QTE Hop 2: Williams, AZ, to Oklahoma City, OK

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Sparky

3 days, 905 miles via I-40 and I-44.

I really wasn’t looking forward to this hop.  Three long days on the road, almost all on I-40.  There would be some scenery, but it would be dusty scenery and we were getting pretty fed up with wind and dust.  We left Williams with a fine layer of dust coating everything – including the ice in the freezer.  We would also be heading into the eye of the storm, literally, by going to Oklahoma City.   Just three weeks earlier it had been hit with not one but two EF5 tornadoes.  We would be traveling the stretch of I-40 where a mother and her infant daughter died when their SUV was caught in the maelstrom.  But it had to be done.

The reason we took 3 days instead of 2 was that with a 2-day hop we would need to spend a week in Amarillo.  No one wants to spend a week in Amarillo.  So we opted for 3 days in this hop, with just 1 day of travel on Hop 3 the following weekend.  It all works out.

Day 1: Williams, AZ, to Albuquerque, NM

QTE Hop 2, Day 1

This was a long day – 346 miles and two refueling stops. We didn’t need to stop twice for fuel, but we needed two breaks from the driving.

The route is scenic, passing through Flagstaff and, later, the Petrified Forest. It also skirts the southern edge of Apache Nation, one of the largest Indian reservations in the US. But mostly it is just a long haul. Even Grace got bored.

Grace, resting comfortably while traveling

A beaut of a butte

We passed some cliffs with large caves. We couldn’t stop to inquire, but if I was an Indian, I would see them as great shelter from sun and rain.

Indian caves?

Last shot in AZ

The route was elevated. I-40 tops out at over 7,300 feet in Flagstaff and hits the 7.000-foot mark east of there as well.

Proof of elevation

Our overnight campground was the Anerican RV Park in Albuquerque. This is a very nice park – probably on our list of the “10 best” parks we have visited. A nice site, a nice dog park, courteous staff, clean pool, free breakfast. Too bad it was just an overnight stay.

Patience at the American RV Park

Dog park

I was sent out to fetch dinner (which ended up to be crappy Church’s Fried Chicken) and to fill the tank. I took the opportunity to visit Old Town, a small neighborhood of historic buildings in Albuquerque. It is nice, but I will take Beacon Hill any day.

Old Town Mission

Adobe building

Wedding in Old Town

As I was filling the tank, a sandstorm blew in. This was something I had never seen before – like a blizzard, but with sand instead of snow. I could barely see the road as I made my way home and had to wonder what the sand was doing to the air filter. And paint.

Once back at the RV, we endured a couple of hours of fierce winds which seemed strong enough to blow a light trailer away. When I am on the road, trying to haul the RV up a steep incline, I curse the weight. But when 50mph winds are whipping around me, weight seems like a good thing.

The next morning I took a picture of the sand that the storm had deposited on the roadway by the dog park.

Sand from the storm

Day 2: Albuquerque, NM, to Amarillo, TX

Hop 2, Day 2

Another 285 miles on I-40. We had a long climb up to get out of Albuquerque, but it was all downhill from there: the elevation of Amarillo is “only” 3,600 feet.

The route was uninspiring. More dusty panoramas. The most interesting thing about the day was that we entered the Central time zone. That was two time zone changes (Albuquerque is Mountain time) in two days. It also meant, of course, that we lost an hour each day, which was fine for us. If you had to pick a place to have a 23-hour day, Amarillo is a good choice.

Half-buried RV

Our resting spot for the night was the Oasis RV Park, located on the western fringes of Amarillo, just far enough off of I-40 that you don’t get much road noise. It is a brand spanking new resort, with a beautiful pool, nice showers and a very inviting office/clubhouse building. It also has, at the entrance, an RV half buried, butt up, in the soil. I don’t know why. But it is certainly unique.

Oasis entrance sign

Office/clubhouse

We didn’t get a duststorm while in Amarillo, but we did get a hailstorm. For the second night in a row we were rocked by high winds, this time punctuated by the staccato beat of hailstones on our roof and windows. I prayed that the hail would not be large enough to cause damage and I was mostly rewarded – the hail never got larger that pea-size. The air conditioner seems to have taken a beating. Still works, though.

The park didn’t fare so well. A sinkhole opened up on one of its driveways.

After getting battered two consecutive nights we headed toward Oklahoma City, with more than a little trepidation. A sandstorm and a hailstorm… could a tornado be next?

