So that's why the password is "BellRock"

Today is the last day of the road trip and we are driving on I-8 toward Yuma, Arizona. We’ll stop there for dinner and then drive the final miles home. We’ve been watching the Chariot Fire, and it looks like the Interstate is still open.

Last night we stayed at Wildflower Inn in the Village of Oak Creek which is just south of Sedona. Despite the wacky check-in and Wi-Fi troubles mentioned in my last post, it ended up being a good place to stay. We had a great view of Bell Rock (now the password makes sense) and Courthouse Rock. They were so close that we walked a short way up the road and were at the trailhead for the Bell Rock Path. This easy hike went around Bell Rock. Bell Rock is a bell shaped red rock butte that is 4816 feet high. After about a mile or so, we were around the backside of the rock, and then we saw a new trail. This trail went up the rock.

We followed the trail markers and ended up a quarter of the way up the rock. We saw other people higher up the rock, so we decided to find a way to climb higher. Sometimes it was easy, other times it was pretty challenging. It wasn’t too hard for the boys, but there were a number of times that I was climbing up on all fours, or grabbing on to an arm to pull myself up the face of a big rock. At about half way up the rock, the sides just got too steep for me, but David and Zach pressed onward and upward scaling the side of the rock until they were really high on a spire that jutted out. At that point, they couldn’t find a way to get further up without ropes, so I took their picture and they headed back down to where I was so we could climb down the rest of the way together.

The way down was just as scary, and a lot of the time, I was scooting down on my behind looking for a toehold or a rock to use as a step stone. It was a challenge emotionally and physically, and I was proud of myself for what I accomplished. I think I even impressed my sons. It was a three-hour adventure that David said was the second best thing we did on our trip.

 

We had worked up quite an appetite, so we headed to Tlaquepaque to get a bite of lunch and look at a few art galleries. On the way we saw a sign for the Chapel of the Holy Cross, so we took a detour and went to the chapel for a few minutes. It was lovely. Lunch was at a little café called The Secret Garden that sold salads, sandwiches, soup, etc. from organic ingredients. We each enjoyed our lunch and our waiter gave us refills of our drinks in takeout cups for the drive.

 

It’s only 23 miles until Yuma. We’ll eat at Cracker Barrel since this is the last time we’ll get a chance to enjoy this fun restaurant for a while.

Ancient Homes

There’s nothing like a good night’s sleep to rejuvenate you for another day of adventure. Today we visited Mesa Verde National Park. It is the only national park that was established to preserve the archeological heritage of the Ancestral Pueblo people. When I first learned about these Native American cliff dwellers, they were called the Anansazi. That however, is a Navajo term that carries a connotation of enemy. There are a number of Pueblo tribes that trace their ancestry back to these ancient people, so now we refer to them as the Ancestral Puebloans.

We first stopped at the Visitor Center to purchase tickets for two ranger-led tours of Balcony House and Cliff Palace. Each tour was about an hour long and we got to climb up ladders, steep rock steps, and through narrow tunnels to get to the different rooms. We also went on a self-guided tour of Spruce Tree House where we got to climb down into a kiva. A kiva was probably like a living room where families gathered. Eventually it became more of a ceremonial room that was used for the entire community.

All in all, it was really fun to get so close to these 800 year-old homes.  On one of the tours, a lady commented that back in the 1990s, they were allowed to climb all over the cliff dwellings. Now you must be with a ranger and are limited to certain areas. I’m glad that they are preserving this piece of ancient history for future generations to see and appreciate.

While we were at the park, we saw a number of areas with burned and dead trees. The ranger told us that most of what we saw burned ten years ago. She said it would take 300 years for the forest to regrow.  She also told us that this was one of the few national parks that did not allow fires to burn naturally. Instead they put them out to protect the archeological sites. She then said that in some ways it has backfired on them. Apparently, there was a year when about half of the park burned because they hadn’t allowed the naturally occurring fires to thin out the forests. She said they are still trying to figure out the best way to manage wildfires at Mesa Verde.

We left Mesa Verde and are now headed toward Sedona. Zach's driving while I write this post. We made a quick stop at Four Corners Monument and took our photos standing in the fours states, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. Admission is $3.00 a person. Despite the expensive photo, we just couldn’t drive past Four Corners without standing in this desert spot out in the middle of nowhere.

Tomorrow will be the last day of our road trip. We’ll explore Sedona and then make the long drive home. It will be good to sleep in our beds again.

