Rational responses force a change of plans

In March 2020, it was with great disappointment that we postponed our highly anticipated Canyons and Cactus tour. However, with COVID 19 running rampant one by one, our carefully placed reservations were getting canceled while hotels, restaurants, and even some of the national parks were closing. Notably we would spend the evening before what would have been our departure participating in an @Rushfans podcast talking about generational rush fans. Meeting this group would be a bright spot for us in the coming days. But sadly, in the morning, Sarah and Jarad would head off to Palm Springs, California to hunker down in the sunshine while I would head home and back to work in a now nearly empty office. And so it would go for the next year. At this time we had no idea just how different things would turn out.

New world man

In December of 2020, Sarah and her husband, Jarad, welcomed their baby boy, Peart. In March, 2021, the four of us set off on our Canyons and Cactus Remastered tour. Our journey would cover over 3,300 miles, 7 states, and 6 parks with a 2 ½ month old baby. We would not only remaster our trip and our route, but also our way of travel. Spoiler alert! We had a fantastic time. Peart’s sweet disposition along with the preparation that Sarah put in ahead of time and the research she did on traveling with babies paid off. Everything went smoothly. Well, Almost everything.

Ironically, before setting out, Sarah and I once again joined @Rushfans as the hosts of a podcast, Episode 67, “Breaking the Stereotype of Female Rush Fans.” We were joined by the famous Donna Halper who first played Rush on air as a disc jockey at a Cleveland radio station, Kristine Stone of Sirius XM, Melodie from @Rush_Girls_Rock, Vicky from Spirit of Rush Atlanta and @Rushfan regulars Ryan, Kate, and Alanna. We had a great discussion and afterwards had fun chatting with all the participants, and then we excused ourselves, loaded up the car, and hit the road. Peart was soon fast asleep as we headed to our first hotel in LaGrande, Oregon.

Listen to my music

A few hours later we woke to our early alarm and quickly got ready. Peart stirred but before he could even fuss Sarah had him up, fed, and ready to go. In the cold car he cried momentarily but then went back to sleep. We were nearly to Idaho before he woke up again. Having taken his schedule into consideration, Sarah had already calculated our first stop at a Maverick station in Boise. While Jarad started pumping the gas, Sarah and I switched places, with her hopping into the back seat where she could feed Peart. We then took turns going into the station for biological breaks and coffee. Once Peart was fed they changed his diaper, got him dressed, and let him lay on his tummy for a bit while I retrieved our breakfast items from the cooler.

And so it would go for the next 5 days. With the baby on board we combined our gas, snack and rest stops with Peart’s nursing stops. For example, even if we were only down a quarter tank, we filled up the car. This way our stops never upset him by interrupting a nap or his contented time. And low and behold we found this made our trip more enjoyable for us, and more efficient, as we were able to save time and cover a lot of distance.

As we set off again from this particular stop, Sarah decided that we would listen to all nineteen of Rush’s studio albums in order. As we listened to the first album, Peart cooed in his seat happily looking out the window. We had a long drive ahead of us; destination Moab, Utah.

We stopped around lunchtime at a reststop and then again in Ogden, Utah for dirty sodas, repeating our routine of filling up the gas tank and taking care of Peart’s and our own needs. We arrived in Moab in the early evening. Peart was in a good mood looking out the window and smiling at Arches National Park in the distance. As we got closer to town we ran into a lot of traffic but fortunately our hotel was off of the first exit. Here again we developed an efficient routine. Jarad quickly checked us in and then Sarah and Peart went straight to the room where she fed and changed him, or on late arrivals got him ready for bed. Meanwhile, Jarad and I unloaded the car and brought in all of our luggage. At this point Peart was still sleeping in his bassinet, which was part of the UppaBaby Vista stroller package. The bassinet had a stand for at home, but also attached to his stroller. At night Sarah and Jarad would set Peart’s bassinet up on the stroller and lock the stroller in place, and then on occasion roll him out to the car in the early morning while he was still sleeping. Peart went to bed early. We quickly got used to spending quiet evenings in the room reading or in my case, journal writing. We were often in bed ourselves pretty early, but as we have written many times, when visiting national parks the key is to arrive early, so most evenings we were tired and ready to go to bed. Again, our new routine enhanced the old one making us more efficient in our travel. This evening we ordered pizza and quietly ate, and cleaned up. After much whispered discussion and gesticulating, we settled on a 4am wake up time and went to sleep.

