03/06/2012

Here we are in Phoenix, on our way back to Maine.  We're taking our time, enjoying the sights as we go along.  As usual, our plans aren't set in stone, but we do expect to travel the southern route then north to Maine by the middle/end of May.  Looking forward to Tyler and Travis's high school graduations (!!!) the first weekend of June, so we know we'll be back by the end of May.

We left Las Vegas yesterday (Monday) morning and arrived in Phoenix late yesterday afternoon (about a 6 hour trip).  Everything went well until the very last maneuver, when our Google map and the GPS disagreed, and Arizona made it more difficult by naming streets/highways so similarly (Black Canyon highway/Black Canyon street).  But we made it - safely - and none the worse for wear.
Enjoyed sitting outside at our campsite (next to our very own saguaro cactus), then went to Texas Roadhouse for a well-deserved steak - Yum.

Today we traveled to Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona (yes, there is a Sedona).  I'm really running out of adjectives to describe these beautiful sights, but as you can see by the pictures, it's just incredible.  Unfortunately, the camera just doesn't capture the deep red of the rocks, but you can get an idea.

We also stopped at Montezuma's Castle National Park, which isn't actually a castle, but a cliff dwelling built into a limestone cliff in 1425 AD by the Senagua people.  It's believed there were about 20 rooms housing about 50 people in this one below.  There were many of these cliff dwellings around, some with as many as 100 people.  How they did it and why they disappeared is a mystery, but it was really facinating. There was a creek there (which is what drew them to the area), so there was also grass and some trees and bushes.  As we walked around, I kept thinking how good the air smelled, then I realized that I was enjoying the smell of a forest, and I haven't smelled that for a long, long time.  We take so much for granted.

Arizona, along with much of the southwest, was under a severe weather advisory today, with high winds and "high concentrations of particulates" in the air (all that desert dirt flying around), and these pictures capture it pretty well. Although we didn't actually see a "dirt storm" as such, the air was full of it.

All in all, it was a great day.  Tomorrow will be pretty quiet, and then Thursday we're headed to Tucson (only a couple of hours away) to Davis-Monthan AFB.