Sinkhole

Day 3: Amarillo, TX, to Oklahoma City, OK

Hop 2, Day 3

The best thing about these 274 miles is that only 264 of them were on I-40; the final 10 miles were north on I-44. And the road was flatter than the previous two days, which helped with mileage – I think we got 9 mpg on this leg as compared with about 8 mpg the previous two days. It also completed these 3 very grueling days of driving.

The twin fountains

We settled in for the week at the Twin Fountains RV Park in the northeast corner of Oklahoma City, not far from the Remington Park racetrack. This was a very nice park, with more trees than I would have expected (but it still was dusty, due to the sandy red soil). The name derives, I suppose, from the two little fountains in the muddy pond in front of the clubhouse.

The site we were given was HUGE – plenty of room for both Patience and the truck. I could even choose whether to park in front or behind the RV. Plenty of grassy areas to walk the dogs. But right next to a very busy road. We tried to keep the windows open the first night but got very little sleep. The other 5 nights we used the A/C and that helped.

Our patio area

The park features a very nice pool – heavily used by children all week long. It also had a very inviting mini-golf course adjacent to the pool, but I never saw anyone use it.

I rented a hotel room this week, primarily to get a better internet connection and to keep me away from the refrigerator while I worked. The room – at America’s Best Value Inn – was a dump and the internet was not as good as I hoped. It was mostly a waste of money, except for keeping me away from the refrigerator.

The mini-golf course and clubhouse

The view from our site

Categories: AZ, NM, OK, Places, QTE, Routes, RV Parks | Leave a comment

A week in Williams

Posted on June 29, 2013 by Sparky

Well, six days actually. Just felt like a week.

The main highlights of our time in Williams were the trips to the Grand Canyon and Sedona, previously documented. It was a work week for me, working remotely using my work desktop set up in the RV’s bunkhouse on the little built-in desk. It was very cramped – I had to put the keyboard on my lap – but it worked because the WiFi at the Canyon Motel & RV Park was excellent. I was able to communicate with the servers back in MA just as adroitly as I had done in my office in Temecula. So, work-wise, it was a successful week. Tiring but productive.

Jett, however, was bored. I offered to take her into Williams – just 2 miles away – to shop and browse, but she declined. Other than a trip to buy some food early in the week, the only time we made it into the town was Friday night, just before we left. We had dinner at the Sultana Bar with food provided by the adjacent Singing Pig BBQ shop. I say “shop” because the Singing Pig is a tiny place – just a kitchen and one long table. They cook only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and when they are cooking the Sultana Bar provides the seating and the beer. It is a great cooperative arrangement, I think, as it allowed me to simultaneously enjoy both.

I ordered the pulled pork BBQ sandwich, “piled high,” accompanied by the Sultana brand wheat beer. Jett got the BBQ chicken and a root beer. The BBQ was excellent. The Singing Pig’s pulled pork was less runny than the Cowboy Club version that I had sampled two days before. I learned, however, that “piled high” means just that – the pulled pork on the base of a bun, topped with coleslaw and french fries, then capped by the top of the bun. The sandwich was about 6 inches high. Too high to eat, so I had to unpile it first.

Sultana Bar

Sultans Bar

We strolled the street a bit after dinner and had a very interesting conversation with the clerk at the Indian jewelry shop. We learned a lot about katchinas, Indian spirit dolls. We even bought one. You can never have too many good spirits when traveling cross-country.

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Sedona

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Sparky

Last Wednesday was a beautiful day in Williams. I decided it was also a beautiful day to visit Sedona, about an hour distant. Jett didn’t come with me as she had a headache and “wasn’t that interested in scenery.” Too bad, because she missed some great scenery.

She also missed a nasty, narrow, twist-and-turn road (AZ 89A) down to Sedona from Flagstaff. It includes a 10-mile stretch with a vertical drop of 3,000 feet. That is even steeper than the 7-turnback stretch of CA 371 from Aguanga to Palm Desert that we avoided at the start of the QTE because I thought it might make Jett upchuck.

Maybe it was good that she decided to stay home.

Sedona is a small town – about 4 blocks of commercial development along AZ 89A and a population of about 10,000 spread out across the valley and up into the hills. It is definitely a tourist town, replete with souvenir shops and even a Del Sol, a shop that sells clothing that changes colors in the sun, which I have never seen anywhere other than tourist-infested towns.

