"Go to Lost Wages"

The last two legs of Road Trip 2015 took us 216.4 miles from Williams, AZ, to Las Vegas and then, two days later, 270.3 miles to Los Angeles, two relatively light days of driving.

En route to Vegas we detoured through Sedona, AZ, via Oak Creek Canyon. The drive is considered one of the top five most beautiful in the country by Rand McNally. I will not disagree. Sedona is a cute, new-Agey sort of oasis purportedly rife (apparently like Woodstock, NY) with cosmic "vortexes" (sic) that provide positive energy to its visitors. We had a nice sandwich there.

Near Vegas we stopped at Hoover Dam, a 1930s monument to slide-rule engineering, hydraulic energy, and BIG Government. The water levels were way down.

In Las Vegas, I avoided the impulse to gamble, slept late, enjoyed a few decent meals, and took in the sights while Wisdaughter & partner caught up with old friends who live there (+ whatever).

On I-15 on the Nevada/California border, we topped a hill and saw what looked like three gigantic Eye of Sauron towers guarding the valley floor surrounded by a vast mirage of a body of water. Turns out, it's the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, the largest solar array in the country—another monument to BIG Government renewable energy production. Thousands of solar panel mirrors spread over five square miles focus the sun's light on the 500' tall tower tops, and this reflects on cars driving by. [Sorry no pics. If you're interested, check out the linked website.]

We made a tactical mistake attempting to drive from Vegas to LA on Sunday morning. Turns out, it's when everybody from SoCal does the same thing after a weekend of debauchery. We drove I-15 through the Mojave Desert in a perpetual traffic jam which was made worse because it had been closed the day before by wild fires. Fortunately, the fires were doused by the remnants of Hurricane Delores which dumped a single day record rainfall on SoCal, smashing as well the monthly record for July in a mere few hours. Flooded desert did not, however, put a sizable dent in the record drought. Unfortunately, the heavy rainfall and dark, low clouds slowed traffic down even more than usual, turning what should have been a four-hour drive into about an eight-hour ordeal. Literally, the only rainfall we encountered on the entire trip was one of the driest places in America, and it was "super historic".

Notwithstanding, we delivered Wisdaughter, her partner, and their cars safely to LA and U.S.C., got them moved in, had a brief look-see downtown, enjoyed a couple of good meals (Izakaya, yo!), hit up IKEA, constructed some furniture, and flew home, sadder but richer for the experience.

Now, pics. Click pics to embiggen slideshow.

2000' Red Rocks and White Rocks on the Oak Creek Canyon drive

Red Rocks near Sedona

Iconic view near Sedona

Sedona "energy"

More of the same

Wait! Who told Ansel Adams he could shoot pics from my car. (h/t Wisdoc) 

Low water levels around the turbines at Hoover Dam

I-15 bridge at Hoover Dam

That '30's aesthetic 

The Dam, 700' thick & 700' high

Fake NYC in fake Las Vegas

The ONLY avenue in Vegas

Chihuly ceiling in a casino

Dinner (French) with a view of the Bellagio fountains

New Yorker cartoon

Fake Paris in fake Vegas

Best road sign: name a road using only the last 3 letters of the alphabet

You know you're in LA when...

An Izakaya feast

And we arrive at our destination

Lovely USC campus

It Does Not Disappoint: Maybe They Ought to Call It 'The Venti Canyon'

If there is one thing "the Internet" agrees on: The Grand Canyon lives up to its hype. And I'm not going to lie, it really does.

Okay, busy day. Got up early, got to Carlsbad Caverns early (see previous post), were one of the first groups down, hiked the Big Room for two hours, got back to our hotel (35 minute drive each way), checked out, drove 635.9 miles to Williams, AZ—our longest single-day drive. Planned stops: Roswell, NM for alien kitsch and Old Albuquerque for Mexican food early dinner. Roswell was disappointing. ABQ was not.

