Our RV Adventures

Today, after spending the night in Gallup, NM, we headed back to Las Vegas on the tail end of our road trip.

After having breakfast at the hotel, we headed out about 8am to drive the 65 miles to the Petrified Forest National Park. I had visited here with my parents during our Out West trip during the summer of 1964, and was looking forward to seeing it again.

The Petrified Forest is a 28 mile loop that that also takes you through part of the Painted Desert. So it’s a twofer.

And the Painted Desert certainly lived up to its name. You can click to enlarge any of these pictures.

Then it was on to the Petrified Forest itself. And the colors of the petrified wood almost  matched the Painted Desert.

This area is known as the Crystal Forest and lives up to its name.

Below is Old Faithful, the largest, most complete petrified log in the world.

This the skull of a Phytosaur, a crocodile-like animal that lived in the area when this was a forest during the Late Triassic period 200 million years ago. It was about 17 feet long and weighed 2100 pounds.

And here’s what it probably looked like.

And these are some of the other animals roaming here back then.

And, for what it’s worth, here’s a picture of Albert Einstein and his wife visiting the Petrified Forest. Based on the age of the car, this is his 2nd wife, Elsa. Elsa was Alberta’s first cousin on their mother’s side and second cousin on their father’s side. Talk about the  possibility of inbreeding!

Maybe that’s why they never had kids.

Leaving the Petrified Forest we passed thru Holbrook, AZ and stopped to get gas. Holbrook used to be a main stop on Route 66, and still seems to be a vibrant tourist town. As we were almost to the Interstate I saw something on the left hand side of the road that brought back a flood of memories.

A Wig Wam Motel. And it’s still in business.

I had forgotten until I saw the place again, but we stayed here during our trip in 1964. It’s good to see that see that it’s still up and running. I also remember staying at the Wig Wam Motel in Bessemer, AL in the late 50’s, early 60’s.

Coming into Flagstaff, we always enjoy the view of the snow-covered San Francisco Mountains. It’s amazing how much snow is still there this time of the year.

Passing thru Flagstaff, we got into Williams, AZ about 12:30 pm. Based on the recommendation of our friend’s Nick and Terry Russell, we wanted to eat lunch at the Pine Country Restaurant. They had eaten there and said the food was OK, but the pies were fantastic. The slices were enormous, and they were delicious, too.

Nick and Terry were in Williams too, but they were spending the day taking the Grand Canyon Railway day trip, so we didn’t get to see them. But we did track down their RV in the Railway RV park and leave them a note about how much we enjoyed the pie.

On our way into Kingman, AZ we saw signs saying the route back to Las Vegas over the Hoover Dam was very congested due to Spring Break crowds.

Well, that was just dam inconvenient.

So we decided to come back the slightly-longer way over to Laughlin and then up through Searchlight and home.

Getting back into Las Vegas we decided to stop for supper at the IHOP right down the street from the RV park before heading back to the rig.

Arrived home to find that the rig and the cats were all OK.

Although we enjoyed our trip, it’s good to be home.

More tomorrow…

We got up at 6:30am this morning (man, that’s early!) and after grabbing breakfast at the hotel, we headed about 85 miles south of Albuquerque to the town of San Antonio, NM.  San Antonio is the jumping-off place to Stallion Gate, the northwest entrance to White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) and Trinity Site.  I used to enter WSMR thru this gate back in the early 80’s when coming back from White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) in Los Cruces.

But before we left San Antonio I stopped and filled up at the one and only gas station in town. We had read that they also have fantastic homemade fudge, and it looked great. So we decided to stop back by on our way out of town.

After making the 12 mile drive out to SR 525 we turned south and entered Stallion Gate about 3 miles later. They had people handing out directions and security guards checking I.D.

Then it was another 14 miles out to Trinity Site itself.

Along the way we came across this sign several times.

If I hadn’t seen this sign in 2007 when we visited the WSMR Missile Museum I would have been very confused. This is an Oryx. And Oryx are native to Africa, specifically the Kalahari desert area. So what the heck were they doing here?

It turns out that in late 70’s, 93 Oryx were brought over from Africa and their offspring were introduced into the White Sands Missile Range. They were expected to stay on the Range, but apparently the Oryx didn’t read the signs and they began to wander far and wide as now animals have been spotted from 60 miles south of Albuquerque all the way down to West Texas.

