Sea, lake, snow, tarmac, steam

After leaving Fort Bragg (California) we drove along more of the Pacific Highway, a long and winding road which hugs the coast and is very picturesque.  Much cooler here especially with some sea mist floating in and out.  We stopped at Eureka, another town of contrasts - the historic and the unappealing.  Drove on through yet more giant Redwoods and into Oregon to Grants Pass, which appears to be an agricultural area.  Oregon has an odd law which does not allow self-service at "Gas" stations!

Crater Lake, Oregon, has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth (IourHO), it was peaceful and from some angles the water looked like ice.  The air is crystal clear, the lake is over 6000 feet deep and there was snow on the high tops of the surrounding mountains.




Mount Hood (Oregon's highest peak) was next.  Another scenic drive, stopping to buy fruit at a roadside stall, we found that they had all gone to a local "soccer" match, leaving a note to say take what you want and leave the money in an old ammunition box - so trusting (threatening?)!  During our drive we crossed the 45th Parallel which is the mid-way point between the Equator and the North Pole.  Oregon is a lovely place - a land of trees, horses, friendly people and beautiful mountains.

Thursday was all about driving!! 727 miles to be exact (yes, we realise we may well be insane! It's Land's End to John O'Groats minus 150 miles. ) in order to get from Pendleton, Oregon to Billings, Montana.  There wasn't anything on our list that we wanted to see on the way so we just kept on crossing out the hundreds until we reached our destination. Four states: Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana: home on the range!

Yellowstone was everything we could have wanted, although we didn't see any bears.  There were lots of almost tame chipmunks when we stopped just over half way up Bear Tooth Pass - very cute, apparently very hungry. Grumpy-looking buffalo and several elk in the park.  Old Faithful didn't perform for us and as it can take anything up to two hours to do so, we moved on and looked at some of the other steamy (and quite smelly) places, such as Sulphur Cauldron and Mammoth Hot Springs, beautiful and interesting.








Peter:  driving in the US. (All that follows is from the UK point of view.) Big roads - two-lane motorways and four-lane dual-carriageways. Mostly empty. Topologically impossible road junction layouts. 70mph speed limits on country lanes. A huge number of road works where mostly nothing seems to happen. Mile-long trains (with 3 or 4 locomotives) running alongside many roads. Ambiguous and - to us - confusing road signs, especially in towns. Internationally named identical towns laid out in a gridiron pattern wherever you go.
An inch on a map is NOT 20 miles, more likely 150...

BUT a great way to move fast and far without a lot of fatigue (as we saw on Thursday). Half-price petrol. Wonderfully varied scenery - land of contrasts. Thank you Satnav, thank you cruise control - gliding along in an armchair for 6661 miles to date.
What an adventure!

Big silicon, small silicon, no silicon

The day after Sequoia, we "did" Yosemite. Similar large pine trees, then gigantic granite mountains, including El capitan, whose most difficult climbing route was only conquered this year. Serious lumps of geology! Thence to Stockton - close to San Francisco but not so close that the hotel would bankrupt us.






Yesterday, we visited the History of Computing museum in Mountain view but not before we called at one of the many Google buildings to photograph Daisy Bear on one of their signs and on a Google bike (these are simple mountain bikes whose frame and tyres are in the Google logo colours - useful for their staff moving between sites). 
The computer history museum was excellent: many exhibits from the dawn of computing in the 40s to the near future, great interpretation and numeroud videos. British contribution was acknowledged and treated, as far as I can see, very fairly.



We drove through the Golden Gate bridge - impressive in a red Art Deco sort of way and onward to...









 the Cazadero Baptist campsite in the coastal forest by the Pacific to meet another branch of the VP clan, who had turned to be Christians as well! Acquired new info on the American branch of the family (South and North). Stayed the night in a cabin among giant pines, had good food and went to the neighbouring church on Sunday morning.


After that,lunch and then up the coastal California Route 1, which follows the coast up to Fort Bragg, a small resort. Magnificent views.





