June 23, 2016

June 23, 2016

From Las Cruces, NM, it is less than five hours back to Tucson.  As we leave the hotel, I tell Aimee we got one last spot to see.  Aimee responds "The fun never ends".  Finally, Aimee is embracing this quest to see every national site!

With some difficulty we find Prehistoric Trackways National Monument.  This hillside just outside Las Cruces is filled with prehistoric reptile footprints.  What makes this unique from the several dinosaur tracks we have visited in the West is that these prints are from the Paleozoic 'pre-dinosaur' era.  So the tracks are way different and much smaller.  They are more like claw marks than footprints.  Unfortunately for us tourists, all the tracks have been removed as they have been found and sent to museums.  We don't know where to look, so after talking to a guy flying his drone, we get back on the road for the last push home.

June 22, 2016

June 22, 2016

From San Antonio, we drove straight west till we hit the Rio Grande again to visit Amistad National Recreation Area. In 1954 a Gulf hurricane came ashore and dumped rain onto this parched land.  The flooding and destruction prompted Mexico and the USA to jointly build this dam.  It was named Amistad, Spanish for Friendship.  We can see evidence of the power of flash floods in a desert just west as we pass over the partially flooded canyon of the Pecos River.

From Amistad we drove the rest of the day across west Texas.  I am glad we had a full tank of gas since this is probably the most isolated and deserted section of the US.  We witnessed the "urban heat island effect" as we passed through El Paso and saw the outside temp jump fifteen degrees to 113F!  We ended the day in Old Mesilla outside Las Cruces, NM.

June 21, 2016

June 21, 2016

Tucson is having a heat wave so we are delaying our return home.  Aimee has been very patient with me, so I am devoting today to her interests. So we head east past Corpus Christi to the beach at Padre Island National Seashore.  This section of Padre Island is the exact opposite of yesterday. While South Padre is highly developed, the north half is the longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island beach in world. After checking out the Visitor Center, we take a barefoot walk down the beach. Our only companions are seagulls and tiny crabs.  So Nice!  And so much better than crazy South Padre. Too bad I didn't call ahead.  Early this morning rangers did a release of new sea turtle hatchlings on the beach.  We would have loved to see that.

At noon we make the three hour drive to San Antonio.  We get a visitor pass at the guard gate of Lackland Air Force base and drive to the parade ground.  It is lined with large historical aircraft. After some searching we find the Military Working Dogs Team National Monument.  It is a memorial statue dedicated to the dogs that help soldiers do their hazardous job. Lackland is also the home of the military's Working Dog Training School. Aimee loves dogs and is disappointed not to see any real ones around.

We then head to San Antonio Missions National Historical Park The Spanish built a string of missions along the San Antonio River to provide a buffer against French incursions from Louisiana. The most famous is now known as the Alamo. Another five are now part of this park.  We visit three of them.  I like San Jose the best because it is the most preserved and shows the missions were combination church and fort.

Our hotel is not far from San Antonio’s famous Riverwalk.  We have dinner at a Texas BBQ restaurant along the water because I owe Aimee. Last time we visited some dozen years ago Aimee was sick and only had tea.

June 20, 2016

June 20, 2016

From Victoria, TX we drove several hours south to the Mexican border to continue our exploration of Texas history.  This time at Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park.  After the US annexed Texas, relations with Mexico soured and a dispute over the actual border ensued.  In 1846 both sides staged troops on the Rio Grande. The Mexicans struck first, but the US prevailed.  The Americans took advantage of the war and seized California and New Mexico.  Even though Mexico and the US were evenly matched, the American army was better trained and armed while Mexico was in political turmoil.

After watching the movie and looking through the exhibits, we toured the small battlefield.  It was fought in a flat Rio Grande floodplain full of chaparral.  A place not conducive to the cavalry charges that the Mexican army relied upon.  Instead it was an artillery duel with the US having better cannon.

We then drove thirty minutes east to the coast to visit Point Isabel Lighthouse State Historic Site. This was where US General Zachary Taylor had his port for supplying his army. Across the bridge is South Padre Island.  This beach full of resort hotels is a mecca for Spring Break students. Today it is packed with families enjoying the surf and sand. If you are not staying at a beach hotel, it is difficult to park and get public access to the shore.

From the Rio Grande Valley we drove back north and spent the night in Kingsville. This city is the headquarters of the King Ranch, the largest in the world at almost 1300 square miles.

