The MikeCam

I’m getting a little behind in posting entries because I haven’t had time and been too knackered in the morning and evening. On average, we’ve been getting up about 7:30 in the morning and getting to a motel around 11 at night, which has made for long days. Thursday, we left Albuquerque, New Mexico for Flagstaff, Arizona. One of the most interesting things about driving across the country is that you get to see the land change gradually: from lush, green, forested hills in the east; to flat, brown-green plains in the midwest; and now to a land of flat brown dust and rock, dotted with small, dull green bushes, and vividly intersected by towering red outcroppings of rock. I’d carry on describing the land and such, but we’re in a hurry to get out the door and go see the Grand Canyon. Here are some photos from Thursday; I’ll try and post photos from yesterday tonight.

Our main stop along the way to Flagstaff was the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert national park. Arizona really has such stunning land and vistas. Photos do it poor service, of course, but at least you can get an idea of what I was looking at. Visibility out here was about a hundred miles. They said on a good day you could see a set of peaks 120 miles away.

Dad, the consummate photographer, capturing the dramatic view.

Another gorgeous thing about Arizona is the beautiful sky. The air is dry and clear, so sun is bright, the sky is a vivid blue, and the clouds look like paintings.

A tumble of petrified logs. The petrified wood isn’t that impressive at first glance, because it looks quite like normal wood from a distance. On closer inspection, though, it’s remarkable how the giant pieces of wood have completely turned to stone. Unfortunately, a lot of the most colorful crystals were stolen in the late 19th and early 20th century by tourists and people selling gems. They even blasted apart a number of the logs in order to get at the best crystals inside.

A closer view of some petrified wood. This area is called the Crystal Forest, but much of the color that gave it its name has been stolen.

Finally, a gorgeous sunset to end the day well:

These were only one-thirtieth of the photos I took that day, incidentally.

Yesterday we did 300-some odd miles from Amarillo to Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

Our first stop was the “Cadillac Ranch,” just outside of Amarillo.

It consists of 10 old graffiti-covered Cadillacs half-buried nose-first in the ground and was created by an artists’ collective in the 70′s. They are occasionally repainted and people are encouraged to add graffiti.

Next, we crossed over into New Mexico and stopped in Tucumcari for lunch (and ice cream!). This is the Blue Swallow in Tucumcari, a recently restored motel on Route 66:

After lunch, we turned northwest towards Santa Fe. About 20 miles before, we stopped off at the Pecos National Historical Park, which contains the ruins of an old Pecos pueblo.

The sky was quite dramatic at this point, as there was a storm in the distance. Because there aren’t a lot of hills or trees, we could see the lightning from quite far away.

We arrived in Santa Fe and took a walk around its small but lovely downtown. Most all the buildings are done with a Pueblo-style facade.

I tried to take some artsy photos:

This is the St. Francis of Assissi Cathedral in Santa Fe. Notice the unfinished steeples.

We had dinner at a Spanish restaurant called El Messon, at which my dad criticized the paella heavily, then headed down to Albuquerque for the night. The drive south was very interesting, as there was a storm hitting Albuquerque. The lightning was frequent and extremely impressive against the night horizon; it was a terrific light show. Once in Albuquerque, it suddenly started hailing on us, which was quite a surprise to me, considering the temperature. After that, the rain got so thick that I couldn’t even see as I drove, and traffic slowed to a crawl of blinking hazard lights. We made it through those patches, though, spent the night here, and today we’re off to Arizona to see the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest!

Yesterday we traveled across Oklahoma and into Texas, to stay at Amarillo for the night. Was a bit of a longer leg than I thought, almost 500 miles, so we saw some things but arrived too late for others (Route 66 Museum, unfortunately).

The signs of Route 66.

The largest McDonald’s in the world by square footage (something like 29,000 I think?). It actually spans I-44 in Vinita, OK like a bridge.

Apparently the largest totem pole in the world, at 900 feet tall. This man, Ed, spent around 15 or 20 years building the thing, as well as a variety of other artwork around his house and just showing it off to passerby.

We stopped for dinner at The Big Texan steak house. Their gimmick (advertised on billboards all the way from mid-Oklahoma) is a massive 72 oz. steak which, if you can eat it in under an hour, you get free. We didn’t try it, and judging by the big empty chairs next to a table with a 60-minute timer in the middle of the room, neither did anybody else who was there. It’s a very chintzy place, as you can tell by the outside. Inside, it is decorated a bit like a saloon: everything is wooden, animal heads are mounted along the balcony, and waitresses are dressed in either hoop skirts or mini-skirts, flannel shirts, and cowboy hats. The food was good, though.

After the frantic, last-minute packing preparations that always precede my journeys and the hour of sleep followed by 12 hours and 688 miles of monotonous travel across Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, the second day was better, albeit longer, and we’re finally on Route 66. After staying the night in Dayton, OH, we crossed Indiana and Illinois in shorter order and stopped off at St. Louis to see the arch and grab some lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

(Click for larger images:)

What a funky welcoming committee!

The Gateway Arch, just as you’ve seen it in photos a million times before. Only this time it’s my photo :)

My Dad, master of the Arch!

The Arch is reeeeallly big!

Our next stop was Ted Drewe’s Frozen Custard, a semi-famous mini chain out here. Their standard is the “concrete,” a cup of frozen custard mixed with any flavor you want. As for what frozen custard actually is, the best way I can describe it is to say that it’s like soft ice cream, except smoother and thicker. When they serve you the cup, they turn it upside down to show you it doesn’t fall out. So, I went for a regular raspberry concrete and it was delish. Sitting on a bench nearby, we enjoy our concretes and marvelled at the quantity of people passing through — its quite a popular place.

Our final sight-seeing stop for the day was Meramec Caverns, a 26-mile cavern system west of St. Louis. It was pretty cool, but not as impressive as I hoped and far too cheesy. They do an “impressive light and musical display” at the end of the tour that actually consists only of an old recording and the tour guide manually flicking a few lights on and off — the finale is what can be seen in this photo. I wasn’t surprised when I later saw a photo of the cave’s owner wearing a leopard pattern smoking jacket.

All the sight-seeing made for an even longer day yesterday, as we did the same amount of mileage in addition to the stops, but from here on out we’re only doing about 300 miles a day and more sightseeing. Today: Oklahoma and Texas!