AZ part two!

Jo and I decided to leave Canyon De Chelly a few hours earlier than we originally planned and hit the road so we could get to Holbrook, AZ a bit sooner and get a hot shower at the KOA that was to be our home base for the next few days.

Fortunately, we stopped off at Hubbel Trading Post National Historic Site.

The Trading Post almost defies description. It is a large complex that includes stables, a store, an art gallery and the Hubbel Home. The store is still an active trading post selling various goods. I bought a Navajo cake, a sort of chocolate/corn/raisin tamale snack, and ate it as we walked the grounds. We also took the park service’s tour of the house. John Lorenzo Hubbel and his family lived in the home while they ran the trading post. The home is a glimpse into life at the post and the relationship Hubble had with the local Navajo people as well as a gallery for the art he collected. It was an amazing stop and well worth going out of the way to visit.

We continued on to Petrified Forest National Park to pick up our map and then to Holbrook to set up camp. We took our highly anticipated hot showers and then collected a free piece of petrified wood (not collected in the park… we triple checked) from one of the local dealers and headed 20 miles west to Winslow, AZ. Yes, that Winslow, AZ.

Winslow sits right on Route 66 and the sleepy little town is trying to make the most of its historic location and a single line in The Eagles song “Take it Easy.” There is a Standing on a Corner Park with Route 66 stores on adjacent corners to the park. We, of course, had to stand on the corner and call our respective parents. We then sampled Route 66 sodas and headed back to Holbrook for dinner.

Our last day in AZ was spent at Petrified Forest National Park. We did every single hike available and enjoyed most of them. The highlight for us both was when a ranger explained that we could actually go down in to the desert via a path behind the Painted Desert Inn and Museum. It was nice because the park was busy and this got us away from the masses and gave us a much better glimpse of the park. Many of the hikes were paved and weaved in and out of the piles of petrified wood.

I think the hardest part was watching inconsiderate people trample off the trails to see pieces of wood. Jo and I had a long conversation about why we, as Americans, seem to think that ignoring the posted signs and requests to stay on the path and trundle off where ever we want is seen as our right? I love the parks, and I think they are amazingly important, but it really bothers me to see people treating them as something that are rightfully theirs and not as the gift they are. We tend to forget that the United States is fortunate that our government and a few private citizens were smart enough to preserve some of our natural beauty. Very few European countries have National Parks because they did not have the foresight to care for the land a bit better. So how about we appreciate what we have and not let our kids trample down the hill instead of taking the trail…OK… I feel better, mostly.

We also spent a day exploring the Flagstaff area – which will get a separate post after this, so stay tuned!

Standing on a Soapbox In Las Vegas, Nevada,

Cory

Northern Arizona Road Trip, Part 1

Jo and I so enjoyed last summer’s road trip that we planned another tour of local National Parks, this time in Northern Arizona. We started last Wednesday and Northeast to Navajo National Monument just outside Kayenta, Arizona in the Navajo Nation. It is here we ran into Arizona’s kooky time issues. In a nutshell, the state of Arizona and the Hopi Nation do not recognize (celebrate? Conform to?) Daylight Savings Time but the Navajo Nation does. Ergo, on the Navajo Nation, during the summer, it is Mountain Standard Time; but everywhere else it is Pacific Standard Time.

Anyway, we spent the first evening hiking the two trails around the rim of the canyon and looking over Betatakin, the Anasazi – or Ancient Pueblo People if you prefer – ruins. The second day we broke camp and met a ranger at the visitors’ center to take the 5 mile, round trip, guided tour to Betatakin. It was, by far, the highlight of the entire road trip. We were able to walk gingerly around the ruins and our guide was extremely knowledgeable.

From Navajo National Monument we headed to Canyon De Chelly National Monument. Now, Canyon De Chelly is pretty in its own right but we had a few issues with the park. First, it sits on the very near outskirts of Chinle, AZ and the proximity of the Navajo town seems to affect the park. The canyon consists of two rim drives each with their own overlooks. The overlooks are nice and they give decent views of the canyons and the Anasazi ruins. The campground feels more like a state park grounds and there is a strange instance of the locals simply parking at open sites and...well... hanging out. This most likely goes hand in hand with the signs at the Visitors' Center that warned about a rash of robberies.

Our biggest issue was, as I stated above, the effects of Chinle. First, there are numerous merchants at every overlook selling Navajo tourist trinkets. That in itself is not bad, but they are a bit pushy about it and all the trinkets are the same. It distracts from the canyon. Second, and more irritating, is the fact that the only way to go in to the canyon for a majority of the year is by hiring a guide from town. Again, not a big deal, in fact we like the idea of the Navajo Nation working in tandem with the Parks Service, but the majority of those tours are done via 4 wheel drive. As you all know, we dislike the destroying of nature via wheels.

We did stumble upon a Ranger hike into the canyon, a rarity in the park. It was a good hike but we were still a far distance away from any ruins. We planned on taking another guided hike the day we left the park, but decided against it due to fatigue and disillusionment. From the canyon we headed to our final destination, Holbrook, AZ on our way we would visit Hubble Trading Post National Historic Site and would spend the next few days in the Flagstaff area as well as Petrified Forest National Park.

