It's Monday. We Must be in Los Angeles.

With the time change as we travel west, we got up this morning at 4:30 AM! Arrrghhh!

We were on the road leaving Kingman, Arizona by 5:50 AM.


We saw lots of desert and dry, parched landscape.


We passed through Arizona and arrived in California where we noticed the price of gas jumped. We went from looking for $3.94 gas to hoping we could get $4.47! We even saw $5.00 gas prices. We arrived at the Marriot Residence Inn which was a present from our son-in-law who travels a lot for work and had gotten Marriot Rewards. Very nice, indeed. We are cheap travelers and never stay at fancy hotels. You may have noticed. We are enjoying this hugely.


We managed to find Pier C in Long Beach, California to ship our van to Hawaii before our Tom Tom (GPS system) decided to fizzle out on us! Our dear friend, Jean drove over an hour to meet us at the loading lot to pick us up and drive us back to the hotel.


I met Jean and her husband, Mike in Holland when Art got the bright idea that I might like to bike through the country even though I'd not been on a bike in some 30 years. But that's another story... The tour provided me with LOTS of exercise, photos of gorgeous scenery and flowers and BEST of all, a good friend!




I can't get over the luxury of staying at an expensive hotel. We are loving this totally! There's free coffee and tea that you can make yourself, larger bars of soap and nice shampoo, a kitchen and a working Internet! Yahoo!

We leave bright and early tomorrow morning after a FREE breakfast and FREE shuttle service to the aiport. I am so loving this.

Oh my gosh! Tomorrow, we'll be in Hawaii!

Sunday! Leaving Santa Fe!

We left Santa Fe before 7:30 this morning. We were wondering if Jon had started out for the Fire Station in Los Alamos. Suddenly my cellphone rang. It was Jon calling from the Fire Station. He was already on duty and just wanted to see if we had begun our journey yet. As we looked out at the homes in Santa Fe we noticed that all the homes were adobe colored and not more than a couple of stories high. We liked how it just blended in with the countryside.







11:12 AM We arrived at the Painted Desert National Park. It’s really an amazing place. The explanation for the pertrified forest was written on the brochure:
“…The trees, Araucarioxylon, Woodworthia, Schilderia, and others, fell, and swollen streams washed them into adjacent floodplains. A mix of silt, mud and volcanic ash buried the logs. This sediment cut off oxygen and slowed the logs’ decay. Silica laden groundwater seeped through the logs and replaced the original wood tissues with silica deposits.

Eventually the silica crystallized into quartz, and the logs were preserved as petrified wood.”



“The Teepees: Layered blues, purples, and grays created by iron, carbon, manganese, and other minerals stand in cone-shaped formations.”


We met somebody from Illinois here and he guessed that these were antelopes.


This was the biggest gosh darn crow we've ever seen!


Art went out by himself while I checked out the gift shop and he found this colorful lizard who seemed to be sunning himself on a rock.

The fauna and flora were also pretty darn incredible.

Surprise! It's a Rodeo!

It's our final night with Jon and Sarah and they had a surprise for us. We guessed that they were planning to take us to hear a concert or maybe watch a tractor pull or maybe fireworks. We never imagined that they would take us to a rodeo! Art has seen smaller rodeos on the Big Island where paniolos (Portuguese cowboys) would have rodeos but nothing like this.

Here's Jon going to buy the tickets for us.


A kind cowboy offered to take our rodeo portrait for us.


At first the wind blew dust all over the place and it seemed like it would rain. It didn't, and the temperatures were quite cool. It would have been uncomfortable if the rodeo was held earlier in the day when it was much too hot.


It was fun seeing the participants in their cowboy and cowgirl clothing. The rodeo had lots of different fun performances like lasso twirling, sychronized horsemanship, shooting balloons with pistols, etc.


The first event was called mutton busting. Children, well protected with a helmet and vest were allowed to try riding a sheep. It was quite hilarious although nerve wracking for me.


Art took this exciting shot of the bronco riding. They also had bull riding, calf lassoing, and other incredible contests of skill and daring. It was such an exciting evening. We can always count on Jon to do something a little different and fun for us. It was very sad to say goodbye to them but Jon goes back on duty at the fire station and we will be on our way to Kingman, Arizona tomorrow.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

We got up early this morning and made our own waffles again at the Travel Lodge. We're getting pretty good at this.


