http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/SandiB/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from SandiB en-us Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:06:41 +0000 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:06:41 +0000 Today was another long drive for us. We left Santa Fe at about 730 am and drove about an hour and a half to Taos NM. When we arrived in Taos we needed to get an oil change and a tire rotation and so we found a Jeep dealership who could do it right away What luck While they took the 45 minutes to do the car work we walked over to a nice little caf and had a delicious breakfast. The timing was http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Cheyenne/blog-426345.html Today we had to sadly leave Rick in Alpine and start our journey back north. We had a long drive straight through to Santa Fe. As we wanted to get to Santa Fe early enough to be able to do some sightseeing we left Alpine early and hit the road. The drive was uneventful. We drove north through the Guadalupe Mountains and saw El Capitan the highest point in Texas. We also drove right past Carlsba http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-Mexico/Santa-Fe/blog-426071.html Today was a very busy last day in Alpine. We got up and had a bite to eat and then headed over to the Alpine Golf Club to play a 9 hole round before it got too hot. Well it was already hot when we got there And the humidity was high due to the rain that had fallen the previous 2 days. It was fun even though I got a sunburn....I thought it was too early to get burned Luckily it isn't too bad. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/Alpine/blog-425731.html Today we put our golf clubs in the Jeep and headed out of Alpine to drive the 108 miles 160 km down to the Big Bend National Park. It is a beautiful mountainous park in the panhandle of west Texas. It also runs along the Rio Grande River and that river divides Mexico and the US in that area. The drive out was uneventful but the closer we got to the park the more spectaular the landscape becam http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/Big-Bend/blog-425450.html Today was a very relaxing and fun day in Alpine. I need to tell you the saga of our hotel room. Last Thursday we were called by my father to tell us that the hotel we had reservations at was sold and would be closing on Monday we arrived Sunday night. So we called my brother and asked him to find us another place to stay. Now I had made our reservations back in January and I knew then that the http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/Alpine/blog-425301.html We had a long and rather boring drive scenerywise today. The land was mostly flat desert though between Alamogordo and Artesia NM we drove through the Linclon National Forest. This was very funny because as you are driving into the mountains and you see the nation forest sign all you are really seeing is sage and pinon trees and a whole lot of scrub brush. But once you get into it it really http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/blog-425012.html Well we sadly left Durango and started once again on our journey south to Texas. It was a beautiful sunny day and we saw the temperatures climb from 15C in Durango at 9 am to 36C in Socorro at 6 pm The drive was uneventful though we did see some astounding things. We had some extra time to stop today so when we saw the turnoff for Chaco Canyon we just had to go there. It is a canyon that had a http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-Mexico/Soccoro/blog-424526.html We started our day with a round of 18 holes of golf. It was a bit cold when we started at 8 am but by the time we finished at 1230 pm it was hot and we got a bit sunburned The golf was fun if not exactly professional quality in fact FAR from it but we had a blast After golf we went to a lovely caf and had a nice lunch and then Ken and Frank went to JC Penney to buy some pillowcases for the http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Colorado/Durango/blog-424377.html We got a pretty early start to head back east through Zion through the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona and on into Colorado. After a lovely breakfast of Southwest Eggs Benedict we set out. The scenery was mostly uninspiring and flat but the roads were good and not very much traffic. We ran into a huge thunderstorm in Arizona and drove right through the middle of it. By the time we reached t http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Colorado/Durango/blog-424243.html Sorry it has taken me 2 days to get this in but after all we did on Wednesday I was way too tired to blog that night We got up and had a fantastic breakfast at the BB stuffed French toast...incredible After breakfast at 930 we headed east through the national park to go to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. My dog Dez and I love to watch Dogtown it is filmed at Best Friends on the National http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Utah/Zion-National-Park/blog-424028.html This morning we left Buhl ID around 830 am and just hit the interstates I84 and I15 to get to Zion Canyon National Park. We drove through Ogden Salt Lake City Provo and many other places as we made our way south through Utah. It took us about 9.5 hours in tital and that included a stop in Ogden at a Costco to pick up a few supplies for meals so we don't have to stop and eat lunch at restaura http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Utah/Zion-National-Park/blog-423308.html After a kind of passed out sleep last night it was great to have a relaxing day in this beautiful canyon of the Snake River. My aunt Peggy and uncle Phil's place is on the south side of the canyon half way up the slope and has an amazing view of the river and east and west along the canyon. For those of you who are not familiar with the Snake River Canyon this is the canyon Evel Knievel unsucce http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Idaho/blog-422877.html I am writing this blog entry from my aunt and uncle's house in Buhl ID and so I don't have access to my own computer and they anf Ken are all upstairs having a drink or two or... so I have to be quick Today started with our breakfast in the restaurant of the hotel and then a 2 hour drive west to Craters of the Moon National Monument. What an amazing place. It looks so desolate and eerie as it http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Idaho/Craters-Of-The-Moon-National-Monument/blog-422475.html Today's drive was long and uneventful. We left Lethbridge at about 9 am and got into Idaho Fall ID at about 7 pm. The drive was uneventful though we passed through some bad weather in southern Montana....from Butte to the Idaho boundary line. The temperature got up to 30C 86F and when we went into the storm the temperature dropped to 12C about 54F in the space of about 10 miles The scenery http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Idaho/Idaho-Falls/blog-422184.html We got on the road from Calgary on time today.....a first for us The drive down to L.A. was about 1.5 hours and it was sunny and clear and a beautiful day. We arrived in L.A. around 5 pm and had a tee time for 630 pm. Ok ok...it was Lethbridge Alberta and the club was a small 9 hole course on an irrigation reservoir on the prairie of southern Alberta. The clubhouse screwed up and our tee time http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Alberta/Lethbridge/blog-421906.html I am getting excited about our trip coming up next Friday. I am a travel nut and I haven't been anywhere in over a year so it's about time We decided we'd leave Frisay night July 24 and spend the first night in Lethbridge with Paul our second son and his GF Brenda which will take a good 2 hours off our first day's drive down to Idaho Falls. Hope the border crossing is okay....they tend to li http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Alberta/Calgary/blog-417537.html