This blog post is very late, mostly because we did a lot on this trip so there was a lot to write about and a lot of pictures (98 of them) to go through to see what I wanted to post to the blog.
October was a busy month, it’s been more of carryover from September’s busy schedule. But I was so glad we did make definite plans to visit Carie and Steve in October and take them down some furniture from us and Grandma Barbara.
Ken had everything pretty much planned. We bought a trailer instead of renting one, that way we could load and unload at are leisure. This is something we learned from Grandpa Ralph and it turned out to be a good idea. We sold the trailer for $50 more than we paid for it. We did have to pay taxes on it but that was nominal compared to the $380 it would have cost us to rent a U-Haul.
Ken thought we should travel a little slower with the trailer so we decided to take two days to get down to Flagstaff. The route we took took us through Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and into Arizona. Not much interstate which is fine with us.
Some notable things about this leg of the trip – when we got to Kismet, KS they rerouted us through town because there had been a terrible accident on the highway. The car we saw was smashed to about half its size and it looked like it had caught on fire. I later read the news account and it said that a 19-year-old boy had run into the back of a semi which sent him into the other lane and he was then hit by an on-coming semi. Very sad.
I had been keeping an eye on the time and checking with masstimes.org and it worked out so that we could go to Church in Guymon, OK. When we arrived at the Church they had tents set up in part of their parking lot and you could her music. We walked in with an older guy who told us that the Church was having their annual festival and that we should join in after Church. We didn’t, thought we should get on our way but it looked like they were having a great turn out. Definitely a multi-cultural church, I believe the Priest said they were serving tamales and kolaches. We seem to find friendly people wherever we travel.
We spent the night in Tucumcari, NM which was uneventful. People complain about Nebraska’s interstate being boring and monotonous but at least it’s green and growing. Driving through New Mexico is boring and dry. It looks as if not much can grow there. We were wondering how cattle can find forage there or how people make a living in that area. We’ll take Nebraska anytime , thank you very much!!
We got to Carie and Steve’s in the late afternoon and got all of the furniture unloaded. They have a beautiful house. My favorite part is the kitchen that opens to an area where you can see out on their deck (Carie put the little blue table there that we delivered) and this opens into an area they call the library. Very comfortable and cozy with a fireplace and the dogs have their kennels and beds.
Steve had to leave for Lubbock Monday morning but they invited us to join them for their usual Monday morning breakfast at a restaurant downtown. Sometime when we make another trip down to visit I would like to check out some of the old hotels downtown and some other historic Route 66 places that Steve told us about.
Carie had to work that day so Ken and I decided to hike some trails. The first one we picked was a trail near the observatory which started in town. We are always on the lookout for wildlife and as I was walking along the trail I found a tarantula, black and hairy with a brown section. I guess they are pretty common there. Other than a few squirrels and maybe a Jay that was the extent of our wildlife viewing on that trail. (Monday-10/9/2017)
Since it was a Monday that was a holiday there were a lot of people out hiking. We headed down to Sedona to do some of the trails down there. We thought about Devil’s Bridge but the parking lot was full and cars were parked all along down the road. We opted for Solider Pass. It was a good stretch of the legs since the trail was sparsely marked in some places and we did some back tracking and got off the trail.
Tuesday we went to Walnut Canyon National Monument. That was very interesting. We went early in the morning so we were one of the first people there. The scenery there was beautiful. I can’t imagine what it would be like to live in the hillside and wake up every morning to see the canyon below. You can see where the rooms were how they had the smoke vent out when they had a fire. I highly recommend this trail if you go. (Tuesday – 10/10/2017)
We took another hike that day that was closer to town. I don’t recall the name but it was a fairly easy walk through trees and open fields. We also went by a stream and on a tree near there someone had hung a bicycle.
Part of the trail also included some petroglyphs.
On the way back to Carie’s we picked up some groceries so we could fix supper, Chicken Enchilda Soup. Then later that day Carie took us on a tour of campus. That was very interesting too. They have a vegetable/food garden on campus where students can harvest food if they need to. It seemed more like a small community than a campus. Carie knew a lot of the history there as well.
On Wednesday (10/11/2017) we got up early and drove Morman Lake and St. Mary Lake in search of elk. We saw some on the dry lake bed at Morman Lake but they were too far away to take pictures. We did find a dead elk in the trees not too far off the road.
Later that day we went to the Aspen Grove. Pictures don’t do it justice because the gold leaves just seem to glow.
Thursday (10/12/2017) Carie took us to the Grand Canyon. This is something that was on a our ‘bucket list’ for a long time so it was wonderful to finally get to see it. I took so many pictures, too many to post, but here a few that I really liked.
I’m the first to admit that I don’t like heights, especially when you’re standing on the edge of a cliff and there are wind gusts coming up, but I did go out on one of the ledges for a picture. On the other hand, Carie and Ken had no problem walking out much closer to the edges and peering over. Way too much for me!!!
We would see young people out on the edge getting the pictures taken and that would almost may me nauseous. When I got back to work the next week, one of my co-workers asked where I’d been and we talked a little about the Grand Canyon and my fear of heights. He said that when he and his family were there they talked to a park ranger about people falling because he was concerned as well. The Ranger told him that just a few weeks earlier a guy was out on one of the ledges posing for a picture and a gust of wind came up and took his hat. He instinctively reached to the side to try and catch it but over the edge he went. I guess sometimes it pays to be an over protective nerd like me.
We drove on down the road and stopped at many of the pull-outs to take more pictures and see what we could see. Toward the end of our drive we came to the Indian WatchTower. That was something I thought was very unique and very interesting.
Friday (10/13/2017) we headed back to Nebraska. We left very early in the morning and took turns driving so that we could get back on one day.
We had a really great time and got to see so much while we were there. There is still so much to see and we hope to get back down there again soon. Thank you Carie and Steve for the great time!
PS, One thing I forgot to post. Gus and Ken played a lot while we there. Ken would sneak around the house trying to scare Gus. Here’s a picture of Ken waiting for Gus to come up the stairs. They were quite a pair.
