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Post by hushnel on Mar 2, 2022 14:10:20 GMT -5
with my good friend Val, for what has become an annual 4 or so weeks, tour of the U.S.A. Our first stop is going to be New Orleans, another friend is following us over in her car, she’s lived there for a time and will give us the local’s tour. This will be the third year Val and I have hit the road. Her husband passed 4 years ago. She called me one day and was telling me how much she missed Bill. Bill was a great guy and big in aviation, owning his own aircraft, he was a pilot in WWII and designed aircraft for companies like Boeing. The only guy I know that owned a Gull Wing Mercedes, Though he told me the Mini Cooper was more fun to drive. Val asked me if I would consider or even be interested in driving the the RV and touring the USA with her. She told me she would never be comfortable handling the RV. I called my wife, we live separately, and asked if she would have any trouble with me going on these trips. She knows me better than anyone, she said it is an amazing opportunity, that I should go. It’s very likely that I will be AOL in my posting, and try to keep in touch as I can. I may, rather likely, post some of my adventures if they seem worthy. Spent six years of my live living in Europe, other than training for new Life support equipment, I’ve never been west of the Mississippi , and that training gave me little opportunity to see anything other than airports, bars and Manufacturer’s headquarters. Val covers all the fuel and RV maintenance, I pay for the Camping fees. Val does well for her self, she is a financial genius, we share the same interests but I believe we’re total opposite personality types. We never stall in our conversation, I have to be a bit cautious in what I say when she has a mouth full of food, my sense of humor seems to always catch her off guard. Val plans the trip, including my destination input. We have some great sights planned including a drive on the Pacific Coastal Highway, the Giant/oldest trees in the US. National Parks In Utah etc. Like I mentioned she has the whole route figured out. We’ll be winding up the trip at Carol Leigh’s Hillcreek Fiber Studio in Columbia Missouri. Carol and Dennis are old friends. I’ve known them for 30th years, attending the Alifia River Rendezvous. She has classes and a bed and breakfast, which she offered us, an incentive to visit her. Carol got me involved in the fiber arts way back. She wrote the book on historical and natural dyes. Seriously she did write the book, traveled the world learning the local dies and historical developments and uses. www.hillcreekfiberstudio.com The dye book www.hillcreekfiberstudio.com/contents/en-us/p1789.html |
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Post by Ricketi on Mar 2, 2022 14:14:05 GMT -5
Sounds great! Happy and safe travels.
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Post by rickyguitar on Mar 2, 2022 20:34:46 GMT -5
Living the dream!
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Post by Mfitz804 on Mar 2, 2022 21:08:38 GMT -5
I’d really love to read about it while it’s going on, if you have the time to post. I would really enjoy a trip like that.
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Post by Taildragger on Mar 2, 2022 21:32:26 GMT -5
Enjoy!
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Post by Ragtop on Mar 3, 2022 7:43:08 GMT -5
Say hello to the Redwoods for me.
So incredibly awesome.
Hope you can post, keep us up-to-date.
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Post by hushnel on Mar 3, 2022 11:50:07 GMT -5
I’ll try to spend a little time each evening and write down the day’s activities/highlights, for me that’s as much about the people we meet as it is the sights and monuments we see. I wish I would have started doing this back when we started touring in 2020. Val probably remembers the names of every one we’ve meet, the town and maybe even the population count. Maybe I could get her to make an outline to trigger the memories and I could play catch up.
Some of the stuff is just crazy cool. Last year we were visiting the Grand Canyon. We took a foot tour though one of the water carved ravines, the striations, colors and the history. The guy that took us on this hour and a half tour was a young Native American. I started talking to him, getting into the local thinking and knowledge about these locations. How the locals utilize them.
We got some great stories about how they use these arias growing up, the ways they see these monuments and the memories of those experiences. This young man tells me he is in collage studying electronics, focussed on getting a degree in Bio-medical Engineering. I smiled at him, said that’s great, hows it going. He’s maintaining a 4.0. I told him I recently retired from Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami after 30 years of working as a Biomedical tech focused primarily on life support ventilation and anesthesia machines.
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Post by slacker 🐨 on Mar 3, 2022 13:40:58 GMT -5
Sounds like fun. A superset of our Route 66 trip in April. Have fun. I'd like to know more about the Grand Canyon tour since we'll be there in April.
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Post by hushnel on Mar 3, 2022 15:14:40 GMT -5
I’ll get the information from Val. I think last years photos are still in the camera.
