PINE TREES TO CACTUS

We left the beautiful pine forest of Fools Hollow this morning and arrived in Ft. McDowell, AZ early this afternoon. We're just outside of Scottsdale, at the Eagle View RV Resort and Casino in middle of the Arizona desert. We have to be very careful here because we saw a coyote roaming around behind the campground. Both Kathe and Jim are with me now when I go outside, just to be safe. Tomorrow we leave for California and home.

I'm sad tonight because we are saying goodbye to Warren and Kathy and my friends Gianni and Lady Bella. It's our last night together and so it's the end of this very wonderful vacation. We've had so much fun together these last two months that I'm sorry we have to part. They only thing that makes me happy is knowing that we will definitely plan another trip together in the future.  Looks like it might be Glacier National Park or the Grand Tetons!

Until then...

NEVER A DULL MOMENT

First, let me tell you that we made it through last night without any damage to our motor home. This morning there was dirt and debris everywhere from the storm, and the park rangers were working hard to clean everything up. Another storm is expected tonight, and the Arizona people seem to think this is all normal.

This afternoon Kathe and Jim took Warren and Kathy for a drive to Show Low Lake and they stopped for lunch at a restaurant named after me, Annie's Bistro. They had a great lunch outside, but had to leave early because it started raining.

On the way back to the campground, Jim felt like he hit something on the road. He didn't see anything but it made a terrible racket on the rear drivers side. Soon the tire pressure monitor went from 37 pounds to 4 pounds and they knew they were in trouble. Warren and Jim changed the tire in the rain and replaced it with the full sized spare in record time.

A few blocks away they found a Firestone Tire Shop and took the flat tire into them to see if it could be repaired. It had a small gash in the tread, but the mechanic pulled out one half of a needle nosed pliers.  Here's a picture of what they pulled out. They other half was still inside the tire! Of course it couldn't be repaired, so they bought a new tire to use as the spare until we get back home. Just another adventure on the road!

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY

As I write this I have my tail between my legs.  It's raining and hailing so hard that we are all
frightened that the coach will be damaged. Hard to concentrate as it's been raining like this for at least 40 minutes with no end in sight. Lightning all over the sky and thunder, but the hail is the worst we have experienced.

We had a nice sunny day today, doing what campers do. Sniffing chipmunks, chasing squirrels and tracking down lizards. Oh, there was some bike riding and exploring too. Kathe and I took a long walk down to the lake to take a picture. The lake is really down, like all the lakes in Arizona. Hard to believe with all this rain that it's no having an effect on the lake.

Most of the day was spent relaxing.  I got to  spend a little time in Warren's hammock watching him fry the fish they caught in New Mexico.  We had that for dinner tonight and they even gave me a bite, delicious trout and perch.

INTO THE WOODS

The drive to Show Low, Arizona only took about 3 hours today. Except for a bit on the I-40 most of the drive looked like this. Two lanes in either direction, and very little traffic. A break from the I-40 which is mostly big trucks whizzing by in both directions. And we saw lots of long freight  trains heading into Gallup, as we were driving out. Glad to be away from all that noise of trains and planes in that city.

We are now here in Show Low, at Fools Hollow State Park where it is quiet and cool and we are surrounded by pine trees. The air is fresh and clean and there are squirrels running all about. There's no stinking dog park to worry about, I just walk all around the campground and look for trouble! The humans are planning 3 days of relaxing here, I'll let you know how that works out.

INTER TRIBAL CEREMONIAL

First thing this morning Jim and Kathe glued the tail light lens back on the motor home. I'm afraid that it's going to fall off again before we get home and take it to the repair shop. Warren had the same problem and he glued his back on with no problem. Keep your paws crossed that works.

I thought that they were all going to the Gallup swap-meet today. That's what they talked about because it's supposed to be the largest in New Mexico. Today Warren found out that there was a  big Inter-Tribal Ceremonial in Gallup at Red Rock State Park, so the plans changed.
Tribes from all over the West come to this event which has been held in New Mexico since 1921.
There is a parade, ceremonial dancing and singing  competitions, a rodeo, and arts and craft exhibits. In one building they had all the most beautiful jewelry displayed. Most of the prize winning pieces were on sale for thousands of dollars. They watched one of the dance competitions where young and old were dressed in their finest costumes and jewelry.

