2009 – Week 2










April 23, 2009:
It was a great night last night. We slept well, and there were no trains or truck traffic. When I took Daisy for her morning g walk, I noticed that all the electrical boxes, connections, etc were about 6 feet off the ground. The nearby river is prone to flooding. We took showers, left at 9:30am and headed south then west to Van Buren MO. The dress of the day was shorts and short-sleeve shirts. Van Buren is at the south end of the Ozark National Scenic Riverway and the home to the “Big Spring”. This natural spring produces 152 million to 840 million gallons of water a day, or can fill a normal sized home swimming pool in 6 seconds. The color of the water is a blue-green, and Daisy loved swimming in it. The water percolates through the fractured limestone from various locations, the furthest being 40 miles away. In the interest of science, dye was put in the water in various locations. It was determined that the furthest source was 40 miles away and took 17 days to travel the distance. From Big Spring we headed south through one section of the Mark Twain National Forest along RT 19. We were surprised that while the road was often straight, it crossed rolling hills for miles on end. The distance between the crest of each hill was about 1/4 mile. Susie said “it was like riding on a rolly-coaster”. I thought that Daisy and would she be seasick before we had covered the 20 miles. Just to help the tummies along, we stopped at McCormick Lake and had lunch. We found a couple camping out there. They were covered with tattoos, the woman’s hair had been dyed bright red hair and the dog had the same bright red strip of hair down its nose. We never expected to see such getups in the woods: so much for stereotypes. Continuing west on US160 to Branson, we found cattle ranches and every house had a horse trailer and horses. It was obvious that the area had been logged, as the trees were very small in size. It didn’t seem like a forest products company was doing the harvest, as there was no systematic re-planting of a specific species of trees. We did see several sawmills and wood processing plants. We finally arrived in Branson and decided to have dinner in a local restaurant. The food was good, but there was too much. We had to pass on the blueberry cobbler. Branson is a city built on rock. Every place we passed, there were sheer limestone cliffs. Areas had been excavated waiting for a building to grow. There were no grass side slopes along the roads, only vertical rock walls. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a thing. The area of southern IL and southern MO has rock just beneath the surface. I am not sure what’s under the rolling hills, but I’m sure rock is close. We continued on to Table Rock SP located on Table Rock Lake. There is a very large marina here with mostly large pontoon boats. We drove a very hard 254 miles today with all the ups and downs, left and rights and roads with no shoulders. We’ll sleep well tonight. Tomorrow we’ll head into northern AK before heading west through Oklahoma City, Amarillo and into NM.

April 24, 2009:
WE had left the blinds up and the windows open last night because it was the warmest night of the trip. At sunrise, all the small birds awoke and started singing only to be overcome by the crows arriving around 6:30am. That was the last of my sleep, but Susie slept through. Susie worked hard on her drawings, but we had to leave before she was up to date. We headed south from Branson into AK on RT 7, and after many miles of ups and downs, we decided that we should stop going south and head west of I-40. We caught a glimpse of the Buffalo National River, and I thought it would be a great place to take a raft trip at another time. I have the sense that AK is a state that it would be best to select a spot and stay for a time enjoying the activities rather than going from place to place. We crossed into OK, went another 60 miles before deciding that the cross winds made the RV too difficult to control. We stopped at Lake Eufaula SP and turned the engine off at 6:00pm after traveling 280 miles. In the quiet Susie heard more Baltimore Orioles. One was right over our heads, scolding us for interrupting its dinner.

As the sun set, the winds died, and the birds quieted.

