The Adventure Begins . . .

Time and Date:  7:30am, 27 April 2011

Location:  Gilbert, AZ
Odometer:  5118


Early on Wednesday morning, Barry Fluth and Jerry Watkins embark on their journey to Minnesota.  It's rather cool for Arizona this time of year - somewhere in the lower 50s.  But the sun is shining and surely the day will turn out to be a warm one.  ("Don't call me Shirley!")  Jerry hopes so as he is wearing shorts and flip-flops.

We head east on US Highway 60 toward Superior and Globe.  We stop in Globe for a bite of breakfast.  Barry stiffs Jerry for a cinnamon roll, but that's OK because Jerry gets to exchange his shorts for a pair of long pants - much warmer.

As we head on toward Show Low, we cross the Salt River Canyon.  This is definitely one of the more spectacular highway views in Arizona.

Show Low, Springerville, Pie Town and Socorro

Time and Date:  ~11:00 am, 27 April 2011
Location: Springerville, AZ
Odometer: 5272

We stop at Show Low for gas and Barry calls his friends, Bob and Karen Baker, who live in Alpine.  They arrange to meet for lunch at Springerville at a local eating establishment.  After a nice visit and a good meal of local cooking, we head on to New Mexico.

Continuing east on US Highway 60, we leave Arizona and pass through Pie Town, New Mexico - world famous (in Pie Town).  As we had recently finished lunch, we didn't stop for pie.  Pie Town sits astride the Continental Divide, so once we passed it, we had left the Pacific side of the country and were on the Atlantic side.  The difference is quite noticeable.

This area is quite desolate with many picturesque vistas, like this one with an old shack.  We also passed the Very Large Array (VLA), the world's largest radio telescope.  We were obviously involved in some sort of a serious discussion, so we forgot to take a picture of it.

Socorro to Portales, New Mexico

Time and Date: ~6:30pm, 27 April 2011
Location: Roswell, NM
Odometer: 5633

 After refueling in Socorro, NM, we had to figure out how to go about 8 miles south to catch US Highway 380 WITHOUT driving on Interstate 25.  (We have very strict rules about not driving on any Interstate highways.)  After wandering around a bit and getting directions from a local farmer, we ended up driving several miles on gravel roads that run parallel to the Rio Grande irrigation canals.  But eventually, we did end up on Highway 380.  And we saw some nice scenery along the way.

US Highway 380 runs west from Socorro through Carizozo and Capitan to Roswell, NM.  As you can see, the area is pretty desolate.  There is some nice scenery around Capitan, however, with the El Capitan peak (~10,000 ft) to the south.  (This is the area which was the home of the Original Smoky the Bear.)  We Found ourselves in Roswell for dinner and managed to evade the UFOs and aliens long enough to eat.  After dinner, we drove on north on US Highway 70 to spend the night in Portales (pronounced "Port Alice"), New Mexico.


On our way out of town the next morning, we stopped by Bill Daley's house in Portales.  He has been collecting windmills for over 30 years and has many of them displayed in his front yard.  It was early and although the Daley's garage door was open, we didn't disturb them.  We did, however, stop and look around at his collection, which was pretty cool!  This was a nice stop for the "Windmills" part of our tour.

North in Eastern NM

Time and Date: ~9:30am, 28 April 2011
Location: San Jon, NM
Odometer: 5800

 We drove north through Clovis, NM (home of Jerry's father's family) and continued on lonely state highways and very flat ranch land, passing the occasional stock tank windmill.  After some miles, we arrive at a place known as Cap Rock, where the road descends down from the flat plateau on which we had been driving.  This forms a ridge which catches the wind that is already in abundance in this area.  This is an ideal place to put a "Wind Farm," as they've come to be called.

There were probably a hundred or more wind turbines on this ridge, out in the middle of nowhere, generating electricity for millions of people (at least theoretically).  It was an interesting sight.  It turns out that these wind farms must be a little like rabbits.  We encountered a large number of them on the remainder of our trip.  I'd really like to know just how much electricity is really being generated by all these monsters.






A few miles later, we cross under Interstate 40 at San Jon (pronounced "San Hone"), NM.  It was around 9:00 in the morning when we stopped for gas and I walked across the street and took this picture of the town's water tower.


We continue a few more miles north on country roads until we come to Logan, NM, where we intersect US Highway 54 and head northeast.

Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas

Time and Date: ~3:00pm, 28 April 2011
Location: Liberal, KS
Odometer: 6000

 Traveling northeast on US Highway 54, we pass through the town of Nara Visa, NM.  The highway runs parallel to the Santa Fe railroad tracks.  [ Once, in the early 1900s, Jerry's grandfather (who homesteaded land near here) had an accident on his ranch.  His wife loaded him on a buckboard, drove him to Nara Visa, and flagged down the train.  She put him in an empty freight car and he rode to the VA hospital in Albuquerque where he convalesced for 6 months. Probably the most exciting thing to ever happen in Nara Visa. ]  A few miles farther and we're in Texas!

