The Great South West Journey

It sure has been a wonderful month. On June 20th John and Mary arrived for a little vacation. Other than seeing the normal Minneapolis and St Paul sights, we went to the North Shore for two days. Mary and John were a hoot to travel with. John sure likes taking pictures and thank the Universe that he brought to cameras with him on that jaunt. I left my battery plugged into the wall at home, now that was a good place for it don't you think? The sights and sounds of the north woods are not to be missed, not to mention Betty's Pies. The weather was great, nice and cool with bright sunshine, just like Minnesota should be. There are reasons we live here and days like those are some of them. John and Mary left on the 26th at 10AM and at 4PM the Bracker girls from Germany arrived for three weeks. We had a few days with them in the cities to get them acclimated to the time change and America. We also needed a little time for them to get acclimated to us and us to them. Their comments from the first few days "everything is so big" and after three weeks in the U.S. "I am surprised at how awful your roads are." On the 1st of July Jana, Saskia and I flew to Denver for the start of the southwest adventure. We rented the Queen Mary (most everyone else knows it as a Chevy Tahoe) for the journey, wow does that thing suck the gas.. We spent our first three days at the dude ranch, yes I went horse back ridding in complete cowboy drag, boots, hat, western shirt the works. Then Sara Wedul (an old friend that now lives in Denver) joined us for the remainder of the journey. We went to Santa Fe to the Opera, *disappointing* but we loved Santa Fe, the UFO convention in Roswell NM *a little lame actually*, then Carlsbad Caverns *amazing*, The White Sands National Monument, *one of the surprises of the trip for everyone but me, wonderful place*, Gila Cliff Dwellings near Silver City NM, *Cool and not extensive and not touristy at all*, then the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert *Very very cool*. Think this is enough? At this point we are about at the half way mark. We visited some of the sights on old Route 66 *how can you not love that?*, stayed in two 50's style mom and pop motels *I like luxury*, walked around the towns, bought souvenirs, ate in diners and took a ton of pictures. Had a flat tire on the Q.M. that we had to change at 114 degrees, yes 114 degrees and we are all still alive to talk about it. Then off to the Grand Canyon, now that was a sight this old road warrior was completely impressed with but the heat, for God's sake who in their right minds would want to live in that. Dry heat.....PULLLEEEZZZZ. An oven is dry heat too but I am not moving in anytime soon, but I digress... by this time we are all in need of a break and some luxury (especially me) so off to Lost Wages we go. Now I say luxury right, put that together with Las Vegas and does that make you think of the Wynn? It did me. We checked in, what an amazing place that was, the light fixtures were amazing enough to warrant, oh.. say 25 pictures. We all had corner rooms with great views of all the new construction going on there. That is one amazing city, is there no end to the money? The pool area was wonderful and we spent the afternoon in water sipping Mojito's. That evening we went to see "O" the Cirque show at the Bellagio. http://youtube.com/watch?v=O0_KUwpqdE8 Again amazing but tomorrow is a new day so off to Zion National Park *worth the drive* and then Arches *I was so tired I had to sleep in the car while Sara took pictures and did some walking around but again HOT. Of course this was not busy enough for us so we had to add an early morning white water rafting trip to the mix. That was great but we were all so exhausted that I am not sure any of us enjoyed the rest of the drive back to Denver. I had to stay awake and Sara, thank the universe for her, kept me awake so I could navigate the Queen Mary back into port safely. We spent the night with Sara in her home in Denver and the next day we came back to Minneapolis for some much-deserved rest. When time and energy permits I will get into why one should be very careful of the traditional American Motel's these days.