Tragedy on the road

Sunday was a busy day for us. I had volunteered to sell coffee and lottery tickets for the local Chamber of Commerce at the town fair. The weather was beautiful and sunny, so . It was very hectic, and even though we were two people at the booth, we couldn't keep up. One person was often off buying more or something, and we had the world's slowest coffee maker. To make matters worse, the filters were the wrong size so the grounds escaped, and it didn't turn off when you removed the pot, so one person had to hold a cup to catch the drips while the other poured coffee. We were directly across from the stage where a reggae band was performing, so we couldn't here what people were ordering or ourselves think. After two hours, I was totally exhausted.

I had exactly 7 minutes to look around the fair, but when I wanted to get something, I realized I didn't have enough cash left after the morning's visit by the ice-cream truck. I didn't have time to run to the ATM, so I just ran back to the car where my husband and daughter were waiting.

We were on our way to look at a new car. My husband had very specific ideas about which car we should get so I would have something to drive in the winter which wouldn't get stuck in the snow all the time, and there were very few for sale in the entire country. We'd looked at a couple, but they were very rusty. My husband was ready to drive over 3 hours to look at one last week, but it sold too fast. This one was less than an hour away. I had a headache and a sore throat (on top of the cold I've had for the past several days), so I was looking forward to a relaxing car ride.

We were driving through the forest about half way there, when a fallow deer bolted into the car in front of us. I saw the whole thing, and it didn't feel like slow motion. The woman who was driving didn't have a chance to avoid it. It was so close that if she'd had enough time to hit the breaks (which she didn't) the deer would have hit the side of her car. The poor creature's neck was probably broken immediately, but seeing it tumble and roll quite some distance along the side of the road, I knew there was no hope for it. We both pulled over immediately.

My first reaction was to call our good friend who hunts in and takes care of our forest. He was also a hunter for the county, so he'd know what to do, and he lives nearby. He'd also would know what to do with the venison. Unfortunately, he was busy, so he told us to call the police. A police report would probably be necessary for the driver's insurance to cover the damage from the accident. The people in the other car were quite shaken up, so they were appreciative of our help. Two more cars stopped, both probably wanting the venison. They both left when they heard we'd called the police.

The worst thing was that my daughter was in the car. I don't know how much she saw, but she did get out and look at the dead deer. She was really sad and cried several times. The worst thing was that this deer was a mother. Her youngster almost followed her onto the road, but it turned in time and disappeared into the forest. We could see that she'd still been nursing, and there was no way that the orphan could survive the winter.

If the system was working correctly, the police would figure out who had the hunting rights for the forest from which the deer had run, and contact them. They if they chose not to collect the dead deer and hunt down the orphan, the county hunter should be contacted to take care of it.

We ended up buying the car, so we drove by the same place on Monday night. The carcass was still there and beginning to bloat. What a terrible waste of venison. And somewhere out there, there's a very lonely little deer.

Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino...

Before leaving Kingman on Sunday morning, we went to the Route 66 museum there. It was interesting to learn how the road started off as a trading trail for the Native Americans, was used by the pioneers, became the path for the railroad, and eventually paved because of the logistics requirements of World War II. Route 66's demise was also related to WWII as Eisenhower built the interstate highway system based on the German autobahn which Hitler built.



West of Kingman, Route 66 went from a relatively straight road following the contours of the desert to a winding mountain road through a mining area. We stopped at Oatman, an old mining town which has evolved into a tourist destination. Besides the giftshops, Oatman is known for it's donkeys.

Donkeys were used as beasts of burden in the mining industry. Some were released into the wild when they were no longer needed (and I imagine some escaped), forming a wild population of donkeys in the Oatman area. Lacking a true wild animal's fear of humans, the donkeys come into town looking for handouts, and both the tourists and locals are happy to oblige. There's a stand that sells carrots for the tourists to feed to the donkeys, and the tourists buy more than just carrots.


After Oatman, we followed Route 66 to the Colorado River. As much as we would have liked to take Route 66 as much as possible, we needed to get back also. Vacation was over, and my husband needed to work the next day. We got back on the interstate for the long drive through the desert. In Barstow we took a brief detour to take the historic Route 66 through town where we stopped for ice cream. This is when we noticed that our daughter was not well. It was late, and we were all tired by the time we got to San Bernardino, so we did not stop there.

Get your kicks...

On Route 66! Yes, I had the Manhattan Transfer version of this great song stuck in my head the entire time we drove along Route 66. Or course, we have that song to thank that I even thought of doing Route 66 on this vacation. I was looking at a map trying to see what is about halfway between Lake Powell and Santa Ana in order to break up the very long drive, when I saw Kingman. Immediately the lyrics, "Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino..." popped into my head and I suddenly had a plan.

