Dreams, Moments, Travels
We’ve stayed at the California Inn in Ontario many a time, and on every visit, Caroline and I both when going to the toilet, have recognized the image of the skull of Satan in this tile. It’s not in just one room; it’s in every room at this motel. Most often, the TV is set to the porn channel that is free in every room too. We often wonder about families that might end up staying here.
This is Mark Shimer. I hired Mark for his first graphics assignment following his graduation from a Phoenix Technical School.
We are meeting Mark in Little Tokyo, Downtown Los Angeles, for some Shabu Shabu and shopping at Kinokuniya Book Store, maybe even a walk down 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. Mark is now a recent nominee for a Technical Emmy – congrats, Mark. Part of the weekend was spent visiting my father, who was ill at home, but thrilled with our visits.
Maybe it’s a reflex to smile when the camera is pointing at you, but these are the most bewildering smiles as we are here in Window Rock, Arizona on the Navajo Reservation to lay Dion’s father, Wilson, to rest. This should be a solemn day, but on the other hand, we are here to celebrate that Wilson Terry was enjoying the company of friends and family near the time of passing.
After the church ceremony in St. Michaels, we had to pick up a couple of Dion’s nieces Amanda and Monica who were traveling with us to Wide Ruin, where Dion’s grandmother lived. Dion’s mom, Charity, was traveling with other family members. This was an honor that will never be forgotten.
By this time, Caroline and I had known Dion Terry for a solid five years and helped encourage his push into art as a profession. We’d just returned from our long trip across America, and the next day, Dion called asking if we’d join him and his family for Thanksgiving; after our encounter with this country, it seemed incredibly fitting to have this celebration feast with a Native American family. Tragically, Dion’s father passed away just a few days later.
This is our journey up to Window Rock, Arizona, where Wilson Terry is being laid to rest.
Only about 90 miles north of El Paso, Texas, is this little outpost of Alamogordo, New Mexico, where the German Air Force comes to train its pilots. Sadly there’s not a German restaurant to be found, not much of anything else for that matter. To say Caroline was surprised by this sign would be an understatement. Breakfast was here in town at a place called Ramona’s, where we were treated to another yummy Mexican meal. (As of 2018, this place no longer exists)
This is the reason we didn’t continue west from El Paso: Welcome to White Sands National Monument.
Wonder what the chances are that 10 million years from now someone discovers my wife’s footprint?
Or maybe in 100 million years, someone will find our handprints?
After enjoying near-perfect weather for most of the trip our last day out here is again spectacular. Nothing like a thin layer of water to make for a nice reflection of the dune.
While the sand might look like snow, it is not, though from the piece of ice Caroline picked up from some pooling water, it’s apparently cold enough out here for it to snow.
Starting the final leg home and our last selfie on the road.
Ultimately, there would be four dollars stapled to these walls and shelves from four different occasions at Steins Mercantile (pronounced Steens) here in Steins, New Mexico. Sadly, this old ghost town location was shut down after the owner, Larry Link, was murdered in an unsolved crime 11 years after our visit. As of 2018, there might be some limited tours available by reservation only, but I can’t confirm that as of this writing.
We finally had to try to get a picture of this old VW bus christened the “Mighty Bussalo.” We’d been passing each other since the Louisiana border, and here we were in Arizona, passing one another for the last time. Over the years, we’ve looked for a sign of this car on the internet but never found a thing. The amounts of times we’d passed each other had started to become absurd, and each time it would put giant smiles on our faces.
I tried to tone down the colors, but as vibrant as they were as we were entering Phoenix, Arizona, I blamed our camera for not being able to properly deal with the contrast in light and dark. Anyone who has lived here will know that, in fact, this is not all that far off from the truth. We are almost home after driving 8,722 miles out and back across America.
While out for these past 21 days we did a fair amount of shopping trying to collect local flavors. The next images are the results of our haul.
Oh yeah…a vibrating bed and it only costs 25 cents for 15 minutes…plenty long enough. Just where do you find this kind of luxury? At the Antlers Inn Motel in Flatonia, Texas, room 111 and it only cost us $40 – oh yeah!
Guess what happens when you arrive somewhere at 7:50 in the morning? You leave because the place is closed; that’s what you do. This was and is the Alamo. I suppose we’ll just have to remember the Alamo as a place we could have visited.
In Junction, Texas, we turned black & white as we entered the Twilight Zone. This is Caroline driving. Flat, wide open, clear weather, and me being tired were all the conditions that had to align like planets in some celestial once-in-a-hundred-years event that triggered this rare phenomenon. Lost from this excursion into the Twilight Zone were my favorite sunglasses she was borrowing, my Dolce & Gabbana’s.
Ozona had us thinking of Arizona. Getting closer.
We have a ways to go, but the landscape is beginning to look familiar.
Finally, after 20 days out in America, we are back home, not.
An old German V-2 rocket that had been brought to the United States from Germany along with Wernher von Braun and 120 of his fellow Nazi rocket engineers. This fine specimen is sitting at Fort Bliss, Texas, where I was stationed with the Army back in the ’80s after I first left Germany. Caroline and I visited the base so I could show her a little bit more about my past. The barracks in the background are similar to those that I lived in during my short stay here in El Paso, Texas.
Just finished an excellent dinner at Avila’s Mexican Food. Being back in the Southwest has its perks.
Our last night on our cross-country adventure was spent here at the Western Motel (now the White Sands Motel) in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Nearly 13 hours traveling across Texas, accumulating over 700 miles.