Travels with Fred

14 September 2016

The morning dawned around 6 am with much cooler temperatures. The jeep recorded 43 F and I was glad I had put a jacket in the tent with me over night. I broke camp fairly quickly and was on the road again by 7:15 am. I packed camp with a cayote serenade.

Jumbo Rocks campsite has Joshua Trees, but as I drove through the park to exit the other side, I got a feel for how many are in the park. Some areas of the park it was the dominantly form of vegetation and several were absolutely huge. Like our palm trees in Florida, the Joshua Tree is a monocot – like grasses, just bigger and thicker. The Joshua Tree is related to the agave or closer to home, our yucca.

On the way out I saw a lone cayote near the side of the road foraging. I stopped the car but before I had gotten my camera out and focused, he had wandered away.

The jeep GPS guided me to I-10 and the outskirts of Los Angeles. The reason, I suspect, is it is currently coded for the quickest route. You can change it to scenic route but with these seven plus hour drives I opted for quickest. Well, the LA route was not the quickest. You were in stop and go traffic through most of the interstate by pass. Once clear of LA, it was much faster.

The scenery north of LA is pretty spectacular. Huge, rolling hills kept the transfer trucks at bay and you could pass them relatively easy. California has a law that if you are an auto towing a trailer, the maximum speed for you is 55 mph. No one does 55 in California so I couldn’t imagine trying to tow something on California freeways.

The road next led more inland and I passed through Bakersfield as I headed northeast. I was amazed by the number and size of feed lots in this flat area. It looks like your steaks come from the Bakersfield area.
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I soon left the flat area and started to climb. Again, the scenery was magnificent as I rose to 6,000 plus feet with nothing but “S” curves and hairpin curves with sheer drop offs on the sides with only an occasional guard rail.

I reached Grant Village around 3:00 pm and checked in at the Muir Lodge (main check in for the park no matter where you stay) and got my cabin. It’s a duplex cabin with my own bath. Tucked away are other cabins and tent cabins. I suspect the tent cabins have heat and they have shared showers but if they don’t have heat, I bet it got cold in them last night. I had to turn the heat on twice last night in the cabin. Unfortunately, the thermostat doesn’t work but at least I have off and on heat.

Dinner last night was a hamburger with mac and cheese at their food truck. The restaurant that normally serves guests has been demolished and they are constructing a new one from scratch. In addition, I bought a few snacks at the park “market”.

I was asleep by 8:15 pm with plans to visit the General Sherman and General Grant sequoias tomorrow.

13 September 2016

I went to bed very early last night – 8:45 pm – and slept very well. I awoke at 4:30 am and made the dawn patrol at the rim, then decided to splurge with breakfast at the El Tovar. It was ok but nothing to blog about.

Interestingly, I was seated next to a couple from Meridian, Mississippi, my birthplace. They were nice but Mississippi State fans. We talked about Weidmann’s and a few other old landmarks in the city.

I was on the road by around 8:30 am and was surprised when I was routed off interstate 40 to old Route 66. Actually, I was very pleased. It was very poorly maintained and you wondered if the bridges over the washes would support you, but it lead me more or less into the park. I have to admit I was a little dubious of the GPS and the routing, but it got me to Joshua Tree National Park.

One interesting feature was on one side of the road where a bank was formed from construction of the road bed, people had written names, sayings, and provided memorials by spelling words with rocks. This went on for miles and miles and was quite fascinating. I passed several that looked like memorials to Vietnam vets and probably many were spelling out the name of some lost loved one. I was very tempted to stop and put Rocky in stones but decided to pass.

When I stopped at the Oasis Ranger Station, I asked about Black Rock (remember the movie with Spencer Tracy – Bad Day at Black Rock?) campground since I had read on their web site that was the only place for tent camping. It seems all of their sites accept tent camping and the ranger steered me to Jumbo Rocks campsite, a very good description, because the rocks are indeed jumbo. Apparently this was voted the number one place to see either sunrise or sunset by some magazine.

I found a space and since I get in the park free with my senior pass, the campsite only cost $7.50 instead of the $10 per night for tent camping. They have done an excellent job with the campsite. There are over 100 camping spots tucked away in the boulders with outdoor toilets every 50 yards or so. There is no water or electricity but plenty of RV space for those so inclined.

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I noticed two Airstream trailers, one pulled by a jeep and one by a Range Rover. I’ve thought seriously about one of these once the house is paid off in two years.

There is a loop hike at Jumbo Rocks to Skull Rock, about 1.7 miles in length. With a few digressions, my walk was 2.6 miles in 1.4 hours. The total ascent on the hike was 307 feet at a maximum elevation of 4,487 feet. It was a neat trail, well maintained and marked and it did lead you to a massive rock that did indeed look like a skull.

