Maricopa and USA road trip
Our drive from the south rim of the Grand Canyon was under blue skies but accompanied by a lot of wind! The landscape continued to be filled with craggy rock faced cliffs rising up from a now green desert scape (cactus amongst green bushes and grasses as the monsoon season had dropped a fair bit of water on the area). All went well driving until the rush hour traffic to get around Phoenix to reach the more southerly Maricopa. When the GPS went up to a 30 minute delay it kicked back in and rerouted us so that we were only 5 minutes behind schedule to arrive at Celine's home.
A few days of rest, swimming, shopping with Celine and time once again to hit the road.
We headed out on a Sunday so no more Phoenix rush hour traffic. The day was on the windy side but otherwise clear and hot. We drove through the surprisingly hilly landscape of Arizona. The deserts were greener than usual and had an abundance of shrubs and grasses to accompany the cactus. We continued to marvel at the fractured rock cliffs faces and reddish coloured mounds. This continued on into New Mexico whose landscape is very similar. Overnight was in Tucumcari, New Mexico.
Onwards our journey carried through more of New Mexico and into corners of Texas and Oklahoma with a large stretch in Kansas and a bit in Missouri where we stayed overnight in Kansas City. On this day the landscape changed from the deserts to the tree covered more northern landscape. From fractured hills to rolling farmland to flat as the eye can see. An unusual sight was the cattle holding pen / round up center in Texas that held hundreds of thousands of cattle in thousand of corrals / pens with dark muddy ground. The sight was on both sides of the road and stretched out to the horizon. All those cows and only 2 humans were spotted - cowboys on horseback.
Next morning threatening skies! The landscape was more of the same but towns and cities were closer together and that meant traffic. It really did not hold us up (except 1 5-mile stretch) over the first 4.5 hours. But in the afternoon we were hit by a lot more road construction around several towns, and with a white out downpour of rain (white knuckle driving for me following the tail lights of the truck in front). What should have taken an hour took two. Fortunately the rain tapered off and stopped and we arrived in Richmond on the eastern border of Indiana only 1/2 hour later than planned. States traversed today was most of Missouri, followed by Illinois and Indiana.
Finally a completely overcast day. No rain but pretty drab. Straight away we were out of Indiana and into Ohio. Landscape now much more eastern maritime. Hardwood trees dot the land and as we cross Ohio and Pennsylvania we have whole forests of them. It's still early in the season but a few of the trees have already started to change colour.
This road trip has been interesting for the number of cargo carrying large trucks - making up easily 60% of the road traffic. And on a negative side the enormous quantity of road works posted and obstructing traffic (only a few had any workers near them).
Last USA road trip day was sunny blue skies with fog just lifting as we set out. The traffic no longer featured the large trucks which now accounted for less than 10%. Softwoods now formed a good portion of the forests and toll roads seem to spring up like weeds. To finish this day we boarded the Casco Bay Ferry to head out to Long Island, Maine. The ferry ride was in the continuing blue skies with sailboats out for practice and fishing vessels returning to port. On Long Island we visited relatives from Dad's side of the family. My third cousin Mark Green (his wife Linda was away teaching in Massachusetts), as well as Mark's Uncle (my second cousin) Lloyd and his wife Barb. You'll have to read the family tree for more relationship info.
Mark took us for a tour of the island pointing out where his various relatives lived through the years and the various uses portions of the island followed. Now an incorporated town and self reliant. Then on to the ferry for the return to Portland, lunch and shopping at several discount outlets in Freeport.
The ferry itself was comfortable and the cabin perfect for sleeping. We were rocked all night as the ocean had a wind on and before we knew it time was there to head for breakfast and off the ship to customs. Last stop - Aunt Lucia's home for a couple of days.
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