Sunday – October 10 Petrified Forest

We were able to sleep in a little longer today, had breakfast at the hotel and then hit the road.  Our first stop was the Petrified Forest.  The park is covered with portions of trees that died 225,000,000 years ago, were buried, and then had silica and quartz replace the wood cell by cell.  As we followed the road to various scenic stops we saw ancient petroglyphs carved into rock faces which were neat.

As we left the Petrified Forest the Painted Desert popped into view with its dramatic reds and lavenders.

We stopped at the Hubbell Trading Post, and old Indian Trading Post that is still in operation.  They had wonderful rugs and other hand made items for sale as they did back in the 1800s.  From there we went on to Canyon de Chelly, pronounced D’Shay.  The Canyon is really a series of deep canyons.  We took the rim drives and stopped at designated lookout points to look into the canyon.  We were just able to make out cliff dwellings like Mesa Verde  It starts off 300 feet deep and goes to 1000 feet deep.   There are Navajo farms in the bottom and along the top.  In the canyon walls there are gaps where ancient puebloan cultures built their homes.

If you look at the next two pictures, in the first you can see they built in the lower ledge, but notice it is probably 200 feet up from the valley floor.   The second picture is a closeup of the building remains.

In the next two pictures you can see similar costruction , again probably 200 feet above the valley floor.

Tomorrow we go into the valley with a Navajo guide!!!

Saturday – October 9 Grand Canyon Skywalk

 

On Saturday we had another looong day.   We got up at 4am, and left Vegas at 4:30am and drove to an area called Grand Canyon West.   This is on an Indian reservation.   It is separate from the National Park Grand Canyon area, and the Native Americans have been developing it recently to attract tourists.   In particular they get a lot of Europeans and Asians who fly or bus in from Las Vegas.   Here we put protective booties over our shoes went out onto the skywalk, a glass semicircular bridge built out over the Grand Canyon, and looked at the spectacular views of the scenery.  The best part of this area is that you have a great view of the Colorado River from the rim, which you don’t have from most of the rim views.   Helicopters flying people down to the Colorado.

  

We left Grand Canyon West at about 10am.  We drove to Kingman and had lunch at Mr. D’s Route 66 diner on Andy Devine Boulevard.  We then drove a couple of hundred miles to the Meteor  Crater.  The crater is 550 feet deep and has a 2.25 mile circumference.  It was created by a meteor that was 150 feet across about 50,000 years ago.  A piece of the meteor was recovered a few miles from the crater, about the size of a large microwave and weighs 1400 lbs.  It is very dense, mostly iron and other heavy elements.

We then drove on to Winslow Arizona where we had a gourmet dinner at the Turquoise Room in the La Posada Hotel, a classic railroad hotel built in the style of a Spanish hacienda.  The hotel was a five star hotel of the 30’s and is wonderful, filled with fantastic art and antiques.  It was staffed by the Harvey Girls.  At night the walkways are lined with luminaria.

 

After dinner we finished our long day by driving to our home away from home in Holbrook and fell asleep to whatever playoff baseball game was on that night.

Friday - October 8 Las Vegas

 

It was a long day…..   We stayed at a motel by the Bradley airport, getting up at 4am to catch our 6:15am flight.  We arrived in Las Vegas at noon (3pm east coast time), and went to our hotel, the Orleans Casino and Hotel to freshen up.  The Orleans is a nice hotel off the strip with only 1,886 rooms so  it is not as busy and hectic as some of the large hotels in Vegas.

At 5pm we drove over to the Bellagio to have dinner and go to the Cirque du Soleil show “O”.   It turned out that all the restaurants were outrageously expensive (buffet $37 ea., $62 entrees at other restaurants) so we crossed the skywalk to Bally’s and ate in a Mexican restaurant.  

We then went back to the Bellagio for the 7:30pm Cirque du Soleil show.  “O” has a stage that shifts back and forth from being solid to water.   There are lots of acrobatics, flying through the air, and diving in the water.  There were performers riding carousel horses flying through the air, then landing in the water and sailing away.  At one point they had two performers twirling fire torches.   There was another performer asleep on a chair near them.   They “accidently” set one of his feet on fire, after a couple of more minutes he moved his feet and accidently set the other one on fire.   He sat there for a few more minutes with both feet on fire and then the performers with the torches “accidentally” set his chair, hat, a and torso on fire.   He sat there for a few more minutes, basically totally engulfed in flames, and then he got up, picked up his burning chair a and wandered off stage totally ablaze.

The entire  show was really amazing and words can not do it justice.

 

We got back to our hotel at 9:45PM and immediately headed to bed as we have an early start tomorrow.   Tomorrow, our first visit of the trip to the Grand Canyon.

May 2nd Golden Colorado

 

This morning we (Peter, Holly, Rodney, Julie, Jack, Nancy and Roger) went over to flea market near the motel.   It was huge, and we only saw a little bit of it.   We had our photos taken, and as you can see, our time in the West has changed us….

 

We then drove to Boulder where we checked out the Pearl Street mall and a brew pub, before a short visit to the Celestial Seasonings headquarters store and the Leaning Tree museum and store.

