Petrified Forest

It's hard to explain.  We've packed up the rig and secured everything, checked the lights and are ready to go, but something is amiss.  I'm behind the wheel and Tami is in the navigators seat (because she likes to tell me where to go) but there's no map in her lap.   Instead she's punching an address into our newly acquired Garmin Navigator, something she vowed to never rely upon.  I'm scared.

It's not only unsettling because for over five years now she's always had a map in her lap but we going from Lake Havasu City to Holbrook.  I mean it is twelve miles to the interstate, turn east and stay on I-40.  Even I can get there without a map.  Oh well, I'll know I'm really in trouble if she doesn't at least once argue with Mr. GPS (She didn't like Mrs. GPS so insisted we change it to the male's voice).

Okay, Clay’s right to some extent, but what he neglected to mention is that he likes to have the navigator on because the little screen shows how many miles we have to travel to our destination and thus he does not have to ask me every half hour how much further we have to go!   Actually I like making Tami growl as she tries to add up the miles from her old maps.  And yes, it is also true that I fought getting the navigator for many years, feeling very comfortable with my paper maps.  But the last year or so, I seem to have had trouble getting us through cities and following the road signs correctly.  So, being the big person that I am, I could admit that I needed help.  And since getting the navigator, I have become a convert.  It is great especially when you are in an unfamiliar city.  Just put in the address and away we go!

So now, just a little info on our whereabouts.  We left 29 Palms California on April 8^th and moved to Lake Havasu Arizona.  We planned to stay about a week before going on to Monument Colorado for our summer job.  But Monument got one snowstorm after another so we ended up staying in Lake Havasu for two weeks.  It was mid April and we had three days of 100+ temps.  It’s going to be tough adapting to Monument.

After leaving Lake Havasu, we drove about 300 miles to Holbrook Arizona where we spent two nights.  The day after our arrival we went to the Petrified Forest National Park and Painted Desert.  It was a sunny day, but the wind was pretty strong and about blew us off our feet a couple of times.  It made taking pictures a real challenge!  But the Painted Desert was beautiful with all the different colors and rock formations.  And it was so neat to see all the petrified wood that was in the southern part of the park.  It is pretty amazing that minerals could take the place of the wood and maintain that shape after the wood decayed.  This is a small national park, but very interesting.  

 A couple of shots of the painted desert.

There were several areas of petroglyphs.  This was one of my favorites.

A petrified tree.

 

The inside of a log.  The colors were just amazing.

 

And speaking of photos, several years ago we acquired a digital photo frame, you know, one of those electronic gadgets where you load digital files on an SD card and it scrolls through them.  Tami was able to load every picture she’s kept since we started traveling.  It’s mounted in our living room and scrolls relentlessly through the years so that I can constantly exclaim, “Where the heck was that one from?”  It’s a great way to revisit things, especially for someone like me who never opens a photo album.

We also spent a couple of days in Santa Fe, but the weather was very cold and windy.  We had hoped to do a little hiking, but had to settle for eating lunch at the Olive Garden instead!  Hardy troupers aren’t we!

So now we are in Monument Colorado and all set up for another summer of work.  Will keep you posted on our adventures as the summer progresses.