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Post by hushnel on Mar 8, 2022 22:24:32 GMT -5
Yeah, the posting every evening didn’t happen in New Orleans. I have been told some discouraging things about New Orleans over the years and though we did see one poor guy sleeping bundled up on the side walk, I found the Quarter to have a certain charm and tons of culture and personality. The locals I’ve meet are polite and helpful. They are quite comfortable in their City. The food is insanity good. We spent two good days in the city, checking out the artists and walking a great bit. The street musicians vary from good to amazing. I’m sure many of these guys are working the bars and clubs in the evening. Listened to a great jazz sax player today. I had a chance to talk with him, easy to talk too, and friendly, most of these guys have added canned drums, keyboard and bass tracks to play along with, this guy covered vocals too. We didn’t get a chance to catch any night performances. I may have to visit this town again, get a room and check out this scene by myself. There are some areas that feel like they could be trouble late in the night but I believe they can be avoided. Caught these guys earlier today. flic.kr/p/2n7Cv4T |
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Post by Mfitz804 on Mar 9, 2022 19:00:07 GMT -5
Definitely a place I have always wanted to visit.
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Post by Laker on Mar 9, 2022 20:19:40 GMT -5
Here’s a little NOLA story for you.
My wife and I stopped in the Quarter for the first time on our way to the Phil Peterson Key West Poker Run in 1996. Our main reason to visit was to see my good friend Bryan Lee and his band at the Old Absinthe House, but we thought we’d hit Antoine’s for dinner one night. I called and tried to make a reservation telling them I was traveling by motorcycle and didn’t have the required “formal attire” but was clean and well groomed. Antoine’s (3 star French restaurant) declined serving me dinner because we didn’t look like people they’d like to serve. We had a wonderful dinner at the Royal Sonesta’s Begue’s (4 star French restaurant) after, once again, telling them we were traveling by motorcycle and we were welcomed by the maitre d’ to a dinner to remember. This was really an evening of fine dining!
Move ahead to post Katrina and it’s a different ball game.
My friend Bryan Lee is no longer on Bourbon Street because the Old Absinthe is now a dacquri bar and there is no longer blues or jazz music but a lot of hip hop. I called Antoine’s and told them they wouldn’t serve us dinner the last time we visited but we would like to dine with them and we were still traveling by motorcycle. We were invited to dine at Antoine’s and were given a tour of the entire facility by the maitre d’. I should mention that post Katrina the streets of the Quarter were virtually empty.
I guess the moral to this story is don’t judge the book by the cover or the biker by the clothing.
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Post by hushnel on Mar 14, 2022 12:16:30 GMT -5
We haven’t had access to wifi for the last 5 days, I’m posting from a local library in Columbus NM.
We had a problem with tires, they looked good when we started but noticed one set started to delaminate, They had to be replaced. A few days later a guy at a fiilling station pointed out that the right side inner tire was flat, both needed replacement. Then the the house batteries failed, putting the refrigerator out of action along with other electronics. We found a guy who had the solenoid that charged the batteries was dead and had the part and installed it. All of this was taken care of with no waiting, every thing was in stock and no one ahead of us. Except for the hit to Val’s pocket, it was a best case scenario.
We pulled into Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus New Mexico on the 11th of March. The following day was the “Pancho Villa Rides Again” re-enactment and festival. They passed right by our camp, a couple hundred horses and riders passed right, Val and I walked to the city and enjoyed the festivities.
We attended a large rock show yesterday in Deming New Mexico, I picked up some turquoise beads and slabbed stone, found one very hard black stone that would make a great final finish for a razor sharp edge, I asked the vendor if he knew the hardness rating, it was up there, I mentioned to him my purpose, he told me it is actually used for that purpose. We’ll move on after being here for the last 5 nights then head north westward toward Utah, to visit a couple of their amazing State and National Parks.
I’ll have to post photos to my Flicker account, I’ll post some links once I get that done.
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Post by Leftee on Mar 14, 2022 12:19:25 GMT -5
Is that black stone obsidian?
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Mar 14, 2022 12:23:57 GMT -5
The Open Road is a uniquely American thing, I think.
Safe travels!
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Post by hushnel on Mar 14, 2022 13:15:14 GMT -5
Is that black stone obsidian? No, it wasn’t obsidian. Val recalled the name it’s Nephrite Jade from Wy |
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Post by Laker on Mar 14, 2022 15:09:01 GMT -5
We attended a large rock show yesterday in Deming New Mexico, I picked up some turquoise beads and slabbed stone, found one very hard black stone that would make a great final finish for a razor sharp edge, I asked the vendor if he knew the hardness rating, it was up there, I mentioned to him my purpose, he told me it is actually used for that purpose. We’ll move on after being here for the last 5 nights then head north westward toward Utah, to visit a couple of their amazing State and National Parks.
