Musings

Frosted morning.

We drove away from the mountains. We did see a herd of perhaps three dozen pronghorns about a half hour after this stop. This was the only antelope sighting on our eastbound leg.

Busy wind farm.

It’s so windy here in western Oklahoma that the rest stop garbage cans have tie-downs, and it’s that windy today. This is better than in TX, where the “rest stops” had neither garbage cans nor toilets. [Ick warning: they were toxic waste sites that reeked of urine and were festooned with trash that was small enough or heavy enough that it didn’t blow away.]

Posted at 8:27 PM | Comments Off on In which we exchange mountains for windiness

I began my afternoon perambulation here, as it is close to our hotel.

That’s a Rail Runner Express on the right, with the active track to the right of it. The parked train must be a backup? I don’t know what the deal is with the blue-purple train, decorated in a pseudo-graffiti style from nose to tail.

Feeling like I had “done” the depot area—now a Saturday Farmers’ Market—I proceeded into a residential area…

…and then looped to the central plaza area. This is the Loretto Chapel (privately owned)…

…and this is the active Catholic cathedral basilica.

Looking at the churches, followed by this “Settlers Monument” (2003), by sculptor Donna Quasthoff (1924–2021), I could not help but think about the arrival and “good works” of the Catholic priests and Euro-American settlers, who upended the lives and health and cultures of the people who lived in this area. Notice how the incomers are atop their beasts of burden and invasive species. Kinda creepy and definitely an ethical downer. I’m glad it was sunny and that we had leftover red-chili ribs for dinner to cheer me up.

Posted at 8:29 PM | Comments Off on Sunshine cleanse (ish)

I arose not quite as early in the dawn sequence as yesterday, yet the golden-yellow tones are lovely.

Still saw a few snow-caps as we motored south, and they tapered off as we continued.

Without a doubt, the most dramatic landscape was at White River Narrows.

After long miles of a downward trending road (which lead to overall mileage of 53mpg, at a speedy pace), we ended up creasing Las Vegas. We saw no meadows.

Yeah, we made a burger stop, which happened to be in the middle of the lunch rush. Wow, what a crowd, including dozens of vehicles in the drive-through lane. They even sent a guy out to take orders from those in line.

Back out in the country, we saw several solar panel fields. This one almost looked like a lake. In contrast, in the city, we passed dozens of housing units, almost zero with solar panels. I can’t fathom the logic.

We did get several glimpses of the reservoir called Lake Mead, and the level is low low low, just as you may have read.

After crossing into Arizona, in contrast to this morning, we drove on a generally rising trajectory (mileage was a hammered 42mpg).

There was roadside rotten snow coming into Flag (much diminished from our westbound leg), but none around the hotel.

Unexpectedly, our hotel had a two-plug electrical charger. The car is now fully charged and moved away from the charger. The other space has a handicapped parking logo on it, so I can’t imagine it gets used frequently.

Posted at 9:52 PM | Comments Off on Nevada means snowfall

Stunning orange-gold and pink sky to wake up to.

Some overcast as we rolled down the road.

Switched drivers in front of the only parking meter in Owyhee County. You better have the right change if you park there; it only takes pennies and nickles.

Still high overcast; still mountains in the distance.

Striking erosion patterns; overcast is mostly gone.

Must be an Easter Sunday requirement in this area: run the irrigation system.

Open high terrain. The snow is closer. The sky is clear.

Driving through a canyon; the sunlight has reduced the snow more in some places than others.

Snowy high flat. Dry road.

This flat: not so high and not so snowy. Clear, clear sky.

Big lead and silver mining on the slope by the town of Eureka. The boom really didn’t last long, yet the community survives.

A higher pass, so more snow on our level.

Again: lower and less snow at the road’s elevation.

My brain tried to make these horizontals into terraces (shades of the Mixteca Alta), but they are geological layers.

A bit higher again.

We watched this peak to the right for quite a while. Then as we kept motoring along and could see more of the ridge to the left, we noticed the spoor of (open pit?) mining in regular piles. MaNachur melds awkwardly with human terraforming.

Here’s Ely! This is US50. We started the day on US20 and US30. That seems quite an accomplishment for one day.

I think we crossed four and perhaps five passes over 7000 feet and maybe five more between 6000 and 7000 feet. Yup, we got high today.

Posted at 10:03 PM | Comments Off on We got high

First stop. No lie: this is John Sam Lake.

Snow geese migrating…although here they‘re hanging or wheeling.

Show daffodils.

Oyster nursery on Samish Bay.

A deer (!!) in Fairhaven.

A park on the shore at Bellingham. The ducks are buffleheads…or are they Barrow‘s goldeneye?

Posted at 11:13 PM | Comments Off on In which they venture north

If one enters Carkeek Park, that means one descends. The focus of this area of public land, it seems to me, is this bridge across the railroad to the beach. One time we were here when low tide was exceedingly low, and we went out to the edge of the water and stood something like 30 feet below sea level on temporarily dry ground.

