The chi and I did get many kicks on Route 66, but when we got to route 58 in California, I wanted to kick el perro in the rump. I might have done so, but after what he had just rolled in at the Tehachapi dog park, I decided to spare my shoe the agony!
Our night's rest in Kingman AZ was quite pleasant. My hotel was in earshot of the mighty east-west Santa Fe railroad mainline, so the rumble of locos kept us company through the night. Even better, the train line runs right past the Kingman doggie park, which we visited in the early morn before hitting the road. We saw a nice stack train which we ended up racing to Needles California later on. Such good living.
Much as I love trains as they are, one Kingman park shows why it is so easy to get into locos as they once were. I am not sure when/where the big brute in the park ran, but I am sure it was something to behold. Even now, this old engine just looks like a mean old dragon. Booms is oblivious to these things - he still thinks of himself as Earth's greatest snorting source of primal power; he has blinders on when confronted by the real thing.
The ride home from Kingman wasn't too bad - just long. Once we cross the lovely Colorado River at Needles - which we did within an hour of leaving Kingman - the whole ride was in the familiar confines of The Golden State. Troubled though Cali is these days, I still have the hairs on my neck standing up when we cross the border. The Mojave at Needles couldn't be LESS like Oakland if it tried, but it still feels like home. It is home. It's California.
One side-effect of the drive across the Mojave is that the chi finally had a spot in the warm sun to sleep in. It had been mostly chilly in the drive so far, but this lovely Sunday morning in the desert was in the mid-60s and warming up under a lovely sun.
Normally, I am in the Mojave in the summer. This is my first prolonged exposure to it in Winter, and it is awesome. The car we picked up in ABQ is old and not the kind I will be taking out to these parts come July, but I am very tempted to carve out another weekend visit to these parts before the winter is out. It is just lovely beyond words. It doesn't hurt that this part of the desert is also lousy with big train action: the BNSF east-west main, the UP main from SLC to LA, and even the little Arizona And California out at Parker AZ and Blythe CA. I am tempted to go this weekend, to tell the truth.
Seeing the train lines so busy, I had high hopes that Tehachapi would be stuffed solid with trains, and that when we found the new Tehachapi Dog Park, we will have found the perfect place where dogs can play and weird train nerd owners can watch large loco action. As it turns out, the Tehachapi Dog Park will be just such a place when the trains are actually running! The line went dead east of Barstow because they were doing maintenance on the tracks near the Tehachapi Loop. All was quiet on the railroad line, which probably is for the better since things weren't quiet at the doggie park. Far from it. My joy was pierced by the epic squish of a naughty chihuahua doing an imitation of a pig!
While the above photo is nasty - I promise, I could have shown worse. To make a long story short, just know I trusted the chi to walk off leash down to the park gate, and in doing so, I gave him the freedom to find the largest dog pile in the county in which to do a head-first dive. Booms like to apply poop-cologne often, but usually I catch him, or there isn't enough to truly cover him. In this case, he found enough to cover himself head-to-toe. I nearly fainted approaching him from 10 ft. away!
Needless to say, I wasn't pleased. I love the new dog park at Tehachapi, but there was no dog washing area in the park, so I had a grim prospect to face. Thankfully, the very nice people at the Canine Creek pet store in town were still open and were able to set me up with a self-serve doggie wash booth, complete with the special soap they pulled out just for us - the kind one needs to de-stink the worst smelling dogs known to man! I promise you, no car is smaller than one hauling a dog that has rolled in something dead or in poop. It was a short ride from park to pet bath, but not short enough to spare my olfactory organs a good thrashing.
From there, the familiar drive from Tehachapi to Oakland was all that remained. I have done that route many many times, and by then, it really was only another 5 or 6 hours to home. The hills above the town of Caliente looked awesome in their spring green coat - a coat they wear for a few short months before going golden for the balance of the year. I am not sure why this area draws me the way it does, but the hills between Bakersfield and Mojave are really the place I feel most drawn to of late. There is something about this end of the Sierra that I feel bonded to, which is odd since it couldn't be more different from the places I have spent most of my life. I hope to find my way up often this summer, but I now know not to wait and to get up there again while it is green. We shall see.
As I probably could have guessed, once I left CA58, the trains started up again, heading toward the Tehachapi Loop. I would guess I missed a long parade of locos by being about an hour ahead of them. I suspected the construction was over and the trains were lining up again because I saw some train nerds along the road getting their camera equipment out and set up. They usually have radios and hear the train crews getting underway, so I kept my camera ready, and sure enough, I saw the first freight as I pulled into Bakersfield.
After Bakersfield, we hit the dog park at Visalia, which was quite nice, and then made the dash for home. We made it early in the evening, but I plopped down and went to sleep right away just the same. I ain't a kid anymore, so things like long drives tire me out. The drive from ABQ is a bit much to do in 1 day, but in 2, it was no sweat. I much enjoyed it, and now knowing what is possible, am short listing it for summer as a possible getaway. ABQ is awesome, and everything in between is pretty special too. As long as I keep a close on eye on the doggie at the dog park, retracing this journey should be no trouble and much fun.
Posted by rudayday at January 25, 2010 03:54 AM