June 19, 2016

June 19, 2016

This morning we drove from Waco, TX to College Station, home of Texas A & M University. On the campus is the George H. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, our 13th and final library. We were actually here before in 2013, in the parking lot, but because of the government shutdown we were stymied and not allowed entry.  

The elder Bush’s library is night and day different from W’s yesterday.  While 43’s was all events, 41’s is mostly about his life.  And what a life he had. Athlete, war hero, oil man, congressman, UN ambassador, party chairman, China envoy, CIA chief, VP to Reagan, President, father of President, and elderly parachutist.  Wow.  He might have been the most prepared President ever.  With all that and a huge approval rating, how could he not get reelected!!!  His Presidential exhibits had a little about the fall of the Berlin wall and lots on Operation Desert Storm to free Kuwait. I remember that 100-hour war vividly.  Overall the library was outstanding and way better than 43’s

From College Station, we continued south.  In the town of La Grange, we made a brief stop at Monument Hill State Park.  It is near closing time so I made quick run to the large monument on the bluff overlooking Texas’ Colorado River.  After Texas defeated the Mexican army under Santa Ana and gained independence, Mexico again invaded Texas several years later.  This continuing conflict motivated Texas to join the US.   This memorial is dedicated to the Texans who lost their life in the post-Alamo battles.

We stopped for the night in the town of Victoria, TX

June 18, 2016

June 18, 2016

From Plano, TX we drove into Dallas and the new George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.  This is the most expensive of the twelve we have visited.  Despite the cost, there is a line to get in.  We spend a couple hours going through the exhibits. Unlike the other Presidential Libraries, there is very little on Bush’s personal life.  Most of the exhibits are devoted to the major events during his presidency; and there were a bunch. Hurricane Katrina, the 9-11 Attack, and the Mortgage Meltdown would have been more than enough for any president.  Still Aimee and I were both underwhelmed with the experience. Maybe because the history is so recent.

The one thing the library did do was crystallize my biggest disappointment with Bush. For me Bush didn’t practice true limited government conservatism. His theme was ‘compassionate conservatism'. Like in the liberal lexicon, “compassion” is code word for government involvement using public funds/taxpayer money for social and humanitarian causes that are best left to individuals. For him, and for Liberals, government is always the solution to problems, despite the many unintended consequences. Unfortunately today, too many Republicans have the same bias. They didn’t learn anything from Reagan.

The Bush Library sits on the campus of Southern Methodist University.  Before leaving we took a short ride around and were astonished at how new and wealthy it looks, but I guess that accurately reflects Dallas.

We drove ninety minutes south to Waco, TX and the home of another Obama pronouncement, Waco Mammoth National Monument.  In a creek bed here, 23 Columbian Mammoth skeletons have been unearthed.  These giant elephant-like creatures roamed the area during the Ice Age before becoming extinct 10,000 years ago.  A building now protects the dig site. We sign up for the mandatory 45-minute guided tour.  It is only slightly interesting.  We have been to a couple other more impressive Mammoth pits already.  Only a couple skeletons are left in this dig site, and there is no museum attached to the park.

We are done early today, so we went into central Waco where Dr. Pepper was created in 1885. There is even a Dr Pepper Museum. We were going to tour it, but after reading a few of the outside placards, we decided we got the gist of the story. Drinking Dr. Pepper is kind of a Texas thing.

June 17, 2016

June 17, 2016

This is our third visit to Memphis.  We have been to most of the tourists sites except for the big one, Graceland.  Each time I debate whether to spend the small fortune to tour the rather small mansion of Elvis Presley.  I am not as enamored with the King like many of my fellow baby boomers, perhaps I am a touch too young.  Aimee and I have toured innumerable old houses, few of which I have found worth a steep entry fee.  When I recently learned of the cheapskate tour, I was hooked.  

We made the ten minute drive from downtown to Graceland early this morning.  There is free parking for a few lucky ones right outside the gate.  Graffiti to the king completely covers the grounds' wall.  At precisely 7:30 a.m., the gate opens and a dozen of us walk up to the mansion for the first photo op.  As we skirt the outside of the house and swimming pool we arrive in the Meditation Garden that contains Elvis’ grave and eternal flame.  Buried next to him are his parents, grandmother, and stillborn twin brother. Elvis died almost 39 years ago at the tender age of 42.

