Off we go on another cross-country jaunt - 23 days to the west coast and back.  We're traveling again with Carolina Tours, with only 23 passengers on a coach named Anne.  

The trip was called Atlantic to Pacific, Part II, because we did Atlantic to Pacific the first time in 2012.  Our route took us through 13 states: Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Nevada, then back through Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas before reaching Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.  

Here are some of the highlights of the trip ...

MISSISSIPPI

Biloxi



Biloxi, on the Gulf of Mexico, was our first overnight stop on the trip.  We stayed at the Beau Rivage, a smoky casino, filled with beautiful flowers inside and surrounded by a beautiful sunset outside.  

 

LOUISIANA 

Atchafalaya and Henderson

Atchafalaya National Heritage Area is home to the world's largest river swamp, a place where natural, cultural and historical resources combine to form a nationally important landscape.  We spent only a short time here (at the Visitor Center), but note here that we want to go back for a longer stay.

Henderson is the place to eat crawfish and other Cajun delicacies.  Crawfish Town USA serves up alligator, boudin, catfish, turtle, crabs, crawfish, gumbo and more.  For the uninitiated, boudin is a combination of cooked rice, pork, onions, green peppers and seasonings stuffed in sausage casings; not for the faint-hearted.  

 

TEXAS

Orange, Austin, Texas Hill Country, Marble Falls, Fredericksburg, Fort Stockton, Amarillo

Orange is the location of the Blue Elbow Swamp, part of Tony Housman State Park and Wildlife Management Area.  Near the Louisiana state line, we walked the boardwalk extending into the swamp - a nice walk, but no sign of the abundant wildlife said to reside here.

 

Austin is the capital of the great state of Texas.  We headed there to visit the State Capitol and the state museum.  The Texas State Capitol houses the state legislature and the Governor's Office; it was completed in 1882 and is one of several state capitols taller than the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC.  The Bullock Texas State History Museum tells the story of Texas in three floors of interactive exhibits; there also was an excellent special exhibit on the "Power of Nazi Propaganda."

 

Austin is also the home of our good friends, Jo Wilson and Carol Bennett, whom we first met six years ago on a tour of the Dalmatian Coast.  We have traveled together several more times, and was a real treat to see them again!

Texas Hill Country is a 25-county region of central Texas; it is characterized by rolling hills covered with grasses, wildflower and scattered live oak trees.  Once known for large cattle ranches and barbecue, today it looks more like Texas wine country.  

Marble Falls bills itself as the heart of the Hill Country.  The town overlooks Lake Marble Falls and its colony of scissor-tailed flycatchers.  The downtown business district contains a nifty collection of sculptures by local artists, as well as the Blue Bonnet Cafe - home of "Pie Happy Hour."

 

Fredericksburg, named after the King of Prussia, was founded in 1846 by German settlers.  The Vireins Kirche was the church first established by those early pioneers.  

The nearby Wild Seed Farms has over 200 acres of wildflower fields surrounding a shop with 90+ varieties of wildflower, grasses, and herbs, fall vegetables, and an assortment of Texas souvenirs. 

 

 

 

Fort Stockton is a living tribute to frontier life, when Comanche Indians, cattle rustlers, and American soldiers came here to find water, buffalo, or just a stiff drink.  The fort itself, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, still stands guard over the city.  The compound includes some officers' quarters, the guard house, reconstructed barracks and kitchen, and the parade ground.  

 

Over in town, the historic Grey Mule Saloon serves as a tasting room for the Ste. Genevieve Winery.  The saloon was built in the 1880's to serve Texas Rangers, cowboys, and U.S. Army troops stationed at the fort.  

 

Amarillo was our one stop in Texas on the return trip home, thus providing an opportunity to visit a local landmark - Cadillac Ranch.  This is not a ranch at all, but a unique bit of public art paying tribute to the evolution of the Cadillac tail fin.  It was created in 1974 by three guys who were part of an art group known as the Ant Farm.  Decades have passed; visitors have stripped the cars to their battered frames and spattered them in day-glo paint.  Just another scenic spot on Route 66.

 

NEW MEXICO

Mesilla, White Sands, Alamogordo, Sandia Peak, Albuquerque

Mesilla was founded around 1850 by Mexican settlers who established a central plaza with San Albino Catholic Church at its south end.  The present-day Romanesque structure was dedicated in 1908; ten years later, it was granted minor basilica status by the Vatican. 

 

There's a lot of history in Mesilla - one of the buildings on the square was once the Capitol of Arizona and New Mexico; it later was the courthouse where Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced to hang.  Many of these old structures now house shops; we saw many items related to the Day of the Dead.  

 

White Sands National Monument is surely one of the world's great natural wonders: nearly 300 square miles of wave-like dunes of white gypsum sand.  This is the world's largest gypsum dunefield, with an ever-changing landscape created as strong southwest winds drive the sand to cover everything in its path.  

