Tuzigoot National Monument

Tuzigoot is situated above the Verde Valley and amidst buried mine tailings. You can walk around the ruins, unlike Montezuma's Castle, where you can't even approach them, but they're also not so well preserved.

Montezuma's Castle

Despite the forecast for a 10 degree night, I drove up north, planning a circuit of Montezuma's Castle, Tuzigoot National Monument, Jerome and Prescott today. It was a bit ambitious, so I passed on Prescott for the day.

There are a bunch of ruins in the state named for Montezuma or the Aztecs in general, due to the similarity in construction, but there's no evidence they made it to northern AZ, if I'm remembering what I read correctly.

Bonus points if you can guess what this is:

winter weather

Nothing like leaving sunny San Francisco in the winter to head into rainy Tempe! At least the sky became a nice subject after the rain stopped the other day.

It also rained on my drive out of LA. I'm detecting a pattern here.

I'm hoping my bad weather travel karma isn't returning. In the early 1990s, I took a number of trips -- to Hollywood, camping, some other places -- and it rained typically until the last day of each trip. That wasn't fun.

By the time I get to Arizona

I crossed the Colorado River into Arizona. I pull off at the first rest stop at the border, the Flying J gas station with a Wendie's and some sit down place. The gas is cheap there, so I had the same idea as practically everyone else and waited in a long line to get some gas ($2.17 a gallon -- cheap for a San Franciscan like me).

This sign actually was over the door into the restaurant. I should have asked the cashier for details, but why make this blog interesting?

Anyway, about being back in Arizona. Well, there's a certain political bent to things here. Something having to do with God and Country I think, though typically it's both in the same breath. It's still one of the most beautiful states in this country. And I loved living in Tucson but the more I look back on it, the more it seems like it was a time and place to be there.

But that's in the past.

joshua tree national park

I left Erik's Hollywood apartment late in the afternoon, again, and drove through some rain. My domain issues are still unresolved.

I made it to Joshua Tree well before dusk, and hiked to the top of Ryan Mountain to catch sunset from up high. When I started, I saw a coyote nearby, and took that as a good omen. It was a great view, but there weren't many Joshua trees up there. I made it down before twilight, then set up camp and took some night shots, like the one pictured here. Kim here in Tempe says it reminds her of an Easter Island moai whispering in the ear of another moai. You can also see Orion making an appearance.

Oh and I froze that night, camping at 4200 feet. I wrapped my space blanket around my sleeping bag. I got up around dawn and got an early start shooting. Once my website issues are straightened out and I have a site of my own, I'll post a JT page.

I've always wanted to come to this park. People have told me it's not that great, and I agree to an extent, but I think the trees are entrancing, kind of like the saguaros in the Sonoran Desert around Tucson. I'm glad I came.

I'm On My Way

I finally left the Bay Area yesterday afternoon. The drive was uneventful, and I made it to LA in about 6 hours, including a backtrack to my storage unit and a stop for a burrito along the way.

Driving down the 5, I had the good fortune to pass a couple large feedlots, one for Cowschwitz, otherwise known as Harris Ranch, and another near Bakersfield. I guess the wind was a bit shifty as I didn't smell Cowschwitz (pictured here), until I was almost upon it. I also didn't see an easy way to get off the highway to take a better picture, so I just snapped one while driving (it's not as tricky as it sounds, provided you don't try to compose the shot). Of course, the quality suffers and this one does not show the true scale of the lot.

I spent the night in LA at Erik's. Today I'm off to Joshua Tree National Park.

PS: On top of everything else, my domain expires this week, and AvidNewMedia, the company I registered it with, seems to be taking a powder. So if you're reading this, and want to email me, use my gmail account, or the bigdaddy speakeasy one (I ended up paying to keep it, not bad for $5 a month).

themes

The other day Sumeet asked me what my theme for the road trip was going to be. I didn't have a ready answer other than to say: "premature midlife crisis getaway."

For a while now, I have been thinking about some overarching theme for the trip. It really boils down to two purposes: reconnecting with old friends and family, and documenting (via camera, but I won't rule out writing either) the trip overall.

The reconnection is a bit overdue. It's been over 8 years since I spent more than a few nights on the east coast, trying to catch up with everyone at an all or nothing dinner and drinks at some restaurant or bar.

The documentation part is a bit newer. I'd like to get more involved with my photography to take it to a level above experienced amateur. Hopefully I can get to know my new camera better, and train its eye on new things I'll see and hopefully look at the familiar in a new way. Nothing really original about any of that. So it goes.

I was thinking I could document the dark underbelly of America as I travel from state to state, but that's been done too many times for it to shed any new light, especially given the relatively short time I'll be spending in each place. Maybe I should capture the light overbelly of America, that soft top of the beer gut where you can rest your can of beer while watching the teevee.