Day 14 - Home Again, Home Again, Jiggedy Jog

Thursday (July 12).


We had a wonderful time seeing the sights and visiting relatives and friends, but it was time to head home.

In keeping with our back roads theme we decided to take US 26 from Boise to Portland rather than I-84. If you are considering the same, I have 3 words of advice: DON'T DO IT. We had driving US 20 over to Eugene years ago; but US 26 is a whole different story. We spent hours winding through the Blue Mountains. It took us 10 hours to travel about 450 miles to get home. This is as long as it took us to get from Portland to Lathrop on our first day, when we travelled over 600 miles. It will be a long time before I am on Highway 26 east of Gresham and west of Boise.

There was a little interest on the way; somewhere in the mountains we encountered an enormous flock of butterflies. We saw thousands of butterflies; so many it was almost scary.

Finally Mt. Hood came into view.

We had put over 3,000 miles on the car and hit a lot of bugs. Here is a close-up of the front end when we got home.

The Final Numbers

Distance: 3,409 miles

Total in-car driving time: 71 hours 49 minutes.

Average MPH: 47

Average MPG: 29

In a day or two I'll post some final thoughts on the trip. Thanks to everyone for reading and following along.

P.S. To all of you who have pointed out that the sun probably sets in the west in Arizona; you are right. I knew they do weird stuff with DST there and thought maybe they had the sun turned around also. Carla had pointed out numerous places where I referenced the sun setting in the east; but I guess I didn't get them all. Keep the cards and letters coming.

Day 13 - Alive After 5

Wednesday July 11

After a little rest we did a bit more sight-seeing and then met up with more friends at the "Alive After 5" weekly outdoor music event in downtown Boise behind the Grove hotel.

We went up to the Boise train depot to see if we could see any trains; it looks like trains bypass downtown so we had no luck; but turning around I got a little picture of the Capitol and some of downtown Boise from the vantage point of the gardens in front of the depot.

The Chuck Close Exhibit

At Shannon's recommendation, we made a stop at the Boise Art Museum where we looked at the "Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration" exhibit. It is fascinating. He does work that are basically mosaics based on photographs. He uses all sorts of media to render beautiful portraits. If you are in Boise (or anywhere else it is presented) we highly recommend you go. There is a 20-30 minute video of him talking describing the process.

You can find lots of information on him by Googling him; a couple of sites I found:

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/1998/close/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Close

http://www.chuckclose.coe.uh.edu/ (This takes a while to open).

Alive After 5

Then we went back to the hotel and met up with Butch and others at "Alive After 5". Unfortunately I didn't have my camera. It was very hot out but Butch totally hooked us up with the place to hang out. It was on a veranda on the 2nd floor of the Qwest Arena which overlooks the pedestrian blocks where the weekly festival is held. We had a shady spot where we had tables and chairs, beers, and popcorn. Larry and his wife Jan were there when we showed up; they had just returned from taking a group of high school kids on a tour of Italy. Bob and his wife Cindy came, as did Maggie. Maggie's husband Doug couldn't make it; he had been up in McCall all day chopping wood. It was great catching up with all of them.

At the end of the night, Carla, Butch, and I got an outdoor seat at a bar where we had a drink before we turned in.

Days 12 and 13 - Boise

Days 12 and 13 (July 10)


It was a quick 5 hour, 304 mile drive from Ogen to Boise. The temperature rose from 82 at the outset to 93 in Boise when we arrived at 2:30.

Fires and smoke continue to be highlights. As we crossed the border on I-84 into Idaho, we saw a wild fire less than a mile from the freeway. I could see the flames and the smoke darkened things considerably as we drove by. Wish we would have gotten a picture, but the camera wasn't handy.

After checking into the hotel, we met my old friend Butch at a local brew-pub. Then headed to his house to catch the all-star game.


A little later some other friends dropped by for a chat. We went outside, watched a racoon ramble through the neighborhood,and caught up on each others' lives.

From left to right we have Shannon, Butch, Tom, Nancy, and Carla. I've known Shannon, Butch, Nancy since 1970 or 71. Tom is married to Nancy - a wonderful guy - I know because he likes trains too! Shannon's husband, Bruce, couldn't make it. He and I were in a small foreign literature class together at the College of Idaho (now Albertson College) back in the day. And when I say small, I mean small; he and I were the only two students in the class.

We got back to the hotel around 10:30 and crashed (figuratively, not literally). We woke up, went for a quick walk along the river, then met Brent and Robin for breakfast at a nice little cafe in downtown. They are both school teachers; Robin teaches 2nd grade and Brent teaches high school psychology, American History, and what-not.

