February 28, 2011--Superstition Mountain

Well I am back---Friday and Saturday were very uneventful, but Walt had a big day yesterday (Sunday). He left before 7 am for the downtown of Phoenix. When he got there he took a bus to the Phoenix Race Track for the Nascar Race. He was so excited he did not even sleep well the night before the race. He really enjoyed the day. I enjoyed the day working on my book. This book is something I would like to get finished in the next 6 months to a year.

Here are a few pictures of Walts day at the race track.

Walt trying his favorite drivers car.

Waiting for the race

What a view from a racetrack

Getting ready for a restart

These are the nature seats after they took 300 rattle snakes out of the area.

Februry 24, 2011--Sun Lake, AZ

Well, today was an awesome day!!! We left home about 10:45 am and drove to Olive Garden at a predetermined spot to meet Connie, a classmate of Walt's, who lives in Sun Lake, AZ  We had a great lunch and then we went to Connie's house in Sun Lake. She has a beautiful home with fruit trees in the back yard. She had Lemon and Grapefruit trees. They were just loaded and naturally we picked some and took them home for good eating. We spent the afternoon talking about memories and family, when suddenly it was time for Connie to go and see her grandson play baseball in a small town 13 miles away. Naturally we went along and saw an awesome game. It was down to the last batter and full count when a player on the home team hit a grand slam. Just great. It was dark when we left the ball field so we found a Marie Calendar's restaurant  and enjoyed a very nice meal.

After all of the memories and events that we talked about during the day we went to bed very happy and thanked the Lord for the wonderful day.

Walt picking some lemons. One year 900 pounds of fruit was picked off of the lemon and grapefruit trees and was given to the Food Pantry.

Walt and Connie in front of her house.

February 23, 2011---Mesa, AZ

Well, we are now in Mesa, AZ. It is a little part of Phoenix. Our trip was an up and down trek of the mountains. We started about noon because we wanted a few things warmed up before we went on the move. As we left Williams and headed east to Flagstaff on route 40 the mountains were glorified with the new fallen snow. The tall pine trees were covered with the beautiful snow but it was starting to melt with the sun shining on them. So many of the smaller trees were bending with the weight of the snow. At Flagstaff we turned south on Route 17 until we came to the outskirts of Phoenix.

We kept going up and down in the mountains with sharp curves and 6 or 7 % down hill grades. It was a stressful drive for Walt. When the day came to an end he was very tired. The sky's were blue with a few clouds on the way, so the scenery was changing from snow to bare ground depending how high we were in the mountains.

As we past east of Sedona we saw more rock formations equal to what we saw in Sedona except for the bright red color.

As we came out of the mountains close to Phoenix's outer belt we started seeing fields of tall cactus. They seemed to have their seed scattered by the wind because they were everywhere.

We finally reached our park--the Arizona Cowboy Park. It is a very nice park in the middle of many many other RV parks. This is truly snowbird country. We have one of the last sites in the park and are parked parallel to the back fence. We have just enough space to extend our slides between the fence and the driveway in the park. We have orange cones on the road so no one drives over our steps. We certainly do not have to worry about dragging mud into the house because everything is concrete, stones or pavement.

Everyone is very friendly and I found out that almost everyone walks their dogs between 10 and 11 am. It was like a dog parade. All sizes and all shapes. Bart just could not keep up with protecting the door from all of these strangers. At least he does not get stuck in the snow so he his happy to take his walk.

Sunset over the park. Taken from our front door.

Time for other things. We will be busy tomorrow because we will be visiting with our friends tomorrow.

Watch for me on the 25th.

Happy Birthday to Clay on the 24th. I cannot believe it has been 14 years ago when we were all praying for him.

February 21, 2011---Snow Bound

Well, we were finally able to go out this afternoon. Walt has been getting things ready for our move to Phoenix in the morning. It is not a long drive about 3 hours without any stops. When he cleaned the slides off from the 17 inches of snow we got over Saturday and Sunday he had about 2 feet on the kitchen slide with 18 inches on the bedroom slide. The door slide was on the west side so there was only a few inches. Here are a few pictures of our winter wonderland.

