serving as the hub of trade and social/cultural functions for all Native Americans throughout the southwest "four-corners" region.  It's been on Phil's bucket list for some time to see this marvelous site.

This drive is along a registered scenic byway, so again we are flooded with beautiful scenery along the way.  We stop in Dolce for a stretch break, and take in the public art in the town park.

 

The rock formation is amazing, with the layered and block-shaped erosion patterns in the bedrock. Sometimes we weren't sure if we were looking at buildings in the hills, or just large blocks of rock.

 

Toward afternoon, we reach the Chaco Canyon turn-off, and head away from the highway.  The pavement turns to a rough dirt road within a few miles of the turn-off.  Yikes, we have about 15 miles of dirt road to drive before we get there.  And this is not a nicely-maintained road, it is really rough!  The better, smooth stretches have really deep washer-board ridges, and the lesser stretches have huge holes and rocks to avoid.  There was one particular rut that went across the road that emptied our cabinets when we traversed its dip. My patience was wearing pretty thin; this had better be worth the wear and tear on the van and on my nerves!

 

Once we get out to the site, we discover that the campground was full.  We had called ahead and the ranger said there were a few spots left, but they were all first-come, first-serve so the might be gone before we get there.  We took a chance.  Oh well.  We probably could have negotiated something with the campground host to spend the night, but I figured that there would be more traffic coming into the park in the morning that we'd have to maneuver around, than the amount we'd meet in the evening heading out.  So, we visited the site and planned to head out.  It would be a late evening for dinner.

Here we are, in Chaco Canyon.  Putting the challenges of getting here aside, it is a spectacular place.  There is a road loop that leads you to six or seven areas where you hike to these separate ancient building clusters.  Each has rows of rooms stacked multiple layers high, forming a semi-circle around a central area where there are multiple kiva's.

 

 

 

  

 

 

The sun's angle was acute and the day was getting on.  There were these beautiful clouds forming across the canyon that were nearly as entertaining as the ruins we were studying.

Heading back to the visitor center, the sky continued with its spectacular display.  Could a painter even begin to capture this better than how nature presented it?

We hit the road, that awful dirt road that we were dreading, but we could take it a lot slower on the way out.  Still, the cabinets tipped and emptied as we maneuvered that one bad rut in the road (grrrrr).  But, God above gave us one last beautiful view to help us get past our first-world problems of cabinet spillage.  A spectacular sunset across the canyons.  How can I stay irritated after this gift.

We drove and drove, looking for a place to camp that night. After we passed the little town of Cuba, we headed uphill, hoping the forest service campgrounds in the Santa Fe Nat'l Forest were open.  Luckily, the Clear Springs campground was!  There wasn't a soul in the entire campground, which was good but a little bit spooky.  We had a quick dinner and turned in, exhausted but with heads full of pictures through the day.

October 24:

In the morning, we did a quick check to tighten down anything that might have come loose after the beating the van took yesterday.  It was also nice to shake everything out, to get the dust out of the van.  The weather was brisk, and we were refreshed after a great night's sleep.

Backtracking northward through Cuba and then turning eastward on 96, we take a scenic route through Gallina, Coyote, Youngsville, and meet route 84 which we take into Abiquiu, the town where Georgia O'Keeffe lived.  When they name a road a "scenic byway", they aren't kidding.

 

As we reach the Rio Chama River valley, the cottenwood trees become the spectacular site along the way.

    

Pulling through Abiquiu, we stopped in at the Georgia O'Keeffe Visitor Center.  She is like a folklore hero all over New Mexico; the state is very proud to have housed such an artist.  Their tours of her house were sold out for the next two weeks (note to self:  plan ahead next time).  But, we enjoyed the center and the Abiquiu Inn next door had a gorgeous gift shop.

 

I love these mugs!  Phil and I are enamored with the aspen trees.  I might have to write to the gift shop for these, to give Phil for Christmas :-).  The gift shop had numerous local artists' original works for sale as well.  I am starting to think that New Mexico is the place to be for inspiration.  If you are an artist, the inspiration is in the landscape, in the social structure, even in the air you breathe.  If you are an art enthusiast, you will find an artist whose style grabs you and takes hold.  I assure you, it will happen, and you will come home with a treasured collection of art pieces.  For everyone else, we are just immersed in beauty while we're here, and that feels very good.

We continued our drive through this beautiful river valley, and turned off at Bandelier National Monument.  On the route, we noticed a shift in the geology of the cliffs around us.  There were bands of rock that were full of holes.