This part of Texas is very flat.  Continuing on US Highway 54, we pass through Dalhart (another town rich in Watkins' history) and Stratford (where we had lunch).  Between Dalhart and Stratford is Conlen, TX, where we see this Giant Cowboy statue.  Kind of a Texas-style yard ornament.

On to Texhoma and across the panhandle of Oklahoma, (passing through it in about an hour) to Liberal,Kansas.

Hutchinson, Kansas -- Minor Car Trouble

Time and Date: ~7:00pm, 28 April 2011
Location: Hutchinson, KS
Odometer: 6205

On the road from Liberal through Meade, Greensburg, and Pratt, Kansas, Barry felt that a clunking sound that had been coming from the front end seemed to be getting more noticeable.  We checked under the hood and noticed that the left shock absorber had come loose from its top mounting bolt.  While this wasn't a serious or dangerous situation, it was bothersome and we decided that we should get it fixed.  The next town of any size on our route was Hutchinson, Kansas.  So we decided to wait until we got there to pursue the problem.

 We arrived in Hutchinson, KS, around 7:30 in the evening and thought that dinner was the first order of business.  After dinner we scoured the town, looking for a motel and a place to have the car looked at.  Since it was late, we decided to attack the shock absorber problem first thing in the morning.

So, at 8:00 the next morning, we showed up at a Midas muffler shop, one of only two or three places that seemed to be able to help us in this town.  After a memorable experience (not in a good way), we ended up with the ruined shock absorber off the car, nothing in its place, and a commitment that a Midas shop in Manhattan, KS, would be able to help.

On the road from Hutchinson to Manhattan, we noticed that the Merc seemed to do fine without the left shock absorber, and although the ride wasn't as good as it should be, it probably wouldn't hurt to drive home without a replacement shock.  So when we got to Manahattan, we decided not to worry with replacing the shock -- and went along happily on our way.

Rural Kansas

Time and Date: ~2:30pm, 29 April 2011
Location: Wamego, KX
Odometer: 6365

 Since Kansas is so flat, most towns need water towers.  This provided many examples of different varieties to observe.  This tower in Bucklin, KS, is an example of an older style cylindrical tank.  Kansas has examples of many different style towers and for those strange people who are interested in this topic, it is a must-visit location.

Windmills are also fairly common in Kansas.  This one small town had not one, but two wind generators right in the middle of town.  It seems that everyone wants to get in on the "wind power" fad.

This is an example of a newer style water tower.  It seems almost unsafe to have that large tank of water sitting atop a skinny pole.  But, obviously they can withstand the Kansas winds (and tornados?) because there are plenty of them.

We visited one special windmill in Wamego, KS.  It is located in a city park.  It was originally built several miles north of town in 1879 by a Dutch immigrant and was used to grind grain for many years.  In the 1920s, it was disassembled, each stone and timber numbered, moved and rebuilt in the park.  It was very cool!

Windmills in Iowa

Time and Date: ~5:00pm, 29 April 2011
Location: Red Oak, IA
Odometer: 6553

It would be a tradegy to pass Stanton, Iowa, and
not stop to visit the home of "Mrs Olson," the famous Folger's Coffee spokesperson.  (If you remember Mrs. Olson, then you are pretty darned old!)  In order to cash in on the fame of the celebrity from Stanton, the town decided to go with a coffee motif in their water towers.







In 1971, the town erected the first tower, shaped like a coffee pot and decorated in a style to celebrate the Scandinavian origins of most of the townsfolk.  The "pot" holds 40,000 gallons, on top of a 90 ft. tower.  The pot is 35 ft high, 20 ft wide, the spout is 10 ft high and 6 ft deep and the handle is 15 ft high -- if you really care.

In 2000, the town completed a 96 ft tall "Coffee Cup Water Tower" to complement its Coffee Pot Tower.  The "Cup" holds more than the "Pot" at 150,000 gallons.  It won the "2000 Tank of the Year" award from the Steel Plate Manufacturer's Association!  (I'll bet you didn't even know such an award existed.)













Just after crossing under Interstate 80 in western Iowa, we came into Elk Horn, home to many Danish settlers in the area.  Elk Horn is also home to the only working Danish windmill in the US.  Built in 1848, the windmill was bought and shipped here for the 1976 US Bicentennial.  Elk Horn couldn't afford to pay anyone to reassemble it, so the townspeople did it themselves.  Unfortunately, the task couldn't be completed until 3 months after the Bicentennial in March 1977.

Finally . . . . Home in Monticello, Minnesota

Time and Date: ~2:30pm, 30 April 2011
Location: Monticello, MN
Odometer: 6964

After seeing the Danish windmill in Elk Horn, IA, we drove north on US Highway 71, stopping at Storm Lake, IA, for the night.  The next day, it was about a 5 hour drive on to Barb and Barry's home in Monticello, MN.  Things went fine and we had a great trip.  Here you see the good ole '53 Merc in Barry's driveway.  The item on the concrete beside the car is the ruined shock absorber.

This fall, another trip is planned for the return to Arizona!