Vanishing Point

The last leg of my trip was rainy and windy and very, very gray. I didn't take any photos on that leg of the drive. This photo of my first forsythia sighting of the year is from the day before in Southeast Missouri. Back to that last leg of the trip...  After stopping for lunch and groceries, I arrived at home mid-afternoon. There is a slight scent to this house that isn't at all about perfumes or about who is living here -- it has smelled like this since I first remember visiting my grandparents here as a small child. Walking in, I recognized the scent of the house immediately. Waking up in the night, I immediately remembered that I was at home, but then I had to remind myself which way the bathroom was from the bed. What now that I'm home? Unpacking, laundry, cleaning up after all my pre-trip van projects, sorting mail, filing my taxes, the list goes on but you get the idea. Almost three months on the road was enough time to interrupt some habits I'd like to

I'd read about it on roadsideamerica.com, and I'd passed it on my drive through the Missouri boot heel in January, and then I forgot about it. Until I saw the billboard, that is. I didn't recognize the name of the restaurant, but the slogan, "Caution, hot ones comin' in!" tickled a synapse or two and I wondered, could this be the place that throws the dinner rolls? A couple more billboards answered the question, YES! So I had to stop. It's a great place for kids and for families who have a tradition of celebrating birthdays and anniversaries there. Big party? No problem. It's likely that one just as big is just finishing up and there's a place for the next one almost ready. When I got there, they had a live pianist performing, and when she stopped they had upbeat recorded music to replace her. There was a guy there filming, I'm guessing for a commercial because it was just one guy and not a whole film crew, but it was way better equipment tha

In Arkansas I saw two crop-dusters on the same day, both flying back and forth over the highway I was on. One passed no more than 20 feet in front of me, and maybe 10 feet over me. With those distances, it sure looks like the plane is headed straight for me... The second also was headed my direction but the timing was a little further off, or possibly just as close but behind me instead of passing right in front of me. The first one was an ultralight, and looked a lot like this (only bright yellow):  http://www.zenithair.com/stolch701/pic09/crop-spray.jpg and the second looked more like a regular small plane. When googling for crop dusting images, I was surprised how many of them were related to articles about crashes. Glad I didn't see that before I saw the planes headed toward me! I think that the people who stayed in my hotel room prior to me in Jonesboro, Arkansas were professional hotel housekeeping testers. The housekeeping staff at the hotel failed the test, but I passed!

There's something about the backroads countryside in southern Arkansas that feels like going back in time. The creeks and rivers are natural and picturesque, and you can drive for miles and miles and never see a chain store. When I drove through a town called Delight, I saw a sign announcing that it was Glen Campbell's birthplace. I have only the most pleasant associations with Glen and his music, so it was a cheerful thing to see the sign announcing the connection between him and where I was driving. Here's a video where he mentions Delight, and shows off his gee-tar playing skills:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUBhE00h9U0 Although Hot Springs has a lot of chain stores and restaurants, the downtown area does not. It's quirky and touristy and unique. I made an appointment for a private mineral bath at Quapaw Bath and Spa, then went there the day before to make sure I knew where I could park my beast. The bath was nice, and then I was invited into the cool-down roo

This is probably obvious, but it's the first real experience of it that I've had, so I'm going to talk about it. There's a big difference between watching the weather from one particular location (or from a couple of particular locations if I'm planning to fly somewhere), compared to watching the weather while both I and the weather are moving across the country. It's different tactically and it's different emotionally. Before this trip, my thinking was that if I'm mobile and paying attention, I should be able to avoid weather I don't like. But I was thinking about the kinds of distances and weather patterns I'm used to in California or Indiana. Seeing what happened in Texas this past week has humbled me. To a large extent, I escaped winter this year. Yes it was very (single digits) cold when I hit the road for my trip, but I've missed all the snow and ice and most of the rain and wind. That took some planning at first, but then it was ea

