Westward HO - Tucumcari New Mexico July 28, 2011

Tucumcari is the middle of New Mexico and about seven hours from home, so even though it is in the middle of nowhere, is a good stopping place  for a first night out from home.  

Traveling across desert, Tucumcari's main source of livelihood is repairing broken down vehicles.

We know we are getting close to Santa Fe when we see the welcome sign.

We rose early the next morning to take advantage of the hot tub. 

 

One of Ken's favorite morning pleasures.

We spotted this cafe as we were leaving town Friday Morning.  What a photo opt!

And just across the road was one of many windmills in New Mexico.

Westward HO - Santa Fe -- July 29, 2011

Friday morning we left Tucumcari headed for Santa Fe.  When we reached Clines Corner to turn northward, a rain blew in and it was actually chilly.  Ken turned off the air conditioner of the car -- and that was the end of our air conditioner.  As we drove into Santa Fe, it was hot.   Friday is not a good day for car repair and no air conditioner service would even look at it -- telling us they were booked up one and two weeks out. We found our hotel in the midst of all kinds of construction and things were looking a bit disappointing for us.  Of course plans were changing fast.  We decided that the devil would not steal our joy and took a two hour walking tour of the downtown plaza.   

The Cathredral Basillica of St Francis of Assissi was one place we had not entered in the past so it was a treat to view the relics and rituals of the Cathedral.   Most other places on the town square we had frequented in the past.  (Wish we had not snacked lunch in the motel room as we could have enjoyed lunch on the town square.) 






After that we made more phone calls regarding the car and finally Mines........... said they would look at it.   The man spent a couple hours trying to find some simple problem but could not find anything within his ability to repair.   We returned to the hotel.  At that point it was really getting hot, so we did not want to drive far and ended up eating across the road at a Mexican Restaurant.   Since Santa Fe is known for it's wonderful Mexican cuisine.and the decor outside seemed interesting, it had to be good......  wrong  ...... The food was another disappointment to overcome.    We still had a good time but left out early Saturday morning for Flagstaff.  The goal was to beat the heat of the day driving without an airconditioning.  God extended mercy and made the trip tolerable for us.  We were happy to pull into Flagstaff by noon.  We checked into an EconoLodge and went down town to do a 'walk-about.'

Westward Ho - Flagstaff





Early Flagstaff meant Lumber Jacks and Choo Choo Trains



I really love Flagstaff: about 7000 feet elevation, close to Grand Canyon, tons of history, small and homie.   Actually, it reminded me of Asheville....  old buildings turned into little eateries.   Small business owners......F;agstaff has far more dogs escorting humans around the town.




Ken's Favorite Hobby

 

Flagstaff as a frontier town suffered many fires to the point that in the late 1800's a law was passed that all buildings had to be of brick, stone, steel.   Thus the Weatherford Hotel was built and is the standing point of many of our photos.
John Weatherfor bedded many famous people.  Zane Gray wrote "The Call of the Canyon" while staying at the Weatherford Hotel.
A third story Ball room was added.
Today you can rent a room but it maintains some of it frontier features....no television and no telephone.

On Sunday, we took a trip to Walnut Canyon National Park.

Neither of us walked the entire trail to the bottom of the Canyon but Ken did go further down than I did. 

The Walnut Canyon is a beautiful history lesson.  We saw the dwellings of the Sinagua people who lived in the region before 1250.

Sadly, in the 1880's pothunters removed many Sinagua possessions.   They also dynamited some of the cliff-dwelling walls to allow in more light for their search.



There is evidence that the Rimtops were flat areas with soil for farmland.  They would have lived on prickly pear cactus, wild grapes, elderberry and yucca.  There is evidence they had black walnuts.  They also hunted for deer, big-horn sheep and other smaller animals.

It is believed that the women built the homes made from shallow caves eroded out of the limestone cliffs. 



Walnut Canyon National Park







Downtown Flagstaff





Landmark of Old Town Flagstaff -- Lumber and trains

 

Westward Ho - Sedona Arizona - July 31 through August 7, 2011

We were in Sedona from Sunday, July 31st, leaving on Sunday August 7th:   We checked into the Sedona Summit at 4:00 pm on Sunday but did not pick up Sydney and Blakely until Monday.  The Sedona Summit is a beautiful Resort.  We did a time share exchange but RCI down sized us to a studio.  We decided to deal with the disappointment and enjoy ourselves anyway--four in one room.   We had a great time!

The Summit has beautiful splash pads for the children.



There were flash rains often and beautiful rainbows to enjoy.

 We took a few outings -- one day it was south to a wildlife preserve about 45 minutes away.

One day we visited Out Of Africa



That is a lion up on the hill.

Feeding the camel cookies.

And the Red Rocks were marvelous to behold.

The play area for the children was red rock gravel but they did not mind.  Here one evening we did bubble blowing guns as the sun was beginning to set.

One could never stop enjoying the scenery which surrounded us. 

There was an activity center which the girls visited. 

And there were many, many story hour times in the room as well as in the car. 

We had crafts and sticker fun books to pass the time away when it rained. 

And on Friday morning, their Mommy and Daddy brought the teenagers to Slide Rock so we met them there.

Ken and I watched while both Blakely and Syd had a great time with their parents.  The water was 64 degrees, we would never have done this alone with the girls....rocky and icy for old folks. 

Our final activity in Sedona was Saturday evening when friends of Jennifer's family invited the entire mission team to have a BBQ at their home.  It was amazingly beautiful.   Once again we met there with the girls.

The west side of Sedona

And then on Sunday morning we packed up and headed back to Flagstaff to drop off the girls and head for Los Vegas.