RedNigel
0
I'll do this ride report in one day shots
Day 1
I call myself a Texan, but like most Texans, probably havent seen more than 30% of this great state, (some live their whole lives in TX and never see 10%)
So my trek westward was a novelty every inch of the way
I left Dallas on Saturday at 8:00 AM and headed west on I30 for Ft Worth and Points Westward.
Once you leave Ft Worth, I30 ends its westward reach and becomes I20. You dont really feel you've left The Metroplex til you pass Weatherford and then you begin to roll thru what I now consider the northernmost reaches of the Texas Hill Country. I always thought of the Hill Country as a Southern Texas thing but I guess it reaches as high as I20, just not as high in elevation as the areas north and west of San Antonio and Austin.
Now you are traveling thru country that is partly ranched, and partly farmed, with beautiful hills and dales, and lovely farms in the hollers and bottoms.
Off your left shoulder are gentle rolling hills: off your right shoulder are the more lofty peaks that guard Possum Kingdom and Palo Pinto Reservoir.
Some areas have thickets of the scorched skeletons of Mesquite trees; blackened and left as a reminder of grassfires the area has suffered in the last year or two.
You encounter your first little 'pass' as you approach Ranger, and start to see the odd windfarm on some low mesas and bluffs in the distance.
The country settles down some as you make your way towards Abilene and the country gives way to cotton farms that reach as far as you can see. Soon you see windfarms between and among the cotton fields, and you wonder "who looks after all these beasts?
Once you leave Abilene behind and the country flattens out even more, the windfarms begin to dominate the landscape
Sweetwater, TX must be the hub of the windfarm business out here, because they have a prop blade at either end of town, celebrating Sweetwater.
Next up are Colorado City and Big Spring, then you enter the Permian Basin... Odessa, Midland et al.
Everything you see, everything that exists, exists to support or be part of the Oil and Gas business
The thing that left the biggest impression on me was the staggering volume of plastic grocery bags that almost cover the landscape along the I20 corridor
Every fence, every bush, everything that has an edge or a point and isn't mobile is draped with plastic bags
They are everywhere, in the millions, like so many dead, beached jellyfish; like hideous christmas ornaments
Its a shame
We roll on towards Monahans, TX, and as you approach the town, you pass pretty much right thru Monahans Sandhills State Park. An endless sea of sand dunes held together by low mesquite and chapparral and clumps of grass
Now on thru Pecos in anticipation of the merge and transition where I20 ends and we pick up I10...now the hills are coming back up to meet us and there is more scenery
Once you swerve right and 20 become 10, we start to see hints of "mountains"...hllls some of you would scoff at...to a boy from the prairie, they are mountains, lol
After another 45 minutes or so, we ease into Van Horn, TX... 530 miles in 9:20. As I recall, 56.9 mph average.not too shabby
I didnt realize it till the end of my meal, but I had dinner at the Sands hotel and diner
If you have seen Tommy Lee Jones' movie called "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" the Sands is where all the diner scenes were shot. Shoot, for all I know, most of the picture was shot around there or could have been.
Also in town is a TexMex joint where John Madden was known to frequent in his cross country tours in his MaddenCruiser...a place called Chuy's
Motel 6 awaits and the stint from Van Horn to Tucson on Day 2
Day 2:
Van Horn, TX to Tucson, AZ
I left Van Horn at 8 AM... About 5 minutes after you pull out of town you enter the Mountain Time Zone.
