The final day of the road trip

Cole and I started the day by going to the New Mexico Museum of Space History.  I love anything that has to do with planes, helicopters, spacecraft, and space exploration.  It was a small museum but very interesting and we enjoyed it very much.  It did make me a little sad though.  Seeing all the exhibits and info about the past US space program, and all the amazing things that the US government and NASA did reminded me of how awesome our space program was. I remember watching launches on tv at school and seeing the news of the astronauts walking on the moon and how exciting it was.  Now we don’t have any real space program to speak of and we have to rely on the Russians to get into space. We hitch rides with the Russians, the people we beat in the space race, how embarrassing. Hell, now our government can’t even build a web site that works.

After  the space museum, I checked the map to see what the distance was from Alamogordo, NM to Frisco, TX and decided to drive all the way home.  The first highway we took out of Amamogordo was highway 82 and it went through the mountains and was very winding. It was on this section of road that I came as close to a head on collision as I ever have. As I was coming around a corner, a car decided to try and pass a pickup pulling a camper. Why they decided to try and pass on a blind corner I do not know, but it was way too close for comfort, I slammed on my brakes and they slammed on theirs and swerved violently back into their lane, almost clipping the backend of the camper in front of them.  I had nowhere to go since there was a steep cliff off to my right so if they hadn’t reacted as quickly as they did, it wouldn’t have been a good outcome. My heart was pounding for quite a few miles before it started to settle down.

The rest of the trip home was uneventful and we made it back earlier than I had thought we would. I had expected to arrive home around 1 AM but we made it back around 11:45.  I was pretty tired so after we brought everything into the house, I went straight to bed and had the best nights sleep I have had in days.
 

It feels good to be home but Cole and I really had a good time together on this road trip. I am really glad that we did it and I am already planning on the next trip he and I can take together. I think the next trip will need to be an international trip. Time for Cole to see some of the world.

This will be the last post for a while. I am going to keep the blog active though and as soon as I am off on another trip, I will blog about it. Until then, I hope everyone has a very merry Christmas, or happy Hanukkah, or whatever it is you celebrate this time of year.

Big Satellite Dishes Are Cool

Cole and I got on the road today by 9:00 AM and continued heading east on highway 60 through rugged but gorgeous eastern Arizona.

Something I have learned on all the road trips I have taken over the years is that no matter where you go or which route or road you decide to take, you will end up running into road construction somewhere, and if its a two lane back road or highway, you will end up waiting.

The goal was to reach the very cool NRAO VLA, or National Radio Astronomy Observatory Very Large Array. Those of you who followed an earlier blog, I did about 2 or 3 years ago about my motorcycle trip, may remember me talking about this place and seeing pictures.  Even though I have been here before, I think it is so cool that I wanted to take Cole there to see it.  While Cole thought it was cool, I don't think he is quite as geeked out about it like I am. I just find this place so intriguing and fascinating.  It amazes me that they move these massive satellite dishes closer or further apart and that they are all synchronized, and combined, they act as one very large satellite dish. The VLA is also part of what is called a Very Long Baseline Array, which is combines other satellite dish locations across the continental US, Hawaii, and the Caribbean to act as one huge dish.  The VLA has also appeared in a number of movies, like Contact, 2010, Terminator Salvation,and Transformers:Dark of the Moon, as well as in a Bon Jovi music video, Night Ranger and Dire Straits Album covers.

After the VLA visit, we drove to Alamogordo, NM where we are spending the night. Tomorrow we plan on visiting the New Mexico Museum of Space History before making a hard push to cover as much distance to Frisco, TX as we can.

Thanksgiving holiday weekend

Thought I would post a short update. Cole and I spent the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in the Tempe/Gilbert, AZ area with family. My Sister and her family flew down from Bismarck, ND and my brother flew down from northern California to spend Thanksgiving with my Dad and his wife, and Cole and I. We all had a pretty good time, ate lots of good food and did a little drinking. As usual, I ate way too much and probably put on an extra 5 lbs.

Cole, my brother, and I stayed in a nice hotel in downtown Tempe, The Four Points, right next to Arizona State University. Saturday evening, we went to The Vine for dinner, where we had some really good wings. After dinner we decided to go find somewhere to have a drink. What we didn't really take into consideration was that ASU had a home football game against their in state rivals, University of Arizona. We drove smack into traffic gridlock around the stadium. We eventually made it to where all the bars and restaurants are located. on Mill street, but there was no where to park and everyplace was completely packed. It took us a while to work our way out of this mess and get back to our hotel where we stayed for the night having drinks at the hotel bar. While the hotel was pretty nice, we didn't get a very good nights sleep. Our rooms were right next to the elevator and starting around midnight until 3:30 or 4 AM, we had to listen to very loud, drunk, ASU fans returning to their rooms, complete with singing and lots of door slamming.

We spent today doing some things for my dad, around his house. After dropping my brother off at the airport, around 3:50 PM, Cole and I started our drive towards Dallas, TX. We didn't drive to far before stopping for the night in Globe, AZ. Tomorrow we will begin the drive back to Frisco, TX.