From Memphis, we drive southwest crossing the state of Arkansas.  We stop in the town of Hope, AR to stretch our legs and visit President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site.  Wow, that is a mouthful that barely fits on the sign.  We have been here before but the home has been added to the National Park System, so we thought we would stop for the interior tour.  Unfortunately I am reminded they had an arson incident a few months ago and the house is closed for repairs.  Instead we browse the handful of displays and take a couple photos of the tiny house through the windows.

From Hope we cross the border into Texas and eventually into the outskirts of Dallas. We stop at Southfork Ranch, home of TV’s JR Ewing just in time for the last tour of the day.  When we learn that the museum closes in five minutes we pass on the excursion and instead opt for the iconic TV photo.  Aimee and I were both big fans of the Dallas TV show.  Southfork was the set of the exterior but the interiors were all a soundstage in Hollywood.  The privately owned complex is now a business conference center and tourist mecca with an unbelievably large gift shop.

For dinner we met up  with a childhood friend of Aimee's who now lives in Dallas.  Aimee and I shared a delicious Texas BBQ brisket meal. Aimee and her friend talked up a storm for the next several hours.

June 16, 2016

June 16, 2016

After a stopover at my childhood home outside Alton, IL, Aimee and I continued our journey home with a drive 90 minutes south to Fort de Chartres State Historic Site.  I was shocked when we pulled in and saw a large stone fort. How odd to see this in the boonies of southern Illinois.  It was built in 1753 by the French replacing earlier wooden versions.  We walked around the interior of the impressive fortification with nary a staff member to be seen.  One of the barracks has a small museum about the site.  The French found no gold in Illinois but they did find the area to be exceedingly fertile and the area became the breadbasket for their settlement in New Orleans. The fort soon had to be abandoned when the river changed course and eroded the west wall away.  As I walked back to our car, I thought that Obama should have added this site into the NPS instead of Pullman.

From de Chartres we followed the Mississippi south until we found the road closed and had to backtrack many miles.  Eventually we made it to Fort Kaskaskia State Historic site.  Another original French settlement, this town served as the capital of Upper Louisiana and later the first state capital of Illinois.  When it was ceded to the British at the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, the citizenry moved across the river and founded St Genevieve and St Louis.  During the Revolutionary War it was captured by George Rogers Clark for the Americans on July 4, 1778.

As we drive into the state park situated on a picturesque bluff, we learn this history was destroyed by the ever changing Mississippi in 1881.  The original site of Kaskaskia now lies at the bottom of the river.  What little remains is now on the Missouri side of the river.

Before crossing the river we stopped in Chester, IL to honor Popeye.  Cartoonist Elzie Seger grew up here and supposedly based the characters on former residents. Interestingly Olive Oyl was the original star.  Popeye was a later introduction.

We finished the day continuing south till we arrived in Memphis, TN.  Since we are hungry we drove downtown and walked down Beale Street.  The area is famous for being the birthplace of both Memphis Blues and Rock and Roll.  It is now closed off as a pedestrian zone and is home to dozens of nightclubs, bars, restaurants, and shops filled with tourists.

We stopped in one establishment with live music where we enjoyed a very tasty bowl of Gumbo.  I think what we liked best though was the A/C.  At 104 and 100% humidity it is sweltering.

June 14, 2016

June 14, 2016

We began the journey back to Tucson this morning.  We took the long way past downtown Chicago to the far south side and the newly minted Pullman National Monument.

In the Visitor Center we watched a short movie and then perused the very limited exhibits.  George Pullman took a very long uncomfortable train journey on his move from New York to Chicago.   A carpenter by trade, he got the idea that people would pay to ride the train in more luxurious surroundings.  He was right.  Eventually he came to dominate the sleeper-car business.  Chicago, the main factory site, was surrounded by a planned company town, since Pullman believed happy employees would be productive workers.  That blew up because as nice as it was people ultimately didn't want to live in a town owned and controlled by their employer.

For a time Pullman was also the largest hotelier in the world serving thousands of people sleeping and eating in his rolling accommodations.  Pullman filled many of these service positions with former slaves looking for opportunity, making him the largest employer of blacks in the nation.  Later these black porters got together and unionized, an event that is considered the birth of the civil rights movement.

With the demise of train travel, the industry and factory eventually closed and the area became another rundown neighborhood of Chicago.  Instead of razing it, the Pullman District was saved by the state but not given money for preservation.  It was just allowed to rot and be destroyed by arson.

