PEACE ON THE ROAD
Traveling Again
May 24, 2013
It has been quite a while
since I wrote anything for a POTR and it is about time to start
writing again. Last fall when we returned to Bentsen Grove Resort I
was having some muscular problems. I think that it was a spinoff
from the West Nile Virus Meningitis. I saw a couple Doctors and one
thought it was a spinoff and the other did not think that it was. So
who knows? I was prescribed some medicine that helped within hours
and I have weaning myself off of them as the Doctors said I should.
We have started our 2013 travels but I still need to write about the
last of our travels in 2012. For quite a while I spent little time
on the computer and therefore did no writing. I did read a lot more
that other years. Also our winter activities were curtailed somewhat
but we still kept active. Every year I get to thinking at some point
and then I say, “This has been a strange year!” I believe that I
should say, “This strangeness is the “normal” for my life!”
Maybe that is a good thing in that it keeps away boredom.
DISPLAY INCLUDING A .463
CALIBER GUN SIMILAR TO THE LEWIS AND CLARK AIR GUN
It is always gratifying
to read something on the Internet which seems very unlikely and then
have a verification pop up seemingly out of the blue. We visited the
Daisy Air Rifle Museum in Rogers, Arkansas and I learned a lot. The
Lewis and Clark expedition has always fascinated me. Sacajawea has
been givenpistol a great deal of the credit for the safety that the
men had with their encounters with the Indians. I received an e-mail
that suggested another factor. Two air rifles that were carried with
the expedition. The rifles could be fired 22 times a minute. It was
demonstrated to the many tribes of Indians that were encountered.
While the expedition only had two of the guns it was implied that
every member had one of the guns or a total of 33 guns. The stock of
the rifles was a pressure reservoir. It is the one in the middle of
the picture with a black stock towards the left side. Spare stocks
could be charged and swiftly changed for more fire power. The
existence of the the Lewis and Clark air gun was confirmed when I
went to the Daisy Air Rifle Museum. As a boy I had a Daisy and loved
it, so a visit to the museum was great. On display were several
hundred different styles of rifles and pistols which ranged from the
Red Ryder Carbine to a simple tube with bent wires creating the
stock. The wire frames were produced during WWII in order to reduce
the amount of steel used. Daisy
started out as the Plymouth Iron Windmill Company. They gave an air
rifle with every wind mill as a premium item. Very quickly the air
rifle became more popular than the windmills and the emphasis
switched to making air rifles. The name came about from a fellow
shooting a metal air rifle, formerly they were mostly made from wood,
at a target and he used the slang of the time to say, “Boy, that's
a Daisy!” In 1890 the company made 50,000 of the rifles which were
sold within a hundred mile radius of the factory. From there the
sales just went up.
TYPICAL
DUNE OF SELENITE SAND AT WHITE SAND NATIONAL MONUMENT
When
people think of sand it usually brings to mind a beige color because
most are quartz based. There is a location in New Mexico where the
sand is white. At the White Sands National Monument near Alamogordo
the sand dunes are composed of gypsum crystals. Gypsum is rarely
found in the form of sand because it is water-soluble. Normally rain
would dissolve the gypsum and it would be transported to the oceans.
Something like 100 millions years the area known as the Tularosa
basin subsided and now it has no outlet to the sea. As the rain
dissolves gypsum from the surrounding Andres and Sacramento Mountains
it is trapped in the basin. The water either sinks into the ground
or it forms shallow pools which eventually dry out and leave a
crystalline form of gypsum called selenite on the surface. During
the last glacial period the area was covered by a large lake call
Lake Otero. When it dried out it left a large flat area covered with
selenite crystals, known today as Alkali Flat. Another lake which
only occasionally fills with water is known as Lake Lucero. Since
selenite is water soluble it can form crystals which are up to three
foot long along the lake shore. Or it can dissolve and then cement
together forming sections of sand which are resistant to erosion by
wind. The dunes are constantly moving and changing because of the
wind. There are plants that grow in the dunes that grow fast enough
to avoid being covered. In dunes that are formed by quartz based
sand the sun can heat them to a temperature that is dangerous to walk
on. The gypsum does not heat up in the suns rays so it is safe to
walk in the dunes even during the hottest summer days. The Monument
is totally within the White Sands Missile Range so it may be closed
for a short period of time while the Army conducts their tests. In
1969 Oryx were introduced to the Basin area with the intent that they
could be hunted for sport. Since they have no natural predators they
soon were invading the monument. They are occasionally seen roaming
within the Monument. I did see some in a captive fenced area in
Texas but of course not in the White Sands. The dunes are truly a
beautiful site. It is a wonderful place to take children for a day
of picnicking and playing in the dunes. There is a lot of sand to
play in.
