Texline to Dalhart to Amarillo to Dallas

Our "high centering" offroad mishap set back our road trip a few hours, so the last day of our 5.5 day seven state road trip was a push to Dallas. Ben did the night driving from New Mexico to Texas on some very dark lonely roads. We crossed into Texas at Texline (get the name?) and entered Texas time (aka Central Time). We arrived in Dalhart a little after midnight to crash at a newly built Hampton Inn. We had an inkling this was a cattle town due to the "fragrance" in the air, and then learned the helpful fact that cows outnumber humans 70 to one in this town. We slept in a bit and enjoyed the Texas shaped waffles the next morning in our included breakfast. Lest you think the fragrance put me off, I really liked Dalhart. A very friendly town.

Our next major stop was Buc-ee's in Amarillo, TX. Buc-ee's for those uninformed, is a Texas institution. It is the gas station convenience store on steroids. If you have not experienced it, you have not experienced it.

100 gas pumps and a "convenience" store that is the size of a department store.

And then there is Buc-ee the beaver, the mascot of this enterprise. Buc-ee's face is emblazoned on clothes, food, band-aids, everything. There is even a sweaty person in a large Buc-ee's costume greeting toddlers. You can't not like Buc-ee just like you can't not like Mickey Mouse. I'm a fan. I could not resist. I bought a tank top with a glittery picture of Buc-ee.

From Amarillo we pushed on to Dallas, stopping at several rest stops along the way. Now, in Texas everything is bigger. And so are the rest stops. These modern archiectural marvels are indoors with A/C (of course, of course), two stories high with bathrooms and vending machines. But they also contain a DOT office, a miniature museum, public service announcements, and a tornado room. While I didn't tour the tornado room, it was a comfort to know it was there.

I would be remiss in mentioning we also saw the world's largest bowie knife, in Bowie, TX. Not kidding. Guiness record certified.

Finally, finally, we made it back to Ben's apartment in Dallas. There commenced the sweaty unloading of his packed Cruiser. The temp was 93 degrees, in March.

Ben promised BBQ before he dropped me off at Love Field airport to my flight back to the Bay Area. It was delish. And so ends the road trip tale. See our approximate path below.

High Centering on Greenie Peak, NM, and the goodness of strangers

Ben and I experienced a bit of offroading hubris when Ben "high centered" his Cruiser on a forest road on the way to Greenie Peak,NM. Engineer Fix helpfully explains this phenomenon as follows: "When your car gets stuck on top of snow and is high-centered, it means that the vehicle's undercarriage is making contact with the snow, suspending the wheels and preventing ground contact. This situation requires extensive shoveling to remove the snow from under the vehicle before it can be moved again."

A note of caution to other offroaders - walk that bit of snowpack before you take your vehicle on it. Our snowpack started shallow and quickly increased to knee deep snow.

Rocking back and forth, snow chains and runner boards did not help. A few hours of shoveling did not really help. (A few hours more would have been needed!) Then, thank Jesus (this was Ben's out loud remark), some adventurers coming down the mountain helped us out. They were riding in side by sides, a type of ATV that practically floats on snow. They took time out of their day to tow us off the slab of snow, and help Ben do a thirty point turn to have the car facing forward so Ben could more easily head back the way we had come. They even waited to make sure we got to the snow free portion of the road. They seem very amused with our predicament, probably noticing the Texas plates. They knew snow, and we, sadly, did not. Getting stuck like that cost us three hours of anxiety and physical effort, and I did a lot of shoveling at high altitude (about 10,000 feet) which takes the wind out of you. Not recommended. We never did make it to the top of Greenie Peak, but I also was never so grateful to make it back to a paved road (and a gas station bathroom). A shout out to my wonderful husband Steven, who we contacted remotely via our Garmin to see if we could get assistance. Steven lined up Officer Martinez to help us before our good samaritans showed up. Officer Martinez was pleased his services were not needed.

