On a different epic adventure, Elise and I discovered that bicycling across the United States was more about mental and emotional endurance than physical strength or stamina. We were in our early twenties then and falling in love in increments of roughly 90 miles per day.
We're a week away from arriving back in Portland and those lessons are flooding back to us, even though they have been with us throughout the last two months of this odyssey. This has indeed been a long haul. We have two main set pieces remaining: visit the twin National Parks: Sequoia and King's Canyon; celebrate my grandfather's 99th birthday in the Bay Area.
First, though, we had to cover about 10 hours of driving in two days to bridge the Grand Canyon to Sequoia/King's Canyon. In doing so, we added the last two states to our road trip list: Nevada and California, bringing out total to 30. (We've seen every state's license plate except for Hawaii but including the District of Columbia.)
There are no pictures of cute kids but there's been plenty of amazing scenery. The first day, of nearly 6 hours of driving, ended outside of Barstow, CA. We went back and forth between vegetated and barren landscape. We started dropped more than a mile of elevation in the course of the day and saw our first runaway truck ramp that sloped down (into a very deep bed of gravel).
We've seen every kind of energy production that California has to offer, including a massive solar farm, a horizon-busting wind farm and also miles of oil derricks north of Bakersfield strewn between vineyards and citrus orchards. I've often been reminded of the cover art (and content) of Wallace Stegner's
Angle of Repose, which I read just before that cross-country bike ride.
Our minds (I can't speak for the kids) have turned to Portland. We're very much ready to be back in our own house. The kids are eager to see their friends and play with their own toys, sleep in their own beds. Tomorrow, we'll visit huge trees in the Sierra Nevadas and by this weekend we'll be among family. (No doubt, a 99th birthday fits with the "long haul" theme, too.)
Meanwhile, enjoy some landscape photography:
 |
| Crossing the pass between Kingman, AZ and Laughlin, NV |
 |
| A downhill truck ramp? Why not! |
 |
| Palm trees in the desert? Why not! (Thanks, Colorado River!) |
 |
| We added about 30 minutes of travel time so that we could add Nevada to our list. |
 |
| Cue the U2 playlist! |
 |
| The namesake |
 |
| There was no California welcome sign on Highway 164 so we have to settle for this. |
 |
| Crazy solar farm in the Mojave (apparently the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System) |
 |
| Wind Farm behind the Mojave Air and Space Port. Why not? |
 |
| We drove beside this train, which went in and out of tunnels throughout the descent. |
 |
| A river may run through it but this highway runs over it. Uphill we go! |
 |
| North of Bakersfield, we entered citrus country. Here's a truckload of clementines. |
 |
| Clementine Canyon |
 |
| Like a Mastercard commercial ("priceless"), this sign indicates an indefinite number of parks and indefinite distance ahead. We accept the challenge! |
Comments
Post a Comment