 

When we got to the Bandelier Visitor Center, we learned that the lower levels of rock are volcanic tuff; dust from volcanic eruptions covered the landscape, was then buried by a layer of  sedimentary rock on top, pressing the volcanic dust together and creating the rock type called "tuff".  Although it is rock, its molecular bonds are not that strong, so seepage of water into this rock layer causes holes easily.

The campground at Bandelier had spots available, so we grabbed one and made camp, since we arrived too late to check out the park's main attraction: a building structure and huge kiva plus cliff dwellings that we could climb into.  We'll dream about exploring this tomorrow.  Time for dinner at camp.  We've been making these wilted spinach salads, with lightly-saute'd vegetables, cherry tomatoes, lemon juice, and almond slivers.  On big nights, we'll even add chicken meat.  Yumm! and healthy!

 

 

October 25:

We're off to the visitor's center to see the Bandelier cliff dwellings.  The drive into the canyon was gorgeous, of course.

 

We hiked up to the ruins, snuggled up to the canyon wall.  The caves in the cliff were carved by the inhabitants, since the tuff was carve-able.  Again, it is still solid rock, but it is a lot more workable than a slab of granite or basalt.

  

The adobe structures and kiva were in front of the cliff, and the caves were set a little further into the canyon.  Whether the inhabitants lived in both dwellings at the same time is not known.  I believe they moved from the adobe structures up to the caves over a period of 300 years.

  

 

We got to climb up a ladder into one "apartment" room.

  

 

 

They had another apartment available for visitors to climb into, but it involved climbing a total of 140 feet up the cliff, on three ladders.  Phil was game. I had gotten high enough off the ground with the last ladder I climbed, so I stayed on the ground to take pictures this time.

  

Here is ladders number two and three (from Phil's camera).

   

In the top apartment, Phil saw a tarantula.  Eeeks.

   

Really, this was an exciting park to visit, as we got a true feeling of what it was like to be up in the cliffs where the ancestral Puebloans lived.  Here are a few more shots from the park; a beautiful walk in the woods.

 

  

Our day's travel continues westward on route 4, which passes by Valles Caldera, the core of the volcano that spewed all that ash which turned into the layer of tuff that covers the region.  It is now a huge, perfectly round meadow.   

 

We camped at the Jemez Falls forest service campground.  Delightful!

  

We learned that the staple food supply for the Pueblo inhabitants was squash, beans, and corn.  So, I made up a recipe for dinner I call "New Mexico Stew", which had zucchini, white beans, roasted peppers, chicken, corn, spinach, and tomato (plus onion and garlic, of course), served with quesadillas on the side.

 

Sitting by a fire outside, eating hot stew was delightful.

October 26:

We continued southward along the Jemez River Valley, enjoying the gorgeous fall colors.  Is it any wonder where our famous resident of these hills, Georgia O'Keeffe, might have gotten inspiration for painting nature scenes?

 

 

 

I think I might try to make a quilt that mimics this absolutely perfect landscape.

We did a quick look-around of the ruins at the town of Jemez Pueblo, and also noticed the Catholic church across the street from the visitor center.  I wondered if the tall metal "Mary" sculpture actually lit up with neon at night.

 

 

The town of Jemez Pueblo is a lovely little town.  I wish we had more time to visit here!

 

And as we turned south onto route 550 to continue down the Jemez Valley, the scenery stayed so acutely beautiful.

Residents of this area lived predominantly in tidy modular houses; we did not see a lot of large ranch homes or mcmansions along this drive.  Humble and functional seemed to be the rule of this rural land here.

 

Eventually we stumble into the outskirts of Albuquerque.  This city is expansive!!!  With a modern downtown, and quaint old-town, and about a 20-mile diameter circle of urban and suburban housing tucked against the Sandia ridge on the east side.

The plethora of houses was overwhelming.  What a huge city, sitting here in the desert.

Similar to Santa Fe, the color of buildings is sand-colored, with tile or metal roofs.  But, the architecture did not specifically stick to the Pueblo designs. This, among other factors, gave Albuquerque a very different look and feel, perhaps a little more modern, and just a little more urban than Santa Fe.

It's past lunchtime, so we look for a good taco shop in town.  As it turns out, there is one that is on the Yelp Best 100 Taco Shops in the USA.  Reforma Brewery and Taqueria, up on the north side of town.  What a treat!

