Day 13 - Carlsbad Caverns

We checked out of our hotel and planned to s kip breakfast and just have an early lunch on our way out of town.  I needed to pick up some toiletries at the grocery store and we went to Albertson's Grocery Store, a chain of stores out west.  When we got inside, Randy said I'll meet you back here (at the checkout) so I went on and got my stuff and headed back to the front.  I thought he was probably buying something to snack on for the afternoon.  I waited.  I looked around the checkout area and I waited.  And I waited.  El Paso is right at the border crossing at Cuidad Juarez, Mexico.  Many people whose papers are in order cross over to do their shopping and then return to Juarez and it seemed that most of the folks in this particular grocery store were from Juarez because no English was being spoken.  Announcements over the public address system were in Spanish.  I sent Randy a text message saying "Are you still here? I no speakie the Spanish".  I got no reply.  I was afraid to leave my spot, afraid that he would appear and wonder where I was.  I waited.  Finally when I was wondering how I would be able to get back home because I surely had been abandoned, he appeared!  He had been in the pharmacy trying to get some allergy medication and had to wait to speak to the pharmacist who was busy with an elderly woman.  What a relief!

We left Albertson's and headed to the border.  It was pretty amazing.

The river there is almost non-existent.  There are a series of fences on the border.... one on the side of Mexico and two on the side of the US with a road in between that the border patrol drives on.  They are installing a huge fence that looks 12 to 15 feet tall along the side closest to the US.  Randy and I were discussing this... is this any way to have a neighbor??  Our solution is to PUT PRESSURE ON THE GOVERNMENT OF OUR BORDERING COUNTRY AND THOSE TO THE SOUTH OF IT SO THAT THEY CHANGE THEIR WAYS SO THAT THEIR PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO LEAVE!  Then we can have borders with Mexico the same as we have with Canada.  You don't have to agree with me but it's just how I feel.  My life here would have to be pretty miserable before I would consider leaving my country and my family and going somewhere else to live.   Now, off the soapbox and back to the trip....

Border Patrol Headqarters 

Cross-over from Cuidad Juarez

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Cellular Tower Tree

Large sculpture on Mexico's border side 

We drove back into town and had a quick lunch.  On our way into El Paso we had seen signs for a Trading Post called Saddle Blanket.  It was a 2 acre store with 3 acres of parking.  We hunted the store down and got a couple of treasures. I even found these two little ladies here...

We left Saddle Blanket and headed toward Carlsbad, NM.  I could remember hearing about the Carlsbad Caverns when I was in elementary school and my Aunt Pauline had visited there when she and her husband, Bill were on vacation.  The thoughts of caverns and caves have always fascinated me and I just couldn't wait to see them.  This was a deviation from our original plan but the more we looked online about it, the more we looked forward to seeing them. 

I had my old road atlas on my lap... it was 14 years old but the main roads were still on there and as we drove along I felt that I knew about how long it would take us to get from point A to point B.  Before long there was another Border Patrol Station where we were required to stop.  The young guard was outgoing and friendly.  After he ascertained that we were US citizens, he asked where we were heading and we said, "To Carlsbad Caverns".  He saw my map and said, "I hope you know that map isn't going to be any good for the next 14 miles."  I was puzzled and said, "It's 14 years old and probably isn't very accurate anyway".  He said, "Oh, it's still accurate here... you just won't have a turn off for over 14 miles."  We all had a good laugh but as it turned out, he was absolutely right.  There was not a path or driveway for more than 14 miles.   In fact, you couldn't see anything of any kind other than desert, brush and scrub.  

Eventually we did pass a road but for the most part, the entire trip to Carlsbad was empty land.  There were signs offering land for sale, lots of land for sale.  We couldn't figure out how people would have electricity or water that far out. 

 Eventually we came to El Capitan which is part of the Guadalupe Mountains in New Mexico....

We passed the park entrance and were only about 17 or 18 miles away from Carlsbad.  We drove on into the Carlsbad Cavern Park and got our bearings about the place.  The drive in was just beautiful with all of the cactus plants in bloom.  The rose-like flowers of purple and yellow against the mountains were a welcome bit of color in the otherwise colorless landscape.  You learned quickly to appreciate subtle colors of sage and veins of colors in the mountain rock formations.  

