Homeward Bound! - Day 9

The morning came early.  I think I slept through the night except for one trip to the rest room.  the funny thing is that Chris and I woke up at the same time and decided we might as well get moving.

We headed down stairs earlier than we had been to grab breakfast and hit the road.

We had not heard of this hotel, but we were growing tired of the ones in our normal chain and decided to try this one called the Drury.  It is a private, family owned chain.  I can't believe I had oatmeal for breakfast.  And it wasn't that nasty, mealy, instant stuff either.

the dinning area was quite large compared to the others we were used to.

I'm not sure somebody had gotten enough to eat or enough sleep, but we were on our way nevertheless.

Not too far into the trip we decided we had better get some gas.

We are always pleasantly amazed when we come to the states and buy gas considering we are paying well over 6 bucks for gas in Canada!

Rascal starting giving us problems and the straps were loosening up.  So, we stopped to get that taken care of....again.

I noticed that the highways in Arizona are beautifully decorated with Indian art.....

And the landscape is always changing.  There is often a lot of nothing.....

and then there are what appear to be a field of cactus; some as old as 100 years.....

very cool.....:-).

I was glad that the skies were free of rain.  At least as far as I could tell.  I concluded that they must be a lot of water somewhere as this desert sure featured a lot of greenery.

We/ I try to gas up at every half tank.  The idea of getting stuck in the middle of nowhere without gas or cell service does not appeal to me!

And a potty run!  Don't forget that....haha.  Not too many rest stops along the way in the desert.

By now, it was lunch time and we decided on a spinach and chicken salad for lunch.  It was big and quite filling.

A few miles down the road the scenery changed again.  This time the "dinosaur poo" started to show up.

I call it that because some of the rock formations look like big piles of .......well, poo.  ha

I know it is hard to believe that more hours have gone by again.  But time has gone by and this is another rest stop.  We decided to sit outside of the car for a while and take in some fresh air.

We were getting closer to our home for the night......:-)

\o/ \o/

\o/ \o/   yeah, baby!

 I'm told I fell asleep for this picture.  I don't want to imagine for too long that "somebody" was taking pictures and driving at the same time!  smh.......

At any rate, it was a beautiful shot of a rainbow.....:-).

 When we approached Las Cruces, New Mexico there was a huge road runner bird sculpture on the
hill side.

there is the city ahead.

And there is our hotel.....:-).  Thank God we made it!

 We arrived at our room just after 5:00pm.  Rising at 5:15 this morning brought us to another 12 hour day.

and it is hard to believe that a week has gone by since doing laundry.  It's that time again.

The prices were not as bad as some places, but I wished I had supplied my own detergent.
Somebody looks really tired now.  He is such a trooper doing all of this driving and then helping with the laundry.  Thank you, Christo....:-).

This hotel offers a free meal from 5:00-7:00pm to all of its guest.  The food is not the greatest, but we have never stayed anywhere else where this is done.  I was grateful that we did not have to go out for dinner or make another stop along the way to eat.

He ate a meatball.....hahaha.  I guess he liked it! smh

There is a beautiful patio area outside of the dinning area where I decided to go sit after dinner.

hahahahaha.......  no comment.

What can I say!?  ha

Well, the mosquitos were taking bits and pieces of me away, so I had to retreat to the room and lather down in tea tree oil to stop the burning that they caused me.   After administering "first aid" to myself, I peered out of the window and caught this beautiful sunset.

I'm grateful for a quiet, clean place to lay our heads tonight......:-).

See you on the road....:-).

Homeward Bound!- Day 8

I am finally caught upon this blog.  So, here is how it went today.

Talk about excited! ha.  I was awakened this morning to my man fully dressed and ready to load up everything...ha.  I on the other hand COULD NOT MOVE!  I went to sleep about 11:30pm and woke up at 2:30am....???????  And could not go back to sleep for 2 hours!  I knew it was going to be a long day.

Here is my well rested man......ha.  We'll skip what I looked like!