Activate the window and watch the world go round

We arrived at The Windows section of Arches National Park at 5:30am for a 5:45ish sunrise, the first ones there besides one lone photographer, but the space quickly filled up with twenty or more spectators. In our blog “Curves and Lines of Grand Designs” I wrote about this cold and anti-climatic, albeit invigorating and gorgeous event. Back at the visitor center, which was closed due to revised COVID hours, we stopped just long enough to freshen up then headed for Cortez, Colorado and Mesa Verde National Park. There are many good reasons to visit Mesa Verde and much to do including hiking, touring the ancient cliff dwellings or visiting the archeological museum. Sarah and I had a great time visiting the park the summer before, but this time our needs were much more primitive and influenced by the guarantee of a clean, safe stop just 14 minutes off our route. In the visitor center parking lot Sarah fed and changed Peart while I made sandwiches out of the back of the car. We popped inside for a passport stamp and appreciated the availability of open and clean restrooms, which now, since COVID, was no longer a guarantee at rest stops and gas stations along the highway.

The first sign of trouble started just before we arrived at the park when Jarad noticed the oil change reminder light coming on in our rental, a big, roomy Ford Expedition. We wouldn’t have given it much thought except that we still had 2,500 miles to go on our trip. Sarah called the rental company who said not to worry we had at least 500 to 1,000 miles before we needed service. This would not do. After confirming with the manager we decided to look for a place to have the oil changed. They told us any Pep Boys, Firestone, or Les Schwab would work. The problem was that we were nowhere near any city with one of these establishments that could get us in without an appointment at least two days out. After several phone calls and a couple side trips looking for an opening, we gave up and decided it would have to be done when we reached Palm Springs on the weekend.

There is unrest in the forest, there is trouble with the trees

We headed back to Cortez then southwest to our next stop, Petrified Forest National Park. Petrified Forest is our nation’s 30th national park. Popular for bicycling, hiking, and backcountry hiking, the park is famous for, as its name suggests, one of the world’s largest concentrations of petrified wood. Our first stop was the visitor center where we all freshened up then collected our passport stamps and had a look around the gift shop. The park traverses Interstate 40, also known as Old US Route 66 in the northeast corner of Arizona. On the north side of the highway we drove to an overlook and the former lodge, no longer operational. On the south side we headed out to Blue Mesa where we put Peart in his stroller and walked on a paved path down to an informative loop trail. The path down declined sharply, but the lower loop was fun to explore and I wished we had time to do the whole trail. We had to allow time for the walk back up which was difficult for me and even for Sarah and Jarad pushing a stroller. As we headed southwest through the park, it struck me that the names in the park were like the dialogue in the movie “Elf.” We drove around the Painted Desert, past the Blue Mesa and through the Crystal Forest. And it was just as charming as the movie. Petrified Forest is a really fun park with lots to see and easy access literally straddling the highway. That is, if you happen to be in the far northeast corner of Arizona. This being Sarah and Jarad’s second visit and my first we all agreed it is well worth the trip and we would like to return and spend more time in this magical park.

Take it easy on me now

It was late afternoon now and we were on another mission, to fulfill an actual bucket list item of mine, and stand on the corner in Winslow, Arizona. We expected to arrive around 5pm, stand on the corner, take pictures and find somewhere to eat. We found parking near “the corner” or “Standing on the Corner Park” as it is called, which is all done up with murals and statues of Glen Frey, and complete with a Flatbed Ford. Across the street a man entertained the few tourists with his rendition of “Take it Easy.” We had a fun time posing and taking pictures and being nerdy as Sarah pointed out. A couple gift shops selling ample Eagles memorabilia were just closing as we walked back to the car. The main attraction of Winslow is clearly the corner and they must rely on this iconic spot to attract tourists. However, there wasn’t much else in town on that evening to keep us around. It seemed as if every 4 out of 5 businesses were boarded up or shut down, so we got back in the car and continued west to Flagstaff. We stopped to pick up dinner at a brewery then checked into our hotel and were soon settled down for the night. It’s not often that you can cross three national parks off your list in the course of one day and we patted ourselves on the back for a successful day of touring. Peart had been a dream and with Sarah’s preparation we had managed it all without incident and with a small baby. There was just that small matter of the oil indicator light in the car, but that was something that couldn’t be helped and would be easily remedied, or so we thought.

Trembling on a Rocky Ledge

The next morning we were up and ready, checked out of our hotel and on the road by 4am, early even by our standards. Our destination was the Grand Canyon where we intended to have breakfast at El Tovar and have a morning walk on the canyon rim. El Tovar doesn’t take breakfast reservations so we wanted to be there by 7am when it opened. We arrived at the park early but walking by the lodge just before 6:30am we noticed a line already forming. We stopped right there and took our place. While we waited Sarah took Peart to the restroom to get him dressed then fed him in the lobby. At 7am we were seated in a perfect spot by the window. Sarah had equipped Peart’s stroller with the optional bassinet and he promptly dozed off and slept all through breakfast, while we enjoyed our food and the beautiful view. Sarah had the avocado toast and Jarad and I each chose french toast. By the time Peart woke up we were done eating and headed out on the rim trail. Peart objected to riding awake in his bassinet so Sarah carried him. We walked towards Bright Angel lodge taking pictures along the way and stopping to browse in the gift shop. We intended to get passport stamps at the Kolb Studio, but we were an hour early so instead headed back to the car and drove to the main visitor center at the village. Jarad dropped Sarah and I off, but the line to get in was so long we decided not to wait. We would have to use our own stamp. During the height of COVID Sarah and I had custom ordered a stamp we could use in the event of visitor center closures, or in this case limited access.

