Joshua Tree National Park

It got cold here in Indio last night and I tried to start the heater in the camper. Connected the gas, turned on the heater from outside the camper, turned on the thermostat. Nothing. Tried everything I could think of at 3 am. Nothing. In the morning, I read the instructions. Put a new fuse in. Nothing. Carol woke up and said we should look behind the heater to see if there is something wrong with the wiring behind the heater. So I lifted up the sink and the furnace started working. We are now calling it the sink switch.

We ate the no-cook oatmeal which turned out great even if I did forget one ingredient. Carol loved it. We picked up my National Geographic guide to the national parks and my parks passport and headed off to the south end of Joshua Tree park. First stop was Cottonwood Spring visitor center where we picked up a map, bought some post cards, and had a chat with the parks volunteer ranger. As we drove along the Pinto Basin Road, there were pull-offs regularly. Being fresh, we pulled off at all of them, got out, walked around and took photos. The south end of the park is in the Sonoran Desert which has certain types of plants and cacti, like yucca, collas, and an invasive wild misletoe whose red color makes them stand out in the brown desert. The high point of the drive thru the Sonora was the cholla cactus garden. There were thousands and thousands of cholla stretching for miles down the canyon. We walked along a wide path lined with stones, and discovered that the cholla were getting ready to bloom. We were about a week too early.



We also discovered that the cacti "sing" in the wind. I tried to capture the song they make in a movie. The 40 second video doesn't really capture the musicality of the wind thru the cacti.

We also stopped at Pinto Mountain basin, which is a wide, flat area at the base of the mountains that used to have a river that sustained herds of camel, elk, buffalo, and rabbits. There was also an ancient Native American tribe that called that valley home. Now it is just barren desert and no one lives there. We were fascinated by how much the physical space has changed over 9,000 years.

We tried to stop and take a 0.3 mile hike to a natural rock arch, but there was no parking anywhere, so we had to pass that feature up.

Next up were the Jumbo Rocks, which looked like the backsides of giant elephants. They were cool rock formations. Lots of kids and teenagers were climbing all over them. At the visitor center, the park had some cards picturing this scene and it was labelled "Homo Sapiens Climberus." We enjoyed the playful sense of humor of the staff. Carol & I climbed up just a little bit and took lots of photos.


Shortly after this, the park changed from Sonoran Desert (at 3,000 foot elevation) to Mojave Desert (at 4,000 foot elevation). The climb was very gradual and we didn't really notice it, but the vegetation started changing and we saw our first Joshua Tree. So, we had to photograph our first one. From then on, we took dozens of photos as the trees changed from one single tree to dozens of trees to hundreds of trees in groves to practically a forest of Joshua Trees. Pat turned into a tree hugger.



We took a little detour off the main road to visit Key View. The view was indeed spectacular, but what we will always remember about Key View is the wind. We had to brace ourselves and lean into the wind and hope that we could get a photo before the wind blew us backwards. One of the other people up there with us said the wind was 70 mph. I would believe it. I have never been in a gale force wind, perhaps until now.



We tried unsuccessfully to find the Hidden Valley trail in my National Geographic National Parks guide. The problem is that there were 3 locations all called Hidden Valley. We walked around at one of them and had fun, but we don't think that was the trail they talked about in my book. That Hidden Valley is where cattle rustlers used to hide their ill-gotten cattle until they could sell them. Being tired and hungry by this point, we opted for dinner in Joshua Tree (the town). With help from the Visitor Center, we ate at Sam's Middle Eastern and Pizza restaurant. I had Naan stuffed with coconut and golden raisins with a honey glaze, and chicken Korma. Carol had a vegetarian Daal. It was excellent! Who knew one could find great food is such a tiny town! On the way back to Indio (we took Highway 62 instead of backtracking thru the park), we stopped in Pioneertown which is about 5 miles north of Yucca Valley on a little windy mountain road. Some of the Skare relatives in my genealogy owned a trailer park in Pioneertown in the 1940s. The whole tiny town is still sort of a replica of a TV set Western town. We stopped at Pappy & Harriet's roadhouse. The roadhouse was packed to the rafters with people. More people than could possibly live in the town or its surroundings. We couldn't find a seat, so we twirled around the place and left.

