Road Report, Day 9 (expanded) and Day 10

Saturday, September 17, and Sunday, September 18

As I said in the abbreviated post for Day 9, we should have known our luck would run out at some point. It had really been a very easy trip: we navigated the highway system with ease, found a reasonable place to stay each night, and had mostly decent weather all the way across the country.

There were a couple little glitches, like the brake light. Which, by the way, is fixed. It must have been a loose connection because after we couldn’t figure out how to extract the socket to replace the bulb, we plugged the wires back into the socket and figured we’d get some help when we could. A day or two later we realized that we were not getting a warning light every time we stepped on the brake. At our next rest stop I checked and the brake light was working again! So there must have been a loose connection, and all was well.

On Sunday we left Lonoke, Arkansas, where we had stayed on Saturday night. The Day’s Inn was clearly an older motel which had been moved to the brand, and while it wasn’t luxurious it was clean and well-maintained. It was a decent place to stay, and pleasant in a throwback kind of way.

Not new, but clean and well-kept.

Dasn and Chonk had some definite opinions about breakfast. But Waffle House was packed, so they agreed - reluctantly - to settle for Sonic.

We intended to drive as far as Birmingham, Alabama and spend the night, leaving just a relatively short stretch for Monday morning, and allowing time for a visit to Vulcan Park. We had visited Vulcan on our last trip, but it’s a lovely park, and we hadn’t had time for everything when we were there.

We sailed through the remainder of Arkansas, crossed the Mississippi on the restored I-40 bridge at Memphis, and headed south through the corner of Mississippi and into Alabama. By mid-afternoon we were in our fourth state for the day, and rolling up the miles with ease. We realized we would be in Birmingham by five o’clock - far too early to stop for the day.

Dash and Chonk try to see over the guardrail to get a glimpse of the Mississippi River as we cross from Arkansas into Tennessee.

That sliver of blue is the Mighty Mississippi. We just weren't in a place to get a good picture of the river.

Two images of Nashville: the massive pyramid that is the iconic Bass Pro Shop, and the rail yards with cranes that can load and unload containers.

The next city was Montgomery, just 90 miles south, and from there it was 85 miles to Chancellor, our ultimate destination.

We did some quick calculations, assessed how easy the drive had been so far, and decided to to on to Montgomery and consider our options - but we knew what the decision would be, i mean, really, are you going to drive 3,000 miles and stop for the night when you’re less than 100 miles from your goal? 

Yeah, we wouldn’t either.

After four states, Dash and Chonk were still battling over the Sonic mints.

We stopped at Olive Garden in Montgomery, had a nice dinner, and got back on the road just as it was getting dark. It was the first time we chose to drive in the dark, but it would only be a little over an hour (traffic on that section of highway was moving at 80+).

And then …

We were about 40 miles out of Montgomery when a low tire warning sounded. Initially we thought it was just low, but it started making a horrible noise. We knew we were in trouble, especially on a dark highway in the middle of nowhere.

But this is where our luck turned around again. Just as we had to pull off the road there was a Bar-b-q joint on the side of the road. Not much else around, and we were still about 10 miles from the next town, but this place with a big, well-lit parking lot was right there when we needed it.

We pulled, but they were already closed. I went to the door and there was a woman inside who yelled “We’re closed.” I told her I understood, but we were stranded and probably wouldn’t be able to get the car towed until morning.

She said, “Just pull it into one of those spaces over there,” pointing to the parking lot. “It’ll be fine.”

After a conversation with our Roadside Assistance people, we decided rather than a service call (and probable tow, since the car did not have a spare), we would have Steve’s brother come bring us some FlatFix and we would try to at least limp it into Troy, the next town, and leave it at a repair shop - which would be closed at that hour on a Sunday night, but at least it would be there in the morning.

We had to wait for Tim to drive up to get us, about 60 miles. Once he got there we tried the FlatFix, but the tire was still losing air as fast as we could pump it in with our portable inflator. We finally gave up, loaded our luggage in Tim’s truck, and drove back to Chancellor, leaving the car in the parking lot.

When I called the restaurant the next morning the woman I talked to was amazingly nice about our abandoned car. “It’s fine,” she said. “We’re keeping an eye on it for you.” I nearly burst into tears - we abandoned our vehicle in their parking lot and their response was to keep an eye on it for us? Wow!

