Ocean Life

I think there might be a saying about how blue the Pacific Ocean is, but I can’t remember it and my internet searching skills for something unknown are lacking. Anyway there should be a saying about how blue and large it is – something about how the pacific doesn’t ever forget. But then I think that’s an elephant.


I have been staying and driving along the coast of CA for almost two weeks now. I drove up from San Diego to San Luis Obispo, where my sister lives. I was going to take Highway 1 all the way up the coast, but…um…CA traffic stinks. Not only do CA drivers stop and look at anything on the side of the road – people, old tires - they’re bad drivers to boot.

San Luis Obispo was a good time. I stayed there a full week and relished in the feeling of not moving. I have been moving on every few days for a month and a half now and to stop and stay put for a week was a treat. I will tell you the one thing I was promised on my stop was sea life and it didn’t disappoint. First we stopped at Morro Bay and I got to see sea otters just swimming around having the life. Too cute!

Then we went out to somewhere I don’t remember (I wasn’t driving) and I got my fill of seals. It was windy and chilly out there on the beach, but it was a good time watching the seals all curl up every time a wave came in so as not to have their head or tail splashed in the water. This guy was not so fortunate. We also went down a pier where they like to hang out and eat the fish leftovers that are chucked over from the seafood restaurants also on the pier. I had a slightly closer encounter than I thought I would. This little guy shot up on the pier from the water right in front of me. They may look cute, but their not so nice – a fight broke out between a few of them and I ran. Still good times.



My first night in SLO, my sister and I went to the farmer market. It was a good farmers market…and then I saw this sign and it was a great farmers market. This sign hung over a booth where a man was standing giving his two cents to the world at large. This just might beat my other favorite sign I’ve seen. It was in Utah at a gas station. It read: Lotto, Gun, Ammo, Beer. Just seemed that was an appropriate order to life.

From hot to cold

Oh my goodness! It is hot hot hot in Arizona. There are many amazing things to see and hikes to take there, but alas none of them were done by me. Another stop to make when it is not so hot. The one place I did stop was at the San Xavier Mission in Tucson. It started in 1692, long before there were thirteen colonies. Two things I did not understand about the mission…I mean it was an amazingly beautiful oasis in the desert. It’s not hard to see why the natives of the area wanted to join up to be in such a place. The insides were incredibly ornate with many statues (sadly missing limbs from age). But here’s the thing I’ve never seen in any other church – the statues were wearing clothes. Real clothes that someone had made for them recently and put on the wooden statues. Now to me that’s a little odd. A statue of Mary was wearing this ornate white lace gown and another statue of a man was wearing a bright red button up shirt. Hmmm…

This is a picture of the side little chapel where you can light candles for Mary. There were more statues of Mary in there than I had ever seen. And the number of candles burning made it so hot that just standing in the door you could feel the waves of heat escaping. I couldn’t even go in.



So from Tucson I headed west to San Diego. And as my friend said that require a drive through Egypt. The drive takes you through a desert in the true sense of the word…rolling white sand dunes and the occasional palm tree. As I was driving, I pulled over to a rest stop on the Arizona California border which was only about 40 miles north of Mexico. This was the rest stop – a sandy clearing with three of the oldest looking port-o-potties I had ever seen. I decided to hold it.

I think this deems a side little story, because it has happened to me twice on this trip which is a little crazy if you ask me. I was in Missouri or Kansas, I don’t remember, but either way I was way out in the middle of nowhere with nothing around and I had to go to the bathroom so badly. There was nothing in sight except the flat bed truck driving in front of me with portable toilets on it. If that’s some sort of twisted cosmic humor I don’t know what is. The other time happened when I was stuck in traffic and couldn't go anywhere. And then a big truck carrying portable toilets got on the road next to me. Not so funny!

