{"id":103307,"date":"2018-04-16T00:17:16","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T07:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=103307"},"modified":"2018-04-15T23:03:47","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T06:03:47","slug":"days-8-through-12-of-the-great-shea-western-journey-of-awesomeness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2018\/04\/days-8-through-12-of-the-great-shea-western-journey-of-awesomeness.html","title":{"rendered":"Days 8 through 12 of the Great Shea Western Journey of Awesomeness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I began writing this as we were leaving Cortez, Colorado (named for Hernan Cortez, Conqueror of Mexico and not to be confused with Cortex, Colorado, Home of the World\u2019s Smartest People). You may notice that this is a considerable distance from Yosemite National Park.<\/p>\n

In addition, you may note that the last chronicle of these travels purported to include Day 8.\u00a0 Technically, this was true, since we did not bed down at Indian Flats till after midnight on Day 8.\u00a0 So in the words of Huck Finn, what I wrote there was mostly true, but with some stretchers. As he said, they ain\u2019t nobody tells stories that ain\u2019t got no stretchers, without it was Aunt Polly or the Widow Douglas, and this is a tale that requires at least some stretchers now and then.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, my point is that I have fallen behind in my journaling because of all the stuff I have been doing that I am now attempting to journal about.\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to get it all down before it fades and will be relying on memory and also the journal that Jan is keeping.<\/p>\n

(Journaling, by the way, is an excellent art to practice, since it reveals to you stuff you would otherwise soon forget and it helps you chew the cud of your experience and discover meanings you may not have noticed in the moment.\u00a0 The words \u201creview\u201d and \u201crecognize\u201d literally mean to \u201cre-see\u201d and \u201chave cognition again\u201d.\u00a0 It\u2019s how thought proceeds. We see something, then we see it again and realize (often to our surprise) what it is we saw.\u00a0 We look at a face and it\u2019s just an arrangement of eyes, nose, mouth and hair.\u00a0 Then see what it is we saw and we \u201cre-cognize\u201d it and exclaim: \u201cWhy that\u2019s old Bill Smith from sixth grade!\u201d\u00a0 Journaling helps that process immensely in recognizing all sorts of experiences churning around in our souls that we feel certain must mean something, but do not know how to put in front of our faces again and re-cognize).<\/p>\n

Crunch!\u00a0 We just hit a tumbleweed\u2014an actual John Ford Western tumbleweed) on the road up to Newspaper Rock, where there are petroglyphs as old as the Pyramids.\u00a0 We walk in wonders on this strange earth.<\/p>\n

Also, while we telling time-disjointed anecdotes, I should mention that before we got to Indian Flats I wound up taking a long and fruitless detour in search of another campground that, among other things, led us through the tunnel near Tunnel View, which was considerably better lit than the park was.\u00a0 So I was able to wittily remark to my very patient wife, \u201cLook!\u00a0 It\u2019s the dark at the end of the tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ah me.\u00a0 I slay me.<\/p>\n

Anyway, we got up around 7:00 on April 9, feeling a bit of trepidation since the place we parked was full of signs about \u201cPRIVATE PROPERTY!\u00a0 THIS MEANS YOU!\u00a0 PAY FIRST!\u201d and being as it was after midnight when we got in paying first was impossible.\u00a0 But as it happens the bark was much worse than the bite.\u00a0 Pete, the manager of the place drove out and said, \u201cHey!\u00a0 I gotta take my son to the dentist.\u00a0 How does twenty bucks sound?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat!\u201d said I.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll stick it in the mailbox by the office door.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay!\u00a0 Later!\u201d<\/p>\n

And off he went. (Later, when he came back, he said, \u201cSo do you wanna come fill out some paperwork?\u00a0 Or not.\u00a0 Up to you.\u00a0 Ahhh, never mind.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a very casually-run place.<\/p>\n

Jan made a lovely eggy sausagey cheesy thing in a flour tortilla and we headed off to explore Yosemite in the bright morning sunshine, entering through the Portal:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to do Yosemite justice.\u00a0 The immense sense of space\u2014a sensation you encounter again and again in the American West\u2014overwhelms the senses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s as though the very air around your body is rushing away from your skin and your ears.\u00a0 It\u2019s a sensation that accompanies what the eyes see, but without it, all you have are what pictures can show you and mere pictures can only hint at the scope of the place.<\/p>\n