Being interested in anything having to do with automotive history, I knew my husband would be into this. One of our all time favorite kids movies is Cars. We must have seen it a hundred times. This is essentially a movie about Route 66, so I knew there would be a hook to interest my daughter also.

We got on Route 66 just west of Ash Fork Arizona. I love that part of the country which really has that wild west wide-open-spaces feel to it.

We stopped shortly thereafter at Seligman, a town which clearly was well studied by the creators of Cars. We later found out that while this town nearly dried up and blew away, it was saved by the passion of one man who revived interest in the historical Route 66. While nearly everything was closed by the time we got there, and we eventually met our craving for ice-cream from the freezer box at a gas station, there was still one gift shop open. Since my husband collects license plates and such, he got a souvenir sign for his garage.



While most people get off the highway only to visit Seligman, we continued on Route 66 all the way to Kingman. It was a beautiful drive!

At home...

It's been a while since I've written about what's actually happening now. I guess that's because there isn't much happening now. School started a couple of weeks ago. My daughter's in the second grade now and loving it. She's still playing the violin, and she's taking a dance class too. Soccer is a bit up in the air since she's age-wise between teams. She's at least two years older than the kids in the younger team, but she's not ready to compete with the older team. I've asked if she can practice with the older team (but not compete), and we're waiting for their response. She has quit the piano since she had a hard time getting along with the teacher.

I'm still involved with my network for female small business owners and also with a group helping with integration for immigrants, and both of these groups have started up again after the summer.

I'd been hoping for some late summer weather, but that hasn't really panned out. There are some beautiful days like today, in between all the rain, but it's not warm. I've been faked out a couple of times and went out in short sleeves only to regret it later. The nights are downright cold, and the leaves are beginning to turn yellow.

My husband's been in the US again--gone 2 week, then home 2 weeks, then gone again. He's home now, but it still feels like I'm doing the single-parent thing.

Now I've got a cold now too. Bummer.

The World's Biggest Hole in the Ground

Having been to the Grand Canyon (south rim) several times now, I really have a feeling of "been there, done that." However, it's definitely something that's worth seeing once, and I wanted my daughter to experience it. Sure, it's beautiful, but what really gets me is the challenge to ones sense of scale. It's just so big!

It was cloudy the day we were there, so the light was a bit flat and not the best for photography. We drove around and stopped at quite a few of the viewpoints.

We also stopped at an archeological site and had a quick look in the museum. It just so happened that we were just in time for a ranger-led activity. There were tons of people around, but surprisingly only one other couple participated. The ranger talked about the animal figurines made from willow bark that have been found in nearly inaccessible caves in the canyon. While they look like toys at first glance, their locations suggest that they were ceremonial. The ranger showed us how to make the figurines using giant twist ties. I teased her a little about the "traditional" materials, but they were apparently donated by a sponsor, and who has time to gather and soak willow bark these days anyhow?

The sun finally peaked through as we were getting ready to go, but by this point we were too hungry to take advantage of it. Our visit to the Grand Canyon was short, but worth it as my daughter was duly impressed.

Cameron Trading Post

On Saturday, we said farewell to Page and headed to the Grand Canyon (south rim). We'd previously been planning to go to the North Rim, but it was just so out of the way. A swing by the South Rim would increase our driving time by less than an hour (not counting all the stops, of course) so we decided to do that. We knew it would be crowded and lack the intimate experience, but it would still be worthwhile to show our daughter.

At the Blair Trading Post in Page, they'd mentioned the Cameron Trading post, so we stopped there to look around. Part of it is a gigantic gift shop with all the usual trinkets. The other part was a gallery with museum quality Native American art and artifacts. That was definitely worth the stop. I marveled at the baskets, rugs, flutes, sand paintings, and jewelry. There was even some photography printed on canvas. I was pleasantly surprised that they allowed me to take pictures.

There were traditional baskets as well as more colorful ones with modern patterns like horses and butterflies. They even tiny little baskets made of horse hair.

Lee's Ferry

On Friday we opted to beat the heat by spending much of the day in the car and taking a road trip down to Lee's Ferry. Because of the deep canyons, Lee's Ferry was once the only place to cross the Colorado River in all of Arizona.

Near Lee's Ferry is the modern way to cross the river, the Navajo Bridge. On the bridge, perched three California Condors. Seeing Condors in the wild was one of the highlights of our trip.

There were some interesting geological formations, including balancing rocks.

Upstream of Lee's Ferry, the Colorado River is a beautiful green; downstream it is brown. Where the Paria River joins the Colorado, it is brown on the left and green on the right.

There's also all sorts of historical remains. We did a one mile hike along the river and historical sites. The heat and humidity made this all we could handle.