Travel Archives

March 31, 2014

Horsing Around in Florida

I finally got on the road back to Cape. I was later than planned, but earlier than I had actually figured I’d be wheels-up. The last thing I did before pulling out of the driveway was to grab a cloth and polish my glasses. That’s when I noticed one of the nose pieces was missing.

Sunday’s not a good time to try to find someplace to fix that, and the glasses didn’t feel too weird, so I decided to find a fix on Monday.

Needed a nap

About 200 miles up the road, I felt a little drowsy, so I swerved into the Canoe Creek rest area on the Florida Turnpike for a 22-minute nap. I actually woke up a couple of minutes early, maybe because of a bright reflection shining into my eyes.

The light was reflecting off a highly-chromed trailer with a window in its side. After staring at it a couple of minutes, something inside stared back at me. I decided it was time to quit horsing around and got back on the road.

Found a cheap, clean room

I made it to Lake City, where I stopped at the Comfort Suites motel I usually stay at. I asked how much for a room, and the clerk said, $98.”

“I’ve stayed here before for $69 and $79. Surely you can do better than that for a regular customer who has recommended you to his friends.”

“I’m sorry, that’s as low as I’m authorized to go,” she said.

I voted with my feet.

A quick Internet search turned up a 2-star motel within eyesight. I wasn’t crazy about the two-star part, but the reviews of the America’s Best Value Inn were favorable. Even the complaints were nit-picking (“it’s a long walk to the ice dispenser”).

The clerk was a nice guy who had been working there for three years. “I installed the carpet in the rooms, and when I was done, the job dried up and nobody was building anything, so I applied for this job.” He assured me that it was clean.

The room is small, but clean. Hey, I’m not holding a dance party. I just want to sleep in it.

Oh, yes. The price was NOT $98. The price was not $79. The price was not $69. The price was $45.95. You can’t beat that with a stick. Another good thing: it had some of the fastest wireless Internet connectivity of anyplace I’ve stayed.

March 1, 2014

Glenn Yarbrough 1968

You may have noticed I had a varied group of road warriors traveling with me last year. One of the things that makes for a successful trip (meaning that the same number of people arrive at the destination as left) is working out the Rules of the Road before you take off.

Friends Jan and Anne were bike riding partners, so we had plenty of time to work out the kinks of our relationships while pedaling down the road. Friend Shari was my first high school girlfriend (which didn’t end well), and we hadn’t spoken in close to four decades, so I had to learn that she doesn’t become close to human until after her first cup of Starbucks coffee, she needs frequent smoke breaks and she gets up about the time I’m normally going to bed. We were stopping often for her to check out antique shops, so the smoke breaks weren’t an issue, and I’d leave her my car keys so she could get her Starbucks fix before I even thought about waking up.

Curator Jessica from Athens, Ohio, was a going to be a challenge. She was half my age (OK, more than half my age, but who is counting) to start off, so I was afraid we would have generational issues. We managed to compromise on a waking and sleeping schedule, types of eating establishments (she wasn’t picky) and where we would stay (no place that rented by the hour or where bodies had been found in a room recently). The only place where we hit a speed bump was when we got to talking about music play lists.

“No Glenn Yarbrough,” she insisted

I’m not really a Yarbrough fan – in fact, I get Glenn Yarbrough and Gordon Lightfoot mixed up, probably because of the G-names – but I wasn’t going to concede all that easy. “Miz Jessica, Ma’am, you’ve read my blog. You know that Baby the Rain Must Fall, Glenn’s biggest hit, was how I met Wife Lila. Surely you wouldn’t make me cut that from the playlist, would you?”

She would. Yarbrough was a non-negotiable with her. She also wasn’t big on C.W. McCall, but she WOULD let me play the home brew Cars & Trucks mix tape that was a Steinhoff family trip staple.

So, when I was editing some of my Ohio film, I was surprised to run into Glenn Yarbrough in concert at Ohio University on March 2, 1968.

Jessica, this are for you.

He is as bland as his music

While I was editing the film, I cranked up some Yarbrough music. Sorry, Glenn, I had to dump you after about the third song. You make Gordon Lightfoot sound exciting. On top of that, the photos are dull, too. I’m only including a bunch of them in case some reader was one of the folks who bought some of his nearly four dozen solo albums. He also sang on almost two dozen albums with the Limeliters. SOMEBODY must have liked him.

I’m sticking in some shots of the guys in his band just in case they became famous on their own later.

Glenn Yarbrough photo gallery

Click on any image to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.

January 20, 2014

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

It all depends on when you did it

If it was on the side of a building in your neighborhood, it would be called “tagging” and you’d be annoyed.
If it was high up on the side of a water tower, it would be called graffiti and you would lament the stupidity of kids.
If it was scratched on a rock over 600 years ago, it is called a “petroglyph,” and there’s a whole site dedicated to to the art near Tularosa, N.M.

The Three Rivers Petroglyph Site

The Bureau of Land Management’s website says that the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site is one of the few locations in the Southwest set aside solely because of its rock art. It is also one of the few sites giving visitors such direct access to petroglyphs. The number and concentration of petroglyphs here make it one of the largest and most interesting petroglyphs sites in the Southwest. More than 21,000 glyphs of birds, humans, animals, fish, insects and plants, as well as numerous geometric and abstract designs are scattered over 50 acres of New Mexico’s northern Chihuahuan Desert. The petroglyphs at Three Rivers, dating back to between about 900 and 1400 AD, were created by Jornada Mogollon people who used stone tools to remove the dark patina on the exterior of the rock. A small pueblo ruin is nearby and Sierra Blanca towers above to the east.

Why vacation photos all of a sudden?

I had a hard drive crash. I didn’t lose any data because of the way the system is designed, but I didn’t want to dip into my Cape photos until the “mirror” as it is called is completely rebuilt. (Hint: that’s why I keep bugging you to click on the big CLICK HERE button when you shop on Amazon. A few pennies here and there keep those hard drives spinning.)

Photo gallery of the art

Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to mover through the gallery. These photos were taken in June 2009, when we went back to the Southwest where Wife Lila grew up before moving to Cape.

January 19, 2014

White Sands National Monument

I thought you folks might like to see some white stuff that’s not cold. In fact, when Wife Lila and I took a vacation trip out west in June of 2009, it was anything BUT cold at the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.

Don’t believe them when they say, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” At some point, it IS the heat, particularly if the humidity is so low that the sweat is being sucked out of your body like a vacuum was attached to your pores. It was worth a little dripping and dehydration to see the natural beauty of sand on the move. We’ve got us a beautiful and varied country.

Turning the pictures loose

I can’t come up with words better than the pictures, so here’s a gallery of the Monument. Click on the photos to make them larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.