April 25, 2009:
Awoke this morning, and the wind was blowing hard again. We were in no real hurry, so we did some writing and drawing before leaving at 10:00am. The winds were from the south, and we headed west on I-40. I believe it was blowing 30k constant with larger gusts. This was later confirmed by NOAA weather. We drove and drove; saw a large array of wind turbines at the Weatherford Wind Energy Center in OK. All the turbines were turning happily. We stopped for lunch, and as I walked around the RV, I noticed that the exterior plastic access cover for the refrigerator was missing. Either it was stolen or the wind ripped it off. I bet on the wind. Of course it was Saturday, so no RV stores were open. Either Amarillo or Albuquerque will be the best bet. A bit later we stopped for gas and noticed two vans from the College of duPage Meteorology Laboratory. I walked over and asked if their presence was a sign of things to come. One lady, I assume a professor, said that were should just watch the sky and listen to NOAA. We kept driving west, noticing that the land was becoming browner and there were fewer trees. The eastern part of OK was green and lush with large pastures of cattle. We finally arrived in TX and stopped in Shamrock. We listened to NOAA, turned on the computers and found there were severe thunderstorm warnings in the area just to the northeast. Looking there, we saw large thunderheads and hoped that the folks up there were not at risk of a tornado. As the sun went down, the danger subsided, but the winds were still strong. Susie and I worked on our blogs. Hers is a bit more complicated and she’ll finish it tomorrow morning. We went to bed with the wind still blowing hard. We don’t think we could ever live here with all this wind, and the noise it creates.

April 26, 2009:
When Daisy and I took our walk this morning, we passed a rattling highway billboard. The vertical surfaces were made of sheet metal, and the noise scared Daisy. I suspect they are made that way so that they rip off in the event of a tornado. It is frightening to think of large pieces of sheet metal slicing through the air at great speed. The wind direction has changed to the southeast and the weather radar was clear (for us anyway). Well, just as I thought we were in for a perfect day, a very dark cloud arrived and the rain started. I thought it would be short, but then the hail started. At first the balls were about 1/4” in diameter and as time went on, they grew to 1/2”. What a racket! The storm was about 20 minutes, and we saw some clearing to the southwest as the cloud went northeast. As soon as we could get out of the RV, I unplugged everything, and we headed west. We drove to Amarillo and turned south to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon TX. The materials included geology, oil production, automobiles, native-american history, pioneer buildings, formal men and women wear and finally an art exhibit. We spent 3 hours there and moved on to the Palo Duro Canyon SP where we spent the night. We were here in 2003, but it was a very brief visit, and we hope to get a better feel for the place. This area of Texas is a flat as a pool table and the Canyon was caused by erosion over thousands of years. It is impossible to find the canyon unless happen to come to the edge. The canyon has a very large surface area, but is only about 700 feet deep maximum.
The exposed rock colors will test Susie’s ability to color them properly in her drawings. We put up the awning in hopes a sheltering the RV from the sun without any luck. At least it will dry out with the breeze and low humidity. We sat outside until sunset in enjoying the view and comfortable temperatures. We noticed several wild turkeys and saw numerous turkey vultures circling overhead. In Grand Canyon NP, the birds that circle are California Condors. The sun went down and so did the temperatures.

April 27, 2009:
We were awaken this morning by the mobile turkey alarm clock. Six turkeys wandered from campsite to campsite performing their version of reveille. I got down from the bed a bit later and took Daisy for her walk. Just in case the turkeys weren’t enough, there were some coyotes barking in the distance. We had breakfast and did some chores before leaving the campsite at 11:00am and took a slightly different way out before stopping at the Visitor Center to review the movie on the history of the Palo Duro Canyon.
Palo Duro was the hiding place for a native-american tribe who were unwilling to go to a reservation. It was a long time before the US Army was able to locate them, capture their horses and burn their supplies. The native-americans survived for one winter, but eventually surrendered and went to the reservation in OK. Settlers came and established ranches for their families in the canyon, as there was water there. We left Palo Duro Canyon understanding the area better than the time before as there were not many people here. We headed north towards Amarillo with the hopes of being able to purchase a replacement for the refrigerator cover. The third place we went was a Winnebago dealer, and we were in luck. It was now about 2:30pm, and we needed lunch. We had heard about the Big Texan Ranch Steakhouse and backtracked a few miles to go there.
This establishment has a special deal: if you can consume a 72 oz. steak with all the trimmings including an appetizer, it is free. There was one customer who was trying, but he didn’t make it and had to pay for the meal. Anyway our steaks were good, and we will not need much of a dinner. We left at 3:40pm after taking pictures of the establishment. We headed west on I-40, refilled with gas and crossed into NM where we experienced another time zone change. We are now in Mountain Daylight Time. We drove west to the town of Santa Rosa and stopped at the Santa Rosa Lake SP for the night. Santa Rosa Lake is a Corp of Engineers project and nowhere near full. We took Daisy for a walk and talked with a woman who is a full-timer. She has 45’ log rig and pulls a Jeep wagon with a road bike and kayak on top. She was going to head north towards Colorado Springs, but NOAA was forecasting a storm in the next few days that might be snow at the higher elevations. We tried to call Diana, our CO daughter, but no cell service. We were unable to hear NOAA either so we’ll check as we return to Santa Rosa before heading west to Albuquerque. We are now at 4,600 feet elevation and drove 230 miles.