P.S. We arrived at our motel at 10:24 p.m. (we stopped in Flagstaff for dinner). We were surprised to see that the office closed at 10:00. There was a a phone number to call in case of an emergency. My cell phone was only working for emergencies, and I was starting to wonder if we'd be sleeping in the car. My work phone had just enough battery left and reception, so I called the number to find out our key had been left in a white mailbox in the middle of the parking lot. Interesting. 

We couldn't access the WiFi because no one was around to give us the password and the information was not in our room either. This morning, the office opened at 7:00 a.m., so I went to get the password from the office. The man there wrote down the word BeelRock, but pronounced it Bell Rock. I looked a little confused, so he spelled it out for me. B-E-E-L-R-O-C-K. I thought okay, it must be some local site that is pronounced "bell" but spelled differently. I went back to my room, and the password didn't work on any of the connections available.

Back to the office, I went this time with my computer to show the man that it didn't work. He watched me type it in, and then said, "Oh, you are spelling it wrong. It's BellRock." I then showed him the paper he had written on. He sheepishly apologized. Good grief.

The Thrill (and repercussion) of Speed

What a day! After a very late night, we fell asleep around 1:30 a.m. and awoke to the alarm at 5:30 a.m. We had to check out of our motel and get to the Challenge Unlimited office by 6:45 for the start of our exciting adventure riding down Pike's Peak. After signing waivers and paying our fees, we were provided with a continental breakfast along with the other 20 riders. Around 7:30 a.m. we piled into two 15 passenger vans and drove 40 minutes to the summit of Pike's Peak. The bikes and other gear were stored on top of the vans.

Pike's Peak is 14,110 feet at the summit and about 30-40 degrees colder. So we gladly added layers of fleece jackets, sweat pants, headbands, and gloves for our ride down the mountain. After some safety  and bike use instruction, we mounted the bikes and started down the same road we had just driven up. It was a steep road full of curves and hairpin turns. We had really nice bikes with excellent brakes and we all took the hills at a speed that we were comfortable with. I was one of the three slowest in the group especially at the beginning. It was a 20 mile ride descending about 8,000 feet to the base of the mountain. It took us about 3 hours from start to finish with a number of stops along the way. We ended up at a local restaurant where they served us lunch. It was so much fun! Along the way, we actually saw other cyclists riding UP the mountain. Those people were INSANE!

After our awesome bike adventure, we headed over to Garden of the Gods, a city park filled with large red rocks that we have become accustomed to seeing in this part of the country. We went to the visitor center and drove through the park, but we were tired and still had a 6 hour drive ahead of us to get to Cortez, Colorado near Mesa Verde National Park. We were back on the road by 2:00 p.m.

The drive was long on mountain roads through numerous small towns. We drove through several rainstorms along the way too. When the skies finally cleared and the highway got a little larger, I thought we'd make up some time, but the Colorado State Troopers feel strongly about making sure people drive safely down the mountain, and one caught me and another driver going faster than the speed limit. He was kind enough to give me only a warning, so the rest of the 180 miles was spent going the speed limit. We arrived in town around 9:00 p.m.

The day started and ended with speed, and now we are ready for a good night's sleep. Tomorrow is Mesa Verde.

An Unexpected Treasure

This morning Karen made us strawberry pancakes to send us on our way to Colorado Springs. We said our goodbyes and got into my Little Red Car which was recently washed and waxed thanks to Karen and Bill.

We had an eight hour drive to Colorado Springs, so while Zach was driving, I used our GPS to locate a point of interest along our route to break up the trip a bit. About half way, we stopped in Sterling, Colorado to visit the Overland Trail Museum. I thought it would be a good place to stop and stretch our legs for 30-40 minutes, but it turned out to be a real gold mine and we wandered around for close to two hours.

The Overland Trail Museum is named after Overland trail stage route which was a southern branch of the Oregon Trail. According to its website,  the museum "commemorates the historic western migration of gold seekers and early pioneers." There were several buildings that housed collections and antiques donated by local residents. From photos to newspaper clippings, dolls to televisions, and fossils to dishes, the museum had some great artifacts of days gone by. In addition, they have moved a number of historic buildings to the area behind the main building and created a little village. We walked through two barns, a barbershop, a one room school house, a church, a house, a gas station, a general store, and red caboose. Everything was furnished with items and furniture of the time period. Most of the buildings were built prior to 1915. It was awesome!

We piled back into the car and finished drive to Colorado Springs. We stopped for dinner at a Cracker Barrel which is one of our favorite restaurants when we leave California. I think we like mostly because of the atmosphere and the fun country store. David had been searching our entire trip for a gag gift for his friend, DeRon. He found it at Cracker Barrel.