After the sun set, I climbed to the top of one of the jumbo rocks to see if I could get some good star shots.  Unfortunately the moon was out and pretty much over shown the stars.

However, I did get one shot of the Big Dipper and I later noticed a meteor streaking across the shot.

Tomorrow is another 7 plus hour drive to King’s Canyon/Sequoia National Park. Redwoods, here I come.

12 September 2016

OK, I’m getting good at this. I did 9.73 miles today on the West Rim trail at Grand Canyon, South Rim.  Admittedly, it was a very easy trail and paved most of the way and the temperature stayed below 80 F and there was a great breeze.  Still, it was almost 10 miles at an elevation from 6,000 – 7,000 plus. I climbed to 1300 plus feet over the distance.

The night before had just gotten started when I woke at 10:45 pm and needed to pee. I used the second key card that was in the packet given. I had been warned not to put the key card near a credit card or electronic device.  This one had not been near either.  I completed my business and tried to re-enter the room.  No go.

I walked to the lodge office and had to wait while a man explained his problem. As near as I could make out, he had been hiking the Bright Angel Trail and had sprained his ankle.  Someone loaned him a pair of walking sticks and at 10:45 pm, he had just gotten to the rim.  He was leaving the walking sticks for the person who loaned them. He was exhausted.

He asked if there were any rooms available in the park.  The answer was one room but it was a 15 minute walk away with good ankles and the desk closed at 11 pm.  He then asked about a taxi to take him to the visitor’s center 5 miles away.  I started to tell them if he took the taxi, he could make the 11 pm desk closing and get a room but the desk clerk didn’t seem interested.  Apparently he parked his car at the visitor’s center and walked down the Bright Angel Trail without any gear!  The park website warns it is a dangerous hike and it has lead to several deaths.

In any case, I got my key card re-imaged and got back to my bed around 11:15 pm. I got up around 5:00am and was on the trail by 7:30 am.

For the most part, the west rim trail is paved. There is a section in the middle that is more typical of trails. It seemed every bend in the trail brought a more spectacular view.

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Near Powell Point I met an artist painting the scene, Dawn Sutherland. She’s part of this weeks art-in-the-park where artists from all over the U.S. Come to paint to raise money for the Grand Canyon Foundation.  We had an interesting conversation (I needed a rest) and we exchanged contact information.

The trail only had a few early birds at first and some regulars either passed me or I passed them along the way. One couple was taking the shuttle from overlook to overlook and I kept a running conversation with them.  Towards the end of the trail, a good many people were coming towards me, but I don’t think very many people hiked the entire trail. I rode the bus back from Hermit’s Rest and most got off and one off three stops back to the lodge, so they were using the shuttle on a regular basis.

Hermit’s Rest is an interesting end-of-the-trail building designed by some famous architect with an amazingly large fireplace inside.  It has been converted into a gift shop and deli for the shuttle crowd but it still retains it’s charm.

This has been a very exciting day for me.  I did a long hike, saw beautiful country, met new people, and re-fell in love with the canyon.  Tomorrow I’m off to Joshua Tree National Park for one night en route to Kings’s Canyon/Sequoia National Parks.  Any one up for scheduling a white water rafting trip down the Colorado?

11 September 2016

No ghosts last night. I’m probably not creative enough. I awoke at 5 am and packed the jeep.  I then showered, shaved, looked around one more time for Bynner and then headed to breakfast.

The menu for today was:

– artichoke frittata

– apple chicken sausage

– tomato basil salad

– cheddar herb scones

– pear spinach ginger smoothie.

It was difficult but I forced myself to eat everything!

The trip to the Grand Canyon was uneventful except for the large number of transfer trucks on the road.  Fortunately it was four lane all the way except for two short construction sections.

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I foolishly thought that September might see fewer people at the south rim.  The place is packed.  I almost didn’t find a place to park and when I checked in, the desk suggested I not move the jeep or try for anything closer to the room. I’m staying in Bright Angel Lodge.

The room is 40’s primitive with a sink in the room with shared toilets and showers.  That doesn’t bother me since that’s how I grew up.  The room rate is the most reasonable in the park.

Tomorrow, I intend to do a day hike along the rim.  I can go as far as 8 miles along the rim in one direction and if I get tired, simply catch the park bus back to the room.

I’m really excited about dinner at El Tovar tonight at 6 pm.  I tried to get a room here but that’s virtually impossible.  Most tour groups rent en masse and there are few individual rooms available and they sell out the first week available.

