Road Trip

[cozmik_cowboy]

So, after 22 days, 14 states, 5135 miles, 2 sons, 5 grandkids, 1 old friend, 2 friends I hadn't met yet, 1 mother-in-law, 2 legendary roads, and 3 blizzards, we got home Sunday afternoon; all in all, a fine trip.

First we drove to Denver (I have decided that from now on, that's going to be a 2-day trip; getting a little old & rickety for 15-hour driving days, especially on straight, flat Interstate).  Had a couple of wonderful days with #2 son & the eldest 2 grandkids.
Then on to Heber City UT for the night and the next day to Sacramento; left Reno at 62°F & sunny, passed the Lake Tahoe exists in 33° and blizzard conditions - then into Sacto at 68°.

10 (mostly) great days with #1 son, the youngest grandson, and his new twin sisters, and, on the 1st, a fine birthday dinner at a brewpub/restaurant.
About that "mostly":  Every morning, we'd take Jake (18 mos.) on an adventure so his mom could breathe a little with only 2 2-mo babies around.  One morning we were hanging at the D-I-L's mother's place (she was at her other place, so we stayed there) waiting to go pick him up at 09:30. At 09:00 we got a text; "emergency come over".  She'd been closing the bathroom door & Jake stuck his hand in it.
Our adventure for that day (and everybody on this site should prepare for a major cringe at this point) was that Nona watched the twins while Granddude drove Mom, Jake, and the tip of Jake's left middle finger to the ER so the latter two could be surgically reunited.  Fortunately, the reattachment seems to be taking nicely, and his future as a guitar hero is saved.......

Then on the Orinda for a wonder time meeting Bill, Tina, Wolf, and Sara(h?); that makes four club brothers I've met (Edwin & Jimmy J previously), and the record is 100% great folks!

Then, our plans having changed last minute & having used 1 of the 3 days we found ourselves with to get where we'd planned to go in 1, we mosied down CA 1 to Morro Bay.  It was the most wonderful drive I've ever made!  How could you not love a 2-lane mountain road with the Pacific on the downhill side?
Well, you can ask Her that, as she spent the whole time with her seat laid back & her eyes clinched, crying with terror (that's what I get for marrying an inland flatlander, I guess), so, wonderful husband that I am, I forwent a second day of PCH joy & took CA 101 over to Oxnard, which we chose because it was about halfway to our next stop (we'd chosen Morro Bay because a brewpub looked good online, but instead of the 10+ beers they showed on their website they had 3 - a porter, which is drinkable in the winter they don't have, and 2 IPSa which are drinkable only after a trip from England to India in a wooden sailing ship.....  We went elsewhere).


 Having time to spare, we went for a drive to see what's in Oxnard.  It turns out that the answer is Z,S, and N (but we did have a good meal and some good beers at a restaurant/brewpub (are you seeing a pattern here?).

Next it was Desert Hot Springs, where we spent 2 great days with my college buddy Tex, who taught me the basics of what evolved into my Award-Winning Thermonuclear Chili and my first chords on guitar 40 years ago and played "Ripple" as the recessional at our wedding 36 years ago - who I hadn't seen in 26 years.  Much good food, much good conversation, much enjoyment of California's legal status.  But somehow, he seems to turned into an old man since last we met; sure glad that didn't happen to me.....

Then to Phoenix for 2 days with Her stepmother (mostly spent a casino; she loves to gamble, but can't see well enough to get there on her own any more), then headed home with the intent of spending as much time on old US 66 as possible.  Just short of the NM line it started raining.  A minute later it was snow, 2 minutes after that there was 2" on the ground.  Fortunately it only lasted about a mile or so (just enough for t a driver on I-40, which were next to at that point, to lay his fully loaded carhauler on its side across all the west-bound lanes), but it kept raining.

I was jumping on 66 where I could, but my navigator lacked both the patience & the enthusiasm for the project to make it fully enjoyable, the weather was crap, and we were  wanting to get home, so I got on it less as we went.  Got to Amarillo that night & stayed there.

Got up in the AM & headed out - still raining.  Hit 66 some in OK (including a wonderful lunch at a locally-owned BBQ joint), then did the whole length of 66 in KS - which took about 15 minutes. 

Holed up in Rolla, MO for the night.  Next morning, it had stopped finally raining.  This was because it had changed to snow, which got heavier and heavier as went.  Got home Sunday at 14:30 to 4" in the driveway - which was gone by yesterday PM.


Peter


Below:
1) Denver; Kane (3½) & Oliver (6)
2) Sacramento; back row (L-R) Dad, Nona, Granddude.  Middle row, Reese, Rooney, Jake.   Front row, Walter, Charlie.
3) DHS; Picking with Tex
4) Winslow; hanging with Jackson

[lbpesq]

It was a pleasure hosting the Bay Area swing of the epic journey of the Cowboy Clan.   Like Peter, I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the people I have met in person through this very special place in the Wickersham cyber living room.  Wolf suggested an awesome Chinese restaurant in Berkeley where we had an epic pig-out.  Glad (at least one of) you enjoyed the southward journey along the coast. It really is quite spectacular!  Love the Winslow, AZ pic!

