Monday - October 31, 2011

The eastern side of New Mexico flattens out quite quickly after Albuquerque with the only hills in the distance. We crossed into Texas Panhandle and immediately got into ranching and farming country. The land is flat, much like the Prairies and there are grain silos and large cattle farms. Passed by a large stock yard where it was obvious cattle were waiting for shipping. However, we could smell the yard a ways before we actually passed. Stopped overnight in Amarillo.

Sunday - October 30, 2011

We left Flagstaff this morning driving to Albuquerque in New Mexico. Interesting how the terrain changes as you leave the Arizona desert. The mountains disappear for a while, but then rise again but without the tops. It seems as if someone has taken a knife and cut the tops off - they are all flat, but still pretty. Took a side road to see the Petrified Forest National Park but once we got off the road found out it was 18 miles away, so we decided to stop at a local retailer of petrified wood. Apparently the whole area has petrified wood under the soil. The retailer petrified wood rights from a landowner. They then dig for the wood much the same as for minerals, recover it and cut and polish it up for sale. Some of the stumps are very beautiful and the grain really stands out. Brenda wanted to bring one of the stumps home.

We then moved on to Amarillo, New Mexico where we stopped for the night. Found another 3D diner - Standard Diner and went to diner. I had chicken fried tuna (a 3D tested meal) which was unique and delicious. Brenda had soup and calamari, a little more pedestrian.



Red Soil - Sandstone










Petrified Wood

Saturday - October 29, 2011

Decided to stay in Flagstaff for another night and drive up to the south side of the Grand Canyon. The drive up to the Canyon again went through some interesting land, with the changing vegetation as we went higher. The Grand Canyon is around 7500 feet above sea level and you can feel the relative thinness of the air compared with the that at the ocean. The Grand Canyon is breath taking and you stand at a spot and look at it forever. The quiet and stillness is mesmorizing. It is a little disconcerting when you look over the side and see how deep the canyon is. We took in an Imax film on the Canyon which gave a little history of its discovery and some amazing aerial views down the middle of the Canyon.










Three idiots that took a walk beyond the path. People have fallen off doing this stuff

Friday - October 28, 2011

Just outside Las Vegas is Lake Mead, a man made lake created as a result of the building of the Hoover Dam in 1935 and blocking the flow of the Colorado River. The Colorado River starts in the mountains of Colorado, flows through the Grand Canyon flows and then into The Gulf of California in Mexico. We decided to see the Hoover Dam and it was impressive. A big project undertaken at the height of the Great Depression, it gave work to a lot of people. Based on the number of electrical towers around the dam, it produces a huge amount of electricity. Probably couldn't build it today, as every environmentalist in the world would would protest its construction no matter how many people would be employed.













Lake Mead above the Hoover Dam





Looking down from the top








Lake Mead










Anyways, after this we decided to travel along I 40 going east. We originally thought we would go along I 15 and visit Zion National park and Bryce Canyon National Park and then the Grand Canyon because friends had suggested that they were extremely beautiful. However the former two parks will have to wait another trip. Going along I 40 we traveled through the everchanging desert to Flagstaff, Arizona. We found another 3D restaurant, a Mexican restaurant called Salsa Brava. Excellent Mexican food and according to Brenda it was here favorite so far.




This place is on Route 66 of the old TV series and the song's fame. Route 66 still exists in spots but not as a regular highway running from Chicago to L.A. but rather as other highways with signs indicating Route 66.













The road is fenced off with openings to allow the wildlife to cross under the road.

Thursday - October 27, 2011

From Bakersfield we went east along Highway 15. About 50 miles along we hit the Mojave desert. Lots of mountains all along the route and lots of sand and rocks. In its own way the desert is very beautiful. Lots of colour in the hills and with some the bushes that grow in the desert. Very few places to stop and with the traffic, difficult to pull over to take pictures but I do have a few.

Highway 15 leads to Las Vegas. The traffic along 15 was very heavy, probably as a result of a lot of people going to Las Vegas. We knew we had hit the Nevada border because right at the California/Nevada border were a number of Casinos built right to the edge of the border. Going into Las Vegas traffic was heavy and we passed by all the major casinos. We decided to only stay one night in Las Vegas and neither of us was interested in gambling and while there were a number of shows in the casinos, none of them were attractive enough for us to stay. However we found another 3D place very close to our motel called the Four Kegs, a nice sports bar. Watched a bit of game 6 of the World Series while we ate. The bar also had a map they asked guests to indicate their home city on.







Obviously more than a few people are following 3D and doing the same thing we are.






Notice the windmills on the hills. There are lots of them but I would like to know why only about 25% of them are operating when there is lots of wind. Seems to me yo want them to provide electrical energy to replace that obtained from coal plants. If there are too many, why build them? I saw several big trucks heading down the highway with parts of the windmills. I wonder if that energy is factored into the CO2 emissions of the windmills. These things are not really very attractive and with the concentration of the windmills on the hills and valleys, you can see why a lot of birds are being killed.






















Amazing how the terrain is constantly changing in the desert!

Wednesday - October 26, 2011

Left Santa Rosa today with a goal of making Bakersfield. Decided to drive south rather than east through the mountains because going south kept us on the interstates where the roads are relatively straight. Going east would have taken us again up some secondary highways and roads. The roads look straight on the map but since they are going through the mountains likely were switchbacks both up and down. Didn't want to do this again as Brenda has a tendency to get motion sickness and I get tired from the steering the truck back and forth for 50 or more miles.

Went through Oakland and proceeded down the San Joaquin valley. At first the area was very mountainous and close to the highway. The hillsides were covered in brown grass with cattle farming.The east side of these mountains is very dry as a lot of water is dropped on the west side of the mountains. As we went further south we got into the farming area where the area, was irrigated and there were a lot of fruit crops growing.

We arrived in Bakersfield about 4 and after settling in went to dinner at the restaurant next to the hotel Buck Owens Crystal Palace which featured steak and live country music. Reminded me of the bar in the film The Blues Brothers. Lot of people line dancing which was very interesting as I never realized how intricate the dance steps are. For those of you who don't remember, Buck Owens was a country music star and host of the old show Hee Haw.

Tuesday - October 25, 2011

Fence around a vinyard



We decided to stay in Santa Rosa for the day to visit some of the wineries. However, before setting out we went to another Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives spot this morning for breakfast. Place called Hank's Creekside Restaurant. It primarily serves breakfast and it was good. I had biscuits and gravy, eggs and corned beef hash. Brenda had whole wheat pancakes with eggs and sausages. As I mentioned both meals were good but special mention to the corned beef hash(for which we have the recipe) and the sausages. Brenda was stuffed for the rest of the day.

After breakfast we took a tour of the wine country. There are so many wineries here it is hard to know where to start. You just drive along the various back roads until you see a winery that has tastings that day and there are a lot of them. Since we had a GPS, it was not possible to get lost since we just kept going down various roads. Stopped at several wineries and bought some wine for the drive home. The wine is not cheap but it is quite good. Can't bring more than 4 750 ml bottles back to Canada. The duty on anything above that would make the cost of a bottle very prohibitive and substantially exceed the wines value.

After returning back to San, we went to dinner at another recommendation for the 3D book - a place called Willie Bird's. It mainly serves turkey dishes but does have other meals. Again a great meal for a reasonable price.









The interesting thing about the 3D recommendations are the meals are all good but not expensive. The other thing is that you would not usually stop at the restaurants unless you were a local who knew of the restaurant, either because of the location or the outside appearance. Each of the places we visited had a lot of customers so you had to know it was good.