Back in the West

We be back in the west, where Hellman’s mayo is Best Food’s and people
say what they mean. The elevation went up with the cost of getting from
central Florida to northern New Mexico: 4,000 feet and $600 in fuel.
The next time we do that we will have a $2,000 park in the middle!

Some of our cross country observations: Following the path (albeit
reversed) of the march from Selma to Montgomery was strangely moving;
the overnight spots are marked very simply. The countryside around
Selma looks like between Salem and Portland.

Krispy Kremes are highly overrated. There is a Eutaw, Alabama. The road
(I-40) that goes through Jackson, Mississippi is the worst we’ve
experienced. Broken up, concrete, just awful. Our TV satellite hasn’t
worked correctly since. Louisiana is heart breakingly poor. We went
through towns where it was hard to look at people as we drove past with
all our obvious wealth. Public housing is usually red brick, very
evident. Government housing for poor blacks is the same as it is for
poor Indians. Lots of cotton fields in Louisiana. They still call them
plantations.

Corps of Engineer Parks are prevalent in Arkansas. We stayed at Toad
Suck Ferry. Not exactly on the main road, but there aren’t a lot of
commercial parks. In Arkansas fast food places charge a 12% tax to “eat
in.” Buck Fikes is running for sheriff in Grady, Arkansas. I just know
he’s related to Butt-cut Cates. Arkansas’ freeway is lined with pines
and maybe some fir, mixed with the bright greens of oak and maple; vast
fields of cotton, soy bean and corn.

We went through one of the infamous midwest thunderstorms in Little
Rock. Our storm warning radio works well. We found out later that the
laundry rooms are often built of brick to serve as a shelter. The storm
was epic, sheet lightening and constant, really loud thunder.
Fortunately, the hail storm missed us. Little Rock is a beautiful city;
we’d like to go back and take the Pig-Trail Scenic By-Way into the
Ozarks.

By the time we got to Oklahoma the needle trees disappeared. The
fields along I-40 were full of blooming wildflowers. Lots of wide open
rolling green spaces in Oklahoma, compared to the tree-tunnel freeways
of the southern states. Sign on the freeway: “Oklahoma wine: Just like
California only not as fruity.” No oil wells, but beautiful country.

The trip across Texas was short because we just crossed the panhandle.
No oil wells there either. We stayed in Amarillo one night, then drove
the 100 miles west to our job at Ute Lake State Park, near Logan, New
Mexico (pop 870). The park is very important, economically, to the town
so we did very well, and finished in just a week.

Now we’re in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, 100 miles farther west, on
Historic Route 66 120 miles east of Albuquerque. We worked the one
commercial park here in December and are now doing Santa Rosa Lake
State Park. Hopefully we can do this one quickly also, as these parks
need their maps; tourist season has already started. The temperature
has been between 95 and 100 and the wind blows pretty much all of the
time. It got so hot one day at Ute Lake that the park breakers blew,
from all the RVs using A/C. The wind can wake us up at night, rocking
the bus. We’ve pretty much decided that humidity and heat are
preferable to wind and heat. As a matter of fact, we remember Florida
with a great warm, green, buggy, gentle fondness right now. I’m back
in my crappy, sturdy loafers.

Every day is good. We are so very aware of our friends Donna, Nancy and
Steve, dealing with cancer and spinal cord injury right now. We know
how the road can take a sudden detour and we count our blessings. Our
friends, all of you, are tucked firmly into our hearts and we feel
connected through these occasional letters. We love it when you
respond, although we don’t feel neglected if you don’t. The connection
is complete just knowing you’re there. (Although, if you move to
Uganda, you need to write a note, so we can up the amps on the
connection!)

Love to all,

Sam

Musings by Dave:

• When I was a kid the truckers were called “knights of the road.” Too
many of them now to be part of such a fraternity. It is almost
impossible to realize just how many trucks there are in this country.
It is beyond counting.

• Concrete is NOT a good material for highways. It needs to be taken
out of the mix, so to speak. Is good when it’s new, does not last,
cannot be patched properly.

• Small towns can be nice, but frustrating when a sem-specialized part
is needed.

• There are many more “bike-able” roads in the the east than in the
west. An area like Bend is special because of all the paved secondary
roads that actually go somewhere that you might want to visit.