Road Trip in the American Southwest // #4: Page and Lake Powell

Lake Powell is a reservoir on the Colorado river, that sits on the States of Utah and Arizona. It was created after the construction of Glen Canyon dam in 1963, and it's the second largest man made lake in the United States. Planet of the Apes was shot there in 1968 and 2001. 

 

 

It is a major vacation spot, especially for water sports lovers. Indeed there are almost a hundred side canyons with red and ocher rocks, that are only accessible by boat, canoe or jet ski. Even though it will cost you an arm, the thing to do is to spend at least a day or two on the lake to be able to discover some of its nooks. Rainbow Bridge particularly, which is the biggest natural bridge  known in the world, is only accessible by boat and it takes almost two hours to get there. (The lake is 300 kilometers or 180 miles long). We did not do it, but if you come as a group, and that you have time, and money, it might be interesting to rent one of those house boat to stay in the middle of the lake. 

The little town of Page, next to the lake, was founded in 1957 to serve as a housing community for workers and their families during the construction of Glan Canyon dam. Its site was obtained in a land exchange with the Navajo tribe. For us tourists, it serves as a place to sleep when visiting the lake and everything around: Glen Canyon National Recreational Area, Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, etc... There is nothing interesting to see in the town itself. Though as you drive by, you'll be able to notice the succession of churches along South Lake Powell Boulevard: Episcopal Church, Lutherian Church, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons), First Baptist Church, etc.... In short, they are all contained in the same place, in buildings that look nothing like churches. A dozen of cult venues for such a small town seems astonishing, but religion occupies a very important place in the United States. And above all, there are different churches, different religious denominations. When one comes from France, where there are mostly catholic churches, and often one per village, it inevitably seems puzzling. Let's say that it gives us the opportunity to mug up on all the branches of the Protestant Church... 

Aside from that, oddly I ate the best croissant I've ever had in America! It was at the "Blue Bakery Coffee and Wine Bar" on North Navajo Drive. But let's not get carried away: it was a croissant that had the taste of a croissant and the consistency of a croissant. To me it is now worth getting carried away. 

Road Trip in the American Southwest // #3: Grand Canyon

Grand canyon, the inescapable destination of our road trip. We've all heard about it and seen so many stunning pictures. As a result I had almost anticipated a deception. But no, it did not disappoint. The first few seconds when you approach the cliff for the first time are truly breathtaking. 

We had made sure we arrived about two hours before sunset because that's when the light is the most beautiful. During these few hours we went from a vista point to another on Hermit Road, to the west of the park. A free shuttle takes you to each of them. You can get in and out of the shuttle as you please, or, if you have time, walk along the path that follows the cliff and links every vista point to one another. 

After one or two stops, we ended up waiting for the sunset at Hopi Point. Of course we were not alone. If your thing is to be alone in the nature, it's not necessarily the best place to catch the sunset... That time of the day is very popular for visitors and photographers, and we were in the middle of quite a crowd. Of course it's more than likely the same thing everywhere anyway... In the end I don't really understand all the hustle and bustle about not missing the sunset. All those people are massed in the same spot to capture those few seconds. Though the best time is the few HOURS before the sun disappears behind the horizon, when it makes hues of orange all over the rocks, really not the last few minutes. Plus you freeze your ass off afterwards. (We were there late April) Just saying.

Once it was dark outside, we went back a few kilometers south of the park entrance, in Tusayan, where we had booked the hotel. By the way, another drawback to waiting till the sunset before to leave is that obviously you are not alone trying to get back in the shuttle... It's kind of a pain... Anyway, we were staying in Tusayan because there was nothing available inside the park even when we booked online about a month before. The town has no merit, just a few hotels and a few unappealing places to eat. Though it really didn't matter much as we were there only to sleep.

The next day we got back on the road along East Rim Drive. Our first stop was Shoshone Point. This vista point is not indicated on the road, but was in our tourist guide book. So you got to look for it a little bit... It's also less convenient for some people because you have to walk a little less than a mile to reach the cliff. That seems to discourage most tourists. It made it only better for us. We arrived there in the morning, alone in front of this spectacular landscape, and I think it was my favorite!  

Our second stop was at GrandView point. It's the departure point of a hiking trail which goes all the way down the canyon and goes back up on the other side on the north cliff. You have to plan two days for that, with a night at the camp in the bottom of the canyon. We hadn't planned that long hike in our trip, but we walked down the trail a little bit just to get a taste. The trail is very steep and narrow, and personally, I think you might want to stay away if you're scared of heights! Well, maybe I'm a bit wimpish... It's actually not the scariest one at all but I will get to that in a future post. Narrowness and steepness are not even the most dangerous aspect of that hike. The most common accidents are caused by lack of hydration, and it is reminded to you everywhere on boards where the trail begins. Warnings are illustrated with not too funny stories of fatal accidents. 

