The Best of Blog

Aloha all,

we had 3 fabulous days in San Diego, touring the historic aircraft carrier USS Midway and the active USS San Diego which was open for tours thanks to the “Fleet Week” festivities. . One night we went to a dueling piano bar called ‘The Shout House’ which was an awesome non-stop show for over 4 hours. We also got to see our friend Kelli Moore, which was long overdue. Then we spent three days on Oahu, reconnecting with our Oahu Ohana. And now, after 6 months of travel, we are glad to be back home on Maui with our friends & family here!

It’s time for a game Sandra and I often play during hikes: We name a category and try to come up with our favorite road trip experience. We can do that for hours and it’s a good way to remind us of all the fun things we got to do and appreciate how full life on the road is. And just in case you did not read all 14 long blog posts since we left in May, you can use it as a cheat sheet to catch up just on the highlights. So let’s get right to it:

Best experience overall:

You would think this would be a hard category, because how can you compare a great hike in a National Park with an interesting tour through a historical place or floating down a river or meeting new friends? But this year, our overall favorite experience was easy to pick, because it combined all of that and more: There is no question: The week rafting in the Grand Canyon was our favorite. So much so, that with any other category, we started to ask: “What was your favorite ‘except the Grand Canyon’?”. Tommy, Greg, Bern, Jill, Steve and Jeanette probably know why the Grand Canyon trip was an experience in its own class. For all others I can only refer back to my post from July, even though no words and no pictures do the trip any justice:

https://www.bestofbothworldsroadtrip.com/2019/07/grand-indeed.html 

Best crew, best people, best weather, best canyon...kind of hard to beat.

Best Hike

We were pretty active specially during the first half of the trip and for a while did at least a little hike every day, so there are plenty of great hikes to choose from. Overall, the ‘Angel’s Landing’ trail in Zion National Park beats our climb up Emory Peak, the tallest Mountain in Big Bend National Park in Texas. Both had spectacular views and gave us a sense of accomplishment, but after all the warnings about how dangerous the Angel’s Landing trail is, we also enjoyed the fact that we survived as an extra little bonus.

Angel's Landing trail in Zion National Park

Best Hot Springs

We went to a few hot springs, but this is an easy choice. We had hesitated to stay at the Riverbend Hot Springs RV Park because it was the most expensive campground we ever stayed in. But it came with the admission to the hot springs along the Rio Grande and after just a few minutes there, Sandra and I both decided that we needed to extend for a second night. What a serene place! The free three mile float trip on the Rio Grande was just an extra bonus.

Riverbend Hot Springs in Truth or Consequencs, New Mexico

Best Dinner

this was a very hard decision. There are five serious contenders for the best dinner of the last 6 months: 

1. The dinner on the first night at the ‘Alpage’, the little family run hotel in the Jura region of France, where we went with my parents 

2. The dinner on the second night at the ‘Alpage’ 

3. The dinner on the third night at the ‘Alpage’ 

4. The dinner on the fourth night at the ‘Alpage’ and 

5. The dinner on the fifth night at the ‘Alpage’. 

Yes, we think it’s that good, we are not even going to mention any of the other fun and fabulous dinners we had.

'Alpage', my favorite restaurant in the world!

Best Lunch

It’s a close call between two very different restaurants: The lunch buffet at Vast on the 49th floor of the very modern Devon Tower overlooking Oklahoma City and “The Alsatian” in a very charming historical building in Castroville, Texas. Both were delicious meals and fun experiences with very personal service, but the Alsatian restaurant wins because it was so exotic to discover something from so close to my home town in the most unexpected place.

The Alsatian Restaurant in Castroville, TX

Best Breakfast

Even though we usually ate breakfast at home in Joy, we did go out for a few fun breakfasts, including five times at a spectacular breakfast buffet at the Hotel Seehaus in Kressbronn on the Lake of Constance where we stayed with Sandra’s mom and sister. But our favorite experience was again in Castroville, TX. Not necessarily because the eggs are bigger or the bacon crispier, but because we felt so welcomed. We had just arrived in town the day before and it felt like we were going out with three long time friends. We also don’t usually make the local newspaper just by having breakfast.

This picture was taken at the breakfast with our new old friends in Castroville 

Best Concert

We are giving 1st place to Def Leppard, because the concert in Las Vegas was super fun and also in recognition of how awesome it is that they are still rocking it after 42(!) years on stage. Compared to that, Guns ’n Roses with only 34 years are the new kids on the block. They were awesome, too, but surprisingly, my 2nd and 3rd place for concerts on this trip both go to piano bars. The one and only Doug Montgomery in Santa Fe and the hilarious, nonstop dueling piano action at “The Shout House” in San Diego deserve at least an honorable mention and I think they’d be proud to have beaten out Guns n’ Roses.

