Photography on the Run

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Paul

As some of you know Jean loves to take photographs while we are rolling down the road. She has become quite good at this art. You should check out the link to her Flickr page on the lower right side of this page and try to guess which photos were shot from a moving car and which were not. She always complains about posts and side mirrors getting in the way of the perfect shot.

Today we came up with a new idea – the moving photo shooting stand. It is modeled on the B-17 Flying Fortress. We envision installing a plexiglass dome on top of the car. Inside of that will be a 360 degree moveable seat that rotates at the will of the photographer. While traveling down the road Jean will be able to turn to capture whatever strikes her fancy. (Of course her view to the rear might be impeded by Picasso.)

We need to see if the Air Force has some surplus domes from old B-17’s. Then we will have to modify the seat to meet DOT standards for automobile use. I expect that after no more than $100,000 we would have the perfect mobile photo platform.
Paul

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High Plains Drifters

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Paul

We arrive in the Lone Star State

All day today I thought of the Clint Eastwood movie High Plains Drifter as we drove from Benson Arizona to El Paso Texas. This is all 4-5000 feet and a high plains/desert ringed by mountain ranges. It is so high and flat that the continental divide exists in two parallel lines. We crossed it twice in 20 miles without a loop in the divide! That part of the plateau simple doesn’t drain.

This is a land of tall yuccas, tumbleweed, and low shrubs like mesquite. There was snow on the ground almost all across New Mexico from a New Year’s eve storm. It hasn’t been warm enough to melt it all yet. The wind was brutal, but luckily it was on our tail for much of the day. That gives us good mileage, but plays hell with the handling of the trailer. My fingers are sore tonight. The mountain ranges ringing this basin are beautiful. Each time one range recedes in the rear view mirror (metaphorically because we can’t see anything but Picasso out of the rear view mirror) another range appears on the horizon. Others dot the distant landscape to the left and right.

I-10 follows the routh of the Butterfield Overland Stage line from El Paso to Los Angeles via Deming and Tucson. This is the area made quite famous by 1950’s westerns on TV. There is a trading post a.k.a. stage stop every 20 miles or so. Now they sell cheap tourist trinkets and all seem to be going out of business.

We meant to stay on the New Mexico side of the border at El Paso, but the RV park we had chosen was full. Therefore, we drove through the city and are staying at a big RV park on the east side of El Paso. We got an AARP discount and a large discount for having such a small trailer! It pays to be small.
Paul

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New Photos

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Paul

I finally sorted my photos from this trip and uploaded a select few to my Flickr account. You may access all of them with the Flickr link on the lower right corner of this blog page. Here’s a sample of a hummingbird at the Boyce Thompson Desert Aboretum near Phoenix.

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Out of the Valley of the Sun

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Paul

This morning we are leaving Tempe and heading east toward south Texas. It is a clear sunny day, as is often the case. The temperature this morning was a crisp 29. It will rise to almost 60 during the day.

As we have on other days, this will be a get-away day. We’re only going about 125 miles. That gives us the morning to pack up and prepare. Tomorrow morning we will be ready to be road warriors once more. We don’t know how internet access will be in the coming days.

Tonight we’re staying at an RV resort with a membership we just got: CampClubUSA. It gives us half off at member campgrounds and resorts. This cost us very little, so we thought it was worth trying out to see how much money it saves and whether we like the campgrounds. We’ll keep you all posted about this trial membership. One advantage is that most of the campgrounds have internet access.

Time to pack.

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Traveling and Reading

Posted on December 30, 2010 by Paul

After several weeks on the road I think it’s time to post about how to keep up with reading while traveling. As I posted previously I received a Kindle for a retirement gift. Jean then bought a Kindle for herself. We discovered the world of free e-books. I have downloaded almost 50 free books. Any book that was published more than 75 years ago is free. I also have purchased a few books.

The Kindle experience is close to that of reading a book. I get a little disoriented by having only one page in front of me instead of two, which means you turn the page more often than with paper. The readability of the screen is excellent and doesn’t seem to create any more difficulty than paper. It does require light. (Just like a book!)

The biggest advantage is that you don’t have to carry so many books while traveling. I have completed 7 books since mid-November. I’m currently in the middle of two books. I can’t imagine carrying all of those books in the car, trailer, or my backpack.

I don’t have a comparison with other e-readers, but I will say that this is the wave of the future. It makes reading much more portable and accessible than paper books.

Some favorites from my recent reading:

Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres – a wonderful novel that covers the story of Turkey in the early 20th century. It lays an understanding of present day conflicts. The characters jump off the page and the narrative rivets your interest.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver – she has done it again. Each book seems to get better. This novel follows the life story of a man born to a Mexican mother and US citizen father in the early to mid 1900’s. His life involves much of Mexican-American relations, marxism, art, racism, McCarthism, and other social ills that continue to plague us today. Kingsolver uses her character and his biography to make us think about important issues while entertaining us as usual. I couldn’t put it down (or in the case of the Kindle, turn it off).

One last note, I have been disappointed that purchasing books for the Kindle does not save much money over the paper price. This is not the method of choice if your objective is to save money. For that use the public library. It’s not a bad idea to support our libraries.

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Arizona Highlights

Posted on December 30, 2010 by Paul

 

We are coming up on two weeks in Arizona and want to share some highlights. Internet connectivity has been spotty, so posts aren’t frequent. We use McDonald’s free wifi when we can.

Jean and I played golf one day earlier this week. There’s a great little 9 hole course close to where we are staying. It’s a par 3/4 course, so not too long. I also played once by myself last week. However, golf in Arizona in the winter is expensive, so we’re limiting our play.