Dinner was El Tovar salad and strip steak with beef from Arizona.  For desert I had a ten year old tawny port. I won’t tell you how much it cost.

10 September 2016

Guess who is staying in the only haunted room of the guest house? The home, at one time, belonged to Witter Bynner, poet and writer, who at one time wrote under the penname Emanuel Morgan. The Shaman room, in which I am staying, was where he wrote and eventually died.

Dan, the co-owner just related two instances of people’s dreams in the room.  The first occurred when another published writer was staying in the room for two or three nights and on the last night dreamed there was a tall, dark figure that walked across the room when the ceiling opened up and the figure rose through the ceiling to the sky.  The published writer had been suffering from writer’s block for several years.  He got up and wrote for the next three hours. He related it to Dan and profusely thanked him for the dream freeing him of the block.

The second reporting was a middle aged daughter and elder mother who stayed three or four nights and on the last night the daughter was telling the mother of her dream of a tall, dark man walking across the room and sitting in a chair.  The mother, astounded, said she had the very same dream. The mother kept a journal and as they were packing up to leave, couldn’t find her journal.

They had previously bought a bottle of vodka and it was on the desk.  It begin to rock back and forth and bump into the wall behind the desk.  They originally thought earthquake but nothing else in the room was moving.  They checked the bottle and nothing appeared amiss.  They checked to see if the desk was level and there was the journal, directly under the vodka bottle.  Stay tuned!

For those of you who follow my itinerary, I had scheduled a massage through the inn with Steven Borges.  Somehow, we got our signals crossed and instead of a 10 am deep tissue massage yesterday, I had the massage today at 11:30 am.  I drove to his studio and he found I was a little tense.  After 75 minutes, as stated, I was putty. You do get a little knotted up after two arduous hikes and a 10 hour drive.

Today, I met Steve Kerr who used to work for the Broward County Library until he retired and then was the chief librarian at Stonewall Library and Archives when I was a volunteer.  We got to be good friends and we kept in contact over the years after he moved to a retirement community in Santa Fe.

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We had lunch at Cafe Pasquals, one of the older and more celebrated restaurants in Santa Fe. It was a 20 minute wait at 1:30 pm, but worth it. It was nominated for a James Beard award in 1999 for best southwestern restaurant.

From there we walked to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.  It was an excellent collection and spanned most of her career.  There were plenty of photographs of her by her husband Steiglitz.  It’s the largest collection of O’Keeffe I’ve seen.

Steve then gave me a tour of Santa Fe and his retirement community.  It would be very easy to fall in love with Santa Fe.  Steve is leaving Monday for a trip in the Black Hills and we both agreed we are very lucky to be able to chase our dreams at our age.

Tomorrow is a 7 1/2 hour drive to the south rim of the Grand Canyon!

9 September 2016

The day started at 5:30 am with a butt numbing drive of 10 hours to Santa Fe.  It was wild driving out of the park at 45 miles an hour for over an hour in total darkness with hair pin curves and drop offs of several hundred feet.  Once I finally got out of the park, the speed limit picked up to 70 mph which is apparently the perfect speed to kill jack rabbits.  Three ran under the car and one didn’t make it.  Not to discriminate against the birds, one hit the windshield somewhere just across the state line into New Mexico.  That, plus 3,000 butterflies which committed suicide against the windshield and the grill, the jeep became a killing machine!

Interestingly, to get into the park, I had an immigration stop and upon leaving, the same – different locations but since I look like a redneck, they kindly passed me through. They all had guns and there was a drug dog and while one agent talked to me, the other checked the vehicle.  Good thing the dog didn’t smell my stash of bison bars!

I’m staying at the Inn of the Turquoise Bear, a fifteen minute walk from downtown. This is probably the nicest B&B I’ve ever stayed in.

You get the picture! The first thing We do upon waking in cheapest generic tadalafil the morning is think of how I could be of service and quality of drugs supplied by the store. If you check out for info generic viagra are concerned about ED, simply talk to your doctor and then consume medicines. Less common side effects include increased light sensitivity, blurred Visit This Link buy viagra vision, and headaches. When the tool is set into action, it alarms users about something alarming and prompts to take quick action like sending it to a ‘quarantine’ that is cialis viagra canada find out for more info actually a PDE-5 inhibitor, which triggers male sexual function within hours. It is full of southwestern charm.  My room has a fireplace and a king size bed, desk and chairs as well as sitting area.  It’s supposed to be a 15 minute walk to the plaza downtown, which by the way, is blocked off for some festival today.