From the Visitor Center we took a short walk around the neighborhood. The Pullman commercial and industrial buildings are all decrepit and probably long overdue for demolition.  The surrounding residential homes are in pretty good shape and appear to be taken care of by their proud, newly gentrified residents. Pullman could have made a nice compelling story, complete with interesting history and antique sleeper cars, but they are probably 50 years too late.  What little remaining here is a drain on the bankrupt state of Illinois.  Looking for outside funds the local congressman unsuccessfully tried to get Pullman declared a National Historic Park.  Instead, in a purely political act, Obama declared it a National Monument a few days before his friend, Rahm Emanuel’s 2015 mayoral reelection bid.

June 12, 2016

June 12, 2016

From Colorado we meandered our way cross country through Texas and Illinois to visit both of our mothers.  We ended in Milwaukee, WI to attend the wedding of our niece.  Millennials no longer say “I do” at a church.  Rather the preferred venue is now a beautiful beach, garden, or in this case a museum.  Our relatives and friends gathered in the penthouse of downtown Milwaukee’s Discovery World with a bird’s eye view of Lake Michigan and its tall buildings and graceful sailboats.

After the ceremony, we had hors d'oeuvres in the science museum below where Aimee and I had an opportunity to explore.  This wing is devoted to the Great Lakes and contains not only an aquarium but a ballroom-size scale model of the five Great Lakes.  It is huge, complete with flowing water, waterfalls, and amazingly, thunderstorms and rain!

The reception was held in the same penthouse where later in the evening we got serranaded with a front row seat to a fireworks display.  I guess my brother-in-law has more pull with the city than I thought.

June 4, 2016

June 4, 2016

La Junta, CO is our last stop on the Santa Fe Trail as we have already followed the section continuing on to Missouri.  We signed up for an all-day driving tour on the Comanche National Grassland south of here.   Since the roads are unpaved, a four-wheel drive vehicle is required. Fortunately I now have one and I am itching to try it out on a real outback road. Specifically we are going to explore Picketwire Canyon.  The name comes from the Purgatoire River that flows within it. When Americans settled here, they “heard” Picketwire when the French fur trappers said Purgatoire. Having no ear for foreign languages, it makes perfect sense to me.

We met up with our guide at the Grassland office and Aimee was again shocked to find a dozen other cars containing 28 tourists waiting to join us.  She always thinks I am the only nut that visits these places. LOL!  Our extended caravan heads fifteen miles south and then turns off onto an unpaved road which we take for another seventeen miles.  After our guide unlocks a gate we descend down into Picketwire Canyon.  This near-desert region had rain earlier in the week so there are dozens of sections where the road is a mud pit.  Uh-Oh, I am not sure we can do this. Our SUV doesn't have real 4-wheel drive, only AWD.  I hope that is good enough.  I plow ahead, trying to stick to the drier side…..and we make it through!  We can do this!  Our Subaru Outback takes it like a Jeep.

Our tour has several stops including an Indian Petroglyph site, a Spanish Mission and cemetery, and finally an early American homestead ranch.  But the star attraction, and why we signed up, is Dinosaur Tracks, the largest collection in North America.  1300 footprints line both sides of the Purgatoire River. Most of the large round Sauropod footprints are in parallel lines indicating that these herbivores traveled in herds like their modern mammalian cousins.  Interestingly some are shallow and distinct like they were made in wet sand. Others are deeper and irregular looking like they were closer to the shoreline in thick mud. The tracks I like best are those of the 3-toed Theropod carnivores stalking their prey.  Unfortunately, those are fewer in number.

After checking out one side, Aimee and I clutched each other and carefully waded to the other side of the swift river.  A quick glance made me realize we got very lucky on this trip.  The rain earlier was long enough ago to dry out making the roads passable but recent enough to still fill the tracks.  That makes these Jurassic-era footprints easier to see and photograph.

After getting our fill of dino tracks our caravan returned to La Junta, where I realized we picked up an unwanted souvenir.  Our SUV is caked with dirt.  Since it is still brand new, we head directly to the local self-serve car wash.  This mud is like concrete and it takes a full ten minutes of high pressure water to remove most of the dirt.  There are still sections underneath I can’t reach.  I am hoping the rest will bounce off on the highway tomorrow.  Aimee is not happy.

June 3, 2016

June 3, 2016

This morning we returned to downtown Santa Fe, this time visiting the New Mexico History Museum. The first half of the exhibits are inside the Palace of Governors, the oldest continually occupied public building in the US.  The lengthy history of New Mexico makes every other state look like a newborn.  It was part of Spain and Mexico longer than it has been part of the US.  The museum is well done and Aimee and I are both surprised at our interest in the state’s history.