Def Leppard rocked Las Vegas

Best Theater

We saw all kinds of theater, from local plays like “I do. I do. I do.” or “Wait until Dark”, to bigger community events like the traditional “Viva El Paso” musical to multimillion productions like the “Ka” and “Love” Cirque de Soleil shows. We also saw (and loved) “Hamilton” again, but we chose the opera “Rigoletto” on the Lake Stage in Bregenz for first place. The stage and set alone was so spectacular: The 45 foot head of Rigoletto comes alive (and falls apart) during the show, the hand moves (including the middle finger!) and the hot air balloon soars 200 feet (with the singers in it, if they did not fall in the lake first). 

"Rigoletto" on the Lake Stage in Bregenz, Austria

Best Water Activity

We had a lot of fun floating down rivers on this trip, but the 1st place goes to kayaking and stand up paddling with my brother’s family on a lake in Sweden. Beautiful weather, totally uncrowded and yes, the fun company might have had something to do with that choice, too.

Paddling in Sweden with our nieces and nephew

Best Underwater Activity

Scuba Diving at the San Solomon Springs at Balmorhea State Park in the middle of Texas. Our first time diving in fresh water was such a pleasant surprise that we’d probably pick it even if it had not been the only underwater activity on this trip.

Scuba diving at Balmorhea State Park in Texas

Best Museum

We have been to over 30 museums on this trip. We are so notorious for spending ridiculous long hours even in tiny museums that Sandra’s sister made us promise that we would not visit any museums while she joined us on our trip last year. The ironic thing is that we drove 7500 miles through the US and in general, I prefer American museums, but our first choice is a small museum in Alsace, just about 25 miles from my home town. It’s very small, but amongst other things, they have the very first book mentioning the name ‘America’ for the newly discovered continent in writing. But surprisingly, they also had the best virtual reality experience we have ever done. Just sitting in a dark room, we got to travel to ten very different and very interesting libraries around the world. I don’t think Virtual Reality will ever replace actual traveling, but we were all very intrigued how well done this was.

Virtual Reality tour in Selestat, France

Best Disc Golf Course

We played over a dozen different disc golf courses on this trip, but our favorite is on Lappo, an island in the Baltic Sea belonging to Finnland. If my brother is willing to drive from his cottage in Sweden to take a ferry to an island where you have to drive to another port to take another ferry to yet another island where you have to walk or hike to our vacation rental, only because it’s next to a disc golf course, you know that it’s a special place. Of course it’s remote location is part of the appeal. However, the best throw was our nephew’s ace on the home course in Uppsala right after Auntie Sandra asked him to show us how it’s done, while his sister is filming it…on his birthday!

Best Campground

I could write a whole post just about the various campgrounds, RV parks, breweries, road side areas, Walmarts and other places we stayed at. Impossible to name an overall favorite: We loved how often we got to camp on lakes in Oklahoma, we love campgrounds in national parks where we can hike without driving, we love that some breweries let us stay overnight simply for drinking beer (extra bonus points if they start a trivia night as we walk in as the Mancos Brewery outside of Mesa Verde did), we loved the luxury shower facilities at the Kodakchrome State Park, the most scenic camp site was free BLM land where we camped with Annie, but Canyonlands NP wins in the “Campgrounds with the best Hammock to BBQ distance” category:

Camping at its best

Best State Capitol 

This was a very easy category this year since we only visited two state capitols and the one in Oklahoma City was under construction. Santa Fe wins for building a very unique state capitol that is very impressive and representative, but still blends in very nicely with the low rise and low key architecture of this fun town. It also doubles as an art gallery.

New Mexico State Capitol in Santa Fe

Best Wildlife Encounter

It’s hard to compare seeing 100,000’s of bats emerging from a cave to seeing a black bear with three cubs, luckily from a safe distance or donkeys roaming the streets of Oatman, AZ. But the encounter we enjoyed the most was this armadillo at Caddo Lake, TX because after being initially so shy, he eventually ignored us and went about his business right around our feet.

Sandra wanted to see an armadillo...

Best Ranger Program

As usual, we went to as many national parks as we could and attended as many ranger talks, ranger guided hikes and evening campground programs as possible. As usual, the quality of these programs has been spectacular. In my view, National Parks truly are America’s best idea. But one program stood out, despite the consistent quality of all of them: We had been to many cliff dwellings in and around Mesa Verde before, but the hike and tour by Ranger Kevin to “The Long House” in Mesa Verde National Park was the one that really made us imagine about what it might have been like to live there 800 years ago.

