March 23 - Arches National Park

Today Ash and I split up in the morning. She did a 3 hr hike to the Fiery Furnace. It looked a little to strenous for me in sections. The nice thing was that the visitor center had photos of the hard parts of the hike which was most helpful. Can't wait to see her picutres. After I dropped her off, I spent the next hour driving through the park and stopping at all the viewpoints and scoping out the easier trail hikes. Ashley finished up her hike and we drove to Potash were potash is mined ***

and to Island in the Sky (http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/canyonlands/island_in_the_sky.html)
which is in Canyonland National Park. We couldn't get everything in so we decided to stay one more day here. Tomorrow we plan to do more hiking and mountain bike riding.

March 22

March 22 – Moab, Utah
The agenda today was a hummer tour of the canyons in the area. They are much different than Sedona or Zion……more rounded. Being in a hummer for this type of tour makes it even more enjoyable because you aren’t bounced around like in a jeep. I can’t even explain what a great trip it was so I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Our guide was a very unique guy. His education is in medicine which he decided to give up to become a guide. But not just a guide like we know them to be. People from all over the country and world for that matter call him to arrange their vacations and he guides them……a good bit of back country stuff. He has had a fascinating life. He said that most of the guides he knows had either been engineers or doctors that decided to make a life change. The link below has photos that I found on the web to help sho
w what we did along with a few of our own.
The second part of the trip was rafting down the Colorado. We have no pictures of our own
because neither of us wanted to ruin our cameras. Soooooo—in the link are photos from the web which are very close to exactly what happened on the trip. We were told the water would be calm so the trip would be easy……well that was the day before the trip. Today the wind picked up significantly which made the trip 75% hard paddling, wet and

great fun.

March 21 - travel to Arches National Park

Left around 8:00AM. Really sad to leave Zion. It was great fun and
introduced me to a lot of new things......mountain biking and river hiking. Arrived in Moab around 2:30 PM, made arrangments for a jeep tour and river rafting trip for tomorrow then drove to Dead Horse Point Park and hiked a bit. Actually it was just a stroll across boulder and rocks.

Here is a link to tell you about Dead Horse. The view is from a mesa.

http://www.moab-utah.com/photo/deadhorsepoint/

March 20 - Hiking the Virgin River Narrows and Canyon view

Had a tough time sleeping last night worrying about if I could actually do this trip. The day started by putting on our warmest clothing..... bottoms and tops of underarmor, layers of jackets, hats and gloves. Then onto the rental store getting suited up in dry suits, neoprene booties and shoes and walking sticks…..what a riot. Actually the

walking stick turned out to be a survival stick. The water was 30 deg and the outside temp was probably around 45 degs. The morning was spent navigating our way along the river and crossing it several times. The depth would range from our ankles to high waist. Once or twice we did find ourselves in chest high but then looked for other ways to cross the river. Truthfully, I was a nervous wreck but once I got started in was great fun. Actually, once I made up my mind the worst that could happen is that I fall completely in I sort of relaxed. It was

great fun but next time I want to do it in the fall ….like October. There is very little water coming off the mountains and it’s more of a mud hike than a

river hike. Here are some photos. Some are blurry because we had the camera in a plastic bag. When we got back we took a break for lunch and a short na

p.
The Narrows hike took us to the bottom of the canyon and the afternoon hike took us to the top of the canyon. An unbelievable sight. We hiked from the road up to the top of the canyon. The trail was rocky and fortunately in some areas had a railing. Here are pictures of both the morning and afternoon.

http://picasaweb.google.com/byrne15017/NarrowsHike?authkey=Gv1sRgCJfju-_VktreCQ&feat=directlink

March 19 - Jeep Tour Zion - revised 3/21

Took a jeep tour through Zion National Park and the surrounding areas on the Virgin River in Utah. This again is something not to miss on a trip out west. Zion is fabulous. The jeep took us to the back country in the area…….and I mean back country. We didn’t see anyone else for hours. The road …..actually is wasn’t a road but a strip of sand as wide as the jeep, most of the time. Sometimes we had to duck so as not to get hit with branches. Found out it was part of the pony express route….how cool is that. We both loved this part of the trip….driving on sand and seeing out of the way spots that most tourists don’t see unless they take a jeep tour. There is a photo in
the link below showing Ashley peering down into a canyon. The story has it that it is the s
pot that the pony express carrier would lower mail do

wn to Springdale, Utah. (this is the city we stayed in while we were in Utah). Would love to upload more photos but we are limited with internet time.

