Oklahoma!

Our transit across the flatlands was punctuated by two things that stand out in my mind: fins for wind machines and a truck stop west of Amarillo, Texas where we found the perfect post card (soon to be scanned a published). Actually we had seen the wind machine fins all along our route, but they were especially dramatic in the open plains. A sign of the times; wind farms, and a beautiful one, indeed. It's one thing to see the farms with their windmills, standing like colonies of insects from outer space, performing silent and graceful ballets
in the landscape, and quite another to see the fins themselves being transported. They are huge! Often mounted as a pair on either side of a giant I beam, they are easily the most beautiful cargo on the highway.

We entered Oklahoma at sunset. The sun was at our back, an orange globe that moved slowly towards the netherworld, and the evening was ahead of us, in shades of warm blue and purple. As we drove along with that huge expanse of Oklahoma sky above us, it felt as though we were traveling in the chariot with the universal and ancient gods who bring night to the land every day of our lives.

It was like this until we hit the suburbs west of Oklahoma City, and then on the drive down to Norman, this is what we saw: the gods of commerce in control! Washingtonians would cringe at the unbridled enthusiasm for advertising here. In some ways it reminds me of my early days in LA. I especially like how the big lights of the car lots and other commercial centers came out in these photos taken while we were moving along the highway.

Well, that's it for now! I'll be back soon with more about what's happened after Ann and I arrived in Norman, and other events after that. I've been feeling like every day has been a little battle to keep ahead of the game, but now that I finally have a refrigerator, everything seems OK and I can relax. I will explain. In the meantime, I want to thank everyone for all their help during my move, and also tell you how much I miss you all!

The Journey Part III: New Mexico

These were the views coming down out of the high desert of Colorado into New Mexico. The photos don't do justice to the brilliance of the yellow aspens that lit the landscape like molten gold. Ann and I stopped at Taos for our final night on the road so that we could visit our friend Linda, and we stayed at a wonderful place called the Sagebrush Inn (http://sagebrushinn.com/sagebrushinn/index.html. ). The next morning we headed out for the final push across Texas and into Oklahoma...

Morning inside the mesa

In the morning Ann and I hightailed it back to the cliff dwellings where we toured "Spruce House," one of the largest complexes in Mesa Verde. It was built between 1211 and 1278, so it's contemporaneous with my beloved town of Cordes in France! It has 130 rooms and 8 kivas, and is thought to have housed 60-80 people. What a place to live! One has shelter, but there are also distant views down the canyon out into the surrounding desert. The canyon contains a great variety of trees and shrubs, a remarkable contrast to the stark nature of the rock dwellings.

The Journey Part II: The Far View Inn on the Mesa

After our visit to Arches, we headed down the highway to Mesa Verde, where we were able to reserve a room at the Far View Inn, 12 miles into the park. The road wound steadily upwards from the entry to the top of the mesa, and man oh man, what views! It seemed that we could see for hundreds of miles in every direction, and we were blessed with benign weather so it was comfortable to get out and walk around. We were astounded to see that the Far View Inn sat at the highest point on the mesa, so that all motel rooms had sweeping views of the surrounding desert. Below is a view of the motel units, which were built mid-century and merge with the mesa-top form pretty well, in my opinion.

We arrived just in time to visit the museum and get a look at the cliff dwellings that we would visit the next day. That evening we attended a lecture on the history of the dwellings and the Indian cultures of the area, and afterwards we had a most delicious dinner in the Inn restaurant. Our dinner included local specialties such as mole sauce, corn pudding, and prickley pear relish. Get thee to the Far View Inn! http://http://www.visitmesaverde.com/accommodations/far-view-lodge.aspx

My cat Zoom was anxious to see the views too. In the middle of the night I got up to get something out of the car and he escaped, running away from me as fast as his legs could take him, with his tail up and his loose belly fur swinging merrily side to side. I despaired of chasing him, and sat down on the stoop in front of our room. It was a beautiful night with a million stars gleaming. I would have been completely at peace except that I could also hear rustlings that suggested horned owls on the prowl. Occasionally I called "Zoom, Zoom!" and finally he did appear and I buried my nose in his fur with relief.

Cliff dwellings seen in the evening, and below, Ann offering you a bite of trout.

The Journey Part I

Ann Hirschi and I left Seattle Thursday morning, September 30 to head for Oklahoma via the Southwest. The Subaru was stuffed with all sorts of things that I thought would be necessary for our trip and for our survival in Oklahoma until the time the movers arrived. Turned out that the only thing that really came in handy was the electric hot water kettle. The back of the car was devoted to cats and plants. Zoom and Beryl rode out the trip in their cat carriers like veterans of travel, although this was the first time they had been on a journey longer than the 5-minute trip to their vet. The first day we pressed through to Ontario, Oregon, where we stayed in a nondescript motel and enjoyed a Mexican dinner with some very good margheritas.

The next day we drove down through Idaho and into Utah. It was a second day of steady driving, as we planned to dally later in lower Utah. The most remarkable thing that happened this day was that we experienced the worst traffic jam either of us could remember as we crawled from Ogden to Provo. It was three hours of stop and go, and there was no exit. Highway 15 is the only was to move between the mountains and the Salton Sea, and we strongly recommend that you avoid it at all costs. However, once we escaped this torture, the landscape we were driving through at sunset (along Highway 6) was gorgeous. By nightfall we had arrived at Price, proud home of more than 57 varieties of immigrants (no kidding; one of the sights promoted in local literature is the cemetery where the smorgasbord of names can be seen on the gravestones!), and we found a local brew pub for our dinner. Our motel hosts were Polish, and had Polish dresses on display in their lobby. Breakfast was very good!

The third day we finally enjoyed some spectacular scenery. Our first stop was at Arches National Park where these pictures were taken. We were there around noon, so the light was high, but still the landscape was magnificent. Ann spent more time in the museum that I did, as I was occupied with my feline charges, and she may have some information to add to this post, but we both agreed that this was a place to return to!