Yucca Valley CA to Williams AZ.

Well I said goodbye to Yucca Valley about 8:00 AM. Headed to Arizona  Flagstaff or somewhere in the area.  My next photo destination on the way home is the Grand Canyon.

Traveled through 29 Palms, home of Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command. Passed at least five barber shops all touting "marine haircuts", I even passed a bar called Marine Haircut.  Oorah!

Next was the Heart of the Mojave. Let me say, I took many photos and none of them does it justice. That's one of the hard parts of photography. The human eye sees more than any lens or sensor on a camera can. In addition your brain processes all of the scene together, when you look at a large panorama, a vast expanse of colors and light, your brain puts that all together, and that's when you say "WOW". I took two photos with my 10mm and stitched them together yet still didn't get the wow I got standing there taking the shots.

Next was my first trip on Route 66. There are sections all over the country where you can still travel on roads that were once known as "The Mother Road" before the advent of all the interstates it was the way to travel, much like Routes 5 & 20 in the northeast. It was a pretty cool experience, first thing in the morning, not much traffic, sunshine and flat roads. Rosie was in her glory, as a road car she had a great time, and came through with flying colors. My first car was a Triumph Spitfire, and open top two seat sports car made by British Leyland Motors. Kind of a deja vu thing.

After getting on Route 40 East it was just freeway driving. Interesting to travel along the roads and watch the scenery change, the elevations, obviously not as much desert, more green and the mountains change as well, redder stone, more mesa formations. And most importantly, cooler temperatures!  It was 99 at one point this morning.

I finally decided on Williams Arizona as my stop. I had stopped earlier in Kirkland AZ to get fuel and looked at the map. Williams is 58 miles from the Grand Canyon and is a straight shot up Rte. 64.

Tomorrow the Grand Canyon...

Cross One Off The Bucket List

For as long as I've had a love of photography I've wanted to go to two places.  The Grand Canyon and Joshua Tree National Park. Something about the rock, the formations, the sheer expanse of the park.  I've seen videos, shows on PBS on TV, read about the history of the southwest, the mining and attempts to tame the land for farming and cattle ranching.  Nothing even comes close to actually being here.  Nothing.  Cross another one off the Bucket List.

I spent three hours at Joshua Tree, hiked several trails, the best one being Barker's Dam.  It was an incredible afternoon.

Tomorrow I leave the San Bernardino Mountains and California.  My next stop is Flagstaff Arizona.

Laundry Morning

Found this laundromat just down the street, right next to a donut shop. Perfect for a retired cop or what?!  If it had been 25 years earlier I'd have done my laundry later in the day, Murphy's Sports Bar is around the corner.

Out for some shopping after I came across a classic car show right in one of the shopping plazas. Very cool stuff, beautiful colors, and my oh my besides all the other great cars, a 1957 Bel Air Nomad Station Wagon, in tourquoise!

I even found lunch...

Headed off to Joshua Tree in a little while, waiting for the cooler part of the day (it's 89 right now) and the better lighting for the photographs.

Yucca Valley

When I travel I just ignore what time it is at home and let the local time be my guide. I have such a hard time trying to play "catch up" with time I may have lost or gained. The hard part about that is doing something like this when you're three hours behind "home" and have a full day.

I left Cliff's house this morning and went to the Mini dealer in Ontario (California) for service on the car.  (Which I've named Rosie. The obvious, she's red, she's English, Rosie fits. The clincher, Cliff and Alba have two cats, Gracie and Rosie. Gracie is the shy one, Rosie greated me as soon as I walked in the door. Finally, she's gotta have a name, I can't call her "the car").

Anyway, that all said, she did fine at the dealer, new oil, new brake fluid, new wipers, tires checked, rotated, adjusted to proper pressure, all fluids topped off, washed, and vacuumed. Mini service is amazing, they can tell everything about the car from the key fob you have to put in the dash to start the car, you hand it to them, they put it in the computer at the service desk and download all the information. All the work was under warranty. Took about 3 hours total, so I was on the road about 1:00 PM.

Headed out 10 East after leaving the dealer. Stopped and grabbed some lunch and then headed back out. I came across the windmills in the dessert and was amazed at how many there were. I've heard about them, but seeing them stretch on almost unending has to be seen. I stopped when I made exit off of 10 to take some shots.

I researched hotels near my first destination, Joshua Tree National Park, and decided on Yucca Canyon as it's only eight miles from the park. As I headed across Route 62 through Desert Hot Springs I happened to look down at the thermometer, and realized how that area got it's name.

So, here I am, enjoying the sunset and moon rise by the pool, Rosie is comfortably parked in her spot for the night.  Joshua Tree tomorrow...

The Little Red Number I'm Going Home With

After the shift last night with we went downstairs in the Sheriff's parking garage and picked up the Mini. She's all good, started right up and ran great all the way home to Cliff's house which is about 35 miles, in LaVerne.  She has a low tire light on, the dealer service says it's usually because it's warm during the day and cold at night now.  Gonna have that checked anyway, and give her some new oil, she only has 3049 miles on her, but she's a 2010 and the dealer service recommends changing the oil every year regardless of miles.  Since We'll be traveling 3000 miles I thought the tech's should see her.

