Road Tripping

I've been having too much fun riding across wide western states and visiting friends and family. I've seen so much and have gotten to catch up with so many friends. We traveled through Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas and stopped in Albuquerque to visit a number of friends.


But first we had to have authentic Mexican food. We were starving and truly enjoyed the chile relleno. This was once a 1960's roadstop, so we were a bit surprised (and delighted) that we walked into a Mexican cafe.


The desert always amazes me. It's really not my type of landscape. I prefer the lushness of the trees and the softer mountains of the east. Growing up in South Dakota, I've had my share of arid landscape. But the desert really is beautiful, even in the winter.


Nancy is my childhood friend, both of us growing up in Dakota and even going away to college together. She now lives in Albuquerque along the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. We hiked a bit along the extensive trail system that meanders immediately behind the new homes in the foothills.


I met Dagmar when she came for studio tours to buy wool. She moved to New Mexico 2 years ago and we've kept in touch. Now she is participating in a studio tour in Albuquerque, selling her handspun and handknit items.


We left the sun behind and again traveled into snow.


We spent the night near Flagstaff at Vicki and Jay's place, friends of Ann's. Oh, and the Great Dane.


It's good we had the Subaru. Cars were spinning out, but the Sube did just great.


Still snowing. It's hard to believe we could go from feet of snow, not nearly 70 degrees in just a few hours.


Ann and Boomer on Route 66.


Saligman is a kitchy little town right on Route 66. It's a bit past its prime but you can tell it was popular during the 60's. We had a nice lunch at Roadkill Cafe.






Our longest stay on the trip was at Chez Darlene in Lake Havasu, Arizona. My mom has lived here for about 15 years now.


It's really too bad that we live so far apart. We only see each other once or twice a year. She is such a sweetie and I'd love to spend more time with her. But she doesn't like the cold and I'm not about to move to Arizona. We'll just have to use those airplanes more.


It was a thrill to pick fresh oranges right from her tree. This one looks like a 'pear-orange'.


My favorite thing to do here is to hike in this slot canyon right outside of town. The trail goes all the way to the Colorado River but that's a long hike and we didn't have the time. We did have to go down this 10' drop which luckily had this sort of ladder to use. Ann's dog, Boomer, did NOT want to go down the rocks but we got him down by pushing him over the edge and me catching him below. But.... we hiked just a bit further and came upon a pool of water that was 2' deep. Boomer was not amused and we really didn't want to get so wet. So we had to turn around and go UP the slippery rock wall. To say getting a large dog up these rocks was a challenge is an understatement. I got up first and Ann tried to lift Boomer up but he was so scared and just shivering. Ann held him with her head for a bit while I tried to reach down to him, but that didn't work. Luckily there were some other folks in the slot who didn't feel like going through the water so with 4 more people, we were able to lift Boomer up and all was good.


We decided to walk up to the view of the river and were rewarded with seeing the mountain goats who live on the peaks.