Our Western Adventure 2011

FINALLY – a new blog posting. This is the first entry since May of last year! Okay, we haven’t been idle, just sloughing and not keeping up with our posts. As a matter of fact, in the last ten months we’ve been to Scotland for three weeks, spent a couple months in Texas, Oklahoma and the fabulous Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta and several other shorter trips over the winter. We also spent a great deal of time getting caught up with chores around the house. And now we are on the road again for the Summer.

We left Flagler Beach on Thursday, April 7th, made a quick stop in Orlando to have a fast little repair done to the motorhome and then drove up to the Florida panhandle and spent the night in Quincy.

On Friday, we arrived in Bayou La Batrie, Alabama where we spent three enjoyable days with Judy’s sister Kathleen and her family. We had a great visit, had some delicious food (including the BEST gumbo) and even enjoyed a karaoke party that was fun. It was great to see everyone and it made a nice start to our summer adventure.

We continued westward to Houston, TX where we visited with Alan and Sal, friends we met at the Balloon Fiesta last fall. We enjoyed wonderful company, some delicious food and informative tours of Houston and Galveston. Hopefully the guys will meet up with us somewhere in California later this summer.

From Houston we went on through Abilene, Texas and Santa Rosa, New Mexico on our way to Flagstaff, Arizona where we spent Saturday and Sunday, the 16th and 17th of April. While traveling through Texas we did experience smoke from some of their terrible wildfires and we hope they can get them under control soon.

While in Flagstaff we toured many things including:

- Meteor Crater where 50,000 years ago a meteor ended its 500 million year long race through space resulting in a spectacular collision with Earth. This impact left a crater nearly a mile across and nearly 550 feet deep. To put the immense size into perspective, the crater would accommodate two million people seated on the walls watching 20 football games being played simultaneously on the crater floor!
- Walnut Canyon, where we hiked in the footsteps of people who lived there more than 700 years ago. We peered into their homes, cliff dwellings built deep within the canyon walls, and learned of their agrarian society.
- Wupatki Pueblo which was constructed in the years following the eruption of nearby Sunset Crater sometime between 1040 and 1100. For its time and place, there was no other pueblo like Wupatki. Less than 800 years ago, it was the tallest, largest, and perhaps the richest and most influential pueblo around. The largest structure was a multi-level, high-rise that had about 100 rooms. It was home to 85-100 people, and several thousand more lived within a day’s walk. It was built in one of the lowest, warmest, and driest places on the Colorado Plateau. Human history here spans at least 10,000 years.
- Sunset Crater Volcano which erupted sometime between 1040 and 1100 shows the powerful forces that shape the earth.

Next it was on to Las Vegas where we spent five fun-filled, as well as informative, days. First we went to see Rita Rudner’s show at the Venetian. She is SO funny and we laughed for the entire 90 minutes. The next evening it was off to The Wynn where we saw La Reve. It is an absolutely awesome show that was developed by Franco Dragone, one of the original founders of Cirque du Soleil. It is set in a one million-gallon (water) capacity theater and features diving and feats of strength with state-of-the-art special effects. No seat is more than 40 feet from the stage and it was just PHENOMINAL. We have seen several Cirque shows over the years and we both agree that this is, by far, the VERY BEST and MOST SPECTACULAR of all!

Other sights in the Las Vegas area:

- The Ethel M Chocolate factory and Cactus Garden where we toured the factory, learned the process, ate samples and purchased more additional confections to take with us. Ethel M is the high-end chocolatier of the Mars Co. (M&Ms, Snickers, etc.) and their products are delicious.
- The Valley of Fire which derives its name from red sandstone formations, formed from great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs. These features often appear to be on fire when reflecting the sun's rays. Prehistoric users of the Valley of Fire included the Ancient Pueblo Peoples, also known as the Anasazi. They left examples of petroglyphs which can be found at several sites within the park.
- The Pinball Museum, a 10,000 square foot dedicated museum, with pinball and nothing but pinball machines from the past. The machines are all restored to like-new playing condition by people that love pinball and understand how a machine should work. All older pinballs are set to 25 cents per play, and newer 1990s models are set to 50 cents per play, which, in our opinion, is a far better return on fun than any Las Vegas casino environment!
- We also spent significant time walking the “Strip”, viewing the shows outside of all the extravagant casinos and also viewing the show at the Fremont Street Experience which includes the Viva Vision canopy and light show. The canopy towers 90 feet above the ground and spans the length of five football fields. It features more than 12 million LED modules and a 555,000-watt sound system and has hourly tribute shows. The night we were there the show was dedicated to Jim Morrison and The Doors. It was very bright and very LOUD!
- The last day in Las Vegas we took a paddle-boat cruise on Lake Mead which took us right up to Hoover Dam. Later we drove through Red Rock Canyon and saw several wild burros. It was a GREAT five days; we saw a lot, did a lot and managed to NOT lose any money 

Next, it was on to Death Valley, California where we spent five days. Among the fascinating things we saw were:
- Harmony Borax Works which was the central feature in the opening of Death Valley. After borax (known as “Desert White Gold”) was found near Furnace Creek Ranch in 1881, William T. Coleman built the Harmony plant and began to process ore in late 1883. Getting the finished product to market from the heart of Death Valley was a difficult task, and an efficient method had to be devised. The Harmony operation became famous through the use of large mule teams and double wagons which hauled borax the long overland route to Mojave. The romantic image of the “20-mule team” persists to this day and has become the symbol of the borax industry in this country. Many of us still remember “Twenty Mule Team Theatre” on TV, with that unknown announcer (Ronald Reagan) as the host! At Harmony we enjoyed an informative Ranger-led program that provided a great insight into all that we were to see for the next several days.
- The Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, the highest of which rises about 200 feet, cover a vast area. This dune field includes three types of dunes: crescent, linear, and star shaped. Many first time visitors to Death Valley are surprised it is not covered with a sea of sand, however, less than one percent of the desert is covered with dunes, yet the shadowed ripples and stark, graceful curves define "desert" in our imaginations.
- Salt Creek which is a stream of salty water that is home to a rare killifish known as pupfish. The name is said to derive from the mating habits of the males, whose activities vaguely resemble puppies at play.
- Mosaic Canyon, Golden Canyon, Titus Canyon, 20-Mule Team Canyon and Natural Bridge Canyon were all hikes that we did. Each was of varying lengths and each had their own beauty and unique features.
- Wildrose Charcoal Kiln, constructed in the 1800s to provide a source of fuel suitable for use in two smelters for a group of lead and silver mines in the Argus Range. These ten beehive shaped masonry structures are about 25 feet high and held 42 cords of pinion pine logs which would, after burning for a week, produce 2,000 bushels of charcoal.
- The Devil’s Golf Course which is a large salt pan on the floor of Death Valley. It was named after a line in the 1934 National Park Service guide book to Death Valley National Monument, which stated that " Only the devil could play golf " on its surface, due to a rough texture from the large halite salt crystal formations.
- Ubehebe Crater which is a half a mile wide and 500 to 777 feet deep. The age of the crater is estimated at 2,000 to years old. "Ubehebe" (pronounced YOU-bee-HEE-bee) is a Timbisha Shoshone Native American word meaning "Big basket in the rock”. It was so windy at the rim we literally almost got blown over!
- Badwater Basin which is the lowest place in North America and one of the lowest places in the world at 282 feet below sea level.
- Dante’s View which is a viewpoint terrace at 5,475 feet on the north side of Coffin Peak, along the crest of the Black Mountains. It provides a panoramic view of the southern Death Valley basin which appears like a great sparkling ocean - instead it is solid halite salt. The crust of salt is 1 to 2 yards thick and changes form after rain in the winter season dissolves the salt, to be re-crystallized as the water evaporates.
- Artist’s Drive with Artist’s Palette which is noted for having various colors of rock. These colors are caused by the oxidation of different metals (red, pink and yellow is from iron-salts, green is from decomposing tuff-derived mica, and manganese produces the purple).
- Scotty’s Castle is a two-story Spanish Colonial Revival style villa built by Chicago millionaire Albert Johnson, his wife and his friend Walter Scott also known as “Death Valley Scotty”. Scott initially convinced Johnson to invest in his gold mine scheme and although the riches from gold never “panned out”, a life-long friendship was forged and together they built a desert oasis complete with underground hydro-electric power, gardens and castle in the desert.
- Zabriskie Point which we went to at sunrise and we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the valley bed, mountains and colorful rock formations of this varied land. This vista was one of our favorite spots in Death Valley.

