Trip to California 1

I was mildly surprised by a flock of turkeys on the road. The photo only shows half of them, as they scattered while I was stopping to take their picture.I had driven down this set of roads a year-and-half previously, when moving from Seattle, but only once had I driven to Chama from Taos. I also encountered my first erosion landmark — which is a weak substitute for the erosional parks and monuments of Utah. The right of the photo shows a Ponderosa. The rest of the trees are Junipers. I saw very few Piñons on this trip.

When I drove out of Cortez at noon I dutifully got onto 491, which my mapping program said was the shortest route to Green River, Utah. Sadly, I was going southeast instead of northwest. The sky was completely overcast and the air very hazy, so I had no clues from the sun of my mis-direction. After half-hour (and 35 miles) I realized that the distance to Green River was getting larger, not smaller. So my 490 miles traveled only netted me 420 miles from Taos toward California.Then between Cortez and Moab a motor home drove into the rear of a FedEx truck, completely demolishing the front of the motor home. This halted traffic in both directions for over half-hour, and it took another 15 minutes to clear the southbound traffic before we could proceed.

I lost 1:45 on Tuesday, arriving in Green River to stay in the state park campground overnight. Met some nice folks from Kingston, Washington, took sunset photos, and got plenty of sleep.

Sure enough, leaving Green River the next morning I saw only two examples of road kill, and only about three Ravens. One of the dead animals had no scavenger. Very different conditions, even though the roadside vegetation did not look that different to me. So it was not the hour, but the local fauna, that populated the highway with road kill.

The scenery along this route is totally spectacular. I’m sure there are plenty of good photos on the Internet, so I won’t bore you with more. Besides, the air was hazy so the colors won't come out. I did regret not photographing some of the red and yellow leaves -- mostly on shrubs.

My brakes were starting to sound scratchy, but only some of the time. When I got to Delta, Utah, I thought I would look for a good mechanic, and this town seemed to have one, so I stopped in to have them (father and son) give it a look. Driver’s wheel was scoring the brake rotor. There were no replacement pads either locally or within 50 miles, so I got a motel room and will have them replaced when the delivery truck arrives on Thursday.

Delta, UT, has a good local museum, and a museum dedicated to the Topaz Japanese internment camp that was nearby during World War II. The museum concentrates on the art produced by several internees — mostly painting but some jewelry made of painted fossil seashells found locally. Out back is half of a barracks building salvaged from the site. Miserable situation all around.

For supper I had Mormon Mexican tacos — very mild, with mild salsa. The family that runs it are all Mexicans, but clearly influenced by what the locals will eat!

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