The park embraces this creek, which flows across the beach in the distance. This shot is off to the left of the RR in the upper photo, and (duh) upstream. Some mallards were sleeping (not shown). Others were watching the man watching them; I think they were hoping for a handout.

Up in the woods, on my returning ascent, I found this denizen “wearing” moss and ferns. Beats all the Paris fashion, if you ask me.

Posted at 7:07 PM | Comments Off on A park on foot

Just me and one gull checking the weather and the light at 7:18am. And just me enjoying the puddle reflections.

Coffee stop appropriate to the fact that we are Seattle-bound.

First sunshine find of the day.

First dairy stop…well, only dairy stop…Tillamook, of course.

Cloud/precip return…and, yes, that’s snow on that upper slope.

Another “vote” that today’s theme should be dairy.

Downtown SEA, looking overcast and bright at the same time.

Welcome flowers. We had no wind when we arrived and I found the scent intense and lovely.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Northbound venue-shift

Here’s a cheerful bit of embodied history embellishing the courtyard outside our room this morning.

Our first major stop was Zabriskie Point. It’s likely you’ve seen it in fashion shoots or a movie. I was there.

I liked this formation the best. I call it Black Cap.

Art by MotherNachur took a different turn as we proceeded northward in the Great Basin. When a cloud is touching the ground, it means (usually) precipitation. If it’s cold enough, well, you get my drift.

Oh, let me interject a photo of mountains not created by MotherNachur. According to my info, this is from an adjacent big hole in the ground made by a gold-mining company.

Austin Pass on US-50. We were so happy the roads were wet and not snowy or icy. Full speed ahead!

And we were even happier to see snow on the summits far above us, and pleasant temps in the valley where we are now. This has been quite a day for zooming through the Great Basin; it’s endorheic, and has no natural drainage outlets. And it’s huge. And relatively unpeopled.

I’m not sure how to read this in any detail, but those blobs over northern California are what we are avoiding by swinging inland and north, to, ultimately, access the Oregon coast from the north. Those blobs mean heavy precip, and at elevations it means snow, and that area has many relatively high passes on the roads out to the coast. Our Nevada legs have worked perfectly (despite a bit of graupel and a few wet flakes); we hope our luck continues in Oregon.

Posted at 8:47 PM | 2 Comments »

We found a scenic vista view spot in central…well, base of the panhandle of Texas. Afterward, we drove and drove on plateau flattishness.

We didn’t intend to visit the stockyards in Clovis, New Mexico, but all of a sudden we were there. Fortunately, there were no sales today, and no hustle bustle, and no bawling and 💩

I took this shot out the side window toward the north, after we had left the flat flat flat and were approaching the pass that would take us through to Albuquerque in the Río Grande valley.

This is the snow we could see ahead of us…although this is further along where it was densest. Temps were above freezing, so no worries; the pavement was too warm to become icy.

Stepping out of a Tex-Mex (more or less) family restaurant after we ate, we could see the Sandia Crest (just north of the gap the interstate that we arrived on came through), with snow on the ground and snow clouds above.

The weather reports this evening featured many discussions of locations receiving graupel (we caught some graupel on the windshield at times). Tomorrow should be…interesting.

Posted at 10:33 PM | Comments Off on Graupel (not a Texas town)

Apologies for the delayed post; I was wiped last night…. Our route yesterday was consistently west from Hot Springs toward Lawton/Fort Sill. We traveled on Interstate, US highways, State higways, and even county roads. There was only one short gravel stretch, with signs saying watch for flooded road; we were lucky as the ditch water was about five feet below the road surface. This is the land of flash flooding.

However, we did avoid the cops in Mena!

This part of the world has many lakes that are reservoirs. For this one, I’m guessing they left the trees telling folks it’d make great fish habitat. Some kind of habitat, anyway.

Disrespect for signs.

We stopped briefly in this small community, so I could stretch my legs. The houses on either side of this street had the barking-est dogs; however, it took almost five minutes for someone to come out and ask what I was doing. This was the view out of the hamlet; I decided not to walk closer to this agricultural implement.

We diverged a bit north to visit the quirky community of Medicine Park. The quirky here is a busy resort/ex-hippy-style place, I assume for a change of pace for those who get off-base from Fort Sill, or away from the fields. We got terrific burgers (this is beef country, after all), and spotted this decoration in a planter.

We crossed the river on this fine bridge leaving Medicine Park. It predates hippy-style.

PDQ we entered wild lands, and saw…tadah! A real wild thing. Two actually, lone males several miles apart. We’re still looking for antelope.

The open plains offer a whole different sunset experience. This dramatic graduation lasted for perhaps an hour. Such a contrast to my experience of the sky in the eastern woodlands.

Posted at 10:22 PM | 1 Comment »