Saturday - July 30 2022 - Springerville AZ to Bisbee AZ

 

OK, last day of our trip. Mostly excited to be home but a little sad it's over. Our last stretch is a fitting end travelling south down Rt 191, which is 80-90 miles of twisty, no guard rail, white knuckle (ok, a little exaggeration here) road. Rt 191 goes from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. This stretch rides along a high ridge so spectacular views. We could see evidence of last years fires. Lots of burned trees but also lots of new green grasses and plants, and really open woods under the remaining trees. We saw several deer and/or elk on this stretch so they must be enjoying the new greenery.

After the ridge road you get dropped into the Morenci Copper mine, actually driving right through the open pit mining operation. The trucks were on either side of us and while it is hard to tell how big they are from afar, they have a scenic pulloff with various truck parts showing how big they are.

I am adding a picture of our battle hardened Toyota. It has been flawless for the 7400 miles we put on it this trip. If you walked by it this morning you would think homeless people were living in it. It has given us 35-37 mpg most days on the trip.
We then stopped in Stafford for groceries and got gas in Benson ($4.17 instead of $4.69 in Stafford). Then home to Bisbee. All day we noted how green everything is since we have so far had a good monsoon season.

The house was still here, nothing flooded, no bugs eating anything, nothing missing. We emptied the car and did laundry then made a couple margaritas to celebrate being home. There is no place like home.

Friday - July 29 2022 - Las Vegas NM to Springerville AZ

 

Nice Super 8 motel last night. Most are iffy but this one was great. Chatted with a guy hauling elk statues from El Paso to South Dakota. He had two in the back of his truck and was towing a trailer presumably with more. Must be a conversation starter at gas stops..

Goodby to Las Vegas. It is amazing how many movies were filmed here (Easy Rider, No Country for Old Men, Longmire, ..). New Mexico seems to roll out the red carpet for movie makers (and tax credits).

Short hop down I25 and we decided to take the back roads to Springerville AZ instead of going home. Excited to get home but also enjoying site seeing. There were a few downpours today but they were short followed by clear skies. 

We wanted to stop and see the indigenous peoples ruins that are all over this part of New Mexico so we wiggled down a cool twisty Rt 3 until it rose to a high plateau and straightened out. New Mexico got hit with a lot of rain the last couple days and we could see signs of it all day with swollen rivers and muddy roads. We found the Salinas Pueblo Missions Visitor Center in Mountainair NM and they had a great exhibit and movie which gave us a rough idea of what happened when. Basically, the indigenous peoples were wandering around in various tribes for 1000 years and then the Spanish came in the 1500's to 1600's along with the Franciscans to convert the Indians to Christianity. The Indians revolted in what is called the Pueblo Revolt in 1680 and then everybody left. So the ruins around here including the nice missions the Franciscans built (the Indians actually built them) were all abandoned. We stopped at the Abo ruins and the forest service lady gave us the entire story. Trying to figure this all out is very confusing..

Then we headed for Pie Town NM to get a piece of pie at he Pie-O-Neer restaurant. It was actually pretty busy for a place miles from anywhere. Pie for lunch is almost as good as pie for breakfast!!

Then the last leg to Springerville where we stayed in Reed's Motor Lodge where we have stayed before. Walked to the Western Drug and General Store (thanks Lindsey) to check out everything but anything you could want or need. Wow!!

Dinner across the street and then back to Reed's. Our last night out. Home tomorrow!!

Thursday - July 28 2022 - Dodge City KS to Las Vegas NM

 

Dodge City was a little disappointing, but we could give it another try another day. The Muffler Man saved the stop.

We are not sure how to get home to Bisbee so we just pointed it west this morning. Gassed up ($4.04) and headed across the lonely roads of southwestern Kansas and southeastern Colorado. It got greener as we went west and started rolling a bit. Lots of sorghum grown here which we assume is for the feedlots we pass from time to time. Everybody drives large white pickups. We noticed the Colorado gas prices were 40 cents higher so must be a tax thing since they dropped again when we hit New Mexico.

We went a bit north so we could stop in Trinidad CO, which is an old coal mining town, now a haven for art and music, like Bisbee. Have not researched it but I am guessing the history is similiar (mine closes, hippies move in,..). Downtown Trinidad is pretty cool with lots of art shops, coffee shops, hot yoga, etc. We need to come back and spend a couple days. They have a blues festival in the fall.

 We saw a poster for the Art Cartopia which was free (donation) exhibit of art cars, much like the one we have in Douglas AZ. It was just outside of town a couple miles away. There is an art car gathering here later this year. All you need is a bunch of chatchka stuff and a hot glue gun.