Long House cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde NP

These are just a few of our favorite things from the last six months. Sandra and I are so lucky that we get to explore this beautiful and diverse country for so long, thanks for coming along for the ride. Now we are back in our favorite state. We got a great welcome back first on Oahu then here on Maui. It was good seeing the friends we missed again. I even got to play Ultimate Frisbee once already. Unfortunately, I am a little sick right now, so no frisbee, no golf, no hugging friends, no swimming and no exploring Maui for a few days. But as soon as I feel better, it’s time to do all that, since even if we have to do some work along the way, we try to live by the motto: “We need a six month vacation twice a year.” And for the next six months, this will be mostly on magical Maui.

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra

The End of the Road...a hui hou, Joy!

Aloha all,

after about 7,500 miles on the road (plus about 15,000 miles in the air and almost 200 miles on the river) we are almost back to where we started in May. And we are at the end of our road trip!

We have arrived at our final campground just outside of Houston, TX. We have two days to pack, clean, winterize & store Joy. Believe it or not, the cheapest flights home were with three day layovers in San Diego and in Honolulu, so while the road trip is over, the journey is not yet. We are also extremely grateful that we get to go home to beautiful Maui and see our ohana…the other half of the “Best of Both Worlds”.

We spent two more days in Oklahoma City. Sadly, Sandra had to slow down a little. I know she loves reading a good book, but if she had felt better, I know she would have preferred to come to the Thunder NBA basketball game and to the local production of the ‘Sister Act’ musical with me. She recovered just in time for us to enjoy a wonderful lunch on the 49th floor of the new Devon Tower overlooking what we voted as “the most underrated city of America”.

A small part of the huge Land Run Monument in Oklahoma City
 with the Devon Tower in the background

The next four days we spent at the “Chickasaw Nation”. First at the Chickasaw NRA, then a full day at the Chickasaw Cultural Center, at the Historic Chickasaw Capitol & Museum and at the Chickasaw White House. For us, this was very different from visiting other Native American tribes. Too often, the main takeaway from visiting and learning about Native Americans is feeling sorry for the injustice that was done to them. Obviously, that’s part of the Chickasaw experience, too. That’s why they are in Oklahoma, not in their native homelands in the Southeast. But their ‘Trail of Tears’ has somewhat of a triumphant ending. You can’t help but marvel at how they overcame their hardships, how they survived and how they thrived. And it’s the first time I visited a Native American site and instead of feeling sorry, I felt a little envious. 

In fact, it seems like the Chickasaw Nation is doing so well, that they barely know what to do with the money. But we like that they spent money to preserve and present their culture, since those are the sites we visited. Coincidentally, we did not visit the one site that most people visit, where they make most of their money. But you know us, we rather look for the smallest museum than for the largest casino. Yes, the largest casino in the world(!) is just one of many businesses owned by the Chickasaw Nation. With 600,000 sq. ft it’s more than three times larger than the largest casino in Las Vegas! And it makes enough money that most of the sites we visited were free.

Spirit Forest at the Chickasaw Cultural Center

The Chickasaw Cultural Center is a modern, world class education and entertainment center. They have their own movie production company, which has produced some really impressive films about the Chickasaw history that are shown in an IMAX style theater. The museum includes some interactive exhibits about the Chickasaw culture and a ’Spirit Forest’ where you can walk through an indoor forest and learn about the myth and legends. They also had a dance presentation, but my favorite part was talking to the Chickasaw. A lot of them look as white as us, but they have some interesting perspectives. I talked to one lady for about half an hour why it’s totally ok that the words for ‘green’ and ‘blue’ are the same in the Chickasaw language. We spent a whole day at the center, but we will have to come back, because we did not even make it to the recreated village, where they have living history presentations on weekends.

Historic Chickasaw Capitol

The history of the Chickasaw Capitol in Tishomingo is symbolic for the ups and downs of the tribe. Being forced off their homelands, they were determined to build a strong new community in Oklahoma. So after humble beginnings and some early success, they built a pretty impressive capitol building…only to be forced to sell it for pennies on the dollar after statehood in 1907, when very restrictive new laws were passed. They finally regained sovereignty in 1971 and after their recent financial success, they were able to buy back the capitol. They did so just so that we can go visit, not because they needed it: Apparently they have larger and more modern government buildings by now. And after they bought back the Historic Capitol building, they renovate it and pay somebody to be there all day to talk to us. They also moved the log house where the very first council was held in 1856 next to the capitol and built a museum around it. And still, there is enough money left to pay another nice lady to talk to us for another hour or two at this museum, too. The capitol and museum was meant as a quick stop in the morning before heading on, but by the time we were done, all we did was go back to the same campground in Tishomingo.

Every single Chickasaw person we talked to also raved about how well the Chickasaw Nation takes care of all their tribal members: Free education, scholarships, help with housing if needed, even free health care. Maybe it’s time we learn something from them about being ‘civilized’.

