ALMOST HOME

AS has become our habit, we arose just in time for check-out, and headed downstairs to have breakfast.  We haven't usually indulged in sitting down to breakfast while we've been on the road, but we made the exception today since we're only one stop from home!

The road was long, straight, dry and clear so I put the miles behind us through New Mexico and West Texas and we landed upon my brother's doorstep in Richardson, TX (just outside of Dallas) at 9:00 this evening.

I snapped another brilliant sunset on the road this evening...

and here's a snapshot of our journey...

We expect to spend the day with my brother's family on Sunday and make the last leg home Monday.  I'll provide more details and stats of the overall trip when we're home!

GETTIN' OUR KICKS

We're on Route 66!  We spent the night in Williams, Arizona at an exceptional Ramada Inn and got our usual late-morning start for our primary destination today, the Grand Canyon.

Our first stop on Route 66

The Grand Canyon is a must-see natural wonder but if you head that way, you'll want to think about what you want from your visit.  Unless you feel you just HAVE to walk out on that glass bridge over the abyss, I'd give the entire Visitor's Center a pass.  It's a giant commercial enterprise that puts the Canyon out of sight without considerable rigmarole.  I'd strongly recommend you enter the park from the south side (Highway 64 off I-40 from Williams), stop in the Trading Post area for the National Geographic IMAX show if you're so inclined, then take the Desert View route along the rim, stopping at any or every one of the many viewpoints from which you get spectacular views for only the price you paid to enter the park -- generally $35.00 per auto.  Here's what you can see along the Desert View route...

 Paul on the edge

Mom was feeling playful as a fellow traveler snapped the three of us on the rim

Same view without the peeps in the way!

You can just make out a bit of the very muddy Colorado

Another look from Grandview Vista Point

 Paul contemplates the Canyon

We continued our tour, exiting the Park and reconnecting with I-40/U.S.66 and heading for Meteor Crater.  Once again it is, sadly, heavily commercialized by the private landowner, but it's worth a look in spite of the admission price:

A panoramic view of the 49,000-year-old crater near Flagstaff, Arizona

Our last stop today along historic Route 66 was Winslow, Arizona where we simply had to stop and take THE shot...

Admit it, you're humming the tune in your head, aren't you? 

From Winslow, we hopped back on I-40 and headed for Albuquerque.  On the way, we admired amazing views of the desert landscape that were enhanced by another spectacular sunset...

One of the 15+ trains we saw today making its lonely way across a lovely landscape

The sunsets on this journey have been amazing!

A final note about our time in the desert...over the past two days we've been in and out of crazy thunderstorms!  In fact, after the beautiful sunset pictured above, snapped somewhere near Gallup, New Mexico, we drove into another storm that thwarted Paul's hope of seeing the Rio Grande River as we entered Albuquerque.

Tomorrow our only goal is to get safely down the road to my baby brother's home in Richardson, TX.

HAVING A HOT TIME

MOJAVE didn't cool off while we were sleeping!  As we hit the road this morning, a bit earlier than usual, we watched the mercury climb into triple digits.  We continued east and made our first stop, briefly, for the obligatory photo at the gates to Sin City...

This is as close as we got!

Without dropping so much as a single nickel in a slot machine, we promptly left Las Vegas and headed into the desert to see Hoover Dam.  It's not that we object to gambling, but we have a 12-year-old and a busy agenda!

On the approach to the Dam, we snapped the diminishing Lake Mead, then the thermometer.  YIKES!  Upon reaching the Dam, Paul and I made the hike to the bridge walkway that overlooks the Dam for yet another photo op...

 The incredible shrinking Lake Meade

  Paul at dead-center of the bridge walkway overlooking the Dam

 The center of the bridge is the scene of the picture of Paul

Mom wasn't up for the hike (by a long shot) but yours truly trudged the entire switchback to the top and across the bridge to center to snap Paul looking at the Dam!  I thought I'd die a time or two on the way up, and not without good reason...

The outside temp as we approached the turn-off to the Dam.  Pay no attention to the speed read-out.  I'm fairly certain it was malfunctioning on account of all that heat and stuff. 😁

After looking at the Dam we made our way back down to the car and drove across the actual Dam, twice, since the exit road was closed!  Paul noted that we went from Nevada to Arizona, back to Nevada, and back to Arizona for good when we finally left the Dam area and headed toward the Grand Canyon 4 hours distant.