We came back and I got the blog caught up. That brings us up to the minute. Tonight we'll meet some other friends at the "Alive After Five" in the grove just behind our hotel. Those pics probably won't get posted until we get back home on Thursday.

Our plan is to continue the back roads tour and take Highway 26 through John Day, rather than I-84 through the Columbia Gorge.

Day 11 - A Stop in Ogden

Day 11 (July 9)
One of our best days ever; even if the drive was not much to be excited about.

We left Moab at 8:20 with a cool 70 degrees and headed to Ogden, 270 miles to the north where we arrived at 1:15 PM where it was 93 degrees.

Shortly after we left, we got a call from Jeff who was visiting his girlfriend, Gillian's, parents in New Jersey. He told us that he had proposed marriage and Gillian accepted. Yahoo; we are so happy. We've seen Gillian twice now; once last Christmas, and again in June just after they finished their 2nd year of law school. They go to the same school and met two years ago; they were friends for the first year and became boyfriend/girlfriend this past September. We absolutely love and adore Gillian and are thrilled that they found one another. I have a nice picture of the two of them last month, but it must be on my home computer. Here is one from last Christmas.


Back to the trip
With the extended drought and excessive heat, a number of wild fires have broken out in the west. Utah has the biggest fire in its history (over 400,000 acres I believe). We definitely saw the effects in Arches National Park as the light was dimmed by a smoky haze over everything.

We were driving away from that fire but evidently were close to another; as the highway (191) parallelled a river we saw a helicopter swoop down and hover over the water to pick up a load to carry to a fire that must have been east of us. I had a great view of the helicoper hovering over the water, but couldn't get in on camera because we had passed it. But here is one image I got as it was closing in.



Although we had left the Transcon, I didn't see why it should stop me from taking train pictures!

Our hotel in Ogden was just a couple of blocks away from the historic old town, 25th street. We didn't eat here, but if the food is half as good as the sign... At the end of 25th Street is Ogden Union Station. Inside the station are 5 museums; we perused the railroad museum (big surprise), the model railroad museum, and the antique car museum. We had a couple of interesting docents leading tours. In the car museum, we were shown a license plate from 1944 when metal rationing meant no metal license plates. The gude asked me what I thought the plate was made from; I said "sheep skin". He misheard, looked at me and exclaimed "Cheesecake?!". He figured I was a total loss and turned to Carla for the answer. The correct answer was an early plastic.

I got behind the "wheel" of a locomotive cockpit where Carla grabbed a snap.
Outside, were a number of locomotives, cars, and cabooses. Carla liked this one:

Day 10 - Arches National Park

Sunday July 8 (I think)
We wanted to get an early start hiking in Arches National Park since it was so hot. We got a 6:00 wakeup call; had breakfast at the hotel and set out. We drove up to the trail head for Delicate Arch. It was a 2 hour walk; signs everywhere warned to take plenty of water. Our good friends Herb and Dianne did this walk and some additional a few years ago and they also warned us to take plenty of water. So, we headed out with 4 liters. I had a couple of liters on a belt holder thingy I had purchased before we left Portland and Carla had a container with a shoulder strap for another 1.5 liters; we carried a small bottle by hand to make the 2 liter / person recommendation. The walk was beautiful and once I figured we wouldn't die I started to enjoy it.

These photos may be nice, but I recommend you go look at it in person.



I thought we had done somehting special, then a Japanese family followed us up and the girls were wearing ballet shoes and flip-fops!

My favorite part was on the way down telling people they only had another hour to go when in fact they were just a few hundred yards away. Carla put an end to my fun though. We only needed half our water - because it was relatively cool whn we left. It was definitely warm when we came back; I was astonished to see so many people starting the walk at 10:30 in 90 degree + heat starting with just a small bottle or no water at all.

Close to the parking lot on the way back was a spot where there are petroglyphs from somewhere between 1600 and 1850 AD.

We continued to tour the park and took an easy .5 mile walk up to Double Arches
We then headed back for lunch and a quick doze. Then we went back for some more quick tours of Arches. We just did some short walks; in fact, lunch didn't agree with me, so I sat in the car a couple of times listening to the Dodgers on the radio while Carla did the foot tours. One of the most interesting rocks was Balancing Rock; I recommend you see it soon; in a few years it will be renamed "Falen Rock".

We ate dinner at the Desert Bistro; a wonderful place our friends the McDonnells told us about. It was the perfect end to a wonderful day.

The next day we were to get up and head off to Ogden Utah on our way to Boise. We heard some GREAT news that day (but you'll have to read that blog entry to get the details).

