Friday, August 31, 2012
Standing on the Corner in Winslow, Arizona...
Today is Darcy’s 28th birthday. Happy Birthday, son.
We left Lake Havasu City this morning headed for the Barringer Crater near Winslow,
Arizona. This is a carter that slammed into earth
around 50,000 years ago. On the way
there I could feel the rise in altitude.
My breathing became strained. When
we got to the site of the crater we learned that it is on privately owned land
and there is an admission fee. The fee
was $16.00 each and we were able to tell through the fence that there would be a
lot of climbing to get to the rim of the crater to see in. I just couldn’t do it at a high elevation,
and we decided to forget it. Also, there
was some distant thunder, and we didn’t want to find ourselves acting as lightning
rods!
We drove on to Winslow, Arizona (of Takin’ it Easy by the
Eagles fame). We found the corner referred
to in the song. There is a statue of the
guy “standing” on the corner. As we were
about to get into the car to leave, a group on Harleys showed up. I stayed and talked to them. They were a group from Sweden on a tour of
Route 66 from Chicago to LA. (yes I
spoke to them in Norwegian and they spoke back in Swedish). I got some pictures of them too. Harleys always pull at my heart and make me
feel closer to Dale.
Now we are in Holbrook, Arizona. Went for dinner and I wanted to drive around
and look at the “town” such as it is. It
is a small town with one main street with shops and restaurants and a lot of
boarded up businesses.
After dinner we went to a huge place that sells petrified wood. This place is amazing. The owner has mineral rights to a piece of
land where he gets all of his materials that he sells. There is also a museum in the store.
As we were leaving to head back to our hotel for the night
we saw a beautiful, Arizona sunset and the rising of the Blue Moon.
Tomorrow we hope to see the Painted Desert.
The Rest of Our Trip
August 31 Lake
Havasu to Holbrook, AZ 4.2 hours Best
Western,Arizonian Inn
Sept 1
Holbrook to SantaRosa,NM 5
hours Best
Western, Adobe Inn
Sept 2 SantaRosa
to Amarillo,TX 2.5 hours PaloDuroCanyon BestWestern
Canyon, TX
Sept 3-4
Amarillo to Ok City
4 hours
Fairfield Inn,OkCityQuailSprings
Sept5 OK
city to Emporia, KS 3.5
hours Emporia,
KS
Fairfield,
Sept 6 Emporia
to JeffCity,MO 4.1 hours Jefferson City, MO
Fairfield,
Points
Sept 7 JeffCity
to Granite City,IL 2.5 hours GraniteCity KOA
Sept8 Granite
City to Louisville 4 hours Louisville, KOA
Sept9 Louisville
to Hocking Hills 4.1 hours PlymouthHillsCabin
London Bridge is not falling down-it's in Arizona!
We drove from Las Vegas, Nevada to Lake Havasu City,
Arizona. Not a long drive- a bit over 2
hours. But in this heat, even in an
air conditioned car, it is exhausting.
We drove through a part of California too. We stopped in Needles, California for
gas. The woman in the gas station said
that 108 degrees was just “warm”. She
said that it is usually about 120 at this time of year. Wow, not sorry to miss that!
The road is an interstate, but at some point it
narrows and there are signs warning of wildlife crossing the road. The yellow signs that warn about animals,
instead of having black outlines of deer, have black outlines of donkeys! Fortunate we didn’t see any animals on or off the road.
I figured out why Needles is called “Needles”. It is because the mountains are so sharp and
pointed, like needles. The drive was
kind of desolate. Dark colored mountains
with very little vegetation were all around us.
There was cactus and other desert plant life. I know that there are people who find beauty
in the desolation, but I don’t think I am one of them.
We got to our hotel and collapsed in the A/C for a
while. Our room is right next to the
laundry room, so we washed clothes (I cannot begin to express how happy I am to
have clean underwear)!
We didn’t want to be too active in the strongest
heat of the sun. We finally decided to
swim in the hotel pool. The water was
like bathwater. Not too surprising considering
the air temperatures. It was actually
refreshing.
We went to see London Bridge after we went
swimming. The bridge looks the same as I
remember it from the last time we were here, 31 years ago. The gift shop and little Tudor village we
went to has changed. The Tudor village
has apparently done poorly. The buildings
are still there, but the businesses that used to be there are all closed and
the buildings are vacant.
Pizza! I love
pizza. It is one of the thing that I
miss because I cannot eat gluten. I
looked up gluten free restaurants and found a pizza place nearby. I know I ate too much, but the gluten free
veggie pizza was delicious!
Now it is time to get ready for bed – in my clean
pajamas!
Stay tuned….
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Leaving Las Vegas
We have had fun in Las Vegas. Today we dressed up and had a picture made of
ourselves in fancy dress. Nick really
looks the part.
We have “learned” how to gamble. We both found that playing on the poker
machine is a lot of fun. You can make 5
cent bets, which means a dollar goes a long way. All told I think we spent (lost) a total of
$20.00 between us.
In the morning we check out and head for Lake Havasu
City, Arizona. That is where London
Bridge lives. We have been there before,
but that was in 1981. Somewhere at home
I have pictures of Courtney and Morgan, ages 3 years old and 5 months old respectively,
wearing sailor hats in the London Bridge gift shop.
The only downside to Las Vegas is that there is
smoking allowed in the casinos. I smell
like smoke. Yuck!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
Hello from Las Vegas!
We made it to the 108 degrees in Vegas this
afternoon. The drive wasn’t too far,
and it felt good to get to a lower elevation.
I could really feel my breathing getting easier.
We are staying at Circus Circus- a huge hotel/
casino. We stayed here together in 1981
when Courtney was 3 and Morgan about 5 months old.
Of course everything has changed, but so have
we. There are so many gambling machines
and I am afraid I have not found the appeal.
Maybe if I play something I will feel differently. We walked all over looking at all the people
playing the machines, and frankly, I don’t understand them at all.
Of course, when we lived in Perth, I went to the
casino a few times with my women friends, but we went as a package tour that
included lunch. So it was partly about
playing and gambling, but it was also about socializing.
Checking into the hotel and finding our way to our
room was very confusing. This place is
kind of like a maze. Plus the guy in the
lobby gave us directions that were absolutely incorrect. He had a badge on and I think maybe works for
the hotel, but he sent us, basically, into a food court nowhere near our
room. Oh well, we are here now.
The view from our room is amazing. I have already posted it on the blog.
We are planning to stay here for three days, and
then maybe we will go to Lake Havasu, Arizona.
We have almost completely changed out travel plans because we had too
many activities planned that would have us in too high an altitude.
I slept so well last night in Cedar City; I really
felt well when I got up this morning. I
sorry I had an illness that “messed up” our plans, but on the other hand, we
are making new plans and continuing on our way.
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