Mon, September 22

We had a difficult morning today.  Tensions were high and we struggled to get along with one another.  The traveling is wearing on us, and as has been typical thus far, just getting out the door was a challenge.  Consequently, we weren't on the road until almost noon.  However, once on the highway we were amazed at the beauty that eastern New Mexico offered.  

We crossed the Continental Divide.  Anyone know what this is?  Here's a hint:  it has to do with water flow.

We have now crossed into our 18th state, not counting all the re-entries we've had.

We spent some time this afternoon going through the Painted Desert National Park.  Wow! God sure must have had fun creating this piece of the Earth!  

The Painted Desert is north of Highway 40, and the Petrified Forest National Park is pretty much on the south side.  We thoroughly enjoyed listening to our audio tour CD of the park, stopping at each spot on the park map, and soaking in all the amazing beauty of this place.

We have been traveling on the Historic Route 66 for a while now.  Everywhere we go there are signs and plenty of gift shop baubles.  Route 66 intersects the National Park, so they have a plaque for it.  

At Newspaper Rock we were able to get a glimpse of some petroglyphs on the large rocks just below.  The following picture was taken from about 100 yards away.  You can see a round image almost smack dab in the middle of the picture.  These were amazing.  The petroglyphs were made by the ancient people who lived here by poking holes in the rocks.  There were many of these pictures all over the rocks in this area.

Shannon inspected one of the petrified logs at one of our turnout points.

Here is a beautiful bluff off in the distance created by the ongoing erosion of the area.

We were leaving the park just as the sun was preparing to set.  Here is a view looking east with the sunset light reflecting off the clouds in the distance.

Joshua and Shannon posed as an Indian and his squaw at the gift shop just outside the park.

In all, we drove about 280 miles today, traveling from Grants, NM, to and through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks, and ending up in Flagstaff, AZ.  We have put over 7,000 miles on the Sienna at this point.   

Sun, September 21

As we left our motel and got into the car this morning, we found a colony of prairie dogs in a grassy area right in front of us.  What a fun way to start our morning.

Next, we visited the Taos Pueblo which is the oldest continuously inhabited community in the USA.  The Tiwa tribe still live in the pueblo.  We enjoyed a tour of the grounds, and then we did some exploring on our own.

After our tour we enjoyed some blue corn fry bread with raw honey, made to order just for us.

The Red Willow Creek runs through the heart of the pueblo and supplies all the drinking water for the tribe.  The children thoroughly enjoyed the fresh mountain spring water.

We stopped at a restaurant for lunch, and the sweet potato and french fries were brought to us in miniature shopping carts.  Bunny sure enjoyed those fries!  Liz and John enjoyed the portobello mushroom sandwich.

New Mexico may be a desert but it is alive with beautiful purple and yellow flowers among the sage bushes and cacti.  Fields and fields of color!

As we headed for Albuquerque, we drove beside the Rio Grande River.  There were groups rafting and kayaking down the river.  That looked like so much fun.

The sky is so blue and huge here.  We found it fascinating how there could be a clear sky with puffs of clouds here and there, and then there would be one dark cloud among them all with tendrils of rain stretching down to the ground, obvious even from quite a distance. We would drive a few miles through one of those cloud bursts with gentle drops on the windshield and then it would be over.  Amazing!

We spent a little time this afternoon walking around Old Town in Albuquerque.

Joshua tried the "cowboy" look at one of the shops.

Our trek through New Mexico took us over 208 miles today.

Sat, September 20

The kids had a blast playing pool with Micki downstairs.  This morning he paused briefly for a photo op with the boys.

While Liz took over the dining room in order to fill mail orders, the kids headed back to Villa Sport with Sally for a morning of fun at the water slides.  They had the place pretty much to themselves for most of the time and had a fantastic time.

We had a wonderful time with our friends and hated to say "good-bye."  We look forward to a return visit.  Pictured here are Sally, Larry, and Calli.  Missing from our pictures is Becky!

Entering New Mexico at night, we stopped to take the picture and heard what we think was a pack of coyotes howling not too far away.  To say the least, that was a very quick photo op!

Colorado Springs to Taos, NM, is only 234 miles, but since we haven't been driving for a couple of days, it felt like a lot longer as we readjusted to life on the road.

Fri, September 19

We started out the day by traveling across town to the home of Liz's Aunt Bobbie and Uncle David. We enjoyed a great visit and a delicious country brunch. Their home had a lovely view of Pike's Peak and reminded us of a mountain cabin. What a fun morning/afternoon.

Next, we drove over to the Garden of the Gods, a city park which is also a National Natural Landmark. These huge sandstone formations jut right out of the ground.

The beautiful Colorado foothills as seen from the Garden of the Gods park.

We posed in front of the Visitor Center.

Our next stop was the Focus on the Family Visitor Center and Bookstore. This was a very important stop because we've been listening to Adventures in Odyssey every day as we've been traveling. We wanted to see the place where the radio shows are recorded and pick up some more CDs because we're almost out! Odyssey has been a big part of our hours and hours of driving.

The kids got to swim at the Villa Sport club that the McNabbs belong to. John is swimming in a salt water pool.

Shannon said it felt so wonderful to be in water again. Since the swim team ended at the end of July, the kids haven't been in a pool!

Joshua threatened to toss Mom in the pool after she was able to throw him in. All the kids had a great time swimming during the early evening, although they were disappointed that the water slide and outdoor pool had closed before we arrived.

Back at home we had a fun evening with pizza and movies. Mandi had received some Jane Austen movies in the mail today from Lisa MacDonald, a friend back in California. Had Lisa planned for the movies to arrive the day after Mandi's birthday??? Mandi was quite excited as she is currently working on directing a movie about the Victorian era for one of her college classes. The kids settled in to the comfy sofa downstairs to watch Shrek while Sally, Mandi, and Liz watched Northanger Abbey upstairs.

Thurs, September 18

As we traveled across Kansas, we took a short break in Oakley, the birthplace of Buffalo Bill. There was a gigantic sculpture of the buffalo hunter next to the cabin.  The children had lots of fun climbing all over the monument and creating fun poses.

Even Bunny had to get into the act by posing in the stirrup.

Here's the log cabin, although we don't think it was the original building--it was too new looking!

John wanted to explore the field of sunflowers, the Kansas state flower.

Entering Colorado under clear blue skies.

We kept looking for approaching mountain ranges.  Little did we know that our drive across the western end of Kansas and the eastern side of Colorado included a gradual slope that ended in just over 6,000' altitude!  Finally, as we neared Colorado Springs, we saw a glimpse of Pike's Peak as it appeared between clouds.

We arrived at the home of our dear friends, the McNabbs.  Calli stopped by for dinner and a quick picture.  It was so hard to believe they moved from California to Colorado Springs eight years ago!  

From Abilene to Colorado Springs was 434 miles.