We saw several more sights and did several more things in the land of GREAT extremes but after five days we moved on to the Mojave Basin and the heart of the Mojave Desert. We were met with a genuine desert sandstorm which whipped the sands so viciously that it made driving difficult and even had Interstate 15 closed for a while. Fortunately we only had about 100 miles to drive but on the road into our next stop at Newberry Springs the sands of the Mojave Basin had completely obliterated the road and were it not for some construction barricades we would have not even been able to discern the pavement from the sand! The first night was rather raucous with gust upwards of 60 mph and we were constantly bombarded with the incessant sand-blasting, however, midway through the next day it did start to subside and we were able to resume normal activity. WOW, last fall it was tornadoes and this year sandstorms. You gotta love Mother Nature!

In addition to enjoying the Mojave National Preserve we went to Goldstone Deep Space Communications Center, Kelso Depot and Sand Dunes, Calico Ghost Town and Baker with the world’s largest thermometer. Its 134-ft height matches the highest recorded temperature of 134 degrees which was set in Death Valley. Goldstone was really fascinating as it evoked visions of Jodie Foster in “Contact” where she was communicating with folks way out in space. It is a network of antennas that support interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe. The network also supports selected Earth-orbiting missions. It was from here that Apollo missions were tracked and it is currently communicating with Voyager, the Mars Odyssey and many other spacecrafts. There are several antennas at Goldstone but the 70 meter (230 feet) one is quite impressive. We even went inside “Mission Control” and watched all the scientists pour over their monitors and extrapolate inter-planetary data. Also, the computer arrays were phenomenal. It really brought out Pat’s “geekiness” and we even received official NASA lapel pins! Goldstone is located on the Fort Irwin military installation which is the world class training center for America's military, known for its excellent desert training and armored, ground and tank assault troops. One of the more fascinating, and moving, sights on base is “Painted Hill”. Many years ago one of the squadrons visiting Ft. Irwin climbed to the top of a rock pile and painted their company colors on one of the rocks. As time went on other squads painted their colors on the rock pile as well and over the years it has grown into the spectacle it is today. This unique monument to all of the units that have been sent there for training bears paintings of hundreds of unit insignias. The troops transport these monster rocks to the spot themselves. It is quite a sight to see
The last fascinating sight in the Mojave Basin was the acres and acres of pistachio farms. We didn’t know what the trees were initially, they resemble Georgia peach trees in size and shape but our campground host filled us in. The nuts are not harvested until October but they were currently on the trees and we enjoyed seeing them

WOW, this has been a LOT. Hopefully we have learned our lesson and won’t spread these out so far. We are now off to Twenty-nine Palms and Joshua Tree National Park. It has been an exciting start to our summer adventure where we will travel all over California and then on to Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and eventually to Glacier National Park. It promises to be an awesome summer and we hope you’ll enjoying traveling along with us.

As usual, we are including some pictures which can be enjoyed by clicking on:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Sbs27hoxZMli

And we welcome any email correspondence at PFerraro1@cfl.rr.com.

Stay safe, take care and keep in touch,

Pat & Judy