Tomorrow probably as far as Oregon. Ever Northward (well, until we hit canada and swerve East. 4000 odd miles covered...

Humility, hedonism, heat, height

Before leaving St George, UT we visited the winter home of Brigham Young (founder of the Mormon Church), a graceful and relatively simple house in a pretty setting, used now as a museum.  An interesting character who tried very hard to help people in need and do the right thing.  When they first arrived in St George, he left 309 families there to start a community, they dealt well with the Paiute Indians and created a large town for the times, out of very little in an unforgiving landscape, having to travel 30 miles (a day's journey) just for wood.

Drove to Las Vegas -what a contrast!! Neither of us felt particularly comfortable there and although we took the bus tour down "The Strip" to admire the lights and the glitz, we were glad to leave it behind.

Went from LV to Fresno, CA via Death Valley, which was a mere 85F - after experiencing 103F a few days ago we found that quite cool!  It has interesting geology including salt pans, sand dunes and we had our lunch under palm trees at a small oasis.  Leaving Death Valley behind we travelled alongside the Sierra Nevada in order to get to Fresno, CA - 503 miles in one day - a slight glitch in the planning process there!

The Sequoia national park is spectacular - neither of us realised that it is on top of a mountain (approximately 7000 feet above sea level).  It was a blissful 73F so almost jacket weather.  The trees are so beautiful, but sadly the 4 year drought is taking its toll on the forest, the King's Canyon, the surrounding countryside and the farmland down in the valley.  It must be heartbreaking to be a farmer here at the moment - having to choose which fields to water and which to leave to die.





Peter: Happened on Exeter, California today, in the middle of the St Joaquin valley, the central valley that grows most of the nation's fruit and nuts. (Appropriate, you might think, as I was born in Exeter, Devon). Actually a very nice bit of "small town, USA". Interesting murals about the history of the town, founded by two chaps / guys from Exeter, UK in 1911. Serendipity rules!

Planes, cacti and rocks. many rocks

Sorry about the delay, folks... Been busy eating up the miles and staring at the extraordinary landscapes of North Arizona and South Utah.

But before that, last Friday, we spent several hours at the Pima Air and Space Museum and had a tour of Davis Monthan AFB - the US Air Force aircraft recycling centre and graveyard. The only part of the US Air Force that makes a profit! It was hot, real hot, d**n hot (as in Good norning Vietnam) but we survived... The museum had a bigger collection of aircraft than Peter had ever seen, including the ones he used to make models of as a child! And plenty of British ones.


The next day we set off for Flagstaff in the north of Arizona, visiting the Saguaro park where the typical western film cacti grow in profusion, seemingly waving arms in the air.









On Sunday, we had the privilege of visiting the Grand Canyon: more impressive tha ever. Weather had cooled and we were at 6000 feet so quite pleasant. Ish. Then on to Blanding Utah through the painted desert: pastel coloured hills - quite beautiful in a low-key sort of way.




We then hit Monument Valley- we had seen it on TV and in films but the reality is stunning. Many pictures taken.

Yesterday, through the Arches National park. What can we say? Again monumental geology in dark shades of red. Rocks perched on to columns in seemingly impossible balance. And of course arches...

Today to Las Vegas after a visit or two in the town where we spent the night: St George, Utah.
3000 miles on the clock. I will comment at some time (and length) on driving the USA - an experience in itself...
Onward... (Sorry about the slightly messy appearance of this post, we have to be out of the motel by 11am.)

UFOs, geology and relative time

The visit to the UFO Museum and Research Centre was interesting – the staff friendly and helpful.  Kath thinks the whole thing was a cover up by the US Government for something scary and secret to do with the possibility of Russia invading!! They certainly had the locals scared witless with death threats if they kept to the story of a UFO.  Apparently the sightings continue to this day and who are we to question?