The weather for the next few days was expected to be clear and hot, in the upper nineties (hot for us for May).  But as they say, it's a dry heat.  This means that you sweat freely and it dries quickly.  After being in the air conditioned car for a few hours, the heat was like a slap in the face.  The Park Center was cool and inviting.  We got information from the Park Rangers  and then headed into town to our hotel.  We found an enormous Chinese Buffet for dinner and made our plans for the next day.  We planned to be at the front of the line when the park opened at 8:00 am.  We wanted to beat the crowds and have a leisure look at the caverns.

Day 12 - El Paso

We left Phoenix on Friday, May 2 and took a side trip to Tombstone, AZ.  We saw it on the map and remembered about the gunfight at the OK Corral.  For those of you too young to have grown up watching westerns, you really should look up the stories about the Wild West.

Tombstone is a historic western city in Cochise County, AZ It was one of the last wide-open frontier boomtowns in the American Old West. The town prospered from about 1877 to 1890, during which time the town's mines produced US$40 to $85 million in silver bullion, the largest productive silver district in Arizona. Its population grew from 100 to around 14,000 in less than seven years. (Wikipedia)

The city was only 30 miles from the Mexican border and is smack dab in the middle of nothing.... as far as the eye can see there is nothing but desert, scrub brush, and sun. Just outside of town was a Border Patrol check station and we had driven for miles without seeing as much as a telephone pole. Anyone who would cross the border in this area could easily get lost in the desert and starve or die of thirst. Now ask yourself... what would make YOU want to venture to cross such an area? Life must be pretty bad to be willing to take such a risk.... but more on this later.

The little town of Tombstone is now a tourist area and reminded me much of Tweetsie, however, it was a real place. There are all sorts of places to buy country & western style clothing as well as souvenirs. You can get dressed up in period clothing and get your picture taken. You can go to where the historic gunfight occurred, take stagecoach rides, and shop, shop, shop.

We had lunch in Big Nose Kate's Saloon and was waited on by a waitress dressed in period saloon girl clothing and torn fishnet stockings. She looked tired and bored but was pleasant.

After our meal we continued walking around town and went into one shop that had lots of cow skulls.

As we left town on the same route we came in, we stopped at the Border Patrol station. The guard asked us if we were US citizens and we each had to affirm that we were before he let us pass.

We headed back out to I-10 and east toward El Paso. We arrived there around rush hour (isn't that always the way?). After a quick nap we had the BEST TACOS EVER at Leo's Mexican Food. We got back to the hotel and slept in preparation for our real curveball trip the next day.

Day 11 - Phoenix

We slept in late this morning and woke up to noise coming from the bathroom in the room next to us.  Apparently there was a big problem, one so severe that they had to move us to another room.  Once we got settled into our new room, while Randy went online and bought our tickets for an art show under the stars, I searched online for an Asian restaurant.  I was craving Chinese food.  Luckily for us, there was a large Chinese Cultural Center there in Phoenix just a few miles away.  Based on their website, it looked like a large mall and office complex and there were a couple of restaurants inside.  I felt certain that we could find a good, authentic meal there.

We arrived at the Center right at lunch time and went inside.  The place was very crowded which is usually a sign of good food.  When we ordered, I ordered rice and an entree.  The waiter asked "What soup" ? I replied that I didn't want soup and he said, "It come with meal". I said, "But I don't want any."  He said, "It come with meal. Won Ton or Spicy?"  Feeling that I wouldn't get ANY food if I didn't order the soup, I said, "Spicy".

We waited and remarked about some of the sites we had passed on our way to the restaurant.... a club that advertised "naked women", miles of palm trees, and then there was Bill Johnson's Big Apple Restaurant....

They advertised a 72 oz. FREE steak. The catch is that IF you can eat it all, it's free.  Now that's a lot of steak! His motto is "Let's Eat"... just that simple. What a tacky little place it was, but I'll bet the food was good!