We checked into our motel, dropped off our stuff, and jumped back into the car in a race to make it to Seven Falls before 10:00 p.m. when they stop selling tickets. We made if with about 5 minutes to spare and then spent the next hour hiking up the 400+ steep steps to the various platforms for views of the waterfalls. They were all lighted and very pretty, but my phone did not take the best photos.

In the morning, we plan to ride bikes down Pike's Peak. It should be a great way to view the area and get some exercise.

Tubing - Wet & Wild!

Today is our last day in Lincoln and we finished our short visit with a big splash. Karen and Bill own a boat and we went to a nearby lake to swim and go tubing. The lake is called Branched Oak and is a state recreation area. Even though it was a Friday and the day after the 4th, it wasn't too crowded. We arrived around 11:00 and the boys helped Bill launch the boat while Karen and I waited on the beach for them to bring the boat over. Soon Chris, Amber (his girlfriend) and Amber's friend, mother and aunt showed up too.

We took turns going out on the boat and riding the large inner tube. The water was choppy, so it was a rough ride both on and off the boat, but it was still a lot of fun. We found one part of the lake that wasn't as choppy and Bill promised to take it easy on me. I got on the tube with Zach and Dave and proceeded to bounce along in the wake of the boat. It was a thrill ride especially when we turned and Bill accelerated (with Karen's prompting). Then we would slide toward the opposite end and hang on like crazy. At one point, when the boat slowed down, I was too close to the front of the tube, and slid face forward into the water.

We spent several hours out there accumulating varying degrees of sunburn depending on the person and the amount of sunscreen applied. We headed back home around 3:00 to shower and go out for an early dinner. We ate at Golden Corral which is an all you can eat buffet of just about any type of salad, food, and dessert you can think of. There was prime rib, steak, chicken, fish, Chinese, Mexican, homemade mashed potatoes, yeast rolls, corn bread, garlic cheese bread, deviled eggs, a chocolate fountain and even cotton candy. It was hard to decide what to eat!

After so many late nights, everyone is pretty tired and only Zach and David remain awake watching a movie. The rest of us are either in bed or on our way there before 11:00 p.m. Tomorrow we'll leave some time in the morning. Our destination is Colorado Springs which is one of my favorite cities. But for now, my pillow is calling my name.

And The Rockets Red Glare

Independence Day was celebrated in true small town fashion. The neighbors contributed toward the purchase of pork, beef brisket, and ribs and one neighbor smoked it all. He used to participate in competitions, so the meat was high caliber and very tasty BBQ. Tables were set up in driveways and neighbors wandered from house to house eating, talking and introducing new friends and visiting family. Children played in the street, lighting off small firecrackers and smoke bombs. A few were in Karen's backyard swimming in their above ground pool. 28 adults were busy competing in a Chinese Horseshoe competition. It was relaxing and felt like a throwback to the 1950s. I love Karen's neighborhood.

As the sun set in the sky, the fireworks lighting increased. Several other surrounding neighborhoods were also setting off fireworks, so regardless of where you looked in the sky, you'd see something. Eventually, Bill pulled out the big ones and we watched for several hours as the night was filled with bursts of red, white and blue displays. It was quite impressive and at times I felt like we were in a war zone. The explosions were loud and the acrid smoke drifted through the air. After a while I took shelter in the garage and watched from the protective cover to avoid falling pieces of plastic.


From the block party to the fireworks, everything was a new experience for us and a lovely taste of Americana.

Time with Family

Yesterday was an opportunity to rest and catch up on some sleep. I typically wake early regardless of when I go to sleep, but I slept in and got up at 7:00 a.m. It was a slow moving morning, since my parents usually don't rise until 11:00 or later. Once everyone was up and ready, the boys and I went with Karen, Bill, and Hunter so they could buy more fireworks. Hunter had some spending money and he wanted to buy some that he could light.

Fireworks are a big deal here. I was fascinated by the huge selection and stacks of smoke bombs, sparklers, bottle rockets, artillery shells, and firecrackers. There was a large truck that also had boxes and boxes to replenish the supplies as needed. People spend hundreds of dollars loading up for an evening of cracking, booming, flashing, and sparkling. Zach decided to buy a few to light too.

After a quick lunch, we went to the bowling alley and bowled three games. Bill is an excellent bowler and put the rest of us to shame. I used to bowl in a league when I was in junior high, but I think the only time Zach or David bowl is when we get together with my family. The bowling alley was high tech, so we had fun taking our pictures and adding them to the screen and logging into Facebook to track our progress.

