Kicks on Route 66

R O A D   T R I P  :-)

Before summer came to a screeching halt, my mom was in NEED of a road trip :-)

Mostly to go check out the assisted care facility that her dear Aunt Norma

had recently moved into, in her hometown of Albuquerque.

(We should ALL be so awesome as Aunt Norma, to do this before she really had to)

So, she invited anyone who could, to come along (and drive!)

Porter, Abbie & I took her up on the offer.

We are glad we did!! 

FIRST STOP:

Meteor Crater -- near Flagstaff, Arizona

Neither of the kids wanted to get out of the car,
and interestingly, Porter, who I knew would LOVE seeing this, was pretty crabby about it.
Granted, it does just look like a brick building in the middle of nowhere from the little parking lot.
 (They caught on soon enough that that's what you DO on road trips; stop & see stuff along the way :-)

But, he quickly changed his tune the minute we passed thru the gates 

& the huge crater came into view.  

He even told me the that I "had the right to tell him 'I-told-you-so'" as many times as I'd like! 

I took advantage of that a bit :-)

Here we are touching (woo hoo!) the largest fragment of the meteorite that has been discovered.

It weighs about 1500 pounds & is composed of iron & nickel. 

(Porter was excited to buy a tiny piece to bring home)

Incidentally, we were 'posed' in the above pic by our tour guide 

who definitely resembled Rick Moranis

 & also definitely loved his job and this Crater :-)

He made 20 minutes of info and stories about rocks surprisingly interesting

*NASA used the crater as a training site for astronauts cuz the meteor hit so hard it perfectly reversed the layers of rock, putting the oldest layers from the bottom on top & vice versa. 

*There's a piece the small plane (purposely) still on the crater floor that crashed when a flight instructor and his student attempted to fly down into the crater (illegally & unsuccessfully)

*Daniel Barringer was the first to suggest that the crater was formed from a meteor strike (not volcanic activity) & spent the last 3 decades of his life mining under the crater looking for a huge iron meteorite, but it was later proven that the meteorite had mostly vaporized upon impact.  Incidentally, his family still owns the crater, even after trying to give it to the government, who didn't want it cuz they already had the Grand Cyn! 

NEXT STOP:  

Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona
(our accommodations for the evening)

I was a bit apprehensive when making the reservation, 

but my mom said to 'go for it - it'll be an adventure'  

Turned out to be clean - so it was the good kind of adventure :-)

The lady who checked us in turned out to be 

the daughter of the man who built the wigwams in 1950.   

She and two of her brothers restored them and reopened the motel
a couple years after their father's death in 1986.
 She told us her father (Chester Lewis) had been orphaned at age 12, and he and his brothers ran away in order to stay out of foster care, but found each other again later in life.  Her dad saw the first Wigwam village in Kentucky & decided it would be a good idea to build one near indian territory.  He paid for the plans by installing coin-operated radios in each wigwam, and then sending the dimes inserted for play as payment.  Since we discovered that we share the same religious faith, she also told us that her  father was the first person from Holbrook to serve a mission - and guess where he went?  Kentucky!   Meeting Mrs. Lewis & hearing her stories about her father and the history of the Wigwams that made our stay even more fun.

Porter used his McDonalds straw to pose with the Kokopelli on our Wigwam bedspread.

If you look closely, even his hair is in character :-)

I didn't really take any good pix of the inside our our tiny Wigwam room, but like I said, it was CLEAN, which made me happy, the the beds were comfortable, and the a/c worked!  To the left of Abbie is a door to the little bathroom.  It had the usual amenities, but was funny because since one side was a slanted outside wall, the mirror on the wall above the sink was angled down, kinda like a funhouse mirror, and the shower basically came to a point at the top, because two of it's sides were outside walls!

There were lots of vintage cars parked around the 'village' 

adding to the Route 66 nostalgia

NEXT STOP:

Painted Desert -- Petrified Forest Nat'l Park

Beautiful red, gray & purple  layers in the Painted Desert

Grandma communicates with the animals, in case you weren't aware.

"Newspaper Rock" covered with ancient Indian petroglyphs 

Me and my mom :-)

Next we cruised on to
Albuquerque, New Mexico
to see Aunt Norma in her new digs at "Monzano de Sol"

Taking a walk around the gardens right outside her door,
Aunt Norma introduced us to the resident (huge) bullfrog in the koi pond.
He was very social & I'm sure he is generously fed by residents (and their grandchildren!)

There are flower gardens and vegi gardens scattered around the grounds, 

and any resident with a green thumb is welcome to grow some produce.

Looking for the two tortoises on the grounds . . .

. . .  and Porter found one resting behind the shed

Aunt Norma 'takes her walker for walks' regularly and is loving her new home.  It reminded me of a cruise ship :-) & she treats it as such with the most fabulous, positive attitude.  She is happy not to have to bother her daughter, Barb, who lives nearby, for quick trips to the doctor to have her blood drawn; she can just zip down the hallway to the nurses office.  Her exercise classes are on site, and she just schedules the driver to take her to church or wherever else she wants!

And, what 94-yr-old do you know who is willing to make the switch from her beloved typewriter to a computer?  (she decided it was time when should couldn't get replacement ink ribbons anymore!)  Aunt Norma is currently working on writing her family's history.  She says she's not close to 'going' yet, because she's only up to Doug's birth (& he's the 3rd of her 4 kids)!