We tried calling a couple places in Troy to see about getting the tire fixed, but we were having trouble getting an answer. So we piled into the truck and headed back north. We stopped at RoadMart in Troy, where they were beyond busy, the parking lot packed with vehicles, a waiting room full of people, and the phone going crazy.

Steve went in, expecting we would have to wait, but quickly returned to the car. The guy at the counter had listened to about half Steve’s explanation and instantly picked up a phone. He reached someone, and Steve heard him tell whoever was on the line to go out to Bar-b-q House as soon as he finished the call he was on.

We headed back, figuring we could at least get some food while we waited. Spending some money was the least we could do to repay the people at the restaurant.

This is Bar-B-Q House, about 10 miles north of Troy, Alabama. They were some of the nicest people you could hope to meet, and they helped us avoid a disaster. Very nice people, and great food!

We were greeted at the counter by a woman who asked, “Are you that sweet lady I talked to on the phone a little bit ago?” She said they have this happen “All the time,” probably because they’re the first safe place to pull off in 40 miles, and that they always try to look out for anyone who gets stranded there.

While we were talking to her the RoadMart truck rolled into the lot. We had literally beat him out there by only 5-10 minutes! He got the car up on a jack and pulled the tire off, started looking for the leak, which was quickly obvious from the FlatFix goop dripping out of a gash in the sidewall. It was on the inside wall where we couldn’t see it until the tire was off, but it was instantly apparent that the tire was beyond repair.

The kid told us to go ahead and have lunch, he’d take the wheel and tire back into town and get a new tire installed. By the time we’d eaten he was back and had the wheel back on the car; and told us he didn’t want to mess with a credit card on the road, just stop at the store on our way back to town and pay for it. Seriously, a road service call AND a new tire, and they just said to stop by on our way out to pay!

I am told that this is the sign of a really good BBQ joint - the rolls of paper towels on the table. Based on this stop, I would say that's true!

We got some bbq to take back to Steve’s mom, tipped lavishly, and dropped a contribution to their fundraiser in the jar on our way out. Tim took off to head home, and we stopped to pay for the tire. We needed the old tire to claim a refund from our road hazard guarantee, and the kid who’d done the service told us it was messy from the FlatFix, so he washed it out and carefully wrapped it in plastic, so it wouldn’t make a mess in the trunk. He got a decent tip, too.

A two-day adventure and the replacement of a nearly-new tire were not things I wanted on this trip, but the people we encountered as a result were some of the nicest people I have ever met. They were unfailingly compassionate and helpful, 

And the BBQ was excellent!

The highway in front of Tim's house, which sits on land that was owned by Papa Jones, Tim and Steve's grandfather.

This little fella came to greet us when we finally unloaded things at Tim's place. He was clearly used to people, but a bit camera shy.

Road Report, Day 9 - Abbreviated

Sep 17, 2023

Our luck had to give out some time. Had a flat last night, still dealing with repairs. Last night's report will be delayed, hopeful to have it, and an update, soon.

Road Report, Day 7

Friday, September 15

A Note from your faithful correspondent: These posts are written, edited, and posted with pictures culled from the day's photos and captions, after a full day of traveling. I am working on a Chromebook at an improvised desk in a hotel room. So I don't have my usual tools, and I am at the end of a long day. I am having a great time going over our day, and sharing this trip with you, but you are more likely to see typos and glitches because so much of this is quick and off-the-cuff. I apologize for any goofs that slip through, and hope you'll forgive the slapdash nature of some of these posts.

This morning we took a little tour around Tucumcari, a city that we fell in love with our last time through in 2021. There are lots of interesting things to see, including a really great dinosaur museum. We spent an afternoon there on our last trip, and that’s where we got Dash Dino. This time though we didn’t want to take time for the museum, but we did hit the gift shop, looking for a companion for Dash Dino. While we were debating which dino to adopt we got to talking with the woman in the gift shop, explaining what we were doing. She asked if we had a picture of Dash Dino, which I gladly showed her, and she asked me to send it to her for their Facebook page. When she handed me her card with the email address, I realized she was the Executive Director of the museum, which is affiliated with Mesalands Community College. So now we have a new friend in Tucumcari, and a new dino for the dash.

Meet Chonk!

Outside the museum there were some nifty wire dinosaur sculptures. They weren’t easy to get good photos of, but I wanted to share them with you. 

Dino sculptures, Getting pictures of wire-frame statues isn’t easy, but they really are cool.

