February 28, 2007
but now is cold here in Williams AZ. We left Las Vegas Saturday morning and were on the road again. Mostly seeing more great scenery. Most of it is just indescribable, but if you have been in this area you know.
Around Kingman AZ we decided to take off the interstate onto Rte 66. We stopped at the Grand Canyon Caverns. Yeah! an elevator to take us down! Of course there was still lots of walking up and down in the cave. This cave has been a tourist attraction since 1927. Originally they lowered you down in a bucket with an oil lantern and you could look around as much as you can see by that lantern. Not happening with me! And they charged 25 cents for you to trust them and the rope. It is a "dry cavern" meaning there is no water and so is no longer active in making new stalagtites or stalagmites or crystals. It is so dry they found a mummified bobcat who had fallen in many years ago and broken it's hip. Also the very well preserved skeleton of a giant sloth presumably from the ice age. The guide had quite a patter, some not quite believable. Who remembers the Cuban missile crisis aand Bay of Pigs? Some of you can surely remember studying about it! Well, during that crisis, the cave was designated a shelter and the gov't loaded them up with supplies to keep 2000 people alive for 2 weeks. It is all still there, including the 3 rolls of toilet paper. Think there would have been fights over those? We sure are spoiled. Anyway my mind flashed back to college and everyone standing around the teletype as the news was coming in about the crisis. (If you need to know what a teletype is, just ask).
We continued into Williams, found our hotel and just rested. This hotel does not have coffee pots in the room, so we went to Family Dollar and bought one, just to be able to have hot water and make hot chocolate or oatmeal.
This morning we attended church services. There were 15 at services. What wonderful, friendly, loving people. Had a really good Bible study. The first people we met are in the process of moving to Mt. Home AR. and their children live in Henderson and White House, TN. Then the really exciting part of the day - are you ready for this? Are you sure you can handle it? We went to the laundromat and did our laundry! Whoo-ho. Tomorrow is train day and we are so looking forward to it.
Love to all-- God Bless,Don and Pat
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Did you hear the screams?
February 24, 2007
When I got up (tried to) Thursday morning, my legs were not at all happy with me. They were screaming "You hike us up 90 miles to a volcano and then climb 910 steps and expect us to work the next day? Dreamer!" I will have to say that I was very sore. So if you were thinking I was in pretty good shape, the joke is on you. But I would not have missed Wednesday' experience.
So here we are in Las Vegas. It has changed a whole bunch since we drove thru here 18 years ago! And that is understating it! We got here early afternoon, so we went walking down "the strip". My legs and feet were not screaming after that 2 hours, they were whimpering. Again it was worth it. Good thing hotels don't run out of hot water, because I guarantee I stood in that shower for a while!
The buildings here are amazing. And the landscaping is indescribable! Don has taken a ton of photos. Unfortunately we have picked the windest days of the year to be here, so few of the outdoor shows are being done. No volcano, no pirate fight, no dancing waters. Such is life. It is stil pretty amazing..
Today we bought a bus pass. Still did a fair bit of walking, but it sure was nice to catch a bus whenever we felt like it. There is just so much going on here, it is hard to describe and definitely hard to get around to doing very much of it. We really enjoyed the Flamingo wild bird habitat. It is really beautiful and such a variety of tropical birds,wow. Beautiful waterfalls and scenery. Then we were at the conservatory at the Bellagio. Mercy! They have these huge statutes of oriental children ane all the clothing is made of flowers. We got pictures of an employee "dressing" one of them. Since it is the year of the pig, they have this really big pig whose ears and snout move. Got Don's photo next to that one. And the mirrored horse in the lobby is really sparkling. Tonite we did take the bus to Fremont Street in old Las Vegas. A very interesting experience.> Guess that is about it, if I think of more you will hear about it (just don't tell me you hit delete without even reading it).
Tomorrow afternoon we head for Williams AZ and our Grand Canyon adventure.
Thanks for being such good friends and family.
We love you. God Bless,
Don and Pat
When I got up (tried to) Thursday morning, my legs were not at all happy with me. They were screaming "You hike us up 90 miles to a volcano and then climb 910 steps and expect us to work the next day? Dreamer!" I will have to say that I was very sore. So if you were thinking I was in pretty good shape, the joke is on you. But I would not have missed Wednesday' experience.
So here we are in Las Vegas. It has changed a whole bunch since we drove thru here 18 years ago! And that is understating it! We got here early afternoon, so we went walking down "the strip". My legs and feet were not screaming after that 2 hours, they were whimpering. Again it was worth it. Good thing hotels don't run out of hot water, because I guarantee I stood in that shower for a while!
The buildings here are amazing. And the landscaping is indescribable! Don has taken a ton of photos. Unfortunately we have picked the windest days of the year to be here, so few of the outdoor shows are being done. No volcano, no pirate fight, no dancing waters. Such is life. It is stil pretty amazing..
