Technical Info

This is a pretty fantastic blog program. Not only does it let me set up my blog so it looks amazing and professional but it gives my readers great access. For instance, I can set up links to things like the state park we visited recently, so if you're interested you can click on the link and read all about the park (kinda interesting history).

Also, you can click on any of the pictures I post and get a full size image in your browser window, instead of having to squint or find the magnifying glass. This is great because I can upload small images, using less of my allotted space, yet you can see the brothers, grandkids, friends, etc in full size, if you want.

Also, they now have a new program called Picasa, which essentially holds all the pictures I've uploaded in a photo album that I can make accessible to whomever I want. I can also order prints from the albums and share pics and the list just goes on and on.

Just had to blow Google's horn. They pretty much rock.

Full disclaimer: I do not work for Google and am not related to any Google employees. I just like 'em. A lot.

Natural Bridge

A couple weeks ago we headed out to to the Mogollon Rim to do some sightseeing. You can see a long way in the desert and it sure looked like there was a storm over the area as we drove toward it, but we thought we'd keep going anyway.

As we got closer we entered the storm and figured visibility would be about zero at the Rim, we didn't have any rain gear with us (what? it was hot and sunny when we left the house!), and since we'd driven the Infiniti and weren't sure about the condition of the roads we were looking for a turnaround when we stumbled onto Tonto Natural Bridge State Park.

The rain had passed on when we arrived at the guard shack and paid our $3 per person. We descended into the canyon for the longest hike on the map (~1.5 miles) and were immediately immersed in country we are familiar with and love. The boys were in hog heaven with all the rocks to climb and jump. My concern was the flash floods they'd warned us about but that was nothing to what was ahead.

Turns out the hike is not for the faint of heart, or those who have gained 20 pounds over a long winter in Iowa, or those who haven't done any kind of hiking in over a year. Whew. It was a lot of up and down, the trail was marked but not always passable--necessitating u-turns in tight spaces and hauling old and heavy rears back up over the rocks just descended--and by the end I was sick as a dog, legs shaking, gut quaking, head pounding, and I still had to climb back out of the friggin' canyon!

Unfortunately, this meant I wasn't paying attention to the beauty of our surroundings. Luckily, Alec was and took some pictures.

Just for the record, I hadn't eaten that day and it was hot and humid with a capital "H". I'm exercising with renewed energy so I can try the hike again and make it without all the physical drama. Oh, and get a look at the sights.

Lazy Dayz

We're well into the school year here now; they started on August 6th. But the days are still very warm and when the kids get home it's out to the pool to practice feats of great daring or just to try and drown one another.

We're all falling into a routine and that's a good thing since stress and crazyness have been the norm for so long we almost forgot what routine was.

Jake is doing much better since he got "lost" in the garage for 5 days. We're pretty much only in and out of there during the week with the car (and then on weekends to try and go through the rest of the boxes still packed, which is how Jake got in there in the first place). We get into the car, pull out and close the door, only opening it to drive back in and then close it behind us. Mostly, we don't spend a lot of time in there because it's so freakin' hot. What with the heat and the garage not being cooled it's pretty much a miracle Jake made it.

I'd been telling Alec I was worried that Jake had gotten hit by a car in the neighborhood (it's like a slalom track for young drivers) since I hadn't seen him for a couple days and, believe me when I say, Jake does not miss mealtimes. The last time we'd been in there was Sunday and it was a Thursday evening when Alec went into the garage for something and thought he heard a sound. He called me and we tracked it to a very skinny, dehydrated kitty who had fallen into a steep canyon created by stacks of heavy boxes and couldn't get out. In fact, he could hardly meow.

We rescued him. He lapped up about a gallon of water and ate until his little tummy was full and then passed out on the cool floor on the patio. No kidding. Now he's pretty much his old cranky self. Alec says he's used up about half his nine lives so far. He may be right. Better watch le chat a little closer from now on.

The trip

We left Iowa in the evening after the movers had gone and we'd handed off the rest of the stuff that wasn't coming with us, secured the things that didn't make it onto the truck but would be picked up the following week, and we'd torn Ian away from his girlfriend amid tears and much unhappiness.