Day 9 - The Turn Toward Home

Saturday July 7 (I think)

Once again, I woke up before Carla and headed outside to get some last train pictures before we had breakfast and headed off. But, I don't have anything special to post.

We'd already seen what we wanted to see east of Winslow on Route 66 (see previous post on Holbrook and the Petrified Forest). Knowing we had a long day, we took a last look around Winslow and hit the road(s) to Moab, Utah.

Here are some pictures of our room and public areas at La Posada. I got a last Winslow train picture from our room.


Here are some images of our room.

Windows on 2 sides was nice (for a breeze, good light, and train action!)




The hallway looking from our room toward the front desk.

A picture from the front. They are still working on the landscaping for the entry way.

We checked out at 9:30, visited a couple of tourist shops in town and drove around the newer parts of Winslow on the west side. I got some cool souvenirs; one to be debuted at by next Trophy Husbands bowling night.

We pulled out of town at 10:25 where it was 87 degrees. We headed out I-40 to Gallup and turned north on US 491. This was the farthest east we would get. We pulled into Moab at 6:15 PM (1 hour ahead of Arizona time) where it was 102 degrees. Total distance was 382 miles. We had a bit of dinner downtown, then set a wake up call for the next morning when we would head out for a hike to the Delicate Arch in Arches National Park.

Day 8 - Winslow, Holbrok, Petrified Forest

We could hear trains all night; I don't think they were too loud, and Carla didn't even seem to mind. She said she has enjoyed all this more than she thought she would. I have a friend, Bud, who is a Notary Public. I think when we get back home, I'll have her sign an avadavit to that effect and have it notarized.

I woke up early and while Carla was still dozing, I went out back for some pictures. Here is a picture showing the back of the hotel; our room on the outer corner in the picture.
Here is a picture of our private patio. Marked off from the rest of the patio by the old baggage cart. That door goes into our room (Room 101 the FDR room).

I caught a picture of a crew building a train that would depart later in the morning.

We liked dinner the night before so much, we had breakfast in the Turquoise Room, then bid Jake and Sally adieu. We had come to realize that the travelling takes much longer than we had planned. Since the trip from Winslow to Moab, Utah was a long one, we decided to tour Route 66 east of Winslow today. This includes Holbrook, the Petrified Forest, and the Painted Desert. First stop was the Jack Rabbit between Winslow and Holbrook.

Then in Holbrook we saw the Wigwam Hotel. If we weren't so enamored with La Posada we would have stayed here a night.

We took a couple of hours driving through the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Park east of Holbrook. Here is a picture of a tree with part of its root structure intact.

We have LOTS of pictures of this area; but the light wasn't right; I may doctor a couple and post them later.

On the way back to Winslow we stopped at the industrial spur overpass on the west side. This is a spot I had really wanted to get a picture from. The wind was kicking up and it was getting close to dinner, but I lucked out and got a coupled of shots of a train headed east to Flagstaff with the sun at my back.

There were lots of Route 66 travellers at the hotel; after dinner we sat on rocking chairs with about a dozen other folks as a cooling breeze blew to keep us comfortable.
We saw 7 to 10 trains go by and I grabbed some shots as the sun set in the east.


A perfect end to a perfect day.

That night we had to move across the hall to the James Cagney room (100) and were lulled to sleep by the rail traffic through the night.

Day 7 - Winslow At Last

Before heading out from Sedona on Thursday morning I set up the tripod to get a picture of Carla, Andrew, and I. He then headed backto Tucson and we headed for Flagstaff, Walnut Canyon, and Winslow. Jake and Sally were also headed to Winslow so they could show us around. We took a quick stop in Flagstaff where we stopped at the depot (imagine that). While Carla went into the gift shop, I grabbed a couple of pictures of BNSF on the Transcon. I also grabbed a snap of the Grand Canyon cafe across Route 66 from the depot.

We headed out on old Route 66 to Winona, then doubled back on I-40 to Walnut Canyon to visit the ruins. The Sinagua people lived here in the cliffs long ago (you can look up the dates). Too bad Jake wasn't with us; after his days in education he worked for the National Park Service and knows all this stuff. I do know that Sinagua is Spanish for "without water". Theory has it that these people migrated from here and became the ancestors of the Hopi. Have I mentioned it has been hot? We passed on the opportunity to walk all through the canyon (we did when we were here back in 1989). Instead, we took the rim tour and grabbed a couple of so-so pictures.
There isn't much of the old Route 66 alignment left between Flagstaff and Winslow so we headed down I-40. We stopped (barely) at Twin Arrows. I think this is now private property; even though there is an exit from the freeway, there isn't a place to stop, much less park. But Carla found a little spot where I grabbed a couple of pictures. It sure has seen better days. I remember stopping there with my folks in the old days.

