December 14, 2008

December 14, 2008

The weather report is calling for a strong chance of freezing rain and arctic temperatures so we punt, cancel the rest of our tour, and head north from Little Rock, AR via the interstate. By the time we make it to St Louis we are tired of driving, so we stop at the Anheuser-Busch brewery for free beer. We have to suffer thru an hour-long tour before we get escorted to the hospitality room. A Belgian conglomerate recently bought Busch so they now have the famous Belgian brew, Stella Artois, on tap. It is not as good as I remember, probably because the keg spent a month on a slow boat from Europe coming here. Now rested, we cover the last leg of the trip and pull into my parent’s home in Godfrey, IL ready for a home-cooked meal.

December 13, 2008

December 13, 2008

Before leaving Hope, AR we drive a few miles into town to see the first home of Hope’s favorite son, Bill Clinton. After a quick photo we make our way northeast to Hot Springs National Park. Hot Springs has to be the oddest of our National Parks. It is an old resort town built around bathhouses fed by a naturally occurring thermal spring. Surprisingly Hot Springs is the oldest unit of the National Park System far older than Yellowstone or Yosemite. Congress made a federal reserve of the area in 1832! Until modern times bathhouses were thought to be therapeutic curing a whole range of ailments. Hence, the government thought it crucial to protect the integrity of the spring. Now, Hot Springs National Park is an anachronism with the NPS stuck owning a string of defunct bathhouses. The Visitor Center is located inside one bathhouse. We give ourselves a self-guided tour of the facility. It is like looking into spa history from the 1920’s. We see a gymnasium and steam boxes I remember from old Three Stooges episodes.

We leave the picturesque Hot Springs area and drive the hour to Little Rock, capital of Arkansas. Our first stop is the Central High School Historic Site. After the Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of public schools, Little Rock was the focal point of Southern resistance. In 1957, nine black students tried to attend Central High, the local white school. Violence erupted and order was restored only when Eisenhower sent in the military. Amazingly stubborn Little Rock closed the schools for the next entire school year rather than submit to federal orders. The Visitor Center is small but is well done and quite an interesting look back at our history.

Our second stop in Little Rock is Bill Clinton’s Presidential Library. The library is housed in a large modern facility but tells virtually nothing about his early life. All the exhibits are about each year of Clinton’s presidency in excruciating detail. To me it was too much of a hard sell that he had a great presidency. Since I am not a Bill and Hillary fan, I am probably not objective. The best part of the Library was the full-size replicas of the Oval Office and Cabinet Room. I also liked the temporary “art” exhibit they had on “chopper” motorcycles. It would have been a lot better visit if we would have met Bill. Surprisingly we almost did. He was at the library this morning.

Since it has been a full day of touring, we decided to spend the night in town.

December 12, 2008

December 12, 2008

A half hour east of Stephenville, TX is Dinosaur Valley State Park. This park is famous for having ancient tracks of dinosaurs. We stop at the Visitor Center for some history and a map of the track locations. The park sits on a loop of the small Paluxy River. The action of the river has exposed lots of tracks in the flat limestone. Unfortunately most of the tracks are in the river underneath the water. The water is clear and we can see the tracks at an angle but we can’t get close without putting our feet in the cold water. We need to come back when the water level is lower. Still what we can see is pretty neat. The tracks of the large brontosaurs are roundish and could be just rock holes if they weren’t all in a row. The coolest are the tracks of the carnivorous therapods (think T-Rex). These three clawed footprints are hard to miss and are clearly dinosaur. Like most fossil sites, a large 30-foot section was excavated years ago and taken to a museum in New York.

On the way out of Dinosaur Valley, we pass the Creation Evidence Museum, which purports to have scientific artifacts supporting the idea of Creationism. I am sure its location right outside the state park is no coincidence. If we were in the RV, I would have been interested in touring the museum to see how they explain away the existence of these dinosaur tracks. Alas we have to get to Chicago before the next snowstorm.

Our last tour stop in Texas is in Dallas to see Dealey Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository. Dealey Plaza is instantly recognizable to almost everyone. It has not changed at all since that fateful day in Nov, 1963 when JFK was assassinated. We park in the public lot behind the grassy knoll and walk along Elm Street. To our left is the industrial looking Texas School Book Depository Building from where Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots. Like TV sets, Dealey Plaza is smaller than you would think. Forty Five years later on a mid-December weekday and this site is still a mecca for tourists. I guess that is a testament to Kennedy’s legacy. This was supposed to be a quick stop but Aimee and I decide to stay and tour the Sixth Floor Museum. The museum is pricey but is well done and worthwhile even though we all know the sordid details already. And you get to look down and see the view that Oswald shot from. My only complaint is not being able to take any photos. In this day of ubiquitous digital cameras, I just don’t get it. They even have two guards posted at Oswald’s post to make sure you don’t.

