We move north to Albuquerque and our campground is off of historic Root 66. We are parked on top with a nice view of the mountains.
Mar. 17
Sunny and it is going to be 80 degrees today. After breakfast we go to the Petroglyph National Monument. It is located on the edge of Albuquerque. The petroglyphs are on basalt boulders broken away from lava caprock. Lava flowed from a large crack in the Earth's crust. Next we drove to Albuquerque Anderson-Abruzzo International Balloon Museum. It is named after the two men balloonist from Albuquerque who completed the first manned crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in 1978. Their gondola named Double Eagle was on display. They landed in Miserey France which was close to the spot where Charles Lindbergh successfully ended his own momentous crossing 50 years earlier. There was also a capsule that went to the edge of space. Next we went to Old Town where there are lots of shops. We had lunch at a good Mexican Restaurant, Cecilia's. Dick had seen it on Diners, Drive-in and Dives. One thing about New Mexican food is they cover it in red or green chili sauce. The red is too hot for me and the green is even hotter. I always asked to put the red chili sauce on the side and ordered more salsa to eat with my meal.
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| Petroglyphs |
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| Balloon in museum |
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| Capsule that went to edge of space |
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| Double Eagle |
Mar. 18
Today we drove the Jeep south to Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. There is a string of three pueblo ruins that people lived in 300 years ago before leaving the area in the 1670's. We visited two pueblo ruins, Quarai and Abo. Quarai is pretty much original with only 15 % rebuilt. We had a great New Mexican lunch at an old hotel in the town of Mountainair. The hotel is haunted and has been featured on the TV program Ghost Hunters.
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| Quarai |
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| Abo |
Mar. 19
Today we pretty much stayed around the campground. We did some shopping and just enjoyed the day.
Mar. 20
It's sunny and nice today and we stayed in the campground all day. We watched some NCAA basketball and Dick watched Nascar race on TV. Late in the afternoon Dick tried to fix our step into the motor home. It hasn't been working very well. It took both of us to put it back together and it seems to be working.
Mar. 21
Sunny but very windy. We were going to leave today but because of the high wind warning for New Mexico and Arizona we decided to stay one more day. We went into town and did a little shopping and ate lunch at Rudy's which is a southern chain restaurant. The food was good and even took a pound of brisket home.
Mar. 22
Cold and cloudy and a little snow in the night. We can see it in the mountains across from the campground. We head into Arizona to the little town of Sun Valley which is by the Petrified Forest National Park and will stay for 2 nights. After getting set up we go into the town of Holbrook and visited the petrified wood store. They sell all kinds of things made out of the wood even tables made out of large slabs of polished petrified wood which are for sale for over $10,000. Their outside lot was full of petrified logs.
Mar. 23
Sunny and nice today and after breakfast we drove to the Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert. We made a lunch to eat along the way because there are no restaurants. We stopped at the visitors center and saw a movie about the parks. There were lots of logs outside of the visitors center and walked around the trail. We stopped at the pull-outs along the road. At Newspaper Rock we could see petroglyphs etched into the large rocks below the lookout. At Puerco Pueblo there were ruins of a 100 room pueblo built about 1250 and may have housed 1,200 people. Spanish explorers found no one here in 1540. In the Painted Desert the vistas of the varied colored landscape were breathtaking. We stopped at the Painted Desert Inn which is a National Historic Landmark. The inn is no longer in use as a place to stay and eat but is open for tourist to see the inside and enjoy the view. There are many beautiful Indian paintings on the walls. When we got back to camp the two couples by us, one from British Columbia and the other from California, came over and we enjoyed coctails and conservation. That is what I love about traveling and staying in campgrounds, we met so many wounderful people.
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| Tepees Area |
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| Puerco Pueblo |
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| Desert Inn |
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| View from the Desert Inn |
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| Painting on the wall |
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| Celing in the Desert Inn |
Today we move further west to the area of Sedona. Dick fought a terrible wind going across Arizona. There had been a snow fall in the Flagstaff area early this morning. The road was clear but there was snow along the road and in the mountains. We arrived at the campground before noon. After lunch we drove to the little town of Cottonwood and the the Tuzigoot National Monument. This is a very impressive ruin. It is two stories high in places with 77 ground floor rooms. It's on a ridge overlooking the Verde River. This pueblo was once a thriving Sanagua community built around 1125. These people left the valley by 1400.
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| snow along the road by Flagstaff |
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| Tuzigoot |
Mar. 25
Today we go into the town of Sedona. We stop at the visitors center and get some information and maps of the town. The red rock cliffs surrounding the town are awesome. We stopped at some of the shops and ate lunch at the Cowboy Club where we had cactus fries with our lunch. That night we wondered if we were on the right time as Arizona doesn't observe daylight savings time. We finally decided we had spent the last 4 days on Mountain time and should have been on Pacific time. That is how it is when retired. We are never sure what day it is and not worried what time it is.
Mar. 26
It's partly cloudy and windy today as we head to the little town of Jerome. It is built on the side of a high mountain. The road there winds up the mountain and the view from the top is of the Verde Valley. The town was once a copper and gold mining area and 15,000 people once lived there. The population is now only 400. The town of full of shops and lots of tourist are shopping and looking around the town. There are stairs between the streets to get around on foot. We ate lunch at Haunted Hamburger out on the deck with a great view of the valley below. Next we drove to Prescott and were surprised how large it is. We came back through Sedona and by coming on a different road saw lots of beautiful red rock formations. We drove up to the airport to get a good view of the town below.
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| Jerome |
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| View of Sedona from the airport |
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| Sedona red rock |
Mar. 27
It is a beautiful day today with a clear blue sky and no wind. We are riding the Verde Canyon Railroad which goes from the town of Clarkdale to the ghost ranch of Perkinsville and back. We packed a lunch to eat before getting on the train which left at 1:00 and won't get back for 4 hours. The train took us through the Verde Canyon and followed the upper Verde River. The canyon is spectacular with the red rock and basalt cliffs. We had two cars to be in, one inside and an outside car where you stand along the railing or sit in the middle. It was such a beautiful day we chose to be in the outside car where I could take many pictures of the scenery. We had a great day seeing beautiful country.
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| Train in the station |
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| Train winding up the canyon |
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| Red cliffs |
It's a sunny and beautiful day as we leave to drive to Las Vegas. We are going to stay here for two weeks and wait out the bad weather north. Our campground in on the east side of town and only 6 miles from the strip. We get settled and sit outside and enjoy the good weather. We will leave here on April 11th and head north towards home. Definitely Happy Travels, Barb
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