When we got back, my nephew Chris was there. He stayed for dinner and his girlfriend, Amber joined us. Amber owns the home next door to Karen and Bill. When Amber moved in, Karen got to know her, and played matchmaker by introducing the two. They are a cute couple and Karen gets to see Chris more since he's over at Amber's more often. Who says parents can't pick out your partner? It sounds like a great idea to me.

Karen lives near the end of a street that forms a circle. It is a friendly neighborhood. The neighbors all know each other and look out for one another. They bring out their lawn chairs and sit in someone's driveway visiting and drinking beer. At 9:00 p.m., it still wasn't dark out and the kids were riding bikes, lighting sparklers, and playing while their parents talked and told stories. 

Lincoln has its fireworks display on the 3rd so they don't have to pay their workers overtime on the 4th. I stayed awake long enough to watch the Lincoln fireworks display over the top of a neighbor's roof. When I went to bed last night, people were still milling around and chatting. I'm told they were out there for several more hours, but I drifted off to sleep to the sound of cracks and sizzles.

The Badlands...Not So Bad

Today was our longest day yet. I’m typing this at 9:41 p.m. and while Zach is driving with another 3-4 hours left before we arrive in Lincoln. So why are we still driving you ask?

Before leaving Keystone, we decided to take a run down the President’s Alpine Slide. We took a ski lift to the top of the mountain and then we each rode a wheeled sled down 2000 feet of slide. It was fun but we lost about an hour as we enjoyed zooming down the hill.

We finally hit the road for Badlands National Park. It was 1.5 hours away. We punched in Badlands National Park and my GPS decided to take us to the southern entrance. To get there we drove through Pine Ridge Reservation to the visitor center which is just a portable trailer. After speaking with the ranger, we realized we should have turned a different way 30 miles back, so we headed back the way we came and then an additional 30 miles to the Interior Entrance and the main visitor center. That ended up being an additional hour of unnecessary driving. The only good thing was that on the way to the Southern Entrance, we saw a herd of privately owned bison close to the road. Unfortunately, we didn’t think fast enough to stop and take a photo. When we backtracked, they were nowhere to be seen. They must have moved on to greener pastures.

 

The Badlands is a barren land of tan rock that looks like dried mud. It is slowly eroding leaving canyons and walls to view and explore. We went on several hikes and visited a working fossil lab in the visitor center. Hikers regularly find fossils buried in the walls, but alas, we found none. It was still pretty cool to see paleontologists slowly drilling rock away from a fossil. She looked like a dentist cleaning tartar off of someone’s teeth.

Everything in the park is spread out, so to get anywhere it was a drive. We took the scenic loop and ended up further north and west in South Dakota which again added time to our trip. Before leaving the park we drove 5 miles down a gravel road toward Prarie Dog Town. The prarie was full of prarie dog holes with the little critters popping their heads up out of holes and running from one hole to the next. They were squeaking at each other and it was fun to try to predict where they would pop up next. It was kind of like “Whack a Mole.” Off in the distance we saw some buffalo so we took some photos and headed out once again.

 

Aside from a quick stop at Subway for sandwiches and stopping for gas or to change drivers, we’ve been driving ever since. Well, it’s my turn to drive…

P.S. We arrived at 2:00 a.m. We’ll spend the next three days visiting with my sister, brother-in-law, nephews and my parents.

Mountains & Monuments

It's Tuesday morning and today is the last leg of our trip to Lincoln. We have a long day of driving ahead of us, so we decided we should break it up with a quick trip to Badlands National Park. We'll leave in just a bit.

We spent the night in Keystone, South Dakota after visiting Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore. Keystone is a cute little mining town that exists mainly to host the many visitors to Mount Rushmore.
Our drive through Wyoming was uneventful and David got to do some of the driving this time. We disagree on how fast he was "allowed" to go. You can read his perspective on his blog at: http://favoritesonsspiel.blogspot.com/

Crazy Horse Memorial is an unfinished monument to the Lakota leader. The memorial is a work in progress and will take more years than I will be alive to complete, since it is funded only by donations and admission fees. It was the belief of the sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski, that this should not be a state or federal project and his family carried on this philosophy after his death in 1982. Even though he is gone, the artist's wife and seven of his ten children have continued the project. We spent about two hours looking through the exhibits and learning about the sculpture, sculptor, and the Native American people. I bought a necklace made of red jaspar, silver, and black buffalo horn. It has a carved turtle ("Keya" in Lakota) pendant that represents overcoming obstacles in life and finding alternatives and solutions to problems that are faced. I like that idea.

Mount Rushmore is less than 20 miles from Crazy Horse also in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We arrived right when it was starting to rain. It was dinner time, so we decided to eat at the Carvers Cafe at the monument and wait for the rain to subside. The skies cleared soon and we proceeded to walk the Presidential Trail which takes you to the base of the mountain for different perspectives of the sculpture. We climbed up and down about 400 stairs and took more photos than we ever needed of the four presidents. 