  A couple of interesting shots of the back side of the Dam and the old watermark on Meade!

Back and forth we went, with the state line somewhere in the middle of the Dam!  Arizona is in the Mountain time zone, but they don't observe daylight savings, so during the summer, there's no difference.

We had hoped to make the run into the Grand Canyon in time for the sunset and we would have made it except for mother nature's intervention... 

   A gnarly storm arose in the desert and dumped copious amounts of water on us...

  all the while double rainbows put on a brilliant display!

By the time we resumed freeway speed after the storm, it was too late to get to the Canyon before dark.  We decided to stop early in Williams and hit the rim in the morning before proceeding to Meteor Crater.  It's been a long hot day, but well worth the trip in spite of it all.

A BIT MORE PACIFIC

WHEN we woke in Salinas this morning, my mission was to provide my grandson with more information than he wanted and a reference for when he reaches High School and is required to read "Of Mice and Men!"  First stop, Steinbeck House, the scene of the author's boyhood and a town highly influential in his writing:

Learning about Steinbeck & Victorian Architecture

After obliging me for the photo op, Paul the navigator pointed us to California Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway and the 17 Mile Drive above the Monterey Peninsula.  In addition to a stop at the legendary links course at Pebble Beach, we took in the iconic sights along the windy, often carsick-making drive:

Paul poses at the gates of golfers paradise

 As the fog rolls in, cormorants and pelican gather on Bird Rock along 17 Mile Drive

A bit further along, Seal Rock is the site of frolic and fun for California Sea Lions

A final photo stop at the iconic "Lone Cypress" finished the tour

Like so many other things in California, even the beauty of 17 Mile Drive has been canned and capitalized.  $10.25 per car to get in, a great deal of new development marring the latter parts of the drive, and a highly commercialized shopping district on the grounds of Pebble Beach Golf Links.  Reason # 14 I don't live in California anymore -- many of the things that residents enjoyed in their communities have been over-exposed to attract ridiculous numbers of tourists.

Having completed 17 Mile Drive, we rejoined PCH and headed south once again.  The views along the drive are always spectacular and although not worth the price to live here, definitely worth seeing if you've never made the drive along the edge of the North American continent!

 The oft-photographed Bixby Bridge north of Big Sur on Highway 1

 Water erosion at work carving out arches in coastal bedrock

 The Big Creek Bridge lends a touch of elegance to a rugged coast

Paul contemplates the coast and gives his twisted tummy a rest along the way

WOW!

A bit further down the coast and we finally reached our southernmost target -- Hearst Castle in San Simeon!  Another bit of history for Paul's journal, another photo op for me.  We didn't have time to take Paul on the tour (I'd been to Hearst Castle back in High School), but he and I will watch a virtual tour before our trip is over!

A convenient turn-out and a telephoto lens helped me get this shot of Hearst Castle

Not far south of Hearst Castle, in the town of Cambria we made the turn east that would finally take us from the coast.  As we crossed the hills into Paso Robles we caught a last glimpse of the Pacific in the rear-view mirror.   Zig-zagging east/south/east we made our way to the desert town of Mojave and with no room in Military Lodging at Edwards Air Force Base, found ourselves, inevitably, in a Motel 6!  On the up side, it's new, clean, and more than reasonably priced considering the cost of everything else in the Golden State.

We watched the moonrise over the desert ahead of us and the sunset in the rear-view mirror as our day ended:

INTO THE CITY BY THE BAY

MORNING arrived rather sooner than I'd have liked, but my fellow travelers were ready to rock by 11:00 a.m. having breakfasted at the complimentary breakfast bar.  We were rolling by 11:15 and Mom had to be restrained as we passed by grapes growing to the left and right of us!  In reality, when I offered to detour to a winery, Mom declined saying, "I heard they make you pay for wine tasting and it's just a sip, so we can skip that."  😂

Mendicino County Vineyards

We stopped for fuel just out of Ukiah and I was reminded of reasons 1-6 for leaving California -- 
THE COST OF EVERYTHING!

After a couple of hours at speed, we found ourselves on the northern approach to San Francisco and detoured to the Marin Headlands for the ultimate west coast photo op...

