The Journey 2008: Day 17

Day 17, the final day of the journey, begins at the Grand Canyon.

We walked along the south rim to see some beautiful views.

The lighting was not the best and the photos cannot capture the amazing beauty of God's creation.

On the right side of the photo, if you look at the bottom of the canyon you can see a green patch which is Phantom Ranch. You can stay there and rest up at the bottom of the canyon if you are up for hiking all the way down and back up again. Anyone want to go?

You can see one of the trails leading down into the canyon below.

Cruising more of Route 66.

Had to stop at the old 50's diner, Mr. D'z, along Route 66 in Kingman, AZ for some good burgers and shakes.

Back in Cali.

Oh to be back in California.

Oh ya, score I guess, we found some cheaper gas.

We had decided to take the road trip and then it just happened to be during the time that gas pricing spiked in the summer of 2008, lucky us.

You know gas is expensive when during the road trip we were exited to find gas for $3.79 per gallon.

We met up with a few bugs along the way. I guess 6,400+ miles will do that.

Cruising across the California desert, and back home.

Guess I need to get back to work sometime after all the travel fun.

17 days and 19 states, what an adventure - The Journey 2008.

Where will our next journey be to? Road trip anybody?

The Journey 2008: Day 16

Day 16 begins wandering the streets of Santa Fe, NM.

We found the oldest church structure in the USA.

It was an interesting building to explore, and the thick adobe walls kept it nice and cool in the summer.

We also found a R2-D2 mailbox. Not sure if this goes with the whole decor of Santa Fe, but I guess its about time for Santa Fe with all of its older adobe buildings to step up their technology a little bit.

Next onto Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque, NM.

It was interesting to wander around this open area directly next to housing tracts and see petroglyphs all over the rocks.

We headed out of Albuquerque along Route 66.

Along the way it was time for happy hour at Sonic, so of course we had to find one and grab some drinks.

While cruising Route 66 we crossed back over the Continental Divide, and I guess Morgan and Amy decided they wanted to ride their way across like people did back in the days of the wagon trains.

Back into Arizona, the last state before we are back in Cali.

We drove through the painted desert which was full of beautiful colors.

The picture does not do it justice.

We also went to Petrified Forest National Park as we cruised through Arizona.

It was crazy to see all the pieces of petrified wood.

It looked a lot like wood, but was completely stone.

The landscape as we drove around the Petrified Forest National Park was beautiful.

Here are a couple of pieces of petrified wood all polished up.

It is crazy that these beautiful polished stones were trees at one time.

Heading across Arizona into the sunset.

Still cruising after dark, and making our way to the Grand Canyon for the night.

Tomorrow we wake up at the Grand Canyon, and make our way back into California and home.

The Journey 2008: Day 15

Day 15 begins in Amarillo, TX driving by an extra large cowboy and cow. I guess everything really is bigger here in Texas.

Even the steaks. Free 72oz. steak...all you have to do is eat it along with some sides in under 1 hour...anyone hungry?

Heading out of Amarillo I saw the street my family is named after.

Cadillac Ranch just outside of Amarillo.

I guess a rancher in Texas thought burying Cadillac's would be a fun thing to do. Don't know if he was trying to grow some newer Cadillac's or just wanted to give kids a place to put their graffiti so it did not end up other places in town. Either way, when on a road trip you have to stop at random places like this because what would road trips be without pictures of random things from around the country?

More time on Route 66 today, and we found the midpoint between Chicago and Los Angeles.

Midpoint cafe...heard they have good pie and cobbler so of course we needed to try some.

Morgan approved of the cobbler, in her own words "soooo good"

Heading in to New Mexico to give the "Land of Enchantment" a little more time than we did playing twister at the four corners earlier in the trip.

Pecos National Historic Park to explore an old pueblo

It was fun to see how they built structures, especially this large one, with the thick walls which help a lot with the heat and cold to keep the inside comfortable...anyone up for using thick mud walls on their next house?

We made it to Santa Fe for the night, and found great place to eat some good New Mexican food which also happened to brew its own beer, so of course we had to try some. The food had a good kick to it, but it was a good kick mixed with great flavors.

We ended the night walking around Santa Fe.

A day filled with a lot of driving, a lot of fun and of course more good food.

Tomorrow more of New Mexico and back into Arizona for the next to last leg of the trip.

The Journey 2008: Day 14

Day 14 begins in Tulsa, OK at Boston Avenue Methodist Church where we found some beautiful mosaics.

It is crazy how all those little pieces make up one big piece of art.

Next we head off to Oral Roberts University and check out the praying hands statue. They are about 60 feet tall to give you an idea of how large they really are.

Oral Roberts Prayer Tower.

Now back on Route 66.

And to Russ' Ribs, which encourages people to write on the walls as you can see.

Of course we had to take a picture with the joints mascot the pig on the pot.

Great food. Funny thing when we asked what was good to order there, they told us about this cut of beef that you could not get anywhere else in the area called 'tri-tip'. They asked if we had ever heard of it, and of course being from Santa Maria, CA we have had our fair share of tri-tip.

While sitting down and eating we talked to the owner and found out that his daughter lives in Santa Maria. When he was out visiting one time he had tri-tip and liked it so much he had to bring it back to serve in his barbeque place, and so the delicousness of tri-tip travels to Bristow, OK.

Checking out the Arcadia Round Barn along Route 66 in Arcadia, OK

Looking at the roof structure of the round barn. Interesting how they built it up.

Now onto Oklahoma City and to the State Capitol of OK.

Next we stopped by the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

It is an intense place to visit, but we are glad we went.

The grounds are a beautiful memorial to the people who died.

This is Morgan's favorite tree; the Survivor Tree.

All along the fence surrounding the memorial people have hung all sorts of different things.

We stopped for dinner in El Reno, OK at Johnnie's Grill. More good food. Morgan loved her coleslaw chili dog.

While eating we were keeping our eye on the weather, trying to figure out whether to wait for the storm heading our way to pass, and then start driving, or just get out on the road, drive and see what happens.

Of course we headed out, besides the radar for the storm looked like a long way off on the television, and it also did not look very wide. Oh the fun of listening to the radio for tornado warnings as we drove and making sure we were not at the mile markers they were talking about. Just when we thought we were almost out of the storm, I could see the light of the sun on the other side of the clouds, it started to pour and by pour I mean hydroplaining at 25 mph because there is so much water falling from the sky it does not have enough time to go anywhere. It seemed that the reason I was able to see the light from the sun coming on the other side of the clouds was because entire clouds were just falling from the sky on us. Needless to say we took the next exit, we pulled into a Walgreens and ran inside. The power was out, but they were nice enough to let us hang out until the storm passed. Morgan had to go to the bathroom, and by the time she was out the storm had passed, the sun was shinning and we headed back out on the road. Easy enough right? Oh the memories of the fun adventure.

We end our day past the crazy stormy weather and heading into our last new state, Texas.

There is day 14. We added Texas to bring the state total for the trip to 19.

Tomorrow more Texas, Route 66, and back into New Mexico.