I wandered around a bit, then had dinner at the Cowboy Club where I could have had rattlesnake bites (real rattlesnake) or cactus fried (made from real cactus), but didn’t. Instead I opted for more traditional BBQ fare: a pulled pork sandwich on a pretzel roll, with a side of cilantro-peanut coleslaw. I think the pulled pork was very tasty, but a little too juicy. The coleslaw, however, was about the best I have ever had. Peanuts in coleslaw? It works!

Pulled port and coleslaw at the Cowboy Club

Photos from the trip into Sedona:

Starting the 3,000′ drop

Opening up into the valley

Near Slide Rock State Park

Near Sedona

A few shots from downtown Sedona, such as it is:

Red rocks of Sedona

Harley-Davidson in Sedona

The truck parked in Sedona

I had to take this – another “Open Range”

A few shots heading south out of Sedona:

Cathedral Rock?

A bit further south

Heading west on I-40, approaching Williams:

Sun sets on I-40 near Williams

Categories: Adventures, AZ, Places, QTE, Routes | Leave a comment

Survival test?

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Sparky

We had a violent sandstorm Saturday night in Albuquerque and a violent hailstorm Sunday night in Amarillo. Tonight we will be in Oklahoma City…

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Grand Canyon again

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Sparky

The first time we went to the Grand Canyon, back in November last year, we went by train. That was a great experience, but the downside of the train is that you are left to walk the rim. The Grand Canyon is HUGE and walking for half an hour doesn’t change the perspective much.

So this time we drove. The south rim is about an hour from Williams and it is an easy, flat route. Once we got there we stopped at the main visitor’s center, which is just a bit northeast of the train depot and Grand Canyon Village where we visited in November. We spent about 30 minutes at the rim at the visitor’s center, then drove about 10 miles east along the rim, stopping at various overlooks to take some photos. It was a beautiful day and the canyon was looking fine.

But, as Jett says, “It still doesn’t look real.”

View from the Visitor’s Center

Jett at the Visitor’s Center

Looking east from the rim at the Visitor’s Center

Looking down – yikes!

Just gorge-ous

Hiking this would be… interesting

I love these rock formations

A popular viewpoint

Love those colors!

Sparky at the Grand Canyon

Sheer drop

Awesome

The Vishnu Temple

Our last view before heading back

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QTE Hop 1: Aguanga, CA, to Williams, AZ

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Sparky

454 miles via CA 79, I-10, CA 177, CA 62, AZ 95 and I-40.

QTE Hop 1

Day 1: Aguanga, CA, to Lake Havasu City, AZ

The first day of this two-day hop was 279 miles, of which about 150 were through desert that was excessively hot, even by desert standards. I was pretty worried about how the truck would perform as we have never taxed it this way. The most difficult stretch last fall on the GTW was the long, uphill climb from Phoenix to Flagstaff and we did that in temps in the 70s. By contrast, once we hit Palm Springs – about 100 miles into the first day’s trip – the temperature was above 100 the rest of the way to Lake Havasu City. The worst part was the uphill climb out of the Coachella Valley, during which the transmission temperature hovered around 250 degrees, just 15 degrees below the red line. But it made it up the hill, cooled down once it hit the flats and in general performed like a champ.

The first 20 miles were down CA 79 to Temecula – my regular commute, previously documented. Then about 5 miles up I-15 to CA 79 north which we took about 40 miles north to I-10. This stretch of CA 79 is like the southern segment in that the first 5 miles are strip development which then opens up into farmland. This version of CA 79 is flatter and has quite a few miles of 4-lane roadway. And huge dairy farms, the arrival of which was announced by an aroma strongly reminiscent of Wisconsin.  We were using CA 79 to dodge the mountains between Aguanga and Palm Springs – we went 46 miles out of our way to avoid these mountains and the nasty 7-turnback stretch of CA 371 that would, I think, have been too much for Jett’s delicate stomach.

The 40 miles down I-10 into Indio were remarkable for the number of wind turbines – thousands – that lined the roadway and the speed with which the temperature climbed. It was 83 when we entered the road and was 101 42 miles later when we stopped to top off the tank.

Topping off the tank after just 110 miles was important because there are no gas stations between Indio and Parker, AZ, some 120 miles away. I did NOT want to run out of gas in 110-degree heat in the middle of nowhere.