Sitting in the hotel lobby after our visit to the caverns, I checked my email one last time while I had wi-fi only to receive a delightful email. Long-time reader and fellow blogger (at Written Word, Spoken Word), author (of Cooperative Village) Frances Madeson, had just seen my post about driving west and said she could drive to Carlsbad to meet if I was interested. I replied we were pulling out but heading Old ABQ way, and if she was in the vicinity we could meet at a place of her choosing for an early dinner. We'd never met in person, but she's the one who nominated an early post of mine for the 3 Quarks Daily political prize (see right side of my blog). ABQ, for the record, is not even half-way from Carlsbad to Williams.

We met FM for dinner at Hacienda del Rio in Old ABQ and enjoyed an absolutely wonderful, surprising, and delightful meal. For the record, New Mexico Mexican food is different from Tex-Mex. Thanks so much, again, Frances. We will always treasure the serendipity! Needless to say, mutual blog-buddy BLCKDGRD's name came up, and not unfondly.

We pulled into Williams, AZ around 11:00 pm. Exhausted from a long, but not difficult drive through some gorgeous sections of Northern New Mexico and Arizona.

Next morning, we were at the Grand Canyon National Park entrance (about an hour's drive) at like 9:00. We don't fool around. And as I've said many times on this blog: you want to hike with us. We spent the whole day there, covering (according to my Breeze app) some 15-17 miles. It was a gloriously clear day with visibility over 60 miles.

I'll will say nothing about the GC other than that as great as Carlsbad Caverns were, they were merely the appetizer for this main course. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. As always, click pics to embiggen slide show:

Jim H. and Frances M. in Old ABQ

Red Rocks in Northern NM into AZ

Our first sighting

"Let's go, y'all. I'm taking this trail down." Jim H.

Meta: Jim H. taking a selfie Wisdaughter wants nothing to do with

Yes, you can go right up to the edge. And yes, you can fall off!

Cowboy on a donkey

And "The" Selfie

Carlsbad Boy

The next leg of our cross-country odyssey took us into the most desolate stretch of the journey: West Texas, 108º. Cormac McCarthy country. Plus, it was the beginning of Jade Helm 15. (And for all anyone knows, I could've been part of the invasion: undercover, indistinguishable from the local population.)

The drive took us from San Antonio, TX, to Carlsbad, NM, some 450.9 miles. It was the least trafficked segment of the trip. Speed limits on I-10 were 80 mph much of the way. U.S. 285 from the Texas border to Carlsbad was the worst section of road we saw on the entire trip. Plus, we caught it at "rush hour", and all the roughnecks from the oil wells were heading into Carlsbad in their pick-up trucks—in a hurry.

Here's what you need to know:

• There are thousands of wind turbines in West Texas. Wind farms galore. I did not know this beforehand, but as we drove on I kept seeing more and more atop mesas and ridges and down in wind-tunnel canyons and valleys. I saw more wind turbines here than in my entire trip through Europe in 2011. But, in a unique Texas twist on the matter, often the alternative sustainable energy windmills were generating power to operate those grasshopper-looking oil well pumps. Go figure.
• Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico is one place you should visit if you're ever in the area. Think of the most incredible Gothic Cathedral you've ever seen, its remarkable architectural structures and spaces; then, imagine that the designers and builders were merely two-year-olds playing clumsily with wooden blocks; and you'll get a sense of the magnificence of this vast space. To get in, you take an elevator down some 1000 feet, or if, unlike us, you have time, you walk about a mile down a steep entry. The "big room" is the largest underground cavern in the U.S. The temperature is a constant 58º year-round. No pictures can convey how awesome this place is, despite the well-paved path and dramatic lighting. It's a geologist's or speleologist's wet dream. And, apparently, the radioactive materials buried around there are not a threat. How comforting.

Now pics (click pic to embiggen [a frickin' awesome] slide show):

Jade Helm 15 disguise?

"I wanna' go fast!"

Texas anomalies

Are those 'black helicopters' above that underground bunker?

Drive up to Carlsbad Caverns

No words...

Wait! Is that Batman?

40-50' Pillars

I wonder if Georgia O'Keefe ever visited

Yes, it does