Day 10 - A GRAND day, indeed!

Sunrise on the Grand Canyon...absolutely breathtaking...


Amber looking down on the canyon at sunset...



It is difficult to find adequate words to describe the beauty of the Grand Canyon, in fact the photo above probably says it best. We'll post more about our Grand Canyon adventure later, for now, enjoy the photos....

Here's the web address again:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/AlbumMenu.jsp?UAUTOLOGIN_ID=685332115109&view=1&page=&sort_order=&albumsperpage=

(type Amber's email: afriendofdiscernment@hotmail.com, then the password "roadtrippin" to view more pics)

Get Your Kicks on Route 66!!

Day 9 took us from L.A. on historic Route 66 through the Mojave Desert to Arizona....The highlight had to be the stretch of old, OLD Route 66 that picks back up somewheres North of Needles, California to Kingman, Arizona. Amber warns that one must load up on Dramamine before hopping on this portion of road. It was last paved in the early 50's and has more curves than a room full of snakes! Along this stretch we came upon Oatman... apparently the TRUE "Jackass Junction" (apologies to New Mexico Jackass Junction). We also came across a working Gold Mine and an abandoned one that was tempting Jud to explore.


The locals in Oatman are friendly....VERY friendly!!!

Copy and paste the link below to your web browser to view photos from day 9. Type in Amber email: afriendofdiscernment@hotmail.com, then the password "roadtrippin" to check out the pics....

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UAUTOLOGIN_ID=685332115109&collid=685332115109.595645025109.1174235710831&page=1&sort_order=0&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Day 7 & 8 - Hello to Hollywood!

Jud, Amber & Jeremy at the Hollywood sign....

So, we hadn't planned on going any further west than the Grand Canyon, but Amber received a text message from her friend, Jeremy in L.A. (he had been following our blog), with an invitation to come to sunny California (actually it was kinda smoggy :-) )....we couldn't resist! So we got to spend a couple days catching up with our friend and seeing the sites in L.A. Day 7 we spent at the Reagan Presidential Library - it was wonderful! If you've never been, you should check it out... it is located outside of L.A. in beautiful Simi Valley, California. The view is spectacular and the museum itself is quite amazing too.

Day 8 we visited the Getty Museum in L.A., then headed to Santa Barbara to catch a boat and go whale watching. The boat took us along the coast of Santa Barbara as we followed the migration of the gray whales. We got to see 3 whales, probably would have seen more, but visibility was low out on the water. It was Amber's first time on a boat out in the ocean, so that was a real treat. I think we enjoyed seeing the sea lions the best - they are really cute little guys.

Here's a link to more photos from days 7 & 8. Copy and paste the address into your web browser, enter Amber's email: afriendofdiscernment@hotmail.com, then the password "roadtrippin" - to check out the photos....

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UAUTOLOGIN_ID=685332115109&collid=685332115109.953605025109.1174235710832&page=1&sort_order=0&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Link to photos from days 5 & 6

Today we made our way to Arizona - one of the big highlights was Saguaro National Park...click the link below to view more photos of the Sonoran desert...

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=685332115109.234752115109.1173977920045&page=1&sort_order=0&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0
(We aren't able to get this up and running as an active link, but you can copy and paste into your browser window to view the pictures....enter Amber's email address: afriendofdiscernment@hotmail.com, and the password is "roadtrippin")

Update....

Since last we visited, either blogspot.com or our ourselves have forgotten how to load images. Our plan is to revisit (in photographs) days 5 & 6, and however many days this problem occurs, at the end of the trip.

On day 5 we wound our way across the Southwest from Deming, NM through Silver City (which was a let down), into the Border town of Douglas, Arizona, the copper mining town of Bisbee, then Tombstone... which is basically a gift shop.... with really bad actors running all over the place calling each other out for gun fights. Each and every "historic" building now sells stuff like, shot glasses, salt water taffy, magnets, hot pink feather boa's ???, and t-shirts that defy any measure of tastefulness. We spent the night at Warren and Tricia Hatcher's on the western side of Tucson after seeing the eastern portion of Saguaro National Park at sunset. What or where is Saguaro you might ask? Saguaro is probably the most stereotypical image of a cactus that will come to your mind when you think of the Southwest. They can grow up to 60 ft tall and commonly live to be over 150 yrs old. They sprout "arms" or branches at around the age of 85. They are exclusively found in a rather narrow band that runs across Arizona's portion of the Sonoran Desert. At dusk we caught some great views of the vast airplane graveyard on the eastern outskirts of Tucson as we headed in to visit the Hatchers. The Hatchers were very gracious to open their beautiful home to us for the night. They are both native Mississippians and thier oldest daughter Melanie is married to my cousin Eric Randle. We really enjoyed our visit.

Alright, this is where our plans changed. Day 6 was to have us heading north towards the Grand Canyon. A text message from an old friend of Ambers from about day 2 has lured us out to visit Los Angeles for two days then looping back to the Grand Canyon. We couldn't leave Tucson without a visit to the western portion of Saguaro National Park and the Desert Museum. We were totally not expecting what happened on our way up to the park yesterday morning... a mountain lion ran across the road in front of our car!!! I talked to a guy later that morning who had live there his whole life without seeing one! This was just the start of what would be an amazing day. First, Saguaro National Park is a MUST see, both the East and West portions. Then the Desert Museum... I would have to rate this up there with places like the Smithsonian, The Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, The Getty (Which we are visiting tommorrow), The Biltmore in Asheville, NC and the Bill Cody Museum of Western Heritage in Cody, Wyoming. The Desert Museum is 90% outdoors taking advantage of a generous strip of land adjacent to Saguaro West. Equal parts Botanical Garden and Zoological park totally concentrated on Sonoran Desert life. This place is AWESOME!