Jon drove us to the Old Town Plaza which was a focal point of Albuquerque's community since 1706. We got our gifts to bring back to Hawaii.




The San Felipe de Neri Church was just beautiful. We were surprised that there was a sign inside saying we were welcome to take photos.


Our son's girlfriend, Sarah was able to join us for this outing.



We enjoyed our stay at the Old Town Plaza looking at all the gift shops and art galleries.

Tonight, Jon and Sarah have something planned for us and I have no idea what it could be. Apparently we have to get some warm clothing for this experience. There's a 30% chance of showers so........ what could it be?

Taos, New Mexico

I'm just not remembering everything I learned today so I'll have to add information later that my foggy mind just can't recall right now.


We began the morning having our free waffle, English muffin, orange juice and coffee breakfast. Jon was a bit skeptical about us staying at a very economical (for Santa Fe) motel but we're liking it very nicely with the fridge and lovely breakfast.


Jon planned an interesting trip to Taos for sight seeing and Taos Pueblo to see how Native Americans live and lived. On the way there we saw many beautiful flowers along the roadside that I don't know the name of.


Just as I was marveling at the beautiful flower I noticed this equally intriguing bug.


This is the San Jose Gracias catholic church which was built in 1760. It is in Las Trampas.


We arrived in the quaint town of Taos where I believe Julia Roberts is supposed to live. Didn't see her anywhere! This is a very artsy, beautiful town. We ate outside at the Bent Street Deli and Cafe. I recommend this place highly. Great food, nice people and just the most relaxing place to eat lunch.


It was so pretty here with musicians playing their guitars and a folk singer singing music I love but it was time to head out to the Native American town of Taos Pueblo.


There are currently 2,800 people still living there. They said it is the oldest inhabited town in the U.S. They speak the Tiwa language. 75% of the people are Catholic.


This Taos Pueblo gravesite is right beside their first church, the history of which represents the violence between the Native Americans, the Spanish and Americans.


These drying racks are where hunters would dry and preserve the meat they caught.


We enjoyed watching this dog looking for something good to eat.


We found that we had quite a bit in common with our guide Cameron. He has gone to the University of Hawaii on the Manoa Campus and is now planning to go to the Art Institute of Chicago where he would like to study film making. He says he'd like to show stories showing more positive, happy aspects of Native American life.


We noticed this prairie dog outside the visitor center. Jon says they may be cute but are a nuisance in New Mexico. I guess that's sort of like the chipmunks in Illinois.

Well...that's it for now. Tomorrow we'll be going to Albuquerque.

Texas Pan Handle Windmill--Sky Watch Friday

We saw a lot of Big Skies as we traveled the Southwest. It was hard to choose which photo to post. For more great Sky Watch Friday photos, join us at Welcome to Wiggers World and meet our very wonderful and most cordial host, Tom Wigley.

Broken Toe in Santa Fe

I really love you guys for keeping me company on this trip. I've been wanting to check your blogs to see what you're all up to but our time has been really limited. I've got a lot of catching up to do when we're finally settled in Hawaii next week. One of you will probably have won the lottery and I won't have known about it!

About my toe...
About two or three weeks ago (It's all a blur.) I stubbed my toe on the edge of the picnic table that we had set up in our diningroom for our daughter, Tiffany after we're gone. It's still swollen, reddish maroon and sore. I checked webMD and there was a diagram on how to tape it. I asked my endocrinologist and he said he wasn't sure what to do but he agreed there's not much you can do with a broken toe. It just takes time to heal. Taping does alleviate the pain somewhat, but not completely.

We're planning to walk around Santa Fe today with Jon. His girlfriend, Sarah is an investigative reporter and assistant editor in Espanola. She has to work today but we'll spend time with her over the weekend. Jon says he's got a little surprise thing that we can all do together one night but he's not telling us what. So long as it doesn't involve something like sky diving, I'll be OK. But with Jon, you never know.

Photos from Santa Fe:

Palace of the Governors
We enjoyed looking at all the Native American jewelry and crafts but had to refrain from buying since we did not have any luggage space.


We rested in the Plaza. The temperatures were rising and we were surprised at how dehydrated we felt. We loved being able to spend time with our son again. Being a firefighter, his schedule of 2 days on to 4 days off afforded him the flexibility to spend a happy amount of time with us.


Lunch was wonderful but I think Art must have had about 5 glasses of ice tea. He did feel much better after that.


The Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi






Tomorrow we'll head out to Taos.