The drive back on Highway 62 was interesting. We had been gradually been climbing in elevation all day during our drive thru Joshua Tree. Now we were descending in one constant downhill descent that had trucks going 40 mph for what seemed like about 30 miles. The descent never ended! Then we got lost a little trying to get off the freeway (I-10) from the opposite direction we had gotten off when we came into Indio the night before.

Day 15 - Climbing to Joshua Tree

Carol & I met for breakfast with her friend K.C.; had breakfast, packed up the car, and headed for Joshua Tree National Park in Indio, California. We arrived in Indio at 4 pm, and set up the camper. I just could not back in, so Carol & I were going to push it in, when the guy next door came over and helped us. We are staying at Indian Wells RV Resort, and so far everyone has been really nice. The only problem is that we can't figure out how to open the door to the restrooms.



Let me backtrack a little. Along the way, we passed the Salton Sea which was a really sad sight. It used to be a huge salt lake in the middle of this desert. But it has been drying up for years and is now just a tiny lake, with miles and miles of salt so thick on the ground that it looks like snow. And the sunsets in the mountains are amazing.

A Day at the Beach

Jean and Bud took me to sight see at the beach today. First we went to the LaJolla beach. The beach is below a bluff and at the top of the bluff is a linear park. The City has built small little screen houses with three benches around the 3 walls facing the ocean. Jean said that she used to make breakfast of muffins and fruit and bring guests and family members to those little houses to eat breakfast and watch the waves break over the beach. She has fond memories of that. We walked along the top of the bluff and I took some photos. At one spot there is a curved sea wall that creates a protected beach. Bud said this used to be called the Children's Pool and was available for children to swim in protected from the breaking waves. However, now it has been taken over by pupping seals and is closed. We got as close as we were allowed to the seals sunbathing on the beach.


Then we unintentionally took a tour of the beach neighborhood of LaJolla because the City was doing a lot of street work and many streets were blocked off. It is a lovely, upscale suburb with a lot of Rodeo Drive type shops, yoga studios, and high end art galleries.

Next we drove over to Old Town. When San Diego was first settled as a cow town, this area was the first part of the area settled. There is a replica of what the town looked like in the late 1800s at the Visitor Information Center. Old Town is laid out with a large rectangular village green surrounded by old historic buildings - some of which house museum-type displays of what used to be in that space, such as a sheriff's office and a schoolhouse, and some of which house shops like jewelers, clothiers, etc. We walked around the village green and stopped in a few buildings. In the tobacco shop, the owner has his own personal collection

of pipes on display. One of his pipes is 5 centuries old. Most of them are 17th and 18th Century. And he sells pipe tobacco, cigarette lighters, etc. The sheriff's office boasts a wax sheriff and a desk for the circuit riding judge who would hold court there. The schoolhouse is a one-room school. The Commercial Hotel is still a hotel, although it is undergoing renovation and so is not open for booking rooms right now. The photo is of me bellying up to the Commercial Hotel bar.

A couple of cowboys were on the village green presenting Shakespeare plays in a hilarious old-West way. We watched the tail end of Hamlet. And Hamlet was a ham.

We ate in the Spanish mission style building that adjoins this Old Town at a central courtyard restaurant called Casa de Reyes. The meal was excellent, but huge. And the smallest margarita on the menu was 12 ounces; largest was 58 ounces. I got the 12 ounce margarita and had to leave some of it sitting there.

We drove over to Coronado, but took a twirl thru downtown on the way. The Hotel del Coronado is amazing. It is absolutely huge. It sits on a peninsula, and must take up about 3 city blocks. This hotel played an important role in Marilyn Monroe's movie "Some Like it Hot," but has been featured briefly in many, many other movies over the years. The photo on the left is the back of the hotel and the photo on the right is the front.