Our first task completed, we went in search of food before hitting the road. Tucumcari has a variety of restaurants, and we decided on Kix on Route 66 - because who could resist that name? Also, we’d eaten there before and knew the food was good and the prices reasonable. We got the seat directly behind the truck on the front of the building, which was kind of cool.

There’s a truck in front of Kix.

And we sat right behind it!

We had yummy breakfast, piled into the car with full stomachs, topped up the gas tank, and got back on the road.

We drove from New Mexico, through Texas, and into Oklahoma before stopping for the night.

Along the way we saw the amazing windmill farms of north Texas, which march across the vast landscape for many miles, and we made a stop in Shamrock, Texas, to do a little research for a project Steve is working on.

Windmills spread for miles across the plains in north Texas. Impressive!

Shamrock, for those of you who may not know, provided the template for Luigi’s Garage in the movie Cars. An old Conoco gas station has been restored into a visitors’ center, (the inspiration for the movie) and there is a museum here that we also didn’t have time for. We are having to pick and choose which things we explore on this trip, and we find ourselves often saying “Maybe on the way back.” Of course if we do all those things on the way back we’ll be lucky to be home in time for Christmas!

If you’ve seen Cars, this might look familiar.

We were told this station is in the process of being restored.

Chonk and Dash Dino decided to photobomb Steve’s picture.

More pictures from Shamrock. Tiny town with lots to see!

There was one other little thing in Shamrock, something I hadn’t even realized had disappeared from my world: the sound of a car rolling over the gas station “dinger,” the cable that rang a bell to alert the attendant that a car was at the pump. I heard one this afternoon while parked outside the visitors’ center in Shamrock, and it made me smile. It’s amazing how a simple sound can evoke such a strong response.

Once past Shamrock we started looking for a place to stop for the night. We found a small casino about 50 miles west of Oklahoma City, which will make for an easy start in the morning. Their restaurant served an inexpensive Friday fish special, and the hotel is decent, so we are settled in tonight and will see the rest of Oklahoma and at least part of Arkansas tomorrow. 

Today we listened to:

The rest of Joy, Craig Ferguson’s podcast with guest Diedrich Bader;

Cautionary Tales, about the architect who designed the Sydney Opera House, a megaproject that went over budget by 400%, over schedule by a decade, and is arguably the most beautiful building in the world;

Cabinet of Curiosities, a short episode about how Hollywood special effects experts helped solve the mysterious deaths of nine hikers in the Ural Mountains in 1959; and

Another How Did This Get Made, which we have not finished. This episode is about the movie The Secret, and it’s something I definitely do not want to see, so I should thank the crew for warning me about this one.

Once again I am writing late into the night. I blame the time zone changes - it’s getting late a lot earlier the last couple days - but before I go I do want to offer each of you a little gift: a postcard from the road. Just drop me a private message with your real world address and I will send you one of the souvenir postcards  I’ve been buying at our various stops. I think I have a postcard problem; I can’t go into a gift shop without coming out with a handful of colorful cards!

Day 6 Photo Supplement

Thursday, September 14

Raven at a rest stop in New Mexico.

These caves reminded me a bit of the cliff dwellings at Mesas Verde.

These photos are in no particular order, just lots of images from the day's travel. More ravens (who got treats from us), an equipment parade - though not an actual Transformer Parade - in Tucumcari in front of La Posada, an upscale hotel in the remodeled train station. Lots of scenery, and some attempts at photographing the rainbows. Several of these are taken through the rain-spattered windshield, so I will offer my apologies for the less than excellent pictures.

There are a ton more pictures, but this is a sample of just one day. 

Road Report, Day 6

Thursday, September 14

Today was a long one - nearly 450 miles, in spite of some interesting weather and a couple short detours.

We got the car loaded up, and met the morning dog. Buffalo, whose picture is on the Day 5 post, was apparently the night dog. We didn’t catch the name of the morning crew, but he came out and greeted us as we were loading up the car. Steve wanted to make friends, and we had some mini cinnamon rolls (not very good ones) that had quickly turned stale, so he offered one to the dog. Before we got out of there our new best friend had 3 or 4 cinnamon rolls.

I think we will be welcome back.

The morning crew, relaxing in the shade after scarfing some cinnamon rolls.

We started the day with a quick tour of Winslow. We didn’t stand on the corner, since there were a lot of people waiting their turns for photos, and we had done the full tourist bit two years ago. But we took some new pictures, and bought a few souvenirs. 