Today we bought a bus pass. Still did a fair bit of walking, but it sure was nice to catch a bus whenever we felt like it. There is just so much going on here, it is hard to describe and definitely hard to get around to doing very much of it. We really enjoyed the Flamingo wild bird habitat. It is really beautiful and such a variety of tropical birds,wow. Beautiful waterfalls and scenery. Then we were at the conservatory at the Bellagio. Mercy! They have these huge statutes of oriental children ane all the clothing is made of flowers. We got pictures of an employee "dressing" one of them. Since it is the year of the pig, they have this really big pig whose ears and snout move. Got Don's photo next to that one. And the mirrored horse in the lobby is really sparkling. Tonite we did take the bus to Fremont Street in old Las Vegas. A very interesting experience.> Guess that is about it, if I think of more you will hear about it (just don't tell me you hit delete without even reading it).
Tomorrow afternoon we head for Williams AZ and our Grand Canyon adventure.
Thanks for being such good friends and family.
We love you. God Bless,
Don and Pat
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Raise your hands
February 22, 2007
if you remember studying about volcanos and lava beds in New Mexico. OK, hands down. Now who knew about the Banderas Volcano and Ice Cave? Well, if you didn't raise your hand, you know now.
We had an absolutely beautiful day, again! So far on this trip we have> been blessed with blue skies. The only clouds we saw were made by airplanes. We had a nice night in Santa Rosa NM. We got there in time to go to the Route 66 Auto museum. It was really interesting. Don's tongue was hanging out a lot, but he was keeping the drool under control. Some of those cars have been beautifully restored. Don will most likely be sending photos. One of them is especially for you, Michelle!
This morning was a cool start, but it quickly warmed up - depending on your definition of warm. Carole and Carla will agree the 56 F. is warm. We drove to the volcano and ice cave thru lava fields. It is really amazing. This is a National Conservation Area. However they do allow people to go caving in the lava tubes. We decided we would pass on that - for the rest of our lives! There was a good deal of snow along the way. We did climb the 1/2 mile to the cinder cone of the volcano. It is a pretty easy walk - except for the fact we were 8000 ft above sea level.>(That is higher than Denver) Breathing got a little labored. After coming down from the cinder cone (I stopped to make a snow angel) we went to the ice cave. The path there is really, really easy until you come to the 78 stairs. We managed going down just fine, but on the climb back up they had quickly added 100 stairs. (remember we are still at 8000 ft). The ice cave is pretty astounding. The ice is at least 20 feet thick and the temp is 31 F. year round. Until 1946 the ice was mined from around the walls because it is crystal clear.
From there we headed for Flagstaff AZ. Then we decided on a little detour - called the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. We arrived at the park about 4pm, so had some wonderful light for pictures. That was about 1-1/2 hr trip. So well worth it. Some of you know that when we> were at the Painted Desert in 1988 we met a couple from Dandridge, TN. Well, this time didn't see any Tennesseans. By the time we finally left that little stop, we realized we had not eaten in some time. By that time the peanut butter we had with us just did not sound like enough dinner. We stopped at the Butterfield Stage Company Restaurant in Holbrook, AZ. It is a themed restaurant based on the actual Butterfield Stage Co. that ran thru there in the mid 1800's. Good food too.
So here we are in our comfy little room in Flagstaff wishing you could be here too. Everyone have a great week and God Bless
Don and Pat
ps Photos to follow
if you remember studying about volcanos and lava beds in New Mexico. OK, hands down. Now who knew about the Banderas Volcano and Ice Cave? Well, if you didn't raise your hand, you know now.
We had an absolutely beautiful day, again! So far on this trip we have> been blessed with blue skies. The only clouds we saw were made by airplanes. We had a nice night in Santa Rosa NM. We got there in time to go to the Route 66 Auto museum. It was really interesting. Don's tongue was hanging out a lot, but he was keeping the drool under control. Some of those cars have been beautifully restored. Don will most likely be sending photos. One of them is especially for you, Michelle!
This morning was a cool start, but it quickly warmed up - depending on your definition of warm. Carole and Carla will agree the 56 F. is warm. We drove to the volcano and ice cave thru lava fields. It is really amazing. This is a National Conservation Area. However they do allow people to go caving in the lava tubes. We decided we would pass on that - for the rest of our lives! There was a good deal of snow along the way. We did climb the 1/2 mile to the cinder cone of the volcano. It is a pretty easy walk - except for the fact we were 8000 ft above sea level.>(That is higher than Denver) Breathing got a little labored. After coming down from the cinder cone (I stopped to make a snow angel) we went to the ice cave. The path there is really, really easy until you come to the 78 stairs. We managed going down just fine, but on the climb back up they had quickly added 100 stairs. (remember we are still at 8000 ft). The ice cave is pretty astounding. The ice is at least 20 feet thick and the temp is 31 F. year round. Until 1946 the ice was mined from around the walls because it is crystal clear.
