Monday, May 9, 2016

Monday's Musings on Arizona 2016

This trip to Arizona was more about "walking the land" once again to see if we felt the same way about Gold Canyon that we did last year at this time when we made the decision to move there. Circumstances took us off course and three surgeries and too many weeks of radiation, and my lack of energy had us questioning what we thought was God's plan for us.  So, we did not plan on any sight-seeing on this trip.  We did however enjoy the views along the way.  Three days of driving going down and returning brought us views that were amazing.  And of course the Superstition Mountains, and Tonto National Forest in Arizona never disappoint.

We drove through some pretty run down towns and barren landscapes as we left Wichita and traveled through SW Kansas, the panhandle of Oklahoma, northern Texas, and New Mexico......all in one long long day.  We had van trouble and ended up at the Walmart where we had a mechanic checking over the tires before moving on.  So eating in the parking lot was our only option if we wanted to keep track of all our stuff in the van.  Everyone was very nice in the auto shop and they did not even charge us since they found no reason for the low tire warning.  The store bathrooms in the store were so dirty, though, and two of the four stalls were broken.  In fact I found most of the bathrooms we stopped at to be disgusting.....very few were clean or stocked with what was necessary. In one place in Oklahoma the bathroom was filthy, and they had a wet bar of soap sitting on the counter and NO paper towels to wipe your hands on.  The bathroom basket was caked with dirt.  Ugh......and ugh again.  But I regress...........

Parking lot lunch in Kansas

Once we got into New Mexico, we found the atmosphere changed and the views along Interstate 40 were beautiful.  Northern New Mexico has it's own beauty to share.  We also drove through Albuquerque and saw the signs for Kirkland AF Base.  Our oldest was born there when Joel was in the military.  We had brake trouble going down the 6000 ft. descent from Flagstaff to Phoenix area.  It was prettying scary, with the whole van shaking when Joel applied the brakes.  Needless to say we had them replaced soon after we arrived.  Here are a few pictures of our three day, 8-10 hours a day in the car trip south to Arizona.


New Mexico

New Mexico

Black Lava Rocks in NM

Beautiful snow covered mountains

1 comment:

Mevely317 said...

What an adventure getting down the hill from Flag!
I don't know what make/model you drive, but my hubby had a similar experience (low-tire indicator) with his '10 Tacoma. All 4 tires checked out OK, then someone at the dealership discovered it was the SPARE tire!