2002 May East Coast to West Coast

 

From Sea to Shining Sea

Starting in Summerville, SC our trip to visit family on the west coast started out in a rush. After work on Wednesday May 7, 2002 we blew out at 7:30 pm. Maybe not the smartest thing to depart on a long trip after working all day but it seems we do this on most all trips and after driving hard and allowing the excitement to carry us along then we take a long day in a campground to unwind and put work behind us. Seems to work well for us because then we can settle into the trip with less anxiety of getting to the next destination. So here we are two days later in a relaxed vacation mode cruising along the highway chatting not of work but what we shall see at the next stop and what we just finished seeing.

Following HWY 80 from Savannah, GA to San Diego, CA is our goal and we started the first night out covering 380 miles. We woke the next morning at a grocery store parking lot in Columbus, GA. Expecting to visit Westville, GA featuring a reconstructed village dated from the 1850’s we decided this was close enough to home base to visit another time. So off we continue on through Tuskegee, Al where Booker T. Washington founded, and George Washington Carver taught the first Black college. Still an active college this was interesting to drive by but did not require a stopover.

Apparently, Alabama has a lot of history concerning the civil rights movements, quite a few guidebooks have numerous references to individuals and events throughout south central Alabama. What was very interesting to us was the cattle farms. All the reading available speaks of cotton as the primary product. The countryside is strong in cattle with rolling hills and farm ponds dotting the landscape. It appears this stretch of road is designated as scenic and we could definitely see why with very pleasant driving and views especially the many excellent cattle farms along the highway.

200 miles down the road we ended our day early so we could rest and shift into vacation mode.

The following morning with smiles and lighter hearts we continued along Hwy 80 through south central Alabama.

Hwy 80 parallels with Interstate 20 to Jackson, MS. At Meridian, MS we attempted to go to Weidmann’s Restaurant a family owned and operated restaurant for 125 years. Unfortunately they were closed for remodeling. Instead a stop at a Winn-Dixie grocery store for supplies and information the Jimmy Rogers restaurant was recommended for good food and great prices. Somewhat disappointed in the décor and selection we were very surprised at the quality of the food. We decided Meridian, MS as a whole had not progressed too very much and although enjoyable for its laid back atmosphere (a man giving me directions took a full minute to get a coffee cup from the table to his lips) we are ready to see more of the country.

Off we go (Nita’s turn to drive) for Natchez, MS to follow a 90-mile portion of the Natchez Trace Parkway. Absolutely breathtaking! The park like views due to mowing under the trees, gently rolling hills, and several markers to stop and read of historical significance this was a truly enjoyable drive. Although very tired when we reached the end we were quite excited about this last stretch of road. So pleased were we with this short section of the Natchez Trace Pkwy we decided that we would take 2 weeks later this year or next year to follow the entire route from Nashville, TN to Natchez, MS. So more history and evolution of the Natchez Trace we shall write during that trip.

After some deliberation we decided to camp on the edge of the Mississippi River at Natchez, MS. 

A new experience for the both of us to sit at our campsite and watch the tugboats push barges up and down the river. Of course being in the transportation industry we kept trying to identify what type of cargo is carried on the river and what its final destination could be.

Although we wished to visit some of the many antebellum homes in and around Natchez, MS we decided that with the miles to cover to reach Dallas, TX (425) and already resolved to follow the Natchez Trace Pkwy another time, we leave early to continue on to Dallas, TX.

Another learned experience that Dallas, TX has few campgrounds close by the city. Arriving late and the intended campground having no vacancies it required two more stops to be accepted in a campground. Very late and very tired Yo (our cat) and Tom got into a little spat while setting up camp. Yo had been cooped up enough and wanted out before we were even parked and Tom very crankily telling her NO!  So next morning Tom and Yo had a really long walk together to patch things up. Everything back to normal now and coincidently being Mothers Day we are ready to go meet our daughter in law and grandson.

It was exciting to finally see our grandson Alex! He is quite a pleasant child, never heard him cry always happy and a pleasure to be with. Got to meet DeMontre and he also seemed like a bright lad and well behaved. Kendra’s mother Judy and companion Wayne we spent some time with too and enjoyed their company very much.

Visiting the aquarium and spending time together was all time allowed us and it was time well spent. Dallas, TX itself seems difficult to get around in – quite a lot of traffic and the roads need some work yet the weather at this time of year was pleasant.

We arrived White City, New Mexico late in the evening on May 14, 2002 the tempters was a dry, warm 85 degrees we were tired from the hard days drive clocking almost 500 miles.

We ate, rested then headed out to see the flight of the bats at the Carlsbad Cavern around 7:25pm.  It was a five-mile drive up the hill to the viewing center.