Since Van Horn is at the westernmost edge of CST it was still dark, so I had to wait for dawn and it was worth it to see the sun hit the eastern slopes of the mountains in west TX. But as things began to lighten up, I was worried by a purple horizon. It didnt look good. Soon, I could smell rain on pavement, but all was dry. The sky would spit on me here and there, but the rain held back. After an hour I could tell rain was definitley on the menu, but when? Things got moister and while I dont know the elevation of the area, I can tell you the clouds were floating about 100 ft off the ground where I was. I began to look for a place to stop and wait if I needed to (just plain old overpasses and even exits are rare out here) and I found just what I was looking for. I took the exit for Ft Hancock and found an abandoned gas station with a canopy right next to the DPS outpost in Ft Hancock. It wasnt really raining when I pulled in but once I dismounted the rain became enough that it was falling off my canopy in lazy rills. My AST2 is waterproof so I only had to don my Frogg Togg pants and some mitts to keep my gloves dry. With my new PR4s I confidently pulled back onto the soaking hiway and ran her up to 80 MPH and soldiered on. The rain wasnt heavy but the road was soaked and things were misty in traffic
The rain stopped before I reached the county line. At the El Paso county line the speed limit drops back to 75. As I entered El Paso, I got what turned out to be an unexpected treat: A message board told me to take loop 375 to the north, as a crash had shut down I10. I went around the northeat side of El Paso in the newer suburbs, passing the newer sections of Ft Bliss. But the treat was i had to go over a mountain pass in Franklin Mountain SP...High speed pass that could be taken at any speed one was comfy with.
Proceeded on to Las Cruces, passing many dairy farms and pecan orchards once in NM. It was a bit cool so I stopped at the Starbucks across from the campus of New Mexico State U. for a mocha
Lunch in Deming...sad little town
Ice cream in Lordsburg
Lots of grassy pains, mixed with dusty salty desert..signs that warn of dusty conditions and zero visibility possible.
Finally entered AZ and at once the roads were better
Texas Canyon was my first pass and then things settle down to a desert crossing
Gas at San Simon
and on to Tucson where Rick was waiting, errrr napping at the hotel
Day 3
Tucson>Las Vegas
Rick and I left at 8AM and headed north (west) on I10
The mountains are getting closer and there is no doubt we're in the desert. As we leave Tucson we see in the distance off west, the Pinal Airpark and Museum. Not long after, we see the first really cool peak: Picacho Peak, with its distinctive two pronged peak. The approach to Picacho marks my first sighting of Saguaro cacti. As we ride alongside Picacho peak, the armies of Saguaros on the slopes remind me of the Moai staues on Rapa Nui, guarding the mountain.
I dont rmember much about the run on into Phoenix...We stopped for breakfast there and got ready for the hi-speed run through town. HOV lanes at 80 mph on winding, velvet smooth interstate...woo hoo!
Loop 303 got us to Surprise and the Wickenburg Highway (60) which turns into Joshua Tree Parkway once you leave Wickenburg. I can see why, too. Joshua Trees dominate the landscape as you get closer to the awesome pass that precedes Wickieup, AZ
There is about a 30 mile stretch before you reach I40 that is a series of passes that is 4 lane and can be negotiated in great haste, if you know what I mean.
A thrill every inch of the way
We took a break in Wickieup and then stopped again in Kingman, the gateway to SE Nevada and the only way to Vegas from the south I am told.
Once again, as we approached the state line and Hoover Dam, the mountains offered up another series of high speed passes that are most invigorating.
Then we crossed the dam into Nevada, thru Boulder City, where we stopped for ice cream...DQ swirls!
A few minutes later we're in Vegas taking the tunnel under the runway at McCarran and in a few more blocks I am with my lovely wife, Joy at the resort
Whew!
Day4
Hoover Dam>Northshore Road>Overton>Valley of Fire
Rick and I left Vegas about 9 AM and headed right down to Hoover Dam. We didn't take the tour; We walked out on the bridge that crosses the canyon and is the "new" hwy 93. From there you get a great view of the dam from downstream. Rick took a bunch of pics of me and we then rode across the dam and had a look back.
We rode back into Boulder City for fuel, then headed back down to the lake, where we started out on Lakeshore Road, paid $10 to get into the Lake Mead whatever it is...Rec area or Nat'l park...cant remember...Anyway, $10 is a bargain for the ride we had
The roads in Nevada for the most part are like butter and this one was no exception. Smooth and confidence inspiring...and twisty too.
