Cross Country Trip, Sept, 2005
On Friday,
September 2, 2005, Jon and Teresa (and Sheba, the Persian cat) left from
Thousand Oaks, CA, for Tallahassee, FL. Jon had accepted a new contract in Tallahassee, and a move to the Florida "Big Bend" area (the Big Bend is between standard Florida" and the "Florida
Panhandle") was required.
The movers came and picked
up all of the furniture and boxes on
the morning of Sept. 2; all that remained was to finish packing the car (we
packed it very tightly!).
The original plan was to
follow 1-10 across the southern route (I- 10 starts near Los Angeles, goes directly through Tallahassee and ends in Jacksonville, FL). However, I- I 0 also goes directly through New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and this was days after
Hurricane Katrina came through. I-10 was basically a wreck. The next Interstate "north" was
1-20, but our theory was that it would be crowded with everyone that would
otherwise be on 1-10. Based on theory,
we decided to take 1-40 (the next interstate "north" after I-20)
across to the Memphis, Tennessee area and then cut Southeast to Tallahassee.
I-40 begins about 50 miles
north of the LA Basin on I-15. It was a
somewhat sobering image to take the exit from I- 15 onto I-40 and see the big
sign that says "Wilmington NC (where I-40 terminates),
2554 miles". America is a LARGE country, there
is nothing like driving most of the way across it to bring this home to you.
The trip was wonderful, but
a study in contrasts: we received rain (and a double rainbow) in the desert; in
the Southeast (where I expected to have trouble finding gas), gas was the
cheapest price during the entire trip.
The first night, we stayed
in Needles, which is the wide spot on I-40 right before crossing over the river
into Arizona.
At this point, I have to say
a few words about our cat, Sheba (as in "Queen
of). Sheba was named Sheba because Jon said that, on
first meeting him, she looked down her nose (and since she is a Persian, with
no nose, this is quite a feat) and sniffed "Peasant" at him. In other words, Jon gets to serve her (like
taking out the litter, etc.).
Sheba was an excellent cat on the
entire trip. We have a mesh side net
carrier for her (used to fly her from Georgia to California). Due to the way the car was tightly packed,
her carrier location was on the console between the front seats. We left a little bit of the top unzipped and,
every so often, the cat's head would pop up like a periscope, take a look
around, then drop back down. Sheba would usually make a little
bit of noise for about the first 15 minutes in the morning, then she would
settle down for the rest of the day. She
would usually nap most of the afternoon.
However, once it got dark, she would start talking to us, telling us
that it was time to get a room and settle in for the night. She really was a joy to have along on the
trip.
One of the funniest
occurrences with the cat was late in the trip.
We would quietly bring her (and her litter box) into the hotels in the
evenings and quietly take her back outside the next morning.
One evening, the hotel that
we stayed in had no outside entrance to the rooms, except through the lobby, in
front of the main desk. We really didn't
want to take the cat in her carrier.
We left her in the car for a
few minutes while we determined what to do.
After a few minutes, Jon heard a car alarm going off, looked out the
window and it was OUR car that was flashing and alarming. He pretty much broke a speed record getting
down to the car.
It turns out that the cat
(still in carrier) had been rather upset at being left alone and had wiggled
the carrier off the center console into the passenger seat. This was enough activity to trigger the
internal motion sensor and set off the alarm.
Jon set her back up right on
the passenger seat and went back upstairs.
Teresa's solution was to empty out the rolling suitcase and put the cat
in it.
Jon could just imagine the
suitcase rolling by the front desk with unhappy cat sounds coming out of it....
The reality was far
different. We rolled the empty suitcase
down to the car, opened it up, zipped the cat inside and then made the
relatively short trip back up to the room.
Not a sound from the
suitcase. When we opened it up, Sheba looked up at us like
"the ride is over?", waited to be picked up, then went back to her
standard exploration of the room.
It was really good to have
the cat along on the trip.
Since our plans had changed
and we were taking I-40, all of our advance planning had to change (this turned
out to be a good thing). I-40 tends to parallel old Route 66 across Arizona and New Mexico and a lot of the little
towns capitalize on the tourist possibilities from the history of Route 66.