Cool stuff around the iconic "corner" in Winslow. The giant guitar was cool, but it fit Steve far better than it did me. You may not be able to tell from the photo, but I was on tiptoe just to get my head over the top of the dang thing!

By then it was late enough to get a burger at the Sonic drive-in, which seemed somehow appropriate for Winslow.

I-40 through this part of the southwest has a 75-miles-per-hour speed limit Which means traffic moves at 80 or 85 most of the time. Which means we covered a lot of miles in a short time. We took a huge number of pictures from the car, often clicking off a dozen or more shots in the hopes of catching just the right angle. 

This is another of the joys of technology; digital photography lets even the most amateur photographer take lots of pictures, trying out ways to get a good shot. It used to be that we took our 12- or 24-exposure film, sent it to be processed, waited a few days, picked up our prints and hoped for the best. Since we humans often learn best by doing, and find out what works by trying things, the painfully long feedback loop makes for a steep learning curve. I know my photo skills have been improving, and a big part of that is being able to try things. It’s a process I heartily endorse for anyone trying to master a new skill - or improve an existing one.

Another observation from today came from a discussion we had about capturing that “perfect image,” and it applies to any creative endeavor. There is a moment - often a tiny, fleeting moment - where we can capture a picture, a melody, a phrase. And sometimes we flat-out miss the moment. It’s gone and cannot be recreated. We were lamenting the failure to capture the exact combination of light and shadow and viewing angle, and realized that there are simply times we have to accept that we missed that moment, and let it go.

That isn’t always easy. We want a do-over, we want to turn around and go back, try to capture that same exact combination, but we can’t. All we can do is choose to try again, try better, try different, and learn from what we missed.

Today we missed a lot of moments as we rolled down the miles of highway, but we captured a lot of them, too. We saw light and shadow, mesas and valleys, clouds and rain and lightning, and one of the most spectacular rainbows I have seen in my entire life. That is not hyperbole, it was amazing: vivid colors, huge arches, double rainbows, all persisting for long minutes as we drove. Then we had the immense good fortune to reach an exit where we could pull off the highway (exits are few and far between in the expanse of the New Mexico desert), and the rainbow held while we found a place to pull over and get more pictures. It was our reward for driving in the rain.

Photos can never do a rainbow justice.

Nor can they give you a real feel for how huge this was.

The double rainbow is faint, but we managed to at least capture it.

Our other side trip today was to the small town of Grants, New Mexico, the location of the Route 66 arch photo op. We were the only car in the park, so we were able to take our time and take pictures of each other under the arch. The inside of the arch itself is covered with stickers, many of them custom-made to commemorate a road trip. We saw many from groups, couples, and families, and were impressed by the number of foreign visitors represented on the arch. I imagine they are periodically removed, but the visitors seem to respect the artwork on the faces of the arch and not cover it in stickers.

Steve, looking cool in his Indiana Jones hat.

I didn't bring a cool hat, but at least there are hot rods on my t-shirt.

We pulled over behind the park after taking our arch photos, and a stray dog wandered up. She didn’t look like a pet, she could have used a good meal and a bath, and it appeared that she might have a litter of pups somewhere. She was clearly looking for a handout, so we gave her the remaining cinnamon rolls. We didn’t have much else in the car, and figured some calories, even in the form of sugar, might help her through the day.

Before we left Grants we made a slow trip down the main street that runs in front of the park. Along the street is a display of public art that appears to be recycled satellite TV dishes which have been painted to represent various traditional basket designs from the local indigenous people. I am sure we missed some of them, but we got pictures of several.

We decided the drive was going well enough that we could push a little bit and make Tucumcari, which had been our original way point for today. While I drove, Steve called ahead and made sure we had a room for tonight, and we pulled in about 8:30 local time. We did have to check with the front desk to be sure we are on the right time zone. We’ve been in several the last few days, and since Arizona doesn’t observe Daylight Savings Time (though some reservation areas do) it is easy to get a bit befuddled about the time.

Today’s listening was a bit truncated by a focus on pictures, but we did manage to listen to:

Ty and That Guy Deep Dive: Princess Bride, with two of our favorite podcasters talking about the beloved classic;

Caravan of Garbage: Dick Tracy, a discussion of the 1990 Warren Beatty movie; and,

Part of Joy with Craig Ferguson and his guest, actor Diedrich Bader. We were only part way through the ‘cast when we arrived at the hotel, so we will finish that tomorrow.