Forgot to mention - part of the tour took us to the area used for the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Also visited the historic ghost town of Grafton and Gooseberry Mesa. Photos have been added to the link.

http://picasaweb.google.com/byrne15017/ZionJeepTour?authkey=Gv1sRgCPb9ysyg6OekBw&feat=directlink

March 18 - Utah - Virgin River Park

Today we did mountain biking for all of the morning. That was another butt pucker for me in the beginning. You can't tell by the pictures but the first part of the trip was going around a small gorge. Small but the fall will kill you if you loose your balance biking. Ashley biked and I biked but mostly walked that part of the trail. After that part was over we traveled away from the gorge.....thank god :). We were both proud of ourselves that we actually did the trail and I didn't have a heart attack.\ :).

Here are some pictures...

http://picasaweb.google.com/byrne15017/ZionMountainBikeTrip?

feat=directlink

Mountain biking is hard but never boring like Montour Trails can sometimes be. We had a great time taking climbs over boulders. The best part was on the way back because it was down hill and we were more relaxed to take on the dips. Ash took on the steeper climbs and bigger dips. It was such a terrific morning. The plan is to start mountain biking back in Pgh

March 17

Travel day to Utah. We took a side trip to the Valley of Fire. This is something NOT TO MISS if you ever get out that way. It’s about 11 miles from the highway. Your driving along and there is nothing attractive about the scenery……then all of a sudden …..there it is…..the most incredible red rock mountains and formations. We stayed about 2 hours driving and getting out and walking . There is so much to see and you can camp right beneath the all the rock formations. I really want to do that in the future.

http://picasaweb.google.com/byrne15017/ToZion?authkey=Gv1sRgCNK478ilzdOZ6wE&feat=directlink

March 16

We had to take a full day of rest. We stayed one more night in Vegas …..slept most of the day and did laundry.

March 14, 15

Las Vegas...
Here are some photos of Ashley's building that is being constructed here.
http://picasaweb.google.com/byrne15017/LasVegas?authkey=Gv1sRgCJeA2bS-5se3KA&feat=directlink

Met up with Joe, Todd and Marcy today. Is was great seeing them. Joe and I walked for two days seeing all there is to see here. We also went to see Ka which was fantastic. Worth the money.

Went to Ceasar's Palace for the fountain show.

March 13

Travel day to Las Vegas. Spent the trip making arrangements to get new glasses in Las Vegas. Good news is that Len’s Crafter in Pgh helped getting things done in the Las Vegas Len’s Crafters. Chain stores do help when you are on the road. Joe, Todd and Marcy are already in Vegas. Ash and I will probably be arriving around 2:30. At which time my glasses will be ready for pick up. An expense I really didn’t need. Hope my homeowners helps out.

March 12

A bit of bad news today…..I lost my glasses…..put them on the roof when I was putting on suntan lotion and drove off. I am so p___.
Today Ash and I split up. She took a hike with a friend and I took a 10 hr tour to the Grand Canyon. It took about 2 hrs to get to the Canyon. We drove through Oak Canyon and Flagstaff. The drive going through Oak Canyon was great…. the views started from the Canyon floor and ended by looking into the depths of the canyon. There were a good bit of trees covering this particular canyon. The road literally wound its way through the canyon. There wasn’t a straight stretch of road for about 15 miles. The canyon was dotted with camp sites and beautiful homes. Some of the homes cantilevered over the river. Truly amazing.
There isn’t much to see in Flagstaff. It is often used as a home base for people wanting to be located in a central place to visit all the surrounding parks.
Now onto the Grand Canyon. Well I’m on this drive and when I’m starting to thing…..ok were is it!......the guide says…..”Ok, get ready because here comes an AHA! moment in your life. We stop and walk to the South Rim of the Canyon and honestly I had to stop and just stare. It is totally overwhelming. All the pictures and photos that I had seen do not do justice for the view. The entire day was spent just traveling around the South and East Rim of the canyon getting different views. Each and every stop was an AHA! moment. The guide mentioned that October is the best time of the year to visit the area. Most tourism is done and the weather is warm. Good time to do rafting and hiking. That will be for the next trip.
During the tour I had a hard time getting my head around the fact that what I was seeing was millions of years old and that at one time the entire canyon was underwater. The huge shifting of land mass is evident by the shape and angle of huge formations. They have names for many of the formations because some do resemble things.
They have a mule tour that goes into the canyon that has to be booked a year and a half in advance. One of the trip options is for two days. Which is on my list of “To Do’s”. You basically sit on the mule and he takes it from there…….thank god!.......because if he didn’t I’m sure a great number of people wouldn’t do it on foot. The trail is only wide enough for a mule. If a hiker is on the trail, the mule has the right of way. The trail ends at the bottom of the canyon and our guide did let us know that at times it can be a butt puckering event…..but they have never had any injuries or lost anyone…….always a comforting piece of info.
Ash and I are planning to go back to the canyon after Las Vegas. When I get to a location that I can upload some photos, I’ll add the link f pictures from today.

