Or why we find some conventions harder than others to get to…
Chattacon is as far as Atlanta, when you’re considering driving from where we are, in Spokane…and there aren’t roads between Here and some of There.
We’re going to be looking at Kansas City, which is not much closer, but maybe easier to reach. We’re not sure.
And of course my brother has moved back to OKC, where we have a lot of friends. OKC is easier than Dallas, where he was.
Curiously enough, it’s a fast trip from here to San Diego, but not so much so to Chattanooga or Atlanta or even Oklahoma City. It has to do with the dearth of good highways and resources.
If we go from here to San Diego, it’s an easy overnight in Winnemucca, Nevada, and on down behind the Sierra, in a day. If we go from here east, we’re good and easy going to Chicago via I-90, but there are a lot of right-angle turns instead of diagonals, which adds time and miles, and I-80, while an amazing trip during bird migration season (it’s on the Flyway) is not an easy route, lacking good stops at the points we need them, outside of staying in cities, which we don’t like to do: in one case we had an indication there was a motel, but you had to ask at the gas station up on I-80, and then somebody there would leave the gas station, and guide you to the motel some distance off-route, check you in, take your money, wishing you a good night, and there you are, no amenities, no telly, no supper, no breakfast, and no prospect of any in the vicinity: you sleep, you get up and move on, and there’s still no breakfast…that sort of lack of facilities.
So we know if you’re going that route, pack food, or plan to spend city prices.
And when you do get over to what should be I-35 south, it isn’t—in a dispute with the feds, Kansas has built its own extension, but it’s not quite what you expect at all times, in the way you can drive the federal system and kind of know what you can hope to have. Not so on this one. The last time we did it, they’d built barriers between us and any facilities we wanted in Wichita KS, and it was a heckuva long trek past Wichita to Stillwater OK, where we ended up staying, well off I-35. We were blind tired from that one.
There should be another interstate going down from I-90 to I-80 and down to I-40…hell, there OUGHT to be an I-70, and there is—it is, in fact, the oldest of the interstates, but in need—at least the last time we drove it—of some fixing. It heads the right direction, but flat and straight—not so much and facilities, again, we didn’t find at the times we needed them: maybe they work better if you start from KC or St Louis. And from the south, if you’d really like to drive to Joplin, say, and up to KC, instead of to St. Louis, the roads at least 10 years ago, the last time we tried it, will shake your teeth out, and there’s another long stretch of no-facilities. Same if you go south toward Arkansas, until you run into the complex around the country music center, and all of a sudden you’ve got roads, and mega-resorts and things clearly designed to part you from your money…
There are some black holes if you look at the interstate system: Texas has one, and the American West has some, where it regards mountains and deserts. And heaven knows whether they’ve EVER gotten that construction near Tupelo finished. It looked promising as a route to the south off 40. But as our interstates stand, there are great big holes, not always of transport, but real gaps in service, and detouring around them is a pita.
You get the same problem of connections trying to navigate between 40 and 80 in the west, or, Heaven help you, trying to get from below Dallas up to 40— Carlsbad, south of Roswell, is in the middle of a highway Bermuda Triangle.
And heaven help you if you need to get from the Grand Canyon up to 80. We tried that in the dark, ended up in a spur of a road in the pitch dark at the edge of a cliff in Cedar Breaks National Monument, and had to backtrack when we were tired and still motel-less. http://www.nps.gov/cebr/index.htm was the cliff. This was pre-GPS. So we haven’t done that again.
Colorado is really two states, one on one side of the Rockies, the other hard to reach from there—which you would kind of expect; and Utah has a central valley, getting into which can be interesting. There are routes through from Colorado, and the northern one ends up in Vernal, UT, where there are dinosaurs in reach. But once you’re in Vernal, you have to do some maneuvering to avoid going back to where you’ve been, if you’re trying to get to points north or south.
That’s generally the same trouble on the southern crossing of the Divide. There are wonderful things to see, but there’s often a quandary of how far do we have to backtrack, and, Can we do this as a loop?