San Diego was so much fun!! Also crazy that thus far California is the coolest place heat wise that I have been. Would not have guessed that. I made it to San Diego for opening day at Del Mar racetrack. So much fun. I felt somewhat prepared as I had stopped and taken a tour of Churchill downs when I was in Kentucky. I went to opening day with a good friend of mine and her family. It is a tradition for them. Opening day at Del Mar is a tradition in and of itself. Every one gets dressed up wearing hats in that very My Fair Lady way. There were some of the craziest looking hats I have ever seen. There were hats with fountains, plants, buildings, and other craziness coming off them. Here are a few of my favorites.







I did not go so crazy, but I did wear a hat. I also tried my hand at betting. And sadly after five races I was 40 cents down. I’m such a big spender. Although, my first horse won the race and I won $10. Such a feeling of glory!

The Desert

So it would seem there is some extreme catching up to do. Life gets rolling, literally, and I get behind. My national park tour was continued slightly as I drove to the Grand Canyon after Zion. When I was in college, I did a six-day trip along the bottom of the Grand Canyon. But that was sadly…oh…um…like ten years ago. I remember it being the most amazing place, but I was wondering after all my recent national park stops how it would compare. And although Arches many well still be my favorite, the Grand Canyon is still amazing. It’s hard to take it in from one place or even one view it’s so big. It was fun to look down in the canyon and pick out the various mesas I remember camping on. Pretty cool. So for all those wondering it’s still there—still a big hole. Although I was a little surprised at all the blackened forest surrounding it. I don’t remember hearing about a huge forest fire there.


From the GC, I drove out to the Navajo and Hopi reservations and down through the Painted Desert. I find it rather interesting that two tribes, who in history weren’t the friendliest tribes with each other, have reservations on top of each other. Quite literally the Hopi reservation is in the middle, completely surrounded by Navajo reservation. Just thought that was interesting, nice of us to set that up for them.

The Painted Desert is a difficult thing to actually see. There are no roads that really go through it, and a barren flat space that is pretty much a horizontal line is hard to see. But I did take the nearest road I could find to drive through it and can you believe it start to spit rain. I was for practical purposes in the desert and it was raining. Interesting!

The next stop was Flagstaff. I don’t know whether it was because it was the first real town/city I had been in for a while. Or maybe it was just nice to be in a place with life, but the downtown area of Flagstaff was awesome. I loved it. I could have walked around forever. Alas it was only a few blocks, but I still enjoyed it. Also did my fair share of train track dodging. I felt initiated.


Now Arizona is an odd place. It seems like it should be a desert, dry and flat but there are National Forests, mountains, even volcanoes there.I stopped and looked at a few of them on my way to Tucson (yes not the most popular stop in July). I also stopped at some old pueblo ruins on my way down. This place sits out in the middle of the desert with nothing in sight and you have to wonder what it was like when it was built. There’s no way to tell really how old they are, but they guess around mid 1200s. Pretty crazy that any part of it is still standing or that anyone could survive living out there.


I also stopped at Montezuma’s Castle. I would have loved to go up inside of this place, but they closed it to the public a long time ago. Here’s something that blew my mind…this cliff dwelling was built around the same time as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Um, slightly different building styles don’t you think?

NP Trifecta

What are men to rocks and mountains?

That’s a quote from favorite source of witty advice – Pride and Prejudice. Although I would like to add to it, what are rocks and mountains to mother nature. If my last few days of national park touring has taught me anything, it is that water and wind are some pretty forceful things when give a few million years to do their work.

The first stop in the National Park tour was Arches. From the drive up into the land of wind and rain swept rock, to the red color of the sand that you have to walk through (my white tennis shoes are now pink), the whole place is crazy. Crazy in that awe inspiring way. Two of the better sights were one, the Balanced rock. I took a walk around this guy and was impressed by how all the sides look different. So to answer the question how does that happen…in simple terms, the ones I understand, the layers are made of different types of rock. The different types erode at different rates. For this picture, it just happens that the lower layers are eroding faster than the top layers and…tada, you get this crazy looking thing.