And without any natural predators their population exploded. The coyotes and mountain lions in the area were no match for the large antelope with their razor-sharp horns.

Someone then looked at importing the Oryx’s natural enemy. But this came to a screeching halt when it was discovered that the Oryx’s natural enemy were lions. And no one could get the lions to promise to stay on the Range either.

So now there are over 5000 Oryx in the White Sands area, more than there are in the Kalahari.

It’s not smart to mess with Mother Nature.

Arriving at the Trinity Site parking area about 10 am, we found a large number of visitors already there.

Making our way to the entrance, we encountered Jumbo.

Originally it was 25 feet long, 12 feet in diameter, and weighed 214 tons!

This is what it looked like 1945.

Before testing the first A-bomb, called Fat Man, scientist were worried about whether the bomb would actually work the first time.

The bomb was to be triggered by a large conventional explosion which would then trigger the chain reaction. But, if the chain reaction didn’t occur, they didn’t want the precious plutonium scattered all over the area. But by the time of the first test, scientist were more confident of the bomb’s success, and Jumbo wasn’t used. Later the Air Force detonated 8 500 pound bombs in Jumbo, blowing out the ends as seen here.

Next we made the 1/2 mile walk to the fenced-in area of Ground Zero itself. There in front of us was the marker commemorating the first A-bomb.

Nearby are the remains of the 100 foot tower that held the bomb before the test.

This shows what a 10 million degree fireball will do to solid steel. And here’s what the tower looked like before.

Also inside the fenced area was a mockup of the Fat Man bomb itself.

There’s a joke here, but I won’t go there.

Ground Zero is littered with Trinitite, a green rock/glass, created by the searing heat as it fused the sand into glass. It is a Federal Offense to remove any of this from the area.

Trinity Site is an eerie place to visit. It’s hard to imagine the destructive forces unleashed here, even hotter than the surface of the sun. On the other hand, it’s hard to tell anything ever happened here.

The scrub grass looks the same here as it does miles away. There is no crater remaining. In fact the original crater was only about 4 feet deep and 240 feet in diameter, more of a small depression, rather than a distinct crater.

The observers were in a bunker about two miles away when the bomb went off. Windows were blown out 120 miles away and the shockwave was felt 160 miles away. Other observers, 10 miles away, said they could feel the heat, like opening up an oven door.

To conceal the test, the Army said that a munitions storage area had accidently exploded at the Alamogordo Bombing Range. The secret wasn’t revealed until the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th.

Leaving the site about 11:30 am, we were glad we had come early. There was a solid line of cars, about a mile long, lined up at the gate waiting to get in.

Arriving back in San Antonio, we decided to eat lunch at the Owl Cafe and Bar, one of only two restaurants in town. I had read about their great green chile cheeseburgers and we wanted to give them a try.

The place was already pretty busy and we waited about 10 minutes to put in our orders. A little later waiters were telling their tables that the food would be a “long” time, as a tour bus had come thru and they were being served first. Well, didn’t we feel special!

While waiting, I pulled out my Blackberry Storm 2 and started checking the Internet for recent reviews of this place. And they were uniformly bad. After talking it over, I left a $5 bill for my ice tea and we hit the road.

To the gas station right next door with the great fudge. And this time the reviews were right. The fudge is fantastic.

About 10 miles down the road we stopped at K-Bob’s Steakhouse, a western chain of restaurants. And I had a fantastic green chile cheeseburger, so there!

After topping off the tank at the station next door, we headed for Gallup, NM where we are going to spend the night.

Tomorrow, on our way back to Las Vegas, we plan on stopping off at the Petrified Forest National Park about 65 miles west of Gallup. The Painted Desert is also part of this, so we have a lot to see.

And now I have some sad news to report.

Moose is gone. Or rather, Moose 2 is gone.

This is 2nd Moose Antenna that has been stolen by nefarious moosenapping thieves, probably to be stripped for parts and sold on the black market.

He will be sorely missed, but quickly replaced by Moose 3. Or maybe Mickey Mouse, or an M&M.

Fame is fickle.

Later…