Day 14 and home!

Back home again!  The trip but was great but we need a little time to rest now.  I'll try to put some random pictures up in a day or two so check back!  Thanks to all of the great people we met on our trip who shared the road with us !!

Day 13

Today we left Oklahoma City heading east again. This has been a traveling day with no stops except for lunch and rest stops.  We have all had a great time but I think most are looking forward to getting home.  We are spending the night in Jackson, TN.

Day 12

Once again we started our day travelling west on Interstate 40.  Our first stop was at the Cadillac Ranch.  This is a collection of ten old Cadillacs buried half way in the ground.  They are covered in graffiti and the owner welcomes that.  Next we stopped near Pampa, TX at the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ Memorial.  This structure and the surrounding sculptures are dedicated to victims of abortion.  The memorial includes the Cross and the Twelve Stations of the Cross as well as sculptures of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. The cross can be seen from a distance of about 20 miles away  Our final destination of the day was Oklahoma City, capitol of the state of Oklahoma.  First we visited the Cowboy Hall of Fame.  This a great place with all things cowboy.  There is Western art, gun collections, hats, saddles and a great exhibit of memorabilia from the old cowboy movies. Next was a visit to the state Capitol Building which has an oil well on the front lawn.  Then we headed to the site of the Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah Federal Building.  The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum is dedicated to the 168 people who were killed in the explosion.  There is a chair dedicated to each of the victims, many of them children.  That was a sobering way to end our day.

The Cadillac Ranch 

 The Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ rises nearly 200 ft.

Another view if the Cross

Divine Mercy Fountain

Sculptures of The Last Supper and  The Crucifixion

John Wayne's Winchester used in the movies Stagecoach in 1939 and True Grit in 1969.

The guitar of Gene Autrey, the "Singing Cowboy"

Sculpture of Buffalo Bill Cody

Saddle awarded to the World Champion Rodeo Cowboy in 1937

The Capitol of Oklahoma with an oil well on the front lawn.  This oil well actually pumped oil from 1941 to1987.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.  The chairs in the background are on the site where the building stood.  The reflecting pool is where the road was located and where the bomb was planted.

One of the chairs dedicated to those killed in Oklahoma City.

Day 11

This morning we continued west from Gallup, NM on Interstate 40.  Our first stop was at  the Blue Water Trading Post where we shopped for souvenirs.  This was the 487th gift shop we have visited so far ;)  I understand there are more to come.  Then we traveled to Old Town Albuquerque, the original site of Albuquerque, NM.  The town was established in1706 by the Spanish.  There are many small shops and restaurants as well as an area where Native American craftsmen sell jewelry that they have made.  After lunch we headed out of town a short distance to the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway, billed as the worlds longest tramway.  It starts at an elevation of around 6,000 ft. above sea level and ends up at the peak, which is 10,378 ft. above sea level.  The view just cannot be described as you ride to the top.  Then we traveled to Tucumcari, NM.  This is another small town on Old Route 66 which has suffered from the construction of Interstate 40.  As we drove through town we saw many business that have been closed.  We will spend the night here.

San Felipe de Meri Church on Old Town Albuquerque, NM

Inside of San Felipe de Meri

Native American craftsmen selling their jewelry in Old Town Albuquerque

Casa de Fiesta Restaurant

Old Town Albuquerque

Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway near Albuquerque

Nearing the top of Sandia Peak on the tram

View from the top of Sandia Peak

Day 10

Today we said farewell to Las Vegas and backtracked to Kingman, AZ where we got back on Interstate 40 and stared heading East.  As we drew near to Flagstaff,  AZ we got a great view of Humphreys Peak, the highest peak in Arizona.  We left the Interstate to get on Route 66 again in Holbrook, AZ.  We stopped to take pictures of the Wigwam Motel.  This motel, built in 1950 has cabins built to look like Native American Tee Pees.  It is surrounded by old cars from the 50s and 60s and really takes you back in time.  From Holbrook we headed to the Petrified Forest National Park where we viewed a film and walked through some of the ancient "forest" and saw many pieces of petrified wood.  Next we went into the Painted Desert National Park where there are many unusual land formations with layers of different colored rock which gives it it's name.  We got back on Interstate 40 and headed to Gallup, NM where we spent the night.

Humphreys Peak

The Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ, located on old Route 66

A piece of petrified wood found in the Petrified Forest

Some of the bigger pieces of petrified wood in the Petrified Forest

More petrified wood

Janet and I beside a petrified tree that still has part of it's roots

The Painted Desert

A land form in the Painted Desert called The Tee Pees

The Painted Desert

Days 8 & 9

On day 8 we started out from Grand Canyon, AZ and headed to the famous Route 66.  Folks in my generation (i.e. OLD) remember the TV show about two guys going up and down Route 66 in a little Corvette.  We visited the gift shop of Angel Delgadillo who was instrumental in preserving the history of the historic route which was replaced by Interstate 40.  From there we headed through the desert to Las Vegas and Hoover Dam.  The tours at the dam had finished for the day when we got there so we headed back to Las Vegas and the Excalibur.  Some of our group went back on Tuesday morning and did the tour.  We had Monday night and all of Tuesday to check out  the "City of Sin". The pictures below can do a better job than I can describing Las Vegas.  You just need to go there, but don't take your children :)

Famous Route 66 as it goes through Seligman, AZ

The gift shop of Angel Delgadillo.    We were fortunate enough to meet Angel.

Hoover Dam

The Excalibur, our home away from home in Las Vegas.  Pretty fancy for this old boy!

The Luxor

The MGM

New York , New York

The Strip at night

                                    

The volcano show at the Mirage

Paris

The Belaggio

Harley-Davidson's place in Las Vegas

The water show at the Belaggio.  Caesars Palace is in the background.

Day 7

 We started out the day today with a great view of the mountains from the balcony of our hotel in Sedona.  This is truly a beautiful place!  We headed out of Sedona through Oak Creek Canyon, a place that was the location of many of the old cowboy movies from the past. The steep, crooked road took us to the top of the mountain to a rest area where local Native Americans sell their hand made jewelry and other crafts.  Then we headed north towards the Grand Canyon.  We stopped near the entrance to the park at Cameron Village Trading Post  where we had lunch.  A specialty of this place is Navajo "fry bread" and man is it good!  Then we headed into the park to see the Grand Canyon.  I don't know where to begin talking about the Grand Canyon.  Words just can't describe the beauty and enormous size of this canyon.  About all I can say is that everyone should come to this place once in their lives.

This was the view we woke up to this morning.  This rock formation was right off the balcony at our hotel.

A view from the top of Oak Creek Canyon looking back toward Sedona.

100 year old suspension bridge at the lower end of the canyon next to Cameron Village Trading Post

Observation tower at Desert View above the Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon from the Bright Angel observation point.

Navajo Mountain as seen across the canyon from Desert View

The view of the canyon from Mojave Point

The Colorado River as seen from Desert View

Another look at the Canyon from Desert View

Just to prove that I was here too!