 

We then went over to Terry and Colleen’s for our final evening in Colorado.   They have a wonderful home with gorgeous views of the Rocky Mountains.  It was a special time with Ben and Stacy and kids, Julie, Chris, and Vesper, Andy and David, Belinda, Nori, and Kyoshi and Virgil the pooch hobbling around with his rebuilt knee.  We talked and laughed and ate wonderful food and celebrated Julie’s birthday, which almost started a forest fire.

We visited all evening and watched coyotes hunt in the field below the house.  The clouds in the distance were spectacular.  It was a perfect end to a perfect little vacation, over all too soon.

    

May 1st The Oh My God Road!!!

On Saturday May 1st we (Holly, Rodney, Peter, and Roger) went for an excursion into the mountains west of Denver, while Nancy and Julie went to the Denver National Quilt Show.

We drove to Golden Colorado where we dropped off some books at the Colorado Railroad Museum.   We then drove west up a canyon road for about 20 miles to Central City.   Central City is an old mining town.  Many of the historic old buildings are used as casinos.  After exploring Central City for a while, we drove over to Idaho Springs.

Little did we realize that the road our GPS directed us over turns out to be the “Oh My God Road”.   It was an incredible drive, with wonderful scenery and a scattering of old closed mines.   But it was not for the faint of heart.  Most of the route was unpaved and without guard rails.  The road is supposed to be wide enough for two cars, but normally one will try to stop at a wide spot to let the on coming traffic pass.   For much of the route we were on the side of a mountain, with the downhill side falling off 500 to 1000 feet.   At one point we noticed that a section of the road was in fact held up by large logs, at which point Rodney issued those famous lines… I am sure glad they didn’t use anything that would rot away…  

You will not fully appreciate the drop offs from this video, but it does give a good feel of the road.  I would suggest you view it with the sound off. 

At Idaho Springs we had buffalo burgers and well deserved micro beer.

We then descended into Denver where Holly and Rod toured the  baseball stadium and Peter and I toured the 16th street mall.

We met Julie, Jack, and Nancy and went to La Loma, an excellent Mexican Restaurant recommended by Julie’s friend, Tomasita.  We gathered at the Holiday Inn Express for a relaxing dip in the pool and then watched Jay Leno “talk” politics at the Correspondent’s dinner on CNN.

April 30th Colorado Springs Excursion

On Friday we (Holly, Rodney, Nancy, and Roger) left early and drove south to the Colorado Springs area.     Our first objective was to drive up to the top of Pikes Peak.   We could see the mountain when we started our drive from North of Denver, over sixty miles away.    When we arrived at the Pikes Peak Road we found that the route to the top was blocked by snow, but they were trying to clear the route to the visitor center at milemarker 13.    We set off up the road, and reached about 12 miles and over 11,000 feet before the road was blocked.   It was cold, in the 20’s, and a great trip, with with wonderful views. Along the route we were warned to watch for local animal crossings.

   

We then visited the tourist community of Manitou Springs, where we had a delicious lunch at the Adams Cafe.   After lunch we drove through the Garden of the Gods, and hiked some of the trails.   At one point Nancy pushed up a little rock that was leaning over.

     

During our day we saw a number of Magpies.

We then visited the Air Force Academy, including the museum and famous chapel.

 

The weather along our route was ever changing.  The prediction was for partly cloudy, chance of rain and we were able to see various weather fronts off in the distance.  When the sun was out it was cool but comfortable but in an instant it would change to a snow squall, then cloudy and then sunny again.  Very unpredictable and fun.

We arrived back in Denver, and had a delicious barbeque dinner with Julie, Peter, and Jack at Famous Dave’s BBQ Restaurant and rehashed our various adventures.

April 29th Denver

On Thursday the 29th we flew to Denver.   We met Peter in the airport and drove to the motel where we met Holly and Rod.  We found we had a prairie dog town by the motel, and were greeted by the little critters.

We drove over to Julie and Jack’s house, where we were greeted with balloons, smiles and love.

Peter showed off his new tattoo.

 

We visited for a while.

Then we drove over to an Italian restaurant where we were met by Ben and Stacy and the kids; Nori, Belinda and Kyoshi; Terry and Colleen; Jack’s sister Joy, his niece Jane and her granddaughter Samantha; and Darcy's daughter Julie and her daughter Vesper.  We celebrated with Terry and Colleen the contract on their house.

The food was great, all of the children happy and energetic, and the company inspiring.  We talked about the future Conant reunion and what will be involved in planning that event and caught up with family we had not seen in ages.  What a wonderful evening.  After dinner, Holly, Rod, Roger, and Nancy visited the bathtub-like pool at the hotel, although all did not take a dip.  We left when they turned the lights off.

April 27th/28th - Illinois

We flew to Milwaukee and drove down to see Roger’s sister, Dorothy.  The visit with Dorothy and Bob was wonderful! 

On Wednesday we went to a great Italian restaurant and Bob and Kim Joined us.

We are excited because we get to come back in a couple of months and spend some more time with them at the mini-family reunion.