The next sight was the Delicate Arch. Now I’m sure you’ve all seen pictures of this. It’s on the Utah license plate for all that. But what they don’t tell you is that it is on the other side of this rather large hill. So I struck out on the climb at 9:30 am since it was gong to be 103 in the park that afternoon. I decided to go early and avoid the nutty heat. What a lot of good that did. It’s still 90 some degrees at nine in the morning. Anyway, I huffed and puffed my way up and over the hill, The trail led you over a wide rock face where the trail was just a worn groove for part of it and cut into the side of it for the other part. I got to the top and turned the corner and my knees went limp and my stomach dropped. The other thing they don’t tell you is that this iconic arch sits on the rim of a very steep bowl. I thought I had gotten better with my slight fear of heights…guess not. I sank to the nearest rock and didn’t move. You stand on the opposite rim and look at it. Or if you’re crazy like some people you could make your way along the bowl to get a closer look. Me…I sat and looked. It didn’t help that there was a rather forceful wind that felt like it was trying peel me off the rock. But in the end I’d have to say it was worth it. I can now say I’ve seen it…and that I made it up and down.


The next stop was Bryce Canyon National Park (and by the way on the drive from Arches to Bryce Canyon I think I saw every type of land form – desert, alpine mountains, rock canyons, and farmland). Bryce Canyon is a humbling view. I took a short hike down into the canyon, which unfortunately means you have to climb out of the canyon at the end. Anyway, I hiked down and around the hoodoos. That is what these free-standing spire things are called. Pretty funny if you ask me. Now after I got out of the canyon, it started to hail. Yes, hail! How does it hail in 90 degree weather? Just doesn’t seem right to me. But thankfully both my car and I made it through with out any dents.


Just a note about people in national parks. Don’t talk on your cell phone while standing at a scenic over look taking a picture. I mean really. It’s up there with there talking during a movie. Almost as bad…almost.

The third NP stop was Zion. It is incredible! A very quiet and humbling place – I guess they named it well huh? My only issue with Zion is that it felt more like an amusement ride. There is no driving in the park, so you have to take these shuttle busses and listen to guided tours. I’m not to keen of being herded with other people. You can get off and walk around all you want, but to go from place to place the bus is the only way. I’m so mad that I didn’t get to take the narrows hike, which is walking up the river (in the river) into the very steep and narrow parts of the canyon. Sadly I had left my water shoes in the car, which was way back down at the park gate.

Bottom line on all – I need to go back when it’s not so hot!!

On a totally side note – is there anything quite so idyllic as a stream that meanders through a flat grass field with cows grazing in the back ground. I passed this stream on my way to Bryce Canyon and didn’t take a picture, but I had to go back the next day and take it. Just too perfect.

Driving x 2

So again I have some catching up to do. From Kansas, I drove to Denver and Boulder (and having now driven through Colorado all I can say is wow they have a diverse landscape). Coming into Denver from the Kansas-esque eastern farmland, the Rocky Mountains loom and some how all the houses and people suddenly looked like they smacked against the mountains and settled. I mean if I was a settler coming west across the prairie and I came up against the Rockies I would probably say, “this is good…I don’t need to go over those.”

Except after a few days in Boulder and a night in Denver area, I began my trek over them. I took a very narrow, at times one lane close your eyes and hope no one is coming the other way road, but amazing road all the same. The switch back all the way up and often dipped in the direction of the sharp drop off the side of mountain with no guardrail.


Now all my driving has just reinforced my number one driving conundrum. I can’t turn my head and look at all the pretty scenery I am driving passed. And if I want to look or take a picture, I am like a jack-in-the-box popping out of my car at every turn. There’s no easy solution, but I have gotten pretty good at taking pictures while driving.

I ended up going over Independence pass and the Continental Divide. I have missed the smell of alpine air. And no comment on how bad this picture is – you can’t complain when you ask someone to take your picture. So that road dropped me into Aspen. I spent a few hours walking around. Wow trendy and I now understand what mountain chic is!

My next amazing drive was in the southeastern corner of Colorado along the Utah border. It wasn’t flat farms, or mountain alpine, but desert canyons. The road wound along the bottom of a canyon. At times the canyon closed in on the road and I felt like I was going to get squashed between two slabs of rock…or that some huge hunk of rock was going to decide to erode in a dramatic fashion.

