11/8/2014 A Long Drive Home

(Page to Arizona City, AZ)

After breakfast in the hotel this morning we packed up but did make a stop before we got on the road.  We wanted to see Lake Powell before we left town. 


Kenny.






SURE KENNY!  Take our picture!


Let’s try that again!


There was a shelf of rock that these stacked rocks, they have a name and a meaning and of course it escapes me right now.

Before long it was time to crawl back into the car for that long trek home.  We made frequent stops so that everyone could change places and to try to get comfortable.

Along the way, seemingly in the middle of nowhere we would see a lean-to type building and jewelry and pottery would be sold.  We stopped at one on the here and we stopped again because there was a piece of pottery I wanted to buy.  I stopped and negotiated and got a better price today than I got the first time.  I was a happy camper.

A while later we stopped again in this small town and I bought a Kokopelli statue.  Here are my treasures from this trip.


What a great trip this has been!  Everyone had fun,  the weather was good, and really, what can beat a lazy float down the Colorado.

11/7/2014 Lazy Float Down the Colorado River

(Page, AZ)

None of us had a problem jumping out of bed this morning and facing the day.  We were all pretty excited to get on the river.

Our hotel offered a free breakfast bar so Bonnie, Kenny, Sean and Bob took advantage of that.  I wasn’t particularly hungry so I organized our snacks and the rest of our stuff for the trip today.

We went to the place where we were supposed to catch the bus for our 10 minute ride to the river.


We had a little bit of time to spare so Bonnie tried on hats.


 

After a short ride we were on the river. 


Scenes as we floated down the river. 


 

 

Sean.
 

We stopped to see the petroglyphs.


 

 

The ones in the picture below were just uncovered within the last two to three years.
 

 

 

 

 

I have a lot more pictures but they are essentially, more of the same.

We finished our trip and took the two hour bus ride back to where we started.  Before going back to the hotel we did stop to see the “horseshoe”.

Scenery on the way.


 

The colors could change from one mile to the next.


We finally got to that sweet spot.  Kenny was the brave one.  He was determined to get the perfect picture.


 

 

To think, we had just floated this portion of the Colorado River.


 

 


We had great plans of going out to eat dinner but finally opted to order pizza in.  It was a long day

11/6/2014 Travel Day to Page, AZ

(Page, AZ)

We hit the road on time!  At first Bob was concerned that we had packed too much stuff but Kenny’s Ford SUV had a pretty sizable area behind the back seat.  Ahhh,,,,the back seat. Bonnie and I fondly think of that back seat as the bench seat from hell.

Heading west on I-10, traffic was fairly light as the morning rush was over.  We started out with Kenny and Sean up front and Bob, Bonnie and me in the back seat.  I sat behind Kenny and Bonnie sat in the middle on the hump.  She didn’t have much room for her legs and after the first two hours we had to switch places.  We decided that we would switch every hour otherwise this six hour trip would be very hard on us.  Bonnie and I switched places and Bob and Sean switched from back seat to front.

I took some really good pictures on the way and was very pleased with the shots I was getting.  Of course it didn’t help that I had one that was less than desirable and when I went to erase it, because I was impatient and couldn’t wait to get rid of it, I hit the wrong button and erased them all.  I was not a happy camper.  Some of them were us at rest stops, with us just pulling over on the road to switch places and the backdrops were just drop dead gorgeous.  One click.  Gone.  Never to be seen again.

We made it to Page and was surprised to see not much traffic or people.  We learned at check-in that we were now in the shoulder season and that we missed high season by just a week or so.  That was fine with us.

Bonnie stayed with Bob and me in our room and of course Kenny and his son shared a room a few doors down.

A recon drive was taken by Kenny and Bob to find the place where we were to go in the morning and also to find a restaurant for dinner.

It turned out we were within walking distance of the restaurant.

I don’t remember the name of it but we all enjoyed our meals very much.  Bob and Bonnie both ordered the same thing and it was just huge!

 
We walked back to the motel and all hung out in our room for awhile.  After the long drive today, knowing we have to get up early tomorrow by eleven everyone was in their own beds watching TV. 

We have a big day tomorrow!

11/514 Road Trip Preparation

(Arizona City, AZ)

We’re going on a road trip to Page, AZ.  We talked about doing this and decided the Grand Canyon could be on the chilly side and could, in fact, even have snow and we wanted something we all wanted to do.  Bob mentioned it first and we all jumped on it.  I happen to be on the phone with my friend Bonnie and when I told her what we were going to do she said, “I wanna go to!” so we invited her along.

So where are we going?  We’re going to take a lazy float down the Colorado River.  Bob and I did this back in ‘08 so we decided it would be good fun for all of us.

I made our reservations for Friday and then set to find a hotel or motel for us.  I was in for sticker shock when I first started looking and was quickly reminded why we travel with our house!  I called some hotels I found online that I had never heard of before and called them just because they were on the page.  No, I didn’t want to spend $170.00 per night for a motel room.  More well known motels were much more affordable, chains that everyone knows.  I called them all and asked for every discount available and was happy with the final choice of a Best Western Plus.  I did get a better rate by calling the motel directly than I could get with their 800 number.  I called both with every chain motel I called.  So we ended up with two rooms for the five of us and it came out to sixty eight dollars and change per night.

Some shopping needed to be done to get snacks for our rooms and for the trip down the river so a trip to town was in order.

We’re going a little north so the temps won’t be in the high 80’s like they are here.  Mid 70’s is what we’re seeing on the Weather Channel.

We packed small bags, with shorts and T’s but also sweatshirts just in case the Weather Channel forecaster doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about.

It’s decided we’ll leave around 8 a.m. which will get us there around 2.  Yep, a six hour trip ahead of us.

Before I forget, I heard from Doug and I made a mistake yesterday about the name of the lake.  I said I thought it was Roosevelt and it turns out its Canyon Lake.  I should have known that.  Anyway, thanks for the info Doug!

11/4/2014 Tortilla Flats

(Tortilla Flats, AZ)

All four of us took off this morning for Tortilla Flats, about an hour and a half away.  We had the perfect day and I made good use of my window seat taking pictures of the scenery as we went.







Our first glimpse at the lake.



We were directed into a pull off area by a road crew fellow.  I asked him what was going on and he said that a car had plunged down off the road and they were bringing it up. It didn’t happen today but a week ago.  We had to wait about 20 – 25 minutes so we took in the scenery and had our picture taken.

 

Bob and I have been up to this area a couple of times before to take ride on the Dolly Steamboat.  Today we’re here just for lunch.

I don’t know what they were looking at but they were all intent.



Before long the flat bed truck with the wreck on it was coming our way.



It wasn’t too much longer and we made it to our destination.  A small strip of buildings.



We started at the far end which happened to be the museum.  With four of us in there it was crowded!







We headed “downtown”.

 

Of course we had to stop in all the shops.

 

I think I’d like to open a store and have everyone line the walls with dollar bills.

Kenny

Bob



Sean

 

We went into the restaurant to get lunch and of course the walls were covered with dollar bills.  About 88,000 of them, I asked.




 
THANK HEAVENS IT WAS DEAD!



The lake.  Roosevelt, if I’m not mistaken.



What a beautiful lake!



Next stop was Goldfield Mine at the base of the Superstition Mountain.


Goldfield Mine is a old mining town turned tourist attraction.  There isn’t much to say about it so I’ll just post the pictures from the day.

 

 

It was a great day.  Relaxing, interesting, good food, good times and family.  What more could you ask for?