Well, I've left Quartzsite, drove through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Texas, and more Texas. I'm currently in Houston and have over 120 pictures I took during my trip when I was going to (quoting from Chapter 14) "sign off for awhile, go visit some friends, maybe watch the Superbowl -- will restart the travel log when I start 'touristing' again.". It didn't quite work out as I had planned. I signed off, but the friends I was planning to visit were off on winter cruises or busy going to school, etc., so I continued "touristing" and took many pictures. btw, I stopped watching the Superbowl after the middle of the 2nd quarter or so when the score was 16-0 and it was obvious it was going to be a dull shut-out ... lol.
Bottom line of all this chatter is that I've had another series of adventures, including: world's largest Harley-Davidson dealer, a bunch of cacti, trains, roadrunners, Big Bend National Park, pigs, mountain climbing, old Mexico, a Route 66 alternative, Judge Roy Bean's place in Langtry Texas, burros, Border Patrol, fantastic mountain views, ... and on and on. Like I said above, I've got over 120 pictures on the laptop now and need to pare this down to the 20 or so that are worth putting on the website.
As a way of saying goodbye to Quartzsite and Arizona, I decided to do a "cactus" pictorial. Scroll down to see some great cacti pictures from Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. While you're admiring the cacti, I'll be sorting through my pictures and deciding what's worth talking about and showing.
15. Cacti, etc.
My Travel Log
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Did you know the Saguaro cactus had a wooden skeleton? I didn't.
Here are some photos of the Saguaro internals.
Just West of Deming, New Mexico, I really got engrossed in the Yucca cacti. First, on the right, I stopped at a rest area where it told about the Yucca being the NM state flower. Then, I walked across I-10, climbed thru a barbed wire fence, and walked down a railroad track to get some better pics. On the left is a good double with some kind of horn sticking out the bottom. On the right, several tall ones together.
Then, further down on the left, I tried to get a closer shot of the blooms that are on in January. They look like dry flower shells.
Lower right, just some more tall ones. I think the railroad track really adds to the shot! There's just something cool about walking down a railroad track on a hot day ... at least it seems so to me ... maybe I'm just a hobo at heart ... lol.
Just a few more cactus pictures. The first two are from Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas -- left is a "herd" of Prickly-Pears and the right is the real sharp cluster at the base with a tall spike of which I don't happen to know the name. The lower three are some Saguaro repeats from earlier chapters. The Saguaro remains my favorite -- probably a result of my Lone Ranger and Cisco Kid upbringing ... hoho.
The one above and on the left were from the Swansea Ghost Town trip, and the one on the far right above is the "famed" Quartzsite 47-armed cactus (no longer there - see Chapter 12 note at bottom of page).
The lower right is my favorite sunset shot from my Q campsite. I thought this would be an excellent way to say good-bye to the desert.