Driving across the Southwest
exemplified the true meaning of "desert". We've never been in one of the sand dune, Sahara style deserts, but the
southwest does fit the category of very little rain. On the other hand, there are a wide variety
of microclimates: you can be in low, scrub growth one minute, climb 200 feet in
elevation and suddenly be in a very pretty, green forest three minutes later.
Since we were taking I-40,
we would be close to the Grand Canyon. Neither Teresa nor I had ever been, so we
decided on a side trip to the Canyon.
Grand Canyon National Park is about 50 miles north of
I-40 on a fairly good road. The road
starts off through scrub, but then begins to build up to pine forests. The major industry in the area seems to be
ranching and tourism: it is surprising just how many helicopter ride companies
can be run out of a single, small airport.
We entered on the southern
side of the canyon. It is clear that Grand Canyon National Park (at least the south side)
is a high volume park (multiple admittance gates, including an 'already
purchased ticket express lane' with fairly long lines). Since it was a Saturday, it was evidently a
fairly busy day (at least there were a LOT of cars and not a lot of
available parking spaces) but the scale and scope of the canyon is such that it
didn't feel crowded.
The Canyon was absolutely magnificent. Neither pictures nor words can do it justice;
it is one of those things that you actually need to experience to understand
it. However, I'm attaching some of our
pictures.
Notice the tower in the
upper right. A bit closer view on the
next picture can help you get the scale of the canyon.
We walked for about a mile
along the south side of the canyon, seeing the various different views. We checked out the "base supply
area" (cafeteria, camp store, gas station, etc. - very well done,
actually), and then left the crowds behind as we drove out of the park to the
East.
Apparently, most people come
in the main entrance, go up to the South side, look, are amazed and then go
right back out the main entrance and back to the Interstate. What we did was follow along the canyon where
it turns north (we were on the East side) for some more of the spectacular
views and for a lot less people. The
East side was apparently the original tourist area (in the era where you had
to ride a stagecoach to get to the lodge) and has some buildings of historical
interest. It is glaringly apparent that
the East side doesn't get the same traffic as the South side: there was one
entrance station on that side and it was completely closed down with road work
being done around it.
Shortly after we left the
National Park, we entered the Painted Desert and the Navajo reservation.
It was empty, empty country
with fairly frequent stands on the road for jewelry and so on, but other than
that, not much of anything.
We stopped at the
"official" reservation co-op on the way out and Teresa went inside to
take a look (Jon stayed in the car to snooze).
They had some nice stuff, including a really nice leather belt with hand
worked silver on it. When Teresa asked
the price, the lady said "Eleven ninety-five." Teresa had been
looking for a belt like this one and came out to get Jon to purchase the
belt. Really gorgeous belt, nice
workmanship; it was quite surprising when we realized that this was Eleven
HUNDRED and ninety-five dollars.
Nice belt, but not that
nice.
After that, it was back onto
I-40, stretching like a ribbon of dark grey through (mainly) scrub growth with
lots of ranches and lots of empty space.
We stopped briefly in Winslow, Arizona (as in "standing on
the comer in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight to
see" from Take It Easy by the Eagles).
It is always interesting to see areas that have become part of pop
culture (and the town of Winslow goes out of its way to
remind you about the song... since the song is one of their claims to fame).
We crossed over into New Mexico after a fairly long day of
driving. We decided to stop for the
night at the "Sky City Hotel and Casino", about 40 miles west of Albuquerque, east of Granger.
The casino complex was
extremely well done. It turns out to be
on the Acoma reservation and is one of
the better small casinos that I have seen.
We didn't really know anything about the area until we stopped.
It was a nice hotel and a
nice casino. The hotel also has a series
of historical exhibits that were very well done (for example, Granger, NM was
named after the paymaster for the railroad, since he was such an important man
in the area).
The next morning, Teresa
said that she would like to tour one of the pueblos, if possible. With our usual excellent travel luck, Sky
City IS one of the major pueblos (it isn't one of the 'cliff dwellers', but it
is on the top of a mesa). The pueblo is
about 15 miles south of the interstate.