Back in the car we headed out of the park passing the long lines of cars waiting to get in. We traveled back through Flagstaff then headed west again on Interstate 40. We stopped in Williams for coffee and noticed the Grand Canyon Railway which we would return to ride in 2022, see our blog, “The Express Gets you There: A Grand Canyon Holiday Adventure.” We made a brief stop in Kingman, and otherwise entertained ourselves listening to Rush and watching the endless stream of freight trains traveling east and west across the desert.

Like a Flower in the Desert

After crossing the border into California somewhere past Needles, Sarah looked up from the backseat and wondered aloud why we were still heading west. Apparently we should have been heading south on US Route 95, but unbeknownst to us our GPS had rerouted us due to an accident. Our new route had us continuing on Interstate 40 to a remote offramp at Kelbaker road. Sarah was concerned that we may end up on an unpaved road, having had that experience once before in the area. The road turned out to be paved, but extremely remote with no hint of civilization anywhere nearby. As she continued to fret I assured her, unknowingly of course, that it would be okay. For some reason it all felt very familiar to me which I assumed was due to the time I had lived in California and on a couple of occasions had traveled on these high desert roads. Or maybe it was something I had read in one of Neil Peart’s books. I couldn’t put my finger on it and then, as we turned west again, we found ourselves in the town of Amboy at Roy’s Motel. This was indeed something I had read about in Neil Peart’s books! He first wrote about stopping here in 1998 in Ghost Rider, but even that was not his first visit. Unfortunately, although we were now relieved to be in a spot both familiar and paved, we didn’t think to stop and take a picture. Or perhaps we didn’t want to wake our baby Peart sleeping in the back. We have regretted that decision ever since and will hopefully return sometime to get that iconic shot.

From Amboy we continued on to Joshua Tree National Park. We entered on the east side of the park and I was surprised when Jarad pulled into what looked like the parking lot of a mobile home park. I asked them “Is this it? Is this where we wanted to go?” But inside the visitor center offered all of the usual amenities including a clean restroom. We collected our stamps and then embarked on our drivethru tour of the park heading east to west to the more familiar looking and popular side of the park. The Joshua trees are truly distinct, existing only in the southwestern United States, and against the backdrop of rock and boulder formations create an otherworldly experience like something on Star Trek. Joshua Tree is our nation’s 54th national park and has grown in fame in recent years attributed to the popularity of rock climbing, vanlife and connection to the Coachella Valley as well as its close proximity to the greater Los Angeles and San Diego areas. We enjoyed a leisurely drive through the park stopping often to take pictures. Passing the visitor center on our way out the west entrance we continued on to Palm Springs where we would spend two nights with a well earned day off from traveling.

A splendid mirage in this desolation

We checked into our Palm Springs resort in the early evening and settled into our suite. Sarah gave Peart a bath and put him to bed. With a living room and two full bedrooms we could stay up and talk although we were all tired and soon retreated to our separate rooms.

In the morning we got up early and had a quick breakfast and coffee then headed to the Palm Desert Zoo where we enjoyed a nice hike. This turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. We walked through the zoo and out a back gate where we had a choice of three loops totalling about ten miles, mostly flat. A few exhibits are set up along the way including one of the San Andreas fault which we detoured up a hillside to look at. It seemed as though many locals were using these trails to get some exercise. It was already quite warm in the early morning but it was a beautiful day and a fun walk. We didn’t have time to take the longest loop, a five mile hike, but we did parts of the other two walking a couple of miles with our last loop ending back at the zoo which was now just opening. Back inside the zoo we walked around to see the panther and then into a petting zoo of wallabies. By now it was really getting warm and crowded so after a peek in the gift shop we headed out. Jarad drove us past the San Jacinto Mountains National Monument visitor center but it was closed. We stopped for coffee on the way back to our resort and by the time we got there our designated pool time had begun. For the rest of the day we swam and relaxed by the pool or in our room.