I once read somewhere that canyon walls were mountains that stood knee deep in their own rubble. I don’t know why that has always stuck with me, but it is a very good description. That image definitely fits the drive into the Canyonlands National Park. It was so hard to get a picture when you can only take a narrow portion of a 360 degree panorama – very frustrating.



Also on the drive into the Canyonlands NP, is the Newspaper Rock. It is petroglyph panel etched in sandstone some time between late B.C. and 1300 AD. Pretty cool! And since no one knows what the images mean, we can make it up.


Now all these pretty drives were dented slightly, when I created my first road kill today. I have been so good swerving, stopping, or straddling critters. I have dodged hitting toads, a turtle, squirrels, deer, vultures, wild turkeys (boy are they dumb), a prairie dog, and a fox, but a little chipmunk didn’t make it today. And the cloud of butterflies I drove through don’t count, because some of them lived.

But I am now in Moab, UT and will be doing a massive national park tour for the next few days.

Gas (getting ridiculous):
Denver - $3.09
Aspen - $3.24
Moab - $3.15

wow, huh, and why

So I’ve spent almost a week in Kansas now and here are some of my general conclusions. Under the wow heading… I took a drive straight south in the western half of Kansas (which by the way is much different than the eastern part). My drive took me through Greensburg, KS. For those who don’t remember, Greensburg was just about wiped off the map a couple months ago by a tornado. All I can say is wow. The farms and fields surrounding the town looked like the rest of Kansas, except they were littered with debris – crumpled metal, hunks of wood, or random items like a garbage can or other household items. Driving into to town the first thing I noticed were the huge piles of rubble; then the trees which looked like fuzzy sticks as they had been stripped of their branch, but were starting to grow again; next were the street lights and stop lights that were just poles with wires hanging down – the lights were gone. The row of emergency tents was especially humbling. There really is nothing left of the town. And structures left are random walls attached to nothing. But the best part is that the town is going to rebuild!!


These pictures are pitiful in terms of capturing anything. If you want to check out some real pictures go here.

As I drove farther east, I kept passing these signs to come pet the pigs and see the world’s largest prairie dog. Clearly, I had to see that. So I pulled up to the bright red shack/trailer in the middle of nowhere. This place was definitely a scratch your head, huh, kind of place. Behind the trailer was a dusty dirt field with prairie dogs running allover.
I would step over a hole in the ground and a little prairie dog head would pop up under me. But sadly the world’s largest prairie dog is cement. But this place didn’t just have a cement prairie dog, it had goats roaming around, snakes, pigs, and the strangest cows you’ve ever seen or ever want to see. Yes this cow has five legs.

Notice the fifth leg hanging from its neck…hoof and all. Now there was a six-legged cow, but she never got up for a photo-op. But her extra lags were coming out her rear end. All this for the low, low price of $6.95. Are there words…I don’t think so.



And lastly, truly under the why question is this…
It is an 80-foot easel with a 24ft by 32 ft replica of Vincent Van Gough’s Sunflowers. It sits in Goodland, KS with not much fanfare. It is true in eastern Kansas; there are some inventive ways to get you to pull off the highway.

Gas update:
Manhattan, KS - $2.99
Russell, KS - $2.89
Denver, CO - $3.09

Kansas! Kansas!

As many of you know I was very excited to go to Kansas when I began this trip. And I’m here! Today, I took a drive through the Flint Hills and they did not disappoint. I stopped at the National Park Station in the middle of the hills and took a hike from there. It was a perfect day of wind and no humidity. Every step along the path, through the rolling green hills, a cloud of crickets erupted from the ground. And by the way, crickets are large and hard and feel about like being pelted with pebbles when they spring in every direction including your arms and legs. But it was amazing. I apologize for all the romanticism, but I felt like I was about 5 years old again, wanting to be Laura Ingles Wilder. The Flint Hills are the largest untouched tall grass plains left in America. I got out into the middle of them and couldn’t see anything but grass pebbled with stones – thus the name Flint Hills. I somehow found myself imagining all the pioneers that traveled through them. And lucky for me not to far from the National Park Station someone had made giant statues of a covered wagon train up on the peak of a hill. I didn’t have to imagine after all. If you ever make it to Kansas the Flint Hills are worth a stop. Check it out.