Sky City is the home of the Acoma tribe and has been for a
considerable period of time. The Acoma are one of the groups that
are descended from the Anasazi tribe in the southwest. The oral history says that a major drought
came along and four warriors were sent out to explore - one to each of the
major compass points. When the warriors
came back and described what they had found, the various tribe members chose
which way they wanted to go and this four way split resulted in the formation
of four new tribes.
The Acoma chose a good sized mesa
(i.e. big rock plug) to live on. And
when I say rock, I mean ROCK... every piece of dirt on the top of the mesa was
hauled up there. In a basket. On somebody's back. Including the dirt in the cemetery.
The Acoma are a matriarchal tribe
(the women are in charge). All the
inheritance is via the youngest female in the family. According to our tour guide, the sole reason
for this is to have the longest possible time between changes in ownership of
property by the matriarchs.
The Acoma have started several
different businesses (the hotel and casino, a travel center/truck stop and a
couple of others) that have worked out well and provided jobs in the area.
Very few of the tribe
members (I believe it was around 100) actually live on the mesa, full time, but
all of the tribe members (5,000 or so) regard it as "home". There are a number of houses on the top of the
mesa, most of which are regarded as "ceremonial homes" (much like
people talk about a "vacation home" or cabin). When some of the large dances occur, most of
the tribe come and stay on the mesa over the weekend .
Until the 1950s, Sky City was relatively isolated:
John Wayne changed that. According to
our tour guide, John Wayne made a movie on the mesa during the 1950s. As part of the production, the film company
built a road to the top of the mesa (before then, to get to the top the tribe
had to climb up 400 feet in elevation on a very irregular flight of stone steps
that were installed when the mesa was first inhabited). Once the road was open, tourists started
coming and the tourists started taking things... not just pictures but tribal
heirlooms. The Acoma had to start giving guided tours
and became VERY sensitive about their security on the mesa in order to protect
their heirlooms.
To tour Sky City, drive through the desert
(scrub growth) from I-40 until you can see in the valley below a vision of
stone mesas: the largest is where the Acoma live. The view feels mystical and spiritual. The museum at the bottom of the mesa burned
recently, so some of the tour facilities are in trailers (they are
rebuilding). Our guide explained, quite
firmly, to stay with the tour group. If
you wander off, one of the permanent residents will call security and have you
escorted off the mesa; you are touring their home and it is an incredibly
special place.
This mesa was originally
settled for defense (there really are not many ways up and it is fairly easy to
defend). The tribe members would descend
to farm, hunt, etc. and then go back to the top of the rock mesa at night.
In other words, just about
everything on the mesa is STRICTLY functional.
The fields are below (some of the tribe members still farm) and
everything on the mesa has been brought up from below.
There is no electricity on
the mesa and no natural source of water on the mesa. There were two open air water cisterns that
used to be used (and occasionally still are for nonpotable household water -
they are filled by rain, we watched a couple of the dogs wade in to get a
drink). Our tour guide specifically
mentioned that they have regular visits from the Culligan man....
The tribe members take their
history and heritage VERY seriously and are religious. Their religion seems to be a blending of the
native religion and the Roman Catholic that was brought over by the
Spanish. The church is by far the largest
building on the mesa (complete with graveyard - and every bit of dirt in that graveyard
was brought up in baskets BEFORE the road was made) and it is obviously
one of the centers of the tribal culture.
The church was made by hand and is a blending of the traditional
architecture and of the standard "church" architecture. For example, the floor is dirt/adobe (they
repack the floor once per year, using the same dirt that years of their
ancestors have walked on) and there are no pews; seats would get in the way of
the Christmas dances and being on the dirt reminds people that Mother Nature is
below you and always present.
Beyond that, there are a
large number of homes on the mesa. The
village has Kivas (which are a sacred place for the southwest Indians). The Kivas of all other tribes are underground;
since these kivas are on solid rock, they are built above ground. Usual Kivas have ladders down to them; these
have ladders up to the roof, then ladders down into the kiva.
