The Southwest

The Southwest experience was also very windy, starting off with a blinding dust storm on the Interstate coming into Albuquerque, NM. The cutsey adobe style old towns started with Taos which had a small town square reminiscent of town squares in small midwestern towns such as Medina, OH. The stores in these “old towns” are largely touristy in their offerings, yet I couldn’t find a good outdoor place to sit to have a brewsky for my minimum daily liquid requirements. The architecture is adobe, adobe, and adobe. Even the new steel structures have the old adobe finishes. Outside the tourist area other architectures, presumably not as expensive, quickly became the norm. Santa Fe, the capitol city, was similar to Taos, except on a larger scale. Both cities were explored by bicycle as it is a quick, yet less stressful way, to get to see the places.

The next destination was Flagstaff for an expected camping overnight. However, because of the forecast 22 deg night at the city’s 7000 ft altitude, I decided to move to lower altitudes for more of an atmospheric blanket. I thus headed for Sedona, an upscale cutsey place built for the upscalers. Trying to find a campground or motel outside of Sedona on the way to Las Vegas was unsuccessful and I had to drive into the evening before I suddenly had dozens of choices in the crossroads town of Kingman. On the way there I had to pass through the village of Jerome which reminded me of those northern Italian villages clinging to the top of mountain passes with narrow serpentine roads winding through town. It even had a catholic retreat center at the top of the village.

On the way to Vegas, I stopped at Hoover Dam for a tour. It was interesting to hear about how quickly and efficiently it was built (we don’t seem to be able to do even some smaller government contracted projects without cost and schedule overruns anymore). The old exhibit center had a huge hydrological model of the Colorado watershed which showed all of the dams and irrigated areas. About 30% of the electricity goes to light up Las Vegas and most of the rest goes to California. Security is high, as an act of terror on the dam would have huge consequences. In fact they are in the process of building a bypass bridge over the gorge, south of the dam, which will be the largest bridge of its kind.

Driving in Las Vegas was a stressful, high speed experience which made me decide on the spot to get some rest in Death Valley instead. I arrived at Furnace Creek Ranch and found a great camping spot in the shade of several Mesquite trees. The first evening was pleasantly warm for sleeping in the nude on top of the sleeping bag (did I mention the full body tanning session in the Colorado dunes?). The night sky was clear with a brilliant display of stars and the Milky Way, accompanied by a chorus of Hyenas howling in the distance. Daytime found Prairie Chickens suddenly appearing in the camping area with their weird call, an introduction sounding like a Dove, followed by castanets. There is much wildlife in Death Valley.

The following morning I went to Bad Water waiting for a colorful sunrise, which didn’t appear. This was followed by what seemed like a quick ride to the easily visible other end of the valley to see Scotty’s Castle. Well, it took 160 miles of driving to see it. It was interesting to observe what can be done with lots of money in a somewhat disorganized way.

The evening cooled down from the 97 deg high to a pleasant beer and wine drinking temperature. Our neighborhood social hour or three was composed of a detective dad from Chicago and his Hollywood director (in training) daughter and a spelunker lady from Taos. The pleasantries of conversation were followed once again by a dazzling display of stars and a peaceful sleep.
The dry desert environment is great for preserving the past. This allows us to find evidence of past civilizations more easily. It unfortunately also means that today’s junk easily accumulates and is easily visible. The result is that much of the “civilized” desert is trashy looking from plastic bags trapped in cacti to old abandoned trailers, cars, etc. scattered about.
As one drives through the Southwest, one realizes the importance of water to this desert environment. Yet, one cannot help but notice the water squander in high flow shower heads and high flow toilets in motels, wasteful irrigation practices in some areas, and the prevalence of conventional water sucking golf courses. Even in Death Valley, the moneyed class can fly in for an evening round of golf. The Coyotes are fighting back, however, as they have taken an occasional fancy to chasing golf balls on the course during daytime.