Setting Sail

In December 2007, we went on a cruise and had a great time. It's funny how you approach a massive ship thinking how huge it is and how amazing that it even floats. You enter the main atrium and again respond with gasps of how huge this ship is. Well, the gasps of how huge the ship is all go away when you enter your cabin and have to squeeze around each other and take turns moving from the bed to the sink! Oh well. The cruise was following the Mexican Rivera.


Susan takes to cruises like a fish to water!!!

While I, on the other hand, maybe...over indulged?

We really enjoyed the time together and the warmth of a winter sun in Mexico.

We walked and walked and walked in Alcupulco and settled at a nice beach to enjoy a frosty cold Margarita. Yummmmm.

The sunsets are always magnificant, but this was a fantastic sunrise!!

The beach art puts a photographic perspective on the ocean, and Sue was queen for a day on the sea-throne

She's finally wearing down on our last shore stop!!

We had a great time and can't wait for our next adventure!!!

Spring Motorcycle Trip

Last week I hit the road on my motorcycle while most of you were working!! Hah!!! I headed up through the Jemez mountains were the snow is still very abundant and the temperature was in the 20s. The Valle Grande was in full splendor and the pine trees were adorned with a layer of frost that sparkled in the sunlight. The air was crisp and I was very happy to have my heating jacket to keep the cold bugs from attacking me. Anyway, I cruised through the Jemez Pueblo and hit the four lane road up to Cuba, NM. After a gourmet sandwich from Subway–spicy italian–I headed into Navajo country and torwards my evening destination of Chinle and the Canyon De Chelly National Park. Well, it’s no secret that the Navajos got the very short end of the bargain when they were remanded to this part of the country. Sparse and void of most life, including vegetation (are sage bushes a form of vegetation?), this area is not the scenic route by any means. It looks, to me, like the Indians have not changed their basic lifestyle in the past 150 years, aside from the satellite television antennas that poke out from the most primitive of dwellings. Also, there seems to have been a recreational period a few years back involving trampolines where only steel frames and shredded fabric remain today. Small "towns" are occasionally reached where schools or hospitals sprout from nowhere. The "town" is usually the product of institutionally-built homes that house the teachers, medical staff, etc., who are stranded when not performing. Anyway, I made it to Chinle with enough time to take a 2 hour driving tour of Canyon De Chelly. This canyon is a spectacular little canyon carved from red rock/sandstone. The bottom of the canyon (probably averages around a 1000' drop from the rims) is still used for farming, but ruins of the Anastazi Indians are still found, and in very good condition. Non native Indians are not allowed to drive into the canyon but guides can be purchased for a reasonable fee, I think about $40- will get you a nice tour from the bottom up.

The next morning after a nice breakfast, at the only restaurant in Chinle, I headed through Hopi country (the untrained eye probably can’t tell the difference between Hopi and Navajo coutry) and ended up in Flagstaff for lunch. For those of you keeping track, I had the ham/swiss sandwich. I always try to stay off of the interstate but Falgstaff was my connection to Kingman. I remember a quote from Charles Kerault (sp?) who said, "The interstate now makes it possible to go from coast to coast and see nothing". I agree. Off to Kingman and South to Laughlin for the night. I had never been to Laughlin and, since I was chasing warmer weather, I thought now was a good time to check it out. I think Laughlin is dying, but I’m probably wrong. I did not get the feel that the town was thriving, nor was money being spent on updates to hotel facilities. I stayed on the Arizona side of the Colorado River in Bullhead City. Anyway, I did walk the "strip" and rode a little power boat across the river, but I could not spend much time here. There are a lot of retired folks who stay the winter in Bullhead City and it was fun to watch. I suppose it could be a glimpse of our future! It really reminded me of the movie "Cocoon". On the plus side, the weather was fantastic! Oh, almost forgot. I ate at the Panda Express.

Next morning I was off to Lake Havasu City to see the well-advertised London Bridge. Yahoo!! South of Laughlin, towards Needles, is farm land and I really liked this area. At Needles I had to again get on the Interstate for a short period to access LHC. Now, while the London Bridge is nothing to write about, LHC is a pretty nice place and worthy of a trip back, in the winter. I ate lunch for the first time at an "In and Out" burger place. I had always heard they had good burgers and now I can agree. I did a motor tour of LHC and scouted out some of the beaches. They also have a lot of retired folks, but the water sport theme seems to develop a lot of severely tanned people. So now we have severely tanned, but saggy-skined, retired people. Boy, am I looking forward to that!

I decide to continue on and set Tucson as my next destination. I stuck to the side roads and ended up near the mexican border in Ajo. I then worked my way West towards Tucson. There are abundant "Cigar-o" cactus on this road and few cars to compete with. The phallic nature of the cactus, combined with my juvenile adolescent mind, yielded hours of entertainment. The sun was getting low in the West and the shadows made this area simply beautiful. The desert was blooming with yellow and purple flowers that really enhanced the desert floor. I finally found a hotel in Tucson which I guess was booked because of spring training. I was pretty tired so I at a small Italian restaurant and hit the sack. I spent a little while in Tucson the next day...went to the BMW shop and had sushi at my favorite little sushi restaurant. I was going to hit a baseball game, but changed my mind and headed to Show Low for the night. I just love going through Salt River canyon on the motorcycle, especially when there is no traffic to slow you down. I left the warm weather at the bottom of the canyon and it started to get chilly as I approached Show Low. It was also suppose to start getting windy, which it did.

I got up the next morning in Show Low and boy was it getting windy! I mounted up and headed to Springerville and just about got blown off with cross winds about 7 miles out of town. I slowed down quite a bit and made it to Springerville where the wind turned into mostly a tailwind. Now I was hauling with the wind at my back! Great gas milage too. In fact I made it back home without stopping for gas.

I had a great time (1700+ miles) and invite you motorcycle relatives (Aaron/Lorenzo/Gramps) to join me one of these days.