As I sat in that dreary motel room in Hico, I noticed that the way I felt was very similar to how I felt when I was in my van and I didn't want to be. Noticing that was interesting -- I realized that the feeling wasn't as much about the specific circumstances of my van that I'd identified as unpleasant, as it was about being somewhere that I didn't want to be. Hmmmm... something to explore a bit more. After Hico, I'd planned on stopping in two more small towns in the middle of nowhere to make sure I gave Dallas a wide berth as I headed East. However, after Hico I was not in the mood to be in another small town in the middle of nowhere. The small towns in the middle of nowhere in Texas aren't like Blythe, the little town on the California/Arizona border where I gladly laid low for a few days at a time. Another small city like San Angelo would have been perfect, but I didn't see anything like that on the map where I wanted to go. So I relaxed my criteria abo

Sometimes I take a chance and get a happy surprise, and sometimes the surprise is not so happy. I hesitate to even guess when the last time was that I saw one of these: That's what I used to enter my motel room in Hico, Texas, just the other day -- in 2018. The rest of the motel room comes from the same era as that key, except the key is still in good shape and the room furnishings -- not so much. I don't know much about the economics of small mom-and-pop motels, but I know that some manage to be nice (like the one in Willcox, AZ) and this one is run down. I was actually surprised to see the other guests who came out of their rooms as I was leaving in the morning. Based on the motel, I expected a pretty scruffy bunch, but they all looked pretty tidy and the cars parked in the lot were recent models. Could I have gotten the ickiest room?  I suppose that's possible. I hesitated to leave a TripAdvisor review about the motel because they were doing some things right

This is a common question when I reveal that I'm a tourist. Unlike some other cities of a similar size, such as Abilene and Las Cruces, San Angelo is not on a major interstate route. There are no popular songs written about it. If I heard of it before I saw it on the map last week, I don't recall. I found it by looking for a place to stop East of Pecos that wasn't where I stopped before, and it was in about the right location. TripAdvisor listed enough activities that sounded interesting to make it sound attractive. There's something about driving across West Texas that makes the first city of any size that I encounter shine a bit more brightly than it would otherwise. That happened a bit with Las Cruces on my way West, and it happened again here. When I arrived at my hotel in San Angelo, it felt like I was in Disneyland. The sun was shining. The hotel staff was perky instead of sullen, and the hotel was a different brand than I was used to and the colors used to deco

Driving across Western Texas, I was reminded of how I used to think that someday I wanted to cross an ocean on a ship to get a sense of how big it actually is. Now I'm not so sure about that. Without landmarks to gauge speed by, how would I really get a sense of the ocean? I'd know how long it took, but would I really be able to perceive speed and distance? I have enough experience with flying to get a sense of how big an area is by how long it takes to fly over it in a commercial airplane, and I definitely get a sense of it by driving, but I'm not sure I could really grasp speed and distance if all I can see in every direction for days on end is ocean. Western Texas feels kind of like the ocean for a little while. I only drove about 3 hours to get from Pecos to San Angelo, but while I was in the desert with no towns in sight, it felt huge. I have a map of Texas that lives in my mind and I know how little of the state I actually saw compared to that whole map. What I did

On Sunday in Las Cruces, I took a look at the calendar and at a map, and started working from both ends toward the middle of my route back home to see how much time I had to play with and still get back home when I want to. There are some routes I took on my way West that I want to retrace on my way back East, and routes I want to change up. Today I drove back the same way I had come about two months ago. The first part of my drive through Western Texas today was a lot like New Mexico, with interesting mountains and similar desert vegetation. Now I'm in Pecos, about 40 miles past the Davis Mountains into the flat lands, the land of oil and cotton and flaming smokestacks. (It turns out the real name for a flaming smokestack is "gas flare" or "flare stack"  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_flare  but I like my name for them better.) I am starting to have thoughts of home, but I'm going to miss the desert and mountain landscape. I felt sadness today when

I took a couple of photos in Las Cruces that I really like that feature the sky. They were taken on two consecutive days. First came the sunshine and puffy clouds: Then the winds picked up and all these cool lenticular clouds formed: The night after those clouds formed, it rained. I'm told that the wind and dust season is going to start soon, but I'll be in Texas before that happens. My internal committee is not in complete agreement about whether this is a good thing. I've really enjoyed New Mexico, and I considered doubling back for some more time here, but I have a date by which I want to be back home, and it's time to start moving in that direction.