There was also that other matter to be taken care of. Jarad took the car in for an oil change at a Jiffy Lube, the only place we could get an appointment with short notice and he ran some last minute errands to pick up provisions for the remainder of our trip. We went to bed confident the next two days would go as smoothly as the rest of the trip had so far. Little did we know…

The peak is never passed

With our big, roomy Ford Expedition fully loaded we set off the next morning headed for Pinnacle Peak National Park. And that’s when all the trouble happened. We hadn’t gone far on Interstate 10 when we started to hear a faint tapping sound. From the front seats Jarad and I assumed it was something shifting in the back, but from her backseat Sarah knew right away it was coming from the car. In fact it seemed to be loudest directly underneath her. It was very windy outside so we assumed that might have something to do with it and anyway no warning dash lights were on so we continued driving. When the noise persisted Sarah called her dad, a former master mechanic who would be awake early. He could hear the noise over the phone and said it was definitely the car, but with no warning lights advised us to keep driving. Sarah then called roadside assistance but all of the Enterprise car rentals were closed as it was Sunday, except at the airports. The man on the phone tried to be helpful but from his call center had no idea where we really were. After hanging up the noise went away for a few miles. But then, suddenly we heard a loud noise which persisted into a constant thumping. We couldn’t continue like this. Sarah looked at her phone and spotting the Burbank, California airport told Jarad to exit in a half mile. He quickly got over and exited just as another car was trying to flag us down to tell us to get off the road. As we came to a stop on the ramp the thumping turned to scraping. We were now dragging something. It was still dark and only a couple blocks to the rental car return so on we went. As we pulled up to the return area two women who worked for Enterprise came running over shouting “What Happened?” We all jumped out of the car and there underneath us, hanging by one remaining blot, was the undercarriage of our car. Had this large, heavy piece of metal fallen off on the freeway someone, maybe us, could have been seriously injured.

The Enterprise staff were kind and helpful, working quickly to get us into a new vehicle. Unfortunately they didn’t have much available to fit us and all of our luggage. They first tried to squeeze us into a Chevy Equinox, but even with zero visibility for Jarad and luggage hanging precariously over Peart’s car seat we weren’t going to fit. The only other option was a tricked out Dodge Durango with a hemi engine and racing seats. With its distinct LA vibe we could tell the manager really didn’t want to send this car north to the small town Sarah and Jarad were living in and we had to laugh to ourselves picturing it there. But alas we were able to fit, albeit less comfortably and with less visibility but without any items threatening to fall onto Peart. There was no other option so they reluctantly helped us load up and sent us on our way. With our new powerful engine we might even be able to make up some lost time and the considerate manager marked our tank empty so we wouldn’t have to fill it upon return as she noted we would be using quite a bit more gas.

Trouble averted, we headed north, now running about two hours behind schedule. After crossing the Grapevine we stopped for gas, breakfast and our morning routine of feeding, changing and dressing Peart, then pressed on. We traveled north on Interstate 5 then northwest to Pinnacles National Park entering just before noon on the Hollister side, as the other side of the park was closed for road repair caused by a recent landslide. Pinnacles is our nation’s 59th park located in Central California southeast of San Jose. The park is popular for hiking with over thirty miles of trails. As the name suggests it is an area of volcanic spires and peaks, although from the side we entered we only saw rolling green hills. The tiny visitor center sat in a large field with some camp spots on one side, a pool, bathrooms, a few picnic tables and a small general store and resembled a state park or summer camp. Just as we arrived the visitor center closed for an hour for lunch so we made sandwiches and had a picnic lunch at one of the tables. It was warm, but windy. After lunch we used the restrooms and looked inside the store and then just before 1pm queued up for our turn in the visitor center so we could claim our passport stamps. Fortunately we were first in line because the ranger announced they would only be allowing in two people at a time, due to COVID precautions. As we were a group of 3, or rather 3 ½ she allowed us to enter together. The room was barely big enough just for us, but by now the line was fairly long behind us and our coveted position was not earning us any popularity points with the rest of the crowd. We tried to get our stamps and make our purchases as quickly as possible. Back in the car we attempted to drive up towards the viewpoint where we could actually see the peaks, but were turned around at the full parking lot. According to the website the lot fills up fast and with our late arrival on a weekend we were doomed to find a spot. It was too far to walk from the visitor center so with only a quick, obscured peek at the peaks we headed out.

From the point of ignition, to the final drive

The rest of the trip home was mostly uneventful. We stopped in Salida so Peart could meet his Great Grandpa and then spent the night further north in Woodland, California. The next morning we were back on the road driving over 700 miles to drop me off at home and then Sarah and Jarad drove another 100 miles to their home. Along the way we practiced our new routine of our one stop breaks. Peart was the perfect travel companion riding along with very little complaining, which is saying a lot for a 2 ½ month old. We didn’t run into any more trouble with our car. Sarah and Jarad would see that car around town for the next several months, looking out of place, and making us wonder if it would ever make it back to its home in LA. The remastered version of our trip had turned out even better than we expected and everything had gone smoothly. Well, almost everything.