Highway 1

On Day 5 of our roadtrip we drove up the central coast of California on Highway 1. It was pretty foggy – not ground fog to make road visibility bad – but enough to make it hard to see the ocean. I guess that’s typical for mornings this time of year. The fog finally burned off about noon and we enjoyed a sunny, clear day with moderate temperatures.

One place we stopped along the coast was beach where Elephant Seals lived. They are great big critters with funny bent noses (like very short trunks!). There was a whole bunch of ‘em snoozing – and snoring! – in a pile on the beach. Every now and then another one would come out of the water and scootch up to the pile to join in the community nap, or one would up and squirm back out to the water. They used their flippers like hands! They’d lay there and flip sand up on their backs… or lay on their backs and scratch their tummies with their flippers. It was neat to watch them.

Later in the day we saw a batch of Harbor Seals on Monterey Bay. They were smaller than the Elephant Seals, and some had babies.

The highlight of the day was a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had a personal tour by one of the volunteers, who is the teenage son of a friend! They went with us through the aquarium, and knew a lot about it to tell us that we wouldn't have learned otherwise. DH and I had been to the aquarium once about 18 years ago. That was before we had kids. The aquarium has expanded quite a bit since then, so it was fun to see the new exhibits. My favorite exhibit was still the sea otters. They are so much fun to watch!

We spent 2 or 3 hours at the aquarium and then went to the beach for a few minutes to let the kids wade and look for shells.

Route 66

Day 4 of our roadtrip (see previous days below) called for an uneventful 10-hour trip from Williams, Arizona to San Luis Obispo, California. We continued to see signs about Historic Route 66 as we drove along and we talked about how much fun it would be to try to follow the old route sometime. We stopped in Kingman, Arizona for drinks (at Sonic!) and saw a museum about Route 66. I was just dying to go in, and we would have taken the time except it didn’t open until 9:00 and it was only 8:30. We decided we shouldn’t just wait around for the museum to open. So DH decided to get off the interstate right there and follow the old highway to Needles, California (about 50 miles) before resuming our originally planned route.

As we angled away from the interstate the highway began to look just as I had always pictured it in my mind. Narrow two-lane highway, no shoulders, sand right up to the pavement with the ribbon of road stretching across the desert as far as the eye could see. It was a surreal experience, especially as there was very little traffic and no buildings or other signs of human life for miles at a time.

We could see mountains ahead of us and I wondered how the highway crossed the mountains. We soon found out! This narrow two-lane highway twisted around and around and up and down, with hair-pin curves and sheer drop-offs (still no shoulders!), winding it’s way over the mountains. Now I could understand why the Joad Family in The Grapes of Wrath waited until night to cross the mountains so their car wouldn’t overheat! Did I mention it was already 100 degrees by 9:00 a.m.? Well, it was!

We passed through an authentic ghost town, somebody’s old car (from back in the day) that apparently hadn’t made it around one of the curves and was just stuck in the brush half-way down the mountain, and another “live” town that looked like something from the Old West with wild burros wandering through the streets. This stuff was REAL, too! Not staged for tourists.

By the time we finally made it back to civilization I was in desperate need of a bathroom! (Remember the Sonic drinks?) So we were happy to find a gas station, even if gas was $3.89 a gallon for regular! By then the temperature was 110.

We somehow lost the old highway about 10 miles before we got to Needles. The signs we tried to follow just led to a dead-end road, so we just got back on the interstate. I hadn’t noticed before how wide California is down in the southern part of the state. We drove across that wide expanse of desert, past Edwards Air Force Base, and gasped to breathe the next time we stopped at a blistering 114 degrees!

The rest of the drive was uneventful, and the coast was blessedly cool (mid 70s) by the time we got to our motel about 5:15 p.m.

I was just thrilled to get to experience this small portion of the historic "Mother Road"!

Grand Canyon

We spent the first day of our trip traveling. We enjoyed southern Utah on the second day (see previous post). Day 3 was our day to see the Grand Canyon. DH had planned our trip to allow for plenty of time there. Our first stop inside the park was at an overlook that had a watchtower we could climb for great views of the Canyon. I was impressed to find plaques with verses of scripture (psalms of praise to the Creator) at various places... With it being a National Park I'm surprised they don't consider it a violation of "separation of church and state" or something stupid like that.

The next stop was at some Indian ruins, showing where the natives had lived 800 years ago. All that remained were piles of rocks showing where the walls had once been. It's hard to imagine how the human race has survived on the face of the earth for centuries before the modern conveniences we enjoy today.