Link to some photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/byrne15017/GrandCanyon?feat=directlink

Here are some pics of Ashley's hike with Guy (the friend she met up with in Sedona) ---

http://picasaweb.google.com/byrne15017/AshSedona?

authkey=Gv1sRgCPbH2ZD15pHteg&feat=directlink

March 11

Sedona is BEAUTIFUL. Very expensive area. Average home I’m told is $500K. Did a hike today up to a mesa. This trail was something I could actually handle but it was a good thing I had good hiking boots. Climbing rocks you want something that grabs the rock. I really like the hiking here but have to gain a lot of confidence in staying stable on loose rock and small passage ways. Think I’m going to start doing more hiking at home…..not Montour trails J Again, I’ll add photos at a later date when we are near an internet site.

March 10

Travel day to Sedona from Santa Fe. Had a great vegan breakfast with the people staying in the complex that we are staying. There was a stuffed mushroom that tasted like it was stuffed with sausage…..of course it wasn’t. Homemade granola…..which was terrific. You won’t believe this…….there were two girls from Pittsburgh (Pitt Students on spring break) staying there also. They too were heading to Las Vegas.

We took some time to stop and see different sites along the way to Sedona. The pertfified forest was one of the stops. Here are some photos of the drive.

Painted Desert....

http://picasaweb.google.com/byrne15017/PaintedDesert?authkey=Gv1sRgCPf8juuWw4X_xwE&feat=directlink

ancient ruins and writings

http://picasaweb.google.com/byrne15017/AnAncientDwellingAndWritingsOnRocks?authkey=Gv1sRgCKWo-p2ep5LTpwE&feat=directlink

March 9

We woke up to SNOW. Can you believe it! Santa Fe has not had any moisture in the past 75 days. But the good news was it warmed up by lunch time. We did laundry, chores and planned our next stop until lunch. After, we walked the Canyon Road which is the artist area of Santa Fe. There was so much to see. You really need two days to visit all the shops. Then went to dinner and headed back to pack up for Sedona tomorrow morning.

The place we have been staying is great. A about a block or so from the Plaza in Santa Fe. We have to stay here when we come back.

http://picasaweb.google.com/byrne15017/SantaFe?feat=directlink

March 8 - Ashley's Birthday

Tried to get organized for a hike and a bike ride today.
The hike we started was not a hike like I might take in PA. It was an actual climb up a mountain. The trail was for one person at a time on the SIDE of the mountain…. if you lost your footing you were going down the side of the mountain. I quickly lost my breath for several reasons…..1. the sight of the steepness of the climb, 2. the altitude, 3. plain nerves. We stopped and I caught my breath and I settled down. Onward we went. Had to lean into the mountain and step up to allow people coming down to pass us. That wasn’t scary enough…..there was ice on the trail. Passed the first one ok and turned back on the second patch…..way to dangerous for me. On the way back I lost my footing on the patch of ice we first passed and scarred the you know what out of me. Ashley had to grab my hand to help me off the ice. We did find a shorter and safer trail right beside the one we came off of which turned out to be terrific. I was really upset with myself because of not being able to handle the ice patches. I think I might have been ok if ice wasn’t on the trail. But then if the trail got any narrower I’d be in trouble too.

We couldn’t bike ride because Ashley needed to get different tires for her bike and the bike shop wasn’t open today. Apparently, there are things called goat heads

We then took a ride to Taos. It was the scenic way which was outstanding. While we were there we went to see the Rio Grande Gorge. That it something seeing in person was well worth the trip. Came back and had a Mexican dinner.

March 7

Today I'm writing while we are driving to Santa Fe. Here is a link of the TranMountains we are passing along the way.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/el-paso/115675-here-pictures-taken-transmountain-road.html

Something we need to explore more on the next trip...Trans-Mountain Highway: El Paso and Franklin Mountains El Paso Texas Scenic Byways.

Traveling on Interstate 10 to the left our continuous cow farms and Alfalfa farms right on the side of the highway. To the right are the mountains. Here's a tidbit of info....they have large rats here call Nutria.....actually they have them in Lafayette also. Here is a link for more info on them...

