Texas Through the Windshield

 On our way back from California/Arizona/Grand Canyon, we passed through the panhandle. The wind was over 40 miles per hour and was creating an old fashion sand storm.

 The sandstorm reminded me of my childhood in West Texas. Back during those days, storms such as this was common.

 There were some storms that once when a group of us were caught out in the pasture afoot, we had to hold hands to keep from getting lost.

Once when I was in the first grade, a wind storm hit while I was walking to a friend's house. I had to lean forward at a 45 degree angle in order to walk forward.

 Later when we moved to central Texas, it seemed everytime we went back to West Texas to visit relatives, we would get into at least one sand storm.

 With better soil conservation techniques today, the above is less common. But obviously, if the wind blows hard enough, the land will still move on down the road.

The good part--other than giving me an opportunity to shoot a rather rare occurence for a central Texan--was that we were going with the wind and got 44 mph along this stretch of the road.

California Through the Windshield

California

May 2011

Entering California from the lower third of the state one sees a combination of mountains and

desert.

The scenes through California speak for themselves.

Note: in the middle of this photo is a bald eagle perched on a ledge overlooking the river. Fish for dinner?

 As one travels farther north the trees become taller and taller.

Coastal redwoods. The Avenue of the Giants was an incredible drive. We tried photographing the canopy made by these magnificent trees, but they blocked the sunlight and none of the shots was successful. The tallest redwood is 115.6 m or 379.3 ft.!

Getting nearer our destination: Humboldt State University, Arcata, California.

California Houses and Buildings

 Does anyone from California recognize this building?

 If you said, "the Governor's Mansion", you are correct. We stayed in a hotel about a block or so from the Governor's Mansion and were able to walk around the area before resuming our trip.

 We were impressed by many of the houses in the immediate area around the mansion.

 The houses and building in the Arcata/Eureka area were equally impressive.

This is the "Pink Lady" Carson house in Eureka. It was built 1889 by William Carson, a pioneer lumber baron of Northern California, who had it built as a wedding gift for his son Milton Carson. 

The pink and white color is to contrast it with the Carson Mansion across the street. 

The Carson Mansion.

The mansion now belongs to a private club know as the Ingomar Club. Just to the left of the house is the basin used to dock all the yachts.

Arizona Through the Windshield

 

Last May Christine and I took a trip out to California. One may remember our biking the Grand Canyon rim stories.

But first we were headed to northern California to attend the college graduation of our oldest son. There was Arizona scenery that I just couldn't resist photographing, so Christine drove to free me up to snap some of the things we saw through the windshield.

 Somewhere between Flagstaff and Williams, the sky became quite cloudy.

 Soon we were in a pretty good snow storm.

 Remember, this was in May. We were packed and dressed for a Texas May.

 As soon as we were out of the "mountains", the weather became normal--at least for us.

 We stayed the night in Arizona, and in the morning were awakened by the roar of motorcycles.

 It was a group of French nationals (we know because we asked them) touring by motorcycle. They had baggage support by a tourist company.

 Note: they weren't fooled by the sun's being out. They were dressed appropriately for their trek.

They turned right toward the Grand Canyon. We turned left toward California.