Driving is great. If you’ve never seen Meteor Crater, you should. Carlsbad. Marvel Cave. Mammoth. Great Sand Dunes. Bryce Canyon. The Redwoods. Yellowstone. And the Rockies and the Uinta range…
If any of you are planning a driving trip in the West, we are full of information…we have generally been there or contemplated being there. We love doing it, but we have our favorite routes…and our less favorite ones.
I’ve been reading back issues (so to speak) of the blog, which you can probably tell by my OT posts. Anywho, I wanted to say a few things: i) I, too, could swear I’ve read a book called Wizard of Glass. I don’t remember the plot; I do remember the feel. I think it was set in the mountains, involved a tower, and the glass referred to the fragility of the wizards. If I can’t find it, I intend to write it. b) You did some posts in April 2012 (I think) about bread and flour and rice. Red Mill sells a whole wheat pastry flour that can be substituted one for one with white flour without the need for extra fluids. My sister introduced me to it, and as a result, everything I bake is usually 1/2 white and half wheat. Also for those among us who like rice, don’t eat it often enough to need a rice cooker and tend to forget about it until the last minute, Minute Rice now sells microwaveable rice cups in white and brown. 3) Allergies and allergy shots–I’ve been getting allergy shots for 10 years now, with no end in sight. They have made such a difference in my life that I will continue them as long as the doctor is willing (I have oral allergy syndrome, probably due to Alder pollen). As a result, your story about the OK doctors letting people give themselves shots at home raised the hairs on the back of my neck and gave me the shivers. That is sooooo dangerous. What if someone had a severe reaction? You can die from that sort of thing. My Doctor requires that you remain in the waiting room for 30 minutes after the shot so that the receptionist can keep an eye on you (you aren’t even allowed to go to the bathroom) in case you have a reaction. Even after 10 years.
Well, this seems to be longer than I meant it to be, as well as off topic. If I should apologize, let me know.
Great name, Seaboe Muffinchucker! — And several of us wander off-topic and back. I get the impression CJC is happy so long as everyone plays nice.
Wizard of Glass? I don’t know of a story that fits that, but I’m curious now. And if you write one, I’ll read it. 😉 If someone finds it, I hope they’ll let us know. I’ve heard “GoodReads.com” is a good place to ask readers if they know of a book / title / author / story, even without a lot of clues. CJC’s readers tend to read plenty, so of course, ask here.
If you haven’t yet checked out the forum at Shejidan.com, do. Fans of CJC and Jane and Lynn hang out there too.
I haven’t seen Red Mill flour, but I’ll write down the name. I prefer wheat flour anyway. (I finally found rice flour, not with Asian foods, but with Mexican/Latino foods. Hurray!) — Heh, I tend to cook rice in a pot, simple and old-fashioned Western, instead of steamed, but I hadn’t noticed Minute Rice cups. Could be handy.
I saw a neat demo of how to fix baozi, Chinese steamed buns with fillings such as BBQ pork. I’d first heard of bao from Firefly; don’t know how I’d missed them before. So I may get a bamboo steamer. (I used to have one, but it self-destructed and I didn’t replace it.)
It’s Bob’s Red Mill flour and a lot of other products. They used to be all together in the organic section of the supermarket but the supermarket now places the different types of products in the appropriate places. This makes them harder to find in my opinion – clustered together they were easy to spot. If you can’t get them locally they’re on the web.
BlueCatShip and others of course — if you can’t find the Red Mill flours [lots of varieties, not just your usual white, bread or wheat] in you local grocery store, I just got a notice form Vitacost.com [which has discounted suppliments like drugstore.com — bnut my doctor recommended Vitacost since they are actually a bit cheaper] is having a 15% off sale on the Red Mills flours.
Timing is everything all right!
And for those who need to go gluten-free, Bob’s offers a wide variety of alternatives, including a gluten-free all-purpose flour that I can substitute 1:1 for regular flour, and a “Wonderful Bread Mix” (that’s its name, or close to it) that’s just that–wonderful. (Try the cornbread mix, too.) I relied on them for years until we discovered husband was no longer gluten-sensitive (and for some recipes I still prefer the gluten-free version). IIRC, most of these items are made in a certified gluten-free factory, so they’re OK for celiacs too.