Yesterday I realized that I could solve a pet peeve I'd been dealing with for the last week or so, which is the icky color of the light produced by the lamps in some motel rooms. How? Buy my own light bulbs and swap them in and out of lamps as needed. I was feeling very grouchy about that situation. I am happy to report that I am now blissfully sitting here in the warm glow of soft white LED bulbs. 😎 I'm gathering other thoughts for future blog posts, but that may not come together for a few days. For now I'll just share some more photos of the Southern New Mexico landscape.

For me, staying in Deming was really all about visiting the City of Rocks State Park, about a half hour away. I've been seeing interesting volcanic rock here and there in the Southwest, but it hasn't seemed very accessible. Finally in this park it looked like I'd be able to get up close and personal with it. I looked at the possibility of camping at the park, but according to the website, the campsites were all booked. So I decided to make a day trip of it. When I got out there, I learned that they only reserve a small fraction of their campsites and if I didn't need an electrical hookup, I'd have no trouble getting a campsite. I thought about returning the next night with all my stuff to camp, but the terrain is a bit difficult for my sore foot (which continues to improve! yay!) with steep parts of the paths covered in crumbly, loose rocks. So I'm filing this info away for next time. The park is lovely and quiet, and many of the campsites are nestled close to

When I drove from California to Indiana in 2013, I did it with two senior ratties in a cage in the front seat next to me. They had posh quarters and plenty of shade, but it was early November in the desert and high temps were in the 90's, so I couldn't leave them unattended in the car for longer than it took for me to use the restroom. I remember one stop in particular -- it was tucked away down a road next to a tourist information office, and there was a big tree in the parking lot that I could use for shade -- a rarity in the desert. I parked, went in, used the restroom, looked at the stuff they had for sale, stretched my legs, and then got back in the car and left. Not much to remember about that, but it made an impression, and when I think back on that trip it is one of the memories I occasionally revisit. It was both ordinary and unique. When I selected Willcox, Arizona as my destination for a night on this trip, I picked it based on its proximity to an interesting geo

The last few days the weather has been beautiful and I've done some touristy things. I stayed in my van at the fairgrounds near Tucson again. Here are some photos and links to videos that provide glimpses into the last couple of days. I got to feed the rainbow lorikeets at Rooster Cogburn's Ostrich Farm. The birds pop the top off the nectar cups themselves, and then squabble over who gets what. Sometimes two can peacefully alternate plunging their tongues into the sweet liquid, and sometimes they peck each other on the top of the head or chase each other off. I'm just the tree on which all this happens. I intended to spend two or three nights at the fairgrounds, but when I got there I learned that this weekend they're hosting a big gun show. Not something I really wanted to hang around for, so I just stayed one night. And what a night it was! The weather was beautiful, the sky clear, I could hear the birds and the breeze and then the races began! Inside my va

The idea of seeing Lake Havasu City lost some of its shimmer after my unsuccessful attempt to get there, so I decided to head next to Gila Bend instead. I passed through this town earlier in my trip on the way between Yuma and Tucson, and I saw the signs for the Space Age motel and restaurant. I can't say this was a must-see place on my return trip, but it is conveniently located on the route that bypasses Phoenix and its traffic, and about the right amount of driving for the day. I got blown around a bit on I-10 on the way there, but it was just an annoyance, not too bad. I decided to cash in a bunch of the $10 "gift cards" I've earned by staying at Best Western motels on this trip, and when I got here the clerk said she needed me to print them out for her. So I turned on their guest laptop in the lobby and waited while it installed a whole bunch of Windows updates.  While waiting for that to happen, I snapped this photo of the lobby ceiling: That's a sk