The Chickasaw White House

Next, we visited the Chickasaw White House, which is the historically restored home of one of their former governors. It might not be as famous as the other White House, but it’s beautiful inside and out. We were surprised to be greeted with: “Are you from Hawaii?”. We instinctively looked at our clothing, but we were not wearing anything to give us away. Turns out, one of the ladies from the other museums had called and told them about us. These are not crowded tourist attractions. Again, we got a long, private tour from a very enthusiastic, welcoming guide. That’s another difference to the other White House: We really liked the people here.

After almost three weeks in Oklahoma, we had already crossed the state line to Texas, but due to a full campground came back to Oklahoma and spent two more days on Lake Texoma. We had spent our first two nights in Oklahoma in campgrounds on lakes, so it was only fitting we spent the last two nights on a lake, too. We were actually grateful they had a two night minimum stay: Sometimes we need to be slowed down a bit. And this gave us enough time to look for RV storage and flights home, including the stops we added in San Diego and Honolulu along the way.

Dwight Eisenhower's Birthplace

Back in Texas, we discovered an unexpected presidential site: Did you know Dwight Eisenhower was born in Denison, TX? Don’t feel bad, apparently he himself did not find out until he was almost adult. We had been to Ike’s home in Gettysburg, including a tour and a ranger talk, but we had no idea, even though I am sure they told us. This shows you why we will never run out of places to visit: We seem to forget things almost as fast as we learn them. I did not even remember that Richard Nixon was his Vice President. Even more surprising trivia: Eisenhower was so revered after the war that President Truman offered him the top of the ticket, with himself as the VP, if Eisenhower had decided to run as a Democrat. 

Canoeing on the Bayou at Caddo Lake State Park

We have seen so much on this trip, but Caddo Lake was something completely different, a real Bayou with thousands of cypress trees growing in the water. Surprisingly, it is also the only lake in Texas that formed naturally. All the other lakes in Texas are man made! First we took a boat tour on the bajous and on the lake, then we rented a canoe, exploring the mystical landscape ourselves. We also went on a short hike with a fun wildlife sighting: Sandra mentioned that she would like to see an Armadillo. As far as I can remember, we have seen an Armadillo only one single time in the wild before. Not even a minute later, I see one in the forest, running away from us before we could get a decent photo, but at least we got to see it. We slowly followed it and surprisingly, it let us approach, and even came closer to us. Not because it wanted to be fed, more because it wanted to dig for food where we were and had decided at that point that we were of no danger. And we got a decent photo after all…

Sandra wants to see an armadillo...

We are not getting tired of touring American historical homes. Some of them might not be older than my grandparents home was, but we are always intrigued by the history and by the dedicated staff or volunteers keeping them alive. The Starr Family Home in Marshall, TX was another prime example. We throughly enjoyed the long, private tour, but I am afraid I will sound like a broken record...

Joy at Camp Tonkawa Springs RV Park north of Nacogdoces, TX

Overall, we feel we traveled slower and more relaxed than on previous road trips, but still got to see just as much. Yesterday was no exception: We were in Nacogdoches, the oldest town in Texas. Somehow we saw  Stone Fort Museum, the Historic Village at Millard’s Crossing and the Sterne-Hoya House without feeling rushed. The Stone Fort has an interesting history: It’s a 1936 replica using the bricks of the 1776 building, which was the only two story building in all of Texas at the time and was torn down in 1902. Millard’s Crossing is an eclectic collection of historical buildings, started by a lady who had so many antiques that she had to buy antique houses to store them all. We were lucky to get there when they had their living history day for the local schools. I think I was even more impressed how well behaved the over 100 kids were than by the actual buildings or artifacts. 

Living History Day at Millard's Crossing

The Sterne-Hoya House had some extra appeal for us because it was built by a fellow German immigrant. Adolphus Sterne is from Cologne, so from the same river as my home town - but that is where the parallels end: He left Germany by himself when he was only 16 years old! And somehow he became one of the leaders of the Texas revolution just a few years later, enough so that Sam Houston and Davy Crocket came by to visit the Sterne House. At least we made it here, but as much as we enjoy Texas, we are not interested joining a Texas revolution.  

A Hui Hou, Joy!

And that’s the end of the road for us. We are looking forward to coming home to Maui and to our friends there, but we already know that we will be itching to go on another 6 month adventure next year. For us, it truly is the Best of Both Worlds!