I’ll have to post photos to my Flicker account, I’ll post some links once I get that done. Deming, NM is right about where we were on the Harley when we heard about the first plane hitting the Twin Towers on 9/11/01. I remember we were past Lordsburg and heading east after spending the night in Tucson. |
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Post by fkaJimmySee on Mar 15, 2022 7:51:08 GMT -5
We are heading out, as well, in our case, on March 25. Feels good, and a little scary too, to be re-entering life after two years of covid extreme-caution.
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Post by Laker on Mar 17, 2022 10:57:45 GMT -5
Hushnel, on your northwest trek to the Utah parks I think you’ll pass through Kayenta, AZ with Mexican Hat just north of there. If you need sustenance around Kayenta stop in the Blue Coffee Pot restaurant. During our travels we’ve stopped twice at the Blue CP and the chow is always great!
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Post by hushnel on Mar 19, 2022 9:04:33 GMT -5
Thanks Laker, it’s on our route.
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Post by Laker on Mar 20, 2022 18:20:04 GMT -5
We did that Monument Valley ride twice over the years by our selves on the seat of a Harley. It gets very lonely when you’re out there on two wheels and there ain’t a whole lot of support within many miles for you, but it is one hell of a beautiful part of this country.
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Post by hushnel on Mar 21, 2022 20:03:24 GMT -5
Hey Rob, we hit the Blue Coffee Pot this morning. We’ve stopped for the evening then heading to Moab tomorrow, along with checking out the alien petroglyphs “o)
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Post by Laker on Mar 21, 2022 22:09:07 GMT -5
Hey Rob, we hit the Blue Coffee Pot this morning. We’ve stopped for the evening then heading to Moab tomorrow, along with checking out the alien petroglyphs “o) I played the first Southwestern FDP Jam Session at Moab in 2001 where we met Drifter (Deacon Blues), Mr. Moon and Chrissysistrum and other colorful characters. We always felt that Utah is one of the most picturesque of these United States. I thought you might enjoy the Blue Coffeepot as (if I’m remembering correctly) there was a lot of native American stuff in that restaurant.  |
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Post by hushnel on Mar 22, 2022 19:32:59 GMT -5
We hit Moab today. Went to a couple of sites that had petroglyphs. That stuff interests me.
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Post by hushnel on Apr 3, 2022 8:23:12 GMT -5
Just arrived home around 9pm last night. Came down through the delta of Mississippi and hit a few museums focused on the Blues. I’m exhausted and glad to be home.
Before I took off I was invited to join a working Blues group that is booked a few months ahead. I rehearsed one evening with them just before the road trip. They had my position covered until I got back. Got to check and see if my status remains the same. I can use a few gigs while the spirit of the Delta Blues is still strong within me.
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Post by Laker on Apr 3, 2022 14:43:22 GMT -5
Just arrived home around 9pm last night. Came down through the delta of Mississippi and hit a few museums focused on the Blues. I’m exhausted and glad to be home. Before I took off I was invited to join a working Blues group that is booked a few months ahead. I rehearsed one evening with them just before the road trip. They had my position covered until I got back. Got to check and see if my status remains the same. I can use a few gigs while the spirit of the Delta Blues is still strong within me. Did you visit the grave of Sonny Boy Williamson II at Tutwiler, MS? In our travels we have visited Tutwiler twice to visit his grave. I remember stopping in Helena, AR in honor the King Biscuit Time radio show and visiting Dockery Farms, the birthplace of Delta Blues. |
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Apr 3, 2022 15:19:10 GMT -5
Dang, whether home on the range or out on the open road, I can live vicariously through your adventures.
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Post by hushnel on Apr 4, 2022 10:04:49 GMT -5
We stopped mostly at the blues museums, I visited Dockery Farm and swung by Fame recording studio in Muscle shoals Alabama a few years back on the way to Nashville.
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Apr 4, 2022 10:11:41 GMT -5
Muscle shoals is definitely on my list.
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Post by hushnel on Apr 4, 2022 10:45:30 GMT -5
I brought the Cordoba parlor classical on the trip, not enough room to bring the acoustic bass too, which hurts, I can hold my own on guitar but bass is number one. As it turned out I had no opportunity to play with anyone else.
I guess not as many play an instrument as used too. Or more likely, as I age I’m getting more of a ‘Tales from the Crypt’ look about me. :0)
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