Day 50 August 6, 2016 Las Cruces, NM to Home

Our last day. Tonight we would sleep in our own bed at home.  This would be as long a day as yesterday plus we were stopping to visit a friend in Phoenix.  So, we were on the road shortly after 7:00.  We drove west with the sun at our back.  We were definitely in the desert of southern New Mexico.  At one point we were warned of the potential of dust storms, but the wind was quiet. We had over 100 miles to drive to the Arizona border.  Crossing this border also meant we were again back on Pacific time.  Yes, home was getting closer.

The drive across much of Arizona was uneventful.  Again, gas stops, rest areas, and a little exercise.  As we drove through Tucson, we saw the signs for Saguaro National Park and the Desert Museum, both of which we had visited on previous trips here but not to be done again today.  We kept moving to Phoenix.

We wanted to visit our friend Paul Chapman.  He had been Patti’s friend for over 30 years and Dick’s for over 20.  He had had to move from Minneapolis to Phoenix because the cold became too much of a problem for him in the winters.

After he showed us his new place, a home with good support services, and then we were off to have lunch together.  He was transported by the van for the home and we followed to the restaurant.  We had a delightful time with him, catching up on each others’ lives, and eating delicious sushi.  We were so glad we had decided to make this stop.

But, the siren song of home began calling loudly.  By a little after 3:00 we were on the road again.  We were happy it was a Saturday so we had little traffic as we crossed Phoenix to get back on I-10.  We drove west for a bit and then used a connector road south to I-8.  This would be the road that would take us back to San Diego.  As we drove west again, we could see bluish mountains through the desert haze.  It was now over 110 degrees.

We passed through Yuma, Arizona and crossed the Colorado River back into California.  That put us immediately in the Imperial Dunes.  These were the huge sand dunes that had been used as the location for the first scenes in Star Wars on the planet Tatooine where the droids landed ahead of the storm troopers.

As we continued to drive west, we passed huge sets of solar arrays gathering sunlight and turning it into electricity.  Huge tracks of the desert are now being turned into these arrays.  Renewable energy, for sure, but a problem for desert wildlife such as the desert tortoise.  Then as we began to climb into the mountain range that separated the desert from the coast, we saw the giant wind turbines slowly rotating to produce more electricity.  These are springing up all over the country, especially in the West.  Again, good renewable energy but often death to flying hawks and eagles.

The climb up the mountains is like climbing up a pile of boulders that seem to be piled everywhere.  It is strange to see but the road demanded full attention so no photos.  The road climbs over 4000 feet starting near sea level.  Once we were high in these mountains, the sun began to set.  It was glorious to be driving into a red sky.  By the time we started down the coastal side of the mountains, dark was settling in.  We made it home shortly after 9:00 pm Pacific time.  Whew!  After over 700 miles this day and over 11,000 miles total, we were very glad to be home.

The next morning we unpacked the car.  As we moved the bags and boxes from the car into our living room, we could see that we had carried an awful lot of things on our journey.  We did have the satisfaction of knowing we had used most everything other than some canned food and the warmest clothes. 

Our plan had worked.  We had gone where we intended to go, visited the people we wanted to see, and saw the sights we wanted to see.  We had learned so much as we went along. We felt very full.  But, now it was good to be home again.  Soon we will be planning our next grand adventure.

Day 49 August 5, 2016 Dallas TX to Las Cruces, NM

We were on the road early, knowing we had one of the longest day’s drive of the whole trip.  We were now on the last stretch to home with a plan to drive over 700 miles today.  We wanted to get halfway home before we stopped.

Getting out of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area is a challenge.  We drove nearly 100 miles across a complex of expressways and toll roads.   Patti navigated while Dick negotiated the often quick lane changes and heavy traffic of a Friday morning rush hour.  Finally, we settled onto I-20 to take us west.  We knew that Texas is a long state.  We had about 600 more miles to the border near El Paso.

Recently we had been taking the opportunity to work on the blog while driving.  Patti would compose out-loud as she typed.  Dick would listen and offer additions or alternative wording.  It proved to be an effective way to produce the blog.  Of course, it did not work when we were in heavy traffic or needed to find our way.

Dick is always fascinated by the changes in the landscape and Texas offers some real differences.  Just west of Ft. Worth, the countryside is rolling with a combination of low trees and grass.

The hours passed and the temperature rose.  It was soon well over 100.  We stopped regularly for gas, rest rooms, and just a chance to stretch.  We had food in the car so we could keep moving.