The Spanish came into the area several times in the 1500s looking for gold.  Not finding any they eventually established La Villa Real de Santa Fe at the end of the century.  This very isolated outpost of Spain was meant to christianize the Pueblos and provide a buffer against hostile Indians and other European powers.  New Mexico was annexed by the US in 1846 and made a state in 1912.  The museum also has a couple of visiting exhibitions we find of little interest, except for a wall art piece with facial silhouettes that Aimee finds very cool.

Shortly after noon, we set out on the Santa Fe trail.  After Mexico won its independence in 1821, an enterprising Missourian made the 10 week, 775 mile journey with lots of trade goods.  He made a fortune and lots of people copied him until the railroad was extended here in 1879.  The route straddles the east side of the mountains until the border with Colorado.  Here the trail crosses the high pass at Raton and enters the flat plains.  Eventually we stop for the night in La Junta (The Junction), CO where the trail crosses the Arkansas River.

June 2, 2016

June 2, 2016

The President has been busy signing new units into the National Park System faster than we have been visiting them, so we have some catching up to do. Two new ones are nearby. From Santa Fe we drove to the town of Los Alamos located atop a nearby finger mesa.  Los Alamos, Hanford Reach and Oak Ridge have recently been formed into the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.  Los Alamos was the brains of the operation where the technology of the atomic bomb was developed  We have been here before so we just stopped at the Visitor Center to look at the new exhibits.  At some point in the near future they will conduct tours of the currently off-limits historic research facilities. Before leaving we took our photo in front of the new statues of the leaders of this successful Herculean effort, Robert Oppenheimer and Leslie Groves.

The second new park is just west and high above Los Alamos.  We drive through the laboratory grounds and up into the Jemez Mountains. After cresting at 9000 foot elevation, we see Valles Caldera National Preserve spread out below us. The Caldera is the remnant of a super-volcano that blew its top a million years ago and left this 14-mile wide crater.  It mostly consists of a large grassland surrounded by pine forested hills.

After checking into the guard station for a permit we drive ten miles across the caldera, along a very rutted road looking for a spot to hike.  Despite being wide open, the Preserve severely limits parking.  We also find the terrain a little boring and the trailheads unmarked so we opt to turn around and head back to Santa Fe.

In  downtown Santa Fe, I accompany Aimee as she visits the many artsy shops.  She is in need of some retail therapy.  Our path took us from the central plaza along the original path of the Santa Fe trail, passing the oldest church and building in the US.

June 1, 2016

June 1, 2016

We are up early and out the door for our summer trip back to the Midwest to visit family.  The TSA airport security lines are unreal and gas is cheap so Aimee and I opt to drive instead of flying.  Plus we bought a new high clearance, all-wheel drive SUV and I am anxious to check out its off road capabilities.  So instead of the Interstate we opt for the back roads across northeast Arizona.  It is a truly scenic route along the Gila River canyon, over the Grand Canyon-esque Salt River, and up into the pine forested White Mountain Apache Reservation.

For a break we take a detour to Fort Apache Historic Park.  The Apache Indians' favorite pastime was raiding their peaceful Pueblo Indian neighbors.  To tame their anti-social behavior, in 1870, the US confined them to this valley and built a fort nearby to keep an eye on them.

The Park’s small museum has some displays on Apache culture but we find them uninteresting. We then give ourselves a quick driving tour of the fort starting with General Crook’s log cabin.  It contains a good history of the fort.  We then drive by a couple beautiful stone mansions that served as officer's quarters.  The fort sits in a very scenic valley of the White Mountains.  If it wasn’t owned by the reservation it would be an outstanding summer resort destination.

To finish off our whirlwind stop, we back track two miles and drive another two miles down a dirt road.  The SUV takes the rutted rocky road wonderfully.  I think we picked a good off road vehicle.  We end at Kinishba Ruins.  This was an old pueblo of the ancient Indians that occupied the area a 1000 years ago, well before the Apache migrated here.  Ruins is a good word. Although the archaeological site was excavated and rebuilt, it was allowed to deteriorate again. We take a quick stroll around and then get back on the road.

Continuing northeast, we exit the White Mountains, and cross expansive flat volcanic plains into New Mexico. We pass the lava fields of El Malpais National Monument and after several hours arrive in Albuquerque.  Chasing a lightning storm we finish in Santa Fe in the late evening.  Shockingly the temperature is 59F and we have to dig into our luggage to find jackets.  We escaped the heat!