 Here's the 'track' with distances noted by Porter.
But Aunt Norma prefers to walk around the garden and pond.

We were treated to an awesome lightening storm one night in Albuquerque.
The kids & I left Grandma to do some more visiting while we drove over to our old neighborhood so we could watch the lightning strike all over the Rio Grande valley.  At one point an old truck pulled up behind us & out jumped a young guy with long hair & a beaded leather vest with no shirt.
I saw him in my rearview mirror  and wasn't sure what he had in mind, so I rolled up my window a bit.
He asked if we needed any help & when we told him we were just watching the lightning, he said,
"Right On, dudes!  You kids have fun!" and took off.
Right back to the '70s.

Of course, we got no pix of the lightning (we're not that kind of photographers :-)
but here's a few sights we enjoyed on our evening of exploration on this blustery evening...

lots of these

Porter & Abbie pose while we took care of some souvenir shopping in Old Town.

Our most exciting souvenir was a 30-lb bag of yummy New Mexico Green Chilies.  

(More on that later in this post.)

Next Stop:

Grand Canyon National Park

South Rim

We arrived in the evening, just before dusk.

Our first glimpse of the Grand Canyon - wow, is it ever magnificent!

We pulled over to take a few pictures.

Porter asked if I'd take one of him in front of the canyon.  He then took off running.

I waited with the camera - ready to take the pic, but he just kept running.

I didn't realize he wanted to be standing RIGHT on the edge, 

and he was kinda ticked when I told him "far enough" since it was probably a mile away.

Not to mention that my knees were getting weak thinking about him bolting over the edge . . .

Porter was in need of some serious running, jumping and climbing after the 6-hour drive from Albuquerque.  When we were safely far away from the rim, and out of view of any other tourists, I had to let him quickly scamper up a wall.  Some of his energy just had to be released, 

or we might have had to make him ride the rest of the way in the trunk.

The next morning we did a little more exploring.

True to form, Porter wanted to be as close to the edge as possible.  

It seriously made my knees weak.

And if you're noticing the haze (above) --

We were told it was smog, compliments of Los Angeles, stuck in the canyon.

Luckily it seemed to dissipate later in the day,

so we were able to see the beautiful layers of color in the canyon walls.

Abbie checking to see if the Ponderosa Pine bark actually smells like vanilla like the ranger told us.

(yep, it does!) 

Porter being sworn in as an official Jr. Ranger

after completing the ranger program & promising to preserve and protect our National Parks.

 Abbie has always loved the southwestern style, 

which makes sense since she was born in New Mexico, afterall!  

Doesn't she look cute with this door?

 Such a cozy lodge & fireplace on the South Rim

 My mom & I found a tiny piece of shade where we could study our maps

while waiting for our tram.

Porter wasn't too embarrassed to join us.  

Abbie opted to take a picture of what the tram driver would see when he arrived.

Grandma & Porter listening to a Park Ranger 

and learning about the Condors we spotted flying above the canyon.  

It was finally time for the last leg of our road trip along Route 66

 If we hadn't just eaten, I think we'd have had to try this place out!

It was fun to see the trains.  They reminded me of when I was about 5 and my mom and dad were homeparents at a boys ranch out in San Bernardino. We regularly crossed the train tracks to get into town.  I would watch for 'hobos' on empty containers, and they kinda scared me.  I also remember my mom going a wee bit too fast over the tracks in our VW van, and once I bounced out of my booster seat (no seatbelt - yeah, I'm that old) into the lap of the boy next to me.

Porter & Abbie are really only familiar with Amtrak commuter trains that run along the beaches near our home, so it was fun to see so many freight trains along the road & count the engines it took to pull these long, long trains.

 We carefully transported our bag of green chilies - hauling them up to each hotel room 

to be air conditioned during the night, before they had to return to the trunk.

(I wonder what the maids who came in the clean our rooms thought of the strange green chili smell?!?)

 We were kinda nervous about getting the across the AZ/CA state line, 

since they usually ask if you have any fresh fruits or vegi's.  

I'm not a good liar.

And the smell coming from the trunk probably wafted out the window
when I rolled it down at the checkpoint.

But they only asked where we were coming from -- so I told the truth -- New Mexico!!  

And he waved us thru.  

We all heaved a sigh of relief.  We really didn't want to leave them behind.

And, yes, I did check on having them shipped.  But when I was told it would be $97 to ship my $12 bag of chili's home, I opted to take the risk of transporting them myself.

It took Porter, Abbie & I TWO days to roast, steam, scrape & seed them all!

We froze them in muffin tins, and they ALL fit in TWO ziplock gallon bags.

(Kinda anticlimactic.)  

But they are delicious & Dave is happy with his souvenir, so it was worth it :-)

P.S. So I remember my Great Aunt Norma wearing latex gloves then she did this process, and I was really planning on doing that too, but after I did a few without gloves, I figured I didn't need them.

Oops.

The burn set in on the second day.  Ughh.

It wasn't really too bad, but I did end up having to soak my fingers

 in tomato sauce a bit by the time I was done :-)

Live and learn.  

Aunt Norma knew what she was doing.

Fun Trip!  

Lots of good memories,

 and it was nice to get to visit with my mom while I drove 

and Porter & Abbie read & played on their iTouches!