Some More Observations While Travelling About The West
* Best lava fields - Oregon Cascades, eastern Idaho, south of Flagstaff.
* Texans love to wave at you.
* There's an hispanic fellow who sells homemade tamales at intersections outside Saguaro National Park. They are the best thing we ever bought from a vender. He grinds his own masa and sells them for a dollar. Don't pass him by.
* Whatever vehicle you drive, don't skimp on brakes and tires. Mountain travel and back road gravel tears 'em up.
* Utah tries to hide liquor stores by keeping them off main streets and into back alleys. On the other hand, some mormons are fine people.
* Kitt Peak lets you wander through some of the observatory buildings.
* Arizonians smoke more than anyone else except maybe Nevadans. Californians are the worst drivers.
* There are 4 distinct deserts in the SW - the Sonoran, Mojave, Chihuauhan and Great Basin. Superficially they're all alike but in reality they're as different as night and day.
* Ocatillo can grow and shed leaves several times a year depending on when it rains.
* The most magical time to visit Yosemite Valley is before the tourist season and after heavy spring rain. Dozens of waterfalls pour over the cliffs and drop a thousand feet to the canyon floor. The biggest create their own windstorms.
* The tram to the top of the mountain at Wallowa Lake in Oregon is the best one I've taken. The Wallowas aren't called the American Alps for nothing.
* There are a lot of famous balanced rocks. Chiracahua Nayional Monument literally has millions of them.
* If you want to get serious about extended back country travel, get a portable generator. If you want to get serious about generators, get a Honda.
* The road between Hanksville and Monticello in Utah will make your jaw drop.
* An astounding number of females in Salt Lake are blond.
* Take a volcano trip to St. Helens and Rainier, it's well worth it.
* Border patrol highway stops are an intrusive nuisance and a fucking waste of time.
* So far a computer card for internet access works surprisingly well. We have Alltel.
* The road into Borrego Springs has lots of whimsical bronze wildlife.
* Desert plants wage chemical warfare, against each other and you.
* Don't even think of camping in a tent along the Texas gulf.
* Colorado was overwhelmingly voted the best state for backpacking by readers of Backpacking magazine for a very good reason.
* The two best museums in the west I've seen so far are the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum near Tucson and the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, WY.
* There are supposed to be ancient Lemurians living inside Mt. Shasta, but when we camped there a whole bunch of homeless people came out of the woods and took turns viewing through my big telescope, but no Lemurians. Or are there?
* REI is your friend.
* Texans love to wave at you.
* There's an hispanic fellow who sells homemade tamales at intersections outside Saguaro National Park. They are the best thing we ever bought from a vender. He grinds his own masa and sells them for a dollar. Don't pass him by.
* Whatever vehicle you drive, don't skimp on brakes and tires. Mountain travel and back road gravel tears 'em up.
* Utah tries to hide liquor stores by keeping them off main streets and into back alleys. On the other hand, some mormons are fine people.
* Kitt Peak lets you wander through some of the observatory buildings.
* Arizonians smoke more than anyone else except maybe Nevadans. Californians are the worst drivers.
* There are 4 distinct deserts in the SW - the Sonoran, Mojave, Chihuauhan and Great Basin. Superficially they're all alike but in reality they're as different as night and day.
* Ocatillo can grow and shed leaves several times a year depending on when it rains.
* The most magical time to visit Yosemite Valley is before the tourist season and after heavy spring rain. Dozens of waterfalls pour over the cliffs and drop a thousand feet to the canyon floor. The biggest create their own windstorms.
* The tram to the top of the mountain at Wallowa Lake in Oregon is the best one I've taken. The Wallowas aren't called the American Alps for nothing.
* There are a lot of famous balanced rocks. Chiracahua Nayional Monument literally has millions of them.
* If you want to get serious about extended back country travel, get a portable generator. If you want to get serious about generators, get a Honda.
* The road between Hanksville and Monticello in Utah will make your jaw drop.
* An astounding number of females in Salt Lake are blond.
* Take a volcano trip to St. Helens and Rainier, it's well worth it.
* Border patrol highway stops are an intrusive nuisance and a fucking waste of time.
* So far a computer card for internet access works surprisingly well. We have Alltel.
* The road into Borrego Springs has lots of whimsical bronze wildlife.
* Desert plants wage chemical warfare, against each other and you.
* Don't even think of camping in a tent along the Texas gulf.
* Colorado was overwhelmingly voted the best state for backpacking by readers of Backpacking magazine for a very good reason.
* The two best museums in the west I've seen so far are the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum near Tucson and the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, WY.
* There are supposed to be ancient Lemurians living inside Mt. Shasta, but when we camped there a whole bunch of homeless people came out of the woods and took turns viewing through my big telescope, but no Lemurians. Or are there?
* REI is your friend.
posted by nolocontendere at 6:21 PM
2 Comments:
Texans love to wave at you.
One-fingered waves?
Californians are the worst drivers.
You haven't been to Massachusetts.
Sounds like an experience of a lifetime. Thanks for letting us share a little bit of it.
Haha, east coast drivers are something else, I grew up in NY but haven't been back there in 30 years so the situation no doubt has gotten worse.
Yeah abi, my wife and I looked at each other and said DAMN, we've been around over the years, and I decided to jot down some memories. Everything in these posts I've come across directly, believe it or not, although I realize that a person could just look a lot of the stuff up and copy it.
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