There was a guy creating a sand castle on the beach right next to another even more elaborate sand castle. I asked him how long his sand castles last. He said that the more elaborate one was his also and it was a week old. He creates a new sand castle or some type of sand sculpture at least once a week. Often he gets paid to do special birthday or anniversary editions. Very cool. The sand on the La Coronado beach was straight out of central casting. It was so soft and fine, it was almost powdery. As you can see by the photo on the right, I have worn appropriate footwear for the beach. Cousin Jean is barely visible in the far right corner of the photo on the left.

More Genealogy

Today, some of Jean's Skare cousins, Carole Thompson and Jean Soenes and we spent the entire afternoon making another mess on Jean Shogren's dining room table, talking genealogy, sharing stories, and sharing photographs. Carole and the second Jean are descendants of Johan Skare and Nilje (Knudsen) Skare. I got some missing information filled in and learned a lot more about the mysterious Stener Skare - international man of mystery.

Then in the evening, Jean's sister Rosalie and her niece Marit came over for dinner that Bud had whipped up. He made a wonderful beef stew in the crock pot. We laughed and laughed and laughed. Marit taught me how to play a dice game called "Greed." I even won one round.

San Diego Zoo

Jean and I visited the San Diego Zoo today. Jean is a member so she got me a guest pass. We started out our visit by taking the guided bus tour of the whole park so I could pick out the places I wanted to focus on.

The star of the bus tour was the 2 month old giraffe, who was extraordinarily cute. The first place was the panda exhibit. We walked thru the fern display, across a bridge, and into the panda garden. There was a zoo keeper there talking about the pandas. She spends a lot of time with the pandas and had some really interesting information. The female belongs to the zoo, and she had a male child at the time I visited.

Apparently panda's have a limited amount of maternal instincts and when they are done, they are done. Period. And this panda was done. So, they had to move the 19-month old panda to its own enclosure. Jean told me that the agreement the Zoo has with China requires them to return the baby panda to China when he is 24 months old. They are such cute animals, but the zoo keeper warned us not to let them fool us. Pandas can be quite dangerous. But the two we saw today were really cute! BTW, this picture is photo shopped; they would not let us handle the pandas.

We had lunch near the Asian cats - Mandarin chicken salad and pot stickers. Both excellently prepared, and huge.

We walked to the Asian waterfowl exhibit. The Asian birds were gorgeous, but the most interesting thing about the exhibit was that local ducks and egrets had discovered the enclosure and decided that zoo keepers feeding them several times a day is a good thing and had moved in. The exhibit did have some beautiful black and white Asian ducks and some grey Asian egrets. So, their American cousins probably felt right at home.

We took the Kangaroo express bus up to the elephant odyssey exhibit. It looks like that space had recently been remodeled and expanded. They have about 6 elephants there, half of them Asian which you can tell because they have smaller ears and bigger heads, and half of them African because they have larger ears and smaller heads. Jean and I were captivated by Minda, who the sign on the display said had lived 35 years of her life alone, and seems to prefer to be by herself in the enclosure. The day we were there, she was indeed by herself. Since elephants are primarily herd animals, it was sad to think about what her story might have been. The zoo keepers had come up with a new game for the elephants. They had created large cubes with holes in them. The cubes were stuffed with food, and then hung on chains from a large structure that looked like a giant umbrella stand. The elephants had to try to get the food out of the cube while it swung back and forth on the stand. They did seem to enjoy the game. We also saw a maneless wolf - which is not actually a wolf, and a California condor, which is really huge close up.

We got back on the Kangaroo express to ride back to the entrance, but then changed our minds as we approached our destination and decided to go on the Skyfari ride, an aerial tram that transverses the park. We could see a long distance from that height - the San Diego bay, and Balboa Park which is right next to the Zoo. We decided to take a twirl thru Balboa Park. But first I had to visit the Kid Store and buy stuff for my grandchildren.