After spending several hours at Red Rock State Park they went into town to see another jewelry and crafts exhibit. One tent had only Navajo pieces and another tent across the street had Zuni pieces. Kathe got another early birthday present of a necklace made by a young Navajo and some beautiful Zuni inlaid earrings.

GALLUP ON ROUTE 66

We traveled most of the morning and arrived here at Gallup at the USA RV Resort around lunch time.Yesterday we were at the American RV Resort, so we are really being very patriotic! We are at a lower elevation, around 6000 feet, and it seems to be a little cooler here. It was so windy around 6:00 that one of our tail-light lenses blew right off. Luckily, Jim found it and it wasn't broken. Just another adventure in motor homing.

This is a picture looking out the front windshield. Pretty awesome! We're in a brand new site on a new gravel pad. Kathe asked if we were away from the numerous train tracks we saw as we checked in. The desk clerk said that were were as far away as possible.  He forgot to mention the airport and the planes landing right over our heads. The planes are small, so maybe they won't be flying at night. If it isn't one thing, it's another!

Everyone we talked to in Albuquerque raved about a famous hotel/restaurant here in Gallup called, El Rancho.  It has quite a famous history and many movie stars stayed there in the 40's and 50's. Tonight Jim made reservations for a special dinner there but they were very disappointed with the food and the service. The hotel was really old but the decor was interesting.  There was a Native American woman weaving a rug in the lobby. The hotel was decorated just like it was when all the movie stars stayed there. Very rustic.

TURQUOISE TRAIL

It was our last day here in Albuquerque and although they planned to hike another of the petroglyph canyons, no one got up before it started getting HOT. As a result, Kathe plunked me into the kitchen sink and gave me a bath and blow-dry.  I really didn't mind, it's been a couple of weeks since my last grooming and I was getting kinda stinky. I looked so good that Lady Bella and Gianni are now in the sink next door! Sorry guys, it wasn't my fault!

While I was relaxing at home later this morning, the humans went for a drive on the Turquoise Trail, a National Scenic Byway that connects

Santa Fe to Albuquerque the hard way. It was nice to get out into the country, and see all the little towns in between the two famous cities.

They stopped at an historic trading post in Golden, which was more like a personal museum than a store. The next town they stopped in was Madrid, which was once a coal mining town, and a ghost town before it became the tourist stop it is today. All the old homes on the main street have become cute little shops and restaurants. They has a great lunch at the Mine Shaft Tavern which boasts of the longest bar in New Mexico and terrific hamburgers.

The final stop was supposed to be a Turquoise Mine and Museum (and petting zoo) but  all they saw there was a big pile of huge turquoise stones and a few scrawny chickens. On to Gallup tomorrow!

PETROGLYPH VIEWING

I don't know how it happened, but this morning everyone was up and out by 9:00 AM. They wanted to take a 2.2 mile hike in Rinconada Canyon and it gets pretty darn hot here by noon.The Petroglyph National Monument is very close to where we are staying and that was where they planned to go. There are three canyon hikes with petroglyphs in the National Monument area. The one they chose today was a relatively easy hike, mostly in sandy soil. Even that early in the morning, it was already getting warm. There were over 300  drawings on the volcanic rocks along the trail, many of which are so high up the canyon that they are difficult to see. There were plenty of others that were very close to the
trail and they tried to take some pictures of them.

It was hard to tell which drawings were real and which were graffiti as this trail has been open to the public for so long. They stopped at the Visitors Center and talked to the ranger about what they saw and he said that most of the marking on the rocks were from the ancient people that once traveled through this canyon. At some point in time the canyon was part of a land grand and used by sheep ranchers. They also left there markings and brands on some of the rocks.

There's talk about another petroglyph expedition tomorrow to Boca Negra Canyon to see another 100 petroglyphs. Personally, I can't picture these guys getting up early two days in a row. We'll see.