Well, I am typing this from a house our friend Jeremy Daniel shares with a room-mate in or very near to Hollywood. We made it in last night easily. No nightmare traffic... in fact I only had to hit the brakes on the off ramp. The staggering part of L.A. (this is my 3rd visit, Amber's 2nd) isn't so much in a sprawling skyline but the vast area Greater Los Angeles covers... @ 90 miles North to South and just about the same East to West.

Thank GOD I'm a country boy!

Hopefully today we will see the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Santa Barbara. Tommorow "The Getty" is on tap.

More later.

more Day 4

We had a great visit yesterday with our friend Joni Autrey and her family in Riudoso. We went to First Baptist Church with her family yesterday morning - it was a great service...very encouraging! It is so awesome to know our dear friend is in such a Holy Spirit filled church! At the end of the service one of the members stood up and gave this word from 1 John:

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure." - 1 John 3:1-3


The view from Joni's Kitchen.


Us with Joni (Sierra Blanca Peak in the distance)


roadside view between Tularosa and Alamagordo


They must like these birds in the southwest (Alamagordo)


There is truth in Alamagordo!



Our faithful mule.



To describe how vast the White Sands are, you could fit the states of Rhode Island and Delaware within them.


It is in the southwest, particularly White Sands, that we discovered Amber's Native American name....... "Half Moon"




Yes, Amber is happy.




roadside view between Alamagordo and Las Cruces.



Sangre de Christo Mountains (Las Cruces is on the other side)


looking back at the Sangre de Christos from the Las Cruces side.


Joni's parents told us about this restaurant in Las Cruces, La Posta, and it was awesome! The building itself is over 200 years old and is known to have been Billy the Kid, Kit Carson and Pancho Villa's old stomping ground...check it out next time you're in Las Cruces! The enchildadas and salsa are fabulous!


Obligatory Pirahna from La Posta..... this is would be why we didn't order fish.

Day 4

We are in Ruidoso visiting our dear friend Joni Autrey and her family. Ruidosa is incredibly beautiful and Joni's house is amazing with a stunning wrap around view. We peaked out our window before sun rise and the view sent me scrambling for the camera.... forgive the blurry quality... we like to think of it as "atomosphere"


Notice Joni's almost appropriate streetname, these are mule deer.



more pictures later.... we are headed for White Sands National Monument then Las Cruces.

But Wait... there's more...

Visiting a place like Carlsbad Caverns can be quite a heady experience. The whole hike down I was shaking like a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Not because I was cold or afraid of the dark.... no, I was in such awe of this place. The time of reflection and pause would soon come to an end. Our innocence would be shattered ....forever.

For those of you who have been to the caverns.... since the cafeteria in "The Big Room" was remodeled in 1968... you might know how odd the situation is. The decor is "Fred Flintstone meets Battlestar Gallactica," apparently the choices of food used to be much greater... now they feed their captive audience strange little cold sandwiches.....nasty. Then you are seated in a room of the cave with other tourists just as bewildered by the whole experience as you are.

Our story picks up here. We are forcing down these makeshift meals with a wide assortment of people...mostly young families and bikers, save for the table of little old ladies just behind and to the right of Amber. The relative silence of the moment (mind you, the Rangers warn you to talk in a low voice inside the cave) is suddenly broken by a...well...extremely loud belch. For a moment, I thought it must have been one of the bikers...then my eyes caught one of the little old ladies who had a startled look on her face (see exibit A below). This was followed by spontaneous laughter from her two friends...and Amber..............and me.

Exibit A (we caught up to the perpetrator a bit later on the tour...she's the one in sea-foam green)

Hey.... There's a NEW Mexico?

This is the beginning of our day in Van Horn, Texas looking North


wait... not until Amber gets her bean. Here we have Amber outside the Blue Quail Coffee Shop with gracious owner Paul Blankenburg. Amber was very pleased with her coffee. Stop in and visit Paul the next time you are in Van Horn!


We spotted one of the locals (a javalina), Jud tried but failed to run this little guy down!


First look at the Guadalupe Mountains...Texas Hwy 54




Closer look at the mountains of Guadalupe National Park...you are looking at El Capitan.


Obligatory....yes...




Overlook from the Welcome Center at Carlsbad Caverns N.P. From the elevation this photo was taken at, you drop down into the cave to nearly the level of the plains below...




This is the beginning of a steep, hour and an a half hike down to the bottom of the cave, also known as "The Big Room"


Going down....


looking back...


"Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings." - Psalm 36:5-7

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get many photos while in the cave...even with the flash, it was just too dark - even so, photos could never do it justice. You'll have to see it for yourself. We were blown away!!

They called this rock formation (above) "Lion's Tail"




Cool neon in Carlsbad....


and "Land of the Sun" in Artesia, NM....


driving into Ruidoso... notice the snow on the peak in the background.