Road Report, Day 5 (for real this time)

(When I originally posted these on the Patreon feed Day 6 actually did post before Day 5 - see, Time Lords! I am taking advantage of this reposting to put these two posts in the correct order.)

Wednesday, September 13

We didn’t start bright and early, but we did manage to get the car packed and leave the hotel by 11. A stop for gas and we left Laughlin with a goal of driving across Arizona to Gallup, Now Mexico. It was supposed to be about a five or six hour drive, so we figured it was a good “stretch,” but not an “this trip is killing me” day.

We wanted breakfast, but after filling the gas tank and getting the GPS directions to the highway, we were out of town before we realized. Rather than turn around, we decided to get food in Kingman, just a half-hour down the road.

We made Kingman quickly, and found a Black Bear Diner where we ate our last time through Kingman, about 2 ½ years ago. The food was good, the service on point, and we were soon back on the road. 

The Sinclair dino outside the Black Bear Diner. I think Dash Dino may be upset that I didn't get him in this photo.

Today our biggest issue was not other people, or a Transformer Parade™, but instead it was distractions of our own making. This should be understandable. As creators we are inherently curious people, and we can be quickly side-tracked by all kinds of things. 

One of those things is simply the views around us. We drove through some incredible places in the Arizona desert, and it was easy to see the results of the recent rainfall (more on that later).

There will be pictures, but you’re only going to get a tiny sample of what I took, because otherwise we will be here all night just uploading pictures!

The next distraction was only a few miles ahead in Seligman. One of the old Route 66 stops, Seligman is seeing a bit of a revival as nostalgia for Route 66 drives tourists off the highway onto the local loop. When we were there today there were three giant tour buses parked in front of Angel & Vilma Delgadillo’s gift shop, and swarms of tourists wandered the street and filled the Snow Cap burger stand. 

There's some public art in Seligman; these cars are a sample. The raven showed up while I was taking pictures of the bison statue, and posed on the fence post so I could share his magnificence with you. Unfortunately, we don't do selfies nearly that magnificent!

We drove through town taking pictures, then stopped at the little gift shop where we bought one of Steve’s favorite shirts on our last trip. He doesn’t often get cool shirts because almost no one stocks extra-long sizes, but we found one here in 2021. He’s worn through one elbow, and I haven’t patched it yet, so we figured it was worth a try.

This is the gift shop where we bought our shirts. If you're ever in Seligman, stop in. Great people!

When I asked the clerk she said they didn’t stock tall sizes, but there were a few large sizes on the sale rack in a small side room. To our amazement we found a replacement shirt! It’s bigger than he needs, but he wears it as an overshirt, so it will be just fine! We also found several other great shirts on sale, so it looks like we may have just started our Christmas shopping. Don’t tell my kids!

This is across the road from Snow Cap, at a small motel. I think we should plan to come back through Seligman and stay here. They obviously meant this place just for us!

Back on the road we kept rubber-necking as we drove. We were both amazed by the beauty around us, and kept commenting to each other. It felt like every mile, every curve, every rise and fall of the highway gave us a new view of something amazing. There was one point where we were admiring the beauty of the red and orange rocks, and Steve said, “It makes me want to go look closer. Then I think ‘How many snakes must be hiding in those rocks?’ and I think I’ll just keep driving.”

By mid-afternoon we were seeing clouds and rain, as we had yesterday. The clouds continued to grow, and we started getting rain - up close, not in the distance. Finally, in Flagstaff we looked at the darkening sky and the distant lightning and decided we should call it a day earlier than planned.

The gathering storm clouds got darker as we drove east, and we could see lightning more often as time went on.

We drove as far as Winslow, where we drove through several intersections that needed those signs from yesterday, creeping through to be sure the water wasn’t too deep to cross, and watched lightning streak across the sky. It was definitely time to call it a night.

So tonight we are sleeping on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, in a motel that’s been around as long as I have. The owners are delightful, the place is clean and well-maintained, and the wifi works, so we have all we need for tonight. Tomorrow morning we will get some tourist photos on the corner with the statue of Glenn Frey, and the flatbed Ford, and continue east. So there’s that.

Our home for the night; and Buffalo, our night guard.

