Northbound

The plan was to be on the road by 8:30 - a plan that we beat by 45 minutes. We hadn't gone 200 yards when BJ asked why she was getting wi-fi on her phone. Don't know - I turned it off and stowed the Verizon and the AT&T hotspots in the trailer the night before, or so I thought. Turns out I hadn't turned off the AT&T hotspot and the battery hadn't died yet. It ended up riding with us so I could recharge its battery.

We'd planned some stops along the way to chase some caches and break up the drive for Spencer who apparently didn't get the Schroeder "windshield time required" gene. When he wasn't looking for a cache, he had the DVD player going.

We stopped just out of Holbrook to look at a 140' long windmill blade on display. This picture was taken before Spencer successfully located the cache and learned that those twisted wires at the top of cyclone fences are sharp! It was a good lesson, he'll live, and it really was a very neat hide!

We stopped for a bite of lunch in Holbrook and parked behind a Scamp 16. That resulted in a long conversation with them about Scamps in general and our 19 in particular. They were just returning home from a 7000 mile trip to Florida.

As we drove east from Holbrook, we kept expecting to run into a thunder storm but it passed us to the south. We stopped at the original truck inspection station (it predates the creation of Route 66) west of Gallup and found our first New Mexico cache. Make a note: I spotted this one before my instructor, but he got it logged first. I left a travel tag here that is supposed to go to Backus, Minnesota and back to Mesa - we'll see if it eventually gets there or not.

Home for the night was a slice of Americana. We parked on the southern edge of the Wallyworld parking lot in Gallup along with several others. A later thunderstorm, the trains, and the I-40 traffic provided music to sleep by... The next morning I refilled the cache of earplugs in the Scamp.

Looking for Frogs - 4/18/2013

We were going to start the day at the Tuolumne County Historical Museum but parking near the museum and then the 9am traffic put a quick end to a longer visit in Sonora. All we have is a picture of Sonora in our rear view mirror.

Columbia State Historic Park could have been an all-day affair, although I'm glad we were early in the season and in the middle of the week. Many of the original buildings now include period appropriate businesses operating as concessionaires. The bakery had wonderful cinnamon rolls – just saying…

The fir floor boards to the left of the bowling alley were at least 18 inches wide.

As was true of many of these towns, the successful businesses built with brick and used iron shutters to withstand the fires that seemed to sweep through town on a regular basis.

One hotel featured fancy brickwork and iron balcony railing

while the other featured an ornate lobby as seen through a window.

Throughout town, even most of the hardware

and nails appear original.

The curves and grades were for the most part kinder and gentler than the previous day. We even had this opportunity to take a picture!

As we entered Calaveras County, we started looking for Mark Twain's frogs

and found them in Murphys, another town dating to the gold rush

where many of the original buildings were built of rough stone. This town was full of wine tasting emporiums representing the local wineries.

A number of the buildings in Mokelumne Hill were different yet, built by Italian stonemasons using local cut limestone.

I especially appreciated the keystone work forming the lintels over most windows and doors.

Home for the night was Jackson – a place that Verizon apparently has not yet discovered. The folks from Bentonville were our hosts.

Set Sail Into The Wind

The truck was back together and adjustments completed before 10 a.m. and we were able to set sail into a wind that hampered our progress most of the day. Fifteen to twenty mph, typically on the nose or quartering to one side or the other with occasional stronger gusts.

In order to stay off of I-40 while we tested the wind, we elected to drive a portion Route 66 from the I-40 115 milepost to the 33 milepost. We pretty much had the road to ourselves. The road was great as far as Ludlow but the last 18 miles was a trial.

Essex still has an operating post office but no chance for topping off your propane or getting a cup of coffee.

Amboy actually had an operating gas station, but it looked like most everything else had closed. I'm not sure if this is the current or former water system.

We found a couple former rest stops, one of which was marked as a memorial. Both had very nice pull outs, but all the shade structures had been removed years ago. The map said we should have found the towns of Bagdad and Siberia as well, but we didn't recognize them as we continued west.

We got back on I-40 and then California 58 past Mohave and up and over the Tehachapi pass but didn't stop for a picture of the famous looping tunnel so all you get is a picture of one of the many other railroad tunnels in the area.

Finally headed north on Highway 99 out of Bakersfield and found out where Cuties come from. Note the windsock in the upper left corner - that's what they looked like all day!

We're appreciating the hospitality of the large retailer from Bentonville this evening and are nicely positioned for several days of wandering the California gold country.