Time to do a few more chores and then off to bed. We have below freezing again. Hope we have warm weather when we get to Phoenix. Goodnight.

February 18, 2011--Falgstaff and Grand Canyon

Winter Wonderland---Yes, that is what we have in 1 hour and we can only see 30 feet around our home.  This is Saturday at 1:30 pm and the snow storm has moved in. We are at 6500 feet and the weather man says it will be worse in the higher altitudes.

Well back to Friday. Walt went to mass this morning in the smallest chapel he has ever been in. He said there were about 8 people in the chapel. Mass was at 9 am so we did not get started very early yesterday. We drove the 30 miles to Flagstaff (Flag as most locals call it) and the Odegaard's Sewing Center and Quilt Shop. It was a very good shop for notions and sewing machines. The fabric collection was varied and pretty good. The shop was large and very neat.

After leaving the quilt shop we turned north on route 89. After we left town there was 52 miles of very flat barren land. As we approached the Navajo reservation we saw more dry and rough desert land. That seems to be the pattern. The government gave large amounts of land to the Indians but it is the worse land available, except for the Indians in Texas and New Mexico because they can have the mineral rights with the land.  Natural gas was the answer for them. Other reservations may have casinos as their life blood.

When we came close to the little town of Cameron we turned west on route 64. As soon as we turned west we immediately saw the Little Colorado River Gorge. We could not get close to it but we could see how deep it was. I do not think the camera can ever show the depth of the gorge. Here is my only picture that is the best picture I have. It was like a miniature grand canyon. The sun was not shining so you cannot see the color or depths. We could not get closer because it was the Indian Reservation.

Our main goal for the day was to see the Watchtower at Desert View and finish the South Rim Tour of the Grand Canyon. The tower was designed by Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter for the Harvey Company. Months of research by Mary Colter preceded the actual construction in 1932. The tower was built of the same color and type of stone as the Grand Canyon so it looks like it has been there forever. The tower is a primarily an observation station and convenient rest stop for visitors to the Grand Canyon.



When we were at the tower the sun came out and the colors of the canyon  were just amazing. When we were there on Wednesday we did not have any sunshine and we thought it was beautiful but that was nothing to what we saw with sunshine. I have a group of  pictures which I have taken from the 202 pictures we took yesterday. Here they are three pictures taken at the tower-----

We finished the day by stopping at 5 more observation points and these are the pictures from those stops.

We ended our day by watching the sunset over the canyon along with about 75 Japanese Students were arrived on a bus. They apparently were members of a band. The students were not scared of the edge and were sitting with their legs dangling over the edge. When the chaperon spoke loudly to them they reluctantly moved back. Here are the sunset pictures---

More news this evening--Hope the snow stops soon.

February 17, 2011--Sedona, Arizona

Well, it is 10:30 pm and I am still working on today's blog.

This will be quick and short except for pictures.

What can I say about Sedona. It is a very high class shopping mecka with lots of original art in every shape and form. They also have beautiful scenery and are a very neat well kept town. The only industry is tourism.

Here are a few pictures and I will let them speak for themselves.

Good night!!!!

February 16, 2011--Grand Canyon

Well, today is Thursday---but we went to the Grand Canyon on Wednesday. We returned home late last night so after making and having dinner I was not thinking very creatively to write the blog.

We started out early on Wednesday morning and went into Williams, which is only a few miles from our home, and went to the Grand Canyon Visitors Center. It was a very helpful place to stop to find info on our tour of the Grand Canyon.

Armed with stacks of brochures we turned north on route 64 and started the drive for a hours drive to visit the Canyon. After we drove just a few miles we saw the mountain which I had been hoping we would see from the park. The rest of the drive was through desert with ranch lanes in some areas. We did not see anything except for low bushes and brown grass and  beige colored ground. When we got close to the Grand Canyon we started to see some tall pine trees and forest which was not very dense.


Our first stop was the IMAX theater which gave a nice show of how it looks to fly into the Canyon. It definitely gave you a thrill and made you excited about what you were about to see. We also found that things were very expensive in the area. Just to get a nice glass of tea was not good for our budget.

