POTR #77 - Traveling Again

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