Leaving Dallas, we drive for seemingly forever in heavy Dallas traffic east and spend the night in Hope, AR. As we drag our luggage to yet another hotel room, Aimee and I are missing the RV. Traveling in the RV is sooo much more convenient. No unpacking, no lugging suitcases, no daily searching for a reasonably priced hotel, and no figuring out where to eat every meal!

December 11, 2008

December 11, 2008

Midland is the nerve center of West Texas oil country. The flat countryside around here is dotted with oil pumpers everywhere. So it doesn’t seem right to leave town without visiting the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum. It doesn’t open till 10AM so we spend a few moments driving by the former house of Midland’s most well known oilmen, the George Bushes. The Bush family lived in this very modest home from 1950-55. We skip the house tour and head on to the oil museum. We have to hang loose on the grounds for a little while waiting for the elderly volunteer to realize it is time to open the doors.

Whereas coal is derived from the fossilization of land plants, petroleum forms from marine organisms. Millions of years ago West Texas was at the bottom of a shallow sea and conditions were ideal for transformation of algae into petroleum. The museum gives an entertaining overview of how oil deposits are located, drilled, and pumped out of the ground. While I find it generally interesting Aimee is bored silly.

By noon we are on I-20 heading towards Dallas. Besides oil wells, I am surprised to see mile after mile of modern windmills along the highway. I guess West Texas is preparing for the time when the oil runs out. I am also surprised at the amount of traffic on this isolated stretch of highway. Texas doesn’t seem to realize the economy is hurting. After many hours of driving we spend the night in Stephenville, southwest of Dallas.

December 10, 2008

December 10, 2008
From Las Cruces, NM we drove the short distance to El Paso, TX. Before leaving we had to scrape a thin layer of frost from the car. I guess I should be happy we are getting an opportunity to re-thicken our blood and ease our way back into Chicago winter weather.

In El Paso with some difficulty we found Chamizal National Memorial. I had no idea what to expect at this historic site. The small park sits on the Rio Grande River and is supposed to celebrate the friendship and goodwill between Mexico and the US. The interesting history of the site illustrates how contentious the relationship actually was. After the end of the Mexican War, in theory the international border west of El Paso was land-based and eastward was the Rio Grande. In reality river borders are fickle and a dispute arose over a valuable parcel of land in the city of Juarez, called Chamizal. After the Rio Grande shifted course this small acreage ended up north of the river in downtown El Paso. This tract of land was a bone of contention between the two countries for years and years. It was not settled until Latin American relations became paramount in JFK’s administration. A new border was drawn, El Paso citizens uprooted, and a concrete river channel constructed to make the decision permanent. Peace and harmony at last.

From El Paso we continued east on I-10 for several hours before making a detour south to Fort Davis National Historic Site. This fort built in 1854 sits in a scenic box canyon and protected travelers on the San Antonio to El Paso Road from attack by Comanches and Apaches. Because of the brisk temperature, we made our tour of the large grounds extra-quick. We watched a short film about the fort and were surprised to see Kareem Abdul Jabbar narrating it while dressed in a cavalry uniform.

From Fort Davis we drove north till we connected up with I-20 and spent the night in Midland, TX.

December 9, 2008

December 9, 2008

We had another beautiful Tucson sunset last night. I went to the local park to take a photo because it will be the last one I see for a month. I need something to remind me of the warm weather since we are heading back to chilly Illinois for Christmas. While in Chicago we are also taking the opportunity to retrieve our belongings from storage and driving them back here. So after the movers came to pick up the rental furniture, we packed up the car and headed east.

A couple weeks ago I broke down and bought a GPS for the car. I had resisted getting one because I thought it would be a toy that I wouldn’t use much. Now that I have one I must admit a GPS is a really neat and amazing toy. Still after using it for a few days, it went in the glove box. I pulled it out for this trip. What a mistake. Much to my dismay I now have two female voices giving me detailed, meticulous driving directions. After a short while I had to unplug it.

Four hours later we pulled into Las Cruces, NM where we stopped to snap a picture of the worlds largest roadrunner (made from old tennis shoes). Since it was getting dark, I pulled the GPS back out and it guided us flawlessly to our hotel. It would have been a lot harder for us to find the hotel at dusk without it. After checking in, we drove to the nearby historic Old Mesilla neighborhood for a delicious Mexican meal. Aimee and I both think Las Cruces has some of the best Mexican restaurants in the country, unfortunately better than we have been able to find in Tucson.