Thanks, everyone. 🙂 I haven’t tried Vitacost.com, but will. I’ll check for Bob’s Red Mill products next time I go. I think I’m OK on everything, but I may need more wheat flour for an upcoming recipe. Gotta get some brown sugar too. 🙂 My local store has gone a little wacky about placement. Some things are in the regular aisles, others are with international foods, which are in more than one aisle. Then there are the organic or health foods, which I don’t check often enough. I haven’t found where, or if, they carry plain carrot juice without a blend (carrot and orange would be OK). I saw a carrot juice recipe, non-alcoholic, though you could add rum, that looked good. I just don’t want to run a bag or two of carrots through a processor, if I can get the juice ready-made. 😉
I haven’t been doing enough home cooking lately, and promised myself I’d do better and stretch my skills again. 🙂 I generally really like it, but I backslide. Slacker! 😀
I’ve gone from Arizona to Utah and back at least a few dozen times. Going northwest to southeast (or vice versa) is a pain however you do it. It’s much easier to go from Casper, Wyoming or Denver, Colorado to Las Vegas than, say, from Salt Lake City to Albuquerque, if you stick to the freeways.
There are a couple of decent shortcuts. US 89 through central Utah and Page, Arizona, is the one I’d recommend for going between Salt Lake City and Albuquerque or El Paso; US 93 through Kingman for going between Las Vegas and Phoenix. I’ve never had cause to take I-70 or US 50 east through Colorado, but on the map it doesn’t look easy to connect to I-40 from there.
The trickiest part is indeed getting across the mountains between I-15, which is the main North-South route through Utah, and US 89, which runs roughly parallel to it. There are about 5 different routes that will go across. It looks like what happened to you was that you got to Panguitch and took a left turn (onto Utah 143) instead of a right (staying on US-89). The long, twisty, narrow mountain road going through Cedar Breaks is highly *not* recommended for exploring at night. If you had followed US 89, gone about 10 miles north, and *then* taken the left, onto Utah 20, you would have found the best instead of the worst route across.
The whole Colorado Plateau is beautiful if you are interested in erosional geology, but pretty barren if your preference is for biology. On my last trip to Utah, I went through Las Vegas and St. George going north, but on the way back I took the other route. Instead of the main US 89 through Page (which is closed for repairs this month or so) I took the alternate route 89A past the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and stopped at Lee’s Ferry (which was established by an ancestor of mine…a colorful but rather tragic character.)
I would hold of from using Highway 89 in Arizona south of Page. A large chunk of the road flat went away, a large collapse with bits subsiding multiple feet and other bits going downslope severl hundred feet. ADOT is working on a major reroute since fixing that section is going to take multiple months. But the reroute is going to take a while to get up to speed too. Definitely check with Arizona Department of Public Safety [DPS] about the road condition if you plan on going that route.
Yes..a relative had encountered the detour en route south, the week before I went north, so I knew to take the alternate route. It doesn’t suprise me that a big piece of road disappeared. Large parts of that country look like they would simply wash away in the next good rain. The only reason they haven’t already is that they can’t get a good rain…
Lee’s Ferry? Neat! Yep, Panguitch really does ring a bell. When we finally got out of the Cedar Breaks mess, we found a strange little motel at at town whose name I swore I’d never forget (and have) which had a strange Swiss chalet motif INSIDE the room decor: a roof-motif, with shingles ran up and over the beds as a sort of headboard, wall decoration, and our cats, at that time Ysabel and Efanor, thought it was wonderful…it went WAY up above everything.
Hatch, maybe? I’ve seen a place (driving by) by that looks from the outside that it might fit your description of the inside.
I think it was near Parowan…but I’m not sure.
Could be Paragonah, in that case.
If you ever come to Dallas again, think about coming through Lubbock (you can take I27/87 south from Amarillo), there’s a nice little Extended Stay America two blocks up from my house, and they say they are pet friendly. It’s real easy to get to from I27/87 (like two right turns). You can take 84 southeast to I20 (Sweetwater) which will waft you on into south FW/Dallas. And if you are skinny when you get here, I promise to be jealous. . .
From I’40, I’d hang a right at Santa Rosa, pick up 84 at Ft Sumner, then it’s a straight shot from Farwell down to Lubbock. (I took the left at Muleshoe and went east on 70, to the intersection with FM179. I can get to Lubbock from there, too: arrive at 4th and Frankford.)
