Will The Dream Become Reality?

DAY 11... This morning we attended St. Thomas Aquinas Church  .  Dad even came along!  We haven’t attended the Catholic Church in quite some time.  The church is HUGE.  I think we could fit every church in Ontonagon County inside this campus!  The art on the walls seemed to be modern characitures of the Bible stories.  Parts of the service are spoken in Latin.  I am not sure what the benefit of speaking in Latin when most, if not all, those in the congregation do not understand what is being said??   I do still find the rituals comforting in some way. Then we visited a couple of open houses in the area.  Again I am amazed at the difference in prices of the homes.  When we saw this house this morning it was $295,000. Tonight, it has dropped $15,000.   https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/13734-W-Cambridge-Ave_Goodyear_AZ_85395_M22102-70094 . It needs quite a bit of work, even though you cannot see that in most o...

Another blue sky sunny day! Today, Rhonda drove Rick, Dad and I to the Verde Canyon Railroad   for the canyon tour.  The ride to Clarkdale was about two hours.  We packed a picnic lunch, arrived early and enjoyed our meal.  We toured the museum and gift shop while waiting to board the Cottonwood car. The car was very comfortable, the views incredible and they served a buffet to tasty finger foods.  Dad stayed awake for the whole ride!  We met a man from Minnesota and Rick spent time with a fellow photographer, Robert from Australia.  The train tour was four hours.  Then a two hour ride home.  And everyone is ready to call it a day...

Last night we walked around the neighborhood.  Some of today’s pics will be of that foliage.  It is just beautiful and so different from what we are accustomed. Today we visited a cactus farm.  I never knew that there were so many varieties of cacti!  We even found some in bloom! Then on to Portillio’s  for their famous beef sandwiches and Chicago hot dogs.  The food was delicious as always!  Rick and Dad went back to the house and Rhonda and I had some girl time shopping!  We found a Sketchers store and spent some time wandering the aisles of Barnes and Noble.  I love where we live, but I do miss the book stores! Tomorrow, we have a new adventure planned!

This morning, we could really take in the beauty of the Rest Area.  The sun was rising, skies were blue and the breeze was cool.  Perfect! We drove the last 1.5 hours to Rhonda’s.   Dad was happy to see us.  Their new home is beautiful and we are looking forward to the time we are able to spend with the family!  The pics today are from the Rimrock  Rest Area.  A beautiful view from where we were parked!  I love the cacti and palms!  We appreciate the service of our Military and it is wonderful to see that Arizona does too. Love you Donna and Kylanna:)  Yep, that is our van in the background!

Day 6 Continued... We ended up spending the night in a hotel in Winslow, Arizona.  It turns out the power steering pump when out on the van and the parts had to be ordered. Day 7...The beginning of Day 7 will be waiting for the van to be repaired.  We are currently at O’Haco’s waiting for the van to be fixed.  There is a Walmart across the street and a Dollar General next door.  So, we spent a couple of hours walking around and shopping.  Now just waiting.... The saga continues... About 3:00 pm we left the auto repair shop.  We drove about a mile and notice there was still some noise that didn’t sound “right”.  We turned around and went back.  Turns out we needed back brakes!  The staff at O’Haco Tire and Auto Repair was extremely helpful.  They got the parts, stayed late and got us back out on the road about 5:30pm.  While they were working on the van, we walked back across the street to Captain Tony’s Pizza Buffet and ha...

The day began at a cool 25 degrees in Gallup, New Mexico.  Second night sleeping in the van a success.  Our plan for today was the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park.  By the time we arrived, the temps were rising near 70, the sun was shining and the skies were blue.  It seems that there is always a breeze, sometimes more than a breeze in New Mexico and Arizona.  We are absolutely loving our trip!  And we are so glad we decided to make the leap! The desert holds its own beauty.  The vast variety of color, ornamental grasses and the unique rock formations just seem to draw you in.  You have to wonder how they occurred?  Sometimes there is just a lone hill.  Sometimes everything around is deteriorated but a huge bolder remains.  And the petrified wood is facinating!  How does that happen? And we did do the touristy thing and bought a piece to bring home.  The building in the photo has been standing...

Another fun day!  We hit the road at 9:00 am Central Time and it was overcast and 42 degrees.  But the farther west we traveled, the bluer the skies became!  The landscape is beautiful!  I loved the variety of ornamental grasses that dotted the sides of the road and the hillsides.  And the rock formations change colors from sandy to burnt orange to jet black. Our first stop was Albuquerque, to visit with some of our previous neighbors in Silver City, Joy and Don!  Don prepared a wonderful Finnish/Jewish/American/Soutwestern lunch for us.  We got to catch up and tour their adorable new abode.  They have family visiting and were expecting more company to come in - more friends from Ontonagon!  We will look forward to seeing them again in our neck of the woods over the summer. From there, we followed the winding roads up into the Cibola National Forest and road the Sandia Peak Tramway! A fun tour! Then on to...we didn’t know how far w...

Let me begin by apologizing for the layout of the Blog.  Apparently, my iPad and Blogger don’t get along too well.  Lessons learned... After a really nice visit with Bob in Kansas, we hit the road at about 10:00 am Central time.  We had a general direction, but no real plan. We looked at the map and chose a route that would keep us off the big interstate highways.  Then we looked at what there was in the area we would be traveling through.  We found a spot called The Big Well   in Greensburg, Kansas.  It is touted as being the largest hand dug well in the world!  So, we had to add that to our plan for the day.  What an amazing little town.  It has been ravaged by the worst tornado in history!  But the town has rebuilt and prides itself on being “Green”.  Fitting since the name is Greensburg!.  We walked all the way down into the well and made a wish with the penny provided🙂 They even have bicycles you can borrow ...