ARIZONA 12/17/2015-1/13/2016

Thursday, December 17
In 1952, I made my stage debut as the narrator of The Nativity at North Haven High School
New Mexico state line to Phoenix

    Jalapeno's Cafe in Show Low at 1:39 for a French dip and coffee. The Snowy River Inn, Budget Inn & Suites, another cafe, Lazy Bear Decor, Navajo County Attorney's Office, a nice big house that would be perfectly at home in New England, High Country Carwash, Kiva Hotel, KC Hotel, Deuce of Clubs Avenue, another cafe, Big K Mart, Safeway, "Trust the Force But Always Buckle Up," a large house with a lot of gingerbread and a third floor turret with a little dome on top, a porch underneath as well as porches on the 1st and 2nd floors.
    I should have stayed here in Show Low, about halfway between Socorro and Phoenix. I would have been able to enjoy the following drive through fantastic mountains and canyons instead of worrying about getting to Phoenix on time.

    Entering White Mountain Apache Reservation at 1:49. Pine-covered and snow-covered mountains, Forestdale Trading Post, a great canyon area. A nice big U curve at 1000 feet. God, this is beautiful country here, no ands ifs or buts about it. Coming around that curve, these mountains up ahead are snow- and pine-covered. Behind me is great picture but there's no place to pull over and do it. A mountain rises up like a mesa but with a bunch of trees covering it. Fort Apache, thataway. I'm on US 60 and US 77. Still more stunning rock cliffs and palisades running on and on and on. 10 minutes or so resting my eyes at a pullover, snow along the road, rock along the road to my right, pines and mountains, what more could a man want? As long as he doesn't go over the edge. Phoenix, 125 miles.

    Entering Salt River Canyon. It is magnificent, deep, huge, no way to capture it. Absolutely fantastic, spectacular, and, yes, awesome. Leaving White Mountain Apache, entering San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, fantastic rocks off to my left down to the Salt River. It just keeps going on and on. Leaving San Carlos at 3:25, high desert, pure blue sky, a raven. 3:31, blue mountains behind dark blue mountains behind dark mountains behind mountains nearer to the road, sharp peaks off to my left, valleys, rock megaliths jutting out of a hillside, incredible country. At a pullover, I encounter a middle-aged couple with a house trailer. They're from some place in Massachusetts north of Northampton, Winchendon I think.

    Globe City Limits at 3:50, temp 51, built on a hillside. Junction with US 70, DQ, Green's Real Mexican Food. $16.50 gas worth of $1.8379 gas. Past the El Rey Refrigerated Motel, under a walkway, a restaurant, a dark red adobe-style Southwestern bldg., Jerry's restaurants, couple of little houses with normal eastern style roofs, a strange building with a rounded corner where 2 streets meet at a shallow angle. I think I left a glove back at an overlook before Show Low. Bernard's Coffee Station, a small adobe building for sale with Tap Room still on it, Old Town Plaza, what looks like crumbly rock on the hillsides (probably pretty big boulders), "The Pickle Barrel is open daily. Shop at the Pickle Barrel." Lots of traffic going the other way, making me realize that I'll hit Phoenix at the tag end of rush hour. Tonto National Monument, America's Best Value Inn (quite large), entering Claypool at 4:11, the sun in my eyes, entering Miami at 4:13, where they're busy tearing down a mountain, "Visit Historic Downtown Miami", back into desert at 4:15, actually hilly territory. Some nice rock formations here, wherever here is, mountains to my left, rocky ones with nothing but rock, further on some with snow on them. A nice little hoodoo sitting out of the rocks to my right, a small rock tower to my left, the sun in my eyes, going southwest. Wonderful red rock canyons with tiny minarets, Devil's Canyon, lots of little rock things poking up from the hills to my left, a rock wall to my right, a side canyon. Another red rock canyon towering over me to my right, same thing to the left with a stream bed maybe between us, probably a dry wash right now.

    (Whistle). I'm going over Queen Creek, a big massif towering up over me, all those red rock cliffs, fantastic, a couple of rock towers rising up. Coming down into populated area ahead of me as I come down out of the mountains. Gonzalez Pass and saguaro cactus at 4:45, the first saguaros I've seen this trip, a bit of a promontory off to my left, lots of saguaro cactus. Going down in cruise control, a truck pulls out of a side street into the left lane, causing me to brake, then a car with house trailer turns left from the other way into the street the truck had come out of and I have to jam on the brakes to keep from hitting him and things go flying of course.
    The ridge off to my right looks like a huge piece of chipped flint, that sharp jagged edge. Superstition Mountain Drive. Silly Mountain Road. Onto the freeway at 5:04, the sun pretty low in west. Mesa Arizona at 5:07. I-10 and the Phoenix City Limits at 5:30, traffic very very slow. I think this is the first time I've been in Phoenix since I flew in for a computer conference in 1963. Of course I recognize nothing. Even if nothing had changed, I wouldn't have recognized anything. And there have been big changes. I-10 continues on to those incredibly similar cities, Wickenberg and Los Angeles.
    The Econolodge at 6:30, temp 53, odometer 116294. It's fairly nice though it does have a free plug problem. 3 table lamps, one standing lamp, 2 bedside tables with drawers, a small table, desk, 2 chairs, fridge, microwave, half-dresser but wide. Lots of counter space in the alcove with shelf, hangers, foldaway.
    Forget about open mikes. The one I wanted is not happening. The others are a bit far away and have already started by the time I get here and I just don't figure they're worth the trouble.
    I try to find the Roosevelt Diner but go the wrong way and have to settle for a sandwich and cupcakes bought at a Circle K.