MULTICOLORED
FORMATIONS IN THE PAINTED DESERT NATIONAL PARK
I
was not aware that Painted Desert National Park and Petrified Forest
National park were so closely associated until we drove through them
both just a few day ago. The Painted Desert as a general area is a
large area of colored badlands in Northern Arizona. The most visited
area, the Painted Desert National Park is near Holbrook. While the
Navajo have lived in the area for five hundred years and the Hopi for
a thousand years with the earliest Native Americans at least ten
thousand years ago, the name for the brightly colored landscape comes
from the Spanish name of "el Desierto Pintado," when it was
first seen and named in the 16th century by white men. The desert is
composed of stratified layers of mineral and decayed organic matter
which started being deposited around 225 million years ago. It was
over a period of millions of years of volcanic depositions,
earthquakes, and inundation by both fresh water and salt water lakes
that formed the layers of colored soil and rocks. Colorful bentonite
clays and sandstone were stacked layer upon layer to form the
landscape. About 60 million years ago the Colorado Plateau was
pushed upwards by tectonic forces and erosion by wind and rain has
cut through the layers and formed dunes that display bands of grays,
reds, oranges and yellows. The area is especially beautiful at
sunrise and sunset when the landscape seems to be bathed in tones of
violet, blue, red and, gold. There are many mesas and buttes that
are scattered around the desert. In the southern portion of the area
is the remains of a Triassic Era coniferous forest which fossilized
millions of years ago. Wind, water and soil erosion have exposed the
petrified trees which are found in the Chinle Formation. The bones
of a small ancestor of the the huge tyrannosaurus was discovered
among the fallen trees of the the Petrified Forest. The bones were
given the name of "Gertie." At the time of the discovery
in 1985 the bones were the most ancient known to science. They were
thought to be about 225 million years old. Gertie has since been
identified as a Staurikour, which is a meat eating creature that was
just seven to eight foot long and weighed about 150 pounds. In 1906,
after many years of tourist removing artifacts from the area, certain
sections were set aside and designated as the Painted Desert National
Park. Part of that area was set aside as the Petrified Forest
National Park. It is amazing to drive through and see the
multicolored dunes and mesas. In the area of the Petrified Forest
there are areas where chunks of petrified trees have broken loose and
rolled down slope till the ground is virtually littered with
petrified wood. Then up on the slope there are tree trunks that are
sticking out the side of a bank and will in a matter of time break
off and roll down the slope. That time could be the next rain storm
or even a million years in the future. There is much to see in
either a short time or in a much longer time if a person has a desire
to drive or time to hike the trails.
ROCKS
ON THE FLOOR OF THE GULLEY AND ONE LOG STICKING OUT THE SIDE
There
are so many places to see in this United States that it is impossible
for me to fathom even a small amount of it. I think frequently of a
friend of mine with whom I talking when we decided that if we spent a
lifetime doing nothing but seeing the places available we could not
live long enough to see it all. At the time we guessed that we could
spend a year in each state from the time we were twenty till we were
seventy and we could make a pretty good dent in some states. However
other states like Texas and California and quite a few others would
require several years.
PAINTED
DESERT WITH A LARGE LOG AT THE TOP AND MANY PIECES BELOW
We
arrived in Flagstaff, AZ a bit earlier today. There are many things
close to here to see and visit. The name of Flagstaff is interesting
in itself. In 1876 a group of young men from Boston came here to
settle. On the Fourth of July they stripped a pine tree of its
branches and bark, then hung an American flag from it. This pine
tree became a landmark for travelers and the area became known as
Flag Pole. In 1881 the citizens of Flag Pole held a meeting to
establish a genuine town and to select a name. Because the Governor
thought that it sounded more dignified the citizens settled on
Flagstaff.
We
plan to be here for several days. The south rim of the Grand Canyon
is close and Barringer Meteor Crater is even closer. I want to see
both places. I find it humorous that we lived in Denver, CO for more
than forty years and we have never been to the Grand Canyon. A lot
of our reasoning was that the Canyon was relatively close, only about
700 mile and we could go anytime. Somehow it always seemed that if
we had a long time we went to places further away and if out time was
limited we went to places closer. But now we should see both the
Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater within a few days.
Till
later this is Doug of
Peace
On The Road