We wandered through the Visitor Center, and watched a movie about the sculptor and the reason why these four president's were chosen. Originally, the idea of a mountain sculpture was to highlight the legends of the West like Lewis & Clark, and Buffalo Bill Cody. But the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, a prolific artist of the time stated that he would not devote his life to this project unless it was something that had meaning to the entire nation. He chose the four presidents, to create an eternal reminder of the birth (Washington), growth (Jefferson), development (Roosevelt), and preservation (Lincoln) of a nation that is dedicated to democracy and liberty.

We stayed for the lighting ceremony which happened at 9:30 p.m. It took that long for it to get dark enough. It was a nice ceremony that stirred the patriotic spirit within me. It was a good end to a fun and educational day.

Rocky Mountain High

I'm sitting here in our hotel room in Cheyenne, Wyoming. We are staying at the Historic Plains Hotel, an awesome old building located in downtown Cheyenne. I love old historic places and this is perfect. We are on the 5th floor and our room is the nicest we've had so far. We have a sitting area complete with couch and two easy chairs. The hotel was built in 1911 to serve cattle barons, oil tycoons and travelers on their way to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. It has a century of history and is just plain cool.

The hotel is across the street from a movie theater, so Zach and David decided to see the late night showing of Iron Man 3. They were excited, because tickets were only $3.50. We spent most of the day in the car, so they are enjoying a little entertainment.

We left late from Grand Junction this morning, because we slept in and then took our time posting blogs and photos. By the time we got on the road, I knew we weren't going to be able to do much of anything in Denver. To complicate things even more, we hit a lot of traffic on I-70 and that added about an hour to our trip. The drive though long was lovely as we climbed higher into the Rocky Mountains. The Colorado River was our constant companion, and we saw people rafting and tubing along the way. At one point, I commented to the boys that I felt like we were in a model railroad. The red mountains and the green pine trees just reminded me of the landscape used by model train builders.

Near Red Rocks Amphitheater

I wanted to stop and see Red Rocks Amphitheater located just outside of Denver. We got there around 4:00 p.m., but our plans were foiled when we realized they were having a concert and a thousand people were converging onto the site. That was a bummer, but I also had been told we could see dinosaur footprints nearby, so we began the hunt for those instead. After several trips around the mountain, and asking for directions, we successfully discovered Dinosaur Ridge which has a wealth of fossils including dinosaur footprints. It was a fun experience for the closet archeologist hidden in me.

Zach having a conversation with a dinosaur

Fossilized dinosaur footprints

It was getting late so we decided to forego a trip into Denver and instead stopped for dinner at Jay's Grille & Bar before heading onto Cheyenne. Since last night we ate at Pasta Jay's, we thought it was apropos to eat at another restaurant with the name Jay in it. It was in honor of our missing traveling companion whose name starts with a J.

Despite the delays and disappointments it turned out to be a pretty nice day.

From Hoodoos to Windows

Yesterday was a busy day. The goal was a little hiking and exploring of two National Parks about 270 miles apart. Bryce Canyon is one of my favorite National Parks. I love the magical hoodoos that are a fairy world of castles and turrets. Last time we were here, we only looked at the views from above. But this time, we chose a short hike called Navajo Loop which was a steep descent into the canyon and then back out. The hike itself was only 1.3 miles, but the elevation change was dramatic and the views were exquisite. We took lots of photos mainly because I stopped so many times to rest and drink some water.



















Around mid-day, we said our goodbyes to Bryce Canyon, and drove toward Arches National Park. The plan was to get there early evening when hopefully the temperature had cooled down a bit. The drive was long and desolate. Not much but open space in this part of Utah. The boys watched the movie Inception (David's favorite) and Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog (produced, written, & directed by Joss Whedon during the writer's strike) to pass the time.

The massive rock formations at Arches National Park are impressive. The red rock looks like a giant's play area filled with red clay that has been rolled, balled, and pinched. Everything is huge. The temperature was bearable so we got out of the car several times to hike around the big structures as the desert wind blew through our hair.

It was getting late, and we still had more than an hour drive to our motel in Grand Junction, Colorado, so we left the park and decided to eat dinner in the town of Moab, Utah. We were hungry and the food was delicious. We arrived around 10:30 p.m. and collapsed into bed with satisfaction of a mission accomplished. We could have spent more time at any of the parks we visited, but we got a decent taste of each and a renewed appreciation of the glory of God's creation.