KathieK

Let me begin with a side bar: The Petrified National Park is in Arizona not New Mexico, occasionally it's hard to see state lines. continuing our kicks on Route 66... Colleen scheduled an all day trip with All Star Grand Canyon tours, and it was an all star day. We were picked up by Jason along with 4 other passenger's at 9:00 am. Jason was/ is a Wikipedia on Flagstaff, Grand Canyon, the flora and fauna, Indian names and culture. The drive to the South rim of the Canyon took 1 1/2 hr. After parking and gathering our gear we walked to the edge-ish of the rim. Jason set up his long range viewer thingy and we saw boats and rapids on the Colorado. (See attached photo, look for the Colorado River) OK I will say ... read more

A five hour drive from Carlsbad NM to Santa Fe. The terrain wasn't too different as the trip from SanAntonio to Carlsbad, except for one new elelment - deserted towns. Not just one but many. Fortunately none of these empty towns had dead bodies, skinny starving dogs, or bleeding cats. Sunday morning we met Arlene Ory from Historic Walks of Santa Fe at the Saint Frances Hotel. She joined us in our rental car and off we went to Brandelier National Monument. It is aprox one hour from downtown Santa Fe. Arlene gave us an overview of Santa Fe, the surrounding mountains and the secrecy of Los Alamos. We were able to park close to the start of the trail and museum. "Brandelier National Monument encompasses 33,000 acres of rugged but beautiful canyon and Mesa country. ... read more

Driving from San Antonio to Carlsbad New Mexico. Think Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Gene Autry, Cisco Kid riding on their loyal horses in the bad lands looking for Bad Men. That was the landscape and terrain we rode through for 7 hours. Add a few oil wells, wind turbines, a cell tower or two and that completes the picture. IF THE MOVIE THE BIRDS MAKES YOU SHIVER DO NOT READ THE PARAGRAPH BELOW, JUST SAYIN at dusk last night we saw the most spectacular work of art Mother Nature can produce at Carlsbad cave. We witnessed 450,000 Brazilian free tail bats leave their cave for their night work in the sky. Aprox 45 minutes of bats flying out in flocks from the cave entrance . The show begins right before dusk and by the time we ... read more

Up at oh dark thirty, get dressed, put final objects in suitcases, sit on suitcase for final closure. Headed for the Asheville airport. Pulling out of the neighborhood , last site of the docks with fog on the lake gracing the boats. Headed south on 107 then at the Crossroads of Cashiers take a left on 64, and off we go away from the mountains and a hour + drive to Asheville. it is such a nice experience to leave from the middle size airports. Atlanta airport is where we met up with our travel buddies Colleen and Tim Maye. They were flying from Ft Myers and we met at the gate assigned for San Antonio. Had lunch, got to our assigned "comfort level" seats on a delta 757 and once again off we went. side ... read more