Balboa Park was built for two expositions: the Panama Exposition in 1915 and the California Pacific Exposition in 1935. All the buildings remain and San Diego has discovered cultural and history uses for the

structures. We walked in along El Prado street with buildings that out-Rococo'ed Rococo style. The exteriors are so dense with sculptural features, they can only be described as Byzantine. We walked thru the Plaza de Panama where we could see the San Diego Museum of Man which looked like a cross between a Spanish church and a Moroccan mosque, but was actually built for the Exposition. We continued on to Spreckels Organ Pavilion which looks like a Roman amphitheatre with St. Peter's Cathedral portico wings that serve as a kind of breezeway. There really are organ concerts in the park. And this guy doing a human statue in the park - with an occasional mime guitar concert.

We walked to the Houses of Pacific Relations. It is a circle of small cottages representing 36 nations exhibiting their history and culture. There were Norwegian, Swedish, Irish, Iranian, Chinese, etc cottages. They take turns putting on programs on Tuesdays and Saturdays. I bought some post cards. We twirled around the Museums and puppet theater int he Pan American Plaza. The sheer number of museums is overwhelming - sort of like the Smithsonian in D.C.

Then we backtracked to the Prado House of Hospitality with its gorgeous interior courtyard to the Botanical Building (photo above). We went inside to see the orchids and palms on display. There were orchids of every color, size, and description on display; more orchids than I have ever seen in one place. On the way out we walked thru the portico of the extremely rococo Casa de Prado.

Jean and I walked a lot today.

Bucket List Item: Complete Family History

Since I promised to work on or knock off some bucket list items on the trip, it was about time to start doing that. Since one of my bucket list items is to finish my mother's family's genealogy.

Cousin Jean inherited a treasure trove of photos of this family from her mother Clara. After a great breakfast that included tangerines she picked off her backyard tree this morning, we started looking thru boxes of genealogy stuff, old photo albums, and old scrapbooks. The women in this family loved to collect newspaper articles about family and paste them in scrapbooks - and as a family historian, I could just kiss them for doing that.

This family is just one reason that I wanted to stop and see Jean - aside from the fact that she and her husband Bud are really great conversationalists and have wide ranging interests. The first photo below is of my great-grandmother Hvill (also spelled Viel) on the far left with her mother (and my great-great-grandmother Barbro the only adult in the photo).



But the real find of the day was this photo of my great-grandmother Hvill (or Viel) Lesteberg as a young woman. I had no

photos of her until her children were grown before this. She was always a handsome woman, but she is really beautiful in this photo. I can see now why the newspaper commented "Success!" when she accepted by great-grandfather's marriage proposal.

Jean and I cleaned up the mess we left on her dining room table, and Bud took all three of us out to eat at Black Angus. It was a really comfortable and cozy space and the food was excellent. I had prime rib with mashed potatoes and broccoli.

Day 10 - Arriving in San Diego

Today was Day 10 of my Great National Retirement Tour. I woke up at 5:30 am and wrote in my journal and downloaded photos from my camera til Dan and Colleen woke up. Had trouble getting on the internet, so decided to update security and do a full scan. Someone from New Jersey hacked my Facebook page.

We had breakfast, packed up the car, and hit the road – I-10. Except I had to come back to get the folder with my itinerary, journal, and memory book.


We drove all day again. 415 miles from Tucson to San Diego, most of it on I-8 – flat as a pancake thru the desert and then the last leg thru some 4,000+ foot mountains as we approached San Diego. I have logged over 2,600 miles total so far on the Tour. There was virtually no wind on

what can be a dangerously windy road. On the bright side, we saw some impressive sand dunes at the Arizona/California border and some equally impressive huge rock formations in the Jacumba Mountains.

Carol went to stay with her friend K.C. and I am staying with my mother’s cousin Jean. They live on a hill (as does almost everyone in San Diego), so the camper is parked on a wing and a prayer. Bud made really good dinner while Jean and I looked thru her Skare genealogy box. Tomorrow Jean and I will have more adventures with her genealogy boxes, scrapbooks, and photo albums.

