Musings and more Route 66
Beauty continues to abound, and one day recently I followed the road and scenery up to Kingman, Arizona. (You remember the lyric from "Route 66," that goes "Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino?") It is stunningly beautiful country up that way, and the air was still crystal clear. It was cold that day in Southern Arizona, so what did it matter if I headed somewhere even colder? It got down to 24 degrees that night in Kingman, which seemed a bit incompatible with palm trees to me. I took this photo from near my van (was it evening or morning? I don't remember) and I didn't even touch up the color at all. The light was that good. (I don't always touch up the photos I post here, but I do if the colors I see in person aren't captured by the photo. This one looks like what happens when I push touching up too far and then back it off a bit, but this is just how it was.)
Rather than continue wondering about palm trees and sub-freezing temperatures, I googled something along the lines of "cold weather palm trees" and learned a bit about Chinese windmill palms, which those in the photo seem to be.
The other thing about that photo is that the motel across the street is the Route 66 Motel. Here's an enlargement of just the motel sign so that you can see all the features offered for an amazingly low price. How can they do it? The last time I stayed in a really cheap place, it looked like they didn't have any funds for keeping the property in good repair. I suspect that's how they do it here too.
It was tempting to keep going further north, perhaps to the Grand Canyon, but then the woman working at the motel said something about how you can never tell what the weather is going to do up here, and I remembered that this was early February in the mountains, and perhaps it would be better if I didn't press my luck. So the next day I headed south again to catch some gorgeous warmer weather.
It was a nice day when I got back to Parker. Nice enough to take your pig for a walk. https://youtu.be/i3QBjSYfSmE I wish I'd gotten a few more seconds of that, but I got my camera ready as quickly as I could before she strolled out of view.
I also got to experience the new moon in the desert recently -- that was one of two things keeping me here in Arizona a bit longer. I hoped to see something like the photos of the milky way I've seen online, but it wasn't like that. There were a lot of stars and it was really beautiful, but it was nothing like what I hoped for. Apparently photographing the milky way takes some expertise, and may not reflect what's actually visible to the naked eye: https://www.lightstalking.com/how-to-photograph-the-milky-way/
The other thing keeping me out here is having reconnected with my old friend (and unofficially adopted brother) Mark. It's been good to spend time with him here and there on this trip, and it was sad to say goodbye the other day because I knew it was going to be a while before I'll see him again. I've been on the road now for about 7 weeks and it's time to start thinking about heading back east. I've got an annual national park pass in my wallet, and the parks are open again, at least for the moment.
Rather than continue wondering about palm trees and sub-freezing temperatures, I googled something along the lines of "cold weather palm trees" and learned a bit about Chinese windmill palms, which those in the photo seem to be.
The other thing about that photo is that the motel across the street is the Route 66 Motel. Here's an enlargement of just the motel sign so that you can see all the features offered for an amazingly low price. How can they do it? The last time I stayed in a really cheap place, it looked like they didn't have any funds for keeping the property in good repair. I suspect that's how they do it here too.
It was tempting to keep going further north, perhaps to the Grand Canyon, but then the woman working at the motel said something about how you can never tell what the weather is going to do up here, and I remembered that this was early February in the mountains, and perhaps it would be better if I didn't press my luck. So the next day I headed south again to catch some gorgeous warmer weather.
It was a nice day when I got back to Parker. Nice enough to take your pig for a walk. https://youtu.be/i3QBjSYfSmE I wish I'd gotten a few more seconds of that, but I got my camera ready as quickly as I could before she strolled out of view.
I also got to experience the new moon in the desert recently -- that was one of two things keeping me here in Arizona a bit longer. I hoped to see something like the photos of the milky way I've seen online, but it wasn't like that. There were a lot of stars and it was really beautiful, but it was nothing like what I hoped for. Apparently photographing the milky way takes some expertise, and may not reflect what's actually visible to the naked eye: https://www.lightstalking.com/how-to-photograph-the-milky-way/
The other thing keeping me out here is having reconnected with my old friend (and unofficially adopted brother) Mark. It's been good to spend time with him here and there on this trip, and it was sad to say goodbye the other day because I knew it was going to be a while before I'll see him again. I've been on the road now for about 7 weeks and it's time to start thinking about heading back east. I've got an annual national park pass in my wallet, and the parks are open again, at least for the moment.
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