Finally, Desert View Watchtower, the last vista point before to exit the park on the East side. Out of the few places we stopped at, this one was the only one where we caught sight of the Colorado river at the bottom of the canyon. Practical point: there is also a gift shop and a little cafeteria.

We ended up exiting the park in the early afternoon in direction of Page. A few weeks earlier, Highway 89 collapsed, cutting off the city from the south. We had no choice but taking a detour through Highway 160 and 98, which doubled the normal distance. Not so cool. However, on the road, just before Tuba City, a stop to an Indian site tempted us. A road sign showed we could see dinosaurs fossils and footprints. Upon arrival on the parking lot, you will notice there is no price indication. They will show you where to park, escort you outside your car with some enthusiastic "this way, this way!", they will tell you to leave your camera in your car as pictures are forbidden. Before you even had the time to say anything, they will start guiding you from fossils to footprint (to be fair, that was pretty cool). Then, after 5-10 minutes, they will walk you back to the parking lot asking you for money and trying to force your hand to buy the local merchandise. It kinda feels like you fell in a big tourist trap. I wish a fixed price was given up front so you can at least judge if you want to be taken on the tour or not. But it must be said that Indians do their business as good as they can... It is not easy to compete when all their land has become National Parks and is now in the hands of the government... It was the first time I had seen such amazingly well preserved dinosaurs remains just here in the open, so I do not regret the stop. Too bad we have no pictures to share though!

Road Trip in the American Southwest // #2: Sedona

Leaving Flagstaff in the morning, we head out to spend the day in Sedona, about 45 minutes away. After a few switchbacks to go down the canyon, we first end up in a narrow and verdant valley. Just a few more miles and we arrive in the town of Sedona, where we quickly stop only to buy something to eat for our pic-nic. Then we continue on driving a little bit further south until the Chapel of the Holy Cross. It's a pretty vista point with a tiny modern chapel built in 1957, at the top of a small hill. A very small dirt path starts from the parking lot and leads you away from the crowd of tourists who come up the hill to the chapel. We walk down the path for a few minutes to take advantage of the views. The contrast between the lush vegetation and the red rocks formations that surround you is what makes this place so beautiful in my opinion. It's different from the other typical arid landscapes you can see in this region. 

View of the mesas from the Chapel of the Holy Cross

After this quick stop, we get back on the road to go further south, and stop in the parking lot located just north of the village of Oak Creek. The hiking path (4.5 miles) makes a loop around Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte, two huge rocks, one of which known to be a "spiritual vortex". A lot of people in pursuit of spiritual harmony come to Bell Rock to revitalize themselves. Sedona is considered a "New Age" capital, and its touristic industry is catering to supporters of this spiritual movement. It is possible to climb up Bell Rock, or you can also simply go  around it. We haven't walked into a lot of people when hiking the 4.5 miles loop, which made the experience even more pleasant. Plus the path is more or less flat all along. 

 

In the end, this was a very good foretaste of the rest of our journey... I highly recommend it.

Rodeo at the Penitentiary!

Matt Mayfield Photography

Welcome to Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, the largest maximum security prison in the United States. Yes... No less. That makes you dream doesn't it? It's also the only prison in Louisiana authorized to apply death penalty. We  are an hour and fifteen minutes north of Baton Rouge, surrounded on three sides by the Mississippi and on the other side by a forest plagued with snakes. 

In the past the site was a plantation where most of the slaves were from Angola, in Africa. Then at the end of the 19th, beginning of the 20th century, the State of Louisiana purchased a number of those plantations to convert them in penitentiaries. Prisoners continued to harvest the same kind of culture, mainly cotton and sugar cane. 

Dreadful fact, Louisiana imprisons more people than any nation in the world... 
In the early 1990's, Louisiane was ordered by the Federal Court to decrease the inmates overcrowding in State prisons. Because the State didn't have money, The Department of Corrections encouraged local Sheriffs and private companies to build new prisons by allowing them to receive part of the profit that will be generated. The whole thing became a business. There are today 160 local prisons (vs 12 State prisons). The State pays Sheriffs about $25 per day and per inmate. Which means that there's not much left after paying for food, lodging and personnel costs. Profit is used to buy patrol cars, fire arms, bulletproof vests, etc... And of course, there is nothing left to finance programs that would be beneficial to prisoners. In short, if the number of inmates decreases, the Sheriff's office makes less money. Lobbies make sure to scuttle any reform that would result in less criminals behind bars. Half of the prisoners in Louisiana are incarcerated in local prisons, when there was only a quarter in the early 1990's. They are often transferred from  a prison to another to fill the gaps and make sure everybody make as much money as possible, and without getting any opportunities for rehabilitation, which you can imagine, doesn't reduce their chance to reoffend. Only State prisons offer programs to learn mechanic, welding, plumbing and other useful trades. But State prisons only receive the worse offenders, who, often, will never be set free. How absurd...  