There wasn’t a lot of listening time today, but we did get one episode of a favorite, 99% Invisible. The basic premise of the podcast is things that are mostly invisible to us in our daily lives - often related to architecture - and telling the stories behind their existence. Today’s listen was about Luddites - where the term came from, who were the original Luddites, and what they actually stood for. Worth the listen.

One other reason we lost time and didn’t get to Gallup. Somewhere early in the day we got a warning light on the dash. Did you know that newer cars will tell you when you have a brake light out? We didn’t, until now. A stop in Flagstaff netted us a bulb at an auto parts store, but we still haven’t figured out how to get to the light to replace the bulb. Here’s hoping we can either figure it out in the morning or find someone who knows how.

And here are some of the pictures from the road between Laughlin and Winslow. It was a beautiful drive!

Road Report, Day 5 Delay

(Wednesday, September 13, posted on September 14)

I stayed up late last night to complete the day's post, but somehow I got it saved as a "scheduled" post and it refuses to change. I've jumped through several hoops, but it seems stuck with a scheduled release of 1:59 am on 9/15. It should have been up about that time today (the approximate time I finished last night). So it's possible you may see today's post before yesterday's.

Just assume we're Time Lords.

Road Report, Day 4

(Tuesday, September 12)

We started early with the traditional family breakfast, this time at Daddy’s Waffles in Fresno. The Belgian waffle made an instant believer out of me, and it’s close to my son’s place, so this place immediately went to the top of my “must do” list for Fresno. Turns out the kid had an ulterior motive in suggesting it: they serve Monte Cristo sandwiches every day, which is apparently unusual.

I have now broken one of my own rules, and posted a mennu. To be fair, though, this was a good one. The most frightening item to my mind is up at the top, the Little Debbie Cheese Cake Waffle. I don't know what it was, and I was afraid to find out!

He went off to warp the minds of a classroom full of college students, and we headed south toward Bakersfield and then points east. Heading east from Bakersfield is the 3,739-foot high Tehachapi Pass, which connects the central valley to the Mojave Desert. It has one of the earliest wind farms, with construction starting in the 1980s, and now contains (according to Wikipedia) 3,400 turbines on approximately 3,200 acres.

A small sample of the wind turbines along CA-58.

The pass is a serious ascent out of the broad central valley, and then a serious descent to the desert floor and the city of Mojave. It is also the location of the Tehachapi Loop, a well-known spiral train track opened in 1876 and considered an engineering marvel of the day. It is now designated a California Historical Landmark.

Mojave is significant as the home of the Mojave Air and Space Port. This is the home of several interesting aircraft, as well as a large airplane “graveyard.” If you haven’t guessed by now, it is nearly impossible for us to just drive past. Mojave Space Port demands a side trip. If you’re interested in aerospace hardware, there are some interesting things to see here.

Apparently, Virgin Galactic's recent financial issues have caused them to scale back their operations in Mojave.

A small portion of the planes in the Mojave "graveyard"

Mojave is home to the only L1011 still flying.

We made a quick stop in Barstow, feeling good about the progress we were making, even with our side trip. We made the change from Highway 58 to I-40 (the modern highway along the path of Historic Route 66) and had plans to stay in Laughlin, Nevada, an easy drive from Fresno.

Oh, you silly mortals…

As we started back up another pass, we could see flashing lights far ahead. There weren’t any vehicles between us and the lights as we drew closer, and we realized there was a police vehicle straddling the line between lanes. We thought perhaps there was an accident or disabled vehicle and they were slowing traffic, but soon the full import of what was going on became clear: an immense electrical generator was being moved, A piece of equipment so large it took up both lanes, required pilot cars ahead and behind, two police cars with flashing lights, and it completely blocked all traffic.

You can see the grade here, and the official vehicles blocking traffic. This was our view for an hour or so this afternoon. 

We slowed to under 20 miles per hour as the Transformer Parade™ made its ponderous way up the pass. For the next hour, as traffic stacked up behind us, we occasionally sped up as we reached a flat section of road and then slowed to 20 again as it labored uphill. Obviously there was no alternate route - unless you had a half-track. Maybe.

he didn't pull off with the rest of the entourage. He was just a vollunteer.

As the first car behind the massive piece of machinery, we had a good view of, well, mostly of the official vehicles blocking the road in front of us. We got to see those real good, and for a long time.

Finally we reached a spot where the median widened and the entire entourage was able to pull off and let traffic pass. Watching the drivers maneuver the vehicles off the road reminded me of videos of multiple tugs guiding a large ship into the dock. As we drove past I got a quick look at the contraption, with the “pusher” semi locked into some kind of huge metal harness. My husband has unleashed his Google-fu and tells me this was a “suspension-beam trailer.”

