Thoughts and Observations After the Trip

 July, 2024      No Mileage

We saw, talked, and thought about a lot of things on our trip. We'll try to share a little of that here.

One of our first observations during the drive to Oklahoma was how much forested property/undeveloped space lines the interstates in the southeast. After we left Oklahoma, more of the same, except open plains. The mountains in Colorado, mostly undeveloped. Then, through the basin and range/mountains & wide valleys of Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico - lots and lots of wide open, empty land. At times, the size and scale was a bit staggering. Go over a mountain pass, down the other side to the valley, and travel slightly downhill for 15 or 20 miles, then imperceptibly begin to head up the other side, slightly uphill for 15 or 20 miles until you began to climb the next mountain. Repeat. And we found that if you get within 30 miles or so of the southern border, you're hit with "Mexican car insurance" ads, billboards, and businesses.

The exceptions to wide open space? Around cities - Memphis, Denver, Vegas - across a lot of inland California.  - and then big cities/I-10 - L.A. San Antonio, and Houston. I'll lump this in here; we largely avoided Tucson when visiting Saguaro, but much to our surprise, we drove right past the (as we discovered) largest military aircraft boneyard in the world, over 4400 planes. Amazing to see rows and rows and rows, neatly parked and precisely spaced, waiting for... 

Inland California? We were blown away by agriculture. Literally miles and miles and miles of groves and orchards. Almonds, tangerines, pistachios, grapes, olives, and pecans...plus fields of tomatoes and corn. We've seen farms and whatnot, but the sheer size, quantity, and density - I guess just the pervasiveness - of the agricultural industry amazed us. Also, it was all about the (irrigation) water; dry desert against green field - seemingly worthless until you add water. Every tractor we saw there had treads, like on bulldozers or tanks.

The drive from Florida to Denver is mostly, to be polite, uninteresting with respect to sightseeing. However...I-70 west of Denver for a few hours is one of the most scenic drives I've ever made. That stretch, and the Pacific Coast Highway, were definitely the most beautiful drives on the trip. Lots of stretches of scenery in and out of parks, and for stretches of highway, but for mile after mile of beautiful scenery those 2 would be tough to beat.

Another thing we noticed in huge sizes were solar farms. I thought I'd seen some big farms in the east, but Utah/Nevada/California/Arizona had installations that were literally more than a mile wide (and long). Several times we thought we saw lakes in the distance, only to have them turn out to be solar panels. We also saw wind farms - including a couple of the biggest I've seen - but nothing on the scale of the solar panels. 

We were disappointed in our wildlife sightings. I say that with the caveat that we traveled in the middle of summer, often visiting places in the middle of the day. However...we also made a few night drives into parks, as well as a few evening drives (and saw nothing on those ventures). It's the same time of year we traveled a few years ago to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, and saw wildlife everywhere. Had seen a lot on previous trips to Rocky Mountain NP and Mt. Rushmore areas. Anyway, minimal sightings - 3 bighorn sheep in Colorado, mule deer in a variety of places, wild horses in New Mexico. The exception on wildlife was the California coast, where besides all the seabirds, we saw dozens of sea lions and several sea otters. In a related note...California has done a pretty good job of protecting the coast, with dozens of state parks right along the shore. And whether state or local, many small communities had no development directly along the shore, with construction set back hundreds of yards or more from the shoreline.

We noticed some new (to us) trends while traveling...some hotels are starting to install blackout curtains that come in their own frame, so they completely cover the window. Rather than little bottles, many have gone to soap, shampoo, and conditioner dispensers on the wall. And an aside,,,I posted a picture of my first encounter with a completely touch screen gas pump. We got home and Matt said, "Dad, they've been at the Shell station a mile from the house for about two years now"...oh well. And one other one: roundabouts. They're coming. Most of the ones we encountered were OK, but the one with 6 exits when you come off an interstate exit was a bit much to process (3 lane choices, 2 exits each lane). And motorcycles in California are allowed to "split lanes". That means when traffic is stopped, they are allowed to drive between the rows of cars. It's a bit unnerving, and we couldn't believe they were allowed to, but Rita looked it up. A 2015 study showed fewer deaths, rear end collisions, and head, neck and shoulder injuries when they split lanes, so now they can.

We didn't really struggle with the time zone changes on the trip, we spent a couple days at least in each. We both felt we slept well, and Rita hit the ground running when we got home. I, on  the other hand, laid around and napped for 3 days before I felt rested enough to move on. We're both acknowledging we need to work on stamina/endurance before we take another extended road trip.

Finally, a few "close calls"...A couple was killed in a flash flood the day after we left Moab; The Indy Car race left Monterey the day before we arrived, and the X Games started in Ventura the day after we left. We missed Beryl in Houston by a week. And then 2 close ones...I slowed for the flashing yellow light at the unfamiliar 4-way intersection in rural Arizona at dusk. Unfortunately, the speeding pick-up I saw out of the corner of my eye chose to ignore the stop sign and flashing red light, but I got stopped. That one bothered Rita. And the final close one...road weary, boring flat Texas, look down at dashboard...7 miles to empty. Look up, 1 mile to exit with multiple gas stations. Thank you, God.

Until our next trip...