Road Trip – RDZ Photography

Signs of Change Across America – August 2021

Architecture, Art, Nature, Transportation, Water Features

After an entire lifetime of living in the east, life has dealt us a curveball, resulting in us relocating from Ohio to Arizona. We took the opportunity to take a bit extra time during the 2000 mile move to stop and see a few sights along the way. Some of the more extended stops will have their own posting.

Let’s start by leaving Columbus

Time to head west.

First state – Kentucky

Our first stretch break was south of Louisville at Bernheim Arboretum. In addition to the natural scenery there were many sculptures.

After a very long drive across much of Kentucky, we reached the Tennessee border in the far northwestern corner of the state.

It was on to Memphis for the night. We saw enough sights in our brief visit to Memphis to warrant it’s own posting.

The next day started with a drive across the Mississippi River into Arkansas

After extended stops in Little Rock and Hot Springs (postings follow this one), we found ourselves near the small town of Murfreesboro at the Crater of Diamonds State Park. This park is known for being an open diamond ‘mine’ where you pay $10 and are welcome to go dig around for diamonds.

The park has a sign detailing recent and records finds – each day someone find small diamonds, and every once in a while a big find is made.

We did not strike it rich so we continued west, passing Texarkana, which as the name suggests is on the Texas/Arkansas border.

Our last brief stop of the day was in Sulphur Springs, Texas. Their very nice courthouse square has a public restroom with one way mirrors, so you can ‘take care of business’ while watching the world go by 🙂

A couple more hours lead to a great sunset while arriving in Dallas.

The next morning started out across West Texas, passing the town of Cisco (must be where they got the name of the company)

Our first extended stop of the day was in Abilene (posting to follow).

Texans are very proud of their home.

The drive across Texas continued, passing wind turbines then oil derricks.

After 575 mile we were through Texas (or so we though…), arriving in Hobbs, New Mexico.

Eastern New Mexico was still oil country but it quickly transitioned to the mountains. The peak of our trip was in Cloudcroft, New Mexico.

After dropping more than 4000 feet we arrived in Alamogordo, home to White Sands National Park (individual posting later).

The plan was to drive the 70 miles to Las Cruces for the night but there was a landslide, resulting in a detour adding an addition 50 miles, resulting us ending up back in Texas (briefly) again.

Eventually we made it to Las Cruces, and the next morning started on the literal home stretch.

After 2000 miles we have reached our new home state! With this move we have a fantastic opportunity for new sights and experiences, so stay tuned….

Virtual Travel – Kentucky

Architecture, Art, Festival, History, Museum, Nature, Sciences, Sports, Transportation, Water Features

Today’s visit is to Kentucky, and the vast horse culture that exists there. But there is far more to Kentucky than horses.

The first map in our journey dates from 1942. Interestingly the state highway map was contained in a booklet that gave tourist information based on the roads of the day.

The most famous of these roads was the Dixie Highway. Originally part of the National Auto Trail system in the very early 1900, the Dixie Highway modeled itself after the Lincoln Highway in that private promoters lead the effort to build it.

When the federal government took over the route it was assign along U.S. 25 through most of Kentucky. The route was dotted with motels and restaurants for the travelers headed from the Midwest to Florida. When the interstates came along I-75 replaced it.

(photo from Pintrest)

1947 – A Mountain Road.

Much of Eastern Kentucky is in the Appalachian Mountains. This is coal country, with winding roads going up and down the mountains.

1960 – Another mountain overlook.

The mountains make numerous appearances on the cover of the map. Left to right – 1997 – 1986 – 2015.

Today the vast majority of the roads are still twisty two lane routes.

Appalachia has had tough times for decades now, with most of the population long ago heading north for jobs in factories. Today few coal mines still exist, most have closed leaving relics behind.

Kentucky is horse country. It is estimated that nearly 100,000 jobs in Kentucky depend on horses. It is the number 1 producer of thoroughbreds in the nation.

This fact is celebrated on numerous map covers including this 1945 map.

Horse Farms were also featured in 1968, 1988, 1989 and 2007.

In 2019 we had the opportunity to visit Claiborne Farms near Paris, Kentucky. The horses are beautiful, and the grounds immaculate.

Bridges

This 1949 map features Eggner’s Ferry Bridge. This bridge was completed in 1932, and decommissioned in 2016. A new 4 lane bride has replaced it.

