The road home is long!! ... and we are ready to be home ...

Much against my "normal nature" (my anal nature) ... we decided to go "off the grid" this morning as we left Williams, Az (where we spent the night after seeing the Grand Canyon) ... "off the grid" being ... abandoning my carefully laid out heavily researched, strictly timed routing to our next stop in Las Cruces ... and head rather to the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest National Park. ... OMG ... neither Carolyn nor I had ever seen either of those sights and we were "somewhere around 50 or so miles from the park ... we think ..." ... so ... off we go, completely without planning, time considerations, routing details ... aaaaggggghhhhh ... my anxiety was ... uh .... high ... but ... we have "Wicked Wanda" our trusty GPS system ... right??? ... so we should be able to locate the park with that and then get home ... right??? .... right??? .... aaaaagggghhhh ...

As we boogie down IH40 expecting to see a sign ... I'm madly checking out "attractions" on the GPS .... no "Petrified Forest National Forest" listed .... aaaggghhhh ... about 30 miles down the road ... FINALLY ... A SIGN" .... so we exit ...

From Bade's web log

... and into the park we go ... by the way ... it's basically a one way trip unless you totally backtrack ... so "where will we come out??? it WON'T be on IH40!! " ... aaaaggggghhhh ...

From Bade's web log

From Bade's web log

From Bade's web log

From Bade's web log

From Bade's web log

From Bade's web log

And as you can clearly see it was spectacular!!! ...

"Wicked Wanda" managed to locate us in the middle of the desert and generally in the middle of no damn where ... and told us how to find civilization ... the whole detour took an extra couple of hours and we wound up going much further North in Arizona and New Mexico than initial travel plans but managed to get to Las Cruces by about 6:30PM Mountain time ... we are in for the night ...

The class is done the sights are seen and tomorrow's 8-9 hours on the road should see us home by 5pm or so ... it's been an enjoyable trip but we are ready to sleep in our own bed, see our grandkids, eat good TexMex and get back into the regime of our life ... hope you enjoyed the ride ...

For those following my Lutherie web log you know I've been pretty focused for the last several days and basically dead dog tired when I get back to the hotel from "camp" and writing up that daily log. The folks at camp seem to really appreciate my dailies and so I've really tried to do that before crashing ... also I sadly have not adjusted to the time zone change and so am typically waking up sometime between 4am and 5am pacific time each morning ... makes for a long day.

The hotel we are staying at in "SLO" (pronounced "slow" and local shorthand for San Luis Obispo) is really very nice ... a suite with king bed, bath, "living room" with sink, microwave, fridge and bar, table, chairs, sofa and bar ... more than enough room for the week.

Carolyn has been chauffeuring me to the camp each morning ... we get up, she has breakfast supplied by the hotel (waffles, sweet roll, toast , juice ceral ...) and we leave around 7:30AM ... it's about 20 miles to Roger's house and takes about 20 minutes ...

While I'm at camp Carolyn has done some needle work and a bit of exploring around SLO ... it's a pretty college town (Cal Poly) of around 45,000 people nestled along the Pacific coast in very scenic rolling hills.

Since my meals are included in the camp price Carolyn has been having lunch and dinner alone and I feel bad about that but tonight (Thursday) she joined us at the camp for pizza.

After dinner tonight Carolyn and I drove back to the hotel (we got out early tonight) and took the trolley right out our hotel door to the "Farmer's Market" downtown SLO ... the trolley was a pricey 25cents per person each way ... the Farmers Market has been held here on Thursdays for the past 35 years or so and is basically a combination of the typical hill country farmers market where you can buy fresh produce and Night In Old San Antonio during Fiesta ... they block off a very long main street and vendors set up booths selling everything from strawberries and onions to psychic readings ... I took a few pictures and will post them later ...we bought some strawberries and cherry tomatoes and a bag of kettle korn popcorn and headed back on the trolley to the hotel ...

