Ahhh, having fun in the desert! I blew through Vegas during morning rush hour by following the route 93 signs to Kingman, AZ. The last time I came this way I had to grind over the Hoover Dam on a two lane road. I kept waiting to hit the dam site but they built a freeway over the mountain, sweet!
It’s been a year of extremes for me, from -35 in the dead of winter to, yes, you guessed it, 119 isn’t a mile marker :-) Coming out of Needles CA into the Mojave desert my car thermometer topped out at 119. The windows were down, doing 65, and the sun wasn’t shining on it. Crazy!
Dead tires litter the landscape everywhere. I’m not concerned, I have four sweet used tires I picked up in Kent, WA. Ok, make that two. I stopped in Kingman for an oil change and when Jill was up on the lift the owner of the shop called me over. He pointed out that two of those used tires were starting to fall apart. Why yes they were… Visions of me on the side of the road in the middle of the desert, unloading my truck to change a tire caused me to fork out my debit card for two new tires up front, with the two decent used ones in the back. It’s still risky, but check this out:
The name of the shop is All American Tire. That caught my attention as I do a lot of business with All American Tire and Brake in Victor, both with our Trpta busses and my personal vehicles. So I asked the owner if this is a chain. He said no, this is the original and we have another one in Victor Idaho. :-) What a small amazing world. The guys who started the Victor store all migrated from this little shop in Kingman Arizona. Everybody here knows everybody there and once the word got out shop people were walking up to me smiling and saying “So, you’re from Driggs?” Holy coincidence, Batman!
Wow, thank goodness you had your guardian angle looking out for you. I was kind of wondering how the used tires were holding up after the last Washington trip. I am very glad you got it taken care of.
Best to have good tires as the heat makes the road very hot and that thins out the rubber. Lots of tread helps a lot. Why was the water brown. Was I seeing it wrong? Good traveling.
The river was brown, almost copper colored. It’s named the “Virgin River”…
Love all the pictures. My favorite one is the lead shot :-)
Again, Divine Intervention. Grant’s land is just North of Kingman, off the old Route 66. That whole desert area used to be an inland sea at one time. I loved going there! It was so quiet, just the sound of eagles and wind going through the wind power blade and the solar panels or a midnight train passing on the Eastern side of Route 66. Totally off the grid. I have jars of interesting rocks I found there and the folks there are real friendly. Again, the birth place of Andy Devine (Plunk your magic twanger froggy… Hi ya gang, hi ya.)
Magic twanger plunked…