It was a Sunday that we
toured, a large number of tribe members were on the mesa with pottery to
sell. Most of the sellers do not live on
the mesa but will come up on Saturday and Sunday and set out their wares. Many are traditional, handmade pottery (some
'more traditional' than others... ). Teresa picked up a really excellent pot
made in the old style (see picture) of twisted clay rope.
There was a brief rain storm
(or what people that don't live in the desert would consider a shower...).
According to our guide, we visited late in the "monsoon" season which
is when they get all their rain for the year.
There were some amazing
views from the top and we saw a couple of the "holy men". Based on what the tour guide said, four young
adult males are chosen each year to be the tribe "holy men". They live on the mesa and spend their time
praying for the year. It is an
"appointed" position and the chosen men will pray for that year.
Surprisingly (it is a small
place and relatively in the middle of nowhere), the mesa is on the list of the
top 10 most visited sites in America (including places like the
Grand Canyon and the St. Louis arch). Tiger Woods has visited, as has Hilary
Clinton and a variety of other celebrities that our guide mentioned.
It is a very spiritual
place: there was a tranquility and sense of peacefulness on the mesa. It probably has to do with having been
continuously occupied for a LONG time (at least in American years ... ) and
being a "happy place".
Once we made it back to the
car, it was time to continue our trip across New Mexico. It was a very unusual day... we saw lots of
things we had never seen before. Surprisingly
enough (as I said, it was the desert, even if it was monsoon season), the skies
were relatively overcast and there were frequent rain showers.
We saw two or three
"dust devils" - small whirlwinds that kick up the dust in a very
small funnel cloud. They were kind of
eerie looking, I understand why they were referred to as "devils".
There are antelope in New Mexico. Having lived in Virginia, both of us are reasonably
used to seeing deer by the side of the road.
As the day became evening, we thought we saw a couple of deer in one of
the grazing areas (it was fenced but it wasn't 'a pasture' just scrub growth)
off from the road. A little better look
showed them to be pronghorn antelope.
They are about white tail deer size and shape, although faster and with
fewer antlers.
As it got darker, we started
seeing a LOT more of the antelope, in larger herds.
We then saw something that
we had never seen before: a double rainbow.
We were driving east on I-40 (pretty much a straight shot and not a lot
of variation in height), getting near the "Dinosaur Park" (which
advertises by having full size models of the various dinosaurs lining I-40,
rather like Burma Shave signs) when we noticed a portion of a rainbow ahead and to
the right. As we continued to drive, the
portion of a rainbow turned into a complete "bow" rainbow (crossing
I-40), one of the very few Jon has ever seen.
Then, about one minute after the rainbow made it to full bow status, we
noticed a portion of a *second* rainbow forming above the original. This double rainbow was an absolute first for
both of us; it was extremely beautiful.
We continued to drive across
the desert, watching a slow transition from the low scrub into more
greenery. We passed into Texas (north Texas, the section south of the Oklahoma panhandle). We passed the "world's largest
cross" in Groom, Texas (by the way, according to the web, there are
three separate "world's largest crosses" in the US alone....We were trying to
make Amarillo before stopping for the night. We passed by the Cadillac Ranch just to the
west of Amarillo.
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/TXAMAcadillac.html
Sunday was probably the high point of the trip, in a lot of
ways. Sky City and the double rainbow were
both incredible and will stay in our memory forever.
The rest of the trip was
mainly "sight seeing from the car".
We saw a lot of very nice scenery but we didn't make side trips the
remainder of the trip. We continued to
drive I-40 East until we arrived at Memphis and turned southeast on
secondary roads.
We did encounter a VERY
interesting store in Alabama. We began seeing signs advertising a unique
outlet store called "Simon and Kraft". There were lots of signs for this store...
and the variety of shoes and clothes that they were advertising was
surprising. It is out in the middle of
the country and has work clothes... as well as Nine West, Birkenstocks and ski gear,
all at VERY good prices. We'll swing
back by when we get a chance (Teresa got a new pair of sandals there).
The final drive into Tallahassee was pleasant. Tallahassee is different from Central
Florida (i.e. Orlando). It doesn't have "hills", but the
land does roll... and there are lots of trees including large Live Oaks, hung
with Spanish Moss.