Lol!
Supposedly the most scenic drive in my neck of the woods is the Trace (Natchez Trace, sorry) but I’ve never driven that piece of road. We used to make the trip from Midland TX to Biloxi MS once a year (for CoastCon) and that was QUITE a long drive…but I20 and I10 have never been all that bad to drive per se. There are a couple sections of I20 where there’s not even a gas station – and if I ever drive out to Midland again (now that I live in MS), I will be very sure to check my maps and mark the good places to stop!
Never really did the type of road trip where you MUST plan to stop for the night; we’d make the 18-23 hour drive* from Midland to Biloxi in one go. Granted that much of the trip ended up being at night, I do still recall some lovely scenery.
I used to make trips in the summer from Texas to Arizona (I think on I10, we were headed for Sierra Vista, a border town south of Tucson). Driving through that southern stretch of New Mexico was always gorgeous. Especially if there was a lightning storm!! Purple lightning bolts, no lie, thin as hairs and coming fast from the black clouds above the desert. And the desert really does look painted when the sun is setting or those thunderheads are coming in. The colors are not to be believed. Photos do no justice to it.
*The only reason that trip was ever over 18 hours was if we had the misfortune to catch I20 rush hour traffic in Dallas. Terrifying!
This morning, I woke up early.
(I’m not a morning person, but I tend to have insomnia and a *really* weird lack-of-cycle for sleep/wake, so my hours are weird.)
This was aided and abetted by the cats, who (of course) are morning people…and night people…. Naturally, they wanted to go *outside!* This has become a major deal for Goober, who is otherwise the world’s most non-assertive cat ever. They get to spend about 15 to 30 minutes in the back yard with me watching so they don’t go “over the wall” to the neighbors and beyond. (I’m one street away from a city highway.) Usually, this satisfies them and I like the break too. “Meditative,” you could say.
So this morning, we were out there early, stayed longer (because a certain cat *did* go “over the wall” to the neighbor’s yard), and got back in around 8:30.
It was still nicely cool but warm enough to be pleasant, not yet bright enough to be bothersome. Lighter than dawn, though. But all in all, very nice, even for a not-morning-person. I could do with that more often, just not with waiting on Mister Curiosity to get his furry butt back here. (He might’ve learned, though, what with people starting their holiday weekends.)
A most felicitous morning, even without any eggs and toast and tea, or the presence of a nice breakfast companion such as lady Ilisidi or nand’ Bren. (Or some nice gfi and hani crew about.)
All these memories of driving around the country. About the only place I haven’t seen yet is the NW; if I’m ever in the area, I may be hand-delivering some Kona coffee and mac nuts (and dried, shaved fish for teh kittehs).
In my tweens, for several years our family would take vacations on the Gulf coast in Florida. We usually stayed at one of the many tiny condos on Sanibel Island. It’s all built over now, but at that time if you went out early in the morning, you might see no more than half a dozen people on the beach, mostly searching for shells, because SI was one of the best shelling beaches in the world. The condo owners lived on site, and if you wanted to fish in the canal across the street for conch, they would provide you stinky fish bait and help you clean the conch (you could keep the shell; they wanted the critter for conch chowder!) I remember first iterations of EPCOT center and Disney World, and driving for 2 days on the causeway to get to Key West. The highway paralleled, and in some places took over, the Florida East Coast Railroad causeways. The railway was done in by a vicious hurricane in 1935, but the bridges remain. There is a monument to the victims, both locals and vets working on the railway, in Islamorada on the Keys.
CJ: The Interstate-grade road from Memphis southeastward past Tupelo MS now goes all the way to Birmingham AL. There are still a few miles of Urban 4-Lane+Left Turn Lane [the old US-78 / Bankhead Highway] JUST north of the junction with I-20, but it should not be much longer before the connection of the new road to I-65 is finished.
Hawke: Where in MS are YOU? I retired last summer and am now in Eupora, which is about 6 miles west of where the Natchez Trace crosses US-82. And yes, the Trace IS the most scenic drive in the state, at least the section from US-82 north to Tupelo is. We can continue this conversation off of CJ’s blog, if you want; I’m this same username on gmail.
