Day 22 - The Road Home

After enjoying the ambiance and cool climate of Santa Fe, it was time to head back to Texas.  We had decisions to make.  Stop in Amarillo & see the sights there?  It was raining and too early to fit into our schedule.  Stay near Dallas and play golf in the morning?  It was too hot for that.  We finally decided that we were tired of being on the road and wanted to sleep in our own bed, so we drove the entire 867 miles to home.  We made a lot of stops along the way just for sanity's sake.  I had read in some Texas books about the Llano Estacado, and saw this sign at one of the rest areas.  We did see the Cadillac Ranch as we neared Amarillo, but would have had to backtrack some to get pictures, so we got a quick glimpse of 10 Cadillacs sticking up from a field along I-40.  We also had to stop for lunch at the Big Texan, Amarillo's most famous steakhouse.  After all that, the remainder of the trip was just long and tiring.  We arrived home safely at midnight and the cats were very happy to see us - demanding attention.  We're still kind of worn out today (Friday), but I have been able to get some laundry done, bills paid, a few groceries into the frig, and get through the mail.  Tomorrow should be back to normal.

Day 21 -Along the Sante Fe Trail

We did the Oregon Trail, so now we're on the Santa Fe Trail.  Hitting the home stretch, halleluliah.  I could love Santa Fe if it wasn't so full of tourists.    We enjoyed a late lunch at Tomasita's the "most famous" New Mexican restaurant in SF.  The building is the old depot for the Denver &Rio Grande railroad, and the food was excellent.  Afterwards we parked a couple of blocks from the Plaza and walked around old town Santa Fe.  We started with the Georgia O'Keeffe museum where we learned about her life as an artist and saw many of her works that normally are in private collections.  We then wandered past the history museum, where native artists are encouraged to set up shop along the paseo in front of the building.  Lots of beautiful jewelry.  Lots more in the shops lining the streets, and I was tempted but not in a spending mood today.  The plaza has a bandstand where there are free concerts each evening during July and August.  We listened to the first group, which was great, but decided to leave after that.  Too tired.  Tomorrow's destination will depend on how tired we Re and how far we feel like driving.

Day 20 - 66 Route on Kicks Your Get

Today we began our drive across Route 66 - backwards.  We began in Barstow, passed through Kingman and didn't forget Winona (although it is very forgettable - not even on our AAA map), and Flagstaff, Arizona.  Our stop for the day is Gallup, New Mexico.   Along the way we went from the bleak Mojave to interesting but dry landscape, to green and treed, to beautifully colored rock cliffs. Amazingly, it's fairly cool and has been raining for the past several days.  Lots of interesting names:  Roadkill Cafe, Baghdad Cafe (in a wrecked and rusted old trailer), and the Honolulu Club (no palm trees or ocean anywhere nearby).

Day 19 - East of Eden

Today's post brought to you by the Road Warriors...  Our title comes from Steinback's novel about the San Joaquin valley, as we drove most of the length of it today.  I have to say that I don't understand why people want to live in California.  It's dirty, dusty, the people are not friendly, plus it's expensive.  The predominant color is light, golden brown and the only farming areas are so because of irrigation.  In fact, there is apparently a water issue now, as we passed many signs accusing Congress of creating a Dust Bowl.
If the sky happens to be blue above the brown, it can be pretty, but much of the time the views are clouded by fog, smog, dust or fire smoke.  Today we drove through a lot of empty spaces (think Montana only hazy) and ended up in the middle of the Mojave, kimosabe, at Barstow.
Hence, East of Eden - outside of paradise...
Oh, one other thing.  We left Napa at 65 degrees and got to Barstow where it's 100...but it's a dry heat.

Day 18 - Winding Down in Napa

Today we enjoyed beautiful weather here in the Napa Valley.  It's probably the last cool weather we'll  feel for quite a while.  Breakfast at the B & B was gourmet - Mac & cheese and chilled strawberry soup.  We kind of lounged around for a while while we worked out a plan of attack.  The resulting plan included stopping at a gourmet grocery to pick up picnic food then continuing down the other main road that goes the length of the valley to visit a couple more wineries we were interested in.  We decided to skip Opus One, since their tasting was $40 a glass, but we did make it to Silver Oak.  Then we drove up the hillside to Rutherford Hill where we had our picnic with a view of the valley.  After that, we stopped at Mumm (known for sparkling wine) where we took their tour.
After walking to a pizza restaurant for dinner, we hit the dessert table (always chocolate) here at theB & B and relax for the rest of the evening.
Tomorrow we hit the road again.  Our destination will be either Barstow, CA or Kingman, AZ depending on how much driving we want to do.  Nothing but desert in between.

Day 17 - Napa

Today we had an easy drive - until we got to the Napa Valley, that is.  Seems like the thing to do is spend the week-end in wine country, so traffic was stop and go the entire length of the valley.  Our bed & breakfast is about 2 blocks from the historic part of Napa, so it's easy walking to restaurants.
We picked two of our favorite wineries to visit for tastings, and also stopped at two others where we had half off coupons.  We found several great wines that aren't available in Houston stores and decided to have some of them shipped home.
Enough wine for today.  I'm still tipsy.  Pictures are of Markham Winery entrance and casks at Peju Winery.

Day 16 a The Trail of the Tall Pines

This is written a day late, because the hotel we stayed at in Redding, CA, was full of pre-teens & teens in for a swim meets.  I couldn't get online access.
At any rate, the day was spent driving south thru Oregon amidst tall pines.  There's a reason the Oregon license plate has one on it.  Our destination for the day was Crater Lake National Park.  I expected a big lake, but this one is huge and a deep blue color.  Just before the lake, we passed through a pumice desert.  Very strange and bleak.  After a picnic lunch, we took the strenuous hike up Mt. Garfield.  I was huffing and puffing because of the altitude (and have I said I don't do up very well?), but we did make it to the first overlook, where we had a spectacular view.  We turned back because the clouds were looking threatening.
When we finally got to Redding and found a room for the night, I wasn't sure my body would work, but a good night's rest and a hot shower worked wonders.