I think I should explain this map. I made up the maps before we left Saint Paul. Then we made a mid-course correction and decided to take the southern route along I-10 and I-8 rather than the northern route along I-40. So the map looks like we drove around in a loop, which we did not. But don't fear, we will get that loop driven before the trip is over.

Day 9 - Leaving Santa Fe

We left Santa Fe about 11 am. I wanted to post up a photo of us sitting around a table with Gail because we spent so much time doing that during our stay in Santa Fe. Thanks so much for your wonderful hospitality, Gail.

This is Day 9 of our trip. We traveled 510 miles to Tucson, stopping only for breakfast in Lemitar, New Mexico and periodically for gas, water, or potty breaks. So far on the trip, we have logged 2,200+ miles. We arrived safe and sound at Colleen and Dan's house in Tucson about 8:30 pm.

Shopping and Dining

Friday was shopping day. We went shopping at K-Mart and World Market for small empty glass jars. Found some really nice 1/2 cup ones at K-Mart and some really small ones at World Market. Then went shopping at an open air market close to The Plaza. I bought a beautiful Southwest style shawl with turquoise highlights that perfectly matched the shirt I was planning to wear to dinner that evening. Also found a gift for Brent and a couple of the grandkids.

Along the way Carol and I stopped at the Loretto Chapel to see the unsupported spiral staircase to the choir loft. The story goes that the church was the first Gothic style church built in New Mexico. In those days, most members of Catholic church choirs were men and they would climb ladders into the choir loft. But this chapel was staffed by nuns who had a mission to start a school for girls. So, they needed a staircase. Because the chapel was small, a conventional staircase was out of the question. So the nuns started a novena. Before they were finished with the novena, a mysterious stranger appeared and said he could build a staircase. He built a staircase that is still a marvel of engineering. It is only supported at the top and bottom; the sides are kept in place only by superior engineering and construction. After completion of the stairs, the mysterious stranger disappeared and never submitted a bill for the 6 months of his work.

We stopped at the gallery where Carol's nephew Jordan works on Canyon Road. We talked to both of his co-workers and an interesting woman named Eva who is planning to move to Santa Fe. The Meyer gallery had just acquired a new piece by a local Santa Fe artist who likes to paint rural scenes from around New Mexico. We left a bottle of ginger beer with the boys and headed home.

Jordan took us all (me, Carol, Gail, and Lisa) out to dinner at The Osteria, an Italian restaurant downtown where the owner still talks to the staff in Italian. It was superb northern Italian food. I had veal picatta, which was done perfectly. It is one of those few ingredient dishes that is surprisingly hard to cook well - but they did a fantastic job. The owner suggested a Valpolicella to go with the meal - and it was a perfect choice.

Bandolier National Monument - Pueblo Cave Dwellings

Carol and I drove north out of Santa Fe to Bandolier National Monument near Los Alamos, New Mexico. A National Monument is a piece of land that has great historic and/or environmental significance, but our do-nothing Congress can't get its act together to vote to make it a National Park. Bandolier is a ruin of an ancient Pueblo cave dwelling village in the Frijoles Canyon. Jemez Mountain - the largest land form in the park - is actually a long inactive volcano that spewed out some volcanic ash called "tuff" that settled sometimes miles deep all around it when it last blew and created very soft rock that naturally and due to man's influence develops caves easily. The photos below show the natural landscape: Jemez Mountain, Frijoles Canyon and some of the Swiss cheese rock formations.


The Pueblo discovered this land 10,000 years ago, and then in the 1200s they hollowed out the caves with stone tools and created cave dwellings for themselves. In about the 1400s and 1500s, they also built structures on the ground to create a canyon-floor based village.

We took the self-guided main trail tour of both dwelling types. The photo mashup below shows the ruins of the ground dwellings as they exist now. At their height these buildings would have been two and sometimes three stories high with wood and mud roofs.

The photo to the left is an artist's interpretation of how the ground dwellings would have looked in the 15th and 16th Century.

