Buses By the Bridge -- pt. 4

Bright and way too early (yes, I have pictures of the sunrise to prove it), we packed up, hit Starbucks on our way out of town and headed down to Tucson.

Our good friend Hobie has a little "casita" on the west side of Tucson where he spends his winters far, far away from Washington's wet, rainy weather. Here's a picture of his labyrinth which you can even see on satellite pics of his place. Pretty darn cool! 

   

Saguaro National Park (west) is pretty much right next door. What an interesting drive that was. The Bearded One and Spotted One weren't too crazy about the endless miles of washboard road but the scenery was so worth it. 

 After the saguaros the destination was Pima Air Museum. The Bearded One spent three hours checking out the aircraft (yawn). The Spotted One & I made ourselves comfortable in the bus and tried to do some reading. 

 Next up was Mission San Xavier del Bac. This is a beautiful mission. I wish we had been able to spend more time but, at this point the sun had decided to stay out and we didn't want the Spotted One to get overheated in the bus. 

 There were lots of photographic opportunities. 

 I was fascinated with this cactus that looks like an artichoke.

 And, there was Indian fry bread! Yum!

 Driving in and out of Tucson were fields and fields with these huge tarp covered bales. They were cotton. But not just any type of cotton, these were Pima cotton fields. If you look closely you can see some little tufts of white left on the plants here and there.

After 12 days in the bus, the dog that absolutely refuses to put his head down and sleep while we are driving finally relented. It was about this time that we were also able to pull into a gas station without him barking like crazy at everybody. There is hope......

Would you believe -- 7 miles from home we get hit with a golf ball size rock, smack dab in the middle of the windshield? Oh that hurt. But, I guess when you consider everything, completing 3922 miles with just a broken windshield that's not so bad, right? We didn't spend any time in a repair shop like some people did, or sick for the entire trip like somebody else......

We came home to the aftermath of a huge snow and ice storm. The Seattle area doesn't get snow very often and even less rarely do we get ice storms. Especially storms of this magnitude. Our neighbor said everything was coated in 3/4" of ice. It is now a week later and we still have two huge piles of branches to deal with. We will have to have a tree expert look at this poor tree. There are so few branches left now....

Buses By the Bridge Road Trip - pt. 3

(Forgive the delay in getting this posted -- the Blogger app on my iPad decided to stop working......)

What can you say about a four day VW gathering that draws 313 buses to the shores of Lake Havasu in the middle of January? 

 That's us, the brown one right next to Bev. to the left and out of the picture is the sidewalk and then the sand and beach. 

How many VW guys does it take to fix Bev's antenna so she can listen to her beloved NPR again?

If you thought a real VW is slow....

Some people had primo spots right on the beach.....

  The kids got to paint this bus. Apparently it's become a tradition. (Yes, it's all washable paint.) 

  

 Walter from Burning Man was there. At nite he was quite a sight, all different colors of neon lights.

Down the canal was the bridge -- London Bridge. 

 And, at the end of the canal was the little lighthouse. The last night the sunset was beyond spectacular. 

 

Buses By the Bridge Road Trip - pt. 2

Death Valley -- Wow! Since this was my first trip to this part of the country, I really had no idea what to expect. All I can say now is that I never expected it to be as beautiful as it was. Starting with the road heading into Death Valley.


These Joshua trees were everywhere. I was fascinated with them. At first you would just see one here or there. Then there were hillsides dotted with them.



The view of Panamint Valley from a scenic overlook. We had to go through this and over the "hills" on the other side to get to Death Valley. Every twist and turn of the road brought yet a different view. On our way down we saw a fighter jet from NAS China Lake zooming around the hills and up the valley.



The lowest point that we reached while crossing Death Valley. Pretty cool to see the negative elevation.



Heading east out of Death Valley. I tried to capture all the subtle colors of the mountains but these pictures really don't do them justice. Winter is such a grat time to visit Deat Valley. The temps were around 60 and the light was soft, not the harsh light of summer.



More Death Valley -- heading east.



The Vegas strip -- we had to give the Spotted one something to bark at....




Lake Mead at sunset.



This is the pedestrian portion of the newly opened bridge carrying traffic from Nevada to Arizona. Prior to 9/11 all traffic crossed over the two lane Hoover Dam. After 9/11 trucks were no longer allowed. The bridge is an amazing feat of engineering. No, I did NOT stroll out on the pedestrian walkway.


The Bearded One however had no problem walking out to the middle and taking pictures. Here you see the Hoover Dam. Yes, the new bridge is considerably higher....



The new bridge as we are preparing to do the tourist thing and cross over the dam. You must go through an inspection before being allowed to cross the dam.



At last, Arizona! Next up, Buses by the Bridge and Tucson.

LizA.
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