Other than that 10-mile uphill climb east of Indio, which made me watch my temperature gauges very carefully, the trip to Lake Havasu City was uneventful. The truck’s A/C was up to the task and kept us all comfortable. CA 62 was flat, but followed the terrain, which made for some interesting dips in the road. We crossed into AZ at Parker and I have to say that the Colorado River at that point is uninspiring. It is less impressive than the Hudson or even the Merrimac. I guess most of the water has been diverted before it gets to Parker.

We had to cross the London Bridge to get to the Crazy Horse Campground in Lake Havasu City. From the road, the London Bridge is, like the Colorado River, unimpressive. If they hadn’t lined it with flags you would never know that you were on a special bridge. I was hoping to get a side view of it from the campground, but didn’t.

At Crazy Horse we got Patience deployed in record time on a beachside pull-through, got the A/C cranking (which is to say, only slightly better than fans – the A/C in the RV is not made for 115-degree temps). We rested for a couple of hours (but didn’t nap – too hot), then got into our suits and jumped into Lake Havasu, just a few steps away. Ahhh… relief! I think I saw steam rising. The dogs enjoyed it, too.

And, yes, I took the camera out of my pocket before jumping in.

Grace viewing the Colorado River

Grace resting on Cha-Cha

Approaching Lake Havasu City

First view of Lake Havasu

London Bridge

The rig at Lake Havasu

Entrance to Crazy Horse Campground

Dogs taking a dip

The view from inside Patience

North Beach campsites

Lake Havasu

The lake from atop the dunes

Day 2: Lake Havasu City, AZ, to Williams, AZ

This second day of the hop was mostly a long 150-mile haul uphill on I-40: the starting elevation, at Lake Havasu, was about 800′ and the ending elevation at Williams was over 6,200′.  While the temperatures were not as scorching as the first day in the desert, they did hover between 95 and 100 the entire way, making it another major challenge for the truck.  And while it generally performed well again, I did hit the red line on the transmission temperature on the last uphill stretch into Williams.  I really didn’t want to stop just a few miles shy of our destination, so I pushed it to the top, then let it rest on the downhill.  I sure hope I didn’t do any damage to the transmission because (1) we need a healthy truck and (2) I will catch hell from Jett.

The stretch from Kingman to Williams was one of those rare road segments that we had already traveled (the other being I-5 between southern Oregon and Sacramento), but of course we did it in the easy, downhill, direction on the GTW last November.  It didn’t look all that familiar.

This is our second visit to Williams (the first one being our visit to the Grand Canyon on the GTW). This time we are staying at the Canyon Motel & RV Park which is just slightly more remote than the RV park at the train terminal where we stayed the first time. The site is gravel and might be the most uneven site we have encountered yet (we had to raise the starboard side of Patience about 5 inches). There aren’t a lot of amenities at this park – a crappy indoor pool and a minimalist general store. But it has GREAT WiFi service, which is what I need to do my job. We are staying 6 days, leaving next Saturday, and I will be working all week.

The climb out of Kingman

Approaching Williams

You can’t come to Williams without visiting the Grand Canyon – I think that is a local ordinance – so we ran up to the south rim after we settled in. The canyon is still beautiful. I will report on that next.

Categories: AZ, CA, Places, QTE, Routes, RV Parks | Leave a comment

So long, California, you’ve been gnarly

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Sparky

Today, with any luck, we will leave California. We might be back (though Jett swears otherwise), but it won’t be for a year or more, I suspect.

To get out we need to travel through record heat along a road with no travel services for 100 miles and probably without cell phone service most of the way. I hope the truck is up to it – hauling a 15,000 pound trailer while also pumping out cold air for us and the dogs. But we will have plenty of water and someone will help us, I am sure, if we are unlucky enough to break down.

I have reduced the air pressure in the tires by 3 or 4 pounds, in anticipation of them getting very hot. That’s my biggest worry – a blowout.

I have enjoyed California, for the most part. The weather, despite the rainy December, has been excellent. Jett hates the water and is adamant that we aren’t coming back. But I think when she feels the humidity in Florida, or sleet in Massachusetts, or mosquitoes most everywhere, she will appreciate the dry climate of southern California.

Anyway, we have been living in a beautiful place for 4 months. Here is one final photo from Rancho California.

The pond at Rancho California

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My penultimate commute

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Sparky

I would have saved this for tomorrow, but that would have been my final commute to Temecula and it is so much more fun to say penultimate.