I leave at 11:26, and get to Clarkdale at 11:35, up into cloud, mist on the windshield, wipers on intermittent.
    Jerome city Limits at 11:40, up a nice canyon road coming into it then a steep uphill with lots of curves. Established 1876. It's a pretty hilly town (I was glad to use the cane), picturesque, proud of its bordello past but having no bordellos present. There are at least three tiers of buildings going up the hill to the Haskins Apartments high over everything. I leave at 12:21, 31 degrees, down that steep curvy road with is more scary going down than coming up, back the same way I came, skipping Tuzigoot.

    It's interesting--there seem to be a fair number of Oriental people at the monuments and parks, some of them apparently 2nd or 3rd generation. Last night, at Taco Bell, 3 teenagers plus their parents were talking in what sounded to me like some eastern European language, but who knows?
    I take the long way back to the motel, past a fairgrounds or something that with old horse & buggies around its edges, a couple of horses grazing in a field. The land, desert hills with sagebrush (or creosote bushes), the mountains being obscured from time to time by clouds, is fairly spectacular and totally incapable of being captured by a camera.
    JR showed up at 1:30 and we went to an Oriental buffet in Cottonwood, where I bought him a birthday lunch, bringing some home to Catt, where we played a little music and talked a lot. He brought me back to the motel at 7:30. I had scrambled eggs, bacon, an English muffin, and coffee at Dennys before going to bed around 11.

    Back to I-17 at 9:37, crossing the Dry Beaver Creek, the exit to Oak Creek Canyon, route 179, the Red Rock Scenic Byway, to Sedona, at 9:42, entering the Coconino National Forest, not much in the way of trees, just a few small scraggly ones. There are red rock hills to my left, 5 massifs to my right, another massif with its head in the clouds. Dry Beaver Creek to my right is not dry. Village of Oak Creek at 10:04. Some juncos with white tail feathers. A mass of red rock fingers are all massed and clustered together rising out of the desert, all these incredible rock formations one after another, absolutely incredible, the sun highlighting the colors of rock against the darkness of the clouds, magnificent country. Oh God! a series of huge rock towers rising up. The Sedona City Limits at 10:18, nothing but desert and rock formations. Sedona, elevation 4500, founded 1902. 89A south to Cottonwood at 10:38, temp 47. Past the Mariposa Latin Inspired Grill, the Red Planet Diner, Mountain Shadows Drive, the Sugar Loaf Motel, Coffee Pot Drive, Rodeo Road, Shelby Drive, Moondog Pizza, Windwater Day Spa, Beat Garden, Arroyo Pinon Drive, Dry Creek Rock, rocks at Rainbows End, Calle del Este, pretty much overcast now.
    Coming down from Sedona, to my right are red rock things, rising out of desert ahead of me is a hill topped with sagebrush or creosote or whatever, rolling country, in its own way very beautiful, maybe even spectacular, red rock minarets not too far off to my right, yellow grass land with dry brown leafless growths, 3 or 4 cattle standing out in the middle of all this, a strangely beautiful land in an eerie desolate way, just yellow land going out as far as I can see with dark brown leafless growths on it, creosote bushes, sagebrush, whatever.
    Cottonwood at 11:46, temp 49, cottonwoods maybe hanging over the road, rugs for sale along the road. $10 of $1.999 gas at a Maverik at the edge of Cottonwood.
    The long curving canyon road up to Jerome, There's a house up on the hillside; I have no idea how to get up there. The Jerome town limits 11:33, temp 45, 15 mph, curves and mountain grades, S-curves going up, a couple of abandoned buildings on the left and right. Houses going up on the mountainside, the top of the mountain in mist. Jerome is an interesting town, with curving steps going up, rock walls holding things back, a blocked-off underground passage, a very touristy area with lots of art shops, Nelly Bly II, very definitely treading on its sordid past, a double porch (2nd and 3rd floors only) hanging porch over the candy store, another building on the road above also with 2nd and 3rd floor porches, a big house like a hotel high over everything else.

    Grand Canyon Park at 12:15, temp 26. $30 but I get in free with the Golden Eagle Pass I bought 10-15 years ago, probably for $5, since it's currently available for $10. The road is not well-plowed, maybe not plowed at all, just two wheel tracks and pretty good snow cover, an inch or more alongside the rod. I get to the parking lot at 12:26, temp 22, odometer 116855, fluffy unthreatening cumulus up there. But it's cold and I have one glove and no hat, no idea at all where my stocking caps are. I walk to the visitor center then finally to the rim where I take a number of photos, the first three with the lens cap on. I walk back to the visitors center to call Laurie and we talk for maybe 10 minute. Don't know who else was there, presumably the whole family. With the many paths back to the parking lot, I had trouble finding the car. The parking area was full--there had to be several thousand people at Grand Canyon on Christmas Day. Some seemed to be Europeans of some kind from snatches of conversations I couldn't understand. Yes, it is spectacular. I didn't get to see much of it, it was too cold.

