They Caught My Eye

As you can probably imagine I took lots of pictures on this trip. Many of them are just random pictures taken here and there that don't really fit into any of the theme pages. It's what happens when you are a photographer. You are always trying to compose a picture from everything you see. Most of the pictures will forever remain on the computer never to be seen by anyone. However, there are a few I wanted to share. They are not great photos, just interesting events.

This first one is a sign we saw on a daily basis in the south. I was pretty surprised that for a place that gets so little rain they were VERY concerned about flooding. Death Valley gets less than 2 inches of rain a year and some years even gets zero rain. Yet the flash flood signs are up. The water comes out of the mountains and since there are no streams for it to go in, it just runs all over. Since we were there during a rainy year we saw water across the road on many occasions. We saw many date palms. These look a little dried up, but you must consider I found them on the ground in Death Valley. You don't eat them right off the tree like you would an apple or orange. There is a process they have to go through first to make them edible.
We only saw Road Runners in Death Valley, though I know they can be found in Arizona too. I have seen them before, but was surprised that they were bigger than I remembered.

It's a long drive into Death Valley. I never thought about stocking up on food and gas before we headed in. There is a small convenience store that sells pop, beer, wine and chips, but no real grocery store. There are a few good restaurants and fortunately 2 gas stations. Remember, I told you this park is huge and you need gas. We did go out for dinner, but figured we could eat the food we had and if we ran out it might mean it was time to leave, or else we would visit the restaurant again.

This is the flip flop aisle in the Yuma WalMart. The colors were just to pretty, so I couldn't pass up a photo opportunity. I wonder if our store will look like this, or if it is just something for the warmer climates. Remember, I took this picture in February.

Heading Home

Here we are heading towards home. We have left Death Valley and are heading north and right into the snow. The skies were clear and we had a beautiful view of Mt. Shasta.
And then we entered Oregon and immediately had rain.
And Washington didn't look much better. I think it looked just like this when we left. Maybe we need to turn around and head south again.

As we got closer to Bellingham, the rain continued. We had to remind ourselves that it is still winter. At this point our nice clean motorhome is a mess.

WELCOME HOME!

911

Yup, that's my hospital bracelet and here is my 911 story. Keep in mind we were in Death Valley and miles from anywhere. Around 10 PM I started having terrible abominable pains. Since I am seldom sick I figured it might just be a gas bubble and would go away. 4 hours later the pain was worse. I was now throwing up and so cold I couldn't hold still. Ron decided it was time to call 911. Since there is no cell service in Death Valley he had to go to one of the local pay phones to make the call. The EMTs arrived with lights flashing. That was a little embarrassing, as I was still sure this really was nothing. They immediately decided that the pain was so severe that they wanted to medevac me to Las Vegas where there was a larger hospital that could do surgery if needed. Unfortunately a weather front had moved in and the chopper couldn't get into the valley. The next best thing was a small hospital about an hour away in a small town called Pahrump, Nevada. They loaded me into the ambulance and away we went. Hmmm, I'm wondering what that ride is going to cost me. They got an IV set up and started me on morphine. After that I don't remember much of the ride. Once at the hospital they continued the medication and began the tests. Evidently the doctor asked me some questions, but I don't even remember seeing her. She told Ron I must not be used to meds as she gave me a small dose of morphine and it knocked me out. Anyway, they did an MRI and found that I had a kidney stone. Fortunately it wasn't anything more serious. By Monday afternoon they decided I could go home. I still had plenty of pain meds in me and they gave me a prescription for more until I could get rid of this little thing. It's now a week later and I feel better, but am still a little shaky. Not only did I have the kidney stone, but I had been drinking LOTS of cranberry juice as I thought I might have had a bladder infection. Oops, not the thing to do. I was in a very dry climate, the cranberry juice is a diuretic and it was taking all the fluids out of my body. Now my potassium was dangerously low, thus the weakness. One thing just leads to another. However, I seem to be doing OK and feeling better everyday. It's just one adventure after another when you are on the road.

Death Valley

I'm a little behind in my postings, as there was no cell phone service in Death Valley. For me that also meant no Internet service. The National Park does have wifi available for it's guests at the visitor center from 9 AM to 3 PM. However, that is just when we were out exploring the park. So, I wasn't able to take advantage of that service other than to send an email to family to let them know we were out of communication. Death Valley really is a "dead zone".

So, on to Death Valley. Like the Grand Canyon it's hard to find words to adequately describe it. First of all it is HUGE! It is the biggest National Park in the United States, outside of Alaska. It contains 3.3 millions acres and is over 200 miles long (that's from Bellingham to Mt. St. Helens) and 25 miles wide (that's from Bellingham to Mt. Vernon). Needless to say we put miles on the car. Everywhere we went it was 60 miles here or 60 miles there. On the west side it has a peak that towers 11,049 feet and then drops to -282 feet BELOW sea level. That is the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere.