Howdy & Aloha,

Chris & Sandra

Drunk or Sober: Oklahoma is more than OK

Aloha all,

I have to say: Oklahoma is way more than just OK and there is way more to see than just “the wind sweepin’ down the plains”. And I am NOT just saying that because we just come from a happy hour at a German bar where the full liter Stiefel of beer was half price; or because of the butternut schnaps, which I swear I had only because there were no ponderosa pine trees to sniff anywhere around. I love that smell! I say that Oklahoma is more than OK, because during the past two weeks this state has surpassed our expectations in pretty much every aspect: Scenic beauty (I admit, my expectations were easy to exceed in that respect), a very unique history, a surprising variety of events and attractions and some of the nicest people we have met anywhere: It just goes to show: You can’t judge a state by how they vote in a presidential election.

The "Cadillac Ranch" along Route 66

But before we made it to Oklahoma, our 50h state, we had to cross through the Texas Panhandle. That took 4 days, because everything in Texas is big, so a pan like the state of Texas has a pretty big handle. We crossed it by loosely following historic Route 66, stopping at some of the classic roadside attractions: A row of Cadillacs “planted” in a corn field as an art installation. Also, a row of VW Bugs planted in response to the cult-like success of the “Cadillac Ranch”. A Waffle House. An RV Museum. A Route 66 Museum. The second largest Cross in the western hemisphere. A leaning water tower. A couple of BBQ joints. We also visited several local history museums, which I have a hard time telling apart when I am sober, so I will not even try right now. 

Before you think the Texas Panhandle is nothing but a bunch of cheese roadside attractions and before Greg makes fun of us for still not having made it to the largest ball of twine: We also went to the Palo Duro Canyon. This is a really phenomenal canyon. The phenomenon is this: It looks dramatically different, depending on your perspective: If you come from the east, which means you’ve been driving through flat land for at least a few days, it probably looks like an impressive and spectacularly beautiful canyon. You hear it being described as the second largest canyon in America and you are impressed. But if you come from the west, and you have just seen some of the most spectacular landscapes in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, then you look at the Palo Duro Canyon and you think: “This is kind of pretty”.  And when they tell you it’s the second largest canyon in America, you wonder how they measure that because you have seen more impressive canyons almost every day for the past 3 weeks.

50!

On Oct 14th around 4pm, we crossed the state line into Oklahoma, so now we have officially been to all 50 states. I am documenting this here because I failed to take the picture of the welcome sign along I40. We did stop at the welcome center for probably longer than anybody else ever has and we picked up 137 pounds of brochures, magazines and maps of Oklahoma. Maybe we were worried we wouldn’t find anything to do in Oklahoma, even though that should never be a concern. Since we enjoy anything from hiking, historical places, factory tours, funky museums and disc golf courses to events and restaurants of any kind, I don’t think we’ll ever run out of things to do anywhere. And if we were, we’d just keep driving.

Yes, this is Oklahoma, too. We already camped at four different lakes!

If you expect Oklahoma to be a depressing place, they offer that: In fact, one of our first stops was at the Washita Battlefield National Historical Site, which is as depressing as it gets. Native Americans have been mistreated in probably every state, but this massacre of Peace Chief Black Kettle and his people is particularly tragic. He was one of the most peaceful chiefs, willing to negotiate even after he had been betrayed many times, including  at the Sand Creek Massacre four years earlier. He and his followers, including many women and children were brutally killed out of ignorance or out of blind hate. Of course it’s never as easy as “the bad white people killing the good red people”. The US Army could not have pulled off this atrocity without the help from Osage Indian scouts, who apparently hated the Cheyenne more than they hated the white intruders. Killing each other over land or resources is not a Caucasian invention.

Gloss Mountain State Park

If you expect Oklahoma to be flat a barren, they offer that, too. But sometimes you have to look a little deeper to see the real beauty. At least in one place in Northwest Oklahoma, I mean that literally: At the Alabaster Caverns State Park, you have to look about 200 feet below the surface to see the beautiful gypsum formations and the bats flying through the cave. 

If you think people in Oklahoma are primitive, they have that too. In fact, one of our favorite historical sites was the “Sod House”. There were not enough trees to built houses out of wood, so early pioneers, who could not afford to import building materials, built houses out of the one material they had plenty of: Dirt. Sod houses are constructed by cutting rectangular patches of sod out of the ground and piling them up like bricks. Even though it’s basically just dirt held together by grass roots, they seemed to hold up surprisingly well. The sod house we visited is about 130 years old, preserved in the very same location for all these years, first by the one and only family who lived in it and now by the local historical society, who built a museum around it. It’s only a one room museum, but the local historian working there was so fun and interesting that we spent over three hours there: Half an hour for the sod house and the exhibits, 2 1/2 hours talking to our new friend.

The friendly historian at the Sod House and the not so friendly looking owner.

