After our short but great stay at Caprock Canyons State Park, we were feeling the desire to get back to our lives and friends in California. We had been on the road for well over 3 months (our previous longest adventure was 3 weeks!). We had some good things to look forward to, including a 5 day “Bike Camp” in Paso Robles April 16 to 20 and the Wild West Gravel Grinder just outside of Red Bluff on May 7. And maybe even more so, we were excited at the thought of staying in our wonderful Mt Shasta cabin and putting down some roots for a month or two before beginning our next big round of adventure at the end of May!
We decided we were up for some big days of driving just to get back, and by chance our path led to a couple of almost coincidental meet-ups. We hadn’t ever driven much of Interstate 40, which overlaps with the Historic Route 66 for much of the way between the Texas panhandle and California, so we were looking forward to seeing some new scenery, even if only briefly. We figured we could make it back to Chico in 4 big days of 8 to 10 hours driving. Our first day, Friday April 8, got us to Albuquerque where we connected briefly with an old friend of Janine’s for a wonderful home-cooked dinner and a relaxed evening. The weather was warmer and windy. Then on Saturday we had a big day of driving straight west on I-40, from Albuquerque to Kingman, as the wind continued to build and we continued a gradual climb up to about 7000 ft in Flagstaff. The wind was enough to make parts of the drive a “white knuckle” experience, and we had to drive slower than usual but the truck and the trailer both held up well.
By utter coincidence, our good Warsaw NY friends Rosemary and Bill Shader were spending their last ‘winter snowbird weekend’ at their new-ish place in Kingman. And not only that, but mutual friends Marcia and Brad Veley were flying in! They spent Saturday at the Grand Canyon, but with our long drive, we didn’t catch up to them until late afternoon in Kingman. By this time, the wind was pretty much howling! With Bill and Rosemary’s help, we found a good spot for the trailer and got set up for a couple of days worth of reunion fun. We headed out immediately to a great mexican restaurant where we all ate too much and enjoyed margaritas and IPAs!
Sunday, Mike and I got out early for a quick mountain bike ride, and then we all enjoyed a fabulous brunch cooked up by Rosemary and Bill. After that, we all headed into town to visit the Historic Route 66 Museum and Locomotive Park right next door. It was the first time for all of us, and we were all very impressed! The Route 66 museum was very extensive and educational. It included a charming 1 hour movie about the original Route 66 and the historic revival that has boosted the economies of many of the local communities. It also included an electric car museum which was pretty fun! Then we walked over to the Locomotive Park. The locomotive featured at the park was truly massive. It weighs 469,000 lbs! It was built in 1927 and retired, gifted to the city of Kingman in 1953 having travelled 2,585,600 miles. That’s some engineering! We rounded out the perfect ‘tourist day’ with another incredible dinner, again cooked by Rosemary and Bill.
Early Monday morning, Rosemary and Bill drove Marcia and Brad to the airport in Las Vegas to head back to Warsaw NY. We had planned to delay our departure long enough to get a recent windshield chip repaired (before it started cracking…). In spite of a windy night, we were up early and back from the repair by 10am. But with the wind now truly raging, and the forecast for Barstow (likely the windiest area of our anticipated drive) showing winds at 75MPH for the day, we decided we had better just hunker down and wait out the wind. We ran some errands and did some maintenance and cleaning, and were so grateful to use Rosemary and Bill’s laundry facilities. They were also packing up for the long drive back to Warsaw NY so it was a quiet night.
Tuesday we were up at dawn and glad to see the wind was down quite a bit. We were on the road by 8am and once more heading west, hoping to get through I 10 before the wind really picked up. We made it through Barstow without incident and headed on past Mojave and Tehachapi to Bakersfield, where we stayed again at one of our favorite Harvest Hosts, the Links at Riverlakes Ranch Golf Course. We enjoyed a late lunch/early dinner in their clubhouse and in spite of still windy conditions, had another good night’s sleep. Harvest Hosts are the best! On Wednesday, we we were on the road early for the last long but happily uneventful slog north on Hwy 99 back to Chico. What a journey! But also, so great to be ‘home’!