We thought it was going to be a long, hot trip, but turns out it was a long, hot, boring trip. We drove through Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. It wasn't until New Mexico that we started to see some beautiful country. The rest of those states? Pretty much flat, dry, and boring.

Sometimes hella smelly too. We passed the biggest feed lot we have ever seen... or smelled, and we've seen/smelled a few of those things in our travels.

This picture only shows a portion of the lot. If you look closely you can see that it stretches all the way back to the horizon. It also stretched for about 5 miles alongside the highway. Friggin' big lot.

Of course, the boys and I were in the car with air conditioning and all had our iPods, etc to keep us busy. Alec was in the truck with the cat, assorted plants making the move with us, and other essentials that couldn't go in the mover's truck.

Bad enough he had no air conditioning but he also had the cat. The cat who barely made the 3 day trip from Montana to Iowa intact (physically and mentally) and who now had to make another 3 day trip in the kennel. His yowling starts very low in his throat but by the time it releases from his mouth it's a pretty amazing sound. And very annoying, especially for hundreds of miles. Jake could rival one of Pavarotti's tenor friends in projection, only I think he's tone deaf.

Mac kept himself occupied in the back seat and Ian did a lot of sleeping.

We stayed each night in a different hotel in a different state and found it interesting how... uh, different they all were. Shopping in stores for water and snacks was a kicker too. We stayed off the major highways and cut through each state on smaller interstate or local highways. So these were primarily small towns we traveled through, with small stores and not much variety, and they shut down fairly early in the evening.

One night in New Mexico, we asked about an authentic Mexican restaurant and had dinner there. It was located in a part of town with a ratio of 0 caucasions to every Hispanic. The people in the restaurant were very suprised to see an obviously non-Hispanic family come into the place, but they served us and practiced their English while we practiced our Spanish.

The food was great and we got to watch the Spanish "stories" throughout dinner, while also enduring the stares from other patrons as they came in and got an eyeful of the interlopers. Sometimes it's good to experience being the minority.

We passed the VLA or Very Large Array they used in the movie Contact with Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey (good movie btw) but everyone was too road weary to make the stop to check it out in person.

This is just a small view of the array. There are 27 dishes out there so this is not quite half of them. Then there's the big station with the biggest dish out there.


This is what it looks like when you're too tired to even drink your beer and this is what it looks like when you've driven 400-500 miles in a day and are too tired to think about eating let alone get up and do it.










As we entered the desert the terrain changed and started breaking up with much more picturesque views.

We saw the storms you see in the desert; solitary and self-contained in appearance (even though they can stretch for miles) with lots of finger and sheet lightening as well as rain.


We stopped at the Continental Divide and Ian serenaded us with the song he'd been writing for his girlfriend while Mac did the SpongeBob dance.


Not long after we crossed into Arizona we got hit with one of those storms, which cooled things off considerably, and as soon as that passed we saw what was to become our new home.



P.S. It's much easier to take pictures while driving than I thought. ;)

Living in the Southwest

It's the desert. The Sonoran Desert to be exact. Home of multiple cacti, cold blooded reptiles and insects that give you the heebie jeebies... well, they do me anyway. Huge cockroaches (I'm talking 2-3 inches long) and scorpions. Yea, see what I mean?

It's also the home of the Grand Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, the infamous Tombstone (you know which Tombstone I'm talking about) and Yuma (of 3:10 to Yuma fame), Red Rock and the longest stretch of Route 66 still in use today.

And my personal favorite tidbit, it's home to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West. I haven't been yet, but plan to as soon as possible.

The heat is amazing. 105 degrees is pretty much a daily occurrence for up to 6 months of the year (with lovely spikes to 118 sprinkled in there for a change). It shimmers off the roads, feels like a jet engine blast when you stand in it for any length of time, and creates a constantly dusty, dry environment.

In the late evenings when it's cooled to about 90 and the wind is blowing you can float in the pool and feel comfortable. Doing anything else outside is basically torture and quite possibly a death sentence.

Wait, I just figured it out. We have moved to hell.