The drive to El Paso was through some great scenery, starting with low hills, scrub and multi-coloured sedimentary rock, changing to pine-clad mountains, which form part of the Mescalero Apache reservations.  At one time, we emerged to view, on the horizon, a white line of ground: The missile range called White Sands – It really is white and is not sand but gypsum (plaster!)

El Paso is the busiest place that we have visited so far and had Peter clinging to his seat as Kath negotiated the unfamiliar road systems!! 

With El Paso disappearing behind us we headed for Tucson, Arizona. As we crossed the state line - believe it or not - it started to rain!  We are hoping to visit Alan Bean’s (moonwalker) gallery and also Pima Aerospace Museum and the Davis -Montan Air Force Base where old US AF aircraft go to die in the desert.

Peter:  No-one tells you when you travel through to a new time-zone. We went from Mountain Time –zone in Roswell to El Paso on Mountain Time though we only discovered that  when we chatted with the locals at the Laundromat. We assumed El Paso would be on Central Time as it is part of Texas. So, we started our washing at 5:15 and we ended at 5:15 an hour later. Einstein would be proud of us...

Tuesday - mixed day

Abilene has little to recommend it apart from the splendid Frontiers Texas museum and "experience". You too can caught in a buffalo stampede or a shoot-out in a bar. A very good trip through the history of Texas from Mammoths to Wyatt Earp via "Indians", outlaws and steer.
Then on the road towards Roswell. It took us fully half an hour to leave Abilene because of road works and the fact that the satnav knew best and kept sending us there. Then miles of nothing but flattish countryside, wind turbines, nodding donkeys (pumping oil - slowly; terrible stink) and fields of something unrecognisable... Sky turned grey on the northern horizon and I hoped for a thunderstorm. (Be careful what you wish for.). Grey sky moved towards us, thunder and llightning ("very very frightening") and by the time we stopped for "gas", The atmosphere was made of water, the temprerature dropped 35 deg F in a few minues and the pumps packed up. Thankfully the lady from the station helped us out but Peter ended up (no exaggeration) drenched. Then back on the road and within half an hour of running the heating at full blast, dry again. And the weather returned to hellish hot.
Tiday to the UFO museum (yes, I know we are sad.). We have not yet been abducted by small grey aliens.
After that, a leisurely drive to El paso, with Tucson Arizona tomorrow.
Kath: I fulfilled one of my "bucket list" wishes by driving along a straight road in the middle of nowhere.  It just kept on going without a bend in sight (and rarely another car) - wonderful! I half expected to see Superman standing by the side of the road looking for a lift.

On the road!

We left Knoxville yesterday morning and arrived in Menphis by early evening (56mph average!).
Today, Graceland in the morning - much smaller than expected... But an interesting insight into "The King" and his peculiar tastes. Weather still too hot for humans but much air conditioning available. Daisy Bear duly photographed in front of the welcome sign - see her on FB,
On then to Texarkana (never heard of it? Neither had I!) on the border of Arkansas and Texas (whence the name). Even the post office has a half in each state!
In the evening, we went looking for dinner along the local pike and, fincing nothing - Sunday night - we ended up in the city center, It was deserted, ("I went to Philadelphia but it was closed"). We had almost decided to return to a Pizza Something when we spotted a noisy restaurant / cool joint / tavern. There we met some people on the terrace who had been in Bath recently and visited the abbey! There ensued a very pleasant couple of hours of conversation and really nice food. Thank heaven for heathen restauranteurs who open on Sunday night.
Tomorrow Abilene, as in cowboy films... Then hopefully on to the back roads to Roswell. If you hear nothing more from us, assume we have been abducted by some passing aliens...
Kath:  I also enjoyed Graceland. It wasn't anywhere near over the top as I had assumed it would be, he bought it as a family home in 1957 and that's really what it is - yes, there are lots of chandeliers but his kitchen for instance was very ordinary.  I had heard of Texarcana because I think there's a song about it.  Onwards to Abilene!! I'm enjoying the driving which I must admit, I was a little apprehensive about.