A couple hundred more miles and we were definitely in the oil patch.  We saw many pumping wells and oil rigs drilling new wells.  In Midland and Odessa we saw drilling equipment ready for use.  At one point we saw about 50 rigs stored not too far from huge stacks of drilling pipe.  This was definitely a different world from what we were used to.

The further west we drove the drier the land became.  The land was brown rather than the green closer to Dallas.  Little grass could be seen between the creosote bushes.  This is the desert.  And, we still had another 200 miles to El Paso. I-20 ended when we reached I-10.  We would be on this road for the next 600 miles.

For the last 50 miles to El Paso we drove near the Rio Grande River.  We couldn’t see it directly but could tell where it was by the green along it.  We knew that on the other side of the river was Mexico.  We had come a long way from Eastern Canada.  The time changed for us again as we moved into Mountain Time. We got caught in the last bit of El Paso rush hour and some construction but we finally cleared it and made the turn into New Mexico.

Shortly after we crossed the border we could see mountains ahead on our right.  These are the southern end of the Rockies.  Seven years ago we had seen the northern end of the Rockies in the Yukon Territory of Canada and here we were at the southern end.  

 Our destination for the night was Las Cruces, New Mexico, at the foot of the mountains we had been seeing.  Traveling west, our day had been stretched so we arrived just before sunset.  We were happy to check into our hotel, find dinner, and settle for the night.  We even switched on the hotel TV, something we had rarely done on this trip.  We wanted to watch the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics. Then we crashed ready for sleep and knowing we were definitely on our way home.

Day 48 August 4, 2016 Dallas TX

Today was a treat of having a full day with Patti’s sister, Peggy, her husband Rob, son, Drew, and for dinner Drew’s girlfriend, Toni.  Their daughter Mandy was in Florida on vacation with a friend, so we missed her, but got to hear good stories about how she is doing.

Patti, Peggy and Drew went to a favorite restaurant for a lunch of potato chip chicken. We were celebrating Drew finishing one final exam for summer school, with one more test for his other class on Monday.  They had a nice time just the three of them.

Dick took a chunk of the day to work on photos.  He figures that between us, we have taken around 12,000 photos on this trip.  That takes a lot of reviewing, sorting to get rid of bad pictures and to save the really good ones.  He then chooses between 5-10 photos to illustrate each day of our bog.  Then he needs to edits those blog photos to make them ready to upload to the blog.  It has been such a time demand that posting fell behind.

Meanwhile, Patti has taken the lead, with a lot of input from Dick, of writing about our travels for each day.  Sometimes this happens at night, and sometimes she types and they talk about what they will put in while Dick is driving.  Quite a process!

Patti, Peggy and Rob took a dip in their local community pool.  The temperature has remained over 100 degrees, being 104 when we went swimming.  Patti was surprised that they didn’t need a heater on this pool, just the sun, and the water was warm.   Rob swims pretty much everyday after he gets done working outside in his landscape business.  It is hot work!

We gathered informally in the kitchen while dinner was in progress.  This was another time for catching up on each other’s lives.  We appreciate that Toni came over to join us.

Dinner was lovely gourmet meal of smoked salmon, which Rob smoked in their smoker.  There was also a bounty of fresh fruits and veggies.  We ate very well at their home.  Both Peggy and Rob are great cooks.

We enjoyed having a really nice evening that included Toni.  She and Drew have now been together for 5 years, beginning while they were in high school.  She is such a fine young woman, and we all talked until midnight about all kinds of topics. Patti and Toni enjoy following each other on FACEBOOK. It was a treat to see each other in person.

Day 47 August 3, 2016 Hot Springs AR to Dallas TX

Up early to catch a couple of hours at Hot Springs National Park. Patti had visited this place 30 years ago in the spring, when it was cold and having a hot springs bathing experience felt great.  Not today!  Hot-already nearly 90 degrees, before 9:00, and humid. 

This area of natural hot springs has along history of people enjoying the waters.  It was set aside as a “reservation” in 1825 by President Andrew Jackson.  That meant it became government land and could be protected. 

Over the next 100+ years, the government allowed lavish bathhouses to be built.  A town grew up around the baths.  People traveled from all over to come and “take the baths” for health and therapeutic reasons.  Many famous people came there, and it was a world-class destination.  Eventually, it was named as a National Park, preserving both the natural wild areas, as well as the developed areas around the hot springs downtown.  The bathhouses eventually went out of fashion, and most closed.  The National Park Service has been in the process of rehabbing  the old buildings, and two of them are currently open for hot water baths and massage. 