Love the Natchez Trace. I’ve been all around the East and Midwest by car, and train when I get the chance. Much less experience with the West of the country, so the difficulties of getting from here-to-there have made fascinating reading. Planning on San Francisco next fall, but taking the train (and now I have another reason to look forward to the trip).
When I was a kid and through my late teens, we’d take a vacation every year or so in summer and see relatives in Oklahoma or in Georgia and Tennessee and Virginia. So on the trip to and back, we’d head from Houston through Louisiana and the coastal states to Georgia, then up to meet the Appalachians and Blue Ridge, to get to relatives there in VA and TN. So I’ve been along the Natchez Trace, to Natchez, (which I could be confusing), and through Biloxi and other cities and towns. Beautiful places. The Blue Ridge Parkway (and off it) all through there is really beautiful too, but I’m biased.
Up through the Texas Coastal Plains, into the Hill Country, and further up into Oklahoma is a different kind of countryside (several, actually) and pretty in their own right. (Ow, my internal editor does not like that sentence’s grammar construction at all. My apologies.)
Oklahoma and Texas are sometimes very different, other times much alike, in terrain. Once you get up into northern Texas and Oklahoma…you get very used to red dirt. Iron oxides like crazy. Hmm, and probably some similarity to Martian soils, I’d bet.
I’ve been around Midland and Odessa at least once or twice, but not too much further west.
I don’t suppose it’s good for getting anywhere fast, but US 2 east through the Rockies at Marias Pass (only 5000 ft.) is incredibly scenic–on the southern border of Glacier Park. Only after you’ve left the mountains you have miles and miles and miles and miles and MILES of plains to cross. It took over 24 hours on the train to get to Chicago, and that was running night and day. Still, the run up to Marias Pass was truly awesome.
We’re going to have to try that. We just got back from Missoula, and we keep swearing we’re going to see Glacier. What would make sense is to get a room at at Missoula, as a home base, where we have two very pet friendly motels: Ruby’s Inn is great—take the drive, and come back to stay in comfort.
Two things I find impressive in Glacier are at the top of the Road to the Sun. There’s a visitor’s center at the summit. Not impressive. But one observes the strong sedimentary layering in rocks of these high mountains, and a decidedly magenta cast to the rock. The UV at that altitude has oxidized the manganese in the rock to permanganate. 😉
Neat! I love geology!
I can tell you if you want to get from 1-25 to Amarillo faster than the straight down and zag over to Clines’ Corner NM, go to Raton, and take the route to Clayton, which branches off I-25 in an overpass right near the Motel 6.
I’ve driven that road one way and another since I was 10, and it used to be 2 lane blacktop, on which was maddeningly difficult to find a safe place to pass. It’s now divided highway.
You pass Capulin Volcano, and drive through the old lava fields: a nice hike around Capulin rim, and the little cafe at the start of the Capulin cutoff is quite nice.
This route cuts major time off: you join I-40 in Amarillo, and a GPS is useful. The old route used to take you through Amarillo, but they now join you up with the highway.
As you leave Amarillo you get the choice of staying with I-40 and going to Oklahoma City, or going on toward Dallas on that same diagonal. This route will save you a lot of time, and if you have a GPS, take the route that heads down on the west of Dallas, instead of the one that goes to the north of it and heads you toward Gainesville—that one goes over to the east side, but it runs you unprotected past a lot of cross-roads, it’s rough, and it then delivers you to a succession of small towns, including some that are speed traps: Van Alstyn is one I was warned about.
If you go down the east bypass, you get to a road that will deliver you neatly over to Dalhart and McKinney, and land you on the eastern bypass in a section that goes from McKinney to Plano, etc, and south, and doesn’t have such aggressive speed control—beware the local drivers.
Dallas is growing so fast that your GPS may not keep up, so be sure your unit is updated with the latest maps, and even so, it will sometimes confuse you as to what’s possible and not. Main thing is, don’t panic if you miss your exit. It’s all on a grid, so if you miss one chance, get off at the next opportunity, and trust your GPS to find a way.
Have y’all considered the train for when you don’t want to drive?