My lutherie camp will be over about 3:30PM tomorrow and we will stay the night in SLO and drive to Las Vegas starting early Saturday morning ... we will be staying at the Mirage and from there Sunday morning we will drive West to the Grand Canyon ...

We are having fun and look forward to being home ...

Bade

We left Palm Springs around 7:30AM PST and proceeded to San Luis Obispo. 

The wind was phenomenal as we left Palm Springs ... it was blowing sand and small rock all over the highway ... I was gritting my teeth thinking about what I suspect will turn out to be a pitted windshield and paint ... it was UGLY and Carolyn has all she could handle to keep MiniRita on the road through the mountains in the wind.

Palm Springs is a VERY picturesque  little town ... leaving Palm Springs ... not so much ... very very desert like ... think Egypt ... worse than West Texas ... hills, mountains, plains ... all sand ...

As we motored thru the outskirts of Los Angeles the wind died down for the most part ... once we got on Hwy 101 we had a better scenic drive but a couple of things became abundantly clear:

1 - California has not spent ANY money on road repairs in a LONG time ... and they need to ,,, pot holes, rough spots ... really bad at 65mph

2 - The further West one drives ... the less attention people pay to speed limits ... whether it says 65 or 70 or ... it doesn't matter ... people drive however damn fast they feel like and it is apparent that the highway patrol doesn't care or isn't staffed to fine the speeders ... I'd wager that a week of passing out tickets on IH10 or 101 would clear up the state deficit ... Carolyn and I have tried to stay at or just barely over the posted speed limits on this trip ... and when we were doing 67mph down 101 (posted 65mph limit) we were being run over by every vehicle on the road ... including highway patrol, trucks, busses, RVs ... I'm pretty sure I saw a horse drawn buggy zip past at 80mph ... and the motorcycles are definitely motoring along near 100mph ... it was scary and rampant!

We arrived at our hotel safe and sound ... it is a GREAT hotel, wonderful 2 room suite, good wireless internet (free),  good breakfast , heated pool and spa, fridge, microwave ... I think it will be perfect for the week!  The hotel is about 20 miles from the mandolin building camp.

I've posted my first log about the mandolin building camp over on my Lutherie Web Log  if you are interested take a look ... it's going to be a great learning experience I do believe ...

Gotta get an early start tomorrow ...

Bade

We left Las Cruces at about 7:45AM Mountain time and crossed into Arizona at 11:19AM Central time (using central time as a standard) ,,, crossed into California at 5:20PM CST so about 6 hours to cross Arizona.

We stopped in Tuscon for a bite of lunch and then right back on the road .... not much to say about the scenery ... Carolyn made me pull into a rest stop so she could take pictures of the big Saguaro cactus ... MOST of the speed limit thru New Mexico and Arizona was 75MPH it turned to a sorry 70MPH in California ,,, damn liberals!!!

In Arizona we came upon a fairly horrific site ... MANY emergency vehicles (fire & ambulance) in the center median where it was pretty evident a driver had fallen asleep or some such and crossed at a high rate of speed into the very wide and rocky median ... I couldn't see any other vehicles involved but debris was scattered over a large area and the car was in bad shape .... ugh!!!

THEN ... JUST as we crossed the California border and where the traffic was being slowed from 70mph to 45mph and then a full stop for a border check point ... RIGHT IN FRONT OF US ... at about 45-50mph a "mini-van" type vehicle rear ended a semi with trailer and broke the min-van pretty bad ... fortunately I along with others were slowing for the upcoming checkpoint and no other vehicles were involved ... it was literally one car in front of us ... WAY too close ... I think the mini-van driver didn't realize the truck was slowing WAY down and pulled into him changing lanes ... Carolyn called 9-1-1 and reported the incident, there were other cars stopping and we saw both drivers walking around so we proceeded on thru the checkpoint (less than 1/2 mile from the crash) ...

