March 2005 Southwest USA Trip:

Tuesday, May 3, 2005

I'm on the road again.  I'm with my brother Joel and my sister-in-law Elaine ... riding in my cousin Levonne and her husband's new Toyota Sienna van.  We left Oregon on Tuesday and we are on our way to Santa Fe, New Mexico.  We drove through Burns, Oregon, into Nevada where we stayed last night in Elko. 

Today we continued on to Utah where we drove through the Arches National Park.  This is a beautiful area of naturally eroded red rock formations. 

 

Tonight have crossed over into Colorado and we're staying at Fruita, Colorado for the night.  We are in our rooms after supper at the Guadalajara Restaurant.  There is some sort of Flat Tire Bicycle race group here in town today ? ? ?

The weather has been mild and in the 70s ... with high fluffy clouds. 


Thursday, Cinco de Mayo

On our way from Fruita, CO to Grand Junction, we detoured through the Colorado National Monument.  The road took us up to a rim road which led us through miles and miles of beautiful red formations, mesas, cliffs, canyons.  The wild flowers were in bloom ... patches of orange, blue, yellow and pink.

We continued eastward and entered the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River.  This river cut through very hard layers of lava to create a 2,000 foot deep canyon.

The Rocky Mountains are covered in snow.  We drove over the Monarch Pass which is on the "continental divide" ... Rain falling here goes to either the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean (according to the sign on the visitor's center).

Our route took us south and after 100 or so miles we crossed into New Mexico and arrived at Marcus' (Joel's son) house by about 7:00 PM.
 

Friday May 6, 2005

Yesterday we had breakfast at Marcus and Bae's before starting out on a drive north from Santa Fe.  We stopped at Tesuque, a small artist compound in a village named after a local Indian tribe.  There was an acre of sculpture (for sale) here as well as galleries and a glass blowing shop.

About 25 mile north of Tesuque was Bandelier National Monument.  This was named after the army person who found the remains of an advanced Indian (Anasazi) settlement.  It is estimated that they abandoned this area in the 1200s.  Today you see the outlines of the houses, the caves, petroglyphs, etc.  The trails lead up to ladders on which you can climb to see the dwellings.  The weather was windy but in the 70s and partly sunny.

We returned via Los Alamos, a town of 12,000, where most of the industry is working for the national labs.

Here are pictures of Tesuque and Bandelier
 

Last night we met Bob Mann, for dinner at Santa Cafe.  Bob is the nephew of my Oakland friend Jim St. Clair. 

Sunday, May 8, 2005:  Happy Mother's Day!

We started the day with a quick trip to the museums on a nearby hill.  Joel, Elaine and I went to the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art while Levonne and Rick toured the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture.

Afterwards, Marcus and Bae treated us to brunch at a nearby restaurant called The  Compound.  It is a large place and was very busy on this special day.  You can get an idea of this grand restaurant from their website:  http://www.compoundrestaurant.com/indexmain.html

Joel and my niece Kate (brother Richard's daughter) stopped by and ate lunch with us.  She had been on a water rafting weekend at Taos on the Rio Grande River with friends.  Kate is a neonatal intensive care nurse at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque.

Here are pictures of us at the restaurant, the state capitol and Museum Hill

 

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

After we left Marcus and Bae's, we drove south to Albuquerque and then west towards Arizona.  We stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park where we saw the painted desert before crossing the freeway to see the logs of the Forest.  Joel had purchased a Golden Eagle pass to the National Parks so we have free entry to these places.

We stayed overnight at Flagstaff before tackling the Grand Canyon the next day.  It was a relatively short drive north to the South Entrance.  We stopped a number of places along the rim.  It was cold and windy but otherwise sunny.  Before leaving the park we stopped at the Watchtower and climbed to the top for an especially grand view.

Here pictures of us at the Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon:

 

May 12, 2005 - Visit with Martha in Trona

Continuing on our way home (to my place in Oakland), we drove through Death Valley where we stopped for lunch.  We didn't take enough time to explore because we were on our way to Trona to visit Martha.

We took a "short cut" over Immigrant Pass, not realizing the paved road deteriorated to gravel, pot holes, "wash-board" surfaces.  When we got closer to China Lake, the road and our spirits improved.

Martha lives in the former "town" of Argus.  It is located near the West End chemical plant of Searles Lake.  Argus is now part of Trona although it's about 5 miles away.  My brother Richard and his friend Kim had arrived at Martha a couple of hours earlier.  We all sat in Martha's living room and visited.  Martha showed us a documentary of Mansanar Japanese Relocation Camp, where she taught in the 1940s.  Martha is interviewed in the film.  She was also driving to Mansanar for a special program.

(See  http://www.nps.gov/manz/pphtml/eventdetail17342.html - courtesy of Martha's nephew Ron.)

Then we went for a drive of Trona, seeing the middle/high school, grade school, grocery store, senior center, cemetery.  We also drove by the house where Antoinette lived and John and Joe grew up. 

Martha's care giver Mary stopped by and we got to meet her.