Since we were there before even the Visitor’s Center opened, we walked along the street looking at these grand old buildings on bathhouse row.  They are still glorious.   Many were highly luxurious and we got glimpses of what the visitors would have experienced when they came in the past, and what many people till take advantage of today. The Buckstaff Bath now has modern bathing facilities that are available at a more reasonable price than what was pain 100 years ago.

Highlights included talking with summer interns and rangers about some of the projects they were working on (including using goats to eat invasive species and doing testing of the water from the springs).  The staff was highly knowledgeable and friendly.  We enjoyed our taste, but hot baths when the temperatures are rising just didn’t sound good today.

We noticed a number of fountains.  Although these were not elaborate, they were different.  The water flowing from them was so hot that there was steam along with the water. They were fed directly from one of the springs. This was a very practical way for us to experience the hot waters of the area.

We walked up to the area behind the big bathhouses.  This was developed as the Promenade.  We could imagine the well-to-do patrons of the baths strolling along this brick walkway in their fashionable clothes.

There were over 40 wells or springs producing water at 143 degrees F.  Water from some of the springs is still dedicated to the bathhouses and has to be cooled in order to be used for  baths. Elsewhere, there were springs that had been channeled and some just flowed out-of-the-ground.  One in the middle of a lawn.

The National Park Service had restored one of the bathhouses as a Visitor’s Center.  We were able to go into one that was made into a museum and visitor’s center to see what the grand old bathhouses looked like.   At their time, these were state of the art medical, massage and physical therapy facilities.  We took a very informative self-guided tour of the building.  It was an example of how the rich-and-famous would enjoy the experience with all of the luxury they expected. 

Men and women were separated on two sides of each of the bathhouses.  Usually the men’s side was more elaborate but women still wanted the to bathe, too.  Some bathhouses had to expand their facilities for women because it became too crowded.  We saw the facilities and they were sumptuous on both sides.  Each of the bathers was assigned an attendant who cared for them, even with help in bathing.

The hot springs water was promoted as being “healing.”  There were many reports of miraculous cures of a wide variety of ailments and infirmities.  One example of how the bathhouses prepared to serve these people was the transfer lift to assist those without use of their legs to gain access to a bath.

Especially after the previous two days, we were hypersensitive to the racial divide that was apparent at the time of the heyday of the bathhouses.  Arkansas is in the South and Jim Crow laws were rigidly enforced.  In the big bathhouses on Bathhouse Row, all of the rich patrons were White.  Nearly all of the staff attending to them were Black.  Non-White people who wanted to enjoy the hot spring waters could not enter the big bathhouses. To accommodate their needs, a whole different system of bathhouses was established a couple blocks away.  Of course, these were not nearly as elegant and were not preserved.  But, the memory of them lives on.

By late morning, the road called.  We were due in a suburb of Dallas at Patti’s sister in time for dinner.  So off in our car to head for Texas.  By noon, the temperature was over 100.  Yay, air conditioning!

As we neared the Texas/Arkansas border, we realized we would be driving right by the town of Hope, AR: Birthplace of President Bill Clinton.  His campaign phrase was that he was "A Man From Hope." On this year’s trip, how could we pass this up?  So we stopped.

Bill was born to his young mother a couple months after his birth father had died in a car accident.  She and Bill lived with her parents, and they cared for Bill while she left him to go to New Orleans to finish her nursing training.  She eventually married another man, by the name of Clinton, and Bill at age 15 decided to take the Clinton name, although he was never officially adopted by his step-dad.

The house was modest but nice, and he lived there and visited on and off until his grandfather died when Bill was age 10.  The house does not have original family furnishings, but Bill’s mother was very active as they were setting up the house to become a historic site, sharing a lot of information about what the house would have been like when he was a small child. Bill was a big fan of Hopalong Cassidy, a TV western hero in the 50s.  He was especially drawn to this character because his grandparents' last name was Cassidy.

We joined a house tour in progress and got to get inside this house and see lots of copies of pictures and furniture that would be typical of time.  There was an old fashioned swing on the front porch.  Patti couldn’t resist the opportunity to enjoy it for a few moments.

Then, another 3+ hours to drive until we would reach Patti’s sister, Peggy’s home in the suburbs of Dallas.  So nice to see her and her family. We were warmly greeting.   Of course, Dallas is also HOT!

