VROC - Taos, NM and Travels

 

Well, time to get on the road again!  Headed down to Roswell, the space alien thing was going on when I was a kid, had to go see the plastic images and toys, not much there, but must do for me.

Then on to Carlsbad Caverns.   This is a MUST DO!!!   It's HUGE and I walked around for 3 hours, went up (the elevator, of course) and had lunch and talked to the ranger folks about what to do and they said, well you can walk down the Natural Entrance, a cave that goes down 1 1/8 mile at 15 - 20% graded ramp....  Hey!  I got good legs!!!  Onward.....   Well, they told me about it the next day!  GBG  But it was a nice trip down! Carlsbad Caverns
(<- blog link!!!)

Click on a pic for a larger pic, text for a pic is under it......  blog is top to bottom.....

I always have to have a send off pic, squinting into the sun!  Me'n Ruby, on the road!!!  ... almost.....

Traveled down to 152 and 33, turned on 33 down to 180, over to 99, down to 41 and down the central part of the state, just farm land, but it beats 99!  Only took a bit longer and much more enjoyable!  Took 58 over to Barstow...  I'd do a Google map but they managed to ruin them, sigh....  pretty much unusable, AFAICT...


The next day up I-15 to the Nipon turn-off,  and it turns into 164... 


Well, about 10 miles outta Barstow, I had to stop at an ol' time restaurant I'd heard about for a pic...

Dang, this pic reminds me of someone, can't remember who.... har..... Sandy comes to mind......

So once out on 164, a small rural road, we came to a  stop, while stopped I took a pic of a Joshua tree for a friend, who likes to touch 'um, they ARE a tad pokey!!!  GBG

Here are the cars that arrived before me, it turns out that a pickup, looked like a single vehicle accident, lost something on the right front, the ol' Ford pickup truck spun out and rolled a couple times...  Well, the AZ HP had to shut the road down in both directions for emergency reasons...  so I got to know a few folks that  I'da never talked to before... Things did get cleaned up and off we finally went.   I was headed thru Laughlin to Kingman and up old 66 to Hackberry!

Hackberry is an old place on duh, old 66.  Lots of folks stop here for a pic and a visit! 

Lots of old hardware laying around....

One of the owners cars...

I didn't bother to check the price.....

Looks restorable!!!!!

We finally found Peggy Sue!!!!  She's a doll!!!!  GBG

... and friends....

... a bit long in the face, still cute!!!!

Even the rest room was decorated!!!

Well, after my visit, it was around to Peach Springs for lunch and down to Holbrook  for the nite....

I pulled into my Days Inn (American Legion members get a 20% discount!!!) and parked by a couple of scoots....   Well, I was tired.. went into my room and got to thinkin'... I know those scoots!!!!    Yup, they belonged to a couple friends and we just happened to be at the same motel!!!  It really is a small world, after all... GBG  The next day it was south of Holbrook and take 180, 191 and 60 over to Roswell... the invasion was during my youth and I had to stop and take a look, Yeah, I know...   but I stopped anyway!!!

Well, they had all the props, on the hour, the space ship spun and some weird music was played....

The thing that impressed me about the spaceship was the bearings!!!!   When it stopped, it coasted for a lllooooooonnnnngggg time!!!!!!   GBG  ....  yeah, easily entertained....

I remembered this movie from waaaay back!  The Day the Earth Stood Still!!!

Cryogenics, early stages...  GBG

This board was supposed to be some kinda "Rosetta Stone" of the space beings....

OK, I had to do it!!!   And and off to Carlsbad Caverns!!!  See blog at top of page....

Then it was off to Albuquerque for a relative visit and on to Taos....  This the rally HQ!!!  We had @75 folks show up....   And it was a great 3 day event! 

Wed 6/22, we were off to visit Los Alamos....

It's about lift off, folks gettin' in line....

Mock up of the first Atom Bomb...

Another version...  And back to Taos for the evening "dance"!!!  The local tribe shows up to entertain the motel guests.

The little guy was in training...

