Heading South to Texas

We didn't head out of town until Wednesday and then it was driving, driving, driving. Thankfully, our roads were clear and dry, nothing to complain about until we got to Oklahoma, driving into Texas, and it was windy!

We stopped at the Monticello Temple so S could go in for the first time--last time we were here, she didn't have a temple recommend yet! (Photo from the temple website)

We stayed overnight in Cortez, Colorado

We headed into New Mexico Thursday, passing by Shiprock

We went to Aztec Ruins National Monument

A World Heritage Site

We could see the ruins behind the visitor center when we parked

The visitor center was also a house

The number carved on this beam was part of the archeological work

The man who lived here was the guy who Indiana Jones was modeled on!

The front of the building, off to the right (off the photo) the ruins were visible behind the building

J and S earned "Not so Junior Ranger" badges!

We headed to Chaco Canyon National Historical Park next, another pueblo/cliff dwelling site. (Also a World Heritage Site)

We drove down a crazy dirt road to get there. It was close to closing time so we saw the visitor center mostly and learned that this was the center of trade during the cliff dwelling/pueblo time period

Friday we headed out of New Mexico, driving through the Texas Panhandle to western Oklahoma.

Yay us, we managed to move to Central Time Zone the day before Daylight Savings. We were ALL kinds of confused about time by Sunday!

We drove along Route 66 and saw a few interesting things

Saturday we went to Washita Battlefield National Historic Site

The same band that was attacked at Sand Creek, four years earlier, was at Washita. They, specifically Black Kettle, was trying to broker peace but was attacked again. This was a marker that was put up to mark the site.

Beautiful Texas sunset

We did not go to church today. 3 of 4 of us were sick, we decided that in light of the coronavirus scare, we would keep our germy selves home.

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Cross Country Trek!

Monday we went to Manassas National Battlefield. It was drippy and wet, so we didn't see much of the actual battlefield but the visitor center movie was fantastic and the exhibits were pretty amazing too. We learned something interesting--click on this photo if you want to read more. The stone is from the Manassas area farm of Wilmer McLean, the same Wilmer McLean whose home was used for the surrender of Lee to Grant at the end of the Civil War. McLean moved his family from Manassas to escape the battle, one of the very first of the Civil War. He could literally say the war started at his front door and ended in his front parlor! We then headed out, driving 8 hours a day. So our trip looked a little like this: Tuesday Wednesday Thursday We almost made it back to Utah before hitting any storms. There were some gloomy days, swirling snow, snow on the side of the roads (but not ON the road) until we got to west

Connecticut

Sunday we stayed put in Massachusetts where we were boondocking away from the brunt of the storm. We still had a lot of rain. Monday it rained and rained, we were able to find a campground that was open in Connecticut, we drove south in more rain.

Aloha, part 2

Day 9 -- Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona We rode the bus to Pearl Harbor. The bus in Hawai'i is TheBus, literally. We also noticed that the bus numbers matched the license plates Sights along the way, note the Hawaiian islands on the shaka hand gesture More murals The visitor center is open air, two museum galleries, a theatre, and lots of memorials The Navy runs the ferry from the visitor center out to the USS Arizona There are buoys at either end of the ship, so you can get a sense of its relation to the memorial structure Look closely, you can see a small, white buoy close to the USS Missouri and also parts of the USS Arizona sticking out of the water The entrance to the memorial You can still see oil on the water from the ship In the center of the memorial, there was an open area where you could look down directly onto the ship Looking toward the far end of the memorial The far end of the memorial had all the names listed of those that died in the attack on Pearl Harbor I di

Wandering Orbit

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