We drove down past Bridal Veil Fall, past El Capitan and the Cathedral Rocks to Half Dome.\u00a0 I searched in vain to see the tiny figure of Captain James T. Kirk crawling up the face of it. (Yes, I have even seen Star Trek V<\/em>, the worst of whole franchise.) I had to content myself with that thought that he will do it in three centuries or so and just stand in front of it, confident in the knowledge that I will not scale it or any other height in three million centuries:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We meandered around the field at the foot of Yosemite Falls in the warm sunshine, Jan taking pictures of critters and flowers and trees and streams the while. The place used to be a town a century or so ago, with tourist trap junk and restaurants and bars.\u00a0 But the last of that was cleared out 30 years ago and they have returned the park to the wild as it should be and virtually no buildings remain.<\/p>\n

The last building still there is also the oldest: the Yosemite Chapel:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Not a very good picture)<\/p>\n

It was built in the 1870s and is still in use today for both Protestant and Catholic services.\u00a0 Fun Fact: Sir Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan) played the organ for a Memorial Service in honor of Ulysses S Grant when he died.<\/p>\n

After several hours of wandering and rubbernecking we decided to go get some grub.\u00a0 The place was packed and most of the people around me were not Americans, so that was fun.\u00a0 One family nearby was speaking German, others some Slavic tongue, either Russian or Polish.\u00a0 Various representatives from Asia were there.\u00a0 And one American family behind me had an entire reconciliation drama unfold during the time Jan and I at our Haagen Daaz Ice Cream bars.\u00a0 Evidently a daughter who worked at the park had seen her family there and was angry because they hadn\u2019t contacted her in two years, her boyfriend confronted them, shaking with fear and anger, somebody (the dad?), wound up talking to both of them, there were tears (I prayed the cross of Christ make peace between them all) and, as we left, the girl was talking to the whole family and being introduced to little cousins who were too small to remember her.\u00a0 So that made for an interesting lunch.<\/p>\n

By now it was may 2:30 and since were weren\u2019t camping or hiking in the park we thought we would make our way south toward Fresno and start looking for our next campsite. (This is where we were when I wrote my last entry, looking out the window of the car as we twisted round narrow curves at elevations of 6000 feet over rocky ravines of death.)<\/p>\n

Eventually, came down out of the Sierras, through Fresno, and then south on 99 till we came to a revelation: KOA campgrounds!\u00a0 Ours was the Visalia\/Sequoia KOA.\u00a0 Pools.\u00a0 Running water, a little store and even showers!<\/p>\n

Showers!\u00a0 In the warm dry country of the San Joaquin Valley.\u00a0 They even had electricity so we could run my CPAP without taxing the battery, recharge various devices, and re-juice the battery for the CPAP.\u00a0 There was a lovely family of Arizonans who had just driven from Flagstaff and were on the way to Cannon Beach, Oregon for a family do.\u00a0 They had three adorable kids who were fascinated with us.\u00a0 It was a Christian family (the little boy asked if I believed in Jesus and also picked little purple flowers for Jan.\u00a0 His sisters joined in.\u00a0 She was charmed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Speaking of flowers, California has California Poppies!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I have a deep fondness for California Poppies because they blow along the road to Lime Kiln Park on San Juan Island, where I once took a particularly enjoyable bike ride many years ago to watch orca whale pods during one of our Memorial Day trips to our Hidden Island Redoubt in the San Juans.<\/p>\n

Anyway, after breakfast, we pulled out and headed south for Bakersfield, across the Mojave Desert,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

through Death Valley (with stops at Random Place in the Wilderness by the Side of the Road to take pictures of little orange flowers that intrigued my sweetie<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2026trees she called \u201ctruffula trees\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(which we later discovered are Joshua Trees)<\/p>\n

Stovepipe Wells<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2026some Sand Dunes<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

and Zabriskie Point<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

For those of us old enough to remember Death Valley Days<\/em><\/a>, (an enormously successful show that ran on radio from 1930 to 1945 and then ran for another 18 years on television from 1952 to 1970 (hosted for a while by Ronald Reagan in his final work as an actor before entering politics), Zabriskie Point is important because the Borax company used to mine borax there and then decided the site should be preserved instead.<\/p>\n