Pat wandered off and climbed up one of the ladders into a cave dwelling. It was not particularly easy to climb up that ladder, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. The inside was very cozy and warm, with two pits hollowed out on the floor - no doubt one was for a fire. Coming down the ladder was considerably harder than going up. We passed on going up the other two ladders on the trail. The photo mashup below shows the ladder, me in the cave, me sitting at the mouth of the cave when Carol relocated me, and Carol sitting in the same cave.

We drove back an sunset, picked up a bottle of champagne, and returned to Gail's house for a dinner of left-overs with champagne. A good time was had by all.

Day 6 - Chimayo and Truchas on the High Road to Taos

It is Day 6 of Pat and Carol's Excellent Adventure. We have driven 1,500 miles so far on our trip.

Today we decided to head north out of Santa Fe and take the high road to Taos up to two tiny villages in the mountains: Chimayo and Truchas. First stop was Chimayo where the Sanctuario de Chimayo is the star attraction. It is a very small, humble, mostly hand hewn church for the small population of Catholic residents of Chimayo. But is famous for its holy dirt that is alleged to have magical healing properties. People make pilgrimages to Chimayo from as far away as Mexico to access the healing powers of the Sanctuario's holy dirt. One can purchase tiny metal cylinders (like the kind that hold one or two pills) to take the dirt home with them, or can kneel on the stone floor and put some dirt on their hands while they pray for relief from whatever brought them here.

< br>
I bought a candle and lit it for Brendyn, who will face his biggest troubles so far tomorrow. I can only hope now that God will hold Brendyn in his hands.

The walls of the church are lined with wooden statues and icons that also appear to be hand-made. The overall impression is of a church that serves a very small and poor community, but displays an enormous amount of talent and love.

The town of Chimayo is also known world-wide for the quality of its green chile. They also have excellent red chile. In a town with a one block downtown and probably about 6 businesses that are not the church, there are two shops that sell chiles. Carol and I purchased bags of green and sundried red chiles from Potrero's Store.

We drove back to Santa Fe to have pizza and salad dinner with Gail at Il Vicino on San Francisco Street. It was fabulous - even if it was vegetarian. Gail told us that the Christmas lights were still up in The Plaza, so we drove over there to see the lights. Which reminds me that Carol and I went shopping at the Native American street vendors who sell turquoise and other hand crafts at the Palace of Governors. I bought a couple of things.

Met a Navajo Code Talker and State Senator

Carol's nephew is dating Lisa, whose grandfather is a State Senator in New Mexico. He is, at age 91, one of a handful of Navajo code talkers who are still alive. Tuesday was a lovely ceremony in the New Mexico Senate at which the Senators all had to officially sign in as present at the upcoming legislative session. They called it an inauguration, but the ceremony consisted mostly of them walking up to a podium at the front of the chamber and officially signing in as present. Then they introduced the guests who were there supporting them - who were sitting on folding chairs behind them at their desks. It was a lovely ceremony and Carol and I both came away feeling that we know the members of the New Mexico Senate much better than we would have with an ordinary inauguration ceremony.

And Senator John Pinto is amazing. At 91 he is still an imposing man whose colleagues (and their children) all want to be photographed with him. You have a sense that you have come in contact with living history.

Lisa brought us up to his office where we also met his wife JoAnn and his daughter Flora. His wife taught us how to say "hello" in Navajo (Yá’át’ééh, which I think is pronounced Yah-tay), and gave us a history of her equally illustrious family. There were portraits on his wall of both his and his wife's famous ancestors. I asked his grand-daughter Lisa if it would be disrespectful to him to ask if we could have a photo with him. She said he just loves to be in photos with the people who come to visit him.



Jordan and Lisa then took us for a tour of their state capitol building, called the Round House, to see the amazing artwork they have on the walls and the art gallery in the Governor's office, which is situated on the floor above the legislative chambers and offices.



