31 July 2013, Wahweap Campground, Page, Arizona

We shoved off early to drive to Page, Arizona to rent a boat on Lake Powell today. This has to be the most beautiful lake in America. Layers and layers of rock formations surround the lake. Absolutely no development on the shoreline except for marinas filled  with the most tremendous houseboats!

Maxwell was very wise and bought a tube at Walmart. And blew it up by himself. I had no idea the kid had such lung capacity!!

Paul does not care for boats, so I was captain for the day.  We beached the boat and scarfed down a fancy lunch of PB&J's, which had to be the best ever.  

This is the first and probably last photo of  Paul in a hat. Although I think he looks awfully handsome.

It was a fun and beautiful day on Lake Powell.

We were so fortunate to get the best spot in the park. They were sold out of full hookups, but as long as we had electricity we were happy. You couldn't beat the view from our picnic table.

Last but not least, sunset.

30 July 2013, Spider Rock Campground, Chinle, Arizona

"On The Road Again."  We left Santa Fe with the understanding we would have a 4 1/2 hour drive. This from "Google Girl" as I've taken to calling her. I am loaded to bear with all the required books and maps I've collected from reading other travelers' sites, perusing the bookstores online and in person, and of course the official TripTik from AAA.  But what do I use? Damn Google Maps on my iPhone.

Google Girl has misled us. In Memphis and in Santa Fe she got us nearly there. Almost. So, keeping that in mind....

We drove south toward Albuquerque. The continually changing landscape keeps you occupied. You don't want to look down because you surely will miss something!

But of course, not everyone is as enthralled at the sights as Paul and I are.

According to Google Girl, we had a 3 1/2 hour drive to our next stop. It was currently 11 so we had a little exploration time. I thought a brief educational walk through the Petroglyphs National Monument would do the trick. This is the largest site of petroglyphs in the county. Petroglyphs are created by removing part of a the volcanic basalt surface and revealing a different color underneath.

These are thought to have been made between 1300 and 1800 by the Puebloan people.

Okay, that was cool, now let's do something fun and look for Walter and Jesse's houses. Who? The three oldest Rousso's are "Breaking Bad" fans and most of the show is shot on location in Albuquerque.  The National Park Ranger had drawn a map to them for us!

As we are driving to the first house, I called to confirm our 4:00 appointment in Chinle with Leon Skyhorse Thomas. Leon Skyhorse freaked out on me and said it was a 5 hour drive and I had better hurry. I said I had checked Google and my maps but he was adamant he drove to Albuquerque every week. He had my credit card number and this was our only chance to have a tour, so we bailed on our location scouting. (Maxwell not happy. Joy not happy either.)

So off we go. 

Three and a half hours later, we arrived at our destination.  Leon Skyhorse (found out he played the sheriff in Natural Born Killers) must drive a burro. Or stop at all the casinos along the way.

Canyon de Chellly is in Navajo Nation. It is a National Park but you and I can only enter the Canyon with a Navajo. This is the second largest canyon in the country and it is filled with amazing cliff dwellings and kivas and pictographs of the ancient people.   

Our Navajo guide, Leone pointing out pictographs. iPhone could not capture them, but amazing pictographs are still visible. Paul was very interested to know what the paint consisted of. Along with the expected minerals, they apparently used animal blood, human blood and urine. Hmmmmm.

Leone was an excellent guide and after she warmed up to us was fun as well. Some families still move into the canyon seasonally to raise crops. Of course they have no water, electricity, cable or even phone service. We were told not to take pictures of their homes, their animals or of them. Once when we stopped a tiny girl named Nina came out to sell us beaded necklaces. None of us could possibly say no. This was such an amazing tour that it kept us all interested. Except when Alex spaced out and started talking about Spongebob!

We skulked back to the back of the back of the campground to our dry campsite. The quiet hours are from 8:30 on and we knew we couldn't survive without AC, so we got as far away from everyone as we could.  After preparing a quick dinner (my spaghetti never tasted quite as good) we just laid back and watched the show above. The sky was blanketed with thousands of stars that we normally can't see with the city's ambient light. We all caught a shooting star and said goodnight. 

29 July 2013, Los Suenos RV Park, Santa Fe, New Mexico

59 degrees this morning!  Such lovely weather in which to schlep back and forth and do laundry. (Yes, this is a vacation!). We decided to rent a car to explore the area, and this is what I brought home:

(I think Paul needs a big pickup truck. A red one. Always.)

We drove into the hills and everyone is ready to "pickup" and move here.  It is lovely and so very different from what we see at home.

Beautiful adobe-style homes.

A quaint gallery

The hospital

First Citizens Bank!

Cathedral Basilica de St. Francis de Assissi

We went to The Plaza for our first stop: lunch. A little lunchtime trick photography:

While the boys and I wandered in and out of the shops and stepped over and around the patchouli-scented homeless youth in the doorways, Paul peeled off to explore the galleries of Canyon Road.  He had a really great experience.  Paul walked into the premiere contemporary representational gallery of Santa Fe and introduced himself. They answered, "Oh we're very familiar with your work...we love your work." This was a big rush for my Charlotte boy!

We reconnected and continued on our wander.  Of course I had to stop and gaze at all the lovely Lucchese's...

We had had enough commercialism, and climbed back into Big Red. We saw what is reportedly the oldest house in the US, an 800 yr old adobe.

A short 10 minutes out of town we found ourselves in Santa Fe National Forest:

We had a nice little walk through the woods and back to town!

We discovered Rooftop Pizza and we all dove into our respective pizzas. When we came out, a band was playing in The Plaza. On a Monday night. Such a lovely way to end our day in Santa Fe!

28 July 2013, Oklahoma City East KOA, Oklahoma

I panicked when I discovered the refrigerator had been off all night. Since have 6 nights of home-cooked dinners prepared I was not, ahem, a happy camper. Thankfully Issy could ferry me to the store for ice.

We hosted a quick RV-side breakfast and because it was time to giddy-up and go over to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum!

This is an amazingly expansive collection of everything cowboy - saddles, barbed-wire, chaps, brands, hats, you-name-it. Cowboy-related art - paintings, sculpture. Movie memorabilia. An authentic cowboy town, lots of fun stuff to see.

Alex bought himself a Davy Crockett hat as a souvenir.

There was so much to see and we hated to leave our cousins but we had only a limited time.  We did, however, stop and have lunch at the museum. $10 adults / $5.00 kids, drinks included,for the best buffet ever.

Group shot in front of President Lincoln. 

Look! Old arches!

We headed out of Oklahoma and drove across Texas.  I made Paul pull over at Michael's to buy spray paint. The boys could not figure out what had come over me!  Well, what I knew that they did not was that we were nearing Cadillac Ranch. This is a crazy art project installed in the 70's of 10 Cadillacs, nose down into the dirt. (Apparently at the same angle as the great pyramids of Giza.

The smell of spray paint was strong and you had to avoid the down-wind overspray. Maxwell parked himself inside one of the cars and worked on "KeegFilms" on YouTube (his channel.)   I hope it stayed up for at least a day!

Here he is!