Los Angeles County Sheriff 9 PM to 5 AM

We're just getting home from Cliff's 9 PM to 5 AM shift in Los Angeles, I got to go as a ride along. It's been 30 years since Cliff left Livingston County and it seemed like it was only yesterday. I got to see Hollywood, Pasadena, Santa Monica Pier, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Sunset Strip even the view of the city from the Metro Transit Building Sheriff's helicopter pad on the roof (which is the 28th floor) plus the filming of a movie scene at Casey's Bar downtown, all up close and personal, L.A. County Sheriff's Style.

Here's the Story

So, here's the line on what I'm doing in California.

Marcea's aunt Julie lived in Los Angeles for the past 50 years, having come out here to be a teacher. She recently decided to move to the east coast to be closer to family.

Several years ago she decided it was time to get a new car, she wanted to get a Mini Cooper and wanted to see one in person.While she was visiting family in Geneseo she mentioned that and I said lets go look at one, so we drove to the dealer in Buffalo and took a look at one, drove it for a test and she decided when she got back to L.A. she was going to get one, which she did.

During the discussions about moving the car came up, ship it east, sell it in California, and I said I'd go out and get it and drive it back. ( I did mention it's a Mini Cooper right, a sweet, fun car to drive...) Anyway, I figured since I was going all the way out there and driving back why not stop on the way and see and photograph some of the things I've never seen like Joshua Tree National Park and the Grand Canyon and some of the other great sites along the way.

So, that's what I'm doing. I flew out here yesterday. My buddy Cliff Yates Jr. (we worked together at the Livingston County Sheriff's Office) moved out here 30 years ago to work at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office.  He picked me up at the Burbank airport yesterday afternoon. This is the first time I've ever visited him out here, in fact the last time I was in California I was only ten years old. I'm spending a couple of days with him and his wife Alba. Going to do a ride along with Cliff on his midnight shift, catch one of his stand-up comedy acts, (his passion, like mine is my photography, Comedy Cop, Cliff Yates, http://www.cliffyates.com/ ) then I'm headed back east.

Here's a shot from the patio this morning, looks like it gonna be a nice day!

Here I Go

Well here I go.  Made it through TSA fine, nice and early.  Funny that as I walked out of the security area I was greeted by a blast from the past.  The Clocks of the World that used to be in Midtown Plaza was running.  I remember going to Midtown to shop with my Mom or Grandma in downtown Rochester and the clock was the center piece of the plaza.  You had to wait for the hour or half hour for the clock to start it's rotation, all the doors opening showing the diorama of the different countries while music of a specific country played.  It was so cool.  I'm glad they decided to preserve it

End of Summer Update Follow Up

My last post I eluded to the fact that we were going to check out Fort Stanwix.  We did and found it to be very cool, totally reconstructed in downtown Rome, NY, after extensive archaeological excavation.  Well worth the trip!

Here's a little bio of the fort:


Fort Stanwix National Monument is a United States National Historic Site in Rome, New York managed by the National Park Service. The current fort is a reconstruction of the historic Fort Stanwix occupying approximately sixteen acres of downtown Rome.
Fort Stanwix is historically significant for the successful American defense of the fortification in August 1777, a defense that proved a major factor in blunting a British invasion from Canada during the Saratoga campaign. The fort was also the site of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768).
Besides the fort reconstruction itself, the national monument includes three short trails that encircle it, one of which follows a portion of the Oneida Carry. The Marinus Willett Collections Management and Education Center preserves the monument’s 485,000 artifacts and documents, displays exhibits about Fort Stanwix and the Mohawk Valley, and serves as a regional tourism center.

End of Summer Update

How We Roll

We finally took a week of vacation and came to one of our favorite places, Tuning Stone. We arrived on Sunday after driving the coach and Marcea following in her car, my car decided to have power steering issues that showed up on Saturday. Electric power steering, so it's a go to the dealer situation, but better to have happened at home than have it happen here on vacation.  It's driveable, just like Grandpa's Buick though...

Monday was shopping at Sangertown Mall for some new hiking shoes and grabbing some lunch.  Back at The Villages was a nice evening enjoying the beautiful weather and a warming campfire.

Ducks In A Row

After a full day of rain on Tuesday, relaxing, reading, listening to Sirius/XM, we decided to take the shuttle over to the Casino and have dinner. We ended up at The Forest Grill and had a delicious meal as well as some after dinner cocktails at the bar. We grabbed the shuttle home, it was raining again, the driver dropped us off right at our site.  One of the great perks here, free shuttle!

Pond View

 Yesterday was pretty much a wash too.  The rain was supposed to got through over night but hung in the hills here and finally blew out about 3 yesterday afternoon. We hung in here and had breakfast, read a little then headed out to do some shopping, found a nice little bar and restaurant in Chittenango and did some exploring, like the old Erie Canal Canal Town there. And of course took we a walk on the yellow sidewalks, an homage Lyman Frank Baum, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz who was born there.  Had sandwiches for dinner, read some more listening to the radio and relaxing.  It got down in to the 40's last night, the furnace in the motorhome worked great, a nice comfortable night sleeping.  This is camping!

Follow The Yellow Brick

Today dawned sunny, still chilly but it's supposed to warm up in to the 60's.  Off to explore more later, going to check out Rome, and Ft. Stanwix.