    (Thinking about an email I got from Florida, I realize I'm so alive right now and part of it is because it is cold, not brutally cold, just "invigorating and stimulating" and the pleasure of getting back into the warmth. I'm so happy right now and part of it is because of the snow and cold, but not really really cold.)
    I decide not to take AZ 64 since it said chains or snow tires advisable. So it's back down AZ 64 to US 180, the sun shining through big lines of cumulus. Over a rise, stretched out in front of me is that big wide valley I drove through yesterday, but from the north instead of the south. AZ 64 is a busy busy road, a lot of traffic going the other way, mostly cars, a bus, 2 groups of 7 cars, then some more cars. And so on. Are they all going up to Grand Canyon? Where else would they go? I stop at Fred's Diner to close my eyes for a while, then on to US 180, 32 degrees, to Flagstaff, the sky full of soft cumulus clouds, lots of blue patches, sun shining, past a closed-up store and the Double Eagle Trading Company. Elevation 6000. High desert and the usual description, to my left quite a few small mts with snow them, one with its top just below the clouds. This is the San Frncisco Peaks Scenic Road, Kaibab National Forest. Rounded mountains not impressive by western standards but pretty good by eastern standards. Coconino National Forest at 2:30, 29 degrees. Desert but the growths are a bit taller, desert trees. Elevation 7000 at 2:35, 27 degrees, snow along the road, light flurry, pretty much cloudy but still a couple of fairly large patches of blue. The road has mixed patches of bare spots and snow and I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open. Not a good combination. Kendrick Park. Snow on small mountains in front of me, about 8 of them, stacked together, much higher mountains behnd them, up there in the clouds with very little snow, a red house that looks like a barn, another red house with blue roof, "Home of the White Buffalos."
    Then things start going downhill and south. A lot of cars parked by the road, people seriously dressed for winter, 8000 feet at 2:48, temp 20, the road in much better shape, clear, snow on either side. Pine trees and snow. Birch trees or aspens and snow. More cars at trail places and still more, a kid pulling a sled with another kid on it, more and more cars pulled over, God knows how many. People out on a Christmas Day, a lot of snowboards, red, blue, green. So many of them out here in the snow on Christmas Day. Hundreds and hundreds of cars out here. If you assume a family of 4 in each one, which is a pretty good assumption, there's two, three, four, maybe even ten thousand people out here. And traffic slows to a crawl. Two teenage couples together walking back to their car. There's no way of gauging this, so many cars, pulled over on both sides of the road, just going on and on and on, just like the beauty out here. Very very slow traffic, thanks to all the cars pulled over, people out walking in the road. This was not the short cut today. People slipping and sliding, a car is stuck, a lot of little kids, some not so little. A cloud covered mountain off to my left as we come out of the mountains into the flat but still creeping along.
    Entering Flagstaff, elevation 6906, at 4:01, 26 degrees, very very slow second-gear traffic with stops. Pioneer Museum with an old train in front, Western Power Mills or something like that. Still lots of cars. Coconino Center for the Arts. Traffic finally picks up, for no perceptible reason. The Lowell Observatory.
    But things still go wrong. Because of the people causing the traffic, motel prices are sky high. I finally bite the bullet and check into the Budget Host at 4:58, odometer 116936, temp 29. It's not great. The TV remote doesn't work too well, the heat is very slow, it's poorly lit, the refrigerator unplugged, the TV very small. It does have lots of counter space. Pretty much standard but definitely on the low end. Very thin walls.
    At 8 I go to Denny's and they’re jammed, the only game in town open on Christmas night. I go back a couple of hours later and get nachos. I may sleep in my clothes again tonight

    First though, there's the view of the Painted Desert from Tiponi Point--a chasm dropping off from the flat light green desert, red rock fingers reaching down into the chasm, rock formations. At Tawa Point, there are some really interesting bushes--low to ground, all twigs till the russet color at end of twigs. Ravens at Pintado Point.

Whipple Point. What looks like a totally flat-topped mesa as I drive by but I can't see it from Lacey Point, where it's windy and cold, and there's a cliff with yellow on top, a sharp red band of, with a thin band of white at bottom. There's an old car where old Route 66 used to be. Then it's over I-40, strange clouds to southeast, a white wispy translucent kind of cloud, a vague white shape like a manta ray, to the west lots of tiny little cumulus cloud puffs everywhere. There are little rock hills dusted with snow, just one after another, 50 or more of these things, little rock outjuttings from the desert one after another. Larger conical outcroppings called tepees. Lot of rock debris on slopes, not house-sized but still pretty big, a couple of dry washes, a rock like the pointer of a sundial, a place where rocks stick out from cliffs like guns over a parapet, some hoodoos next to the road.

    Agate Bridge is a fossilized tree with some rock that formed a bridge over an arroyo. 2 photos of bridge with a fossilized tree and an outjutting further out. There is quite a canyon to my left, all these rock layers, a pyramid circular thing, another sharp jutting out like piece of flint. I take just one picture at Jasper Forest of the flint type rock. Down below the overlook are lots of scattered rock logs but they're so small at that distance and it's very cold and windy, so I take no photo but do take a couple of ones near the near. Two rented campers go by me the other way, a really wispy cloud covers a good part of sky but it's just wisps. The wind is too much for me, so I don't take the walk past a lot of fossilized rocks. Across the road is a big old rock bluff with its face just scooped out like with ice cream scoop. There are plenty of places to walk around see more, but the bitter wind is too much for me and a raven all fluffed up.