Mesa Verde National Park, CO

A thousand years ago, Pueblo Indians built villages in cliff openings in this mountain mesa. Now they are part of a national park in Colorado called Mesa Verde. We visited in the off season, so weren't able to book ranger tours of the cliff dwellings and actually walk in the dwellings. But we did the next best thing. After a 45 minute drive from the visitor center, we walked a short path to the overlook of Cliff Palace, the largest and most breathtaking of these cliff dwellings. Built in the 1200s, the Cliff Palace is not only the largest cliff dwelling in North America, but archeologists now think the Cliff Palace may have been the capital of cliff dwellings in the area, devoted to religious ceremonies and administration. My Cliff Palace brochure says that regardless, it is "an architectural masterpiece by any standard." I agree.

The Cliff Palace was chanced upon by two cowboys, Richard Wetherill and Charlie Mason, in 1888, though the Ute Indians had always known about it. It later became a tourist attraction, with many artifacts pillaged until the whole area was set aside as a national park and access was carefully controlled.

The Cliff Plalace was mostly contstructed from 1260-1280, based on dating of the wood beams. Sandstone and the makings of mortar were readily available, but water had to be hauled in. The Palace has 150 rooms (!), a combination of living rooms, storage rooms, special chambers and "kivas" (special ceremonial or social rooms). The palace also has finely crafted towers, the Indian version of skyscrapers.

We walked down steel stairs to view the palace. The original inhabitants used hand-and-toe holds carved in the cliffs, and ladders. They would climb up to the flat top of the mesa to tend their crops and down again to their homes.

By 1300 C.E., most Puebloans had left these little villages. Why? It's still a guess but a long term drought may have forced them out. The Hopi, the Zuni, Acoma, Lanuan and Rio Grande Pueblos of New Mexico consider this place the home of their ancestors. From May to October, you can reserve ranger tours to actually step inside the cliff dwellings. I hope to come back and do just that.

Pagaso Springs, UT and Monument Valley Scenic Drive, UT and AZ

We decided to wake up to views of Monument Valley, so spent the night at Goulding's Lodge in one of their "hillside suites." Here you are surrounded by jaw dropping cliffs of endless shapes. Just see the picture above. We had little time to linger at Goulding's, though I highly recommend this historic, 100 year old establishment. Previously owned by area pioneers, Harry and Leone Goulding, the complex has been owned by the Navajo Nation since 2024. Here several John Wayne Westerns were filmed (and shown in the Goulding's theater on alternate nights - Stagecoach, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Searchers.) There is also a cafe, restaurant, gift shop, museum and John Wayne's old cabin. It is also right next door to the Monuments Valley scenic drive and Visitor Center.

The visitor center is run by the Navajo Nation and features authentic pottery, jewelry, rugs and the obligatory refrigerator magnets (those are probably made in China). I had the pleasure of picking out a small beautifully etched pot and a picture frame made of Navajo sandstone.

Then it was off to the dirt road of the scenic drive. I learned from my pamphlet that all the cliffs are formed from erosion, and the different shapes result from different degrees of erosion. The large flat topped cliffs are mesas, the buttes (pronounced bee-utes) are mesas that are further degraded, and finally you have the spires, the most eroded.

My favorite spires were "The Three Sisters." Can you spot them in the pics?

Vermilion National Monument and condor lookout

After the shuttle experience at Zion National Park, it was a pleasure to experience Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. Accessed from a dirt road, it was us and one other car in the parking lot. Vermilion is so named because of its brilliant red color, due to mercury sulfide, aka cinnabar. (See my other post on New Alamaden Mining on this precious mineral.) We saw the monument near sunset, another treat.

We also went a little further down that dirt road to the condor viewing site. These are California condors, who have been reintroduced here because the cliffs provide so many alcoves and niches to rest and hide. Did we see a condor? No. But we were impressed with their wing span, longer than I am tall.