The trail down to the caverns close early in the afternoon so that visitors don’t interrupt the increasingly popular spectacle of the “Bat Flight” in which hundreds of thousands of Mexican free tail bats swirl out of the caverns at sunset.  Every evening rangers give a brief free

 talk about bats proselytizing about how really great and harmless they are while waiting for the bats to set off into the night.  We learned that the Mexican Split tale bats live in the caverns and take flight around dusk every night to eat.  They fly around 60 miles radius eating bugs and insects until they are full which is 3 times their body weight. (The bats are about 2 oz).  The Bats have one baby or pup per year and can live up to 15 years.  When they give birth the pup is ¼ their size and weight, can you imagine, if you were 5 feet and weight 120 the baby would be 2.5 feet tall and would weight 25 lbs! The mother gives birth hanging from her feet upside down, and I thought I had a rough time, anyway the mother Mexican Split Tail Bat would love her baby all over getting her sent on the pup and getting to know the pups smell then holding it close to feed it milk, they are a mammal that nurses.  After the baby is full and momma and baby know each others smell she take the new born deep in side the cave hangs it by the feet and leaves, but returns 3 times a day to feed the baby for about 7 weeks.  Mean while. we must remember that there are 350,000 bats maybe 200,000 are mothers that just had babies and have done the same with their young’uns can you picture this nursery.  The mother bat will fly in to the area she left the pup, sniff it out and start the feeding all over again.

The next morning we went back up the hill and stopped to see some old caves where our American 

Native Indians lived. We walked down the path and viewed the plants that they may have used to eat and drink from, saw the waterbed where the water collected and even Tom walked in the caves that made their home.

I on the other hand stood back and gave thanks for my electric range, comfortable bed and central air.  We took in the beauty of the desert in the morning light as we traveled up the hill stopping to take pictures of the desert spring flowerage.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park is carved out of solid limestone of the Capitan Reef by eons of dripping water, the Carlsbad Caverns contain over 30 miles of underground caves, some over 1,000 feet across the temperature maintains a constant 56 degrees and is at 100% humidly.  A two mile trail that we went on drops steeply from the large visitor center where we took an elevator ride 750 feet straight down to the “Big Room” where after wandering among the countless stalactites, stalagmites, and other formations, we found we spent over 2 hours and rode the elevator back to the surface.

We hit the road around 12:00 noon heading towards the Guadalupe Mountains. This is one of the few un-hyped wonders of Texas; Guadalupe Mountains National Park covers the rugged peaks that rise along the New Mexico border 110 miles east of El Paso. Formed as part of the same Capitan Reef of 250 million years old limestone as the great caverns of Carlsbad, the Guadalupe Mountains, is a cool contrast to the surrounding desert, rise in sheer faces about 2,000 feet above the desert floor and offer the chance to experience many different and contrasting ecosystems side by side.  Among the Parks items is McKittrick Canyon where you can see the vegetation change dramatically in a short distance, from dry desert cactus to large oaks and walnut trees.

Salt flats and flat dry desert between the Guadalupe Mountains and El Paso, TX is very boring, two small desert stores look like expected from “Route 66” legend.

Short distances on route I-10 at El Paso, TX then across Rio Grand River and travel on the slower and more scenic Hwy-28 known as the Juan De Onate Trail. Tom and I really enjoyed the ride it was late afternoon by this time as we drove though pecan grove, pepper field, and dusty small towns that spread along the west bank of the Rio Grande. This part of New Mexico is chili country, and what an excellent place to be at suppertime.

We wandered into a small town named La Mesilla with low slung adobe buildings set around a shady central plaza containing a couple of historic sites-including an old jail from

which Billy the Kid escaped in 1880.  We had worked up an appetite and went into a cantina called LA Posta (this building was the last standing structure of the Butter field Stagecoach to sample some local Mexican food.  It was hard to decide what to order for it all looked great so Tom and I settled on two items along with a gladly shared margarita and beer.  The meal is truly outstanding! Tom does 

not care for chili relenos because of the hot taste but these were mild and extremely flavorful, green chili’s in the enchilada added an excellent flavor to the enchiladas. This was a wonderful town that took you back in time and we would love to spend more time here but as it was late we headed down to Deming, NM to camp for the night.

We arrived at the Hidden Valley Ranch campground around sunset and what a beautiful one it was.  The sky was clear as the sun went down and was remarkable colors of red and purple covered the sky.  We watched the animals coming out for the nightly hunt as we decided to call it a day and headed back from our evening walk to our awaiting motor home.  We slept with all the windows open and drapes up so we could see the night and hear the sounds of the desert of the southwest.

