Road Trip Maine - home again. 09-07-16

I arrived  home last night about 7:15pm after driving 782 miles in 11 hours and 15 minutes.  From Albuquerque to Placentia.  I intended to stop along the way - Flagstaff, Kingman, Barstow -, but I was feeling good and not too tired so I just kept driving.  Filled up with gas in Kingman which was enough to get me home and leave enough fuel to get to the filling station today.  I called the people I needed to call and just went to sleep - for eleven hours!  Of course, there were three pit stops during the night and once I woke up because I was chilly, only to realize I had forgotten to cover back up when I got in bed.  That's tired! 

All day I have been slowly unpacking and putting away, but the car still seems full!  I have things for three different students from the class which I hope to deliver this next weekend.  The heavy things it would have been hard for them to take on the plane.  I went out to dinner at Fish in a Bottle as I have been craving sushi (it was yummy), filled up with gas, picked up a few groceries at TJoe's, and picked up KoKo from his caretaker.  We were both excited to see each  other.  He looks great and the people who cared for him are willing to have him back when I am out of town again (this coming week for a couple days).  I need to plan KoKo  into my schedule when I accept an out-of-town presentation or want to go off for a night  or  two.  In fact I need to check everything already on my calendar and be sure I have arranged care for him.  He chased Froggie for  a while and let me rub him all over, then went to sleep on my lap so I couldn't type.  The result is just these few pictures from yesterday.  I'll detail the long last day, a boring drive, tomorrow.  And give you some statistics.  It was a great trip, everything except the rain storms. 

 

 It was the strangest sunset last evening about  7pm.  There was a huge grey cloud over the Los Angeles basin and the sun set in a crack along the horizon.  It was quite brilliant.  All that grey in the upper part of the picture is cloud.

As I was making the transition from the 91 Fwy to Tustin Ave, I could see the last light beyond the palm trees and the pillars of the freeway overpass.  I took a least a dozen pictures, but driving in traffic while taking pictures is difficult and only these two are worth saving.

 

Looking to the east the cloud is still there with just a slit on the horizon.  Here I am back in the land of white cars and palm trees.  These are just where my Starbuck''s is located.

 

I will edit pictures tomorrow in between unpacking and putting away and doing laundry.  I expect my mail will come in a big box tomorrow.  I had them save it at the PO because my mail basket is not large enough to  hold three weeks of mail.  Hope there aren't too many bills to pay!

KoKo is in bed and soon I will join him.

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Road Trip Maine - It's all about the weather 09-06-16

This drive home is intended to just get me there!  I am not sightseeing or visiting  people and had hoped to make better time and cut a day off the trip.  But between the electronic gremlins that have plagued me and today's stormy weather I think it will be the 8th before I drive into my garage.  From the picture you can tell that the day started out gloomy, got better, got worse and then even worse.   On the electronic side, I sent off the SQG newsletter to the proofreaders last night and heard from one of them this morning that there was no newsletter attached when they received it.  I was already on the road and it took until Santa Fe, NM, to find a Starbuck's with connections, so I could attempt to resend.  The process  is all different than it was last month, but I finally figured out a way to send it successfully.  Now I will need to do it again to send it to the lady who posts things online to our website.  Hope I can figure it out a  second time.  Who knows what will happen next month? 

Leaving HIE at Limon,  CO, at 8am it was a solid grey sky.

 

I drove south on Hwy 24 which is mostly one lane in each direction.  It has changed a lot since I last drove this road - better road, more buildings and as I got closer to Colorado Springs there are subdivisions.  I didn't see any antelope this trip.  But somewhere along the way there was a yellow sign with a picture of a bear to warn drivers there might be bear on the roadway.

 

Then, as I neared Colorado Springs the sun came out and brightened the gazillion sunflowers, some of which can be seen in this image. 

 

In the far distance is the front range of the Rocky Mountains.  I never see this view without thinking of those hardy pioneers who walked for months across the prairie only to be confronted with this wall of mountains.

 

A bit closer to the mountains.

 

To the east the sky is clear and the pinyon pines are spread over the hillsides. These are the wild version of the  pine nuts we buy for baking and eating.  They have the cutest little fat cones.  I gathered them one year and tied them with gold bows on our Xmas tree.

 

There are some lovely valleys with ranch houses, trees and lots of beef cattle.   I also saw a pasture of llamas and alpacas.

