A SIGHTING IN LAS VEGAS!

We didn't stay at the Motel 6 this time.

The pool area (11 acres) was better but we were so busy we only got there for two brief visits.

After touring the strip, Gary soon learned that hotels have more interesting themes to offer than a good pool area. His favorite is New York New York. Nah- we skipped the roller coaster.

Michelle-- we went to the Golden Nugget to check it out. Joy and the Concierge say, "Come on down!"

Elk Seen at the Grand Canyon!

Yup, we made it to the Grand Canyon. It does look like it's pictures.

Places having to do with the Sky and the Earth

We spent the last few days visiting Meteor Crater, Petrified Forest National Park, The Painted Desert, Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Oak Creek canyon, Slip Rock State Park and Sedona. Whew! Sounds like a lot but one site flowed easily to another.
On the way from Chaco to Flagstaff we passed Meteor Crater.
50,000 years ago a meteor the size of a football field landed and made a very big hole in the ground.

This has filled up with dirt over the centuries but it was originally 750 feet deep . It mostly vaporized on contact . The visitor center had a piece on display.

We then passed The Petrified Forest National Park which had lots of beautiful scenery and huge pieces of petrified wood.

The next day we walked around Flagstaff and then visited Lowell Observatory. Lowell Observatory is a long standing working observatory with lots of different telescopes. More interesting to see than to describe. This next photo is the actual telescope used to discover Pluto.

Today we drove through beautiful Oak Creek Canyon and Slip Rock State Park on the way to Sedona. Sedona is a unique and lovely town with views, shops and restaurants galore.

Oak Creek Canyon

Sedona center and Joy's new jacket

Grand Canyon Tomorrow!

Wonderfully Remote Chaco Canyon

Few tourists go to Chaco Canyon because the the roads to it are very rough dirt and gravel. We went about 5-10 miles per hour for 13 miles on pure washboard dirt going in praying that the trailer would hold together. We left by the other 21 mile dirt road because we were told it was  it was "much better". I had less washboard  but lots of steep hills so  creeping our way up hills in deep sand using 4 wheel drive and saying, " OMG,There's no cell phone coverage here and if we don't make this next hill we have to try to back down!!"
     The park itself is spectacular. The Chaco Indian culture thrived here from about 850 to 1200 AD. They built large community complexes having hundreds of rooms and amazing stone workmanship. The wooden beams in the picture are original! They carried full tree trunks, and stone for the structures up to 50 miles without benefit of beasts of burden or the wheel!
    The desert was beautiful. The total silence of the remote night desert was nourishing to the soul.

This is the view from our campsite at Chaco Canyon

They used several masonry styles that are very detailed and beautiful

There are multiple large and smaller round Kivas. They really don't know what they were used for but do know that they were covered with domed roofs.

The canyon walls are quite unstable and the park service measures there separated pieces of wall carefully. Yes, they do occasionally collapse.

There are petroglyphs along the walls.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

We've arrived in Albuquerque to visit Thaedra, Mark, and Jonah for a few days. We got to watch Killer Thaedra Thompson play a hockey game- Go Thaedra! They won, of course. 

Tuesday we dropped Jonah off at his awesome charter school and then toured Albuquerque's old town, enjoyed a mexican lunch, and some of us visited a rattle snake museum. Naturally, Thaedra fit in a beautiful hair redo for Joy.

We visited the Rattle Snake Museum, where they had live rattlesnakes from all over the country. We never realized how brave we had been hiking and camping all these years.

Not everyone went into the Museum. Read carefully

We soothed our nerves with an amazing confection consisting of home made coffee ice cream, topped with an espresso shot, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream.

 Jeeze, this hotel and it's hosts are great!!!! Thanks Thompson family.

Did We Ever Underestimate Amarillo Texas!

But first we should mention food on our last day in Memphis. We had a few hours to wait 'til the food tour we'd signed up for begin. So we stopped for "famous fried apple pie".

Our guide for the food tour was wonderfully entertaining, but it turned out to actually be a "junk food tour" . Except for this desert sampler, which was really good, we had nacho's with velveta cheese, cooked greens, a deep fried burger.....

AMARILLO !

We planned to stop in Amarillo for a day, just for a break. Turns out the food is amazingly good, and it has Palo Duro Canyon State Park, which they say is second only to Grand Canyon in size (but not depth). We did a hike to "Light House Rock". The hike was a mostly gentle 6 mile hike on a beautiful Texas spring day.

Wild flowers are very different here! Look out for those cacti on the edge of the trail.

Lighthouse  is the most popular hike in the park and it really does resemble a light house don't you think?

Now, the hike was gentle until the very end where it got really steep for a short distance. We hiked up as far as the platform but the climb to the top was a bit beyond Joy's comfort level.

View from the platform, you can see the green floor of the canyon behind Gary.

Ok, This group are indeed rappelling down the ledge!

Now, about the steep part going down. The photo does not really show how steep it is but you can see that every thing is covered with loose gravel.
Some of us folks are apt to butt slide when it is really steep and slippery but Joy had on new jeans with back pocket Bling! The dilemma!
New invention- the sideways hip slide- patten pending. Bling remains intact!!

We finished the day with a visit to an RV history museum- small but interesting and then a big fat Texas steak with live cowboy music. 

Off to Thaedra''s.

Memphis Fried Chicken and Elvis

We're on the road again with our "big rig".

Before we tell you about two grueling 14 hour days on the road, and about standing where Elvis stood at Sun Studio, we want to show you who directed us to the best fried chicken place in Memphis:

Yep, the fella selling coffee at Sun Studio.
Gus' Fried Chicken is a bit off the beaten path from the famous Beale Street but it sure was finger lick- in Good!

Today was our day to do honor to "The King" so we visited Graceland and it's related museums, Sun Studios where he and many other Blues and Rock and Roll artists got their start, then finished the afternoon at an outside live music bar on the famous Beale Street.  Never really realized how important this area was to music history.

Here are some photos of Graceland and the famous Sun Studio where it all began.

The trophy room has 4 walls of gold and platinum records. Wow! what a huge number of hit songs  he had. Much to our surprise, we remembered all of them but not that he was the one who recorded them.

Off to Sun Studios in downtown Memphis.

This is inside the actual and surprisingly small recording studio. The acoustic ceiling design was taken from a Popular Mechanics magazine article. The X on the floor is where Elvis stood to record. No, we did not kiss the floor but according to the tour guide a famous singer once did.

Good Planning this trip- Campground is next door to Graceland with a free shuttle to downtown.

Bad planning this trip- the Memphis Blues Festival ( 3 days, 60 bands, many really famous i.e. Cheryl Crowe, ZZ Top) begins the day AFTER we leave. oops!