Back Home in Nevada

Having traveled to Tucson for a wonderful Christmas celebration with nieces and nephews and great-nieces and great nephews and brothers and sisters in laws (my sister-in-law Toby is a charter member of the “out-laws” those members of the greater Smitt clan who are in-laws rather than direct descendants including myself… we have our own union and everything) and misc. other family and possible family and friends of family, Monday morning it was time to head home to Nevada.

I got up at what I thought was early, but was in fact not… for while Nevada is on Pacific Time, Arizona is on Mountain time, and it was an hour later than expected or that my internal clock identified.   

A shower and a cup of hotel coffee later, finally, the dogs were loaded, with their baggage (their suitcase containing dog bowls, a water bowl, and food was larger and heavier than mine, which only containing clothing and a toothbrush and such…) and we were on the road at 7:33… (a.m., I wasn’t that late)  Northbound for Nevada… I had picked up gas the night before, so in the glorius words of

I didn’t make it far (28 miles, 8:00) before I found a place to explore… the Pima Air Park… a place commercial aircraft come for storage, but also to die… a field full of commercial aircraft… Delta was particularly well represented, as were light blue 747’s that I suspect came from Korean Airlines… there was one TWA 747 seen… It was particularly tattered…  This was a place where some planes are sold, refurbished and repainted, while others suffer the fate of so many wonderful machines… the good parts are removed, and remainder is scrapped.   One 747, freshly painted for “National” was fired up… likely a ground test… it would escape…  The site included a picnic area, dormitories, and a motel… at least according to signs… several of which stated that roads were closed... (luckly, not my path)

Beyond the Air Park were cotton fields… now harvested with wisps of cotton remaining on the plants… My childhood memories include cotton fields and cotton gins outside Bakersfield on the way to the Kern River… several photos were taken.

I was back on I-10 northbound by 8:23… a 8 mile detour… only to encounter a particularly nasty truck accident near Red Rock… one semi had rear-ended another.  One trailer damaged the cab of another demolished…

49 miles out I reached Picacho Peak… again I exited, looking for any evidence of a Civil War battle, the western most fought… The battle of Picacho Peak was fought here on April 15, 1862…  

In February 1862, the “Arizona Rangers” (at least half Texans, others from what is now New Mexico) totaling maybe 100 men, had raised the Confederate flag over Tucson… they were a off shoot of the force under General Sibley, which attempted to take New Mexico for the South (unsuccessfully).  In April the California Cavalry marched east to counter the invasion… the line of battle that day was likely only 10 confederated against 12 Union cavalry.   The Union lost 3 men, including their commander, while the south suffered two men captured.  I found little evidence on the ground… as might have been expected from such a significant conflict.

 I returned to the Interstate...

In Phoenix I detoured to visit a hobby shop run by friends…  They are 4 blocks off the interstate…  I may have bought a locomotive… then back on the road… 

A bit before Wickenburg we (dogs and I) stopped at a rest area… the girls needed to rest and walk about.  A few miles later in Wickenburg I thought about stopping for fast food, but the lines were monumental, and hunger lost out to the need to proceed northward.  Wickenburg is home to a couple of traffic circles… which work well if motorist understand the system, but today the road is full of those unfamiliar, and so they are a place of confusion… 

Beyond Wickenburg, there is snow along the highway in the shadows… Snow likely from the 24^th when I was south bound along the same road… Snow was visible up higher on the plateaus, hills and mesas.  I tried to take a photo but the phone, my camera for the trip was uncooperative… 

A bit further on at Wikieup (home of Snoopy on a rocket…) I stopped for gas… fuel that would carry me home… I was now back in the Joshua Tree desert…  

The trip beyond was uneventful… on to I-40 westward to Kingman where I choose Historic Rt-66 along Andy Devine Blvd instead of the interstate… then northward… past Santa’s Land and Cloride… the view today very different without the storms of two days before… Dropping into the canyon of the Colorado River, then across and back home in Nevada.

Back in Nevada, traffic in Boulder City was terrible… I, with local knowledge took Industrial to avoid the worst traffic at the corner, rejoining the highway near the railroad museum… Just after 3:30 I crested Railroad Pass, and took the off-ramp for Boulder Highway… I stopped at Smith’s Market for supplies, then home… (411 miles later) where I found the Christmas lights off… the sensor misbehaving… I fixed the lights, checked the mail, brought the trash cans in and took a deep breath… 

I was (am) home.