On Monday we drove to the top of South Mountain, a Phoenix landmark. From the lofty height of 1400 feet above the valley Phoenix and all of the suburbs are visible through a dense layer of smog. One very noticeable thing from that vantage point is that there are very few tall buildings, not many multi-family apartment/condo buildings, and lots of sprawl. Cars, cars, cars. After that experience we spent the afternoon at the Phoenix Art Museum. They have a very eclectic collection. One interesting current exhibit is a view of the development of art in the 19th century. The museum also has a small collection of modern art featuring some of our favorites like Diego Rivera and Georgia Okeefe. Unfortunately, their Freida Kahlo was out on loan.

On Tuesday we drove east past the Superstition Mountains (home of the fabled Lost Dutchman gold mine) to one of our favorite places in Arizona – Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park. This is the legacy of a man who collected plants from all the deserts of the world and created small examples of those deserts in this place. It is now maintained by an army of volunteers who lovingly care for the plants and facilities. The trails are beautifully designed to offer great photo opportunities at every turn. Stunning red rock backdrops and blue skies compliment the cacti and other desert plants. I’m attaching a couple of photos.

We’re planning to head east with Picasso on Monday. Before then we will celebrate the new year with Pat. Happy new year to all of our friends and family!

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Merry Christmas to All!

Posted on December 24, 2010 by Paul

Here we are in sunny Arizona. This is even further removed from the traditional view of Christmas than our usual damp haunts in western Washington. Yesterday afternoon I played golf in sunshine and 70 degrees! It seems strange to see holiday decorations on cacti in front yards. Stocking caps would be way too warm.

We are enjoying spending time with Pat. This evening we are going to some friends of hers for a Christmas Eve barbecue. Tomorrow the three of us are making dinner and pigging out.

We do miss being with our many friends and extended family.  It will be strange not to celebrate Christmas Eve with the Auld/Etue family waiting for Kringovac to come. (Someone please tell Kringovac I’ve been good.) And we will not be there tomorrow for our extended family’s Christmas dinner.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and may we all have a happy and peaceful new year.

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Lunar Eclipse Tonight

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Paul

There is a full lunar eclipse tonight all across north America. If you have the opportunity to go outside between 11 and 1 you will be treated to a wonderful and eerie event. Unfortunately, the clouds have come to the valley of the sun so it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to see it. At about 10:30 Pacific time the earth’s shadow will begin to cross the moon’s brightly lit face. The eclipse will move eastward so those of you back east will have to stay up later.

It has been 372 years since a lunar eclipse coincided with the winter solstice. Enjoy!

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Getting to Arizona

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Paul

I thought I should write a slightly longer post about our trip from Seattle to Tempe. We left Redding CA and drove down to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park just south of Monterey on the Pacific Coast Highway. That park has a large grove of redwoods, the Big Sur River, mountains, and beautiful rocky coastline. Few campers shared the park in the winter. We found a site in an open meadow with views of the mountains and light. As I shared in an earlier post we saw a great sunset and celebrated Jean’s birthday there. I cooked a pasta dinner and we cracked a bottle of special Sattui wine saved from our last visit with Aunt Gen.

The next day we drove down Highway 1 through light drizzle, fog, and construction projects. For those who have never been on that road, it is not for the faint of heart. Pulling a trailer makes it even more exciting. The construction is mostly associated with places where the sea has eaten the road from below. Jean snapped photos while I white knuckled it at 25-30 mph. The fog creates a beauty of its own, but deprived us of some of the distant views that must have been there. I recommend this for those visiting that part of the the country unless you’re pulling a bigger trailer than ours.

We had no trouble finding our friends’ house in Arroyo Grande. Suzie, our GPS, took us right to them. Norman met us on the street a block from their house, which proved to be as close as we could get with Picasso. Therefore, we parked her there for the duration of our visit.

When we left Arroyo Grande on Friday it was raining and windy. The drive to Los Angeles was uneventful, but slow due to a head wind and rain. Going around LA proved to be the slowest part of the trip so far. There seemed to be an accident blocking the freeway every 10 miles or so. It was a great relief to hit the east bound freeway to Palm Springs.

We tried something new for overnight that night. We stayed for free in the parking lot of a casino in Indio. There were dozens of RVs and semi trucks taking advantage of the free parking. We had on board water and toilet facilities as well as our own electrical system, so we were pretty comfortable. The only reason we found this was a billboard I had seen 25 miles before the casino that advertised it as a place for truckers to park overnight.

Yesterday we had a very nice drive to Tempe with temps in the upper 60’s and low 70’s and sunshine all the way. Traffic wasn’t bad through Phoenix and we had Picasso unpacked and set up before Pat got home from work. This morning Jean and I took a walk and then I spent a couple of hours sitting in the sunshine reading my Kindle. Retirement is great!

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Gray Skies Blues

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Paul

This post is a bit delayed due to lack of internet connectivity for a a few days. California proved to be gray and drizzly much of our time there. We did have some partly sunny days at Norman and Janet’s house in Arroyo Grande, but also clouds and rain. What happened to sunny California? The weather prompted me to write a new song while driving through southern CA in raindrops and wind:

Let it rain, let it pour, let it rain a whole lot more, cause I got those gray sky blues; Let the rain drive right on, let the wind sweep along, cause I got those gray sky blues;

We left Seattle in a threat of rain, stopped in Oregon and got drowned again, now I got those gray skies blues; California had some sun breaks, but we were so wet any break we’d take, cause we got those gray skies blues.

Leaving LA in our rear view mirror, we headed east without a fear, cause we had those gray skies blues; In Palm Springs we found the sun, folks in shorts having lots of fun, there we lost our gray skies blues.

Here we sit in the valley of the sun, looking forward to much outdoor fun, there’s no more gray sky blues; We’ve settled Picasso in Pat’s driveway, set up our chairs to enjoy the day, we don’t have those gray skies blues.

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