A conical peak seems to have two long rectangular rocks standing upright on top of it like plinths, to my right. Rock cliffs to my left with jumbled rocks, a rock "fence" on top, what looks like piles of ash or coal dust, very dark looking but hard rock of some kind, probably volcanic. Mesa type outcroppings, what looks like mud down here, a slew of short pillars in a row forming a barricade. How do you describe this with words? I don't know how but they are spectacular. To my left a rounded thing with lots of loose rock on top of it, behind it a mesa type. Oh, my God, look at that! I can't even begin to describe it, lots of little turrets popping out of the desert, so many of them, to my left a conical shape with a big rock on top of it, rocks everywhere in strange shapes, chess castle type, red rocks, all kinds of incredible stuff, no place to pull over and take pictures. One picture of a rock wall, Martha's Butte off to my right. Just as I leave, now there's all kinds of good stuff to take pictures of but that same old problem, no place to pull over. Some kind of hawk fighting the wind, rocks, desert, heading into some mesa type thing up ahead, a whole bunch of cliffs with scattered rock on them, red rock uprising off to my, left whole bunch of low rock formations with what looks like a table on top of one of them, a little rock gully alongside the road. Leaving the park at 1:24, temp 32.
    On to US 180 west to the Holbrook City Limits at 1:46, 31 degrees, elevation 5080, founded in 1882. Then it's AZ 77 (the Hashknife Pony Express Route) south briefly at 1:50, 377 to Overgarde-Hebert (AZ continues on to Snowflake) at 1:52, temp 33. Desert with a few rock outcroppings, sun shining through almost completely cloudy sky, just one patch of blue that I can see, over a railroad track. 2:08, temp 27, one big old power windmill by itself, completely clouded over, yellow desert prairie land with large sagebrush plus small gray-green growths in prairie grass. 2:12, coming down from a ridge into high desert country, into a low flat valley with a dusting of snow everywhere, totally overcast now but lightening up in the direction I'm going, due south. Oak Hill Wash, elevation 6000, the sun managing to break through the clouds briefly, completely clouded over but white up ahead. The Sitgreave National Forest.
    AZ 277 south at Hebert-Overgarde at 2:34, 24 degrees, US 360 at 2:37, which way to go, west, I would think. Black Canyon, a lot of snow as we leave H-O. 2:55, temp 18, just passed Wildcat Canyon and a couple of snow plows, up in high mountains again, snow on the ground, pine trees, sun shining, big huge cumulus cloud dead ahead, fair amount of blue sky, especially to my left, Forest Lakes. 7700 feet at 1:00. temp 11. Going through a rock cut, red rock to my right, there seems to be a valley off to my left but I can't see much, basically it seems to be a bowl of mist but I'm not sure, definitely misty down there, meanwhile on my right are red rock cliffs up to white grayish rock, yellow rock in layers, I need to keep both hands on wheel on this swooping windinfg road, blue sky ahead, big bunch of fluffy cumulus at the horizon, white cloud underneath them to the horizon. Two Sixty Trail Head, hazy mountain ridge not so far away. Christopher Creek at 3:12, 26 degrees, pretty much blue sky, big fluffy cumulus up ahead, sun wanting to shine in my eyes, pines and red rock, to the right some big cliffs on and on like a palisade for some distance. Doubtful Canyon, Camp Tontozona, Tonto Creek, Kohl's Ranch, Star Valley Town Limits at 3:24, temp 30, over Preacher Canyon. Payson at 3:30, temp 34.
    AZ 87 to Mesa at 3:35, temp 33. Going down, "Steep Grade next 6 Miles," out of pines into scrub brush, the surrounding mountains still pretty impressive, hazy and not that far away. Ears popping, the town of Rye, Roosevelt Creek, Tonto National Monument, 3:52, temp 42, 65 mph, 87 a divided highway, brush off to right and left, low hills and mountains beyond that, a rounded hill slightly left of dead ahead, desert growth, going up again, a few little trees naked without leaves, going up, cutting through pale red and yellow rock. Diagonal leaves of rock, so to speak, with grooves and ruts between them, 20-30 feet across, 20-30 feet down. A blue and white vaned windmill not moving, a canyon off to my right, hills and mountains beyond that, a fairly flat-topped mountain ridge, round curves and peaks to my right, lots of desert with deep cuts in it, arroyos, small canyons. It's a drop down to the lane going the other way, big U curves, Kane Springs Road, still going down, 3:57, 39 degrees, nice little rock bluffs to my right, small but looking real nice, plenty of little round hills to my left, sun in my eyes, about to pass under a big rock massif with a steep face, the sun driving me crazy. The area I am passing through now probably would be wonderful if I didn't have the sun in my eyes. Cliff on both sides, Kitty Kill Creek, hard to read signs with the sun in my eyes, going down, bunches of hills, a rock outcropping, Red Whiskey Springs, behind the hills in front of me a great big gray eminence mountain rises, no, a couple of them. Nice peaks to my left, distant mountains to my right, a nice rock-topped rounded mountain with cliffs on its top, before that a rock wall type of thing marching down the side of a slope. I pass through a cut, more mountains up ahead marching off slightly to my left, another cut. A rock ridge with lots of rocks dotting the top of it, past that lots and lots of mountains close and more behind that, 6 layers of mountains, the most distant ones just purple gray, saguaro cactus, my ears pop, up ahead a strange ridge of mountains, rocky looking, at the top one goes up and downsome distance, flat rocks, one looks like bunch of hoodoos, up ahead a rock wall, looks like fairly loose huge rocks but solid, saguaro cactus on it, to my left just green-covered hills like moss, 3-4 peaks beyond hills, one fairly sharp. You think it's going to end but it doesn't. Just a jumble of rock in the desert between saguaro, a couple of big stones at the side of road, more jumbled stone to my left, a big thing of rock rising out of the desert, more rock to my left, behind that big huge mountains rising up gray purplish gray. High desert.
    Entering Fort McDonald Indian Reservation at 4:32, temp 51. The Fort McDonald Casino at 4:35. To my left, a mountain has steps up to a turret then steps back down, better steps going down than those going up but I don't think I'd want to take them.
    Knights Inn at 5:12, 51 degrees, odometer 117282. This place is a dump, I won't stay here another night. Their internet is down and the room is small.
    I go back to the Cup o'Karma, first going the wrong way on E. Southern Street, coming back to the motel to check the address, finding it's not that far away on W. Southern. No one there is particularly good. I'm okay, nothing great. "Going Home," "Saint James Infirmary," "Walk in Balance," "Robert Johnson" then later "The Last of the Outlaws," "New Kid in Town," and "Stella Blue." I get $22 of $1.899 gas at the Circle K and got to bed at 11:40.