While we were stuck in the Transformer Parade™ we did manage to decide on a hotel in Laughlin and make a reservation. This is one of the biggest boons of technology. No longer do I have to make long-distance calls and commit to a hotel reservation days or weeks in advance; I can scroll through multiple options, select the most likely, make a reservation, and pay for my room, all while cruising the highway at 75 miles an hours - or at 20.

As we rolled across the desert toward the intersection of California, Arizona, and Nevada, Mother Nature decided to be a bit of a drama queen and introduced clouds, rain, and lightning to the already-dramatic day. We could see curtains of rain from miles away across the desert landscape, adding flooding (a common occurrence in this area) to our concerns.

Dash Dino shared my concern for the weather looming ahead of us.

In fact, the secondary highway from the interstate out to Laughlin had several places where they had placed “Flooded” warning signs earlier in the day. Fortunately, the water had receded by the time we went through.

Fortunately these signs were no longer relevant when we passed through.

Dash Dino would like to show you a happy accident, where we captured an actual lightning bolt on video, but since we don't know how to embed video it will have to get its own post. I never was able to make the video work, but the final shot here is a still from that video, showing the lightning strike. Lucky shot indeed!

We finally made it to our hotel, checked in and unloaded our luggage into our room, intending to get a quick dinner - only to find that the restaurants all closed at 8 (minutes after we had arrived) except a snack bar. Reluctance to get back in the car was outweighed by the desire for “real” food, so we went back out, found a coffee shop within a mile or so, and had some dinner.

The day does have a happy ending though. We aren’t big gamblers, but we each took a twenty and went down to the casino for a bit after dinner. Between us we won $40.00, which we pocketed and went back upstairs to relax and get a good night’s sleep.

I know our playlist today had more than one item on it, but the only thing I remember right now is an episode of How Did This Get Made?, which is a comedy ‘cast from a group of young comedians. They take a movie - often an obscure one - and talk about the movie and their experience of it; this episode’s movie was Action Jackson. 

They often have interesting takes on the movie, and they are usually funny. But the delivery, the frenetic nature of the conversation, the talking over each other (to the point that sometimes I can barely follow the conversation), and the sheer volume as they shout to be heard, can be overwhelming. Warning if you try this one: the comedy can get crude, and the language is uncensored.

That might even have been the only thing we heard, as the Transformer Parade™ kind of ate our brains. Don’t worry, they will grow back overnight.

Road Report, Day 3

(Monday, September 11)

Today was a prep day, in anticipation of the "real" journey beginning tomorrow. So far we have been in familiar territory, roads we drive and areas we visit regularly, places we know well.

Tomorrow we head out into more unfamiliar places. We have made this trip before, it isn't completely alien territory. Still, it's not one of our usual routes.

There wasn't a lot to do or see today, but there was a lot of family time. My son is a huge fan of Dutch Bros Coffee (so am I) and we make it a habit to have at least one morning visit to his local shop , where we usually sit and talk over our coffee treats. This morning we got most of our talking time in the car however, as we got it ready for the next leg of the trip.

We filled the gas tank at Costco, ran the car through the car wash, and then spent a long time cleaning and vacuuming the interior. One of the disadvantages of our small town is the lack of certain services, and one of them is a car wash. We have one self-service wash, with a single unmanned drive-through bay, and a couple do-it-yourself bays, one of which is extra-tall for RVs. But it's currently out-of-order, waiting for a replacement part to arrive. It also has only one coin-op vacuum - and if your interior is dirty you'll need an entire roll of quarters. The car wash here has attendants, and unlimited use vacuums.

The drawback, as my son said, was that I took OCD Boy to clean the car. I can tell you, the inside of the car is CLEAN - something we greatly appreciate after being without a car wash vacuum for several months. But it meant that we didn't have a lot of time to linger over coffee, as he had a class to teach at noon.

I came back to the apartment and started yesterday's report while my son went off to teach his class and my husband went to get some lunch.

Once both the guys were back we had another family tradition: a movie! We're all movie fans. Today's choice was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I loved the art style, the story had a good deal more heart than I expected, and (Bonus!) we had a private screening. We were literally the only three people in the theater.