Louisiana is one of the six States where life sentences are given without parole. Sentences are much heavier than elsewhere. An armed robbery or a trio of drug convictions can be enough to land you at Angola for the rest of your life. A two time car burglar can get 24 years without parole. Local prisons, that have proliferated in rural areas, are full of people who have been sentenced for non violent crimes such as drug possession, theft, or simply writing bad checks. And while prison population doubled, New Orleans still leads the nation in number of homicides. To make it short, this is a revolting clusterfuck!  

With this sad and alarming observation, let's get back to our Angola rodeo... 

AP Photos/Gerald Herbert

At Angola prison, you'll find the worse convicts, murderers, rapists and other people condemned to very long sentences. There are over 5000 prisonners and more than three quarters of them are serving life sentences or heavy sentences that will keep them in there all their life. It's the highest ratio of life sentences in the United States.  

Every sundays in October and the third sunday of April, the prison organizes a rodeo and a craft fair. Prisonners that prove fit enough to compete can participate if they want, and others sell their art to the public. Depending on the level of trust they gained, they sell their stuff either directly behind their booth, mingling freely with visitors, or behind a fence, with their goods laid on a table on your side of the fence. There are a lot of sculptures, wooden furniture and toys, paintings, jewelry, leather objects, etc... Wandering among prisoners feels wierd to me. Nonetheless I ended up buying a very beautiful raw wood vase, signed by the artist. A friend asked me later if I had googled the name of the guy to see why he was incarcerated... That's something you could do... or not...  

AP Photos/Gerald Herbert

During two hours inmates participate to several games. For example, the hula hoop challenge is about being the last man standing in his hula hoop without getting knocked down by the bull. For the Poker game, four prisoners are sitting at a table playing cards, until the bull is released in the arena and takes everything apart. There are also the classic riding competition of bucking horses and bulls. It's a hard enough challenge for rodeo professionals, so I cannot imagine what it's like for people with no training... Lots of them get hurt. Their motivation: small prizes to win: money, a steak dinner, belt buckles, or an article in the prison magazine. 

AP Photos/Gerald Herbert

Here the goal was to catch the red thingy between the bull's horns...

AP Photos/Gerald Herbert

Advocate Photo/Mark H. Hunter

This year, the revenues from the rodeo were estimated to 4 millions dollars. Profits are reinvested in services such as education programs for the inmates. 
Fyi, it is forbidden to bring your camera of phone inside the prison. Everything has to be left in your car. Though I've seen several people using their phones anyway. I'm a little pissed I wasn't able to take photos.

AP Photos/Gerald Herbert

Selection of oddities at the supermarket

I'm only gonna nurture the typical stereotype which is that food is horrible in the United States, but nevermind. It's just to show you the weird stuff we can find at the supermarket. It was too tempting. Of course it is possible to eat well here too, if you buy the rights products and cook a little bit. 
Almost all the pictures were taken in Walmart, which is the furthest you can be from sophistication. Although all those items can be found elsewehere, Walmart is just really good at giving an unbeatable choice of monstruosities.   

Springles galore... in a whole array of crazy fake flavours: Pizza, Hamburger, loaded potatoe, to name a few. 

Who wants gallons of chemical juice?

"I can't believe it's not butter!" Uhhh Yes I can... They don't know what real butter is. The butter aisle is mostly filled with giant containers of substitute butter, cheaper and easy to spread. "I can't believe it's not butter": It's a brand, and it seems like they want to make you believe that their produce has the same taste than butter. Bullshit. 

Mickey shaped cheese or sticks of blended cheese? MMmmm

The rest of the cheese aisle: sliced and under plastic. Yes, Walmart doesn't really have a cheese aisle. Everything is pre-sliced, ready to put in your sandwich. In the "gourmet' section you can find some very pasteurized goat cheese, brie or camembert, at best. 

If you want to find sliced ham, they sell it to you without the rind and cut in square. You wonder where the "ham" comes from... 

If you find it not convenient to cut a piece of margarine and make it melt to grease your pan, no problem! Here it also comes in a spray bottle... wtf!

Cute mini marshmallows (I like a few in hot coco... for real, it's not bad.)


Left: the snack that everybody seem to swear by: fake jelly in a fake cookie with fake frosting on top.
Right: some kind of sandwiches with ice cream between two layers of soft cookie. Meh.

Here is an ice cream brand I like. I won't speak for the weird flavours like "birthday cake", but I'm satisfied with Cookies & Cream. 

Frozen cakes aisle: lots of stuff with cream. I'm not a fan, except for the cookies and cream pie. But it's fair to say you can give me cookies and cream under any shape and form.