From there we headed for Flagstaff AZ. Then we decided on a little detour - called the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. We arrived at the park about 4pm, so had some wonderful light for pictures. That was about 1-1/2 hr trip. So well worth it. Some of you know that when we> were at the Painted Desert in 1988 we met a couple from Dandridge, TN. Well, this time didn't see any Tennesseans. By the time we finally left that little stop, we realized we had not eaten in some time. By that time the peanut butter we had with us just did not sound like enough dinner. We stopped at the Butterfield Stage Company Restaurant in Holbrook, AZ. It is a themed restaurant based on the actual Butterfield Stage Co. that ran thru there in the mid 1800's. Good food too.
So here we are in our comfy little room in Flagstaff wishing you could be here too. Everyone have a great week and God Bless
Don and Pat
ps Photos to follow
Monday, February 19, 2007
The adventure begins
The Adventure Begins
February 19, 2007
Well, actually it started yesterday, but we were tired last night and didn't e-mail.> We managed to get out of Knoxville before noon and head to Memphis. The weather was good and so was traffic. In Nashville 2 of 3 lanes were closed so we took a very short detour and lost no time at all. We arrived in Memphis about 5:30 CST. We called Lil and went over to have supper with her and Jack. Jack is looking great and seems to be feeling good. Lil is stll Lil (where does she get that energy?). We had a nice simple dinner and then just sat talking. As usual, time slipped away and we stayed longer than intended. Nobody seemed to mind though. Lil and Jack have changed out the french doors in their sunroom to sliding glass. It gives a marvelous view of the lake. I happened to look out just as the sun was going down behind the dam. What a vista! Nope, sorry, did not get a photo, maybe next time.
We got on the road to Oklahoma City about 8 this morning. It was an absolutely beautiful day. Blue skies and sunshine. Ok, so it was windy and we were fighting to keep the car straight. Traffic was light all across Ark. Considering how busy I-40 is across TN, it was wierd to see so few cars and trucks. Not complaining, just remarking. Don and I changed out driving about every 2 hours. Ok, I did less than half the driving, but still a good deal. Don only fussed at me once and that wasn't really fussing, just commenting that he would have done it differently than I did. We were on concrete roads most of the day so got to listen to the tires sing. Also the thump-a-thumpa of the concrete slabs. Trust me I-40 in AR and OK is not in very good shape.
After we checked in here at the Best Western, we asked the clerk for a good place for dinner. She and the pizza delivery man, who just happened to be there, directed us to Primo's. They were right, it was very good and not too expensive.
Well, I hope you can stand all this excitement. All we have done for 2 days is drive, but hopefully tomorrow we will see some of the sights around Amarillo TX and Santa Rosa , NM> Love to all and God bless,
Don & Pat
February 19, 2007
Well, actually it started yesterday, but we were tired last night and didn't e-mail.> We managed to get out of Knoxville before noon and head to Memphis. The weather was good and so was traffic. In Nashville 2 of 3 lanes were closed so we took a very short detour and lost no time at all. We arrived in Memphis about 5:30 CST. We called Lil and went over to have supper with her and Jack. Jack is looking great and seems to be feeling good. Lil is stll Lil (where does she get that energy?). We had a nice simple dinner and then just sat talking. As usual, time slipped away and we stayed longer than intended. Nobody seemed to mind though. Lil and Jack have changed out the french doors in their sunroom to sliding glass. It gives a marvelous view of the lake. I happened to look out just as the sun was going down behind the dam. What a vista! Nope, sorry, did not get a photo, maybe next time.
We got on the road to Oklahoma City about 8 this morning. It was an absolutely beautiful day. Blue skies and sunshine. Ok, so it was windy and we were fighting to keep the car straight. Traffic was light all across Ark. Considering how busy I-40 is across TN, it was wierd to see so few cars and trucks. Not complaining, just remarking. Don and I changed out driving about every 2 hours. Ok, I did less than half the driving, but still a good deal. Don only fussed at me once and that wasn't really fussing, just commenting that he would have done it differently than I did. We were on concrete roads most of the day so got to listen to the tires sing. Also the thump-a-thumpa of the concrete slabs. Trust me I-40 in AR and OK is not in very good shape.
After we checked in here at the Best Western, we asked the clerk for a good place for dinner. She and the pizza delivery man, who just happened to be there, directed us to Primo's. They were right, it was very good and not too expensive.
Well, I hope you can stand all this excitement. All we have done for 2 days is drive, but hopefully tomorrow we will see some of the sights around Amarillo TX and Santa Rosa , NM> Love to all and God bless,
Don & Pat
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