Bill, tgo   

[David Houck]

Thanks for sharing your adventure.  I did the standing-on-a-corner-in-winslow-arizona thing in August 1973.  Of course that was before there was a statue.  We were hitch-hiking cross-country and stopped there for lunch.  The single had been out for less than a year at that point, so it was a nice moment to be there.

[cozmik_cowboy]

Oh - on a side note, the day after Jake's amputation, Denver posted a pic on FB; Kane fell in the driveway in such a way as to tear the inboard end of a fingernail off the skin.  Had to go to the ER to remove the nail, vlean, & bandage.
I told #3 son in AK to put his son in kevlar gloves for a while....

Peter

[StephenR]

Where does #3 son live in Alaska? My wife and I are heading there in June for our fifth visit since 2013 and consider it our second home.

[cozmik_cowboy]

Skagway.

Peter

[StephenR]

Cool, that is one of the few populated areas that we haven't been to yet but all the places we visited along the inside passage were beautiful. Can't imagine that your son is happy with the prospect of the governor's plan to shut down the ferry system.

[cozmik_cowboy]

Well, crap; my subscription to the Skagway News lapsed, so I hadn't heard about it.  That is not good, as the only ways into Skagway are the ferry, puddle-jumpers, and the Klondike Highway from Canada - both of which are much more impacted by weather than the AMHS.
If this happens, I gotta say - it'll make visiting significantly less convenient (if you can call flying to Seattle, then Juneau, spending the night, then taking the boat "convenient".....)

Peter (who actually just sat down to book our ferry tickets for September)

[StephenR]

Good thing you are going in September since the last day they are currently booking the Alaska Marine Highway is October 1. There is a lot of pushback against the plan and hopefully it won't happen. So far, they are selling off at least two of the ferry boats. We did a combo of flights and ferry's when we visited the area in 2015. We thought the ferry system was awesome and really enjoyed traveling that way. I have been monitoring news from Alaska via the Anchorage News website. You can only read a couple of articles per day before they try to get you to subscribe. Below is a link to an article about the possible closure of the ferry system that was published in Juneau. I wish we could visit Alaska in September, fall colors in the tundra are amazing, but my wife is a school teacher so we just can't go then. One day we will brave the 20+ below temps in Fairbanks and go up to see the Northern Lights during one of her winter breaks.

What does you son do for work in Skagway?  Not sure if I could stay in AK year round even in the southern part of the state. We were hoping to buy a small house in Girdwood and spend summers based there but that area is really expensive because of the ski resort and easy access to Anchorage.

https://www.juneauempire.com/news/senators-want-more-answers-on-marine-highway-closure/

[terrace]

My first "geezer retirement trip" was the White Pass narrow guage railway from the Yukon to Skagway.

[cozmik_cowboy]

Stephan: After stints as a bicycle mechanic, laborer, private-sector carpenter, NPS Historic Preservation Carpenter, and  back to p-s carpenter, he currently works for the Borough of Skagway in Public Works (because, hey, he followed Dad's lead & got a history degree........)
The Klondike area - YT, BC, & SE AK - is the most beautiful place I've ever been; I'd move up there with him in a heartbeat, but his mother complains about Illinois winters, so...probably not anytime soon.
He went up a seasonal gig; hated it for 2 of the 3 months.  Then he met a girl.  Came home that winter, but went back in spring; that's IIRC, 11 years ago now, and she ain't budging. 
The AMHS does the Juneau-Skagway run Mon & Wed that time of year, so Sept 30 is the last day scheduled.  We're booked to go up on 9/18 & come back 9/30.

Terrance:  Love the WPYR RR!!  I've taken the up-to-the-summit-and-back trip all 3 times I've been up there; will probably do it again this time (helps that that one of his best buds works for the RR & gets us comped, too).


Peter

[StephenR]

My wife is a teacher with a Masters in American History. Realizing that if we had been able to come to dinner when you were here between history and AK there would have been a ton of stuff to yak about.

I have a feeling that the ferry system won't be closed down, the intent seems to be to set things up so the private sector can swoop in and save the day but there are a lot of residents opposed to that. It is a necessity for a lot of people and businesses, killing it off with no alternative won't work either. At least you were able to book passage when you need it in September.

[cozmik_cowboy]

My MA is also US, with research interests in Constitutional history, Depression/New Deal, and especially 20th-century labor & radical history; secondary field is global history (new field in the '00s, so named to differentiate it from the traditional "world history" taught in the US, AKA "western civilization").  Wish you could have made it!  Maybe next time, eh?  (Looks like we may be back in Sacto for a bit on our way home from AK)

Talked to the youngster today; he doesn't think they'll let it happen because not even Skagway, with its massive annual influx of cruise-ship lucre, could survive without it; the whole of SE (except Juneau) would wither & die without AMHS.  As to privatization, we didn't discuss that, but who knows?  AK politics is such strange blend of Libertarian & Socialist anything can happen.

Peter

[garyhead]

I was an Engineer ages ago with the AMHS. I sailed on the MV Columbia in 1984. Check to see if labor contracts are coming due soon. It could be a scare tactic to browbeat the unions into wage / benefits cuts.  The Washington State Ferry System does this with regularity.  It seems a tad too drastic to eliminate a system while there is no alternative. Ie highway systems.