SANDIA PEAK

In all the visits to Albuquerque Kathe and Jim have never taken the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway.  This afternoon after a stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch, they drove to the other end of town to take the ride up Sandia Mountain.  Each of the large trams take 26 people up to the peak of the mountain which is 10,378 feet high.  The views were breath-taking. Kathe and Kathy were not exactly enjoying the ride or looking down much. Jim and Warren had a great time and talked about hiking the trail down.  When they found out that the hike might take several hours, they decided to go to the Sandia Casino instead.

A funny thing happened the other night when Jim and Kathe started watching TV. The TV started changing channels without anyone touching the remote. They put on a music channel and it switched to Naked and Afraid. They changed it to a news station and it went back to Naked and Afraid all by itself. This happened several times. We called Direct TV and spent 40 minutes with the tech who could only tell us that one of the buttons must be stuck.  That wasn't the problem, so we turned off the TV and went to bed. We noticed that the red light on the RF was blinking like crazy but we had already shut off the TV. Very strange.

The next morning we were telling Kathy and Warren about the problem and guess what? They were trying to watch Naked and Afraid and their TV was doing the same thing, switching to the news and the music channel without them touching the remote! Seems that we are so close together that our remotes were working each others TV's. I guess Kathe and Jim will have to watch the same programs that Warren and Kathy are watching from now on. Maybe they will just read a book.

OLD TOWN ALBUQUERQUE

Let me start off by saying that it is very HOT here. Over 100 degrees! Everyone planned to go for a hike this morning, but by the time all doggies were taken care out and all the humans were ready to depart, it was way to hot to hike a 2 mike trail. They were planning to go to the Petroglyph National Monument, but that will have to wait for a day that everyone gets up early. Good Luck on that one!

So after a short discussion, this lazy bunch decided to go to Old Town Albuquerque for yet more shopping. There is a large tree shaded plaza surrounded by narrow streets with all kinds of shops and  winding brick walkways all through the town. The buildings were all adobe hacienda style. Some of  them were connected together
forming larger shops with various rooms. There was even a place on the sidewalk for artists to display their handmade jewelry on blankets similar to the side walk in Santa Fe.

I guess they are pretty well shopped out by this time as I didn't see any big purchases.Guess there is  only so much jewelry and t-shirts you can look at before it all starts to look same. There were no bargains here anyway.

Before coming home they stopped for lunch at another Diner, Drive-ins, and Dives restaurant called City Diner. The "Kathies" shared some mac and cheese and a wedge salad, and the guys each ordered salads. The food was great, but they are already talking about what's for dinner!

HATCH CHILI BURGERS

I mentioned yesterday that Warren liked green chilies, but I didn't tell you that he bought 27 pounds of roasted Hatch chilies at the market. He spent hours peeling and cleaning them so tonight he's making green chili cheeseburgers. Kathe and I will take our burger without the chili peppers please.

Not much to report today. We drove about 50 miles to Albuquerque from Santa Fe and arrived at the American RV Resort on old Route 66. We had lunch and decided that we wouldn't do much today. It's hotter here than Santa Fe and much more humid. Kinda just want to chill out in the air conditioned coach.

Camping isn't all fun and games. We've had an ongoing problem with our refrigerator and we have to keep dry ice in the freezer to keep things cold. It can't be fixed until we get home so that means a trip to the store everyday for dry ice. We buy about 18-20 pounds each day at $1.50 a pound, and we've had to do this every day since Chama.

There was a bright spot today, we discovered a Camping World about a mile away, so that was our afternoon entertainment. We always manage to find something we need at each and every Camping World along the way. Warren bought a vent cover and he and Jim decided to install it on Warren and Kathy's roof this afternoon.

GEORGIA

It's our last day here in Santa Fe and I still haven't caught a rabbit. They are still hopping all over the place but they are much too fast for me. I'll have to be happy just chasing them, knowing that I'll never get a hold of one of those fluffy white cotton tails.