With the Ohio River bordering the entire northern side of Kentucky there are a number of impressive bridges linking the state to it’s neighbors.

The new cable stayed bridge at Owensboro was featured in 2003.

Louisville – Second Street Bridge, also known as the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge.

Covington (to Cincinnati) – Roebling Bridge.

Maysville. Simon Kenton Bridge – Completed in 1931.

1955 – Kentucky Colonel.

More than just chicken, a Kentucky Colonel is an actual title of honor that the governor of the state can issue to individuals.

Prior to the 1930s very few people were made Kentucky Colonels, but the governor of the time greatly accelerated the number including one Harland Sanders – hence the name of the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).

To this day if you find yourself in Corbin, Kentucky you can stop by the original Sanders Cafe for some fried chicken. (photo from tripadvisor.com)

For the mid 1960s Kentucky still showed their southern side with a lawn jockey and a plantation house being featured.

1966 – Daniel Boone. Boone was born in Pennsylvania and spent a great deal of time in Virginia before arriving in Kentucky. It was here his actions became lore.

The 1970s featured the Kentucky Parkways. The state was ahead of their times in building additional freeways to augment the interstates that were in the state. They did this in the form of toll roads.

Despite the names the Parkways do not prohibit truck traffic.

Horse Race Trumpeter – 1973, 1974 & 1975

In the days before electronic amplification they had to have a way to notify the jockeys it was time to come to the starting gate, hence the trumpeter. The song they play is called ‘First Call’, a military march.

Santa Anita Trumpeter

Churchill Downs Trumpeter

1979 – Man o War

When people make a list of the greatest race horses of all time there are really only two, Secretariat and Man o War. Secretariat is Man o War’s grandson.

How good was Secretariat. He still holds records 40 years later. The photo below from the legendary Belmont that he won by 31 lengths!

Man o War was just as impressive. In 1920 he was co-athlete of the year with Babe Ruth

Man o War has a statue at the Kentucky Horse Park

Seretariat’s statue is at Keeneland.

Both are representative of the best of Kentucky Horse Racing. Along with the great thoroughbreds are great tracks.

The two best are Churchill Downs in Louisville and Keeneland in Lexington.

Keeneland

1982, 1983 and 1983 – State Parks. While they look very similar there are slight variations to the covers.

2013 and 2017 returned to the parks.

Kentucky has a number of nice state parks with lodges. This is Cumberland Falls Park Lodge.

1992 – Kentucky Bicentennial

1998 – Cumberland Gap & Tunnel

The Cumberland Gap is a pass in the Appalachian Mountains, at the point where Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee come together.

It was the first primary route over the mountains for the early settlers. For millenia bison had used the pass to make their way back and forth for feeding. The folklore of Daniel Boone was enhanced by his effort to blaze a trail through the mountains.

Today a twin tube tunnel makes the pass much easier to traverse. Each tunnel is 4600′ long.

The Cumberland Gap National Park has some very scenic overlooks.

2000 – Scenic Byways

There are 10 Scenic Byways in Kentucky. These byways take you to the less traveled parts of the state for some unique sights like…

Nada Tunnel. That small hole in the bottom of the hill is indeed a tunnel for auto traffic.

2004 – Paris Pike. This stretch of highway was a very dangerous 2 lane road. When the decision was made to expand to 4 lanes the Department of Transportation worked with many to come up with an aesthetically pleasing but functional road.

The road leads from Lexington to Paris. The town of Paris is the center of the thoroughbred farms. It is a very picturesque town, complete with a mini Eiffel Tower.

2005 – State Capitol

The State Capitol is in the small town of Frankfort. The current Capitol was completed in 1909.

The grounds are very well groomed and include a floral clock.

The former capitol is down in the middle of town.

Just outside of town are some bourbon distilleries that were built more than 100 years ago, shuttered, and recently re-opened. It makes for a very cool environment.

Nearby is the city of Lexington, home of the University of Kentucky.

The city is home to a vast array of murals, some of the best we have seen.

2006 – Cumberland Falls

2008 – Lincoln in Kentucky

2009 & 2010 – Equestrian Games

2011 – Corvette Museum

The Corvette Museum is in Bowling Green.

2014 – Old Friends Retirement Home. While some race horses live a pampered life being set out to stud, many do not. In 2003 Boston Globe movie critic Michael Blowen lead an effort to open this farm for retired race horses.