Zion National Park, UT: Disneyland of the NSP

Zion is popular, and like Disneyland, you have to have a plan. I recommend staying in Springdale for an overnight (at least), getting up at the crack of dawn (free shuttle starts at 7 am) and maybe going with a tour to see the Narrows. We did none of that. We stayed outside of Springdale (the resort town next to the park) and got in late. This afforded us the opportunity to drive around looking for parking (the 350-car lot within the park fills by 8 am) and finally found some paid parking at Stop 6 in Springdale. Then we boarded our free shuttle after a few minutes wait, and joined the mass of humanity seeking the quiet pleasures of Zion National Park. Mind you, this was a weekday in mid-March. Can you imagine a weekend?

Starting approximately mid March, you do everything on the shuttle. We spent a lot of time on shuttles that day, with the A/C cranking overtime though not quite enough for my taste. Benjamin tells me it was 84 degrees in park, but it felt like 94. It's dry heat, and I went through three bottles of water. The modern shuttles are driving by patient gray-haired men who implore you to step behind the yellow line so they can close the doors. It was stuffed like a Tokyo subway car.

So maybe I should talk about the park now. We started at the Visitor's Center, of course, of course. Walked a few yards in the interpretive trail that borders the Virgin River, then boarded the shuttle to stop 5, the Zion Lodge (another option is to actually stay overnight there - an even better bet than Springdale, but reserve in advance!).

Here we had an excellent lunch at the Red Rock Grill, surrounded on both sides by towering cliffs.

After lunch, we took the short Grotto Trail to Stop 6. Then a hop back on the shuttle to Stop 9, the final stop in the grand shuttle tour.

The shuttle was mostly full of campers in waders, staff in hand, ready to get wet in one of the more famous areas of the park, the Narrows. This must be a spectacular adventure. I include a picture of these Narrows because we didn't have time to do this, but I definitely want to when I return in a well-planned trip. A quick walk on the Riverside trail, accompanied by a great mass of humanity, finished our sojourn in the park, followed by a sweaty hour long shuttle back to Stop 6 in Springdale.

California to Utah on the "Loneliest Road in America"

As his brother couldn't make the trip, I volunteered to accompany Benjamin on his 1,500 mile trip from Silicon Valley (where he has been storing his truck at our house) to Dallas. We're taking 5.5 days to do it. We started late Tuesday night with a short three hour trip to Colfax, CA, population approximately 2,000. Colfax is named after a 19th century Vice President of the U.S. that you have never heard of. The downtown of Colfax is supposed to be quaint, but we skipped that to get on the road. We ambitiously planned to travel 600 miles to Utah via the great state of Nevada. Colfax is at the base of the Sierra mountain range, near Nevada, so we started our trip going up in elevation, via Donner Pass and the Tahoe forest (where we had just been, see previous post!). Still lots of snow, but not on the freeway. Then we came down into scrub and desert, and even sand dunes. (We did not have time to visit the Sand Dunes Recreation area, though I wonder how you do recreation at a sand dune - I'll have to study that further.) Then we hit "the loneliest road in America", Highway 50. I wouldn't say it was completely empty, but it's no rush hour. It's a straight two lane road with a big truck here and there. We stopped in Austin, Nevada for fuel and a t-shirt for Benjamin that advertises the loneliest road in America. Across the street were eggs for sale, with roosters roaming freely about.

We continued in a straight line to a famous Nevada eatery and bar, Middlegate Station. The closest town is Fallon, 47 miles away. It's called Middlegate because it was a midway station for the Pony Express. Now it houses a restaurant, a motel (composed of rooms in shipping containers), a miniature gas station, and the small group of people (pop. 17) that runs the whole thing. The bar and restaurant is in the old way house, decorated with framed newspapers found in the insulation of the house, and other odds and ends. Fascinating and fun. The ladies that run the Middlegate Station are super friendly and the menu is extensive and very tasty. Sit outside on the veranda with its long shade and look out the vast emptiness of the land while you enjoy your burger. Bars on our smart phones were scant or nonexistent so we also set up our Starlink, which provides connectivity most anywhere. But that's another post. That allowed some tunes from our phones and hunting for lodging on the Internet. (We ended up at Abby Inn in Cedar City, UT, which I recommend). Mostly it was us and coyotoes, deer, and rabbits on the road. When we crossed the Utah line, we entered Mountain Time. We finally made it to Cedar City at 11:30 pm, and were surprised to discover street lights again. Today, after sleeping in, we head to Mt. Zion National Park.