More coffee then off to Raton NM just over the Raton Pass and just over the NM border. Kinda, ok ex-train town. We just drove around town a bit to get a feel for it. Not as cool as Trinidad.

Then we weave down interstate 25 through some nice rolling canyons and things are pretty green. We decided to land in Las Vegas NM tonight, found the hotel and the found the historic downtown. Nice long walk past the New Mexico Highlands University campus and a nice old Carnegie Library (Andy Carnegie (the steel guy) built 2500 libraries all over America with his riches). Deb found a nice little funky restaurant with a lot of locals for dinner. Not sure where we go tomorrow??

Wednesday - July 27 2022 - Freemont NE to Dodge City KS

Today we made the big transition from corn and soy in eastern Nebraska (looks just like Iowa) and sparse grassland of western Kansas.

No breakfast at the hotel (no coffee maker in the room, no cups, no extra blankets..) so we stopped at McD's and got a couple english muffin egg thingies and coffee. Today's plan was to stop in Lincoln Nebraska and get a tour of the state capital. A couple hours and we were parked in front of it (free parking) after talking to the nice tourist info lady the other side of town. Deb scored 4 or 5 state maps (she has a thing for paper maps). We got to the capital building just in time for the 10am tour led by a young woman trainee and her boss. The building has 14 floors but the pretty parts are on the first couple floors. Nebraska built it between 1922 and 1932 or so and they built it under budget and they built the new building around the old one so they could keep building. Nebraska has a unicameral legislature (senate only, no house) and they have 49 "senators" for the states 1.9 million people. And they only meet part time and they are paid $12,000 per year. The building is very impressive. The tour guides were crucial to point out each mosaic and it's meaning in the history of Nebraska. After this tour we realized that state capital tours are on our list as we start travelling more in the US.

Then we told Google Maps to get us to Bisbee and see where it takes us. We ended up heading west on Interstate 80 for a while, stopped at the Kearney Archway that goes over the interstate and said nope to the $13 per head they wanted to go through the museum. We did snag some free popcorn and soon turned south off the highway. We looked at places to end the day so we could get a hotel and decided Dodge City Kansas would be a little out of the way but might be interesting. The rest of the day we headed south and mid afternoon saw the landscape change from corn and soy fields to grassland. It's starting to feel like the south west again.

We got to the hotel around 7pm and found a place to get a couple salads at a restaurant at the local golf club. 

Then we went downtown to see what Dodge City was all about. We were expecting a kitschy tourist trap like Tombstone AZ, given our hotel was on Wyatt Earp Road, but it was kind of disappointment. They do have a couple museums but Tombstone definitely out kitsches them. But I caught out of the corner of my eye a Muffler Man with a sombrero hat on.  We stopped and discovered that this Muffler Man belonged to movie star Dennis Hopper ("Easy Rider", Peter Fonda, ..). Dennis was born and grew up here in Dodge City and loved Muller Men. He owned two of them himself and when he died, they were given to the city. This one is called "La Salsa Man".

Dennis had another Muffler Man that ended up in another town in Kansas. I guess there wasn't enough room for two Muffler Men in Dodge City..

Tuesday - July 26 2022 - Cedar Rapids IA to Freemont NE

 

John Deere Museum day!!

Another great breakfast at the hotel this morning, then fill up with $3.97 gas, then a short ride to Waterloo IA where the John Deere History and Engine Museum is located. This place traces John Deere, born in Rutland VT and a blacksmith in Middlebury and Vergennes VT, from his Vermont roots to Iowa. He learned blacksmithing in Vermont and moved to Iowa in 1840 something. 

He saw them using cast iron plows where the wet soil stuck to the cast iron metal blade and fashioned at smooth steel blade instead. The rest is history. He made a ton of plows and his son took over the business. His son invented a corn planter and about that time the internal combustion engine started to be introduced. As was explained to us, John Deere was good at perfecting, selling and supporting products, not necessarily innovating. They were slow to accept the internal combustion engine and ended up buying the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company in 1918. 

The museum does a great job pointing out the evolution of humans and energy. From pure manual labor to using animals to power things and then to the internal combustion engine. As one exhibit pointed out, the 1-1/2 hp engine did the work of 12 men, making their adoption obvious.

One of the guides there pointed out that kerosene was the first fuel followed by diesel, gasoline and liquid propane. Kerosene and propane disappeared and gas and diesel won out.

John Deere's timing and execution was perfect and they pride themselves on selling and supporting their products cradle to grave. No wonder all we saw all day crossing Iowa was green tractors.

