Wednesday 7 November 2012

Newsletter 10 - Nov (2)




USA / Canada, Newsletter 10 - November, 2012

Halloween is big time here.
Halloween
 The shops and supermarkets have had pumpkins for sale and decorations up for weeks. 
Halloween Masks
Whole aisles at the supermarket are decorations, costumes and scarecrows to decorate the garden.You can even buy your pumpkin coffee.
Pumpkin Latte anyone?
 Everything seems to be the autumn colours. 
Pumpkins and decorative squash
There are even potplants of orange flowers and small orange coloured squash to have inside the house. Another aisle is candy - boxes (not packets) of lollies to give the kids when they turn up at your front door. 
Candy by the box
It all seems very strange that a god fearing nation gets so overwhelmed with a pagan celebration.

 
Halloween cards

So the election is over 
Roadside signs - all is voted for here
and Thanksgiving is the next celebration at the end of the month. Christmas decorations have taken over  those aisles and it’s only six weeks to go of frenzied shopping.

Route 66
Route 66, the Main Street of America, or The Mother Road, as it was called in Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath, was built as a government-funded wagon road along the 35th parallel (from Oklahoma), so that it would be passable all year round. It was established in 1926 and became a major path for those migrating west. 
Route 66 across America
Throughout the 1930s when the great economic depression gripped the country, a drought hit the Midwestern farming regions. The crops in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri died, and the earth was parched. The Mississippi basin became known as the "dust bowl". Hundreds of thousands of farmers, in economic ruin, lost their homes, loaded their meagre possessions onto their cars or pickup trucks and headed west to California in search of employment. Many towns along Route 66 created camping areas or motorist camps where the travellers could sleep in their cars. 
Typical 66 Restaurant
Other businesses such as service stations, restaurants, motels etc were soon established. 
Original 66 Motel
Original Mobil Garage
Much of the highway was essentially flat and this made it a popular truck route. Advertisements encouraged travellers to use the 66 and come to the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.  


 Route 66 became the first highway to be completely paved in 1938. During WW2, Route 66 became one of the main routes for moving military equipment.  During its nearly 60-year existence, Route 66 was under constant change. Many sections underwent major realignment.
Biggest maccas on Route 66
It has now been replaced by the Interstate 4 lane Highway System which not only parallels most of the old Route 66, but actually incorporated much of it. However there are quite a few sections particularly in Oklahoma, the panhandle of Texas and Arizona where you can travel many miles of the original road.
Many preservation groups in different states have saved landmarks such as old motels and their neon signs, diners and quirky roadside attractions. There are also many museums and attractions that portray the importance and changes the road brought to their towns.
We had a great time exploring landmarks and different attractions.
We left St Louis with the forecast of a week of warmer weather. Driving across the Ozarks, the old limestone mountains through Missouri, we stopped at one of the many caves – Fantastic Caverns. 
Fantastic Caverns
The original underground river is now a road bed that you are driven on. The formations were not spectacular but it was interesting.
Springfield Missouri is home to the largest and Original Bass Pro Fishing and outdoor store. We couldn’t believe the size of it or the interior - the “plastic trees” 
Bass Pro Shop
or the waterfalls, tanks of fish, 
Alligator Gar Fish
turtle and crocodile or the taxidermined moose, deer or bears, 
Deer in Bass Pro Shop
not to mention the fabulous displays of fishing gear of every type.
"Fly Shop" at Bass Pro

The Route 66 Interpretive Centre at Chandler is housed in the old National Guard Armory. 
Interpretive Centre - Chandler
Here videos could be viewed on retro beds as if you were relaxing in your motel room.   
Watching TV from a motel bed
You could also sit in seats from a ’65 Mustang and watch a nostalgic video of yesteryear. 
The restored 100 year old Red Round Barn was one of the most photographed original icons of the road. 
 