We have been to several other history museum in Oklahoma in Woodward, Enid, Kingfisher and Oklahoma City. We liked the one in Enid the best because they happen to have their “Living History Day” with actors in period costumes bringing the various historical buildings alive. Until we invent an actual time machine, I feel that a good living history museum is the best time travel experience you can have.

Proud pioneer showing off his brand new ice box.

The history of Oklahoma is quite unique. Until the mid 19th century, most of the plains were described as the ‘Great American Desert’ and were considered uninhabitable by white settlers. The only use they had for the land at first was to resettle native tribes, who were in the way of western expansion. I am still surprised how quickly that changed and by the end of the century, Oklahoma had five so called “Land Runs”. These were actual foot, horse and wagon races, where thousands and thousands of desperate or adventurous pioneers tried to be the first to claim a free homestead parcel of usually 160 acres. Most of the areas in Northwest Oklahoma we have visited so far were opened up for settlement by these land runs. They must have been quite the spectacle, so chaotic that some settlers got away with entering the land ‘sooner’ than the actual start of the land run. That’s why Oklahoma is called the ‘Sooner State’. 

Guns 'n Roses concert in Oklahoma City

The variety of cultural events we have seen in the past week is quite surprising: We saw a local production of the play “Wait Until Dark”, a concert by a band called “Guns ’n Roses” and a concert-like event called “The Simon and Garfunkel Story” that told their history in song, stories and images. Tonight I saw a fun production of the “Sister Act” musical, while Sandra recovered from her cold. We had also bought tickets for the Queen musical “We Will Rock You”, but unfortunately, Ticketmaster had failed to realize that the show was canceled a week earlier. This was the biggest mishap on our tour so far, which shows you how disappointed I am with the terrible service from Ticketmaster (still waiting for a refund or a real apology), but even more it shows how lucky we have been for the entire rest of the trip that this qualifies as our biggest mishap.

Oklahoma City is one of my favorite cities in America. I know what you are thinking: Chris really should not write on his blog when he is drunk. But I assure you, I have sobered up quite a bit already and I actually mean this sincerely. OKC is big enough to offer all big city amenities, but it’s very relaxed, affordable and easy to navigate even with an RV. And the people we met were all very friendly. Oklahoma City is also cleaner than any large city I can think of. Of course we went to see the state capitol, which is pretty, but will be even prettier when the mayor renovation is completed. Due to the construction, we did not get much of a tour, but still spent over an hour there, talking to the friendly Okie at the visitor center. What I will remember for the next trivia night is that even though the capitol was built over 100 years ago, the dome was not added until 2002. 

National Memorial in Oklahoma City

I have to admit that pretty much the only thing I knew about Oklahoma City was that the 1995 bombing took place here. 168 innocent people died, including 19 children, when a truck bomb blew up the Federal office building and damaged hundreds more, all because someone hated the government. But as tragic as that was, it really seemed to have strengthened the city rather than weakening it. The “Survivor Tree” is probably the best symbol of that. This tree stood on a parking lot right across from the bombing and is now part of the beautiful memorial park. Of course it was badly damaged during the blast, but look at it now: 

The Survivor Tree

The same can be said about the whole city. Of course it was devastating, but look at it now: It’s a beautiful, strong, confident, thriving city. And we heard a lot of credit for the city’s resurgence given to the aftermath of the bombing. Besides creating the memorial and the very immersive museum about the bombing, in the past 20 years the city has revived the old ‘Bricktown’ neighborhood into a thriving entertainment district, with waterways resembling the San Antonio Riverwalk. They also brought back streetcars, and attracted an NBA team, which we might see this afternoon and built the tallest, prettiest skyscraper in town, where we might have a drink later tis afternoon, depending how Sandra feels.

Oklahoma also has a lot of public art. My favorite is this statue of a settler claiming his homestead during the 1889 land run. He must have had confidence that he can make a living off this land, but I doubt he expected in his wildest dreams, what the barren prairie would look like just two lifetimes later. That early settler probably lived in a dug out or sod house, today his great granddaughter might live or work in one of the modern high-rise buildings surrounding the statue.

Downtown Oklahoma City- Then and Now

It didn’t take long for Oklahoma to take off after it was founded. We visited the Overholser Mansion, which was built in 1903. Just like the sod house, it has only been lived in by one family. And since this mansion is also lovingly preserved by a historical society, the house and all its furnishings are pretty much completely original. We appreciated being able to get a guided tour through this luxurious mansion, but it also made me realize that financial inequality, as crazy as it is today, is not a new thing. The one family still lived in the house built out of dirt, when this family of three lived in this 11,700 square foot mansion.