Our food arrived and the waiter placed the soup in front of  me. Randy began eating his and I pushed mine aside. The waiter came back by and put it back in front of me. By now it was becoming funny, this little guy insisting that I eat the soup, so I pushed it away again. I told Randy that I was afraid they were going to come and force feed me the soup that I didn't want before they would allow me to eat my meal. We even joked that the cooks in the kitchen might be so well trained that if they don't serve the soup and have it consumed, it makes the workers grind to a halt, not knowing what the next step is.

The waiter got busy and didn't come back by again.... thank heavens.  

We left and drove into Scottsdale, a Phoenix suburb. They have an arts district and we walked around looking into the windows. They have a Thursday evening Artwalk that would be held that night, so most of the galleries were closed in preparation of their late night. The temperature was pretty warm, but as they say, it is a dry heat.  Dry or not, it is still hot. I had spied an ice cream shop when we parked and we went there for something to cool us down. The Sugar Bowl is an "old school" ice cream shop where you can get more flavors and combinations than you care to imagine. They will make any kind of milkshake you want and as many scoops of ice cream as you can stand. After our one scoop of ice cream, we headed back toward our hotel and strategized how long it would take us to get to the botanical gardens for the art show this evening.  

Our art show tickets were scheduled for 4pm so we had a nap and made sure our camera gizmos were charged up. The artist whose work we would see is Dale Chihuly. Please click on his name back there and you can see how his work is done because it is amazing stuff. We got to the Botanical Gardens and started walking around. The plants were amazing and the show was beautiful.  

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We left the gardens in the moonlight and there was nearly a full moon but tonight it wasn't as splendid as all of the glass we had seen. We headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep because tomorrow we would be heading to Tombstone, AZ.

Day 10 Sedona - Phoenix

We slept in, had a late breakfast and then headed to Phoenix. It was only a couple of hours away and we decided to take our time and get off the interstate for a while. We had heard of the little town of Sedona and decided to stop there on our way. So, from the Grand Canyon Village we headed back to I-40 to Flagstaff and then got onto Alt. 89,  The scenery was beautiful as the road wound around sharp curves heading down, down, down toward the Verde Valley until we were alongside the Oak Creek River.  The rocky hills were so beautiful that we stopped at Slide Rock State Park to take to get out and walk and enjoy the beautiful sites.

A few miles ahead we arrived in Sedona and it sits amidst beautiful red sandstone rocks and hills. The Sinagua and Apache Indian Tribes lived in this area until 1876 when they were forcibly removed and relocated to the San Carlos Indian Reservation about 180 miles away in mid-winter.  At that point the area was settled by Anglo settlers who were ranchers and farmers.  The soil was ideal for apple and peach orchards and then in the 1960s became a tourist area, which it remains today. Many Hollywood westerns were filmed in the area and Sedona referred to itself as "Arizona's Little Hollywood."

We stopped in and walked around the town area.  It was filled with touristy sorts of shops and  art galleries. We stopped in the Sedona Arts Center and then headed to the downtown coffee shop. We sat outside watching people as we drank our coffee. We walked around just a bit more but I'm just not much of a shopper so we drove outside of town toward some hiking trails. The dirt roads led far back into a canyon where  the plants there were beautiful and exotic and the rocks were a deep rusty red.  

I tried my hand at another panorama and look how this one turned out... Randy's hands and camera are missing!

We headed back into town and on toward Phoenix. As we were at the edge of town I saw a small trading post that was just amazing.... there was a large metal rooster!  "TURN HERE!!!  TURN RIGHT!!!!"  Randy whipped into the parking lot and there was the most amazing western folk art gallery that I've ever seen.  They had so many knick-knacks... it was just unbelievable.  There were indoor and outdoor decorations, small toys for children, large pieces of furniture.  It was mind boggling and the wind chimes made the most beautiful music!

We got bought a sunburst clay and metal sculpture and some ice cream and headed back to the car. Just a few miles up the road was a beautiful rock formation called Castle Rock. There was a trail to the park so we parked at the trail head and I went a little way up the trail to get a picture.