When we came to our first stop on the Canyon road, Walt gave a big gasp when he saw the first glimpse of the canyon.  He had seen the Canyon from a small plane years ago, but this was different. All I could think of was the beauty and thanked the Lord for giving me the ability to see such beauty. The sky was dark and the sun was not visible but it was still beautiful. Our pictures will not give the beauty any justice. We took all the pictures we could-in fact, we took 302 pictures. Thank goodness we have digital cameras these days. All you have to do is download them and do some editing or deletion.

More pictures:

We continued west on the road and stopped at every viewing area. It was getting colder and the wind was picking up. By the time we finished the tour we were very cold and you had to watch so the wind did not blow you over, especially if you were on unlevel ground or rocks.

We found a great place to eat lunch. It was The Tovar Lodge. It was built in 1905 for the rich and the famous when they visited the park. We had a wonderful lunch at a cost less than the minimum meal at Applebee's last week and their meal was horrible. Walt had a great Rubean Sandwich and I had Chicken marinated in Prickly Pear Juice with caramelized onion and roasted peppers on top of it. I also had rice and broccoli as sides. It was yummy.

After lunch we walked to the Hopi House were they had art works done by the Hopi Indians. The works were just magnificent and very costly, but just wonderful. I do wish I could have worked a piece into my budget. There was jewelry, sand art, pottery, silver works, rugs and wall hangings to mention a few. They did wonderful southwestern art.

More scenery with wind and cold getting worse.

We kept on going because you did not know what you may see at the next. Stop.

The Hermits Rest Route was the next part of our tour. It is an area that only buses can navigate during the months of March thru November. From December first to February 28 you can travel the 7 miles by car.

We can understand that if the traffic was heavy it would be a major grid lock. The road is narrow and winding with small pull offs and it could never accommodate a large group of people.

When we reached the end of the trail we went into the Hermits Rest visitors center and got some hot chocolate and defrosted in the warm building before heading east to our starting point were be had entered the park.

The sunset over the canyon was not very good because of the cloud cover.

BUT LOOK BELOW

Our southern trip on 64 gave us a view of the sunset which I have never seen anywhere before last night. It was a 180 degree sunset --from the east to the south and on thru to the west. It was something to behold.

Well, since I am the "Sunset Grandma" I think I have seen the best. Such beauty comes only at special times.
"The perfect icing on the top of the cake."  It was a wonderful day.

February 15, 2011==Williams, Arizona

It is late on the evening of Tuesday the 15th. We traveled from Gallup, NM to Williams without any problems. As we left Gallup I had to take a picture of the Kokopelli statues at the office. They were very nice and would be great in a garden.







The scenery is mainly scrub trees and rocky hills as we went on route 40 to Williams. The ride can get a little boring so I spent some time on my nook reading "Watering the Elephants." It is a very interesting book. The main character is a ninety some year old man in a nursing home and how he remembers his life as a vet. with a circus. The book gets a little "racey" at times but it is quite interesting since I spent so much time caring for the elderly.
Below are some pictures of our trip::

A large rock formation as we were almost at the Arizona line.

Interesting rock.  We have seen so many different rock formations on our trip which makes you really interested how these formations have occured.  It has to be a Masterwork of Art by the Lord.

More works of art--notice some snow is still on the rocks even though it is in the 50's.

View of the mountain as we approch Flagstaff.










When we arrived in Williams we did not see the mountain anymore. I was hoping we would be able to see it each morning. After setting up and eating lunch we went to the visitors center so we can plan our visit in Arizona. We have not come up with the complete plan as of yet but will probably go to the Grand Canyon in the morning. It is supposed to be in the 70's tomorrow and they are expecting rain on Saturday and Sunday.

Route 66 goes right down the main part of town--it is a very busy street and the storefronts are well kept and are open for business. There are a lot of motels and restaurants in town. They also have a quilt shop. I am sure I will put the shop on our list of activities.

Time to close. Hope to write again tomorrow.