As I write this, I am washing days of clothes. Next is a stop at the car wash. The dead bugs give a white jeep a whole new look!Made it back for the wine social and a slice of bourbon pecan pie – gluten free.

8 September 2016

What a day and what a hike.  Looking for a day hike for today, I asked the park ranger for advice.  When she found I was at Chisos Mountain Lodge, she recommended the Windows. It is supposedly a five mile round trip with a great view.  She recommended I do the hike in the morning since the afternoon sun would be beating down on you on the return. What she failed to mention was the return was all up hill!

I loaded my day pack with 2 bottles of water and my water bag with 3 liters, so I knew I had plenty of water for the trip.  I took a few energy bars for lunch and a bison bar for protein.  I left around 8:40 am and noticed their were some steep switchbacks on the first 0.6 mile.  At least they had switchbacks.  I’ve been on some park trails where the term is unknown.

As I continued to descend, the grade lessened and there were some flat grades.  Every time you turned a corner, the scenery wowed you.

I made it to the bottom to the Windows around 10 am and was feeling pretty proud of myself.  The view was amazing.  There are two openings onto the desert floor below and a waterfall that dropped 200 feet at the end.  You had to be super careful since water had smoothed the rock over the eons and it was quite slippery when your boots were wet.

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Wait! I forgot to mention the bear poop on the way down.  The first “deposit” was very, very fresh, as in a few minutes ago.  Fortunate as I went down, the other “deposits” were noticeably older, as in 15 minutes and 30 minutes.  The last one already had flies.  They warn you about bears on this trail and mountain lions.

I rested a bit, had some lunch and began the trail upward. And upward. And upward.  I reached the summit and my room around 12:30 pm.  I figured it would be midnight with my pace.  Steady and slow is the way to go but at the end I had the steep switchbacks.  I rested at the top of everyone of those and really drained the water.  I can’t imagine how the people passing me going down were going to do on the way back up in the afternoon sun.

My Garmin Etrex said I hiked 6.7 miles with a descent of 945 feet from an elevation of 5447 feet above sea level which meant I also climbed 945 feet.  I have to admit, all the practice hikes paid off and I’ve learned six miles is about my limit.

If you’ve never been to Big Bend, it’s a must and I recommend the Windows hike, but begin very early in the morning, like daybreak. Of course, that’s when mountain lions are most active.

6 September 2016

I sit at the top of one of the hills in the Texas Hill Country 538 feet above sea level after a 490 foot climb at Lost Maples State Natural Recreation Area. The last time I was here was probably 1984. The place has improved their facilities significantly. As I remembered,  the drive through the hill country to get here was beautiful.

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I have campsite B, approximately a mile from the trail head. There are two “ponds” (their term, not mine) where I pitched my tent. After setting up and a nice long conversation with a couple from south Texas, I went skinny dipping ‘ to cool off and to wash my clothes.

After this climb, I’ll probably have to go swimming again. Tonight is chicken and dumplings. Tomorrow is a 7 1/2 hour drive to Big Bend Natio al Park.  Good cell reception at the top of this hill!

5 September 2016

Happy Labor Day!

I labored last night. My campsite was full yesterday afternoon but by evening there were only two occupied sites.  Apparently, a lot of people reserve campsites so they have a picnic table and fire pit available, use it during the day and then leaving before night.

The couple next to me seemed nice enough, young with two children, one a baby. They offered a mallet if I needed one.  Then another couple with a child showed up to share their campsite.  The baby started crying around 9 pm and continued. They started playing music on a radio and proceeded to have a grand time.

All tent sites are required to be quiet by 10 pm, but they showed no signs of winding down.  Indeed, it looked like the party was just starting.  No park ranger in sight.
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I checked to see if I could get out of the gate (some parks lock them and there is no entrance or exit after hours) and it was open.  I loaded the car about 11 pm and headed out.  I parked at the park headquarters to Google a hotel in Livingstone and the park ranger finally showed up.  I explained, he apologized, and I spent the night in La Quinta in Livingstone.

This has caused me to reassess those pull-in tent sites in parks. It used to be only night campers and all was quiet about dark.

In any case, I made it to San Antonio and decided to stay over in order to have a longer visit with my cousin Jo.  I’ll leave tomorrow morning for one night at Lost Maples instead of two.

Jo and I have had a ball talking over our childhood, seeing her son Patrick, and her two grandkids, True and Aria, who I got to meet for the first time. We ate tonight at an excellent Italian restaurant Paisanos.  We toured a lot of my old haunts in San Antonio  and then came back to the house for more stories and memories.  It’s been great and much too long since I’ve seen her!