While we were in Sedona we had seen the young man pictured below and I really wanted to take a photo but was afraid to.  You never know how people will react when they are being photographed but his hair was so unusual I was just dying to get a picture.  As I headed back to the car from the trail at Castle Rock, there he stood talking to an elderly couple.  I just couldn't resist. The expressions on the couple's faces were priceless. They were trying hard to keep a blank face but they would steal a look at one another and you could see a smile flit across their face.  I would love to know their conversation when they got back into the car to leave!  

We continued down Alt. 89 to I-17 and stopped at the rest stop where I saw this....

Not much of a welcome to the Sonora Desert, huh?  From this point, I drove on to Phoenix. It wasn't far but it was mountainous. As we headed down from the hills toward the valley where Phoenix, we saw our first tall cacti. They were not really as I expected. There was still other vegetation growing, which surprised me.  I had expected that the cactus would be the only live thing in the desert. They stood pretty tall though, and were very dark green, almost black.

We hit Phoenix at rush hour. We stuck to the interstates, leaving I-17 and getting onto I-10.  My navigator guided me right to the hotel with no problems. We got checked in and rested for a little while before finding a place for dinner. We settled on a nice little Italian restaurant with outdoor seating.  After a quick (rushed by our waitress) dinner, we headed back to the hotel for some rest, check on the balloon ride and to plan ahead on our trip. The winds were still high and the balloon ride over Phoenix at sunrise would be cancelled. But something was afoot! I had looked ahead on the map and was about to throw a curve ball into the mix.

Day 9 - Grand Canyon - Helicopter Ride

We got up this morning and skipped breakfast, opting for just coffee instead. We didn't want to take a chance on getting sick on the helicopter. We headed over to the airport and waited for our pilot to call us. There were 6 passengers and the pilot. They told us that we would take photos after the flight so we put on our headphones and seat belts and took off.

Our pilot assured us that he had a great deal of experience and that we would be in good hands. We found this to be the case as we left the airport, crossing the Kaibob National Forest heading to the northeast end of the Arizona side of the Grand Canyon. The forest wasn't so dense that you could see elk here and there. In the distance to the south was Humphrey's Peak, covered in snow.

Soon the forest seemed to just drop out from under us and the canyon seemed to surround us. The pilot pointed out various landmarks as the helicopter turned and lowered.

I was seated in the center in the back and so my photos had partially obstructed views but they were still just breathtaking.  Randy had a window seat and was able to make a video of the some of the flight. 

At one point we even saw a small herd of buffalo near a ranch. They are very rare and I got a few of them in a photo but it didn't turn out very well. The entire trip took about 45 minutes but the time passed too quickly. We only flew as far as the park boundaries and then headed back to the airport.

By the time the ride was over we were ready for a quick bite and then we headed back out to the canyon. We rode around Grand Canyon Village for a bit to sort of get our bearings and then parked.  We walked to the shuttle stop and rode to the first overlook. I was finally able to figure out how to do an panorama with my camera.

My first Panorama Attempt

Second Attempt.  Biggify this and you'll see shadows with no people.
I had to wait for people to walk past me so it looks like ghost shadows. Hahahaha!

Our Fearless Photographer......

truly fearless.  He would look around to see if I was watching.

Finally, after thoroughly filling ourselves with the wonder of the views and feeling totally spent and exhausted, we headed back to our car to go back to the hotel.  As we got in the car, I looked across the road and there, right in the middle of the village were elk.

They seemed thoroughly at ease and fearless. Huge and fearless. I was really antsy being so close to them because I know that animals are unpredictable so I encouraged Randy to go on. I was afraid one of them would feel threatened and attack our car. Finally, to my great relief, we headed back to the hotel and stopped along the way at the local Mexican restaurant where we would have one of many excellent Mexican meals out west. We spent the evening going through our photos, reliving our helicopter ride, catching up on correspondence and plotting our trip to Phoenix because we would be leaving the next morning.

The Grand Canyon is beautiful beyond belief. It made me feel very small and insignificant. It reminds me of  the lyrics to a beautiful song by Beth Neilson Chapman...  Click on the link to hear it.

All alone I came into this world,

All alone I will one day die.

Solid stone is just sand and water, baby.

Sand and water and a million years gone by.