Overholser Mansion

Yesterday we went to the “Weather Festival” at the National Weather Center in Norman, just south of OKC. Yep, we had never been to a ‘weather festival’ either, so we were not sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a very fun event. They launched weather balloons, we toured the National Weather Center and a mobil command center. I also saw a 3D printer in action for the first time. On a more practical note, we found out about a website that is ideal for us to plan our trip to stay out of freezing temperatures. Somewhere along the line, I also got a question answered that had been bugging me for a while. I always felt that the old dutch windmills looked like they catch more wind power than the modern ones with just three skinny blades. The engineer dumbed down the answer enough that I think I understood why modern windmills are more efficient, so if you were wondering the same thing, ask me about it next time you see me.

...and even just the prairie can be pretty!

We still don’t know where we will end up on this trip. With the variety of events and attractions Oklahoma offers, we might just stay here until we fly home. But we might also head back to Texas or Tennessee, if our new weather web site tells us to go there.

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra

Ruins come alive

Aloha all,

we usually find American history more interesting than European history because it is not as confusing, IF you conveniently ignore the first 15,000 years of human habitation and start with the European contact. That’s easy to do in the east, where most of the historical sites are about the fight for independence, the founding fathers, the early presidents and the civil war. Very little of that in the Southwest, but lots of really old native American sites, so we had to broaden our horizon a little bit and try to learn something new.

We had been to several native American sites before, including Mesa Verde, but I had no idea how many of them there are until we came back to the Southwest with a little more time. I can’t find a number online, but there must be well over 10,000 sites, many of them over 1,000 years old. No worries, we did not even try to visit them all, but we did enjoy a very good variety of them in the last two weeks.

On a day hike into the very remote Kane Gulch in Southern Utah we had the whole canyon pretty much to ourselves. The cliff dwellings might not be quite as elaborate as others, but “discovering” them ourselves after hiking deeper and deeper into the canyon made for a fun adventure. 

Goosenecks State Park

Sometimes, I am surprised by the places I have never heard of. Goosenecks State Park is such a place. Why is this place not better known? It is literally three times as good as Dead Hose Point (which is already pretty spectacular), because the San Juan River makes not one, but three horseshoe bends here. They call it the best example of a meandering river, enough for us to meander down there and spent a night on the rim, with just a few other happy campers.

These landscapes are beautiful, but made this area very inaccessible to early pioneers, that’s why Southeast Utah was the last place to be settled and the last areas to be mapped in the US mainland. We reconnected with the history of the ‘Hole in The Rock Expedition’ in Bluff in the southeastern corner of Utah. We had first heard about this expedition by mormon pioneers two weeks earlier in Escalante, where they left in the fall of 1879. It took them six months to get to their destination. Now we got to visit the reconstructed settlement they founded in Bluff. Mormonism still sounds a little weird to me, but I have great respect for their industrious endurance: Back in 1879 for making the trip in the first place and nowadays for reconstructing the settlement and bringing it to life with a great audio tour about various members of the expedition and their life in the new settlement. 

The historic Mormon settlement in Bluff

If you want to see some world class native American ruins, but want to avoid the crowds of Mesa Verde, I recommend Hovenweep National Monument on the Utah/Colorado border. We hiked to some ruins that we had all to ourselves. It’s so quiet because it’s so remote, which also made for perfect conditions for a ranger star party. Skies as clear as on Haleakala; without the freezing temperatures!

Holly site in Hovenweep NM

The landscape in this area would be spectacular enough by itself, like the “Canyon of the Ancients” National Monument. But the fact that there are literally hundreds of centuries old archeological sites hidden all over the place make them even more special. But before you think we only like old stuff: The same day that we hiked the Canyon of the Ancients, I also upgraded my ancient iphone for a brand new one. The new phone takes such nice pictures, I have to stop myself from taking too many photos, just because everything looks so good on the new phone.

I have to admit, the new iphone camera makes
the inside of Joy look more spacious than she is.

I mentioned this before, but we just love that we are in no rush on this trip and we can take as long as we want wherever we are, without having to rush to get to some place at a specific date. So we spent three full days at Mesa Verde to do all the hikes, see all the sites and take all the tours we wanted. The “Cliff Palace” is one of the most impressive historical sites I have been to anywhere and the ranger guided tour of the “Long House” was one of the best tours we have ever been on. It really made those ruins come alive. I felt like we got a glimpse of what it was like to live there 800 years ago. Enough so that we know to appreciate that we live today.

Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde NP

Usually, we like to stay at the campgrounds right inside the national parks. But not at Mesa Verde, where it is run by a concessionaire charging premium rates for dry camping while just outside the park we found a similarly priced RV park with a hot tub and spent one night at a brewery, where the camping was free and the beer was cheap. They also had good food and we just happen to walk in when their trivia night started. With five teams participating, we were tied for first place after two rounds. But the final round was all about horror movies, where we had to give ten wild guesses. Boy, were we surprised that we ended up in second place…until we found out that three of the five teams were tied for first, so we were actually second to last.