Tom was quick

 to get up in the morning (16^th), coffee and camera in hand and out the door he went with Yo in tow to get the perfect sunrise.  Needless to say I on the other hand am not as enthusiastic in getting out of bed when it is still dark out there.  But in this case I did crawl out of bed and somewhat found my way to the kitchen as Tom had a pot of much needed coffee awaiting my sleepy arrival.  I soon found myself curling up on the couch sipping the hot coffee and wrapping up in the blanket Tom left for me so nicely on the couch.  Amazing the number of animals that were out looking for their breakfast. Absolutely beautiful watching Quail, Doves and Jackrabbits. Tom trying to get on film all the wildlife and the cactus with their flowery blooms all so beautiful.

We did not want to leave it was such an excellent location but schedules had to be met and off we go.

We are on our way to Lordsburg, NM (pop 3,379). Named not from any religious conviction but in honor of the Southern Pacific railroad engineer who plotted it in 1880, Lordsburg has little to offer other than an ghost town 3 miles south on a dirt road.  Briefly home to some 3,000 silver miners during the early 1870’s.  The town was abandoned when the mines dried up, only to be reborn during another brief mining boom in the 1880’s.  By the 1930’s it was turned into a ranch by the Hill family, whose descendants still live here, care for the buildings that consist of Grant House saloon, the general store and Strafford Hotel, where Billy the Kid washed dishes as a young boy. Learning this ghost town is only available for touring every other Sunday we push on in hopes of seeing another more famous ghost town called Tombstone, AZ.

A little south of our route but well worth the detour, Tombstone, AZ is a well-established tourist trap. Normally 

we do not go to such places but this was very enjoyable experience and not too draining on the pocketbook. The biggest attraction to Tombstone is the OK Corral where Wyatt Earp’s famous gunfight happened.

The tourist attraction provided a reenactment of the gunfight along with several other skits to cover 45 minutes of playacting that was quite good. We have some film clips of the gunfight so ask us when you see us and we shall be happy to share them with everyone. In addition to the OK Corral exhibit a movie demonstrating the towns history is worth seeing. Apparently the silver that established this town is still there under water. Seems the most precious resource in the desert also flooded the silver mine and ended Tombstone livelihood.

So actors in period costume roam the streets and many of the building from the towns beginning make interesting touring.

Following Tombstone we stopped to camp in the city of Tucson, AZ. The military campground was difficult to get into for a high alert required another search of our vehicles and the barriers across the road were too difficult to negotiate so we sought out another campground that was much less than desirable, but we made do and departed early the next morning to tour Saguaro National Park right next to Tucson, AZ. Really nice winding road takes you through the a concentrated section of Saguaro cactus. They can grow 50 feet high and attain 200 years of age. Interesting formations of their branches can make the most unimaginative person see human forms in them.

We are concerned of the next leg of the trip through Yuma, AZ to San Diego, CA for it is known to be extremely hot and barren so we topped off our propane and fuel prior to finding a campground in Phoenix, AZ. Sister Jean, her husband Bob and daughter Shannon had invited us to camp in their backyard. We tried for quite a while to maneuver the motor-home alongside their house but just could not find a way to make it fit. After checking on a campground that ended up 20 miles away we found one and a half miles away that was very nice. Especially the pool, we would cool off each day there before returning to the motor home to rest and it made it so much more relaxing. Spending Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday with Jean it was very good to stop and rest awhile. Although we only toured one location with Jean and Bob time was well spent catching up on all that everyone had been up to. Bob is involved with cellular service and has me quite excited about upcoming changes such as cell phone 3G which can receive 144kb for streaming. This means you can surf the Internet through your cell phone much more efficiently. Personally I use the cell phone attached to the laptop to check email but presently do not surf the web because 14kb is all you can receive.

Visiting Jerome, AZ with Jean and family was very surprised at the steep hills the town is located in. Up to now all the sites we visited had been on nearly flat ground and although a nice place to visit we were not in shape to view very much. A lot of shops with 

antiques and artistic items are good to tour through but very pricey (as all tourist traps are).

Deciding to leave Sunday night to avoid the high winds common on the next leg also cooler at night we left and stopped off in Yuma, AZ to rest. Nita and I had both been to Yuma in our teens and were surprised to see so much growth. Agriculture seems to have blossomed with increased irrigation from the Colorado River and Yuma has grown tremendously as a result. Just a drive through Yuma showed us the changes and much discussion of trips there when we were younger was fun for both of us.

The mountains from Yuma to San Diego, CA were the first mountains of any consequence for the new motor home. We were very pleased with its performance, 4000 feet in 10 miles with 6% grades and slowest speed 40 mph. playing leapfrog with two tractor trailers allowed us to measure our performance even better. We are quite pleased with our coach and look forward to additional mountains to try it out on.

Alpine, CA where Nita was raised predominately we did a windshield tour for it was enroute to our destination. From what we saw Nita thought the changes are so great that she is not interested in returning and finding her old home site.

Arriving at last in San Diego, CA we are tired and ready to park for a while. Many family visits are in store and of course tourist attractions as well.

Find out in the next Journal what we do in California.