Church in Ajo

    10:19, Arizona 86 east, an interesting formation over there--it looks like mud, very gray, what looks like little rivulets coming down it, red rock on top. It goes on for some distance. Desert on both sides, to my right in the near distance a fairly large peak, smaller ones to the left of the large one, another to its right. To my left little hills and mountains in the distance, rising up to a ridge ahead to my left then drops down to peaks and going on off to my right, some very sharp jagged peaks. AZ 86 pretty busy, totally clear skies except for cirrus to the left of dead ahead, jagged peaks off to my left as I look straight ahead, pretty jagged. A nice little ridge that ends in a flattop directly to my left.
    And then into Why at 10:41. Not paying attention, I suddenly realized there was a big outcropping off to my left another immediately off to my left, one to my right but further away. A sharp triangular peak behind the one to my left, to my right a whole range of sharp peaks, a rounded peak jutting out from the others, a range way off to my left, mostly desert, lots of saguaro, some strangely-shaped, most the typical central stalk with fingers, quite tall ones here, a saguaro forest. The road to Gu Vo. 3 different large business or government buildings but I can't read any signs. Purple mountains rising ahead of me in the distance, a couple of cactus with one arm going up, one going down, like Gumby figures, a silent windmill in the desert.
    Quijotea is buildings off to my right, a graveyard alongside the road. Coming into hill coungry again, a flattop hill to my left in the near distance, to my right a whole bunch of hills covered with growths. Some cactus, not so much cactus any more. Someone actually going slower than me. Entering Sells, elevation 2614, 11:42. $10 of $2.069 gas at a Shell station in Sells, elevation 2614, 11:42--small one-story houses alongside the road, some more eastern or European, some adobe, a Spanish-style church. I can see ahead of me a white silo type building on top of a flat-top ridge, the highest part of a ridge of mountains dead ahead of me. Rocky crags as I approach Kitt Peak, now off to my left, at least 2 domes, a sawtoothed range of mountains rises up to a peak then drops down to a couple of sawtooths then down then up to a flattop and back up to another peak. The closer you get the more impressive they get. The Santa Rosa Ranch.

    Arizona 386 to Kitt Peak, 12 miles, at 12:06, temp 52, speed limit 55. Watch for Animals. A little snow up there, not a heck of a lot but definitely some. 4000 feet, ear-popping time, a saguaro with hole in it, one small saguaro and then no more. 5000 feet, the view from this road is probably tremendous if I dared take a look. Snow encroaching the road, entering observatory grounds at 12:19, temp 41. 6000 and there is the observatory ahead of me, a dome directly ahead off to my left, a dome on top of a silo, more domes, marching up to the top of a peak, 3 or 4 more domes and other buildings. 6750 underneath the dome of the 4.3 Mayall scope, arriving at the parking lot at 12:28, temp 40. I count 26 telescopes at Kitt Peak. Mexican jays flying around, unsuccessfully pandhandling a couple eating at a table, landing on the table very close to them. I put a couple of Quaker chewing bar pieces on the hood of my car and one of them comes up and takes them. I go on a tour up to the Mayall 4.3. As we pass another building, the leader says, "You will notice that this dome looks different from other domes. It looks like a spray can. They decided to build it like a spray can because Gerard Kuiper proposed that they go up on the dome every now and then to look at the night sky and remember where they came from."

4 meter Mayall telescope

The telescope is a monster, tons and tons and tons of equipment of all kinds. I leave at 2:59 getting back to AZ 86 at 1:28.