Lake Tahoe Skiing

I have not been skiing in 20+ years, and Steven last skied in 2011. But Samuel has learned to ski and has nudged us to try it again. Sam put our trip all together in a week. Ski lessons, ski rentals, ski lifts, and a VRBRO chalet, all organized in a color coded spreadsheet. (It's so nice to have an adult son to plan your travel.) So after a trip to Sports Basement to pick up our ski clothes, etc. we headed off to South Lake Tahoe. It's a four hour drive from Silicon Valley, unless you stop for pizza halfway (which we did).

Steven, Benjamin and I took the "never skied before" lessons with Caroline. (Caroline was a wonderful teacher.) Benjamin had never ever skied before; we just had forgotten everything we learned. So we learned (or relearned) about posture and a lot about our feet. We and six other newbies started with one ski, graduated to two skis, then went down a soft slope learning how to do J and C curves. (I still haven't quite mastered the C curve.) Plus the famous wedge, otherwise known as "the pizza." A new skier needs to know how to stop. That's the essential first thing to know. Then Steven and I went up the "magic carpet" ski lift where I managed to fall three times, once back on my head at the beginning of the lift. Thank goodness for these new finagled helmets.

Meanwhile, Grace and Sam took the more advanced runs. Here you see them all smiles apres ski.

Lake Tahoe is immense and spans the borders of both California and Nevada. After a break at our VBRO chalet, we ventured out to South Lake Tahoe, where you can see the street that divides California and Nevada. Unsuprisingly, it is called Border Street. On the Nevada side are multiple casinos. Also not a surprise. We stopped at the lakeshore itself and watched the sun descend below the mountains.

New Almaden Quick Silver Mining Museum

Benjamin has a light school schedule and has been visiting us in Silicon Valley. The weekend he visited I decided we should check out the site of California's "quick silver" mining site, near San Jose. Quick silver is also known as mercury and I've always been warned it's very bad for you. What I didn't know is that quick silver was used to separate gold from ore, so was vital to the California Gold Rush. For a time, New Almaden (named after it's Spanish sister city Almaden) supplied all the quick silver for the West. The indigeneous tribes knew of the bright red cinnibar stone that contains quick silver, but used it for paint. It wasn't until 1824 that a Mexican, Secundino Robles, connected the cinnibar to the precious metal contained inside. And then it was a few more years until mining started.

A big beautiful mansion was built in 1854 for the mine manager and his family, but also to impress potential investors, who were wined and dined in this stately revival-style home. Today it contains a free museum (but please donate), open on weekends.

Half the house is a recreation of the original elegant interior, with soaring ceiling and colorful wall paper. The photos will clue you in to the elegance.

The other half of the house is devoted to the miners, who worked 10 hours a day six days a week deep underground. Each miner brought three candles with him, and a metal candleholder he would hammer into the rock. Two candles were to light his work space and one was to warm his lunch, carried in a metal tin. He was either moving wheelbarrels of cinnabar rocks (which are incredibly heavy - I tested this myself) or holding a pick or hammering the pick. Hours of hard labor. Then men went down a lift that held 5 men cheek to jowl in a little box. No nice elevator walls.

The mining manager encouraged the miners to marry, and so developed little towns up top full of families. There was a Spanish town, mostly Mexicans, and an English town, which contained a lot of miners from Cornwall, England. Chinese workers also were in the area, but did not work in the mines. They didn't have the EEOC back then; everything was separated by ethnicity. But having said that, there were also three churches, a company store, a community hall, a clinic and doctor, and schools. As mines went in the 1800s, it was a decent place to be.

Nearby is the New Almaden park, where you can see old mining equipment and try turning some gears.