Next order of business is to head west and find the Lincoln Highway. Lincoln Highway is the first cross country road going from New York City to San Francisco and crosses the entire state of Iowa. 80% of it is still intact in Iowas and we quickly found it chased it the rest of the day. Rt30 is the newest iteration of it so we spent the rest of the day following the Lincoln Highway signes that zig-zagged all around Rt 30. Most of it is paved but a lot of it is gravel. When you are on the original road you run into old filling stations and vintage leftover stuff.

We crossed the Missouri River at the end of the day (on Rt30) and landed in Fremont Nebraska. Mexican place and ice cream and bed.

We gotta come back and spend more time!

Monday - July 25 2022 - Madison WI to Cedar Rapids IA

 

"Who Knew" was today's theme as we continue to trip on little gems along the way. 

Good nights sleep, McDonalds coffee 2 minutes away and on the road to Moline to see the John Deere Pavillion in Moline IL. But on the way we got distracted by a little town called Platteville WI. They had a little sign for a Mining Museum so we took the bait. This region of Wisconsin had a bunch of lead and zinc mines back in the mid 1800's. The Indians used to "smelt" it over fires and a little lead would drip out. They could trade it for other stuff and when the Europeans came, they heard about it, brought the Cornish miners over and started digging around. The deal with the US government was that they would give you land to improve but you had to promise there were no minerals on it. That did not work (really??) and so the government had a team survey this area and determine where there were minerals and where there were not. Sounds like it worked a little better and they would lease anyone the mineral rights. The other agreement was with the Native Americans because technically they owned the land. The mine in Platteville only operated a couple years but all the stuff from the surrounding mines ended up in Platteville so that's why the museum is here. The guide did a great job of explaining how everything worked and then took us down into the mine (80-90 stairs, no match for Bisbohemians). Everything was done by hand with candles and hammers and drills. What is interesting is that they used black powder (dynamite was not available then) and the fuses were hollow straw hay with powder inside. Drill a hole, stuff it with powder, insert straw fuse, light it, run, and then come back in the morning to muck up the loosened rock. They visually sorted out the ore and then sent it by wagon to the smelter in nearby Mineral Point.

We left town via the University of Wisconsin - Platteville campus (student gone for the summer) and then we headed to Dubuque IA and found the Dubuque funicular, the steepest, shortest railroad in the world. Actually some rich guy in 1882 got sick of the 30 minute horse and buggy ride up to his house on top of the hill overlooking Dubuque so he built the funicular. And it's still running today. At $4 for a round trip it's a little gold mine.

We walked around town (nice tourist info lady) and then back in the car so we could get to the John Deere Pavillion before it closed at 4pm.

The John Deere place did not disappoint mainly because by some great stroke of luck, a retired John Deere engineer was there with his grand kids and we talked each others ears off. So rare to get a behind the scenes view of how John Deere engineering works, the evolution of design and what's coming next. I wish I could start my engineering career over again!! He knew everybody in the place and he told the ladies behind the store counter to give me the employee discount on the shirt I bought. Just when you think it can't get any better it does!!

We decided we would head for Waterloo IA where the big John Deere museum is. We made it to Cedar Rapids, got a room , got some dinner and then walked around downtown in the Czech Village / New Bohemia part of town.

Every little town seems to have something interesting to look at.

Sunday - July 24 2022 - Munising MI to Madison WI

 

Breakfast at the motel (pretty good) and then filled up with $3.97 gas across the road. It feels like gas is getting cheaper (certainly cheaper than the $5.70 in Canada) and it got cheaper as we went south today. We said goodbye to Munising but we will be back when we can spend more time. Today we go to Madison WI where we have not been. It is the capitol of Wisconsin and also home to the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Great country music channels here (I am slowly making a convert out of Deb) and a couple podcasts burns up the road. Left over pizza (cold pizza is the best) in the car for lunch.

Got to Madison and blown away by how beautiful the capital building is. Bonus tidbit, All the granite came from Vermont!. The information guy says they must have wiped us out because it's such a big building. We will make more..

The a nice walk down State Street which is a pedestrian street that runs between the capital building and the UW campus on the lake shore. UW has a beautiful campus right on the water and it was a beautiful summer Sunday so everybody was on the waterfront. You can get food and pitchers of beer and sit on the tables right in front of all the boats on the lake.

There was an engineering competition which involved cardboard and duct tape to make boats with people in them. By the time we got there it was mostly wet pulp but lots of big smiles.

Then the long walk back to the capitol building where we parked (for free). I think Sunday afternoon was the perfect time to hit the down town.

Deb navigated us south of town to the hotel for the night. Load of laundry and then a light dinner (remember the pizza). John Deere in Moline IL tomorrow.