Stay tuned for the rest of the trip!

-Cory

Editor's note: If you don't have anything nice to say, 1) don't say it at all, or 2) be courageous enough to put your name to it. Anonymous comments will no longer be accepted. Have a great day!

The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee take two: The Gentlemen of the Shire

On Saturday we returned the second of the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee to the Homeward Bound gang. This time we had four little boys with us:

Frodo(the striped one):

Gandalf:

Smeagol:

And Pippin:

They were a bit more of a challenge than Tara and Scarlett. The boys had only lived in a large crate and were basically in shock when we let them out the first night. It was a bit of a…. well… shitty mess. With a little guidance from Homeward Bound we decided to have them stay in the extra bathroom. Keeping them in a smaller room reduced the stress, both on them and us. After about a week they began to warm up and embrace their full kittenness (what… it’s a word).

As each week passed they became much more loving and playful. They would often spend hours in the front room pouncing on one another and playing with the numerous cat toys we have.

Frodo and Smeagol became great friends and were often found together (funny, no?). Gandalf, true to his name, was often the most curious and the first to explore. He was also very independent and would wander away from the group to find his own place to play or sleep. Pippen was very reserved and quite shy.

We’ll be taking a break from kittens for a few months as our travels will keep us out of the house for most of the rest of July and August.

In a quiet house once again,

Cory

The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee take one

You remember the pictures I posted on Facebook of the Bare Naked Ladies concert?... you don’t? go check them out…

You with me now?

Well, that was an event called Pet-A-Palooza. It is a fundraiser for the local SPCA and other animal groups here in Las Vegas. Jo and I have avoided it for the past few years because we feared our lack of willpower when it comes to adopting new critters. Jo stumbled upon the possibility of fostering kittens and…lo! There are kittens!

We got the two little scamps eight weeks ago when they were four weeks old. They didn’t even have names; we spent the first few days calling them “the orange one” and “the white an orange one.” We worked hard on finding them a pair of literary names and finally settled on Scarlett and Tara (really? You don’t get the allusion?... try Wikipedia).

Scarlett came to us with a runny nose and a bit of an eye infection. We got the eye cleared up fairly quickly but she still has the sneezles.

Tara grows exponentially each day, both in girth and in fur. Scarlett remains hyper and wiry.

Tara purrs the minute you touch her; Scarlett likes to sleep in JoAnna’s hood.

They both sleep…. A lot. When they are not sleeping, they are attacking each other, JoAnna’s desk, Toby… but not Abby, never Abby.

On Sunday we take them back to the woman who runs the program… and pick up more.

In Love and Fur,

Cory

New Orleans Photo Essay

Ok... we know... it has been way to long. Instead of taking forever to write a long post on New Orleans, we figure a photo essay might be better.

The Union Station in Los Angeles

Lamp lights in the French Quarter

The Corn Fence House

Cafe Du Monde

And again

Street cars- we took one to the Garden District

Katrina damage to Louis Armstrong Park

The cemeteries are one of the coolest parts of the city... all sorts of photo opportunities

So there you have it. New Orleans in a very small nutshell. That brings us up to the beginning of April! Crap...

Peas!

Cory

I'm on a train!

Greetings Dear Readers:

The next few posts are going to revolve around a theme: that of our Spring Break trip to New Orleans. The first step in our epic Big Easy adventure was taking the train from Los Angeles to New Orleans.

Now, both Jo and I have been on trains in foreign countries (Kenya, Scandinavia, Korea etc…) but never here in the states. The trip takes 48 hours and we decided to skip the extravagance of a sleeper car and ride coach the whole way. The seats were huge and there was plenty of leg room but it was a tad uncomfortable to sleep two nights in a row in a semi-reclined position. We’ll definitely spring for a sleeper car next time.

A majority of our time was spent in the observation car simply watching the countryside roll by and pretending to read our books. We played cards and bananagrams, drank coffee, ate bagels and peanut butter, and took a lot of pictures.

Our day on the train began in El Paso, Texas. It was interesting because we could see the big brown fence that marks the border between El Paso and Juarez. The rest of the day was spent crawling across the vast expanse of Texas. We had a nice dinner in the diner car with a retired Air Force Chaplain and his wife. It was a decent meal and a lot of fun to meet a new people.

I think the most interesting thing about taking Amtrak is the obvious level of unhappiness amongst the employees. They were never outright rude to the passengers, but they were obviously surly and often told the passengers that “they don’t listen to us, so please complain.”

We would definitely take the train again and we got in to New Orleans right on time and got to see a lot of the lower half of the United States.

More to come!

New color!

Hey!

Welcome back!

We painted the living room...well the two of the walls. Observe!

It took a week to decide on colors. We had about a dozen different and very similar shades of green and red. We're still on the hunt for a matching set of curtains but overall we're very happy with the change.

Hope all is well.

-Cory