Oak Glen is Apple Valley
Beautiful Oak Glen, an hour east of East Los Angeles, would be more aptly named Apple Valley. It offers end-to-end apple orchards, cider mills, fruit stands and scrumptious all-you-can eat buffets featuring hearty food and apple-based fare. When Southern California fall comes sneaking around, those who find themselves in the area should reserve time for a road trip through Oak Glen, north of San Bernardino.                         Click above & see video

A Magical Journey

in Chrysler’s Town & Country minivan

December 20^th, 2005

5:30 p.m.  I open the front door of my office and see Dean seated in the Chrysler Town and Country minivan we are test driving. We start our cross-country journey, heading toward Michigan for the Detroit Auto Show and to visit the birthplace of the minivan we're riding in, the Town and Country manufacturing plant in Windsor, Canada.

We begin heading east on the Interstate 10 freeway through sixty miles of Los Angeles suburbia. As we wade through the exodus of vehicles leaving for the weekend, Dean regales me with the logical layout of the Interstate Highway System.

He says Interstate 10 is the most southern east-west route across the country. North of it is the Interstate 40. Then, running across the middle of America, from San Francisco through Denver and on eastward is Interstate 80. The northern route I-90 runs from Seattle eastward. Dean tells me that north-south interstate highways all have a 5 in their number designations, such as I-5, which serves as a spinal column connecting California, Oregon and Washington, followed further to the east by Interstate 15 (that we will soon be traveling) and continuing east with interstate highways like I-75 that connects Michigan to Florida.

It’s a good thing that the Town and Country has lots of space. We have a cooler of food, a comforter, and all sorts of things I think we will need if we get stuck in the snow. 

We leave Interstate 10 in San Bernardino and head north up Interstate 15 toward Vegas, but we will be turning off before we get there.

In Hesperia, CA we celebrate our escape from LA. We buy comfort food at In/Out burgers. Dean has a cup of soda. I drink bottled water. 

A really good feature of the Town and Country is its adjustable cupholders.  No matter what the size of the cup or bottle you place in the cupholders, you can adjust the holder’s arm to hold the cup tight. And the bases of the cupholders seem to lower with heavier weight drinks, providing the cupholder with even better cup carrying capability.

Even though the Town and Country has Sto-and-Go seating, a technique for quickly stowing all the rear seats into the floor of the minivan, we have all its seats up with our varied stash of clothing and supplies stored between them.

Being from the Philippines, I don’t know how cold winters in Michigan are, so I’ve packed a lot of thick sweaters and jackets.  The Town and Country is full to the brim.

Even though I've over-packed, we are both seated comfortably with our seats able to go all the way back, giving us plenty of leg room.

We turn onto Interstate 40, and not long afterward reach Needles, CA at 10:09 p.m. (Pacific Time). We put in $20 gas at $2.89 a gallon at Arco, giving us 225 miles to empty on the Town and Country’s info display. 

We cross the Colorado River without seeing it. Its pitch dark. We wonder where the moon is.  Crossing the Colorado River means we’re in Arizona (and in Mountain Time), but without a moon in the sky we’re rolling through a limbo, a void devoid of scenery. We pass the time getting to know each other’s past a bit better. We sing Christmas carols, but have a hard time recalling the lyrics. Dean makes up new words to them and makes me laugh. Most of them shouldn’t be printed.

Further on, we see Love’s. I nearly fall in love with the truck stop gas station at first sight. They’re offering gas at $2.12 per gallon.

We’re sleepy when we finally reach Kingman, CA (the “B” on the map above) and decide to stay in a cheap motel, a $32 person per night bargain (not the one pictured at left). It looks decent on the outside. Unfortunately the room has an overpowering odor of stale tobacco smoke. The smell seems to also be on the bed sheets.  The white towels look dirty.

December 21st, 2005

After a bad night of tossing and turning, we get up in the predawn and hit the road, vowing to try sleeping in the Town and Country rather than risk another stinky motel room.