The Round Barn
The curved roof , which was woven like a basket with green native bur oak, was believed to have been able to withstand Oklahoma tornadoes.
Lunch was at Pops (near Oklahoma City),
Healthy Lunch
CREAM Cakes !!
a new stainless steel hamburger diner with a huge canopy that cantilevers out over ultramodern  fuel pumps with a sculptural take on a soda bottle and straw. 
"Pop's" Hamburger Joint
There were many varieties of soda pop. Garry had “Leninade” and Jen had a malt. 
Soda anyone? which colour?
After all these stops we had to get a “move on” so travelled most of the afternoon on the Interstate until we came off it again that night to camp at Clinton.
Well we travelled even less miles the next day. 
In God We Trust
It was really windy and not very comfortable driving. A cool change had been come through and we were climbing to 2000 ft. So that day it was jeans and jackets again.
Interesting transmission lines

Oklahoma was the first state where we saw many similarities with home (west of Wagga Wagga). A plateau,   23000 feet high cotton, sorghum, corn irrigated from wells and cattle - fairly flat.  The four lane interstate was an easy drive on cruise control.  
You are still able to travel on Route 66 most of the way but it is not much improved from the 1930’s road in alignment and many of the concrete slab sections give a bumpy ride.
Route 66 - not a lot of traffic
We spent more than two hours at The Elk City Museum Complex. We sat in the front seat of a 1959 Cadillac and pretended we were at the drive –in 
Remember the Drive-in?
and looked at all the old buildings depicting shops and businesses of early Route 66 days. 
Elk City Museum
The blacksmith museum had more anvils than we’ve ever seen 
Great collection of anvils
while the Farm and Ranch Museum had a large collection of old tools, tractors, threshers and windmills. 
Tractors and tractors
What made the visit special was chatting for more than half an hour to a local retired rancher who was preserving an old seed sorter with linseed oil as part of his volunteer duties.
Farm and Ranch Museum
The cold blast came through that day dropping the temperature to below zero overnight to early teens in the day, but the brilliant blue sky was like winter in the Kimberleys. Scrubby bushes, sparsely covered hills and brown, red and cream soil reminded us of northern South Australia near the Flinders Ranges (BUT NO GUM TREES). Sounds like we are getting a little homesick.
After lunch in the carpark we were heading for the Roger Miller Museum at Erick just inside the Oklahoma border. 