Enough chit chat, let's take a look at a few pictures. Needless to say I took hundreds. I will try and choose one picture from each of the well know areas we visited just to give you a pictorial feeling for Death Valley.

ZABRISKIE POINT:
This view is one of the parks most famous. You can see the mudstone hills with their rills and gullies from the occasional times when water rushed down the dry slopes.
SCOTTY'S CASTLE:
Scotty's Castle probably has one of the most interesting stories in the Valley. The castle really did not belong to Scotty, but to a Chicago insurance man named Albert Johnson. Scotty was a conman if there ever was one. He kept telling people about this gold mine that he had in a remote desert area. He said it was loaded with gold. He also said he needed some stake money to get the mine up and running. He eventually met Albert Johnson and gave him the story about his gold mine. Mr. Johnson gave him some money and off Scotty went. Since there was no gold mine Scotty used the money to live rather elegantly and used the time to convince others to invest in his mine. Trouble came when Mr. Johnson decided he wanted to see this mine that he had been putting money into, so he came West. Thus, Scotty had no mine to show him, but by this time Mr. Johnson really didn't care. He decided that the only thing Scotty had been mining was his pockets. He loved the area and decided he wanted to build a summer home there. By now he and Scotty were great friends, so Scotty said he would oversee the building of the home, while the Johnson's were in Chicago. Therefore, everyone thought it was Scotty's house. He didn't disagree with this, and even said he was building with funds from his gold mine. He even came right out and said that he was building it right over his gold mine so he would always be close to it.. The Johnson's were actually OK with this too. They were pretty private people and wanted this vacation home as a get away from everyone and everything. The home was really named Death Valley Ranch, but everyone called it "Scotty's Castle". Scotty was married, but then divorced. As part of the settlement his wife wanted half the gold mine and half the castle. Well, as we know there was no gold mine and he did not own any of the castle. Even his wife was fooled by him. If you look carefully at the picture you can just see a cross on the hill above the castle. Yup, Scotty is buried there.
Cassey, our park ranger guide, reminded us so much of our niece Cara that we had to take a few pictures.

SALT CREEK:

Valleys here were once lakes. The tiny pupfish have survived in isolated springs as warm as 90 degrees and in streams 5 times as salty as the ocean. These tiny 1 inch fish only live in Death Valley.

The tiny pupfish.

MESQUITE FLATS SAND DUNES:
These 150 foot dunes are nearly surrounded by mountains. The primary source of sand is the Cottonwood Mountains. The tiny grains of quartz and feldspar began as larger pieces of rock, but through erosion became sand sized.

HARMONY BORAX WORKS:

After Borax was found in 1881 William Tell Colemen built the Harmony plant. When in full operation it employed 40 men who produced 3 tons of borax daily. The famous 20 Mule Team hauled the borax 165 miles to the railroad. They averaged two miles an hour and took about 30 days to complete a round trip. That's not snow in the picture, but salt.

GOLDEN CANYON:

We took a 2 mile walk, it sure seemed longer, through Golden Canyon and viewed it's many colored rocks and formations. In the background you can see the Red Cathedral which can be reached by walking through the Golden Canyon or coming around through Zebriskie Point.

BADWATER:

Badwater basin is a landscape of vast salt flats made up of pure white table salt. It is also -282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in North America. Thousands of years ago this was a 30 mile lake that evaporated and left a 1 to 5 foot layer of salt. Behind us you can see the Black Mountains covered in snow. The highest point in the park, at 11,049 feet, is located there. Sharp contrasts in this park.The salt is continually pushing up from below the surface.

TWENTY MULE TEAM CANYON:

This unpaved road, as most of them are in the park, winds through 2.7 miles of badlands.

ARTIST'S PALETTE:

This drive took us through multi-hued volcanic and sedimentary hills. The whole park is a geologists dream come true. Here we added pinks, greens, yellows and blues to the rock formations.

The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon in Winter, what a perfect time to be here. Most of the snow is gone, but there are areas that still show a trace of winter. The park was established by Congress in 1919. Over the last 8 million years, the Colorado River has slowly eroded the rock of the Grand Canyon to an average depth of 1 mile.The Grand Canyon is about 200 miles long and 18 miles wide. Hmm, how do you take a picture of that? When you first see it it's an overwhelming site.I gave up trying to shoot the WHOLE canyon and began looking for the interesting shots. The weather here can be harsh so the vegetation reflects that. In winter there is snow, summer brings lightening storms and July to September is the rainy season. I think we got our visit in at just the right time. I'm not one that likes heights very much, so you can probably see white knuckles hanging onto that railing. One lady said it made her knees go weak. I think I was right along with her.
We had a beautiful day for being at the canyon. We heard one lady say she has been here 3 times and this is the first time she has been able to see the Canyon. She had bad weather the other times.

