Our Prayers Were Answered

This is the same tower we saw on our way west 2 years ago. Its still standing!!! I expected a pile of rusted metal or worse, a vacant lot:)

Trains on the high prarie

Patti caught these shots while we were zipping along Rt 40 in New Mexico and Arizona.

Arkansas River

We've traveled 1000 miles east to the home of Scarlet's birth, Little Rock Arkansas. We bought our new rig on the internet from a dealer here and picked it up almost exactly 1 year ago. We have a new map for the new rig. We visited 33 states this year in 4 separate trips including our inaugural trip from here one year ago. Not bad!!! We've pretty well exhausted our treasury so it may be a while before we add any new states. Plans for later this year are not yet firmed up but some short trips to the nearby Atlantic coast and the Blue Ridge are potential candidates. One trip is certain however. Next Christmas we head to Huntsville to see the grand-babies then on to Key West in January.

Aunt Fae

We had lunch with Aunt Fae and her niece and nephew in Albuquerque. Wonderful too see her looking so well. Patti had meat loaf, you'll have to trust me on this, its under there somewhere.

Santa Fe

Our final RV park in the west is in Santa Fe. By Thursday we will be in Little Rock. The top shot is of building on the Canyon Road in the art gallery area and the rest are shots of the main plaza where the Indians sell their wares. Many are lined up on one side and use blankets to display wonderful pottery, rugs, jewelry, etc. The one old lady laughed as I took the picture an held up her hand so her weathered face wouldn't be captured.

Meteor Crater

A short hop from the Grand Canyon is Meteor Crater, located in Winslow, Az. I stitched this panorama together from 6 photos. Nice work, huh. Well... photoshop did most of the heavy lifting:)

More Grand Canyon

Some things are just tooooo good to pass up. So here's some more canyon shots, some from the main lodge area and a few from the geology museum area. The top picture shows the river in two spots at bottom center and at bottom right. We spent 4 nights here and had crystal clear viewing every day, haze is a problem in summer months. Nights were cold, one less than 20 degrees but the days were very nice. A train runs from Williams, about 60 miles south, each day. Lots of takers by the look of it. They have several nice restaurants and lots of deer and elk (but not on the menu-in the area but not on the menu):

Grand Canyon

Two days after the zoo we have come up 8000 feet and east 500 miles to one of the most spectacular sites in the USA. We were lucky to have a clear day without haze so the views were great. We've ruled out hiking the bright angel trail to the bottom so... I'm thinking the bus tour of the rim might be a good idea:)

The Real Zoo

The zoo in San Diego is fablouous. Very well maintained and a real joy to visit. We had a great time in spite of the pandamonium:)