Thursday, May 10, 2007

Day 6 (Monday)


This is a photo of Lake Meade Recreation area. It's about 10 miles from Vegas. Lots of boating, fishing, swimming, and hicking. Not to mention all the new bird I saw out there.

This is a huge park. It stretches for miles and miles and was created by the Hoover Dam.

Another benefit of living in this area is Nellis AFB. There were jets all over the place.
You can get right up to the base. Great for picture taking. We saw about 8 F-16's and 2 F-15's flying and landing at Nellis. I have quite a bit of vidoe also, but this laptop does not have firewire so it will have to wait until I get home.



Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Day 5 Part-4(Sunday)

This is near Saligman Arizona. Apparently when you rent a Harley, they don't make sure you know how to ride. Shortly after I took this pic one of the riders picked up his legs when this bike wasn't moving. Of course the bike promptly fell on him pinning him under it. Mean ole Mr Gravity.....


Just an old workhorse past its prime. Spending its last days in Seligman.

Downtown Seligman.

This guys having a bad day. He must have missed the big huge sign that said "No Vehicle Over 40 Feet".








Ouch!






The drivers side corner was resting on the road. He still has 1 more switchback to go too!





This is a cool old building. Oatman is a really nice little town. Though kinda like a tourist trap, it has managed to maintain the feeling of an old western town. It had a much more authentic feel to it than Moab.







This old safe was sitting outside an old building in Oatman Arizona. Looked like it had been there for 100 years.


















Farming fields in Arizona. Kinda cool looking.

Day 5-Part 3(Sunday)

The Grand Canyon was beautiful. The weather was only a little bit chilly. Not bad at all. The park was not crowded either, which was nice.








This is a cool little camper we saw out there.

The Canyon was not the only sight out there.


































We did quite a bit of sight seeing on Sunday. Driving from Monticello and The Valley of the Gods Utah through Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon and Seligman and Oatman Arizona, to Boulder City Nevada.

Day 5 Part 2(Sunday)

Apparently everything in Utah is big. This is the second one of these we came across. The police were about 1 mile ahead of us coming down the center of the road. As they got closer to us, and we didnt see the semi yet, the police kept edging over into our lane. It quickly became apparent, as he got closer to us edging into our lane head on, that he wanted us off the road. The ifst one we passed was one a much smaller road and you could have almost touched it as it went by.

That Chow mix sent tingles down my spine. You could tell he would just assume have me for dinner.




We also came across some sheep. I'm not real sure which type they are though. Ido know that as we sat there and Pooh and Tigger were barking at them I heard more barking type sounds. I though, man those sheep sound an awful lot like dogs. Then about 5 dogs appeared out from munder the sheep, including some of the most evil looking dogs I've ever seen. While the rest of the sheep and dogs were running this way and that way, unsure what to make of us, the brown Chow mix kept comming right at me and starring at me. I'm glad there was a fence between me and him. I have no doubt that deciding to try and get one of those sheep would have been a life and death decision.



This is one of the "wild" horses we came across. There were about 10 of them all together including two babies.




Day 5 (Sunday)


This is a good description of the road down from Natural Bridges Utah to Valley of the Gods. As you can see there isstill snow on theground, butit disapeared quickly as we descended the mountain.










The shot to the right is a good example of the road down the mountain. Very steep and no guard rail. As I remember the road up to Pikes Peak, this one is much worse. I believethe eleve]ation at the top is about 9,500 feet and you drop down to about 4,000 feet.















Finally the Valley of The Gods. It was a stressful drivedown the maountain, mostly because of on comming traffic which consisted of cars, motorcycles and RVs if you can believe it. But it was well worth it. Not only did it bring the best scenery yet, it also brought warmer weather.






I'm sure all of these have names, but I don't know them so I will just let the pics speak for them.

Monday, May 7, 2007

Day 4 Part-2(Saturday)

This is the courtyard at the Trading Post Hotel. It was very beautiful and a bird watchers haven. I spoke to Tony, a Native American about 50 years old there who was raised in this place. He was telling me about remembering climbing trees and could actually point to the trees in the courtyard. He and his young son were waiting for his wife to get off work.




This is the Cameron Trading Post Hotel in Cameron Arizona. It was a very nice room with a great view.












This is the view looking out the window about 6AM. Its breathtaking.













Some of the wildlife found in the courtyard. In addition I saw the smallest hummingbird I've ever seen before. Maybe about 1.5-2" long. He didn't want to be photographed.











The ravens out here are kinda creepy, especially if you've ever read Edgar Allen Poe's book.

















This is Buster. He stayed next door to us. He is a Louisiana Leopard Dog. About the size of a big Lab. His primary job is to remove wild boars from farms in and around Louisiana. I suppose he can get mean, but he is one of the nicest dogs I've ever met. When his owner was gone and he saw me and Karen go into our room he jumped up and was staring at our door barking at us to come back out. His Buster and his owner come here often and is even allowed to leave the dog tied up outside the rooms because he is so friendly.



Thats it for now. More later today..
Signing out...
Rob & Karen

Day 4(Saturday)

Its been 2 days since we had internet. I think my withdrawl symptoms are finally subsiding now. It is again late so this will be a short update. Tonight we are in Henderson Nevada which is about 10 miles south of Las Vegas. More on that later though. After leaving Monticello Utah, we found the snow storm that we thought missed us. About 2" of accumulation but none stuck to the roads so it wasn't too bad. It did prevent us from visiting Natural Bridges National Park because visibility was about 40 feet. http://www.nps.gov/nabr/

By the way, this is what greeted us upon arriving in Monticello Utah the day before. It was very ominous looking. Not being from Utah and realizing that up in the mountains it is closer to winter than summer, we began to worry. While getting gas we spoke to some locals who said not to worry about it, esp since we were headed down the mountain anyway.





As is often the case on "road trips" you often see some strange things like this. Actually I think he just couldn't afford the aviation fuel for it.










After leaving Monticello Utah we ended up staying at Cameron Trading Post in Cameron Arizona which is on the Navajo Indian Reservation. http://www.camerontradingpost.com/

On the way to Cameron we came across a fairly impressive sand storm:



It was about 100 feet tall and 25 or so feet wide I think. It crossed the road about 10 feet in front of us but it was dissipated over the road.










Thats it for now. Its 4:41 AM EST or 1:41 AM our time. Were going to bed now. On Monday I will add some more to fill in from Cameron Arizona to Las Vegas(Henderson). We will be here about 3-4 days as we scout around for places to live, and I plan on going to check out a few job prospects in that time also. Tomorrow will be a day of rest for us though. We need it and the dogs need it. We have driven over 2,200 miles since Wednesday and we are pooped.

Signing out...
Rob & Karen

Saturday, May 5, 2007

This eagle had dropped some food, or spotted it in the road. We thought that truck was going to hit it.









It was really quite amazing to watch. Last we saw, he never got what he was after. Soon after this we saw a sign that said "Watch for eagles on the road"












We were supposed to get snow/sleet/freezing rain last night, but it seems we dodged that bullet.




















This is Grizzly Creek in Colorado.














Well thats it for now. We are still trying to figure out where we are going from here.
I'll post more later

Rob & Karen

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