In New Mexico, atop the the towering Rocky Mountains, they have mountain meadows modeled after the opening sequence of “The Sound of Music.” Acres and acres of yellow and blue flowers growing all by themselves. Lovely temps…mid-40s at night, mid-70s during the day. Not another soul for miles around.
The City of Santa Fe (Spanish for Holy Faith, but no mention of which one) is nestled in the north of New Mexico. A river runs through it! Many tourists. There is even a state capitol there! Spread the word, it’s a nice place to visit.
My survey of New Mexico yielded an exciting geological feature I call the Taos Gorge (because Taos, NM, is nearby) or sometimes the Rio Grande Gorge (because the Rio Grande rushes through its depths). It is maybe a third-scale or half-scale mini Grand Canyon. Even better, there are free camp sites along the rim of the gorge. Private, serene, cool in the summer and, I suspect, bitterly cold in the winter. I’ll refrain from giving specific locations so you will not rush to the place and take all the good sites.
Manzanar is the internment camp in bleak, desolate Owens Valley, California, that housed Americans of Japanese ancestry during War World II. The site is now a National Historic Site, but there’s not much left to see. Survivors received $20,000 from the Federal Government in reparations. The curious can read more about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manzanar
Acting on a tip from intrepid explorers Jack and Tres, I have located a mother lode of fossil artifacts. According to legend, a tornado spawned by the Great Blow of 2015 vacuumed up several feet of the desert surface, uncovering magnificently preserved fossils from the distant past. This vast trove will keep fossilologists gainfully employed for a period of time. Read more.
The first leg of the Grand Adventure involved a transit of the Mojave (pronounced Moe Ha Veh, accent on the middle) Desert. After departing the Oakland Bay Area and overnighting in Bakersfield, I entered the inhospitable domain of the desert, which, to the surprise of many, was neither hot nor dry! The temps were bitterly cold, dipping as low as 40F degrees! The rainfall became so severe that windshield wiper use was necessary. Conditions extremified as I passed through Yucca Valley; the rain turned to slushy rain and actual snow flakes. Rapidly devolving into a an epic man-versus-nature contest, the situation required application of all available technology and native driving skill. Ha! Man wins!
So far, road tripping as a way of life is agreeable