 

 

Alamogordo is the closest town to the world's largest pistachio at McGinn's  Pistachio Farm.  The pistachio tree originated in Asia Minor, but it thrives here in the dry climate of the American West.  We toured the orchard, tasted the samples - nuts, candies, cookies, and ice cream.  Enjoyed every bite!

On our return trip, we stopped in Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest city, founded in 1706 as a Spanish colony.  Old Town is  filled with historic adobe buildings surrounding a central plaza with a gazebo used for concerts and other events.

 

The San Felipe de Neri Church was built in 1793 and is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city.  In the corner of the churchyard is the Cottonwood Madonna, a carved image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History is dedicated to preserving the art of the American Southwest and the history of Albuquerque.  Its sculpture garden includes over 60 pieces by regional artists.  

 
    

The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center is owned and operated by the Indian Pueblos of New Mexico and dedicated to the preservation of Pueblo Indian Culture.  The center contains an excellent collection of Pueblo pottery and art, as well as a delicious chance to try some hot fry-bread.

 

Sandia Peak stands 10,378 feet tall in the Cibola National Forest, just east of Albuquerque.  We reached the top via the aerial tramway - a 2.7 mile ride over rugged, beautiful terrain.  The peak offers a panoramic view of the Rio Grande Valley.

 

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta was the #1 highlight of our trip.  This is the world's largest hot air ballooning event, as pilots, crews and spectators from all over come to see hundreds of balloons floating above the city at dawn.  We rose long before the sun to experience the mass ascension --  when some 500 balloons rose together in coordinated waves.  

 

 

 

We were able to walk around the launch field among tethered balloons of every shape, size, and color.  As the propane burners inflate the balloons against the dark sky, they seem to flicker like giant psychedelic light bulbs.  

 

Launch directors, known as zebras because of their black-and-white striped outfits, orchestrate the lift-off so that balloons leave the field in safe manner.   And off they go - the sight of so many balloons in the sky is breathtaking.  

 

 

   

ARIZONA 

Tucson, Yuma, Kingman, Williams, Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Painted Desert 

Tucson was our first stop in Arizona.  Here we visited Tohono Chul Park, a wonderfully compact botanical garden that showcases Sonoran Desert habitat, flora, fauna and art.  

 

 

 

 

Yuma is perched on a bluff above what's left of the Colorado River.  Main Street is home to Lutes Casino, the state's oldest pool hall and a most entertaining place to stop for lunch.  Some of our crew even tried the house special - a cheeseburger topped with a fried hot dog.  Yummy. 

One of its historic landmarks is the Yuma Quartermaster Depot, which supplied military posts all over the Southwest for 20 years after the Civil War.   Ocean vessels brought goods into the Gulf of California, where they were loaded onto steamboats for the trip upriver to Yuma, where they were shipped further upriver or overland in mule wagons.  

 

Today the Depot houses an interesting exhibit about the Colorado River, the once wild and uncontrollable waterway that is now the most dammed river in the world.  It slows to a mere trickle at the Mexican border, just south of Yuma.  The two photos below show the Yuma Territorial Prison as viewed from the Depot - in 1900 and today.  Most of the water is diverted for irrigation; locals point out that the dams brought a secure water source, green hydropower, and freedom from flooding.  At what cost?

 

Kingman bills itself as the Heart of Historic Route 66.  Its Route 66 Museum is devoted to the history of the U.S. Highway that stretched from Chicago to Santa Monica until it was largely supplanted by Interstate 40.  Today the lure of discovering the "Mother Road" has put Route 66 back on the map.   

 

Williams is known as the Gateway to the Grand Canyon, the place to catch the steam-powered train to the South Rim.  The first train arrived in 1901, but then came the automobile and many American railways were lost.  Today the Grand Canyon Railway provides vintage train service along a century-old rail line, complete with train robbers ...

 

Grand Canyon National Park is probably the world's most spectacular example of the power of erosion at work.  For the past 6 million years, the Colorado River has created a chasm 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and a mile deep.  The numbers are impressive, but they can't begin to describe the majesty of this beautiful place.  Neither can I, so here are a few pictures.

From Mojave Point :

 

From Bright Angel Trail:

 

From Rim Trail:

 

Petrified Forest National Park features one of the world's largest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood.  Three million years ago, this was a forest of redwood-like trees.  The park also contains an abundance of other fossils, as well as evidence of pueblo-dwelling humans. 

 

The Painted Desert is an expanse of badland hills, mesas and buttes.  It is an arid land, sparsely vegetated and heavily eroded.  It's name refers to the rainbow of colorful sedimentary layers exposed in this austere landscape.