Roger Miller Museum  - cnr Sheb Wooley St and Roger Miller Blvd, Erick, Oklahoma
We did not know that there was a Roger Miller festival that weekend nor that it was 20 years ago that day when he’d died of throat cancer, but after meeting Mary his wife, his 2 youngest children and the rest of the crew who were busy preparing for the festival we were welcomed with open arms. Mary was keen to let us know they’d been to Australia many times and Roger had been good buddies with John Laws. We got her to sign the CD’s we bought and left best new friends.
Best friends, Jen and Mary Miller
Tried to put some more miles past us in the morning and continues to climb slowly to 3600 ft arriving in Amarillo to look at the RV Museum. 
1923 Lampsteed Kampkar
The owner had been in the RV/Trailer business for fifty years and had some time ago begun to collect old caravans etc and restore them. 
1946 Tear Drop "Kit"
Many had travelled Route 66. We loved the “show yourself through” museum.
1962 Airstream
Of course while we were there we just had to have a look at the new luxurious RVs.
A new 35ft 5th wheeler with slide out kitchen and slide out dinette - all for $59,000
At Adrian we were half way so had to stop at the diner but no ice creams – it had shut for the day. 
Adrian
We made Santa Rosa, New Mexico to camp and went down to visit the sink holes. Santa Rosa, now at 4,500 ft– city of lakes and sink holes is on a high arid plateau. 
Santa Rosa, Blue Hole
We watched firemen learning diving skills in 61F crystal clear blue water.  This sink hole was 80 ft deep and was continually fed from an underground river. So lots of people scuba dive, year round, inland!
Sink hole diving school
From here we left Route 66 and did an excursion north into the mountains to Las Vegas NM (the original one), once a “rail town” , now a town with many old buildings on the national register.
Plaza Hotel, Las Vegas, New Mexico
 The capital of New Mexico is Santa Fe, a high altitude city at 7,000ft. It is situated at the foothills of Sangre de Cristo Mountains (the southern end of the Rockies). The first thing we noticed was the low buildings most with a Puebloan architecture. 
Shops and appartments
We learnt later the city embraced the style in 1912. 
Parking station
We parked near the old city square and were able to wander the area on a brilliant sunny day (they have 300 a year).
Puebloan style hotel
 The scenic byway, the Turquoise Trail took us into Albuquerque, a city of Native American and  Hispanic  culture. 
Lookout on Turquoise Trail, 7000ft
We visited the National Hispanic Cultural centre with Hispanic art and a the special exhibition of Chilean Arpilleras – “placemat size” patchworks that tell a story. The display we saw were all made during the Pinochet years from 1973 when a state of martial law was declared and many dissenters were rounded up, tortured, imprisoned or just “disappeared”, and never heard from again. 
Chilean Arpillera
The women made them, often in secret workshops, where they were able to share their sadness and anger.
A watchtower was built as part of the centre and a New Mexican artist, Federico Vigil, took nine years to paint a circular fresco depicting 3,000 years of Hispanic history – sore necks from looking up!!
Chilies
Sandia mountain overlooks Albequeque. 
Sandia Mountains overlooking Albuqueque
It is over 10,000 ft and offers hiking and biking trails as well as skiing and snowboarding in winter. 
Chairlifts in Sandia Mountains
We took the Sandia Peak tramway, built in 1964-66, to the top for a spectacular view of the city and many miles beyond. 
Sandia Peak Tramway - 10,500 ft
The air was a “bit thin “at the top and 20 degrees F cooler.
Sandia Mountains
The next side trip was south off 66 to El Malpais National Monument – an area of volcanic terrain, lava flows, 
Lava Flow
cinder cones and lava tubes. 
Cinder Cone
We walked up the 800ft Bandera Crater cone and stared wide-eyed into the ancient volcano. 
Bandera Crater
Nearby was a collapsed lava tube
Collapsed lava tube
with an ice cave that never gets above freezing point. On the floor the ice is about 20 ft thick. Snowmelt and rainwater seep into the cave and the ice thickens. Of course it was known to the Indians and the early settlers would harvest the ice.
Ice cave
We were truly in desert country now so when permanent water supply was available at the base of El Morro (always known to the Indians) and needed by the colonists heading west, the great sandstone promontory became a place to leave their graffiti while they rested from their journey. 
El Morro Promontory
Native petroglyphs, Spanish explorers’ messages and Europeans migrating west left many inscriptions in the soft sandstone.
Petroglyphs at El Morro
Early surveyors
Stayed the night at Gallup, another of the small towns along 66 that is important to the railway. Over 100 trains go through these many towns on Route 66 daily. They usually have four diesel locomotives and we often lost count after a hundred carriages carrying double-decker containers.
Railroad along-side Route 66
So into Arizona and the first stop was a half day trip driving through the Painted Dessert and Petrified Forest National Park. Still at an elevation of 6-7000 ft the road appears to be fairly straight and flat. When we drive a couple of miles north the plateau suddenly fell away and a huge windswept area has opened up in front of us. 
The Painted Dessert
The dessert is composed of layers of easily erodible siltstone, mudstone and shale. These fine grained rock layers are abundant in iron and Manganese which provides the pigments for the various colours. 
The Tepees
It was WOW!! The southern part of the desert has the remains of a coniferous forest that has fossilized over millions of years.  
Petrified pieces of trees
Ash from volcanoes provided the silica needed to petrify the wood. 
A petrified tree
Much of the ancient logs have been broken into smaller pieces and taken away by souvenir hunters, but the big pieces were too heavy to shift, so fortunately there is still a lot to be seen. 
Jasper Forest
Holbrook was our overnight stop but we didn’t see any submarines.
On our way to the last place that was on the list, the Meteor Crater, was Winslow. We just had to make a stop and check it out. 
Standin' on the corner in Winslow, Arizona
“Well I’m standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona and such a fine sight to see,
It’s a girl my Lord, in a flat bed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me, take it easy......Jackson  Brown & Glen Frey..sung by The Eagles.
Cnr W Second St and Kinsley St
The Meteor Crater was privately owned and a well organised tourist interest spot, with museum, crater walk and talk, and short video on meteorites.
The Meteor Crater
View from the rim
And so back to Flagstaff and retracing steps from last June. We visited the Grand Canyon hoping it had lost that summer haze but no! they were control burning in the area. 
The Grand Canyon
Another visit to Las Vegas for shopping and The Jersey Boys, and now we are heading for Los Angeles to store the RV over winter and have a day at Disneyland.  We fly out of LA next Wednesday and arrive in Sydney early Friday 16th, then bus to Canberra. The plan is to return next year, go inland and up through the Rockies east side, into Canada and onto Alaska. We will just have to see what happens until then.