We took a short detour down to Calville Bay where the big Calville Marina is. Lake Mead is just pitiful: This is where Rick showed me how they have moved the Marina docks and slips twice in the last ten yrs to keep them afloat. If you look at it from the satellite on googlemaps, you can see they have had to push the marina out a good 700-800 ft from where it originally was. They had to pave the boatramp out to there. There is even a parking lot that looks like it would be submerged if the lake ever recovers
We pressed on and I must say that NV 167 that runs along the north shore of Lake Mead is a treasure; smooth, twisty, up and down, lots of interesting vistas. I may be talking out of school...or maybe it was just the novelty...As much as the Rockies and Black Hills inspired me last summer, The Desert speaks to my soul in a whole new way that I didn't expect. It really touched me in a way I can't articulate. I'll leave that thought where it lies.
Anyway for right now, 167 is my new favorite road
As we left the Marina I told Rick I was hungry and he simply said "McDonalds in Overton"...I was inwardly disappointed that we weren't going to some hidden gem of a diner, but when we got to Overton, I understood; Lake Mead has abandoned Overton, a community that for years derived its wellbeing from the lake lifestyle of the pretty people who live in the big city. The shoreline has retreated so far that Overton is now a sad, tired hamlet hanging on, I don't know how. But they do have a McDonald's
After lunch we doubled back and entered the Valley of Fire...another $10 bucks that I would gladly pay again. I have no words...I wont try too hard except to say a few things. If you ever get close, it is a must-see. If I could, I would camp there and spend a week hiking it and still not see it all. You should at least google it and make a lame attempt to see what its about, but the pics wont do it justice.
My first thought as we rode past the red hills laced with holes and their strata upended to a full 45 degrees in some places: Forbidden Zone from Planet of the Apes but I believe that the desert scenes in that picture were shot around Lake Powell and Glen Canyon
Valley of Fire is a Wonder
After that, we headed back to town, split up and I had dinner with Joy and got to bed early so I could ride to Death Valley in the morning
Day 1
I call myself a Texan, but like most Texans, probably havent seen more than 30% of this great state, (some live their whole lives in TX and never see 10%)
So my trek westward was a novelty every inch of the way
I left Dallas on Saturday at 8:00 AM and headed west on I30 for Ft Worth and Points Westward.
Once you leave Ft Worth, I30 ends its westward reach and becomes I20. You dont really feel you've left The Metroplex til you pass Weatherford and then you begin to roll thru what I now consider the northernmost reaches of the Texas Hill Country. I always thought of the Hill Country as a Southern Texas thing but I guess it reaches as high as I20, just not as high in elevation as the areas north and west of San Antonio and Austin.
Now you are traveling thru country that is partly ranched, and partly farmed, with beautiful hills and dales, and lovely farms in the hollers and bottoms.
Off your left shoulder are gentle rolling hills: off your right shoulder are the more lofty peaks that guard Possum Kingdom and Palo Pinto Reservoir.
Some areas have thickets of the scorched skeletons of Mesquite trees; blackened and left as a reminder of grassfires the area has suffered in the last year or two.
You encounter your first little 'pass' as you approach Ranger, and start to see the odd windfarm on some low mesas and bluffs in the distance.
The country settles down some as you make your way towards Abilene and the country gives way to cotton farms that reach as far as you can see. Soon you see windfarms between and among the cotton fields, and you wonder "who looks after all these beasts?
Once you leave Abilene behind and the country flattens out even more, the windfarms begin to dominate the landscape
Sweetwater, TX must be the hub of the windfarm business out here, because they have a prop blade at either end of town, celebrating Sweetwater.
Next up are Colorado City and Big Spring, then you enter the Permian Basin... Odessa, Midland et al.