Morning dawns slowly, silhouetting the mountains of northwest Arizona as we head east toward them. Even though I have lived in Los Angeles surrounded by mountains, I have never felt like I was in the Old West of the movies. This morning I do. As the sun explodes between the sawtooth tops of the mountains, there is just one word running through my mind, “Gorgeous!”

At the Ashfork, Arizona Chevron station we put in twenty dollars of gas at $2.57 per gallon. Too much, I know! Yet I still recommend this gas station for the gift shop beside it. The shop sells reasonably priced, good-quality, hand-crafted remembrances of Arizona, not the usual cheesy souvenirs you find in most stores.

We end up paying more in Ashfork than we have too, because we need it and don’t know what options are ahead. As we pass the next intersection east of the gift shop gas station with our gas tank full, we see stations with much cheaper prices.

 Travel in the Town and Country is very comfortable. The ride is so smooth we seem to be floating above the road. We pass by the exit to the Grand Canyon and keep climbing in altitude. The ecosystem changes from desert into a pine forest as we get to higher elevations. 

In Flagstaff we stop at Maverick, which has gas at $2.12 per gallon. We put on $20.   

We eat breakfast at a restaurant recommended by a tall young Native American clerk at Maverick’s. It’s called Mike and Ronda’s The Place, but we’re told the folks the place is named after haven’t been around for years.  We’re served by a girl who prefers hanging out with her friends rather than working with her mom during her school vacation. Dean has 2 strips of bacon, 2 eggs and 2 pieces of wheat toast with coffee.  I have 2 pancakes.  The breakfast isn’t good, and it’s expensive. The total is $15.00.  This place is a bad choice.

Lowell Observatory

After breakfast Dean wants to go find an observatory he has visited previously at the University of Northern Arizona. On the way to find it we come across a sign pointing to the Lowell Observatory. Dean is off toward it without hesitation.

From the Lowell Observatory parking lot we take a hike into the tall pine forest. It is my first time in an ecosystem like this. The ground is slightly spongy from the years of pine needles that have fallen upon it. Even though the Town and Country is a quiet ride, I realize that I am in a much quieter place than I have been in many months. There’s almost no wind. The air is clean and scented with pine, slightly chilled, and the sunshine between the pines warms us pleasantly. 

As for the Lowell Observatory, two neat spots are essential to take your family. The first is the old 13 inch telescope that is now closed. We push a button at the door to look inside at the telescope through which the planet Pluto was first discovered in 1929. Dean notes that NASA is building a spacecraft that is about to head out to Pluto for a much closer look.

The second spot at the observatory to experience is just steps away from the 13 inch telescope. It looks like a small observatory, but instead of a dome that opens, it has a dome of glass blocks. Look inside it and you see that it is the mausoleum of Lowell. On the top of his crypt are speckles of colored light, from photons of light scattered downward through the glass blocks.

From the Lowell, the view of Flagstaff spreading out below is fantastic, framed by the San Francisco Mountains to the north and the Walnut Canyon National Monument to the south. We watch a long train snake through the entirety of the town.

Meteor Crater

Moving on down the road we decide to visit Meteor Crater.  It was interesting to learn about meteors, the effects of its impact to earth’s surface, and to be able to walk on the side of the actual meteor crater itself. 

Dean tells me that scientists have discovered amino acids in meteorites and comets, and a fascinating tidbit about how experiments have shown that impact forces like those of a meteor hitting Earth can cause the amino acids to transform into far more complex peptides, which along with proteins are the building blocks of all life.

I spent a lot of time in the gift shop admiring all the rocks for sale and not buying anything. That’s not exactly true. I do squish a penny into a souvenir stamped with a picture of old Route 66 which Interstate 40 parallels. The little picture also features the Meteor Crater. For a fee of $12 per person, a visit to the site, which seems to be on privately-owned land, is well worth it.

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