The Journey: Au revoir Albuquerque on to Texas

As planned our final day in Albuquerque we went to the top of the Sandia, by cablecar, to watch the sunset. Fortunately for us the day was fine and the sunset not bad at all! It was a perfect way to end a really enjoyable visit, not to mention a delicious home barbecue afterwards. Once at the top we were glad to have brought some warm clothing as it was much cooler up there than down below. Several of our fellow tourists went up wearing shorts and sundresses and were totally unprepared for the wind and winter temperatures! Under the walkway were even some vestiges of winter snow! We had a drink in the bar, waiting for sunset time to arrive. It was nice in there and the prices were not bad. Lots of people were there for family celebrations and the like -- I think it was Father's Day. Next time it would be nice place to have a meal.

Wine finished, beers supped and out we went into the windy 40 F temperatures and were witness to a very reasonable sunset with lots of others clicking away hoping to get the perfect shot. Thank you Eric and Kristen for a really great time and for some of the best hospitality in the world!

What a great break for our trip. I really found New Mexico irresistable -- the sun, the sky, the pueblo style buildings, the restaurants and the company. With any luck I'll get to go back again soon.

We now needed to get back on the road again. More of Route 66 to see, old haunts in Oklahoma for my husband to check out and up to Minnesota for a few days with my sister and her family in Minneapolis and Afton.

Our first destination was to head once again to Skip Maisel's for some more Native American pottery -- both of us really enjoyed that place! I only hope that the place does not exploit the makers of the wares. It is certainly the best place for shopping ...

And so on our way to Texas and an overnight in Amarillo. The old town is supposed to have lots of yellow buildings -- but we didn't see any! We found a hotel in the chain hotel district and had dinner at a nearby Olive Garden -- Neil had not been to the Olive Garden before and was quite impressed. So fed and watered we had a good night's sleep. So much for Amarillo ...

We were now back on a schedule to get to Minneapolis in time to see my sister before she headed off back East for her Smith College reunion -- and Mark to Yale for his ... But first it was to Frederick, Oklahoma and Neil's rendezvous with the past ...

The Journey: Sedona to Albuquerque

I can't do justice to Sedona. It's very beautiful and has lots of red rocks and streams and woodland. We weren't there nearly long enough. Guess I'll just have to go back again.

In the morning we left our hotel in Flagstaff by 9 -- as planned. Then Neil decided to play navigator and out of two roads going south, managed to choose the wrong road. 8We wanted 9A, the Oak Creek Canyon Road there and back, but managed to find instead, route 333 heading south but away from our destination. Instead of turning around and heading back to Flagstaff (men don't turn around) we continued on to Mormon Lake -- missed the first turn around the lake and took the second. Didn't seem much of a lake to me. Anyway, we had to take a dirt road to cut across to where we could get on Interstate 17 south to another cutoff toward Sedona. The dirt road was 11 miles long and took us at least 90 minutes to get down -- horrible dust red rutted road that it was. And there were many roads off, with turns and twists, we were never entirely sure we were headed in the right direction. That is until we found a cowboy coming in the opposite direction in his pick-up truck who said we were going the right way.

Neil says now how he enjoyed that ride, I hated every minute knowing that we had limited time and that it was all coming off Sedona, which I had partAnd so onto the I-40 heading East. And one fond look back at the San Francisco mountains.icularly been looking forward to ... in his perverse way I think he rather enjoyed my piss-off-ed-ness. So we 'drove through' -- stopped at a Burger King for the toilet and Neil's much-needed coffee and continued up the 89A. Which was very beautiful, even in a bad mood.

I am still so annoyed.

So back to the I-40 and a last look at the very beautiful San Francisco Mountains.

Interstate 40 still has a few short spurs of Route 66, one of which, Winslow, we bothered to explore. Not much quaintness here -- it was sad and woebegone. So much for Route 66 until later in Oklahoma.

Except for the Painted Desert and the Petrified National Forest there was not much to interest us -- and nothing we were going to stop for other than lunch. Too bad -- both look to be very interesting. It is a sad fact that time always plays a role in journeys. We never seem to be really free enough to bide our time, no matter how much we think we will. We'd probably still be on our travels had time and money really been no object. It's still great though, having heard about these places for so much of my life that I now have in my head where they really are.

Soon we would have to change our watches and the car clock for the first time. New Mexico is one hour ahead of Arizona time. It's interesting how often state lines and borderlands anywhere have identifiable changes in scenery. New Mexico had rocks that seemed to define the 'pueblo' look!

I think we arrived in Albuquerque late afternoon and my nephew's directions being perfect drove straight to their beautiful home and welcome hospitality. I just loved New Mexico and could have stopped for a very long time!

Back on the Road: Arizona and Route 66

Las Vegas at last behind us, we headed to the Hoover Dam. Lots of tourists and a bit disappointing, though we did park once in Arizona and took several pictures, though it was not possible to get a view of the dam proper from the Arizona side. We did have some confusion here as to time changes! We noticed as we crossed over the top of the dam, that there was a clock on the Nevada side and another on the Arizona side. We thought that this was because there was a time zone change, but both clocks showed the same time. How strange!

(Later, in New Mexico with my nephew, we learned that Nevada is indeed on Pacific Time and Arizona is indeed on Mountain Time. But Arizona does not change clocks for Summer Time and is, therefore, the same as Pacific Time!)

I note that as I write this several weeks after we were at the Hoover Dam that today the temperature is reported as being 99 F. We were there May 5th and the 80-85 degree weather was warm and welcoming -- further evidence that we did pick the right time of year for our journey! We were continuing to travel the Mohave dessert without the intense heat it's so famous for. The Hoover Dam, seen and photographed, our next destination was Kingman, Arizona and our entrance to Route 66.

Our first stop in Kingman was the Route 66 Museum, which I heartily recommend. Here Neil indulged me and bought a pink cap with Routh 66 emblazoned across the front of it! I wish we had had more time in Kingman, but not enough research was done on our part and I've since learned that there are several other places in town worth exploring, including the Kingman Air Museum. Anyway,. time was moving on and we were determined to make it to Williams via Route 66 that night as our stepping stone to the Grand Canyon, planned for the next day.

I had not been enthusiastaic at all at the thought of travelling the old road. But Neil had dreamed of doing just this for many years and I must admit that I am glad that we had the experience -- expecially in Arizona where much more had been done to restore the places along the way with real enthusiasm and humor! From Kingsman we headed toward Hackberry, Valentine and Peach Spring before getting to Williams. Suprisingly to me this was one of the most memorable segments of our trip -- there was the fun nostalgia of Route 66 itself, the bizarre Truxton Canyon with scenery unlike anything I'd ever seen before. It looked like moutains of rocks, even the slag heaps we see in England.

There was also the bleakness of Indian Reservation land, the grey and browness of the dry landscape. So it was somewhat of a relief to arrive in Seligman, see some sunshine, a train crossed our path, which Neil filmed and we shared some nostalgic Route 66 stops.

Seligman was lots of fun. I loved all the characters and the cars -- and was surprised that Neil had never heard of the Edsel! On the back end sit Marilyn and Elvis! Neil favored a different car! Lots of souvenirs to choose from, but I was happy with my pink hat -- worn in picture with Edsel.

Soon we headed down the road again toward Williams, our stop for the night, where we found a reasonable motel, my computer seemed to bite the dust and we had a great meal with lots of atmosphere and plenty of 'bikers' at Rod's Steak House!

Neil was amazed at the volume of railroad traffic and at the length of the trains. This one passed through Seligman as we were checking out a vintage covered wagon (without the cover! ) He was a bit confused as to how the 'movie' feature on my camera works ...