Flying Across Arizona

 

Thursday October 2, 2014 Quality Inn Room 120 Holbrook, Arizona

Poor Barb was a bit disappointed and angry this morning because the Monument Valley excursion was not meant to be. She decided we were heading home so I directed her to take I 40 east out of Kingman. And off we went—I took a couple of shots just outside Kingman to show how quickly the desert seems to end. It doesn’t really but there are larger areas with enough water to support taller and wider plants. Then you come to stretches just as dry as the real desert but by the time you reach Flagstaff and the San Francisco Peaks you have gone through a couple of sizeable conifer forests.

As altitude decreases and you get on the leeward side of the mountains, dryness reappears but there is little cactus or succulent growth. We traveled in silence until we reached Holbrook when Barb asked if the Petrified Forest was worth seeing. I said I thought so, that she wouldn’t see anything like it anywhere else. And so it was, that the ice broke and we entered the National Park.  On Blue Mesa I whipped out the map and showed her that Canyon de Chelley is still doable and if we get there early enough tomorrow we should be able to do a half day tour, see Window Rock and Hubbell Trading Center and spend the night in Gallup. I mapped out some ideas for the days following and she agreed. So all’s right with the world once more. It is hard to have your heart set on seeing something and not be able to get there. I still haven’t seen the aquarium in Monteray and will probably not get there—makes me sad and disappointed but there are so many beautiful places to see and we can’t do them all.

Since we are travelling from the West these pictures are, again, in reverse order from those I posted a few years ago when Bill and I toured the park. Beautiful in either direction. Good opportunity to play with the camera using different white balance and different colors. Like the ones using the sunset setting—picks up the colors the best. The black and whites are interesting, too.

Met a volunteer at the visitor center who is a retired Naval pilot and commercial pilot for Delta. He then was an instructor for Delta. He and his wife volunteer at various NP and really likes it.They will spend several winter months in a wildlife refuge in Alabama this year.  Nice and interesting man—quite handsome, too—bet he was one of those Top Guns the women swarmed around.  LOL

Holbrook is not what once it was in its Route 66 heyday so we are trying to figure out what we want for dinner tonight. Maybe pizza—there is a pizza hut here. Haven’t had that in ages.  Hope I can manage to stay up to watch Jeter on Fallon tonight and still get up early tomorrow—but then, I can sleep on the way to the Canyon—NOT. Oh, well, goodnight from the Snippy now Serene Sisters, Kathy and Barb