 

 

CALIFORNIA

San Diego, Coronado, Escondido, San Juan Capistrano, Long Beach, Garden Grove, Yosemite, Sequoia

San Diego is surf, suds and sunsets; San Diego IS Southern California.  Old Town State Park preserves a section of San Diego that shows what the area was like as it evolved from Mexican Pueblo to American frontier town.

Casa de Estudillo, built in 1827, is a carefully preserved example of an upper-class residence at the height of Mexican San Diego.  The horseshoe-shaped home is arranged Spanish-style with its many rooms opening onto an interior, open-air courtyard.  

 

 Most of the other buildings date from 1846, when the first U.S. Flag flew over Southern California.  There is a bank building, a general  store, and a couple of hotels.  

 

Bazaar del Mundo features a traditional plaza ringed with shops and cantinas.  Flowers, mariachi music, and dancers give the place a festive atmosphere, while shops offer some of the best arts and crafts north of the Rio Grande.

 

 

The Church of the Immaculate Conception dates its history to 1542, when the Spanish explorer Juan Cabrillo landed here.  The present building was built in 1917.

The Embarcadero was once a bustling maritime trading center on San Diego Bay.  Here is Tunaboat Basin, with a long history of fishing still seen in its huge fleet of small, independent fishing boats. 

 

Nearby is the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier commissioned at the end of World War II.  It was the largest ship in the world until 1955, as well as the first U.S. aircraft carrier too big to transit the Panama Canal.  It was decommissioned in 1992 and is now a museum and memorial.

Adjacent to the ship, there are a couple of eye-catching sculptures.  One is known as the "Kissing Statue," a 25-foot-tall couple modeled after the renowned photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt.  Its official name is "Unconditional Surrender."  The other is "A National Salute to Bob Hope and the Military" - life-sized bronze statues of Bob Hope and 15 service men and women of different conflicts, arranged as if attending a Bob Hope Show.  

 

Elsewhere around town, there is some above average graffiti, many colorful murals depicting history and everyday life.  One of these murals adorned a building scheduled for demolition.  Community protests led to preservation of the walls, which now surround a parking lot.  

 

Coronado is the small town/island across the bay, connected to San Diego by the Coronado Bridge.  The past and present of the community are tied up in its most famous landmark, the Hotel del Coronado, and its biggest employer, the massive San Diego Naval Air Station.

 

Escondido is home to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, formerly known as the San Diego Wild Animal Park.   The park is about as close as you can to the wilds of Africa and Asia without leaving this continent.  More than 3000 animals roam freely over much of its 2200-acre expanse.  There are rhinos wallowing in waterholes, giraffes looking for a handout, antelopes grazing, even a Sumatran tiger.

 

 

San Juan Capistrano  is known for its mission, founded by Franciscan Father Junipero Serra in 1776.  Its Great Stone Church was destroyed by earthquake in 1812, but there are other beautiful things to see: the Sacred Garden and Bell Tower, the central courtyard surrounded by stone arcades, and the Serra Chapel - the only original California mission church still standing on the spot where the founder is known to have celebrated the sacraments.  

 

 




Long Beach is the permanent mooring place for the R.M.S. Queen Mary, which had her maiden voyage in 1936.  She's been transformed into a floating hotel, with some unique features remaining in her staterooms.  The little round air holes near the ceiling blew warm air from the boiler rooms or cool sea air from the outside.  Inside the shower there are fresh and salt water taps; saltwater baths were thought to be therapeutic, and with plenty of salt water on hand, this dual plumbing was installed in every first-class cabin.  The old girl is showing her age, but what a special place to spend the night!  

 

 

Garden Grove is home to Christ Cathedral, one known around the world as Robert Schuller's "Crystal Cathedral."  After Schuller's death, the property was purchased by the Catholic Church.  The glass and steel sanctuary is undergoing renovation to become the Cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Orange County CA.

 

Heading east, the golden hills of California are beautiful, but this is a relatively new landscape as Spanish missionaries caused significant changes  by introducing new plants and animals.  Grazing lands were created by burning lowland slopes to support large numbers of cattle, horses and sheep.  By the mid-1850s, the transformation was complete and the hills are covered by non-native plants that are golden-colored in the dry season.

 

Yosemite National Park is one of America's most visited parks.  It has lush valleys, rugged mountains, plunging waterfalls, and towering rock faces - what's not to love? Our visit was short but sweet ...

Half Dome is a big chunk of granite, named for its distinctive shape.  It rises nearly 5000 feet above the valley floor and 8000 feet above sea level, and is perhaps the most recognizable symbol of Yosemite

   

El Capitan is a vertical rock formation that rises over 3000 feet above Yosemite Valley.  It is a favorite for rock climbers, experienced rock climbers.  This rock gives meaning to the word "awesome."

