What A Week!

The Grand Canyon, Sedona, Montezuma Castle, Montezuma Well, V-V Petrographs

After driving from Las Vegas through high winds, and having to change the fuel filter on the motorhome, we had a great time at the Grand Canyon. We rode the train from Williams, AZ, stayed 3 hours on the rim, then rode the train back to Williams. On the way up we saw a pronged horn antelope ("oh give me a home where the antelope roam...") and condors flying over the Canyon. It was a beautiful day. From Williams, we drove to Cottonwood, AZ which is south of Sedona. What a great community! The red rocks are beautiful, Oak Creek canyon diverse and the town full of lots of art. Tlaquepaque is a small shopping area with great restaurants, shops and galleries. It's named and built after a community outside of Guadalajara, Mexico and since I lived there in the 80's, it was a little walk down memory lane. The food here in Sedona was fabulous!

Montezuma Castle & Well are great reminders of past inhabitants of the area. To build a home in the caves took a lot of effort and to see them still preserved is amazing. The well is a hot spring and a beautiful oasis in the desert. The  petrographs were amazing and some believe they are a calendar with shadows falling on important days during the year.

We've gone from low 30's at night in Williams to highs in the 80's here in Cottonwood. We still need to go see Jerome, Tuzigoot Ruins and Prescott before we leave on Thursday. We're looking forward to seeing friends in Morro Bay and we look forward to seeing you on the blog. Ken is getting into retirement mode more each day and finally relaxing and sleeping. What a nice change. We are meeting lots of great people everywhere we go and learning from others the ins and outs of RV life. We taught another couple how to play Mexican Train - you can't be an RVer without knowing how to play and that was a fun evening.

Saying Good-bye

We're finally on the road and we're loving it, but it was hard to leave. We said good-bye at church, said good-bye to our shepherd group (small group from church), said good-bye to more friends and then said good-bye to the boys. As Christians, good-bye is never permanent because of our hope of heaven, but it's still hard. We are so glad for cell phones and e-mail because that keeps us in touch quickly, but we are already feeling the distance.

We have done a lot here in Las Vegas - Hoover Dam, the fountain in front of the Bellagio on the strip, Cirque du Soleil's "O" and the Fremont Experience (the neon canopy over Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas). We'll hook up the car (60 ft. of blue) and head over to Williams, AZ tomorrow. See you again soon.

Retirement

Ken is officially retired! He said it hasn't hit him yet, but I can already tell that he is relaxing and getting into a different mindset. We are doing some last minute chores before we take off and start traveling! For the month of May we play to go to Las Vegas to see Cirque de Soleil, then head to Williams, AZ to ride the train to the Grand Canyon, on to Sedona to explore that wonderful town and surrounding points of interest, then back to California to meet friends in Morro Bay for our anniversary. Keep in touch and we'll post pictures as we go.