Anyway, I wanted to document, for my memories as much as for anyone else’s edification, the glorious first 15 miles of my commute (or last 15, if I am on my way home).  It is a moonscape, with big rocks strewn about like so many granite beads from a celestial string.  I have read that the soft soil is actually the bed of the ocean, pushed above sealevel some 5 or 10 million years ago.  And the rocks are the magma that was spit from the fissures in the earth’s crust at that time that mostly solidified before landing on that soft sand.

It is unlike anything you will find in Massachusetts.

And there are some points of interest along the way.

So, starting from Temecula and heading sound on CA 79, this is what I have seen every day…

The trip starts with 5 miles of conventional strip development along an 8-lane boulevard which abruptly transforms into a narrow, winding 2-lane country road. There is one stop light about a half-mile out of town where you can take a left to visit the Temecula vineyards. Going straight puts you on a path to Aguanga and other similar dots on the map.

Pulling up out of Temecula

The terrain rises gradually (with a few sharp drops along the way), starting at about 1,000′ in Temecula and ending at about 1,900′ in Aguanga. But the highest point along the way is probably over 2,500′.

Metal stallion

About 3 miles into the trip you will see a metal stallion atop a hill. This is the work of Ricardo Brededa, a sculptor of some note. A mile later you will find one of his signature pieces, the stagecoach. A snake, an Indian and a burro line the other side of the road. Finally, about a half-mile later, you see Jett’s favorite: four horses leaping the road.

Stagecoach

Driver and shotgun

Burro

Indian

Four horses leaping the road

After the horses you drop down into a flat valley, home to the Vail Ranch. This was one of the great ranches of southern California, encompassing almost 90,000 acres in 1900. Now it is smaller and exists primarily as a small community around Vail Lake, an RV park and a venue for major events such as the Mud Run (a race through mud) and the Monster Dash (a Halloween race with costumed runners).

Entrance to Vail Ranch

The road rises out of the valley in a sharp S-curve, then drops down to the only “major” intersection – the terminus of county R3, the road to Hemet.

Vail Valley

S-curve

The road rises again, goes through two sharp curves and then drops suddenly into another valley. As you go over the top, Palomar mountain, home to Palomar observatory, one of the world greatest astronomical observatories. The dome that houses the 200-inch Hale telescope is visible on the ridge of the mountains (see that little white spec?) as you drop into the valley.

Palomar mountain and the observatory

The final four miles consist of the sharp curve at the Stagecoach Inn (where the food is surprisingly good), a flat stretch past the entrance to the Jojoba Hills SKP RV Resort and the Aguanga General Store and post office, to a stop sign and the intersection with CA 371, the road to Palm Desert, Indio and Palm Springs. About a quarter mile past the stop sign is the entrance to Rancho California.

Home. But only for another day.

Stagecoach Inn

The only stop sign on the commute

CA 371

Rancho California driveway

Entrance

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Pick a caption

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Sparky

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Ready and rarin’

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Sparky

We spent most of yesterday preparing for the QTE: adjusting tire pressures, verifying that the slides still work, checking the rig’s lights, securing the ladder and cleaning up the patio area for our final inspection. I discovered a couple of minor problems with Patience: the sheathing covering the rear holding tanks was pulling away from the chassis a bit and there is a small hole in the fiberglass on the left rear corner – probably an unnoticed consequence of my first ding, way back in NH in October last year.

So once I fix the sheathing and fiberglass hole (just an hour’s work, I think, but I need some stuff from Home Depot) we will be ready to go. We hope to be on the road by 9am Saturday. 8am if possible, to avoid the heat. I checked the Saturday forecast for Palm Springs and Lake Havasu City: highs of 110 and 115, respectively. I think we are going to find out if there is a temperature that is too hot for Jett.

The Saturday segment is relatively flat, so, though it will be hot, it will not stress the engine. But the second day, to Williams, AZ, will be a long, uphill climb. If it is over 100 degrees for that segment I will have to watch the oil and coolant temperatures carefully.

After that we only have to worry about tornadoes. Oklahoma City seems to be the bulls-eye this year and we all know how much tornadoes like to eat RVs as appetizers. We are just going to cross our fingers and hope for the best. Jett has prepared a tote labeled “Evacuation Kit” in case we need to vacate the RV and seek shelter.

And she never made it past Brownie.

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