We would then settle in for a couple of nights on a quick final family visit of this trip. Dinner at Peggy and Rob’s is always excellent, and Rob fixed some really good pork tenderloin on the grill with Drew helping on two delicious sauces.  Peggy made some other wonderful dishes.  We all ate some great food.  It was fun having time together to begin to catch up.   We don’t see each other as often as we would like.

Day 46, August 2, 2016 Memphis TN to Little Rock AR

Memphis to Little Rock took about 3 hours.  We knew we wanted to see The Clinton Presidential Library and The Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.  We decided to go to the High School site first, hopeful that we could get in on a tour which happens only twice a day.  We just missed the first one, but grabbed a spot on the 1:00 one, and so settled in to see what there was to learn here. The high school is still an active school so the access is limited.  The National Park Service site was across the street.  As it turned out, there was plenty to see there!

A little review:  In 1954, The Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal didn’t cut it in terms of education, and ordered schools to integrate but with no timetable. (Look at our blog Day 5, June 22nd  for more information about Brown v Board of Education). Not much happened in many states after the decision.  They tried to ignore the Court.  In 1955, the Supreme Court ordered for a second time that the integration had to happen, now adding that it should be done “with all deliberate speed.” 

In 1955, in response to this order, the school board and superintendent in Little Rock adopted a plan to gradually comply, starting in the Fall of 1957.  They set highly restrictive conditions for admission to the premier high school in Arkansas.  These requirements included both high grades and perfect attendance.  The Black students would not be allowed to participate in any extracurricular activities, including arts and sports. The Board asked for volunteers and got 200 students who applied, but only 19 were deemed to have met the high standards.  As it came closer to the time for school to start, death threats came to the students and their parents.  By the first day of school only 10 black students were prepared to start.   On that first day the students were told to not come because of a huge mob outside the school. 

The second day, the Arkansas Governor Faubus intervened, but rather than supporting the integration, he supported the segregationist mob and ordered the National Guard to prevent the students from entering the school.  Nine of the students got the message to travel together but one student, Elizabeth Eckford, arrived at the school alone.  After being refused entrance to a door at the end of the building, she walked the full block in front of the school to a bus stop where she hoped to escape the screaming, spitting mob.  One student followed her the whole block, screaming vicious, despicable things the whole way. She eventually did use a city bus to escape.  The other nine students arrived a short while later and were also turned away. The situation was so ugly that one of the other students decided to give up, then there were nine.  For nearly two weeks, no further efforts to enter the school were tried while the Nine and their parents wait to see what will happen next.  President Eisenhower tried to convince Governor Faubus to comply with the court order.

A federal judge ordered the National Guard removed and they turned over the situation to the Little Rock Police, who have had little training in dealing with mobs.  The Nine return to the school where there is a large angry mob waiting.  The police slip the students into the school where they go to their classes.  They were of different ages so they would be in classes alone or with only one other member of the Nine. Many of the white students left the classrooms when the Black students entered.  By noon, the mob was pressuring the police line, trying to enter the school.  At one point, one of the mob said, “Just give us one to lynch.”  The police decided to evacuate the Nine, which they did safely. During all of this, the press was very present and very ugly images went out into the world.  When the mob realized the students were gone, they turned on the reporters, especially the Black ones. That evening, President Eisenhower had had enough and ordered in 1200 Federal Troops of the 101^st Airborne, minus their Black members, plus placed the Arkansas National Guard under federal control.

The troops rolled into Little Rock the next day. These were trained soldiers, most just having returned from the Korean War, whose mission it was to get those students in and attending school.  We heard reports of the General calling a school assembly and letting everyone know no trouble would be tolerated.  Many white students transferred to private schools and other school districts.  The Nine were at last allowed to go to school, but did so under armed guard every day.

They were in school but, for them, the situation moved into shunning and harassment on a daily basis: everywhere they went from gym class to the cafeteria to the hallways and sometimes during class itself.  Some teachers were very supportive of the Nine, and other teachers turned a bind eye.  The National Park Service had many first person interviews and news clips from the time, so that we felt like we could really gain an understanding about what this was like.  One of these high school girls, Melba Pattillo, wrote, “Each day I polished my saddle shoes and went to war.”  It seemed like that was a good description.  