Hold onto your hat, it's windy up there!

The Golden Gate from atop the Marin Headlands

We came down from on high in good time, crossed the bridge into the city, and headed for Lombard Street - "The Crookedest Street in the World."  You'll have to trust we went down it, but it does not lend itself to photo taking while driving!  Instead, I let Paul out to walk the last half-block to the top end (our pace would have made a snail look like an F1 racer) and snapped him on the corner before we headed down...

Moments before reboarding for the trip down Lombard Street

At the bottom of the Lombard switchback, we headed for the Embarcadero and I was forcefully reminded of reasons 7-13 why I no longer live in California -- TRAFFIC!  It really didn't matter if we headed North, South, East, or West, if we moved we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic.  😡  Eventually, we made it to our target, and after showing Paul all the Piers and the main Port of Entry, we found our way ever-so-slowly back to U.S. 101 and onward to see my niece at the Google campus in Mt. View.

 A view of Coit Tower (LT) on our way to the Port of Entry for San Francisco (RT)

A quick hello with Stace before heading to Los Gatos

Our last target for Northern California was dinner at Mom's favorite establishment, Pedro's, in our old stomping grounds, Los Gatos.  Dinner didn't disappoint although we were told the restaurant had changed hands twice since we last dined there some 20+ years ago.  

Mom's Happy Place

From "downtown" Los Gatos, we hopped straight onto 17 through the Santa Cruz mountains and hitched up for the night in Salinas.  We have a target or two in this area before continuing south tomorrow.

"HUMONGOUS TREES"

WE awoke this morning to sunshine and tall trees in Klamath, California.  

Another last minute find - Motel Trees in Klamath was comfortable, clean, and very reasonably priced

After checking out of our motel, we crossed U.S. 101 to the Trees of Mystery trail (museum and gift shop included, of course).  We stopped for a photo op with some local wildlife and settled Mom in the cafe before Paul and I set off on the half-mile walk to a sky tram up the mountain.

Along the trail, I took at least 2,375,842 photos, but I've managed to pare it down to these stand-out examples of the king of all trees, the mighty Sequoia Sempervirons, or California Coastal Redwood...

 This fallen giant was 3000 years old when it tumbled, and measured 320 feet

  A magnificent example of Sequoia Sempervirons

A mini-grove of "young" Redwoods -- the youngest about 300 years, the eldest closing in on 1,000 years

  Looking up the 297' tall "Trinity Tree"

  Paul's presence lends perspective to this giant, also 297' tall, but a staggering 19' in diameter!

 The "Candelabra Tree" is a fallen giant whose branches continued to grow into new trees

At the top of the half-mile trail, we boarded a sky tram for a 1,500' ascent into the canopy and a view of the valley and what would have been a view of the Pacific but for the ever-present fog.  (The redwoods depend upon the fog to get water into their upper reaches, an impossible climb from their root systems.)  

The view from the top -- a thick blanket of fog settles into the canopy all the way to the sea

Once down from the sky-tram, we took the return path for an additional half-mile along a clever "Tall Tale Trail" that featured massive redwood carvings telling the story of Paul Bunyan and his lumberjack friends, along with a few woodland neighbors...

 Bigger than life, Paul and his friends still thrill young readers

 Some of the characters featured in the Paul Bunyan stories

These single-trunk carvings illustrate the talents of local chainsaw carvers

Once clear of the trails and after cleaning out the gift shop, we hit the road, still bearing south on U.S. 101, crossing the Klamath River and once again cruising the coastline, although still being oft surprised around a bend to find ourselves surrounded by the giant trees of the Redwood National Forest -- and keeping a weather eye out for legendary inhabitants of the region...

The Klamath river - tamer near its mouth than further upstream

 Suddenly surprised by gorgeous groves of young Redwoods, Douglas Fir and Sitka Spruce

 This time the rocky coast belongs to California

 And this, students, is why California can't actually fall into the ocean!

Still haven't found him in spite of this lovely invitation to cross here

We called it quits early this evening in Ukiah at a chain hotel.  Paul took a swim in the hotel pool while I tended to the laundry before heading upstairs to find Mom in her nightie, feet up playing Freecell and sipping Pinot Grigio.  All is right with the world!  Tomorrow we make a speed run for the Golden Gate.