We went down to the Senate chambers thru a phalanx of state police and a lot of legislators and lobbyists, all of whom seemed to know Lisa very well. We (Mrs. Pinto, Flora, Lisa, Jordan, Carol and I) were seated in folding chairs behind Sen. Pinto. The Lieutenant Governor presides over the Senate most of the time, including today. There was a lot of waiting around - which I certainly recognized as a former legislative staffer. When they finally got going, first there was a prayer by the Archbishop, followed by a lot of ritual of the Senate. The Senate appointed three Senators to travel over to the Senate to announce to them in person that the Senate was now organized. The House in turn sent three Representatives over to the Senate to announce in person at a microphone that the House was now organized.



The Senators came up to the podium to sign their names on the roll of the Senate. The woman standing behind Sen. Pinto is the Chief Clerk of the Senate. One of the Chief Clerk's staff told Carol that Pinto had the best penmanship of any of the Senators in the body.

Pampered Travelers

Today Carol's nephew Jordan and his girlfriend Lisa took us to the Ojo Caliente spa between Santa Fe and Taos. There are six different hot mineral spring soaking pools there: (1) Iron, (2) Soda, (3) three Cliffside pools (which included one Lithium pool), (4) Mud, (5) Arsenic, and (6) the Large Pool. We soaked in all of them except the arsenic one. It is hard to describe how lovely it was to be soaking in a hot mineral pool while the temperature outside was in the 40s with a view of the mountains all around us (including one peak that was right above us in the pools). Ojo Caliente also offered both a dry sauna and a steam room. Pat tried both; Carol opted for the dry sauna.

They had luxurious dressing rooms there where the lockers came stocked with bathrobes and towels. Every single thing there was just lovely. Because the spa is a sacred place and a place for meditation, we were asked to only speak in whispers while there. Staff members walked around with large, round signs saying "Whisper." That made the space very peaceful and relaxing.

After 4 hours of soaking and sauna-ing, we were hungry since we had all skipped lunch. We got dressed and went out to eat at Paragua in Espanola, New Mexico - which was on our way back to Santa Fe. Jordan said it was his absolute #1 favorite "new" Mexican cuisine restaurant. And they did not disappoint! I had their enchilada suprema and a black berry margarita. Both were right up there at the top of my list of favorite Mexican dishes I have ever eaten. To top it off, their sopapillas were big, puffy pastry pillows that tasted fabulous. I practically licked my plate.

Arrived in Santa Fe in the Land of Enchantment

Carol and I drove Highway 40 across the Texas panhandle and into New Mexico. We stopped on the side of the road to take a photo of us with the “Welcome to New Mexico – Land of Enchantment” sign. The temps there were in the 50s.

We also took a little detour in Tucumcari to drive along a 4 mile stretch of old Route 66 – and of course take some photos. There are some remnants of the old Route 66 businesses still there. They are lonely and a little derelict, but you can see that the town elders have taken some effort to keep them looking like they are frozen in the 1950s. This mostly consists of stationing 1950s era cars in the front and painting a big “66” or “Route 66” on the building. Other than that, the whole stretch has mostly been demolished and is now scrub trees and tumbleweed. Most of Highway 40 there lies right next to Route 66, which is preserved as a frontage road.


My little Subaru did well climbing up to Santa Fe level during the drive on Highway 40. There were times when she dropped down to 40 mph, but not many. We took Highway 25 into Santa Fe and, besides being an absolutely gorgeous stretch of road, there was not much of an ascent at all on that road. We did start seeing snow for the first time since we left Iowa. Temps in the mid-40s.

We arrived about 4 pm and went to Carol’s nephew Jordan’s house. We are storing the camper there at his apartment complex for the next 5 days. We chatted, got a tour of his apartment and especially his artwork, and took a photo. Jordan drove us over to the art gallery where he works and gave us a tour. He also gave me a hunting knife to give to Brent when I get to Louisiana. Then Carol, me, Jordan, his girlfriend Lisa, and Carol’s friend Gail all went out to dinner at Atrisco Cafe, that proffers a cuisine they call “new Mexican.” They are all a lot of fun and the dinner conversation was lively!