Then we checked in to La Posada and met up with Jake and Sally. He grew up in Winslow, taught for years and was the principal at Jefferson Elementary. We got a couple of pictures.

We had a lovely dinner with Jake and Sally at the Turquoise Room at the hotel. Our room had a private door with a patio on the back of the hotel looking on a garden and the train tracks. We sat for an hour or so and I got to listen to some great stories about Jake and the rest of my mom's family. It was a treasure. It was so much fun in fact, I didn't even take any train pictures!

Day 6 - Sedona

We ate breakfast at the hotel in Kingman and checked out at 8:20 AM where it was 89 degrees already. We went into old town to look at the Route 66 museum and hang out by the tracks. We found the museum to be open! There were many stories and pictures by/about the people who travelled Route 66 in the depression (and before and after). We saw one picture of a group of men with shovels and rakes building the Route 66 dirt road - what a lot of work!

We got a picture of the classic tower near the depot just before 11:00 and headed out for Sedona.

We couldn't dawdle too much on our trip that day because the rel squad was waiting for us in Sedona where a birthday party for my uncle and aunt were planned. We pulled into the classic Hackberry General Store where a ginormous tour bus had just dumped a load of tourists (imagine!). But we got a couple of pictures.

Jackson Browne album notwithstanding, I remember these "Saturate Before Using" water bags. My grandpa had one on the front of his car and it holding it on your lap was one way to stay cool before the advent of air conditioning.


We pulled off for a quick picture at Grand Canyon Caverns; though my cousing Rebecca and I remember it being called Dinasaur Caverns back in the 60's. We didn't want to partake in the whole tour, but did want to see the dinasaur!

Then on to Seligman where we hit the classic Snow Cap Drive-In. This was one of the must visit places on my agenda. What a kick. Once again we got there just after a large tour bus had disgorged its human cargo. But that just gave us more time to enjoy all the fun. The owner of the place (forget the name just now) and his brother are big boosters and coordinators of the resurgence of Route 66. We saw a little video about them in Kingman. Seligman is a bit off I-40 so you really have to want to see it. It was lunch time, so we had hamburgers, fries, and cokes.

The owner is a real trickster. When Carla was in line, a guy had ordered 2 small ice cream cones. He got the sawed-off bottoms of two classic "cracker" cones with a small dollop of ice cream in each; less than a mouthfull!. The owner said, "you said you wanted small!"; the customer was ready to get angry but everyone was laughing and he got his "regular small" cone.

Check out another piece of work by the owner. Look at the door closely; especially where is says "Pull".
Carla was fooled, mentioned it to one of the workers and she told Carla the owner is her grand father, she's worked there for years and got fooled herself earlier in the day.

We stopped by a souvenir shop owned by the daughter of the Snow Cap proprietor and her husband. He told us how they were working with other towns in eastern Arizona to revitalize Route 66. Their work showed; the town was bustling even in the 105 + degree heat. Many of the signs we saw on the way said "Bikers Welcome". There were numerous motorcyclists on the road. We talked to one family who had changed their plans because of the heat. They were headed west but decided not to deal with the heat across the desert we had come the day before.

We pulled into the hotel in Sedona at 3:25 where it was 107 degrees in the shade; As we were checking in, our son Andrew pulled in right behind us. He came up from Tucson. We washed up and headed over to my Aunt's house for the birthday party.

We had a lovely picnic party with some DELICIOUS cantalope, watermelon, ham, devilled eggs and more. Anytime I can get a picture of my boys, I do it.

It is such a treat to see my mom's brother and sister, my cousin, and the rest of the crew. We were together last Thanksgiving (along with my sisters and nephews); so getting to see them twice in just a few months is a special treat. It was one of the big reasons for our trip.

I have a camera and a tri-pod;, but I'm a picture taker,not a photographer. I totally didn't even notice the streak of light blocking out faces!
From left to right in front are my uncle Jake (his birthday!); Carla, Howard, Sally (Jake's wife). In back row from left to right are my aunt Lucinda (her birthday is later in the week). My cousing Rebecca, Bill Galamore (cousin), Andrew, and Ruth Galamore. Rebecca, I totally apologize for putting you in the sun!

After the party Andrew, Carla, and I headed to our hotel where we sat in the pool for about 30 minutes.

The next morning we headed to the train mecca: La Posada hotel in Winslow. Unfortunately, we didn't have internet access so I couldn't get postings up as soon as I would have liked.