I then meandered my way around, and ended up in Delia, Kansas. I sought out this town for my namesake and to have a whole new idea of what it meant to find yourself. I drove about ten miles down this road into the middle of nowhere and then I saw it. Delia, Kansas is about three streets wide by about three streets long – not quite a square city block. I drove around and saw the school and the community center, and street of cute neighborhood houses in the middle of a wheat field. Finally, I found a post office. I went in to see if someone could tell me how the town got it’s name. The post office was closed. There were no other buildings. So I drove to the edge of town, two streets over, and stopped at a house where a little old man was mowing his grass. How did the town get the name Delia, I asked. “Oh,” he said leaning in so I could hear him. “Now let’s think. I should know this. I can’t remember the name of the family who started the town. Let’s go ask the authority.” He walked me back to his wife who was picking beans in their garden. Cunningham. The family’s name was Cunningham and Delia was one of the lady’s names. Of course they were quick to tell me that Delia used to be on the other side of the train tracks and this town used to be David. (In my head, I have this idea that the towns were named after long lost lovers of sort, but that’s just in my head).

Anyway, the Cunninghams moved Delia over the train tracks and disbanded the old town. My new friend and his wife have lived in the Delia for 45 years. And the school in town used to be the high school, but they moved the high school to a neighboring town that was bigger. It is now a middle school. And the old middle school is now the community center. The big news of town was that last week the community center got three window air conditioners, because the last town election they had, they all just about died of heat. They said there used to be three grocery stores and several bars in the town, but they were all gone now. Both of them weren’t sad to see the bars leave. They caused to much ruckus.

I told my new friends that I was driving from Boston to Seattle and they looked at me like I was crazy. But they said they had been to Fort Lewis Army Base near Seattle. As have I for many a volleyball tournament. Well, he had set sail out of Fort Lewis on the Omaha in World War II. Which sort of blew me over.

It was great. I stood there talking and watched the combine plow the wheat field across the street. So after today, I have to say I really like Kansas.

In the Land of Corn

I’m developing a distressing trend of “camping” in the rain, which inevitably turns into thunder and lighting. Last night, I slept in my car in the Mark Twin National Forest – a legitimate campsite, so a step up from baseball fields I’d say.

Yesterday started by getting obscenely lost in the land of cornfields. This picture on repeat is what I saw for hours…except when I got lost on a gravel road, then the corn stalks looked much bigger. I know the old saying that corn should be knee high by the 4th of July and well…I’d like to see some of the knees around here. The corn was over my head.

I finished following the Ohio River all the way to the Mississippi. But not before I made a few stops. I drove the byway into Old Shawneetown where the byway unceremoniously ended. There was a sign in the middle of the road that said “END.” If I had gone any farther, I would have driven into the Ohio River. The only thing I can say about Old Shawneetown is that it had about three buildings – one abandoned building, one huge three-story, Greek-style stone building complete with columns that looked like it belonged somewhere in the old section of a city, and one building that read “saloon” and there were many cars parked out front. And then I had to like the town because any town that can have a saloon without irony has to be okay.



So from there I drove to Metropolis, IL. Yes that would the fabled town of Superman. Except Metropolis was a bit more like Smallville than the New York style home of the Daily Planet.


I did have one unexpectedly wonderful stop – The Garden of the Gods. Illinois has only one national forest and they chose well. I took a little hike/walk and stood in awe at a forest that in prehistoric times was the bottom of a sea.



Now on a totally separate tangent – as I have been driving I see the same town names, street names, and even river names in every area. I mean how many Rip Rap Roads should there be. Our settlers didn’t have a very large imagination. But here are two of my favorites for well…my own amusement. Leather Strap (a small four house town) – for the absurdity of it. And Future City (another very small town) – for the optimistic propheticness of it (and no that's not a word, I know).