2016 – Mammoth Caves

The longest cave system in the country, Mammoth Cave has more than 400 miles of surveyed passageways. Photo from tourist website as I am terrible with cave photography.

2018 – Culinary Trail. The most famous culinary trail in Kentucky is the Bourbon Trail.

While we didn’t do the entire trail we did tour the Jim Beam Distillery.

This storage facility burnt in a fire in 2019.

Virtual Travel – Colorado

Architecture, History, Nature, Sports, Transportation

Colorado is another of my favorite states. With it’s towering mountains and sunshine it is a majestic place.

Our visit starts with a 1948 Colorado map. Much like many of the western states Colorado was a very different place 70 + years ago. When this map was published there was less than 1.2 million Coloradans. Today it is nearing 6 million.

The state is filled with amazing natural wonders. The backside of the 1948 map details many of these.

Colorado however is not all mountainous. In fact the eastern 1/3, including Denver, is located on the high plains. It is most impressive where the plains reach the mountains, as in this scene where the newly completed Denver to Boulder Turnpike shows.

The turnpike was opened in 1951, just in time to make the cover of this 1953 map.

These photos from 2012 show a similar scene.

As we move into the 1960s the cover scene is Maroon Lake, near Aspen.

Founded as a mining camp for the Colorado Silver Boom, Aspen later found the real money was in snow – for skiing. Around the time this map came out Aspen was becoming a destination for the rich and famous, resulting in some of the most expensive real estate in the country. The photo below is representative of the wealth in Aspen, with a line of private jets at the airport – in the summer!

Buttermilk Mountain – where I learned to ski a lifetime ago, as part of a group trip with a bunch of people from Chicago. Nothing like being 22 years old, crashing down a mountain in the day and partying in Aspen at night. There were about 15 people in a house designed for 8, but it worked.

As you leave Aspen heading due east you cross Independence Pass. This pass is closed in the winter because of the heavy snow, but is beautiful in the summer.

Independence Pass – the treeline is very clearly in evidence here as you peak out at 12,095 feet – 3686 meters to my metric friends.

The mountain scenes continue in 1965 with Berthoud Pass. The pass is named for Edward Berthoud, the chief surveyor for the Colorado Central Railroad in the 1870s.

As with most roads through the mountains in Colorado, the routes were originally blazed by the railroads.

For 1966 and 1967 unidentified mountain scenes grace the cover.

It isn’t hard to find great mountain scenes in Colorado – this view is going up Mt Evans.

The mountain scenes continues throughout the 1960s and 1970s

All of the maps from this era featured the state symbols on the reverse side.

Colorado is known as the Centennial State, as it was admitted to the Union in 1876. The country’s bicentennial year in 1976 was more special for Colorado as the state celebrated it’s 100th anniversary.

The cover of this year’s map shows just how tough it was for those early travelers.

This view of Interstate 70 through Glenwood Canyon shows how much easier travel is today. This section of Interstate is known as an engineering marvel, it’s design took into consideration the flora and fauna, and natural surroundings, while providing a much needed transportation route through the mountains.

The late 1970s continued the mountain scenes.

Denver is featured in 1978. One of America’s great cities, Denver has a feel like no other – very young and energetic.

Union Station is a classic train station. It has been remodeled since these photos were taken in 2010.

Denver International Airport – the roof represents the mountains of Colorado.

Aspen is again featured in 1987.

For 1988 Garden of Gods is on the cover, with Pike’s Peak in the distance.

We made a stop at the Garden of the Gods in 2012…

In 2012 there were a number of very large forest fires impacting Colorado. On the afternoon we visited Garden of the Gods the first rain in weeks had just occurred, a huge thunderstorm that soaked everything. The entire state smelled of a campfire that had just been put out with water. Not only did it greatly aid in the forest fires, but it gave the wildlife a much needed drink.

Telluride is another ski town that has a number of tourists in the summer for the ranch life.

Coincidentally the next Colorado map in my collection is from 1997, and again features the area around Telluride.

Pawnee Buttes is featured in 1999. This geologic feature is not located in the mountains, rather it is located in far northeastern Colorado on the prairies.

The landscape is mostly flat, until you come across this area.

Rising out of the prairies are two 300′ high buttes.

The buttes are a result of erosion of the surrounding high plains.

Chautauqua Park in Bolder is on the 2002 cover. The Chautauqua society was an adult education movement from the late 1800s.

