Picking up at Route 66 and I-40, Kingman, Arizona, my sister Linda's August 1982 chronicle:
Hoping the rain would end soon, and yes it is clearing a bit. The roads here are okay, but we've been hydroplaning. The sun is casting her light on top of the clouds -- purple and deep grey, dark blue and scattered low along the horizon, touching wisps to small turquoise mountain peaks. The sky shades into lightest pale blue above the clouds.
Rain in the West is a wonderful sight. Great sheets of vertical silver strands connect black, thunderous, close encounter clouds with canyoned desert or lofty peaks, heightening jags across an immense sky. When wet, the desert does not turn into beautiful flower gardens of delicate hue, but a river of muddy water and flash floods.
"Cyclones will spin, tidal waves flow, somehow the people will still always go." -- Erik D France driving from Mt. Whitney toward the Grand Canyon.
Hualapai Indians. The wet desert hills prior to Kingston [Kingman?] were dotted with the ubiquitous small bushes, but damn fine colorful . . . . . red and yellow ochres and green on rich brown, red black soil.
[At this point, Linda jotted down some of the many "Devil" names of the West we'd seen or heard along the way]:
Devil's Gulch
Devil's Pawn
Devil's Post Pile
Devil's Tower
Devil's Cornfield
Devil's Golf Course
Devil Dog Road
Seven Devils Road
Dust Devils
Devil Dusters
Arrive at Highlander Hotel, Williams, Arizona, having gone 5,438 miles on this trip so far.
Today's Rune: Initiation.
3 comments:
This post reminds me of my own road trip to Arizona (from Niagara,) w/2 brand new friends. I still have the video of us in a copter at Sedona...
Great description of the rain.
Hydroplaning in the desert...that's something to write home about. Route 66...another disinherited American icon, that generations behind us will never know the importance of.
Post a Comment