On the Road in the Left Whale: November 2025

Lake Havasu Coyote

So with Gene home, I finally said goodbye to Lake Havasu - awesome city. My options were to either head up to Denver and then Chicago and home, or go east on I40 and then through the southern states before turning north in Georgia. I opted for the southern route as Colorado and the mid-west was just getting into Tornado/Hail/crappy weather season and I did not want to get caught in all that.

However, before I left, some fun stuff happened in Havasu... I was heading out to the point on the lake to see the powerboat drag race on the 'island' and saw a coyote - in the middle of town. At the drag race, the 3rd boat to go was attempting to break the speed record, and well, at least broke the record for the boat that could fly the highest and it also broke the boat - was a crazy moment. The boat was doing 210mph with quite a strong wind from the front. Here is a YouTube link to what I could not get on video. Cliff notes is as follows:

I fully video the first 2 boats (the whole race is single boats being timed over a 1 mile distance).
I then get bored and do not quite focus on the 3rd race.
However, as it passed I realize this boat is hauling and start the video.
Boat hits 10? mph, goes airborne and does a few flips. The boat was probably close to 30ft and went at least 3 boat-lengths up vertically doing some spectacular flips in the process.
End result is major delay in the races, driver and pilot? (there are 2 in the boat) walk away and I went home.
The Lake Havasu channel

Watching the boat race. Unfortunately it seems I only took videos and very few photos of the race...

Was a fun day though. Also sold Barbie to a guy from Alaska - 55 years old and was unfairly fired from a union job. Sued and now has enough money to travel around in a large diesel pusher and retired. Also votes republican (so go figure). However, he was a big racing enthusiast, so went to the Havasu Speedway to go see the 'dry boat' races - like gambling and a few other things... fun and interesting for the first 5 minutes, but then it gets really bored (and unbelievably senseless).

Carl who bought Barbie

The boat race (Havasu style). Those are all stripped down boats they are pulling behind the cars. By the end it was a real mess

Time to move on

In any case, was a sad morning heading out of town, but first stop was in Winslow, AZ (again). Still a sad little town, but I did discover the La Posada hotel - a little jewel. Designed by Mary Jane Colter in 1930 and one of the last great railroad hotels (click the link for the full history).

Actually hit some snow in Flagstaff, so was definitely up in big-sky area

Mary Jane Colter

From there I decided to do a detour to a place I had missed the previous spring - Canyon de Chelly. Weird name, and does not have any real public profile, but an amazing stopover. The road there and back to I40 sucked, but it was worthwhile.

Not sure what that was, but definitely striking...

Big country

Escondido showing the way

A sample of the local Navajo huts

The pictures that follow do not do justice to the spectacular scenery. The canyon is over 1,000 ft deep.

Note the car in the road down there. There is an active farming community in the canyon.

The White House - it also shows by how much the canyon floor dropped over time.

The tunnel exit top right area is the path down into the canyon (which I did not walk). You can just see the stairs coming out

From there it was through Albuquerque, over the Continental divide and to Roswell (another spot I missed when I was heading west).

To be honest, I never figured out exactly where I crossed it - there is no 'up - down' there - just flat

Bought the Whale with 99,000 miles on it 3 years before.

In the middle of a desert

Before getting to Roswell, I slept over at Santa Rosa - my last stop on I40 before heading more south. There is this weird 'Blue Hole' spring. Talked to a scuba diver that lives there specifically to explore the hole/cave.

Roswell was weird - similar to many towns in the SouthWest - the whole town exists around a single incident/feature. Even the Dunkin Donuts and MacDonalds are built around the aliens theme.

I actually paid to go into the museum - it was as tacky as I expected, but there were some fun facts

This was interesting. The Goddard space flight center is in Maryland, but this is where he started?.

Then it was 3 days to cross Texas to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Saw lots of wind generators, road signs full of bullet holes, and an amazing transformation of the landscape.

Lots of guns and SDS issues in Texas

and nodding donkeys

This was 1 of 4 flatbed trucks that was carrying one of the tracks of a HUGE crane. The truck was at least 60ft in length- nearly double the Whale. Talked to the drivers - were all fun and only work once or twice a month for a few days. Good work if you can get it.

Lots of closed shopping areas

A wind generator graveyard

Changing scenery

because short guns are better...

The mighty Mississippi

This was my 3rd visit to Vicksburg - we stopped there in 2008 and when I was on my way west in 2023. It actually has a really cute old downtown.

The casino boat that also had a RV campground - which is where I stayed

I suppose the return journey is a bit faster

3,000 miles and counting

Downtown murals. A Mississippi cruise ship was docked next door

Downtown Vicksburg - really quaint

Then on through Alabama with a stop in Montgomery and the Edmund Pettus bridge. A really sad town and I am amazed that a town that really is a big part of the civil rights/black history of the South cannot raise enough money to have a decent museum, etc. to highlight that history.

Downtown Montgomery

I wonder if kids in America ever learn this part of their history

Stayed at a dilapidated casino outside of town

From Alabama I headed north east, giving Atlanta a wide birth and stopping in Greenville, SC. A great little town. Stayed in a KOA campsite about 10 miles outside the city, but with a really great bike path all the way into town. It definitely is a town I would go back to. Very laid back, easy going.

Greenville, SC

Great bike path down the river in central Greenville

The campground near Greenville. Woke up in the morning to a bubbling stream behind me

Then it was on to Lake Norman State Park, NC. It is one of those huge lakes in the area where you are just conscious of water everywhere and everything is an island. Rested up there for a night and then headed up to the I81 for the final stretch home. Stopped one night at a picturesque campground called Shenandoah Valley campground in Verona, VA. The whole place was full of rabbits and it bordered the Middle River - no fish, but beautiful.

Looks like he had jumped out of a comic book

Wild guess that this outfit belonged to a female camper....

Then decided to stop off in Rhode Island at Fishermen's State Park in Narragansett in the off-chance that there was some surf. Unfortunately no surf, but it is was a great final 2 night of the trip of a great trip.