Boulder is home to the University of Colorado. Situated at the base of Boulder Mountain, it is a great little city with some impressive parks.

Interestingly there was a second edition map printed in 2002 featuring Lake Isabelle.

Mesa Verde National Park is the 2003 subject.

Mesa Verde is not only a national park, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It has some of the best Ancestral Puebloan archaeological dwellings in the United States.

For thousands of years the area was inhabited by Paleo Indians. There are over 600 cliff dwellings in the park, including the one featured here – The Cliff Palace.

A visit in 2015 gave lots of photo ops at this amazing place.

Some people apparently can’t read….

In addition to the regular road map Colorado for a few years published an Educational Map, highlighting areas that can be used as a teaching opportunity for young people.

We had the opportunity to observe rafters on the Arkansas River during a trip on the Royal Gorge Scenic Railroad…

The Royal Gorge Bridge. Built as a tourist attraction in 1929 as the world’s highest bridge, suspended 955 feet above the river. It held this title until 2001.

It is still the highest bridge in the United States, although it is primarily a pedestrian bridge.

For much of the ‘teens’ the return to generic outdoor scenes returned.

Our last stop on this tour is Red Rocks Amphitheater. This natural bowl provides the perfect setting for concerts; numerous artists have recorded live albums here.

We had the opportunity to see the Blues Travelers here for a 4th of July concert.

Colorado – easily one of the 5 best states in the country to live, or visit.

Cerro Tronador, Argentina – December 2019 – Thunder Mountain

Nature

Tronador is an 11,000 foot high extinct volcanic mountain just south of Bariloche, containing numerous glaciers. It’s name is Spanish for Thunder, the sound of the ice cracking in the glaciers.

It is in all day effort to drive up, and hike around, the mountain and the glaciers. We started by heading south on Ruta 40 – passing the ever present hitchhikers seen in the area.

A few miles south of Bariloche you make the turn to the road leading up the mountain. It is a narrow dirt road, so narrow that it is one way up the mountain from 10 AM until 4 PM, then one way back down the mountain until 7 PM.

The initial part of the road passes through a valley floor and Lago Mascardi.

It is a 48 kilometer drive up this road, but about 1/2 way you begin to get some amazing views.

Eventually we made our way to the National Park where we were surrounded by towering walls and waterfalls. The area to the right is known as the Black Glacier due to the amount of debris it picks up off the mountain as it comes down.

Eventually it was time to head back down the mountain and our funky little rental car (which we named La Cucaracha – the cockroach – it was a no frills, nasty little car but no matter what we did to it you couldn’t kill it) hung on through the now wet, curvy downhill.

Across America – May 2019 – Random Scenes Part 1

Architecture, Art, History, Nature, Transportation

The following are interesting scenes that didn’t fit any of the other postings.

Lajitas, Texas – The only place to stay was a golf resort, but it had a great sunset.

Texas border area – We saw a few instances of the border patrol in action, including going through 2 checkpoints along the highway. Strangely the checkpoints were at least 40 miles from the border.

Marfa, Texas – This town is an artist enclave for New York artists. How and why a bunch of New York artists decided to go to a small west Texas town is far too long for this blog.

Fort Davis, Texas is a historic town with a former frontier fort. Today it has a couple of cool re purposed buildings.

Pecos, Texas – For about 100 miles in any direction from Pecos were new fracking oil wells. The landscape was filled with these towers burning off natural gas, as well as truck traffic jams and RVs parked in the desert for the workers. The high pay also caused our most expensive hotel night in Carlsbad, New Mexico as the demand for housing far exceeds supply.

Roswell, New Mexico – While I have a posting for the UFO industry of Roswell, there was also a very cool airplane ‘boneyard’.

Portales, New Mexico – When we were driving into town the billboard for Burger King said ‘next to the airplane’. They weren’t kidding.

Hereford, Texas – Beef capital of the world. I think they are correct.

Canyon, Texas – A Giant Cowboy

Amarillo, Texas – Much cleaner energy source.

Canadian, Texas – Lonesome train blues.

Near Shattuck, Oklahoma – Folk Art along the Highway.

Fairview, Oklahoma – We were looking for some Good Eats, but needed to find somewhere else.

Jet, Oklahoma – One of our disappointments was being unable to check out the Salt Plains National Refuge – where you can dig around for crystals in the salt flats. Much of Oklahoma was flooded, and it flooded the salt flats.

The cows however were making the most of their new beach.