    A multibanded slanted rock shape to my left--greenish covered slopes, a narrow yellow band, dark red, lighter red, darker red but not as dark as first one. A pointed peak with a scar of red on it. To my right, peaks and rocks, mostly desert and saguaro, much more covered now, not a lot of sand. Border patrol stop: "Have a good one." A couple of ravens nearby. Three Points Nobles Junction at 3:47. 9 miles from Tucson, 1:00, there's a lot of red rock on both sides and ahead from left to right, pointed rocks jutting out of the desert much larger than the ones ahead. Saguaro National Park, Old Tucson, a rock formation with a big rock knob on it about 45 degrees to my right, another to the right of that one, ahead a big red rock cliff fairly high, some more lower to its left.
    Into the Copper Cactus Inn across from the Meet Rack at 4:29, temp 59, odometer 117735. I rip up the splash guard again on a rebar sticking out of the concert e bar in the parking space. I go to the Sky Bar, where I have a veggie sub and a coke, and give a couple of quarters to kid asking for "Spare change?", a phrase I haven't heard in quite a long time. I do 4 songs, "New Kid in Town," "Four O’Clock on the Highway," "This Old Van," and "Allngiht Diner." I got 2 compliments afterwards but they were lots in the room who didn't really care. I didn't think the next 2 performers were very good. As I left, people were looking through a couple of telescopes set up in the patio.

    A pickup truck on the other side of road, on my side a very stocky Native American with a black flattop hat and wearing the typical Indian dress of today is walking down into the land alongside the road. Back into red rock country at 1:31, going downhill, pines replacing saguaro. Entering Navajo country at 1:34, a wonderful vista of grayish mountains, beautiful, to my left 3 steep cliffs. A palomino horse out alone grazing, brown and white cattle with white face blazes. Small patches of snow on each side of the road, temp 44.
    Leaving White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation into Show low and Sitgreaves Nat Forest and Show Low, founded 1870, elevation 6331, at 2:00. Main Street Café at 2:07, temp 44, for a ham and cheese sandwich on grain bread, a good-sized cup of good coffee. America’s Best Value Inn at 2:40, temp 45, odometer 118054. Mailed some stuff to Penny and got blueberries, tiny peppers, Mounds bar, walnuts at Safeway.
    When I went out again at 8:30, the Show Low Cafe was closed so I had a steak fajita wrap and mint shake.

20 inch reflecting telescope used from 1909 to 1950

I found a paved path that went along the Colorado, which was fairly small and very quiet, a kayaker in a bright dayglo orange boat, some small birds, probably English sparrows, flying around, three killdeer (or some kind of sandpiper or plover) flying and calling over the river.
    Welcome to Yuma East Wetlands. I left the paved path for a dirt path. A sign up ahead. I thought it said "Do Not Enter When Flogged" but it really said "Do Not Enter When Flooded." Kind of pleasant along the Colorado River, a stand of trees on the other side, a small island in front of me. I walked to the Herb Gunther Scenic Overlook, which wasn't all that scenic.
    On the walk back, I saw a small bird in silhouette that acted a little like a chickadee but more the shape of s kinglet or gnatcatcher, quite possibly a bushtit. Also a large bird, maybe gray--it's hard to tell-- kingbird size, another one halfway between the two in size. These birds somehow always seem to keep themselves between me and the sun. A couple of water birds, one with a whitish beak, otherwise completely black, probably an American coot, the other seems to be a duck of some kind, mostly brown, with a white rump, dull bill, probably a female gadwall. It moves really fast when it wants to. Another American coot, both of them diving birds.
    Back to the car at 3:54, temp 74. The entire walk took about an hour. A chihuahua scampers fearfully across the road.
    "It’s a funny feeling when you ride alone. It seems I'm almost with someone, not physically, not mentally, but somehow spiritually. I'm broke, I'm sore, I'm tired, but as I set camp hobo-style I'm still waiting for anything smoking. I just turned down a bunk in a mission because I like that feeling of being free." --Lucky the Hobo (The Wetlands is where there used to be a hobo jungle near the freight yards.)