April 28, 2009:
It was a quiet night last night. There were clouds and some breeze but nothing like the night before. We didn’t have a long way to go so we started late and headed west on I-40 to Albuquerque. We have been having some trouble with the electric every time we shut down the engine. When we do that the ‘house battery’ is supposed to take the load and provide electricity for the refrigerator, water pump, lights etc. When we checked into the KOA, we asked them for a recommendation for a RV repair place. It turned out that there was a Winnebago shop a 1/4 mile down the road, and we have an appointment for Thursday at 8:00am. This rig is now 11 years old and has more than 84,000 miles on it so things will start to wear out. We went to the Petroglyph National Monument (didn’t even know one existed until two days ago) and stayed for about 3 hours. We saw just a sampling of the estimated 20,000 petroglyphs in the area. There has been some vandalism but most is pretty good. There are also 4 dormant volcanoes that last erupted 150,000 years ago. These produced the lava rocks on which the petroglyphs have been scratched. Most petroglyphs were created about 400 to 700 years ago,but some may be as old as 2,000 to 3,000 years. When the Spanish arrived in the1600’s, a new series of petroglyphs of crosses and sheep appeared. Finally in the 1800’s the settlers chiseled their names and dates in the stone. The National Monument was established n 1990, but the State of New Mexico began protecting the area in the 1970’s. We drove through Albuquerque and noticed that while there are numerous new buildings and structures, there are also several closed shopping centers, chain restaurants, hotels. Most of these looked less than 10 years old. Albuquerque is a city located on the plains but ringed by numerous, but small in footprint, mountain ranges. To the east is Sandia Mountain with a top elevation of more than 10,000 feet. To the southeast is the Manzano Mountains, but Sandia is the most dominant. The KOA has an amenity that we have not seen before, and it is especially for Daisy. It is a K9Park with jumps, teeter-totter, etc. She really loved it when Susie took her for a second time just as the sun went down. As a side note, we have seen many more small RV’s as the days pass. There are still big ones, but there is some downsizing going on and the vehicles with the Mercedes-Benz diesels are more prevalent.

April 29, 2009:
Daisy took me back to the K9Park this morning as a start to our walk. The most successful toy of the morning was a small tire with a 12” piece of rope attached to it. She grabbed it and threw it around, abusing herself in the process. When we got up this morning, the temperature was 60 degrees with a relative humidity of 16%. I am starting to feel the effects of the low humidity with my sinuses drying out and sneezing. I read about the new flu in the news this morning. I hope it stays away from us. We are working on our blogs and planning the next few days. We are a bit ahead of schedule so maybe we can expand our horizons. We stayed at the KOA until a taxi picked us up at 4:00pm and took us to the Sandia Tram. This is the longest aerial tram in the world (or so they say) and provides a view to west towards Albuquerque and to the east towards nothing but high desert. Top elevation is 10,378 feet.We hiked for a bit along the South Crest Trail, but there was still too much snow, and we stopped. We did spend about 45 minutes sitting on the edge and watching as the shadows changed the landscape. We saw 2 large birds overhead but were unable to identify them. We talked with a family from FL who had taken their kids out of school in mid-March and will spend a year touring the country. They have been to many places we have been, but the wife isn’t sure that a year is enough time. They appear to be concentrating on the west.
We had a terrific dinner at the top. They were making a commercial that we may be in as cameo players. Unfortunately, we still had to pay for dinner. As the sun set, the lights came on in Albuquerque and the brown desert turned white. There were no lights to the east. We came down the Tram and took another taxi home. It was a great day. Tomorrow we have an appointment at 8:00am to see if we can get the RV electrics fixed.