Everything you see, everything that exists, exists to support or be part of the Oil and Gas business
The thing that left the biggest impression on me was the staggering volume of plastic grocery bags that almost cover the landscape along the I20 corridor
Every fence, every bush, everything that has an edge or a point and isn't mobile is draped with plastic bags
They are everywhere, in the millions, like so many dead, beached jellyfish; like hideous christmas ornaments
Its a shame
We roll on towards Monahans, TX, and as you approach the town, you pass pretty much right thru Monahans Sandhills State Park. An endless sea of sand dunes held together by low mesquite and chapparral and clumps of grass
Now on thru Pecos in anticipation of the merge and transition where I20 ends and we pick up I10...now the hills are coming back up to meet us and there is more scenery
Once you swerve right and 20 become 10, we start to see hints of "mountains"...hllls some of you would scoff at...to a boy from the prairie, they are mountains, lol
After another 45 minutes or so, we ease into Van Horn, TX... 530 miles in 9:20. As I recall, 56.9 mph average.not too shabby
I didnt realize it till the end of my meal, but I had dinner at the Sands hotel and diner
If you have seen Tommy Lee Jones' movie called "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada" the Sands is where all the diner scenes were shot. Shoot, for all I know, most of the picture was shot around there or could have been.
Also in town is a TexMex joint where John Madden was known to frequent in his cross country tours in his MaddenCruiser...a place called Chuy's
Motel 6 awaits and the stint from Van Horn to Tucson on Day 2
Day 2:
Van Horn, TX to Tucson, AZ
I left Van Horn at 8 AM... About 5 minutes after you pull out of town you enter the Mountain Time Zone.
Since Van Horn is at the westernmost edge of CST it was still dark, so I had to wait for dawn and it was worth it to see the sun hit the eastern slopes of the mountains in west TX. But as things began to lighten up, I was worried by a purple horizon. It didnt look good. Soon, I could smell rain on pavement, but all was dry. The sky would spit on me here and there, but the rain held back. After an hour I could tell rain was definitley on the menu, but when? Things got moister and while I dont know the elevation of the area, I can tell you the clouds were floating about 100 ft off the ground where I was. I began to look for a place to stop and wait if I needed to (just plain old overpasses and even exits are rare out here) and I found just what I was looking for. I took the exit for Ft Hancock and found an abandoned gas station with a canopy right next to the DPS outpost in Ft Hancock. It wasnt really raining when I pulled in but once I dismounted the rain became enough that it was falling off my canopy in lazy rills. My AST2 is waterproof so I only had to don my Frogg Togg pants and some mitts to keep my gloves dry. With my new PR4s I confidently pulled back onto the soaking hiway and ran her up to 80 MPH and soldiered on. The rain wasnt heavy but the road was soaked and things were misty in traffic
The rain stopped before I reached the county line. At the El Paso county line the speed limit drops back to 75. As I entered El Paso, I got what turned out to be an unexpected treat: A message board told me to take loop 375 to the north, as a crash had shut down I10. I went around the northeat side of El Paso in the newer suburbs, passing the newer sections of Ft Bliss. But the treat was i had to go over a mountain pass in Franklin Mountain SP...High speed pass that could be taken at any speed one was comfy with.
Proceeded on to Las Cruces, passing many dairy farms and pecan orchards once in NM. It was a bit cool so I stopped at the Starbucks across from the campus of New Mexico State U. for a mocha
Lunch in Deming...sad little town
Ice cream in Lordsburg
Lots of grassy pains, mixed with dusty salty desert..signs that warn of dusty conditions and zero visibility possible.
Finally entered AZ and at once the roads were better
Texas Canyon was my first pass and then things settle down to a desert crossing
Gas at San Simon
and on to Tucson where Rick was waiting, errrr napping at the hotel
Day 3
Tucson>Las Vegas
Rick and I left at 8AM and headed north (west) on I10
The mountains are getting closer and there is no doubt we're in the desert. As we leave Tucson we see in the distance off west, the Pinal Airpark and Museum. Not long after, we see the first really cool peak: Picacho Peak, with its distinctive two pronged peak. The approach to Picacho marks my first sighting of Saguaro cacti. As we ride alongside Picacho peak, the armies of Saguaros on the slopes remind me of the Moai staues on Rapa Nui, guarding the mountain.