In addition, there was apparently some dreadful counter-culture film shot there in 1970 called, creatively, Zabriskie Point<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anyway, on we went till we got to Red Rocks Canyon National Conservation Area, right at sunset:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That picture will have to stand in for the ocean of grandeur in which we bathed.\u00a0 We met a guy there from North Carolina who teaches videography.\u00a0 He was there to shoot some stuff and try some new tricks to see how they worked.\u00a0 He was also at a conference at nearby Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, we headed on round the south side of it, being careful to avoid the wild George Clooneys, Julia Robertses, and Elvises that are native to the area.\u00a0 Eventually, we got in after dark at the Boulder Beach Campground. It is on what normal humans call \u201cLakeshore Drive\u201d but what Garmin declares to be \u201cLack a Shore Drive\u201d.\u00a0 There is some ironic poetry in that. Here is a picture of it from a point just around the corner from Hoover Dam:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That little white patch at the base of the little mountain is it.\u00a0 You\u2019ll also note that Lake Mead (formed by Hoover Dam) is now about a mile away from Boulder Beach Campground.\u00a0 Welcome to climate change.\u00a0 There is, in fact, an immense bathtub ring around Lake Mead showing exactly how far the levels of the lake have dropped.\u00a0 The dam was built in 1935 and the lake took six years to fill to full capacity in a shoreline that is 500 miles long.\u00a0 Resorts that use to be on that shoreline are now miles away from it.<\/p>\n

As to the Dam itself, it was a highlight of the trip for me, not only because of the sheer immensity of the project, something to equal the pyramids in terms of the psychological impact of human achievement\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But also because the whole thing is done in this cool Art Deco period style:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There is also this cool memorial built for the opening by some artist with some odd star mysticism about Platonic years and such, featuring information on the exact position of stars and planets in the sky on the day the Dam was commissioned by FDR, as well as cool Art Deco \u201cAngels of the Republic\u201d:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It feels somehow Mormon in its combination of Americanist spiritual mysticism and star mumbo jumbo, but the sculptor was just apparently some Norwegian mystic of American Greatness overawed by the achievement of Hoover Dam (which, to be fair, would certainly have inspired any ancient artist with similar feelings of astonishment at such a massive triumph of human collaborative effort).\u00a0 Undertaken as a cooperative venture among a number of American states in the southwest that built from the time of TR, through the 20s and culminated in the 30s.\u00a0 The main work on the Dam took place from 1931-1935 and, like Grand Coulee in my native Washington, aimed to both water and electrify huge portions of the country.\u00a0 LA and Las Vegas are both hugely dependent on Hoover Dam.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, we spent a couple of hours there in the heat (poor Jan melts in the heat: she is a natural western Washington girl).\u00a0 I regaled passersby with the wondrous feats of Superman, who saved Hoover Dam from the earthquake caused by Lex Luthor\u2019s twin stealth atomic missiles generating a massive earthquake.\u00a0 I sang of the day he saved Jimmy Olson and Lois Lane by flying around the earth backward at light speed and reversing time.\u00a0 Strong men wept and women fainted at my bardic exploits.<\/p>\n

We then decided to head to the Valley of Fire Slot Canyon (also near Las Vegas).\u00a0 Here\u2019s a taste:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Then it was on into Utah and Zion National Park, brandishing yet again our Awesome Old People Pass that gets us into every national park in Murka for free.\u00a0 We rock.<\/p>\n

Speaking of rocks, Zion has gorgeous ones.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

However, as we came back to the car after parking it on the fifth switchback up Zion, we noticed a stream of pink fluid issuing from under the car.\u00a0 Oh no!\u00a0 Catastrophe!\u00a0 Our water pump must have busted, reasoned I, seasoned traveler.\u00a0 So whipping out Jan\u2019s trusty cell we\u2026 got no signal.<\/p>\n

Because we were in the middle of a park.<\/p>\n

Fear.\u00a0 Now what?<\/p>\n

We went up to a nearby couple and asked if they could get any bars.\u00a0 Miraculously, they could.\u00a0 So we called AAA and they promised us this:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The couple (whose names I cannot recall) were very nice.\u00a0 They chose to sit with us while we waited and we talked about where we were all from and what we did.\u00a0 He was an air traffic controller, which is not a typical line of work.\u00a0 They had a young girl who was very patient while the grownups talked.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the truck came and got the car loaded.<\/p>\n

The driver asked where we wanted to go, so we told him \u201cA AAA garage\u201d.\u00a0 The nearest was in St. George, back the way we came by 40 miles.\u00a0 That was fine by him, so we climbed in and headed back.<\/p>\n

He was one of the those people who talks with their hands and he had a lot to say\u2014on winding mountain roads.\u00a0 He was a nice guy and a local, from Hurricane.\u00a0 He knew the country well and recommends Zion and Bryce Canyon, but not the Grand Canyon, which he regards as a really big hole in the ground.\u00a0 He said people should see it only so that they will appreciate Bryce Canyon the better.\u00a0 He also startled us with the shocking news that the Four Corners Monument is not actually located at Four Corners.\u00a0 This gave us the excuse to cut it from our itinerary.<\/p>\n

