Troy was thrilled to be here. And here’s how I know. For the first time in two weeks of travel, he was the first one out of bed. (Well, air mattress, in this case, but still.) In fact, he was so eager to find a surfboard and hit the waves that he was up and [...]
We drove down out of Arizona’s Black Mountains and into California. Hooray! Even though the scenery hadn’t changed much as we drove past the Mojave National Preserve and through Eastern California, we knew we were almost there. Something else had changed, too. For the first time in more than a week, we found ourselves in [...]
With the Pacific Ocean calling to us from just over 400 miles away, we were tempted to hop on I-40, and make some time. Luckily, the owners of the Rusty Bolt, a biker/souvenir shop in Seligman convinced us to take the scenic route through Kingman and Oatman. It added an hour or so to our [...]
The residents of Seligman, AZ, and other tiny towns that dot the map along Route 66 are a lot like the residents of Radiator Springs in Disney’s movie, Cars. They are dedicated to renovating and revising old tourist stops in hopes that if they build it we come. These are places where ghosts of prosperity walk the streets in poignant anticipation of whatever comes next.
Initially, I had dreamed about a mule trip into the Grand Canyon, Brady-Bunch style, but with 2 coasts to see and just 31 days to do, Bobby and Cindy getting lost would certainly put a kink in our itinerary. We had places to be, darn it!
The sun was just starting to rise, but the rest of the Cawley clan was fast asleep. So I sneaked out into the quiet morning for a few moments alone, and I snapped some pictures. There was a peaceful calm, that took my breath away. And nothing was moving…except me and the sun and a [...]
So do temperatures over 110 degrees (yes, even with no humidity). So by the time we had crossed the awesome loneliness of the local landscape into Monument Valley, we were greatly diminished as a group. So much so, that we feared Goulding’s Lodge, which sat as an oasis in endless miles of red sand and [...]
We were ready for a four-hour ride when we packed our stinky clothes and our stinkier selves into the minivan and bid good-bye to the cool yurt (and the cool temperatures) in Mancos State Park. We were headed west…toward Monument Valley, Utah, with a planned pitstop for a photo op at Four Corners Monument–the one [...]
Mancos State Park campground with its 30-some campsites, cool mountain air and comfortable, well-equipped yurts (including futon beds, a fridge and a microwave) lacked only one luxury amenity—a shower. Not to worry, though, we fancied the lack of bathing to be part of the true pioneer experience, complete with the echoes of howling coyotes at [...]
We hope you live a hundred years. We hope you see a hundred steers. Happy Birthday, dear Emmett! Happy Birthday to you! Ya know what Emmett got for his 13th Birthday? A nine-hour car ride. Yippee!!!! The day would have started out a bit better if the folks at Elkins Ranch, in Palo Duro Canyon [...]