Now, we head to Old Town Albuquerque.  The area is 3 blocks wide and 3 blocks long, with a museum creating the eastern edge of the Old Town.  

 

The architecture here stays with the Pueblo style, and although there are streets where cars are allowed, there are many alleys and little courtyards that make walking a pleasure here.

And what do you do here in Old Town? Shop and eat.  Since we just had a big lunch, we just shopped.  Woohoo!

 

 

I loved this display, showing where the colors came from in the weaving yarns.

October 26:

We stayed overnight at an RV park ('cause they had a nice laundry and showers, and it was time) near the highway.  We also needed to evaluate what altitude we were comfortable staying at.  Shall we stay in the mountains here northern New Mexico, or was it time to go south?  We had seen freezing temperatures, every night they seemed to drop another few degrees.  So, to avoid the risk of freezing our plumbing, we decided to head southward, out of the mountains.  We had had such good luck with the weather so far, and dodged a bullet in freezing temperatures a few times.  Time to play it safe and go south.

All squeaky clean, we headed to the Petroglyphs National Monument in Albuquerque, a seventeen-mile stretch of ancient rock drawings along the West Mesa of the city.  One thing that is amazing about this park is that the city neighborhoods encroach so close to the petroglyphs; you are still in a big city, looking at ancient relics in-situ.  I know it took a lot of effort to create the park and protect the rocks from theft and vandalism, but here they are, preserved and the area is respected as sacred by visitors.  We drove up small neighborhood streets to get to the trailhead for each of the viewing areas. 

  

 

 

 

There were three separate viewing areas along the 17-mile stretch, and literally thousands of drawings and carvings.  If I were an anthropologist, I would probably still be there today checking out and documenting rock images.  Alas, we take in all we can absorb, and turn Lexy southward.  But not before stocking up on some granola cereal.  Last chance for a big grocery store for awhile.  Then, adieu Albuquerque skyline and hello open road.

Tonight we are headed for Elephant Butte Lake State Park, and exquisitely beautiful lake that is formed by one of the subsequent dams along the Rio Grande.  The campground was fabulous, as we had a lake view from our campsite, and got to watch the full moon rise.

 

Our campground host was Katie Linley, a cute, peppy young lady who was about to transition up to Dead Horse, Utah (Canyonlands/Arches/Moab area) from here.  She has started posting short videos of her travels with Avery, her dog, on Facebook. I love her work, and seeing familiar sites that we just visited, from her perspective.  Check it out! facebook.com/katielinley89.

October 28:

We head into the town of Truth of Consequences.  This is a tiny town out in the desert that has modest but funky art galleries, shops, and restaurants.  You could feel that artist-vibe in the dry warm air as you walk along the sidewalks.  This town used to be called "Hot Springs, NM".  But, the townspeople took on a dare presented by a radio show MC to change their name to the name of his show, and he'd broadcast from their town for a year.  They always meant to change their name back to Hot Springs, but after awhile, the new name stuck.  But, the landscape still portrayed its previous namesake, and there are lots of old-time spas and bath houses where you can soak in spring-fed hot water.

 

 

Tonight we camp at Caballo Lake State Park, just south of Elephant Butte lake.  Still desert terrain, but this lake is just a little shallower than Elephant Butte, so the water wasn't quite that beautiful blue.  

But the sunrise was still beautiful.

October 30:

When Phil went outside just before dawn, he saw that the sky toward the eastern horizon was filled with birds heading southward.  My camera didn't quite pick up the effect of rows and rows of birds, but it caught the closest V.  It was fascinating to watch.  

As we hit I-25, the silhouette of the peaks in the Chihuahuan Desert were just captivating.  They continued paralleling us down to Las Cruces, where we then turned eastward on route 70, heading for White Sands National Monument.  Trusting that the roadway crossing this mountain range was drivable, we headed straight into the crags.

 

White Sands National Monument is an ethereal experience.  The sand is nearly pure gypsum, and white and silky as you can imagine.  Your eyes are telling you that the land is covered with snow, but the warm sun on your shoulders and the silky smooth sand under your feet tell you otherwise.

   

The sand shifts with the wind, which makes it hard for plants to survive.  They adapt by forming thick root balls to hold onto the sand.  Then, the sand trapped in the root balls isn't blown off, which creates these haystack-looking mounds of bushy plants. 

Trees that somehow take root in this terrain have a tough time of holding onto the sand, so they just dig as deep as they can.  When the sand moves away from the surface roots, it looks like the trees have developed legs and are walking across the dunes.

