Uh, a bunch of us are from LA... but I am guessing you are in sleeping compensating mode. PM me if you are at LAX with some hours on your hands.. depending on where you are, I could suggest some things you might like to see. jo/osso
Hi Seaglass and MA,
I've been checking in occasionally. Sounds like you made the Grand Tour of Arizona. That is such a great place to visit.
Walter and PDiddie,
Those are great links.
Hi osso
Hi, all. We're back in HI but still working off public computers until Seaglass' own machine is hooked back up. Met with Lightwizard while in LA and the three of us had a lovely dinner together at a Long Beach seafood place right on the water. If you're reading this, Wiz, it was a delight meeting you in the flesh. Thank you.
Merry Andrew,
You are making this Texan envious. Just today I emailed a friend who is planning a trip to the island - they will stay at the Hale Koa on Oahu this time. It's been a long time since I was there. Stay safe and enjoy!!
There are similar "caves" near Shasta in California, and near Guilin in China. Been to all three.
Seaglass and Merry Andrew touched back down on Hawaiian soil July 14th, Bastille Day and got back to the Big Island in one piece. Exhausted but full of stories. I coiuldn't get into Yahoo on the Road, so i wasn't abl to really post.
Stay in listning distance.
I was down at the cafe the other day, me and a bunch of the boys. Everyone was laughing and carrying on, talking about their shiny new tractors and stuff. I sat quietly in the corner, absentmindedly stirring my coffee and staring out the window. My forehead was furrowed with worry creases.
Big John Miller must've noticed something was wrong and said in a kind voice, "What's wrong, Gus? Something seems to be bothering you."
By now the place had gone quiet and all heads turned in my direction. I guess they're accustomed to a more jocular Ratzenhofer, and they too were concerned.
My voice cracked a little as I replied, "It's Merry Andrew and Seaglass, John. I'm worried sick about them. They're traveling somewhere out in the west. I worry. Snakes, bandits, tornados, Apaches... the area is ablaze with danger. I... I.... I am worried, that's all."
Big John put his arm around my shoulder and said, "There, there, Gus, everything is gonna be ok."
He looked around the cafe at all the faces of my friends and boomed out, "AIN'T THAT RIGHT, BOYS!?"
Everyone started talking at once, assuring me that everything was going to be just fine.
I returned home and raced to my computer. And there it was in black and white -- Merry and Seaglass are home safe.
I collapsed in my chair, awash in a joyous sense of relief.
Welcome home, you guys.
Damn.... you had me worried.
Gus, dear friend, I have some semi-bad news for you. Your worries about our running into some hostile Apaches were not as far-fetched as some doubting Thomasas might think. Seaglass did, indeed, get scalped at the Inn of the Mountain Gods Casino on the Mescalero Apache Reservation at Ruidoso, NM. No great harm done -- about 20 bucks worth. I helped save the bacon by coming out about 10 bucks ahead. That's how the natives do their scalping nowadays -- at the slot machines, blackjack and roulette tables.
But we saw some once-in-a-life things while motoring across the 'badlands.' On the big Navajo reservation in norwestern NM, for example, Seaglass was thrilled by a couple of Navajo cowboys driving a herd of cayuses across the road in front of us, horses' manes flowing in the breeze and tails held proudly. It all happened too fast to shoot a picture, dammit.
On the Apache res where the casino parted Seaglass from the silver, a stately elk, antlers held aloft, crossed the road at a leisurely pace right in front of us at about 12:30 a.m. In Texas, we saw a young doe (mule deer, I think) take a graceful leap across a wire fence just as we were driving by.
The world is full of wonders.
Don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but for anyone visiting the Carlsbad Caverns a little side trip is highly recommended. Just north of the city of Carlsbad is a botanical/zoological garden called The Living Desert. It was one of the main high points of our trip, visiting there.
(P.S. from Seaglass -- if any of you do visit there, pls bring back for her some cholla seeds. I know, I know it's illegeal, but it's really easy. She had a little envelope full and it has gotten lost somewhere between eastern New Mexico and the Big Island of Hawaii. For anyone who can deliver, free lodging at Volcano, HI, is assured.)
There's more to tell, and if anyone wants to sit and listen, I'll be back.
Aloha, all.
What a great trip, and what great guides and assistants.
Hooray!
Agreed, what a great trip. And I'll bet the pilot of the plane on the return trip was glad Seaglass was "lighter" going home after the "scalping". (big grin)
Yes, we're still listening, carry on!!
Walter -- my apologies for not giving you proper thanks earlier for your very valuable contribution re: Carlsbad Caverns. Thank you.
Osso -- so sorry we didn't have a chance to get together in the LA leg of the trip. It was only a day and a night there. Maybe next time.