From there we drove on to the Grand Canyon Village. We parked and took the shuttle bus to the Visitor’s Center, then back through the village to transfer to another bus that went along the rim of the Canyon to “Hermit’s Rest”. The bus driver on our way back told us about a mama mountain lion that had been seen in the area with 3 cubs. Apparently they were crossing the road in front of one of the buses one day and one of the babies just sat down in the middle of the road. The mama growled and fussed at it from the side and it wouldn't budge, so she finally had to go pick it up by the scruff of the neck and carry it off! I would like to have seen that! Sounds like some kids I know!

When we got back to the village we went to the post office for stamps and to the general store for ice cream and drinks. Then we hiked a half mile out to the rim one more time before we left the park. I would love to go back when we have more time to stay!

Bryce Canyon National Park

We just returned from a 10-day road-trip. Part of it was vacation, and part of it was work-related (homeschool convention). I'll be posting highlights of the trip as a series. There's too much to put in one post!

Our route took us from our home in north Idaho, down through western Montana, back through the bottom of Idaho, then down through Utah, hitting the Grand Canyon as we cut across Arizona to the central coast of California, then inland to Modesto where the convention was, and finally up through Oregon and Washington home again!

This first picture is of the highway through southern Utah. I love taking pictures of roads so this is a great one for my "collection". (That's partly why I named my website "Roads to Everywhere" referring to our love of road-trips!)

Our first sight-seeing stop was on Day 2 in Bryce Canyon National Park. We had never heard of it, but were passing right by it and we have a NP annual pass so we decided to see what it was. (We got our annual pass for $50 at Glacier NP when were in Kalispell, MT on Memorial Day weekend for the Montana homeschool convention. It cost $25 for a one-time visit, or you could pay $50 for an annual pass that would get you into any NP for 12 months. We knew we were planning to go to the Grand Canyon so 2 visits would pay for it. The visit to Bryce Canyon would've cost us another $20.) It was simply spectacular!

We stopped at one scenic overlook and it was a half-mile hike to the previous one (which we had missed as we drove past). It was along the rim of the canyon so we just hiked over there. The temperature was over 100 (a dry heat, but still very hot), so I suggested we catch the (free) shuttle bus and ride back to the car. Well, the shuttle system was kinda weird. The bus didn't go directly back to where we had parked. Instead it went in the opposite direction back to the gate and visitor's center. So we had to ride it back to the gate and catch another bus going back into the park. DH was a little frustrated, but the kids thought it was great fun to ride the bus, so I thought it was time well-spent!

After we left Bryce Canyon we cut across through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument... 40 miles on a complete unimproved dirt road! DH and his brother had accidently driven over that road last fall when they went to Phoenix to pick up a printing press. The computer trip planner actually routed them that way! DH was impressed with the scenery in that area so he wanted to take me that way.

Four...

I am cleaning out my inbox (from being gone) and came across this email my sister sent me. I thought it would be fun to post it here. Feel free to copy and paste to your blog, and comment here that you did so I can go read your answers!

A) Four jobs [outside the home] I have had in my life:
1. nurse’s aide at a nursing home for 3 months when I was 18 (I hated it!)
2. banking: teller, receptionist, bookkeeper (not all 3 at once)
3. sales clerk at Goodwill
4. assistant children’s librarian at the public library (best outside job I ever had!)

B) Four movies I would watch over and over:
I don’t know about over and over (I’m more of a reader than a movie watcher) but some of my favorites are:
1. It’s a Wonderful Life
2. The Grapes of Wrath
3. Gone With the Wind
4. Sabrina

C) Four places I have lived:
1. Louisiana
2. Arkansas
3. Kansas
4. Idaho

D) Four TV shows I love to watch:
Again, I’d rather read… but I do like:
1. The Andy Griffith Show
2. The Waltons
3. Little House on the Prairie
4. Monk

E) Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Washington DC
2. Mount Rushmore
3. California
4. Grand Canyon

F) Websites I visit daily: (or semi-weekly):
1. Paperback Swap
2. Sonlight
3. BzzAgent
4. My Blog (to see who has commented!)

G) Four of my favorite foods:
1. popcorn
2. Crab legs
3. Cheese cake
4. Starbucks caramel machiatto (Does that count as “food”? It’s my favorite “treat”!)

H) Four places I would rather be right now:
1. On a roadtrip to anywhere with DH
2. In a bookstore with a latte
3. In a hammock in a forest campground (with a book!)
4. I dunno where else… touring Europe? That would be fun!