This is a landscape that I could return to, and never grow tired of the scenery.  It is a spiritual place to me, so beautiful, pristine, serene, and pure.

 

 

As the sun headed toward the west hills, we left the park and headed to the town of Alamagordo, where we stopped at a pistachio store and indulged in ten different pistachio products, including dill and garlic pistachios, chocolate pistachios, and lime with honey pistachios.  Oh my!!  Alamagordo is a sizeable town, mainly serving the White Sands military personnel.

 

We then headed southeast to the Oliver Lee State Park and campground, and settled in for the night.  We were directly across the valley from the White Sands National Monument, and up a few hundred feet higher in elevation, so we had a lovely view across the basin.  The wind was now blowing, and you could see the sand building up in the air across the way.

As we watched the sun lower behind the west hills, a gorgeous sunset took over the sky.

October 31:

We are anxious to get back into the mountains, now that we are at a lower latitude, so we head into the Gila National Forest.  I scouted the area for interesting places to camp, and found the Gila Hot Springs campground.  They had a spot available, yay!  Now, getting there was half the fun. We stopped for lunch at the site of an old bridge, and took in the views of the canyons. 

 

The drive into the National Forest was so exciting with its hairpin turns, and every vantage point opened a new scene of the forest; it was so beautiful.

The Gila Hot Springs was a lovely little campground, nestled up next to the West Fork of the Gila River.  Just across the river was a stand of crags, or hoodoos I suppose you could call them.  This area is spectacular!  With both dramatic geologic features, and with a plethora of plant species.  With the tall mountains and the river running nearby, the area supports multiple plant species that would never grow in the desert terrain just over the ridges from here.  What an oasis in the mountains.

   

The campground owners captured the hot water from the hills across the river and piped it down to three shallow pools that they built in the center of the campground.  The water was non-sulfuric and actually drinkable.  We wasted no time in getting in for a soak.

 

Phil soaked in the hot pool, and then did his obligatory jump into the cold river right afterward.

 

We took our last soak just after dinner.  The air was frigid, so unwrapping our clothes went really fast, as we hurried to get into the hot water.  Getting out, drying off and wrapping back up went way too slowly, and we were freezing by the time we walked back to our camper.  Brrrrr.  No midnight skinny-dipping for us tonight.

November 1:

Our campground hosts Carla and Allen told us not to leave the area without visiting the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, just a few miles up the road from the campground.  So, we headed up to see the sights.

We stopped at a monument marking the homeland of Geronimo, the Apache chief that successfully fought off the "white man" to protect his homeland in these mountains here. He led the Apache revolt for thirty years until his inevitable surrender on September 4,1886.  His surrender was the last of the Native American defeats, marking the end of the Indian Wars in the Southwest.

Just up the road, we pulled into the trailhead parking area for the cliff-dwellings.  We walked along a beautiful riverbank, and then up into the rocky terrain where the caves existed in the cliffsides.

  

Fortunately, the path was well-formed all the way up the cliff.  This was exciting, because we were actually able to walk all the way through the dwellings, deep into the caves.  You could really get a sense of what it was like to be here a few hundred years ago.

 

 

 

 

What a spectacular experience.  I had thought that Bandolier and Chaco Canyon were incredible, but this little National Monument here, hidden in the Gila Mountains, gave us the chance to be up close and personal with the ancients.  We were the only ones in the caves, and we sat and listened to the walls in their silent soliloquy, as we gazed out across the ravine. This was their view when they walked the earth; this was their home.  Incredible.

Back at the campground, we decided to stay an extra night here.  There were so many magical moments still lingering in our psyche; we couldn't leave it yet.  Another soak in the hot pools, as we process this enchanted stop on our journey.

  

 

We shared stories and compared routes with our campground neighbors, Douglas and Lucia from Vancouver, BC.  They mentioned that we must see the Chiricahua National Monument with its spectacular rock formations and hiking trails.  It's located in the most southeastern area of Arizona, just across the border from New Mexico.  With our next targeted destination being Tempe, Arizona, we could go just a little out of our planned route to take in such a spectacular site.  

November 2:

A crisp autumn morning.  We bid good-bye to our newly-found friends Douglas and Lucia, and the hosts Carla and Allen and at Gila Hot Springs, and headed southwest for the Chiricahua National Monument.  We used Google Maps to guide us south to Silver City, and then to I-10 at Lordsburg, and then take a short cut south on Apache Pass Road which swings by Fort Bowie, and then connects with route 186 into the Chiricahua Mountains.  

