Blogs from Flagstaff, Arizona, United States, North America - page 6

Today we headed out west along route 66 and our first stop was Petroglyph National Monument. The native indians carved images of animals and other objects on the rocks as far back as 700 years ago. There were several trails to take to see all of them but we took the short tour (about 5 minutes). We took a few pictures and then continued on to Flagstaff. Along the way we saw a large group of motorcycles with police escort that blocked traffic for them. This group was headed to Washington DC for the Ride to The Wall. As we headed out it got very windy with gusts up to 50 mph along with blowing dust. It was very difficult to maintain a straight line but we managed to do it. The wind lasted all the ... read more

While we were in Guanajuanto Mexico, we met Jeremy a writer for the Overland Journal. He sparked our interest in the Overland Expo and we just knew that we had to attend. The timing worked out perfectly for our trip to the Indianapolis 500, so we registered for the event and selected our classes. We attended 3 days of classes and seminars. There were round-table discussions on travel to Australia, South and Central America, seminars on planning, preparation, vehicle shipping, personnal safety and survival tips for couples. There were obsticle courses for vehicles and motorcycles and vendors with everything you need to travel the world. We really enjoyed the classes. The instructors were truly inspirational. There were people in attendance from all over the world, plus all of the presenters had so many wonderful adventures to ... read more

When I arrived in Flagstaff from Phoenix, I went straight to the Lowell Observatory on Mars Hill, right above the town. It was founded in the 19thcentury by Perceval Lowell, an astronomer, because there was not hardly any pollution by light in the area, and it was at a high altitude. A number of important research projects have been going on at the observatory during the last century. When the observatory was founded, Percival Lowell did research on canyon on Mars. The background of this research was the idea that if there was water, there could also be life on the Red Planet. Later on, researchers at the observatory started looking for the ninth planet because the movements of Uranus pointed to the fact that there was another planet beyond Neptune. When they eventually found it, ... read more

Today was another really long day in the driver’s seat, hundreds and hundreds of miles. It starkly illustrated why some people hate convertibles, as the temperature started cool, got too hot, and then got close to my cold limit. I put up with this because the views are well worth the lack of comfort. I started driving out of Holbrook heading southeast. This road crosses flat empty desert. It’s one of those drives where measuring progress is nearly impossible because the scenery never changes. Locals react as one should expect, by driving as fast as their skills allow (and sometimes faster). Prepare to either join them or pull over on occasion. Petrified Forest National Park The scenery abruptly changes when a sign for Petrified Forest National Park appears. The side road immediately passes be... read more

We checked out the Luxor this morning and collected our new hire car. We had booked a Mustang Convertible but as we’d already had one of these, we decided to upgrade to a Camero as Simon has been wanting to drive one since he got to the US. It’s very nice, very nippy although I think I prefer the Mustang overall. Today was mainly a driving day to get to Flagstaff, our base for exploring the Grand Canyon. We stopped off at the Hoover Dam on our way. They have built a new bridge over the river since I visited 8 years ago. We danced about over the state line for a few minutes before continuing on. Arizona is in Mountain time, compared to California and Nevada which are in Pacific time. Evidently, Mountain time doesn’t ... read more