Our Adventures through AZ, NM, CO, WY, UT - Part I

I have so many pictures that one post will not suffice. Therefore I will break this incredible adventure into a number of posts in order to document them as they occurred.

On July 20,2009, Natalie and Lon met Mother, Becky, Hannah and me at our house and we embarked on a 1800 mile journey through AZ, NM, CO, WY, and UTAH.

Our first stop for rest and relaxation- after eight hours of driving was in Holbrook, Arizona.

If you're not aware (which I was NOT), this town is the basis of the movie "CARS". You know: Lightening McQueen, the shiny red corvette that was lost in Radiator Springs? If you haven't seen the movie, you really must. It's even cute for adults to watch.

The Wigwam Motel is the place to stay.

Becky and Hannah were so exhausted they had to drag their bodies into the room....after posing for this picture of course. After we had dinner, enjoyed a cool dip in the pool and played a few hands of UNO we crashed for the night. The next morning we were up and ready to continue our journey.....all of us except for Hannah.

We couldn't get her out of bed. So we left her behind and gathered up for a picture before we hopped in the car.

Not really of course.

We didn't stay at the Wigwam and we didn't leave Hannah behind. We stayed at the Adobe Inn right next door to the Wigwam.

As our journey progressed we found ourselves stopped at a number of the Navajo trading posts along the way in hopes of finding a papoose baby doll for Becky's granddaughter.

We didn't find the papoose, but we found this very serious guy sitting in the store.

Hannah did her best in trying to get him to break a smile

I thought if I jumped in and we both turned on the charm it might do the trick.

He must have been made of stone (or wood) because he didn't even twitch.

So we left him in the dust of the reservation and headed to Farmington, NM.

Pat met us for lunch at a restaurant where we had some delicious food. They made their own root beer there as well as cream soda and....well....regular beer. We didn't try the beer but we did try the root beer and the cream soda. The consensus was that the root beer was really good but the cram soda was way too sweet. After lunch we checked into the La Quinta in Farmington. I was really disappointed with the accommodations. I thought we would have a non-smoking room but we ended up in a room that was definitely a smoking room. Not only that, but the clerk had us drive around to the back of the motel where we were supposed to be able to go up the stairs and directly to our room. The stairs were blocked off because of damage so we had to walk all the way back around carrying all of our bags, pillows, and the extras that we always seemed to have and wrestle them all the way up the stairs, around the corners and into the room down the walkway. By that time I had steam coming out of my ears and it wasn't because I was too warm.

As I calmed down Becky, Mother and Hannah made their way down to the pool where I eventually caught up with them. Becky and Hannah gave me a wave but mother was busy cleaning the pool!

That's her on the left under the umbrella.

Natalie was sitting under there enjoying the cool afternoon weather.

I've decided that mother wouldn't know what to do with herself if she didn't have something to clean every day. She was perfectly happy as she dipped that net into the pool and extracted each little stem and leaf.

After we dried off we headed to Pat's house where we ate watermelon and s'mores. The food was good but the company was great!

Thanks Pat and Larry for entertaining us.

That's all for this post. Stay tuned for the next segment.

I'll be sharing pictures of Mesa Verda, National Park.