Game Night in Joy with Wasseem and Christine

We had done the old steam train trip in Durango on our road trip in 2008 aleardy. But luckily, Durango has a new mayor attraction for us: The son of our friend Sohani moved here, so we got to meet up with him and his girlfriend for dinner and a game night. We happened to stay at the RV Park of the Southern Ute tribe where he works.They introduced us to the fun “Pandemic” game. It’s a cooperative board game and we were actually able to save the world together. However, when we played again during his lunch break the next day, we were not so lucky and diseases spread around the world. The Southern Utes seem to be a very nice employer and a very successful tribe. The RV Park, resort and casino were brand new and well run and the museum very informative. Yes, they have been treated terribly like most native tribes. And yes, the US broke pretty much every treaty ever made with them. But they persisted and seem to be thriving by combining modern approaches with their traditional cultural roots.

Fall colors on Wolf Creek Pass

One of our favorite places from our first road trip were the Hot Springs in Pagosa Springs in Colorado. We now returned 11 years later and enjoyed another few hours of soaking in a dozen or so hot tubs by the San Juan river. From there we drove over the Wolf Creek pass with some spectacular fall colors to Taos in New Mexico. One of the long debunked myths about the Ancestral Publeoans is that they mysteriously disappeared from places like Mesa Verde. They did not disappear, they just moved south to join other tribes, like the one in Taos. So for us it was interesting to see what became of the people after they left Mesa Verde. The Taos Pueblo is still active today. Native Americans have lived there continuously for about 1,000 years, even though most of the tribal members now also have a modern home outside of the historic pueblo. Many use their traditional home as a business catering to us tourists. We appreciate that, because that’s one way to see the historical buildings from the inside and because that fry bread was really delicious. 

Taos Pueblo - inhabited since 1000 years

We joined a guided tour by one of the residents. It was interesting to learn how the adobe buildings are maintained, how the community is organized and how they combine modern life with their ancestral traditions, including the fact that many of them have no problem following the Catholic religion along with their native religion. She referred to herself as a “Publeoan Native”, but also mentioned that this is a very personal preference. To my surprise, the term “Indian” is still used, even by some Native businesses. I don’t find that term offensive; just confusing. It just seems so weird to use a term that came about because the first Europeans did not know where they were when they got to America.

Besides the very impressive Taos Pueblo, we also enjoyed the historic downtown area of Taos, the Kit Carson Home and Museum, the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, a remodeled ’hacienda’ from time when this was still part of Mexico, an old adobe church, a lovely Peruvian dinner and a delightful Italian lunch. Lots of art in Taos, too, but we only peeked into a couple of galleries. 

Just over a pass from Taos we got to Las Vegas, the smaller one in New Mexico. For us, it was pretty much the opposite of Las Vegas, Nevada. We visited the “Dwan Light Sanctuary” which is a beautiful building on the Campus of the United World College, designed to reflect light to create a very peaceful and colorful space. 

Dwan Light Sanctuary

Instead of a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, they have several pots of hot water. The school maintains the Montezuma Hot Springs and thanks to their remote location, they can let the public visit for free without any of it being crowded at all.

Montezuma Hot Springs

Yesterday, we visited Fort Union in the northeastern corner of New Mexico. We have been to so many forts (including Fort Garland in southern Colorado a few days ago, which I even forgot to mention) that we might have skipped this one, if it weren’t run by our beloved National Park Service, which is always worth a little detour! Even though we did not get a guided tour as we had hoped, this was a very immersive experience. The ruins of Fort Union are now so remote and so quiet that it’s hard to imagine that this was once the epicenter of activity. This was the main fort at the end of the Santa Fe Trail. 19 other forts were supplied through Fort Union. Since it was built mostly out of adobe, only part of the building still stand. But the ruins, along with very informative signs, illustrations and a film (which we liked so much that we watched it twice) gave us an idea of the scale of this operation. Not bad for such a remote area of such a young nation. It also helped that the ranger at the visitor center was not just willing to answer all our questions, but did so enthusiastically.

We also finally got to play a round of disc golf again. The course was ok, but not the best…but we did find two very cute wild turtles. Actually Sandra almost hit one of them with her disc.

Tortoises on the disc golf course

Now we had to flee enchanting New Mexico because for tonight they predict freezing temperatures. We made it to Amarillo in the northern Texas panhandle. Check back right here in a week or two if you want to find out whether we survived the cold front. It’s supposed to warm back up by the weekend, so we are pretty sure we will make it to Oklahoma to check out our 50th state before returning to our still favorite state in mid November.

Aloha from Amarillo,

Chris & Sandra