Another lookout over the Canyon.

This is a window in the entry to Yavapai Observation Station. From this area you can get what is considered the best view of the Canyon. We saw a tent where someone was camping on The Canyon floor, a glimpse of the Colorado River, and the Phantom Ranch.
We walked a good portion of the Rim Trail, which is flat. The Bright Angel Trail, South Kaibab Trail and Hermit Trail are all steep. With Ron's leg still bothering him, plus the fact that we were at 7400 feet, we stayed on the flat trail. Ron was always looking for the Colorado River, but it's way down there and hiding behind the big rocks.

But look what he did see. First of all I can't believe I really leaned over far enough to get this picture, but here it is. You can just barely see people on the trail at the bottom of the picture. They are on mules. These tours may be scheduled 13 months in advance. They must be popular. We tried to see how they got to the bottom of the canyon, but we couldn't.

The Lookout Studio was built to blend in with the surrounding rocks. It was originally an art studio, but now it is a gift shop.

On the Road Again

We left Yuma this morning and are heading towards the Grand Canyon. There has been lots of rain this year and one of the first things we noticed was how green the desert is. This is one of Ron's favorite fueling stations. We have been here 3 times now. It's out in the middle of nowhere, and is a very busy spot, but it is easy for us to get in and out of. It's on Highway 10 near Vicksburg. We stopped on our way to Scottsdale and on our way back to Quartzsite. Of course we had to stop again today.

Here we are on one of those straight roads that goes on forever. We saw this mirage for many miles. Isn't it interesting that you can drive for miles and miles and never reach it?
We kept seeing signs that read "No trucks over 40 feet on SR 89". Did that mean us? We are 38 feet plus the car. That certainly adds up to more than 40 feet. We had to go this way or else go all the way into Phoenix and then north. A long way out of our way. So we just kept driving past the signs and thinking that we weren't really a truck, so it must not mean us. Well, we did OK on this road, but will probably never do it again. It was miles of hairpin turns at 20 MPH. The cars went 20, but we were probably even slower. There were no bridges. The road was narrow and simply curved around each hill and draw. It was an endurance drive for Ron!

So, here we are in Williams, Arizona. We left 75 degree temperatures in Yuma today and are camping in the snow tonight. When we pulled into our campsite I took this picture out our motorhome window. Pretty, but cold. It will probably get below freezing tonight. Another funny thing happen that we have never experienced before. I got the ketchup out for dinner and when I went to open it it exploded all over the table. We thought that was odd until I went to wash dishes and the same thing happened to the dish soap. We then began checking other containers. A bottle of spray cleaner had erupted in the cupboard all by itself. The applesauce and mustard exploded when we tried opening them. I carefully opened the sparkling water otherwise it would have been all over. By now we have CAREFULLY opened any container with liquid that might explode. Williams is at 6,770 feet, so we figure the pressure of that elevation change caused this problem. Traveling is always an adventure.

The Scott's

Isn't it interesting how things work out sometimes? We came to Yuma not knowing where we would stay. We had researched the area and found only 1 park that had tennis courts for Ron. We visited that park and found it was full, so we looked at a few others, but no tennis. We needed a small propane tank, so we stopped to buy one as long as we were out and about. Ron was talking to the salesman and told him we were looking for a park to stay in. He told us to try his park as it had tennis courts. He gave us directions and away we went. Turns out it was Rancho Realto where we are now staying. They do not have a website, so we would never have found them without his help. We have since gone and thanked him. Now we are in the park and we had to choose a site. How did we know what to pick? They told us to drive around and take a look, but they all look pretty much the same. We went back and I told her 294 would be just fine, as she had told us some tennis players were near by. Little did we know at the time that our site would have the best neighbors. We couldn't have chosen any better. They are Keith and Sheral Scott from Olympia. Keith fishes the Cowlitz, so as you can imagine the boys can talk fishing for hours and they have. They know the same fishing holes, gear and fisherman. They have gotten out the map and looked at the river and compared notes. Keith's son sends fishing reports so they know what is happening at home. Ah, even more to talk about. As it happens Sheral wanted to make a quilt for a new great-grand baby. She thought she had chosen a pattern that was to hard as she was having trouble getting it started. I'm not the most experienced quilter, but I was able to help her on this one. As of today the quilt is pinned together and she has started the quilting. This was great fun for me and also helped Sheral out. We have had a great time with these 2. Whether it's playing Card Bingo, going out to dinner, having DQ Blizzards at 8:00 PM, exploring the Yuma Fun Factory, visiting the Yuma Park and Swap, playing cards, or just visiting, they have been great neighbors. The boys are already talking about getting together on the river this summer, or maybe sooner. They hear the Spring run is supposed to be great!!!