When they finally got through that year (school year 57-58) and the one Senior of the Nine, Ernest Green graduated. The Governor and school board tried a new tactic.  As long as they were being forced to integrate, they would totally close down all the public high schools in town.  And they did for the whole next year, known as "The Lost Year.”  There was a long community battle for power which eventually ended in removing from the school board the segregationist members and reopening the schools the next year.

After spending this time in the National Historic Site Visitor's Center, we then had the chance to go into the school on our ranger tour.  Having had so much background about the racial struggles there and elsewhere during this period, it was extremely moving to go visit this school.  It is still a very nice school. On this summer day,  they were doing registration and photos for the Fall.  It is still very much a public school, but entirely integrated.  

As we entered the front door of the school, we immediately saw the extensive display of the story of what happened here in the late 50s. The display honored those 9 students, The Little Rock 9, who so bravely took on the challenge of breaking down that educational barrier. There were photos of the each of them, both at that time and more recently.  Several of the Nine had written books about their experience. The books were on display there, too.  All incoming freshman were required to read one of them to give them a sense of the important history of their school

As we were brought through the auditorium, the cafeteria, the hallways, we saw young people and parents and school staff of a variety of different ethnic and racial backgrounds.  We know that the school district was not finally fully integrated until 1972, but we could see that this school, that had been in the center of such a storm, had eventually come out of it in the way it should have been.  It was good to see this group of students on the stage, knowing that none of the Nine would have been able to join in such an activity.

Across the street from the school was a moving memorial with photos of important happenings through the past 60 years at Central High School.  One of the photos that struck both of us was the one of Elizabeth Eckford and the former student who had been so terrible to her on that day in 1957.  An apology was offered and accepted.  We felt this was a symbol of the reconciliation that has taken place in the community.

We left this highly intense National Historic Site experience filled with awe at the courage of these young people to face the hate everyday throughout their time at Central High School.  In the midst of death threats and constant insults and harassment, they sought and achieved the education they were desired.  Some became adults who stayed quietly in the background, they appeared to have had their time of front-row action.  Others continued to be leaders in gaining equal treatment.  We have a deep appreciation and respect for each of them.

We then drove by the Arkansas Capitol Building and on for a couple more miles to The William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library and Museum.   This is our 5^th and last Presidential Library of this trip.  We are becoming more familiar with how these places work, and were able to soak in a lot of information about the Clinton White house years as well as some of his life before Washington.

They did a very complete job in terms of talking about his accomplishments during that period, a time of amazing prosperity for the country.  They were quite light on some of the self-inflected problems of the Clinton Presidency.  Monica Lewinsky’s name was mentioned once. The whole impeachment effort was blamed on his political opponents trying to take him down rather than any discussion about how he had contributed to it.

Bill Clinton was 10 years old when the crisis at Little Rock Central High School took place.  Living in Arkansas, his  home was filled with discussions about what was going on in Little Rock.  This was an event that had a big impact on the young boy.  As President, he supported the Congress to awarding each of the Little Rock Nine the Congressional Gold Medal. This and the Presidential Medal of Freedom are the highest civilian awards in the country.  One of the medals, collectively given to the Library by the Little Rock Nine, is on display along with photos of the ceremony during which they all received their medals.

That said, there were also lighter subjects to view.  We enjoyed seeing a table set for a White House dinner, gifts of saxophones, lot of other interesting artifacts, and seeing what the cabinet room looked like.

We had a very interesting talk with Claudette, a volunteer docent, and D. Belcher, a security guard.  Each had been involved with the Clintons and the Library for quite some time.  This conversation was the highlight of the visit to the Library.  We talked with them about the Clintons, current politics, times when each of them had met Bill, and many other interesting things.   

We were then able to go into the Clinton Oval office and get our photos taken seated at the Presidential desk.  Thrilling!  And, we thought we both looked pretty good there!  Normally that is a “paid for” photograph, but the volunteer told us, "Go ahead, we’re old friends." Thanks to her! They kicked us out at 5:00 as the museum closed, but we left having felt like we knew the Clintons at lot better having visited this library. 

Just outside of the Library we found one of the Anne Frank Chestnut trees.  There are nine saplings, from the tree Anne Frank could see from her sanctuary and wrote about in her diary, that have been planted in the United States.  Having been to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam in 2014, it was heartening to see this symbol of her spirit.

Then it was hop in the very hot car to drive to Hot Springs AR ... and to grab some quick dinner at the Indian restaurant that was in our hotel building.  Nice to not have to go far for dinner…the evening was not inviting!  Hot, hot, hot! Well over 100.  And humid!