I did finally manage to drag myself to the car, but I think I was still asleep the whole time I walked there.  The sky was beautiful and I imagined that it would get prettier as the day went along.

And it did.  It looked as if a portal had opened in the heavens......:-).

We had more problems trying to keep the bikes strapped down properly.   We usually have two bikes on the trailer and this time we have all three with us.  It is a whole new ball game keeping them from rubbing together and leaning.  We both needed a break from the frustration and made a pit stop to one of my favorite stores.

After several more stops we can upon this wind farm.  It was massive!  Somebody is getting paid for owning this thing......

We have passed the Joshua Tree National Park sign before and have never gone there.  We had so many more miles to cover that we didn't go this time either......We were currently traveling through the Mojave Desert and it was long.....

oh well.....maybe one day.

And by now, we were both feeling the fatigue of the past several day and needed a boost.  Believe me, the coffee was gone!

We checked the bike straps and this time I think it was going to be fine.  We didn't have to adjust it any longer although we kept a close watch on them.

I'm always amazed at how majestic and yet barren the desert looks.  I have no idea why anyone would want to live here, but some do and love it very much.

I mean there ain't nothing going on! ha.  I didn't even see a bug on the windshield! haha

More nothing.......Wow...  glad we got gas back there!

YES!!  Color......:-).  Well, ok.  It's a rest stop.  But there was color.....:-)

and FINALLY,  we reached the state line of Arizona.......which somewhere along the line changed into the  Sonoran desert.

But we still had a long way to go.  I think another 4 1/2  hours at least....

You can find the strangest rock formations in the desert.
 

I think the monster drink and iced tea  kicked in.  But it was still tough sledding......

Well, you know what happens when you do that, right......ha

and the further away he got, the better the whole idea starting to look to me!

Well, having had taken care of "that", we continued on toward Phoenix which was going to be our home for the night.

There was a light strip across the horizon and I couldn't tell if it was dust or smog...  I think it was dust.

We found a hotel that we had never heard of before called the Drury Hotel.  Very nice and when you arrive, you are given a free meal for dinner.  We joined their Golden Key Club and hope to stay at another one in New Mexico when we finally get there.  Our hope is to make it to Las Cruses, New Mexico tomorrow.  And hopefully, I will sleep through the night this time!

5:30 am comes really early.  So, hasta la vista! See you on the road!

Homeward Bound! - Day 7

This morning was filled with anticipation as we prepared to spend the day with our daughter.  We didn't really know what we were going to do, but just hanging out was going to be fun!

First stop.....breakfast....

and when it finally came, somebody was very, very happy......:-).

She was pretty happy too.....ha

I ate mine before I took a picture......ha


Next stop......Hey!  There's Pier 1 Imports!

I think we spent almost two hours in this store......haha.  I could not believe she left with NOTHING!!
hahaha......wow.  But it was fun...:-).

Then we drove around and found a mall to explore and decided we needed some coffee..... It was a bit bitter.

it was a fairly large mall which reminded my daughter of an airport mall for some reason.

A quick trip to the rest room revealed this picture of the city name on the wall in the hallway.

then we decided that we would scour around for some furniture; checking various shops trying to find some vintage pieces.  Across the street from one of the store was Sony Picture Studios!  I could not believe it.  

And Columbia Pictures......:-)

The place was massive!  I could not even get the whole thing in my lense.

But I tried.  Wow...  When we drove by I saw a glimpse of a movie "street" complete with houses....
very cool, indeed.

This shot was taken facing in the opposite direction.....

We took our daughter back to her place to drop her bags off and decide on dinner.

After riding around and snapping a few pics and having a hard time finding parking......

We settled on a place called James Beach.  Very nice place......:-).

Here is a shot I caught before it filled up.

I ordered a chicken cobb salad.....

Our daughter ordered some  Salmon Sashimi...... (I'll pass on that, thank you very much)....

And Chris ordered some kind of a crab salad......

After dinner, it was time to take her home and prepare to hit the road tomorrow.  We had a great time with her and are looking forward to seeing her and her sister together some time soon....:-).

See you on the road!