We pulled into Palm Springs right on schedule at 5:20PM PST (7:20PM Central) so it was a pretty long day ... we drove to downtown Palm Springs for dinner at Ruby's Diner ... lottsa folks walking around downtown ... seems to be a sort of RiverWalk without the river ... very dry air and pleasant temperature.

Up early tomorrow AM and 5 or so hours drive to San Luis Obispo ...

Well we have landed for the evening in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

We left the house at 7:45AM and crossed into New Mexico at 4:11PM
Central time ... almost 8 hours from home ... From just South of
Junction, TX until just South of El Paso, TX we had 80MPH speed limit
and that was very very nice ... made good time ... good weather all
the way.

So the 70MPH "speed" limit was a bummer on both ends but I expect that
may be what we see all day tomorrow through NM, AZ and into CA.

We got to our hotel, checked in, discovered that the "high speed"
internet connection is NOT wireless ... found a Radio Shack, bought a
too short but functional ethernet cable and discovered our "high
speed" internet wired connection is TOO DAMN SLOW to do much of
anything beyond simple text ...so we were not too sorry to see that
the Smithson Valley highschool football game is NOT broadcast over the
net ... cause it would choke this connection big time to try and
listen to a stream broadcast!

Had a good steak dinner at a Texas RoadHouse and have settled in for the night.

Up early tomorrow AM and headed to Palm Springs.

--
Bade
Like an old desperado ... painting the town beige

Well it is about time for the great road trip of 2009 to get underway! We will depart Bulverde around 8AM Friday October 2, 2009 headed about as far West as we can go.

Our first stop is a mere 592 miles to Las Cruces, New Mexico. According to mapquest it should take about 8 hours to make the drive and our stop in New Mexico will put us in the Mountain time zone so around 5PM allowing an hour for stops along the way we should be pulling in for the night. 562 of those miles will have been on scenic IH10 through a whole lot of not so pretty West Texas.

Saturday morning (10/3) we will leave Las Cruces (again I'm shooting for an 8AMish wheels rolling time) booking it for Palm Springs, California. This drive will be one of the longest planned at around 660 miles and about 9.5 hours. We will drive through a good bit of New Mexico and all of Arizona (passing through Tucson and Phoenix) into California around Blythe, CA again changing timezones to Pacific. We should roll into Palm Springs AROUND 5:30PM Pacific if we again allow as much as an hour along the way for eats and breaks. We will log another 643 or so miles on IH10 on this leg.

Sunday morning (10/4) we head for our destination San Luis Obispo, California. Still a 5 hour drive logging 308 miles or so. We are supposed to attend a welcome dinner at the Siminoff Lutherie Camp Sunday evening at 5:30PM so we should have PLENTY of time to find the hotel, locate a place for groceries, identify some spots for Carolyn to scope out during the week and get to the dinner. I expect to arrive in SLO around 2PM if the traffic through the Los Angeles area and up Hwy 101 isn't too slow. We only get 70 miles of IH10 on this leg. We pass North of LA going through Pasadena and pick up Hwy 101 just North of Studio City and West of Burbank. We have 190 miles on Hwy 101 and I must remember to take my Scopolomine (sea sickness med) for this drive ... in the 1980's I drove along the coast up Hwy 1 North of San Francisco and got sicker than a dog ... maybe 101 won't be so curvey! We drive North along the coast from Ventura through Santa Barbara.

Once we "get there" we only have about 1800+ miles to drive to get back home ... gonna need new tires on MiniRita after this trip!!!

Whaaaaahooooooo .... On The Road Again ....

Just a brief note to subscribers of this web log ... I have created a new separate web log dedicated to my hobby interest in "Lutherie" ... building stringed instruments.

Hopefully, I can keep this more general log focused on "general things" like our adventures on our upcoming Westward-Ho roadtrip to California in October and keep the hobby specific things in a more focused log.

You can link to the "Lutherie Log" from this site's sidebar or this direct link and when there you have the option of subscribing to that separate log for email updates ... take a peek and see if you have an interest ... Link to Lutherie web log

Bade