Preview of post to come: Tombstone has become Disneyland. No longer recommended by MA Travel Tips for A2Kayers.
Andrew, no problem at all!
MA, I wasn't in LA, I am a thousand miles away now. I just wanted to help with info if you needed any. (I lived there 40 years.) Not to worry...
FYI
Merry Andrew boarded the Big Bird tonight and will be back in Boston sometimes tomorrow and will bring you up to date on the travels, which mostly for the past month have been to Home Depot, HPM, True Value and Ace Hardware.
MA rebuilt our back stairs and put a new roof on an old greenhouse which is being converted into a painting studio which will also house my orchid collection.
Has anyone had any experience with concrete bricks, how long they hold up et al?
Sglass
I haven't noticed them running away... but I suppose they erode over time, not being poured 2500 psi concrete, that I know of anyway. What are you going to use them for?
Osso I really didn't get any information on the concrete bricks - they were very lightweight and cost 39 cents each at Lowes. I had thought about running a brick path from the back patio curving around our catchment and into the greenhouse. Volcanic cinder would probably be a much better choice.
There is a major landscaping project looming in the future.
OK, folks. I'm back at home base in the City of Brotherly Beans and able to use my own 'puter again. So, this being a travel thread, let me add a couple more travel notes here.
Back in the good old days (around 2001 or thereabouts) when people asked me where to go in the Southwest to a get a feel for the real "old West", the kind of thing you see in western movies, I would always recommended Tombstone, AZ. I mean, it's authentic, right? It's where the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday shot it out with the Clantons and the McLoweries. Those streets look just like they did in 1881, except they've been paved over so you don't ruin the tires on your car. It's real. Right?
Sorry. Not any more. I made a stop in Tombstone on my way from Tuscon to Yuma. Seaglass had had it with riding in a car and decided to fly on to LA by herself and meet me there, so she was spared the sorry spectacle of a bit of American history turned into Disneyland.
I hadn't been in Tombstone in about 10 or 12 years. Back then it was still authentic to some degree. The process of 'touristization' had already begun but it wasn't too noticeably intrusive. Today the place is Westworld, one of the phoniest tourist traps imaginable. Want to see the OK Corral, the site of the Earp-Clanton shootout? It's enclosed by a high fence. You pays your money at the entrance on Allen Street and can see the shootout re-enacted every day. The Oriental Saloon, where Doc Holiday used to deal poker, is now a curio shop with most of the trinkets they sell made in China. Deplorable. You go into the Birdcage Theater lobby and all you can do there is buy some souvenirs. Want to see the rest of the theater? Six bucks up front.
Even the headstones at Boot Hill cemetary have been replaced so many times to keep 'em 'authentic' looking they now look anything but authentic.
I try to avoid places like Old Tuscon, which is a movie set made to look like an old West town. So I didn't take Danon's suggestion and didn't visit the phony old Abilene town which was built, I believe, in the 1950s or '60s. But Tombstone is worse, because it purports to be the real thing and is as phony as a three dollar bill now. At least the old Tuscon and old Abilene replicas don't pretend to be anything other than replicas.
But the news isn't all bad, folks. Seaglass and I did spend a day walking the street (singular, street, there is only one) of old Lincoln, NM, the town where Billy the Kid did a lot of rampaging in the late 1870s until he was gunned down at Ft. Sumner, NM in July of 1881. The old Courthouse, which had once been the Dolan & Murphy General Store, is still pretty much as it was when the Kid made his famous escape, killing two sheriff's deputies in the process. The sites where they fell are commemorated by very subdued plaques set in the ground and there's a bullet hole in an interior wall, allegedly fired by Billy, which has been preserved under a plate of plexiglass. The house is now used as the town's Visitor Center, administred by the State Parks Dept. All in all, a minimum of touristy hoopla.
Ok, that's my rant for today. More to come. Stay in touch, y'all.
Merry Andrew and Seaglass, your trip has been a joy to read. I haven't been on a2k as much as usual during the past month because of moving into our new house and getting to know ABQ.
Your story of Tombstone is so sad. When I was much younger, I loved going into the Oriental Saloon, stepping up to the bar and ordering a sasparilla. After your story, I'll never go there again so that I can at least have my memories of when it was so much fun.
While Mesa Verde is much easier to visit than Chaco Canyon, there are so many accomplishments that occured during the time Chaco was active, that it is almost unbelievable. Here is a link to the solar cycles they observed--a solar cycle of the moon taking 18 years--and the drawings that are placed to catch lunar standstills.
BTW, welcome home!!!
http://www.solsticeproject.org/lunarmark.htm