The old pro, doin' the dance!

And of course, our group was invited to "help"!!

The third and fourth from the right were the get together organizers and they did a GREAT job!!!!

Ok, enough dancing and 3 of us didn't want to do the large ride the next day so off we went to visit some Indian cave dwellings....  Bandelier National Monument.

Boy, Howdy, we got cliffs!!!  Off we went, I prefer road names for folks, Wolf, Mongrel and I made the run...

The stumps used to hold the roof up....  this was a living area, the air vent was on the far side.

It was a warm day, we had some walking and climbing to do, and we were up in altitude, it told us to slow down a few times!

Old living quarters, apartments...

You could see the layout from higher up...

Getting up into the cave dwellings...

... literally....

.... bit of an almost action shot!

Now you can see the apartment layout very well...

Found a lady taking a rest...

We all needed a rest!

My way of note taking.....

So here we are out in the desert... 

The shade was very welcome!!! 

We got afternoon storms, I think caused by the heat, looks like one is'a brewing!!!!

I took a shot of Barb, Sandy and her moose hat, Canadian, Ya know!  Jack and Skid... you can tell by the shirt, Sandy's hubby! It's a tie-die thing....  GBG

Well, that was it for my pic taking during the rally, Sat AM it was north and west on 64 across the high country..  I was set for more desert....

Well, I kept going up and it got colder, I had to put on a sweat shirt and turn my heated hand grips on!!!  It go downright chilly!!!

The country was downright nice!!!!

Went by a cattle drive!!!  Horses, cowboys and all!!!  They had to drive the heard off the road so I could pass, of course, I had to stop for a pic after I went by....

I was really impressed with the high country!!!

Very nice!

It finally did return to hot ol' desert and I was off to Page, Az and Lake Powell..  Well right next to it was the Horse Shoe bend....  OK, I got as close as I wanted to get!!!!!  The Bend is missing and I wasn't gonna lay on a rock and look over the edge!!!!!!!  NO!!!!!!!!!!   GBG ... and you will note, there is NO guard rail!!!!!

I have a screen saver of the bend, and it looks exactly like the real thing!!!

This is a pro- shot, I  was NOT gonna lean over the rocks for this pic!!!!!!  Must've been taken in the morning by the lighting, mine were in the evening....

Of course,  I had to get a pic of the damn damn.... 

Water level was down, but it was late June....

My route took me thru Kanab, UT, and I'd been there about 3/4 times for visit and rally's, and it is a neat place....   'member when all the cowboy movies were being made many years ago?   This is the area they were made and the actors stayed here.   Some of the rooms were named after the actor/actresses that stayed there.  John Wayne paid to have the pool put it!

They have an ol' barn in back and I'm gonna tell Ya,  MANY a party has been had back there!!!!!   They have parties and show silent movies inside also....

Onward.... Extraterrestrial Highway!!!  375!!!  Range cattle!!!  Yeah!!!  Saw 3/4 herds!!!!  The cow in the center was on my side of the road, about 3' off the edge!!!  She made it back before I could make sure I wasn't gonna get killed and got my camera out!!!

Pulled into the Jim Butler Inn Tonopah, 165 miles, and now you know why I carry gas!!!  Yeah, I had almost a gallon left, but had I not run'er dry on purpose in the past, I wouldn't a known that, eh???!!!   Ya gotta run a scoot out of gas to know where she'll cough!!!!! You 'll ride white knuckle otherwise!!!!

Had to take a pic of the ol' phone, I've used um, MANY years ago!!!!  This was a real one, all parts and would probably still work!

Got to travel 120 From Benton Springs over to  395, a friend named this the "giggle road", you got some belly jumpers and you just have to believe the road really, really is on the other side of the hill, 'cause,  you can't see it!!!!!   It does go up a tad......  equal to some of the sierra passes!!!!

....  hhhhuuummmm, now what's next....  Oh yeah!!!    On to Solvang next month...  On the Road Again, Just Can't Wait to get on the Road Again....  Sing it Willy!!!!!