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Hoover Dam

Woke up to another beautiful day, with sunshine and warm temps.  After a hardy breakfast, Cole and I were off to Hoover Dam.  Hoover Dam is such an amazing dam and even though I have seen it a few times before, it never gets old.

Cole and I enjoyed seeing the dam and taking the tour although a couple of things that we encountered sort of tarnished the visit, just a bit. These things were the vehicle checkpoint driving down to the dam, the airport style security checkpoint. After standing in line for 20 min, we get up to the checkpoint and I am informed that the little pocket knife I had, was not allowed. There was no mention of not allowing in pocket knives. Sure, they had the no weapons sign, with a picture of a gun in a circle with the line through it but seriously, how is it that we have become so scared or wimpy in this country that we consider a little pocket knife a weapon.  Its just sad to me that our nation has come to this. That we seem to be living scared. I really feel that we have taken this security thing too far and that we are becoming a nation of wimps.

Even with the annoyance of the security checkpoints, etc, Hoover Dam is still worth the visit and I highly recommend it to anyone who may be in Las Vegas for a few days or is passing through the area.

After the tour, we hit the road and made our way to Flagstaff where we are spending the night.  I neglected to check my fuel level before leaving Hoover dam and noticed we were quite low and the next closest town was going to be cutting it pretty close.  As we were driving, we came across Uranus gas so stopped to fill up. I really don't need to say anything about it. Just the word Uranus is funny.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving holiday and we will be driving to Tempe, AZ to have Thanksgiving day dinner with my Sister and her family, and my Dad and his wife.  I will not be posting tomorrow so I want to wish everyone celebrating Thanksgiving a Happy Thanksgiving.

Death Valley

  Monday night, when I went to bed in the crappy motel we were staying in, the plan for Tuesday was to drive to Las Vegas and maybe further but that all changed when I woke up at 3 AM. As I lay there trying to fall back asleep and not having any luck, partly because I could hear the person in the room next to ours snoring, yes, that's right, I could hear them snoring, I opened up the laptop and started looking at google maps to see what route we would take in the morning. Then I saw it, Death Valley National Park. I had never been to Death Valley, and while it took us out of our way, I made the decision, lying there in bed at around 3:45 AM, that Cole and I were going to go check out Death Valley.


After driving about 4 hours, we arrived at Death Valley National Park around 1:30 PM. I was so glad I decided to deviate from our original plan, and swing through Death Valley, the minute the valley came into view.  It was way cool. There is something about the desert that fascinates me and Death Valley was as fascinating as it gets.  I just wish we could have spent more time there. We even saw a grave that was from 1931.  I can't imagine what it must be like coming to Death Valley during the summer, when temperatures can reach 130 degrees F.  It was a perfect 64 degrees F today. If anyone is thinking of visiting Death Valley, the winter time is definitely the time to visit.

Here is the grave that we saw along the road.

At the lowest point, we were over 200' below sea level. Here we are 100' below sea level. Its really weird to think that we were actually that far below the level of the oceans

After we left Death Valley, we ran across this. They were right next to each other. So does this mean that Aliens are welcome at the brothel as well as humans, or is it a brothel run by Aliens?

One thing we saw today on our drive to Death Valley was this, a Naval undersea warfare center in the middle of the desert.

How the heck does one practice undersea warfare in the middle of the desert?

Tomorrow, Hoover Dam.

Road Trip resumed

After a very relaxing and enjoyable few days hanging in Chico, CA with my brother, his wife, and my two adorable nieces, Cole and I are back on the road.  Today was a perfect day to be traveling. It was clear, sunny, and relatively warm, well, warm for November at least.  The main attraction for today was Lake Tahoe, on the California/Nevada border.  We drove along the western and southern part of the lake and took a nice hike down to Vikingsholm Castle on Emerald Bay.  We found this little sign posted along the trail.

My medieval history is a little weak but didn't the plague kill millions and millions of people way back in the 1100 and 1200's or sometime around then? Isn't the plague supposed to be like, really bad?  So what the hell, if the plague killed millions during the dark ages, why is it that all they are doing to warn people is by posting a little piece of paper along some little trail telling us to not get bitten by fleas or play with the cute little chipmunks?  It would just be my luck to end up dying from the plague that I caught from some cute little chipmunk. I always had a sneaky suspicion that those cute little critters were evil and dangerous.


Something else that Cole noticed on our trip is it seems that in all these smaller towns we have traveled through, that there is an overwhelming majority of Mexican and Chinese or Thai restaurants. As an example, one of the little town we went through, I counted  5 Mexican, 3 Chinese, and 1 Thai restaurant. There was like 1 burger joint. I like Mexican food a lot and don't mind the occasional Chinese or Thai restaurant from time to time, but seriously, this is a bit ridiculous.

We are now stopped for the night in Yerington, NV. Tomorrow we are headed to Las Vegas. Not sure if we will spend the night there or not since we have to get to Tempe, AZ by Wed. night.