Yosemite Falls is the world's fifth tallest, at 2425 feet.  We hiked up to Lower Yosemite Falls, only to discover another facet of California's drought - there was barely a trickle of water dripping over the rocks.  No water, but there was a cute squirrel dining on pine cones.  

 

Lost Arrow Spire is a detached rock pinnacle adjacent to the wall of Yosemite Falls.  Legend says this finger of granite was formed by a fallen arrow from a long ago deer hunter.

North Dome is a granite dome said to offer commanding views of Half Dome and Yosemite Falls.  We settled for looking up from the valley floor.

Yosemite Valley was carved out by a long-ago glacier, about 8 miles long and up to a mile deep.  It probably ranks higher in scenery per square foot than anywhere else in the world.  

 

Glacier Point, at 7200 feet, offers great views over Yosemite's mountains, valleys and backcountry.  Three waterfalls (Illillouette, Nevada and Vernal) can be seen simultaneously, as well as the back side of Half Dome, which is not visible from the valley floor. 

Tunnel View provides one of the most famous views of the Yosemite Valley.  From here you can see Bridal Veil Falls and El Capitan rising from the valley floor, with Half Dome in the background.  

Sequoia National Park is America's second oldest national park.  Big trees are the prime attraction, with many groves of giant sequoia scattered along the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  And ... there is at least one bear!





Giant Forest, named in 1875 by John Muir, is celebrated for its beautiful sequoia trees.  The Congress Trail allows an up-close look at these magnificent trees.  Note the (very small) man standing at the base of the first tree.

The General Sherman Tree is the biggest of the big.  This gargantuan tree, while neither the tallest or the widest, is considered the largest living tree in the world because of its volume.  It weighs about 3 million pounds and is thought to be about 2200 years old.  Its circumference at ground level is 103 feet; its height is 275 feet.  It is BIG!  It is almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty and big enough to drive a car through.

Moro Rock is a large granite dome, elevation 6725 feet.  We climbed to the top of this barren rock for an unparalleled view of the Great Western Divide and its many canyons.

 

NEVADA

Las Vegas

Las Vegas is known for its nightlife, with 24-hour casinos and live entertainment.  Downtown, the Fremont Street Experience  is a different kind of entertainment - the ultimate block party.  A four-block stretch of Fremont Street is covered by a giant digital screen that comes to life each evening with a loud and lively sound and light show.

 

OKLAHOMA

Oklahoma City 

Oklahoma City is the state capital and biggest city in the Sooner State.  Its two biggest attractions are the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum and the Oklahoma City Memorial and Museum.

The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum is all about Western history, art and culture.  The museum has an extensive collection of Western art and artifacts, including works by Remington, Russell, and Fraser.

 

The Oklahoma City Memorial and Museum tells the story of April 19, 1995 and the days that followed the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.  The memorial honors those who were killed, as well as those who survived.  This field of empty chairs, one for each life lost, encompasses the footprint where the Murrah Building once stood.  

 

 

ARKANSAS

Fort Smith and Little Rock

Fort Smith is/was home to Miss Laura's, one of several houses of ill repute serving this border town on the edge of Indian Territory.  Miss Laura Ziegler ran one of the most celebrated bordellos in the Southwest.  Her ladies were known to be the most refined and the healthiest in town.  Today the place has been turned into the visitor's center, but Miss Laura is still recruiting....

Little Rock is Arkansas' biggest city, where the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park is located on the banks of the Arkansas River.  The Center has interactive exhibits with all about President Bill Clinton and his time in the White House.  There are replicas of the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room, a Chihuly Christmas tree, and some of Bill's saxophones.

 

The River Market District in downtown Little Rock is filled with bars, restaurants, shops, and crazy sculptures.  We enjoyed some good food at the Flying Fish.

 

TENNESSEE

Memphis

Memphis is famous for its influential strains of blues, soul and rock 'n' roll that originated here.  Elvis Presley and B.B. King recorded albums at Sun Studio here. 

 

Beale Street is full of music and musical memories, though it was relatively quiet when we were there at midday for some seriously good ribs at the Blues City Cafe. 

St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital is also in Memphis.  It was founded by Danny Thomas as a shrine to St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of lost causes.  Today it is known for its pioneering research and treatments for kids with cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

The Peabody Hotel is another Memphis landmark, best known for its daily Duck March.  Each day at 11 AM, five ducks, escorted by the Peabody Duckmaster, march from their rooftop Duck Palace to the elevator, down to the ground floor, and across the red carpet to the fountain in the center of the lobby.  They do the reverse trip at 3 PM.  It's a big event - always draws a crowd.  

From Memphis, we wasted no time heading back home - across Tennessee and North Carolina (with a quick stop for ice cream at the Farmers' Market in Asheville).  It was a fun trip - with old friends and new - but it's always good to be back home again.