07 July – Passing at LAX
Pandemic air travel has changed food service, at least on Delta. Cheese, crackers, a granola bar and gummi bears was the First Class dinner served in a cardboard box on the five hour flight.
Shortly after landing in Los Angelos we found Jim, obviously in pain, by baggage claim. His daughter appeared shortly thereafter with a wheelchair. Joe and I hung out near the baggage area for a couple of hours while she made sure Jim was on-board our plane for the turnaround flight back to North Carolina.
Departing well after lunch, we rose out of the valley and headed into the high dessert.
Boron California presented our first rest break where it was a balmy 109 degrees. We suspected, and later verified, that this is where Borax comes from. You can see the open pit mine from the rest area.
We were surprised to see a large gathering of big aircraft in the desert. The Mojave Air and Space Port offers storage for aircraft that aren’t in use. It is also a boneyard for aircraft at the end of their useful lives.
Spent our first night on the road in Barstow, California. Chose to stay at hotel because no campsites were available with power for the trailer’s air conditioner. Barstow doesn’t have much greenery for dog walking. Gravel and brush was all Chika and I found on our walk.
09 July – Day Two
Detoured around a 1.5 hour back-up on I-40 and traveled some pretty back roads close to the Grand Canyon. Being on a schedule meant not stopping at the Canyon or even pausing at the Grand Canyon Railroad.
Flagstaff KOA in Flagstaff, AZ was our stop for the night. Temps dropped to 94 in showers.
While the sites were close together, the campground bordered park lands. A pedestrian gate gave ready access to the Eden trail.
After sleeping all day in the truck, Chika was ready for a hike.
We had a great walk and only explored a little bit of the many trails surrounding the campground.
Back at the KOA, kids were entertained riding the barrel train. Although at $90 per night the campground was expensive, it offered close proximity to Flagstaff, mountain trails, and had lots of activities for families. An on-site grill did good business the next morning as the scent of frying bacon wafted through the campground.
10 July – Day Three
I-40 parallels the railroad tracks in this part of the country. Here, a train passed by us while we paused in a rest area.
Experienced our first dust devil while stopped for refueling in Gallup, NM. Don’t need to experience another!
We had help from home while navigating. Beth was monitoring the traffic and routed us around back-ups like this one. Much of I-40 follows historic Route 66, which can be used for detours.
Huge wind turbines lined the roads, harvesting the wind blowing across the high dessert.
Happy Trails RV Park in Moriarty, NM was our overnight spot.
The “Park” was a space in a dirt lot next to a school bus yard. We talked with a few of our fellow campers learning they were electrical and construction crews erecting more of the big wind turbines we had been seeing all day.
Sunset and selective framing can make any campground look better.
11 July – Day Four
Lots of wind turbines, cattle lots, and sagebrush.
Bobcat Creek RV Park in Sayre, OK is a nice campground convenient to the highway. Joe & Chika enjoyed the shade of a cottonwood tree.
Something we hadn’t seen at a campground before was this tornado shelter.
The depths of the shelter didn’t look very inviting, but would be very welcome if a tornado was nearby.
In contrast to last night’s stopover, this park had natural space to take Chika for a walk.
The buzz of cicadas crescendoed at sunset. Shortly thereafter all three of us were asleep.
12 July – Day Five
The day was a blur of highway passing between Indian Nations in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Rain in Arkansas was quite a contrast to the desert.
Not exactly pretty, it was easy in and out. The park is a paved, pull-through rest area providing full hook-ups with a view of the highway.
This might be a good model for states to bring in some revenue along major turnpikes. A well lit, safe, convenient stopover would be welcome for people passing through. We learned later that Ohio has four similar RV “parks” along the Ohio turnpike.
13 July – Day Six
Crossed the Mississippi and stopped between Nashville and Knoxville today at Belle Ridge Retreat in Monterey, TN.
Chika was visibly upset and started barking when we stopped to register. She was not happy about the deer and bear statues.
Beth and I stopped here a couple of years ago and knew that it had great trails. It was fun showing Joe and Chika around.
The longest trail followed the ridge cliff to a high, thin waterfall.
Chika relaxed after we didn’t run into any real deer or bears on our hike.
I wandered down to the tent section where we had camped in a beautiful site surrounded by trees. Sadly, the sites had been clear cut for either cottages or big RV sites. Here’s a link to our first visit: Belle Ridge 2018
Fortunately, the Belle Ridge gazebo still offers a perfect spot for a sunset mountain view.
14 July – Day Seven
Chika and I walked out to the campground overlook where we found some morning fog in the valleys.
It wasn’t long before tunnels welcomed us to North Carolina.
Our 2,610 mile trip ended with rain as we exited Interstate 40 in Chapel Hill. We were fortunate to have a smooth trip and reasonable driving conditions.