She Did Something

I didn’t know that you crossed the Colorado River to get to California from Arizona, but we did. It was sort of surreal coming through the desert and suddenly seeing this oasis of green with a blue, blue river flowing through it. I wondered if it only looked so blue because it was in the middle of the grays of the desert.

The Colorado River as We Crossed into California

The Mojave Desert was in bloom as we passed through. We couldn’t identify these plants, but they were all along the side of the road and pretty enough to stop for:

Pretty Unidentified Plant in the Mojave Desert

The Mojave Desert has more trains going through it than I’ve ever seen in my life. It seemed like there was almost always one in view. I have a train obsession so even though I shot lots more train photos, I’ll only bore you with one.

Train Moving Through the Mojave Desert

Victorville is kind of an odd place (to me…probably not to the people that live there). It scared me instead of me scaring someone else. I found out that I don’t remember a whole awful lot of the Spanish I learned in school so now it’s my latest quest to learn the language again. We chose staying at Victorville so that we would have an easy Sunday morning drive into the Los Angeles area but driving in Victorville was no picnic either. We mostly stayed in the room except for a run to the mall so that I could get my hair cut and get some new clothes for both of us to go to Carol’s birthday party when we got to Irvine.

The hotel was okay. It was a Hilton Garden Inn. They do this weird thing with their beds. If you push your hands down on them, they feel nice and comfy but when you sit or lay down on them, you realize it’s a foam pad on top of a really hard mattress. I guess it’s supposed to be that memory foam stuff, but it just doesn’t work Jim and me. Hilton Garden Inns also do that thing with the continental breakfast that you have to pay way too much for, but they do give you two bottles of water when you check in. It’s not a great value for the price…but at least it’s something.

Crooked Photo of Jim’s Duck in Victorville, CA

What Can I say about the Grand Canyon? My first time there was about 12 years ago and it took my breath away. I knew what to expect this time but it still took my breath away. I could have spent many more days there and would never get bored. I was proud of myself. The last time I was there I was too much of a wimp to attempt to walk any of the trails. This time I did walk at least part of the way and actually stood at the edge wishing I could fly. I even encouraged another woman who was afraid by telling her “If I can do it, you can too. I’m a major wimp.” She did it and let me snap a photo of her.

The canyon is another of those places where people speak in hushed voices. With the diversity of the people that visit, this amazes me in and of itself. I took many photos. When we left the canyon, I made Jim promise that If I felt I needed to go back there after we went to California, he would take me.

A Classic Canyon Shot

Jim wasn’t trying to jump…he forgot to move his feet

Jim Climbing Around the Canyon Rim

When we left Durango, Colorado it was 52 degrees. 20 minutes out we hit a blinding snowstorm and 34 degrees. The view was definitely not spectacular for about 20 minutes. Neither was our driving speed but we had a quest…getting to the point where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet. There’s a monument there. Or at least we thought there was a monument there. Unfortunately, there has been some dispute as to whether the monument is in the correct place or not and while the government sort of denies any error , but I have my suspicions because after driving all that way we encountered this:

Four Corners Closed

We both felt like Clark Griswold in National Lampoon’s Vacation, but I was also a little relieved that I didn’t have to force this old body to play “Twister” and try to backbend to have one extremity in each state. Jim would have laughed way too much, and I would have ended up badly bruised, I’m sure.

Somewhere on the road to Flagstaff we went through Teec Nos Pos on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona. Jim needed to use a restroom so when we saw a Navajo Health Center facility, we figured that was a good place to stop. He rushed in ahead of me and when I walked in, I was suddenly aware of my freckled skin and blue eyes. So were the Native Americans in the health center. I’ve never felt so many eyes on me. I headed to the restroom and as I was washing my hands a woman came in and went into one of the stalls. A few seconds later the door opened and a tiny voice said “mama?” I turned around to see the most adorable little girl ever who promptly started screaming and running back out the door when she saw me. I finished washing up and left the restroom to find a sobbing little girl and a security guard staring me down. Luckily, Jim came out just then and we got out pretty quickly. He called me the “evil white devil” for the rest of the day.

The land along the road to Flagstaff was populated by many packs of wild dogs. In Kayenta we stopped at a Burger King to grab a bit of lunch and had to walk in a wide circle around fighting dogs in the parking lot. Of course, Jim, who has a way with animals, ended up feeding the wild dogs parts of his hamburger then part of mine. I stayed in the car. Snarling dogs kind of scare me.

We pulled off the road at one point to take a look at two great rock formations. There was a Navajo woman there selling jewelry out of her car and I bought a malachite and hematite necklace. Indian lore says that malachite is the guardian stone of travelers and hematite is a healing stone. It sounded perfect besides being pretty. The rocks, according to the woman, were called the Elephant Feet and they were fabulous, but even better was the “sun dog” above the rocks.

The Ellephant Feet

Sun Dog Over The Elephant Feet

We checked in to the Hilton Garden Inn in Flagstaff for 2 nights. Here’s Jim’s Duck posing there:

Jim’s Duck Visits Flagstaff, Arizona