The Great Plains - June 6, 2009

Today was our longest day as far as both miles and hours driving, 624 miles, 8.5 hours. We made no stops except for fuel and food, if you can call stopping at a MacDonald's to microwave our leftover buffalo burgers from dinner the night before a food stop. We were still tired from chasing the buffalo over a cliff the night before and preparing the burgers. Although the KOA in El Reno provided us with a nice shady spot for camping, it was right on I-40 and that traffic did not cease all night. It thundered through the night but only a little sprinkling of rain dropped on us. It was clear and dry in the morning.

The trip through western Oklahoma, the panhandle of Texas and most of New Mexico was uneventful. Lots of wind turbine fields in Oklahoma and Texas which surprised us because both of them are big oil states.

We camped in the evening at El Morro National Monument. Until the railroad was built 25 miles to the north of El Morro, it served as a waystop for everyone passing the area. This included pre-historic Indians who lived at El Morro in the 13^th and 14^th centuries, the Spanish and Americans. Its attraction is a large pool at the base of the rock which provides water year round. The soft sandstone of El Morro allowed visitors over six centuries to carve petroglyphs, names and quotations into the rock. The earliest writing is by the Spanish governor of the region in 1605. To put it in perspective, this was 15 years before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Today, there are more than 2000 inscriptions carved all over El Morro.

At an elevation of about 7500 feet it was a cold night. We had most of our gear on for sleeping. Dave was somewhat out of breath during our ½ mile walk to see the inscriptions on El Morro but did OK after taking it slowly. Tom was also challenged but just the slight uphill walk to the pool at El Morro. This is just the beginning of our high altitude travels so we better get used to it. We slept a peaceful nine hours with only the sound of the wind in the trees, night birds and coyotes howling and laughing in the distance to lull us to sleep. With just instant coffee and freeze dried eggs for breakfast we headed out.

Next: One of the seven wonders of the natural world.

GM News

Just a quick note from blogHQ. GM made deals to sell two of its brands last week. Hummer is going to a Chinese conglomerate. Saturn is being sold to Penske - an auto parts, car dealership, auto racing concern based in Michigan. For the near term, GM will manufacture Hummers and Saturns at its existing factories under license for the two buyers, which will then resell the vehicles. It is predicted, especially for Hummer, that production will move overseas - Expect to see Chinese built Hummers in Shanghai pretty soon (possibly driven by the People's Army, until they run out of the People's gas!). Penkse may keep some Saturn production in the US, but that would depend on number of factors that are hard to predict right. Both deals are tentative, especially the Hummer sale, which requires Chinese Government approval.