SOUTH-WESTERN
USA
Jun. - Aug. 2007
Suspicious
vehicle in the parking lot.
“Do not get
too friendly with Mexican/US border
officials,” was the advice given. However,
at Laredo, while we were lining up
(with some Mexican families camped on the
floor), the officials started calling
greetings to us; about
friends and family in South Africa and
holidays there. The sniffer dog checked
Dipli thoroughly for drugs.
TEXAS
Road signs led
us to the visitors’ information centre,
which had landscaped gardens and clean
rest rooms and loads of brochures and
wireless internet as well. Roads were
smooth. Huge supermarkets were filled with
delectable fare. The contrast did not make
us too nostalgic for Latin America because
all signs in the Southwest USA were in
Spanish and English and Mexican food
outlets were abundant. J preferred a
typical Texan steak done pit barbecue
style.
In San
Antonio Leone lost her job (of 9
years) when Jan bought the new woman in
his life. A GPS navigator with a sultry
voice. (Now there were two talking above
the engine noise.) Consolation prize for
Leone was a good deal with a cell phone.
The
extraordinary Dallas aquarium
incorporates birds, plants and other fauna
among the aquatic exhibits. The day we
visited the spot in Dallas where JFK was
murdered, we heard that our neighbour in
SA had been shot when he was defending his
family. We felt safe away from home.
After
Austin’s remarkable history museum,
Fort Worth’s art gallery and Japanese
Garden, a cattle drive and a
wagon-collection from 1900, plus four IMAX
movies, we needed some time-off. In
western Big Texas we found this green
meadow with spring flowers, to camp on.
“Chill out” we did, but “pick up” we also
did! Something that made us itch. We never
saw them. Many days later subsequent to
researching in libraries; after vacuuming,
scrubbing, spraying and nearly poisoning
ourselves we were rid of the tiny
chiggers.
NEW MEXICO
Carlsbad
Caverns is a wonderland cave of
stalagmites and stalactites.
We spent many
hours at the Museum of Space History
in Alamogordo and at Socorro’s
National Atomic Museum, where there
was an extensive exhibit of the beneficial
uses of nuclear energy. We detoured to the
awesome Very Large Array Radio
Telescope. 27 huge antenna dishes in a
y-shape together, form a very large
eyeball peeking into the outer edges of
the universe.
After a
relaxing farm camp out with friends, on
their new land we moved on to Santa Fe
for the 4th of July
fireworks. (We sat a little too close and
had to dodge bits of smouldering
crackers). In Taos, while Jan
replaced the thermostat on Dipli, Leone
enjoyed the adobe architecture, art
galleries and American Indian crafts, like
Navajo weaving, beading and
turquoise-and-silver jewellery.
“Bottomless unsweet ice tea” was served
with spicy fare prepared from green
chillies grown in the area. Strings of
dry red chillies adorn the eateries. We
saw how pistachio nuts grow in the hot dry
climate of NM; evolving from clusters of
small oval rosy-cheeked fruits.
COLORADO
At the first
Rest Area in Colorado, a couple came to
chat. He pulled out his grill and invited
us for barbecued elk steaks in their
caravan. Later on in Denver they
took us to a street art festival and
showed us the attractive downtown area,
including a public building made of
titanium!!
We used free
internet at various gorgeous libraries.
The excellent Museum of Nature and
Science warranted an entire day.
Camp
grounds/RV parks are abundant but they are
unattractive. We found it convenient to
stay overnight in the parking lot of a
large store like Wal-Mart. Once while we
were checking out a level spot to park, a
police car rolled up. Someone had reported
”a suspicious vehicle in the parking
area”, since Dipli looks like nothing
the average American has ever seen.
Boulder
is the most attractive town. It lies below
the Rockies and has bicycle paths through
riverside parks and a long pedestrian
mall.
In the US
almost any industry can be visited.
Boulder has the large fascinating
Celestial Seasonings Tea Processing
factory where teas from all over the
world are blended and most attractively
packaged.
Dipli was a
little slow and fatigued but we did get to
enjoy the Rocky Mountain
National Park. Aspen is the ski
resort for the rich and famous. There
Leone paid homage at the John Denver
memorial where massive boulders are
engraved with words of his songs. We
traced a secret spot in a National Forest
where there is a hot pool in the middle of
a mountain stream. A blissful scenic
immersion of travel-weary bones ensued!
In tiny
Fruita we came upon a local rodeo.
There was affable rivalry with calf
roping, bull-riding, kids riding sheep and
girls on horse back racing around barrels.
UTAH
This was the
state for scenery-gawking. It was hot but
we walked and we drove through all the
gorgeous red and white rock formations.
Gleaming white domes and arches,
vermillion cliffs, red and golden canyons
are found in parks like Canyon
Lands National Park, Arches NP, Monument
Valley (the red buttes and spires we
know from cowboy movies), Capital Reef,
Bryce, Zion, Grand Staircase, and
Deadhorsepoint. In the middle of the
40ºC day Dipli had to get a new diesel
“lift” pump.
NEVADA
In Las
Vegas we tried to see the architecture
of each glittering casino:
Egypt, Venice,
Paris and N.Y. were replicated. The
interiors had ornamental fountains, marble
statues, mosaic floors, and large fish
tanks. There was one adorned with a
ceiling of 2000 hand-blown flowers above
and 5000 fresh cut roses below.
ARIZONA
Grand
Canyon was as magnificent as we
remembered from 36 years ago. This time we
did not hike all the way down to the
Colorado River.
August in
Prescott (elevation 1700 m) was
bearable and we could clean Dipli and pack
for South Africa, in a National Forest
campground. We also tracked down some
tyres (Cross or bias ply are hard to get
in the US). One day when we came out of a
Library, where we had done email, there
was a police car next to Dipli. They had
to respond because somebody had reported ”a
suspicious vehicle in the parking area”!
When Jan asked the cop to go and look at
the other side of our motor home, where
the route map is, he first called for back
up! Our friends in Phoenix saved
us from the 46ºC heat by hosting us in
their air-conditioned home until we could
fly to SA. They had not been able to sell
their lovely home in two years. They also
took us to the Airport, after Dipli had
been put in storage in Apache Junction.
His home for the next 8 months.
Next South Pacific
Islands
This journey
up to August 2007:
Time on the
road (excluding home visits): 4 years, 11
months
Kilometres
driven: 206 000 Countries
visited: 87