We also, alas, had to strike the Grand Canyon, given that our day\u2019s delay at St. George with the car was eating into a tightening schedule.<\/p>\n

The bright side was that we got to sleep in a bed *and* swim in a swimming pool (in a gale<\/em> that has more or less continued blow, everywhere we have gone since that night).<\/p>\n

Next day, I was over at the garage the second they opened, explaining what I took to be the problem and also asking them to give the tires a look. (As it happened, the coolant system was fine.\u00a0 The reservoir had just overflowed a bit in the heat.\u00a0 However, it did need a new set of tires, so we did that before heading over the Rockies) Then it was back to the motel to write up the last post I posted and then go to Denny\u2019s to eat and post it with their wifi.\u00a0 This accomplished, we headed off to Bryce Canyon.<\/p>\n

Before we got there, we went through Dixie, which is not at all what I pictured Jefferson Davis being President of:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

All the big red sandstone formations in the southwest that Wile E. Coyote climbs around on are the remnants of ancient sand dunes or sea bottoms that were here before the upthrust of the Rockies.\u00a0 It provides a rich palate for America\u2019s greatest living Coyote Artist to paint his world famous Tunnel Art:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Amazing trompe l\u2019oeil!<\/p>\n

Also, there are just endless desert scenes.\u00a0 So beautiful!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So much of what I saw in Utah and the rest of the Southwest evokes my mental images of Ray Bradbury\u2019s Mars.\u00a0 Just achingly beautiful!<\/p>\n

\"\"Eventually, we reached Bryce Canyon, which was again stunning:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And we also learned a new word: Hoodoo, which is what those little pointy things are called.\u00a0 Now you know.<\/p>\n

Once again, we encountered foreign visitors too, a couple from France, which was cool.\u00a0 Then it was on to the East with a beautiful sunset in our rearview mirror:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And bedtime just outside Mesa Verde in Colorado at the coldest place we have yet stayed.<\/p>\n

Next morning we went to Mesa Verde without breakfast (we ate at a Burger King the night before because Incredible Wind and Cold and were still full.\u00a0 Extra bonus: it was on a Navajo reservation and had a cool display of memorabilia of local guys who had been Code Talkers in WWII).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is Mesa Verde:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It is, without comparison, the coldest place I have ever been.\u00a0 At Park View, a fire lookout station 8000+ feet high with a commanding view for 160 miles in every direction, the wind was fierce and as bitter a thing as I have ever felt.\u00a0 Jan and I could only endure it for a few minutes before we got back in the car and continued to the only ruins that were open, next to a museum with a very talkative ranger who filled us with cool information about the successive inhabitants of the area, as well as cool things to see like Newspaper Rock (bursting with petroglyphs) on the way up to Arches:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Museum thrilled Jan\u2019s anthropology minor heart with a ton of information about the culture of the people who lived here (they abandoned site around the time Chaucer but their oral traditions preserve a lot of knowledge, as do the artifacts they left behind).<\/p>\n

Then we went to Newspaper Rock, warm in our little car, and on to Arches:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Finally, it was time to head over the Rockies and on to Sherry Weddell\u2019s house in Colorado Springs.\u00a0 However, after debate, we decided to sleep at the rest stop in Rifle, Colorado after a meal.\u00a0 Jan noticed, to her amazement that an O\u2019Reilly\u2019s Auto Parts store was open, so she leapt at the chance and bought desperately needed new wiper blades.<\/p>\n

Then we pulled into a nearby rest stop and tucked in for the night, snug as badgers and watching the snow fall around us.<\/p>\n

More later!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I began writing this as we were leaving Cortez, Colorado (named for Hernan Cortez, Conqueror of Mexico and not to be confused with Cortex, Colorado, Home of the World\u2019s Smartest People). You may notice that this is a considerable distance from Yosemite National Park. In addition, you may note that the last chronicle of these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[180],"class_list":["post-103307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-travels"],"yoast_head":"\nDays 8 through 12 of the Great Shea Western Journey of Awesomeness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I began writing this as we were leaving Cortez, Colorado (named for Hernan Cortez, Conqueror of Mexico and not to be confused with Cortex, Colorado, Home\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2018\/04\/days-8-through-12-of-the-great-shea-western-journey-of-awesomeness.html\" \/>\n<meta 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