    The Kofa National Wildlife Refuge at 10:47, temp 54, Castle Dome Mines Museum 10 miles ahead. I had planned to spend some time here but the dirt road is full of little rocks, bumping along, and the car probably could have taken it but I'm not sure my nerves could have so, after taking two more pictures, I turn around. Back to 95 at 10:59, Mile 52 at 11:16, temp 52, fair amount of ragged peaks to my left after some desert, closer to my right are ragged ones, a few saguaro, not as ragged by mile 74 at 11:26, 53 degrees. Mile 91 at 11:42, nice jagged mountain to my left, ones off to my right much further off, sandy desert on either side, lots of sagebrush, some small trees, clear blue sky ahead, cirrus in the west, clear blue in the east.
    Quartzite Town Limits at 11:52, US 95 now one lane each way, some patchwork on the road but now pretty good. A rock uprising like the back of a dinosaur to my left, distant mountains rising and falling, some peaks not really jagged to my right, lot of trailers to my left, bus-type trailer, a lot of balloons, an RV show, junction with US10, a lot of RVs, more RVs, red and white striped tents, La Mesa RV, Fill-R-Up Propane, Joyce's Crafts Yarn Beads, Kofa Mountain RV Park, definitely an RV town, Herb's Hardware, American Trails RV Park, RV Pit Stop, Grandma's Heaters, Highway 50-95 Rock Shop Wholesale and Retail, Grubsteak Restaurant Bar and Grille, Railroad RV park, desert to my right, RV parks to my left, Split Rail RV Park,
    Plymouth Wash, back to desert at 11:58, now on Arizona 95, don't know when I missed the turn to US 95, but that's okay, this is where I wanted to go, mountains some distance off the road, more to my left than to my right, not at all close.
    12:16 mile 130--coming off a ridge down into a flat wide desert area, low ridge to my right, low mountains ahead of me, a little range that goes around, some fairly close to my left. Completely blue sky except for some cirrus to the west, some cirrus back to the south, a huge wide desert, up ahead some cylindrical storage tanks, speed limit 55, intersection with Arizona 72, Havasu City to my left, Phoenix to my right. Left toward the mountains, sand and sagebrush on both sides of the road.
    Entering Colorado River Indian Reservation at mile 135, 12:22, no casino anywhere in sight (!), interesting mountains up ahead, a rock tower up there. Entering Parker, elevation 417, founded 1908, at 12:30. A railroad yard off to right, an old passenger car by itself, Coffee Ern's, Terrible's Gasoline, Ruperto's Mexican Food, Colorado River Building Materials, Woody's Gasoline, Riverside Floors, Moovalva Plaza, Buckskin Mountain State Park, Colorado Resort and Casino, back into desert, more sand and sagebrush, a low mountain range up ahead, rock tower off to my left in the distance, quite a few reddish rock formations, a sawtooth rising out of red rock, one after another to my left.
    Really spectacular stuff off to my left, the road patched and bumpy, really nice country, red rock hills, a canyon off to my right, mountains to my left, really wonderful country but no place to pull over and take a photo, a rock column hoodoo with a rounded top rises stubbily out to my right. Really spectacular red rocks right and left, everywhere, just wonderful. Mountain folds and canyons I would love to go up into. Very red strata here, really spectacular red color rock, yellow rock as well, over another canyon, one after another of these incredible up and down peaks, jagged peaks, really wonderful, that's all. I can see a lake between several jagged upjuttings, Buckskin State Park, a guy on a bicycle going my way with a lot of stuff on the back, a bearded guy out hitchhiking, a wonderful rock monolith up above River Island State Park. Into some kind of town area, houses under all these fantastic rocks, a river or something off to my left, the Verdi West RV Co-op, beyond the river still more rock, a bright red rock thing rising up beyond the lake or river, the Harbor Inn Motel, palms over there with lots of RV's trailers, up ahead a steam shovel is slowly decapitating a mountain though it doesn't seem to be working right now.

    Parker Dam, the Blue Bar Two Cafe, Buckskin Fire Department, through walls of red and yellow rock full of strange formations, a canyon full of up and down rocks, little jagged peaks, a larger peak rising ahead of me, dark red and orangish red alongside the road, out of the rock area into an area where there's Southwest type buildings of some kind, dark blue water underneath me, a lake, no buildings on the other side that I can see, a rocky island close to this road, to my left are cliffs way over the road, hanging over it. Parker Dam Lake at 1:07. Mojave County, over a river with lots of yellow reed-type grass, into fairly tame country, desert mountain and hills, some red rock, sage brush dotting hills and slopes.
    I'm not following Rule #3 very well. Although I don't have a final destination, each night I figure out where I'm going to stop the following night and that keeps me going past things I should stop for. So that is there.
    So I'm coming up on Cattail Cove State Park. Should I stop and see what it's like? No, I'm going to keep going. Not sure that was a good move.
    1:15, mile 168. Some nice rock off to my left, the ones up close dark, the ones further back a grayish blue, rising up to a butte then falling off sharply. Lake Havasu City, elevation 575, founded 1964, off to my right a lot of homes, Eastern-type and adobe-type red-tiled roofs, some archways, desert to my left, the Human Bean Drive-Through Turn Now, Homestead Steakhouse (very pueblo with logs sticking out), a row of rectangular houses, Titan Fitness Center, pawn shop, Moose Lodge, another lake up ahead, Smoker Friendly (whatever that is), an orange very dark orange very orange DQ, Havasu Preparatory Academy, Eclectic Avenue Salvage, lots of palm trees, going up to the top of strange trunks then fronding out--most go up straight then there's a little nodule underneath the fronds, in some it's before the frond area, some have none at all. Very blue lake off to my left. A row of adobe buildings, houses I guess, logs sticking out, all of Havasu City pretty much off to the right (east) of 95, now some stuff to my left, Red Robin, Shogun Japanese Cuisine, London Bridge Resort. For a place in existence only 50 years there's an awful lot to Havasu City, Crystal's Steak Ribs and Seafood, Desert Floors, Lin's Little China Buffet, a residential area, some with a kind of pale tile instead of red but adobe walls, flat rectangular buildings, so many traffic lights killing me, red tile roofs off to my right, on both sides there's a little stretch of desert, sand and sagebrush between the road and the houses, maybe 50 feet wide, "Watch for Animals Next 5 Miles," "Rough Road," Fall Spring Wash. Red rock hills up ahead, to my left a little bit of cliff then it rises and falls, almost directly ahead of me is a sharp peak with bunch of antennas on it, immediately off to my left a bunch of rock thumbs sticking out of desert, real nice country. At mile 194, stegosaurus spines go up the back of a ridge, red rising up out of the desert, a big mountain behind it, a range of mountains, to my right more red rocks rise up, nearer to the road, a lot of campers over there to my right, incredible country.
    Coming up on I-40 at Mile 202, 1:59, $1.999 at the Love's, heading east, snow-capped mountains ahead, back into snow country, mile 10 of I-40, speed limit 75. Coming up on Shinarump Drive and Old Trails Road. Railroad train off to right going the other way, mostly container cars, sand and sagebrush on either side, mountains with snow on them to my right some distance away, dark mountains without snow about the same distance to my left, a long long ridge with a few dips in it then a few peaks before it drops then back down up to more peaks then keeps going and going to my right, a bunch of peaks to my direct right, and left of that and still more to right of it. The Holy Moses Wash, Bullhead City, these walls of rock that are just pieces of rock like one against another forming a wall, like red rock doors. Mile 48, a gray rock cut, Stonehenge type of thing on top of one, a couple of flathead mesa type rock formations, several of them ahead of me, two made of rock doorway types, one after another like pickets. Clack Canyon Road, still more palisade-type rock cliffs, one almost exactly rectangular, a sort of dome on those rock fingers, a very sharp peak off to my right.