We hung out, went to dinner, and visited my son's favorite ice cream shop, Ampersand. They're a lovely place with monthly special flavors. We tried a "flight," four scoops in a divided dish, sampling three of this month's specials - coffeecake, mariposa almond fudge, and pumpkin cheesecake, along with the standard dark chocolate. For the record the pumpkin cheesecake was the hands-down favorite.

So the car is ready for tomorrow, the laundry is done, and it's time for a shower and bed. We will have our last tradition tomorrow morning - breakfast together before we hit the road.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's adventure!

Road Report, Day 2

(Sunday, September 10)

Some days are just long, no matter what you do. This leg of the trip is one of those days. The drive itself is only about 300 miles, which is a comfortable distance, and it actually took about six hours, also a comfortable day’s drive. But there is something about the central valley of California that seems to make each hour feel like two, and leaves both driver and passenger feeling worn out and groggy.

We did trade off driving, a practice we are trying to develop. In the past we both have had the tendency to tell ourselves - and the other driver(s) - “one more hour,” or “I can make it to ….” when the promised stop is really farther than we should go. 

It’s a stubborn streak of which I shouldn’t be proud; it has led me into risky positions in the past, a refusal to cede control when I should, and I am trying to let go of that bad behavior. I suppose it is sometimes related to parenting, and the day job, where being in charge and being able to do it well was part of who I was. My kids are middle-aged now, and I am retired, so it’s time to give that behavior a rest.

I started the day with the free breakfast at the hotel, and a full insulated mug of coffee that would last well into the afternoon. Steve wasn’t excited about the selections, so he grabbed fast food as we left Redding and headed south on I-5.

Apparently Cardboard City of Redding is a very small roadside attraction. It was also very secure behind its chainlink fence, so we weren't able to visit.

Less than 50 miles south of Redding is one of my favorite places: The Olive Pit. This fabulous store started in 1967 when a local family added their jars of olives to the offerings at a local burger stand. Now expanded into a large shop - which still has a great cafe - with a wide selection of local products, primarily olives and olive oil, almonds, and honey. We bought a wide selection of olives as a gift for my brother-in-law (who will be putting up with us as house guests) and got back on the road.

Small olive trees line the sidewalk outside the store.

Alongside the olive trees is a tall palm tree. Hey, it's California - you can't post pictures without including a palm tree. I think it may be a law.

There's a LOT to choose from. These are a "look both ways" view of a single aisle. 

This is just the "Hot Stuff" aisle, with an empty shelf where the Ghost Pepper Stuffed Olives should be. I love olives, and I like hot stuff, but that shelf was emptied by people with a stronger constitution than mine. Or maybe just by crazy people!

The roads of the central valley are mostly flat and straight, with high speed limits. We ended up stuck in Lodi (again) but only long enough for a pit stop. We escaped, transferring from I-5 to US 99, and continued south for a couple hours to Fresno, and our son’s house. 

Along the way we encountered two, um, interesting sections of road. On one stretch we started hearing a faint whining noise, like the car was haunted. There was a serious moment of “What the heck is going wrong with the car?” until we decided it was the result of the intense grooving of the pavement. A few miles later we came up to a construction zone. The left lane separated from the right, into a narrow lane with K-rails on both sides, creating a terrifying recreation of the Death Star trench. In addition, there were serious rumble strips that generated a lot of noise. The car went from singing ghosts to moaning monsters. It wasn’t an improvement.

Our listening on this leg had three acts:

     Fresh Air, an episode featuring music producer Mark Ronson. Ronson’s recent success is the score for the summer hot movie Barbie. The conversation between Ronson and host Terry Gross covered a lot of territory, and I learned several things about Ronson;

     Another Fresh Air episode followed with Sterling Harjo, the creator of the the hit series Reservation Dogs;

     Our third listen was from a creator we listen to regularly, screenwriter Michael Jamin. He talks about many aspects of TV and movie production, as well as behind-the-scenes looks at the business side of Hollywood. The episode we listened to had Bill Martin, creator of The Unicorn. The discussion was great, but frankly this one was a bit too inside-baseball for me. But I will continue listening to Jamin, because there is often good information in his podcasts.

We had some dinner, and I hit a wall, and went to bed early.

But before I leave you for tonight, let me share one of the more interesting things we saw on the highway. I know nothing about this except that I saw the truck on 99 between Lodi and Fresno.

What you  can't see in the photo is that the bull's horns were flapping in the wind. It was special!