Mission Nearly Impossible - Drive from Kansas City to Amarillo in One Day

Today - Day 2 - was a day of total concentration on driving - and shifting the Subaru. Total driving distance was 594 miles. We made it in 11 hours. The important thing is that we made it, and we didn't have to click our heels. Carol did most of the driving today, while Pat napped.

And we took a photo with Dorothy and her little dog Toto at a travel plaza on the Kansas Turnpike. Thanks to Sherry Munyon for the Lucy and Ethel photo!



We didn't even stop to eat. We had breakfast at our hotel in the morning, and a yoghurt and fruit parfait at the Turnpike travel plaza, but mostly ate snacks that Carol had brought and left-overs from yesterday. We had to stop at a gas station in Enid, Kansas to add oil to the car when the oil light came on.

We're On Our Way; We Won't Look Back; and If We Stay, We Won''t Come Back

We're going and we're gonna have a happy time. Anyone else remember the Muppet Movie?

This morning Carol and I loaded up the Subaru, hooked up the camper, and hit the open road. Carol's husband Tom took about 84 photos of us before we left. We drove from Saint Paul to Lexena, Kanasas - 441 miles. We ran into blowing and drifting snow in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa. But the road cleared up by Des Moines and we had clear and slightly warmer weather the rest of the trip. We stopped in Albert Lea to see Violet Kalis. Pat used to work for Violet's husband Henry Kalis. We had a great time and Violet was a charming hostess, as always.

We stopped only to gas up and restock with water between Albert Lea and Bethany, Missouri. We stopped at the Toot Toot restaurant in Bethany for hot sandwiches - pork tenderloin for Pat and cod fish sandwich for Carol and fried cauliflower.

Packed Up and Ready to Go

Last night (Tuesday), some very good friends had a Great National Retirement Tour launch party. We ate some fantastic food, and had some really fun conversation. And of course, in keeping with my new theme, I wore a black hat and drank wine with my friends.
Today (Wednesday) I drove out to Kerkhoven to pick up my camper from the storage unit. I also had to pack some more stuff in it. Boy, was that tent material on the top frozen and brittle. I sure hope I didn't crack any of it putting the top up. Got some coats, shoes (including rain boots), a lantern, binoculars, dress jacket, camera tripod, and an extra towel stuffed in the cabinets. Another 12 pounds in the camper. Didn't seem to hurt it at all - may have made it less jumpy. Made it back to Saint Paul with only minor problems - a major accident on I-94 near Penn Avenue that had traffic backed up and going less than 10 miles an hour all the way back to Ridgedale.

Tomorrow (Thursday) last minute details - like packing my suitcase, and then we are off on Friday morning. Look out South - here we Minnesota girls come!

First Week of Retirement

I have now been retired for a full week. So far, it has involved a lot of manual labor. Kelly and I moved two beds and a dresser out of the basement and into the storage unit in New London. Then I bought some concrete blocks and stuck them under the mattresses in case the garage leaks in the Spring. Not sure this is a better deal. But then I was able to spend two days in rural New London with my sister, cousin and aunt. That was fun! I kept slipping under the table though during the photo shoot.

I have made reservations for the trip all the way up to the Great Smoky Mountains the end of March. I spent some time perusing the national park website yesterday, but the park is too big and there are too many camping site choices. I need some advice. Have any of you ever camped in the Smoky Mountains National Park? Does the Appalachian Trail go thru the park? Which campground is closest to the trail?

The camper is ready. I have brought all the boxes I want to the storage unit in New London. The old room-mate has moved out. The new room-mate has keys and can move in whenever she wants. Hopefully it will be soon. Am in the process of writing out mailing labels for post cards. Let me know if you want to receive post cards (also let me know your address). Now I just need to pack up. That will be hard. I am going to try to take just one carry-on bag for the whole 4 month trip. Let's see if I can manage that. The hard part is the coat I will need to get out of Minnesota is probably going to be excess baggage for the rest of the trip. I am thinking layers.

Friday is launch day. My friends are having a launch party dinner for me before I leave. I am both very excited and a little scared about the unknown that lies before me.