    The Andy Devine Avenue in Kingman, Arizona. 3:07--heading northeast, 50 degrees off to my left now there are several mountains with snow on their slopes, ahead of me a mountain rises to a point, a dull reddish gray pyramid. Mile 77, to my right a big rock outcropping rises up at an 80 degree pitch to a little mound at the top then drops to sharper mound then a 75 degree drop down. Of course there is desert, gray yellow grass, sagebrush and sand, ranges of mountains, slopes strewn with boulders, elevation 4000, mile 80, yellowish ones off to my left, more rocky territory, a wash down below me, lots of distance between the east and westbound lanes, the other lane above me, rock strewn slopes with sagebrush on them, mile 84, really large rocks sticking out of that hillside, rocks down in a canyon, one sticking up and rising above others, still rolling hills, lots of rocks, the other lane maybe a quarter mile away, a jagged wash down there, Willows Ranch Road, black cattle and one brown one grazing in the very wide median strip, a yellow rock thing in the median, another little thing made out of those rock fingers, capping a hillside. Jumbles of rock along the road on a low hillside, a kind of rock graveyard, taking some strange shapes as they pile up on top of each other.
    Back into Yavipai County at 3:22, mile 9, a clear blue sky, not a cloud visible anywhere, a nice cliff way off to my right, rolling desert country, Cross Mountain Road, very definitely a rocky land off to my right, not so much off to my left. 3:28, Mile 100, temp 42, snow alongside the road. 3:40, coming down into a flat valley to my left, a bunch of 4-5 snow-covered peaks in the far distance, one really covered, way ahead on the horizon on my right, a fair amount of snow, very nice, a couple more off to my far left. These are all pretty much ahead of me, snow on my right, none on my left. 4:16, some serious snow along the road--it pretty well covers the ground an inch or so, the snow-covered mountains definitely much closer. Mile 156, snow on pines, Devil Dog Road, some frozen towers on top of one of those mountains.
    The Howard Johnson in Williams at 4:37, temp 32, odometer 118991. Huevos Rancheros and iced tea at Pine Country Restaurant and iced tea.

    Off to my left are a couple of peaks totally covered with snow, not like ones here which also are totally covered but dotted with sagebrush. A road or ski slope going up one seems to snake its way up to the top as far as I can tell. Those white peaks are quite spectacular.
    Williams City Limits at 1:45, temp 47, sky completely blue, all cirrus clouds gone, I-40 at 1:47, temp 48, speed limit 75. Snowfields looking like lakes off to my right. Just went over a rise, coming into a flat valley of some kind, a peak rising on the other side, as they have a tendency to do. I had intended to stop at Seligman for the night but I'll probably keep going to Kingman. 2:23, temp 53. Snow gone from the desert to my left but not to my right, another valley over a ridge. Mile 125. Seligman. Through that fantastic rock section again, rocks on top of rocks on top of a hill. 30 or 40 cattle out in field, 2 young bulls butting heads. Through these rock cuts again. Incredible country.
    Kingman City Limits at 3:25. Into the Days Inn on Andy Devine Boulevard around 3:45, temp 52, odometer 119228. Dinner at the oriental buffet at the ABC Buffet Cocktail Lounge American and Chinese Food, lots of tapioca pudding.

My car is down there somewhere, in the parking lot to the right

    Some kind of large bird, a pinon jay or something like that, a gray back, very large, no idea what it is. Horsethief Canyon Road. Up a little gully, not very interesting, turning back, taking the trail under US 93. Liberty Bell Arch 2 miles. Didn't go that far. Back to the car at 11:46, temp 45.
    More fantastic red rock country rising, canyons, a big rounded hill off to my left, no place to pull over, another one rising above me, off to my left rising over me, coming up on Nevada, red rocky upcroppings immediately to my left and immediately to my right, going between them.
    Nevada at 11:51, temp 47, into Nevada and the Pacific Time Zone.