Silver City was a decent-sized town that still had so many of its century-old buildings still in use.  This looked like a fun place to be; next time we'll tootle around town a bit.

 

Then, very quickly, we were back in the open road.

Just about three miles into Apache Pass Road, the roadway turns from pavement to loose dirt.  Hmmm.  We figured that since Google sent us this way, the road probably turns back into pavement soon. Wrong.  Fifteen miles of loose dirt, ugh.  Fortunately, the road wasn't rutted out, but we were pretty tired of the dust and having our teeth chatter for the hour it took us to cross the pass.

Oh my goodness!  This park is incredible!  We lucked out with getting the last camp spot available in the campground, and snapped some shots from the roadway while it was still light.  

 

The next day, we took the Echo Canyon three-mile loop trail encircling Massai Point.  Spectacular.  Some of the hoodies here really started taking on human form.  Many pillars were teetering or leaning on adjacent rocks.  It made the area feel very dynamic, like any one of these towers could fall over at any  time.  We stayed on our toes to be ready to jump out of the way.

  

 

    

  

  

Back on the road, we stop in Wilcox to refuel, and a young lady from Hatch was selling chili peppers in the garage parking lot.  We couldn't resist.

Heading toward Phoenix, we pulled into the Roper Lake State Park, just south of Safford, Arizona.  We settled into a spot at the Cottonwood campground.  Although we were starting to feel that we were getting closer to developed areas and towns, there were still lots of gorgeous nature sights to see here.

 

The lakeshore was a marshy area, undoubtedly a bird sanctuary.  Boy, the birds were noisy at sunset! Phil and I could barely hear each other over the noise. Lots of quail crossed the beach and came into our campsite to visit.

 

While we have a little bit of R&R time here at this stop, Phil cleaned out our "spare dishes" cabinet.  Whenever we travel, we end up collecting containers; Starbucks water cups, potato salad containers, yogurt cups, olive jars. We hang onto them in case a need arises where we need a container (it does happen frequently!).  Well, here we are toward the end of this road trip; this collection's usefulness is waning to an end.  Time to reduce our inventory.

Wow, there's lots of room in our kitchen cabinet now!

November 4:

Today we are heading for Tempe, to visit Sam and Dan, with whom we travelled in Israel last fall.  Sam and Dan are both Episcopal priests.  Imagine being able to wander around Jerusalem with so many friends that are priests!  We actually had seven priests in our group.  How magnificent. There was a biblical reference to just about every square inch that we traversed while we were there, and we learned SO MUCH from our fellow travelers.  And now, we are coming to visit Sam and Dan, and Alicia and Bob, who are members of Sam's parish and also traveled with us in Israel.  A little reunion in the making.

On the way, we were passing through the little town of Peridot, and we saw a flea market on the side of the road.  We pulled in and enjoyed some local culinary specialties and great conversations with the Peridot locals.  I met Monica, who was selling baby quilts.  Ah, perfect, as I know two newborn babies that might love having a quilt specially designed and hand-made by Monica.

We enjoyed talking with Lillian, a bead artist who made gorgeous earrings and other decorative items.

And then, of course there were culinary delights to indulge in, like the very best tamales north of the border.  Yumm.

We arrived in Tempe just in time to watch the sunset from the Hole in the Rock.  This is a popular thing here.  Dan leads us up the back side of this rock formation, and we climb through the hole and watch the sun set with what seems like nearly the entire junior class of Arizona State, all clinging to this rock.

 

 

The sunset accommodated us as perfectly as if we had reserved the event in a movie theater.  I don't know if I have ever seen such vivid reds in the night sky before.  This picture shows the Phoenix skyline off in the distance.  Incredible.

Back at Sam and Dan's place, they show us their prize Lego model: a full miniature of the Titanic.

 

This model is about eight feet long!  Wow!  We have a lovely schwarma dinner together, and Sam and Dan have put us up for the night.  I felt like we could have stayed up all night talking and catching up.  

November 5:

Perfect that we are in Tempe on a Sunday!  We attend Sunday service at Sam's church, with Dan, Alicia and Bob.  

After the service, we were hanging out in the church parking lot, all talking  and chatting as fast as we could because we still had so much to talk about and Sam and Dan and Alicia and Bob all had to head inside where a church meeting was going to start, and we had to hit the road.  Oh, if only we had more time!

Onward, our destination today is Palm Springs.