August 17th
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Day 1 OC to Payson)
We got out of Payson by 7:30 and drove heck-for-leather to Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, where we parked for a time in a lovely view spot which we later saw was signposted “no parking.” (How are you supposed to admire the view?) STB had a bit of a sleep. This was my first encounter with the odd flora and fauna that covers the United States outside of So Cal. Orange County specializes in the Asparagaceae (the Spiky family). You may know them from the movies set in LA - the spiky yucca and that great thing that looks like a fleshy cabbage on a tall stalk, the Century Plant. In this case the local flora were mostly pine trees, of the tall, columnar variety, many of which were lying on their sides having been logged for some fire-reduction reason. The fauna comprised about seven billion grasshoppers, which magically knew when you had focused your eyes on them and were about to approach, at which they combination hopped-flew two feet and then stared back at you. This happened time after time like some game of psi-powered Whack-A-Mole.
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| (c) Google |
We had lunch at June’s Café In Heber-Overgaard on the 260, which I can recommend for a) its pies and b) its collection of yardsticks. Hundreds of them. The walls were virtually paneled with them. We asked why and they even had a reason. Yardsticks used to be given out with company names, logos and slogans on them, acting as advertising on a medium that people would keep around and actually read. Hence, collectible.
We used the time to read USA Today's Eclipse coverage.
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| USA Today's eclipse edition |
The pines petered out and were replaced by the flat sage brush scrub that appears to cover about three quarters of America, and 99% of Indian Reservations.
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| Arizona |
The importance of gas had already been made plain to us, as the tank had not been full when we set off, which those of you who rent cars often will recognize is a bit odd. The dealer did tell us before we set oof, and the tank also told us repeatedly, but we quickly managed to get within a couple of miles of running out of gas, having, I suppose, not really grasped that American gas stations can be over a hundred miles apart. After that we stopped at every gas station and filled up as if we were seasoned camel drivers going from oasis to oasis. We met a couple later who had run out of gas under those circumstances and shared our horror story in a heartfelt episode of the Camaraderie of the Road.
The gas stations around here are Navajo-run. The exceptionally Anglo named Heber-Overgaard turned out to be virtually the last Anglo place for days.
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| A Navajo Travel Center |
Lunch was, however, at non-native McDonald’s, in Grants, NM. Grants is in the middle of a lava flow, great crumbled blocks of which pile up at the side of the roads. It looks fresh – as if, if you were to go bounding over it, you’d see a red glow deep within. I looked it up. The El Pais National Monument lava flows of the Zuni-Bandera volcanic field are several thousand to twenty thousand years old. They don’t look it. (I also learned the difference between a’a and pahoehoe lava, but I’ve already forgotten. Anyway, there’s both there at Grants.) The “road” I mentioned is the new I-40, but of course the MacDonald’s is on the famed Route 66, which we came across a lot on our trip. And MacDonald’s was, natch, just next to Lava Road.
By the way, since I’m from California, numbered roads are “the” roads. If you’re the sort of person who gets annoyed by references to “the I-40”, it’s going to get pretty annoying, so you might want to cradle a pillow to scream into.)
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| Things get a bit more New Mexico-y |
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| And the sky begins to open out |
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| Google's picture of Grants' Lava |
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| Lava flow at Grants |
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| Ten minutes outside Grants on the I-40 |
After that, it was time for another marathon drive, this time on to Albuquerque.
The only thing I knew about Albuquerque, before going there, was that the train stopped there in lyrics of The Yardbirds' Train Kept a Rolling, where she musta thought they were real gone jerks. I'd embed it here, but Jim McCarty has set it to not embed. Thanks, Jim.
Let's see if anyone clicks on it.
At Albuquerque we had an excellent Cuban meal at the Havana Restaurant on Menaul Blvd. Forgoing the comforts of the Walmart Supercenter on Carlisle Blvd, we opted instead for a bed at the Rodeway Inn on Iliff Road. The RV slept outside. One thing the RV video doesn’t make plain (or if it did, we just skimmed over it) is that the mains items – like microwaves, PC power supplies, CPAP machines – only run if you’re plugged into a 30 Amp outlet at an RV Park. The driving reason – no pun intended – to rent an RV for this trip was to have an instant roof over our head wherever we wanted to park, or wherever we needed to stop and sleep to avoid traffic. A night at the Rodeway Inn was not a surrender. Also, it was a chance to have a shower in a stall you can turn around in. This place allowed us to park an RV. In fact I don’t think the night manager even glanced at what sort of vehicle we were driving.
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| (c) Google |
1 comment:
That photo of the sky opening out is spectacular.
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