I dont rmember much about the run on into Phoenix...We stopped for breakfast there and got ready for the hi-speed run through town. HOV lanes at 80 mph on winding, velvet smooth interstate...woo hoo!
Loop 303 got us to Surprise and the Wickenburg Highway (60) which turns into Joshua Tree Parkway once you leave Wickenburg. I can see why, too. Joshua Trees dominate the landscape as you get closer to the awesome pass that precedes Wickieup, AZ
There is about a 30 mile stretch before you reach I40 that is a series of passes that is 4 lane and can be negotiated in great haste, if you know what I mean.
A thrill every inch of the way
We took a break in Wickieup and then stopped again in Kingman, the gateway to SE Nevada and the only way to Vegas from the south I am told.
Once again, as we approached the state line and Hoover Dam, the mountains offered up another series of high speed passes that are most invigorating.
Then we crossed the dam into Nevada, thru Boulder City, where we stopped for ice cream...DQ swirls!
A few minutes later we're in Vegas taking the tunnel under the runway at McCarran and in a few more blocks I am with my lovely wife, Joy at the resort
Whew!
Day4
Hoover Dam>Northshore Road>Overton>Valley of Fire
Rick and I left Vegas about 9 AM and headed right down to Hoover Dam. We didn't take the tour; We walked out on the bridge that crosses the canyon and is the "new" hwy 93. From there you get a great view of the dam from downstream. Rick took a bunch of pics of me and we then rode across the dam and had a look back.
We rode back into Boulder City for fuel, then headed back down to the lake, where we started out on Lakeshore Road, paid $10 to get into the Lake Mead whatever it is...Rec area or Nat'l park...cant remember...Anyway, $10 is a bargain for the ride we had
The roads in Nevada for the most part are like butter and this one was no exception. Smooth and confidence inspiring...and twisty too.
We took a short detour down to Calville Bay where the big Calville Marina is. Lake Mead is just pitiful: This is where Rick showed me how they have moved the Marina docks and slips twice in the last ten yrs to keep them afloat. If you look at it from the satellite on googlemaps, you can see they have had to push the marina out a good 700-800 ft from where it originally was. They had to pave the boatramp out to there. There is even a parking lot that looks like it would be submerged if the lake ever recovers
We pressed on and I must say that NV 167 that runs along the north shore of Lake Mead is a treasure; smooth, twisty, up and down, lots of interesting vistas. I may be talking out of school...or maybe it was just the novelty...As much as the Rockies and Black Hills inspired me last summer, The Desert speaks to my soul in a whole new way that I didn't expect. It really touched me in a way I can't articulate. I'll leave that thought where it lies.
Anyway for right now, 167 is my new favorite road
As we left the Marina I told Rick I was hungry and he simply said "McDonalds in Overton"...I was inwardly disappointed that we weren't going to some hidden gem of a diner, but when we got to Overton, I understood; Lake Mead has abandoned Overton, a community that for years derived its wellbeing from the lake lifestyle of the pretty people who live in the big city. The shoreline has retreated so far that Overton is now a sad, tired hamlet hanging on, I don't know how. But they do have a McDonald's
After lunch we doubled back and entered the Valley of Fire...another $10 bucks that I would gladly pay again. I have no words...I wont try too hard except to say a few things. If you ever get close, it is a must-see. If I could, I would camp there and spend a week hiking it and still not see it all. You should at least google it and make a lame attempt to see what its about, but the pics wont do it justice.
My first thought as we rode past the red hills laced with holes and their strata upended to a full 45 degrees in some places: Forbidden Zone from Planet of the Apes but I believe that the desert scenes in that picture were shot around Lake Powell and Glen Canyon
Valley of Fire is a Wonder
After that, we headed back to town, split up and I had dinner with Joy and got to bed early so I could ride to Death Valley in the morning
