MSGodfreyArt: Summer--So Far Part I

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Summer--So Far Part I

In my blogs, I like to include information about my art life, as well as my personal and family adventures. This summer, so far, my life is filled with both, and thus, my next posts will cover it all.

Road Trip

On May 31 I flew down to Gilbert, Arizona to help our daughter Rachel and her three children (oh, and one beagle) take the long drive to Oregon--1221 miles to our home. (Josh, my son-in-law, was on a business trip to Hong Kong and Manilla.) I was only in Gilbert for one day before we started the drive, but that is plenty long to see why folks want to leave to beat the summer heat.

I had carefully and diligently looked at maps, TripAdvisor, and the internet to plan a four-day trip. If you look at a map, you will see that there is a whole lot of flat desert between Arizona and Oregon, but we did see a sight or two along the way.

Hoover Dam--a great achievement from the Great Depression.

Then on to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation area where we saw spectacular rocks and one flower.

Then it was miles and miles of sand and sage brush as we made our way to Tonapah, Nevada. Never heard of it? Well, it was a surprising gem of our trip, and well worth a stop. We arrived in the nick of time to have a great tour of the Tonopah Historic Mining Park late in the afternoon. We had a ride around in a quad-like vehicle with a guide full of information about the history, geology and the silver.

Later that night we went searching for ghosts at the Mizpah Hotel. Yes, it was a close call with the spirits that night!

We left Tonopah with the mission to cross the Oregon border for a night at Field's Station. The cafe stops taking orders at 3:30 pm, so we had to drive like crazy to get there in time for a meal. We found Field's Station to be an oasis in the Oregon desert. And we did make it in time to get burgers and milkshakes.