Everyone left this morning for a trip to the Santa Fe Farmers Market down at the railroad district. There were hundreds of people there at this very large market. It was the best one of our trip so far. There were over 60 booths with lots of produce and prepared foods in one long area.  Another section was booths with beautiful jewelry, crafts, and artwork by local artists.
Kathe was on the lookout for peaches and tomatoes and Warren was looking for chili peppers. As I write this he is roasting some big green peppers, a whole box full of them.

After the Farmers Market Kathy, Kathe and Jim went to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. They watched a great film about her life and gained a better understanding of her work.  It was especially interesting to hear about her time at Ghost Ranch, near Chama, New Mexico since we had visited the area.

Tomorrow we leave Santa Fe and head to Albuquerque for a few days, sad to say that we are starting West and on the way back home. But, I still have several more days of adventures!

FAT BOY

Last night we had another amazing lightning show all around us. The sky is so wide and open you can see the flashes of lightning from miles away. I think this must be some kind of record, we've had rain every single night! It becomes windy around the time they light up the barbecue, and the lightning and thunder starts at dinner time, then it starts to rain each night at bedtime. In the morning it's clear with an amazing pink and blue sunrise. Of course, Kathe and I are the only ones up at that hour to enjoy it. No body else seems to open their eyes till 8 or 9 o'clock. By that time I'm curled up and back to sleep.

Today, while I kept an eye on the rabbits in the campground, everyone else went to the town of Los Alamos to visit the two museums. There have been lots of changes to the History Museum since the last time they were here. They have new interesting photos and exhibits and  several buildings have been restored to tell the story of the people involved in the Manhattan Project and the community of Los Alamos. Included in the information about the area is a homestead cabin and an ancient Pueblo ruin.

The larger Bradbury Science Museum is just down the street and with very interesting exhibits promoting interest in science and technology.  There were two films, hands on exhibits, and photographs about the "Project" and models of the first atomic bombs. This is a picture of Fat Boy, one of the bombs that helped end World War II.

AY YI YI

When in New Mexico you should eat some of the local specialties, right? Usually Warren and Kathe have been cooking dinner, but last night they decided to go out for a special dinner at the Coyote Cafe. Everything that they ate and drank was wonderful. Kathy, Kathe and Jim all ordered salads, but Warren ordered a special appetizer. Here is a picture of Warren enjoying his chicharrones, a fried pork belly!  It was so large that when he broke off pieces of it to dip into the sauce it shattered and tiny pieces went all over Kathe's blouse.  When she got home last night and undressed all the little pieces fell on the carpet. I loved it, they were delicious!

Today they did some window shopping on Canyon Street. There are lots of shops with beautiful art and jewelry in this area of Santa Fe. Jim bought Kathe a beautiful bracelet for her upcoming birthday.


Later, they went to a restaurant for lunch that was featured in Diners, Drive-in and Dives located in the railroad district.The name of the restaurant was Chimaya and it was decorated in a dia de los muertos theme. The food was so very spicy that they told Kathe that she could choose the next place to eat!
I vote for steak.

BANDELIER THE HARD WAY

My humans set off this morning for a tour of the Bandelier National Monument. It's about 50 miles away from our camp here in Santa Fe. The hard part? You can no longer drive into the canyon in your car. They now have a shuttle service from White Rock to the archaeological site.  Of course they just missed the bus and had to wait another 1/2 hour before the next one. I guess that was a good thing because now there are very few people visiting the cliff dwellings since it is more difficult to get into the canyon.


Seven or eight centuries ago this area was the

home of an Ancestral Puebloan community. There are cave rooms carved out of the soft rocks and a circular community village to explore. Jim climbed up into several of the caves using ladders against the rock walls so that Kathe could take his picture. There is also a short mile hiking trail all through the site that climbs up on the ridge of the cliff and past several of the dwellings.

It was a beautiful sunny day and it started to thunder as they were waiting for the bus back to White Rock, but it didn't rain until they were already in the car on the way home. We are all a little sick and tired of the rain every night.  Last night we had quite a lightning and thunder show here on the top of our mesa, almost as scary as fireworks. I guess we should be glad it happens at night instead of spoiling our days.