The dressing section got to be the most staggering of the supermarket. So much variety of vinaigrettes and other ranch sauces that it takes a whole aisle. It's sad but out of all the people I know here I must be the only one able to make vinaigrette myself. 

Cookies are always disappointing. Why aren't they able to make a BN or Pepito??! Cookies are all so bad here that I don't even take an afternoon snack anymore! 

When I saw that thing the hair stood up on the back of my head! Potatoes individually wrapped in plastic paper. You can cook that thing directly in the micro wave in its wrapper and in 6 minutes it is said to have the same taste than baked in the oven. It's magic. 

At  Target (another supermarket) they downright wrap EVERY vegetable in plastic. It's clear they don't know the concept of wrapping savings... What a shame. 

Well, after that I'm sure that everybody is comforted in their ideas. So yes, i do know that it's much better in France, no need to remind it to me and make me suffer! Otherwise I'll stop bringing back Peanut Butter M&Ms! ;)

Road Trip in the American Southwest // #1: Jerome Ghost Town

We started our trip from Phoenix, Arizona. As soon as we landed and got our rental car, we quickly got out of this ugly stifling urban area in the middle of the desert, and headed north on Road 17. It is already well past noon so we don't have much time to spare. We have to spend the night in Flagstaff, about two hours away. But on the way there we want to make a detour via the old mining town of Jerome and get a view of Sedona landscapes, which makes us go through smaller roads and will require more time.  

Jerome is a tiny village, 5,200 feet high, that barely appears on maps. It is located northeast of Prescott and southwest of Sedona, next to the villages of Clarkdale and Cottonwood. From Clarkdale, we take road 89A, which climbs pretty stiffly, and after a short ascent we enter what is the biggest ghost town in the US. This old mining camp was built on the biggest copper mine in Arizona. First it was only a settlement of tents but then grew into a roaring mining community. 

The town was founded in 1876 and once was the biggest city in Arizona. Population reached 15,000 in 1920. Mining operations slowed down during the Depression but took off again during WWII because of the high demand in copper. Following the war, it declined for good and the mine was closed in 1953. The remaining 50 to 100 inhabitants promoted Jerome as a historic ghost town. It now has become an artist community with a population of about 450. It almost looks like the way it used to a hundred years ago, although some buildings have been renovated. Others have simply felt down the mountainside. Considering the stiff slope that is not too surprising.

 

 

When wandering the streets by feet, one can find a few art galleries, antique shops, pottery and hand made jewelry boutiques, a few restaurants and bars, and here and there out in the street, random bizarre attractions that make for an original atmosphere. 

Why I love the dentist in America

As a lot of people I guess, I've always been scared of going to the dentist. As a kid or a teenager, every trip to the dentist meant I'd get to subject myself to the drill. Painful memory... What I've only figured out since I live in the United States, is that my french dentist (like all the other ones? I don't know) actually had somewhat barbaric methods! Drilling without anesthesia does not exist any more in the US guys!! Needless to say, it's bound to change your life! 

So here is the story. The first time I went to the dentist in America was because I had received a good deal for a check up and whitening. Since back then I did not have any dental insurance, and because honestly, I could barely remember my last visit to the dentist in France, it seemed to be a bargain. Additionally, teeth whitening may be a common thing here in the US, but it is definitely not in France. I had never done it so it was cool. I figured I might finally get my dream white american smile. Well, it kinda happened... Only, even though I thought I had a pretty decent set of teeth, I ended up with a not so joyful diagnosis: cavities at every corner of my mouth, cost estimate to repair the damage: a little over $1000. Even with whiter teeth, it put a damper on my excitement right away. 

As a result I'm quite familiar with the dentist now. But it's a far more pleasant experience than anything I could remember! It doesn't even hurt! Never! I almost hop and hum on my way there, seriously! Plus after they clean, scratch, scour, and polish your teeth at each visit, they give you a little gift bag with toothbrush, floss and toothpaste! They sure want to entice you to come back to visit them! In the end, maybe I have a shitty health insurance, but I get a free check up, scaling and polishing every 6 months... Go figure. 

Actually Americans are a little obsessive about dental hygiene... First thing the hygienist asks you right after you opened your mouth: "Are you flossing every day?" So at that point honestly... awkwardness... You end up spinning the truth to not seem too filthy... (Because French people already have a bad enough reputation when it comes to hygiene...) Then the dentist shows up, and he makes you damned ashamed again: "Wow they still do silver fillings in France?!" - Ok got it, my teeth are really gross I guess. Luckily, over time, after a few visits to the dentist and a few visits in the supermarkets dental care aisles, "the american smile" is not a secret for you anymore! Now I only need to actually do everything the lady said...

"A smile is to the Americans what a handshake is to the French: a sign of welcome and courtesy." (JJ Dupuis)