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Farm/7720/nutria.html

New Mexico has terrific landscapes along I10. The redness in the mountains is starting to show up. Not sure what it is that causes the redness but will find out. Went through my first checkpoint…..a bit intimidating. Police and a dog. The wind is picking up and the temp is dropping. We are back in jackets, socks and shoes.

I think today was my first day of being in a rhythm of this trip. Blogging during the drive works well. When I see signs I can quickly look up what the area is all about. I’ve mentioned this before but it worth another mention……electronics makes this trip very easy.

March 6

Another travel day. Took us about 7 to 8 hrs to reach El Paso, Tx. It was a great drive. The pictures don't show much but the landscape is a great deal different than the 'Burg. Actual plateaus. Allowable speed on Interstate 10 was 80. We made pretty good time. Tomorrow is Santa Fe....YEA!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/byrne15017/ElPaso?authkey=Gv1sRgCOix_aGH4aTS7wE&feat=directlink

March 5

Austin.....what a city. Ashley has been noticing that our entire trip everyone has been over 50. Well we hit Austin, which was suggested by the Morgan's. It's a total reversal....I think I saw three people over 35. Anyway, the city is terrific. Lots of parks, kayaking, biking everything anyone would want.

Some photos..

.http://picasaweb.google.com/byrne15017/Austin?authkey=Gv1sRgCOSIzt7S9LLYAQ&feat=directlink

March 4

Went to San Antonio today. Toured the Alamo, walked the Riverwalk, shopped. If you ever get to the Alamo, do the Discovery Tour for $5. It’s on an audio device with earphones. Well worth the $5. Had lunch on the Riverwalk at Casa Rio. It was fun but I’d suggest another place……to many ducks and pigeons. People were feeding them …yuk. The Riverwalk is loaded with other places to eat. Not knowing, we took the advise from the people at the information center. We didn’t do the River tour by boat. We walked instead....missed the history but needed the exercise. Went back to Annie’s and Billy’s for a great dinner. Had a great opportunity to meet their children and grandchildren. Billy will be sending me a photo he took of the gang. Here are some photos of San Antonio. We liked the city but was touristy.

Here is a link to a few pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/byrne15017/SanAntonio?authkey=Gv1sRgCN38-ovKoP7QeA&feat=directlink

March 3

This morning we went on a short on road bike ride. We were going down on the way out and Ashley and I thought it was going to be a bit hard on the way back. But turned out it we were mis-judging the road. No problems on the way back. We got back, packed, had a great lunch and had an opportunity to visit with Adam. We then jumped in the car for San Antonio. It is a 7 hour drive to San Antonio (Billy and Annie’s). Arrived later in the evening. Talked a bit with them then hit the bed. The interstate going through Houston is unbelievable……6 lanes of freaking traffic. Took 45 min. from one end of the city to the other . The city is huge. The structures that support the roads have a design and the star of Texas on them. It is amazing seeing all the road work. Ashley is one hell of a driver and navigator. I’m totally useless :). The TomTom even gets confused and lost :).

March 1

Arrived at Cindy's today. She took us on a car trip to a new type of development they have in the area. Combination shopping district, business district, homes of all sizes. Some of the homes were twice to three times as large as the ones in Nevillewood. Cory and Jess joined us for dinner. Cory made a TERRIFIC crawfish etouffee which was served over a spicy crabcake. Yummmmm. We also did a margarita run. They have a drive up margarita store.......no kidding .....it's like driving up to Starbucks except you order your favorite drink.

Feb 28

Arrived in New Orleans around 1:00PM. We located the hotel we booked and didn't even stop the car......the area was a little to sketchie for us. So we did a quick search on line and found a great hotel (International Hotel at 221 Camp Street), for only $100 a night and it was in the French Quarter. After checking in, we went and had lunch at K. Pauls (Chef Pauls) restaraunt. Food was good. The bloody mary's weren't as good as in Charleston. We then walked around a good bit and went on a bar crawl in the French Quarter. That was great fun. Tasted all kinds of new drinks.....specialities of the area....absinthe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe) is one of them. Take a minute to read the info about the drink in the link above. Pretty interesting. Here is a link to two short films of them being made. http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/KUukL1HssZnMhkwL9XzJqQ?authkey=Gv1sRgCLKDy6GMtefSrgE&feat=directlink We didn't have one because it sounded to scarry. Sazerac was another........very strong ...made with just a bit of absinthe. Another which I liked was Pimm's

Ingredients:
2 oz Pimm's No. 1
3 oz lemonade
lemon twist for garnish
cucumber slice or peel for garnish
Preparation:
Pour the Pimm's into a collins glass with ice cubes.
Add the lemonade.
Garnish with the lemon twist and cucumber.