 

Oh, Oh, the clouds are starting to gather.  Notice the wind generators, three together which were turning, and one motionless to the left.  All the pictures make them look grey, but in reality they are all a brilliant white from ground to tips of the arms.

 

Across the road from the wind generators is this sculpture - just out in the middle of nowhere.  I thought at first it was a deteriorating bill board, but it is actually a piece of art.

 

Here are the three generators, turning in lazy circles like they were dancing together. Some solitary peaks in the distance - so typical of this area.

 

To the west the clouds gather and a few lightning strikes lace through them.

Ahead the clouds grow as the miles fly by - speed limit is 75mph.

 

Into the center of the dark clouds.

I stopped for gas in Las Vegas, New Mexico, MUCH smaller and different than the more familiar Las Vegas, Nevada.   While the gas was pumping the rain started.

And it came down in huge drops, very hard.

 

The day got darker and the rain continued.

Naturally, construction was part of the mix.

When I stopped at Starbuck's in Santa Fe there were quite a few people there.  Including this cowboy working his cell phone and drinking coffee.  I guess everyone goes to Starbuck's if there is one in town.

This stone work on the outside of the building looks like a brilliant quilt to me.

 

Clouds are gathering on the east.

More rain periodically.  Lots of lightning strikes.

As I came into Albuquerque, New Mexico, the storm increased to the point that everyone was going very slowly, bumper to bumper.  I couldn't see the lines on the roadway, nor sometimes the car in front of me.  I thought "Del, why are you driving in this?  It is 5:30, find a room and settle for the night." 

Here is the sunset from my HIE room.  The sky looks more clear, but there are periodic sprinkles.

And a telephoto shot enhances the color. 

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Road Trip Maine - On the way home 09-05-16

Tonight I am in Limon, Colorado, at another HIE.  They are so much alike I forget where I am sometimes.  I have learned that when I leave my room I not only have to take the key cards but also the little envelope with my room number written on it.  I had to go  to the desk once to ask them what room I was in!  I checked in here early determined to work on the newsletter until it was finished.  And it is finished.  It isn't up to my usual issues, but I have had too many electronic problems on this trip.  I didn't blog last night because I couldn't stay online  and had to  keep signing in again and again.

This is "big sky" country and there isn't much to see.  You can flip through the pictures and get a sense of how lonely it is.  The speed limit is 75mph and drivers are pretty good about staying in the right lane except to pass..  of course, there is always a numbskull on the road.  When there was nobody on the road I had to try out the Lexus to see how it does at 100mph.  No wobble or weaving, it hugged the road nicely.

I was talking to a friend about the bad carpet choices in motels so I took a few pictures at HIE in Salina  where I stayed last night. 

Carpet in my room.

Carpet in hall and lobby.

One thing to look at is the giant wind farm installations.  They are everywhere.

Occasionally there is a farm, usually a substantial intrusion on the flatness.

I have been looking for a Dairy Queen, but maybe there aren't any these days.  So, I finally stopped in Flagler to find some ice cream of some kind.  Ended up at a McDonald's (where I do not usually eat) and tried an Oreo Flurry.  It was quite good, soft ice cream with chocolate "sand" mixed in.  They serve it with this weird spoon sticking out of it.  I asked the  girl what it was and she first said a straw, but even I could tell it wasn't a square straw, so I pulled it out  as she said, "Oh, I  mean a spoon." It is a strange instrument, but it worked to eat the Flurry.  Yummy.

There are very few hills or even slight rises and looking from the moving car one sees not much.

 

This is a dry corn field.  But the bump you see on the horizon to the left is a large brick church in a little town with lots of trees. 

 

Don't know what this crop is.  It is about  3-4 feet high and the tassel like  tops are a rusty red, but the large leaves are a dusty green.  There were vast fields of it near Hay, KS.

 

 

This is the most common view - flat land, flat roadway, flat blue sky.  I drove 500 miles today - all pretty much the same. .

Occasionally there is a billboard, but most are ripped apart by the wind which blows across I-70 and wears out my hands and arms from making constant corrections to the wheel. 

I'm not sure they use these grain elevators any longer.  There is one in every little town, I think.

Here are some different silos near a town.

I got off for gas and came across the I-70 diner, which is a double wide and seemed to have lots of cars parked around.

Their sign is this pink Caddy elevated about 30 feet up and can be see from the  highway.

  

Sunset from the window of my motel room.

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