The Grey Wolf’s first adventure

 We woke this morning to beautiful blue skies and before long the cool night air had warmed as we packed up and headed east. We entered the Bible Belt as we traveled across the Texas panhandle. We passed fields of cotton and a million wind mills as we made our way toward Oklahoma. Our destination tonight is Elk City in western Oklahoma. We’ll enjoy another balmy evening in the low 80’s tonight.

We loaded the motorcycle this morning and sadly have finished all of our rides. Today it is onward to New Mexico. I think we have seen about the last of the beautiful rugged hills, high plateaus and the flat topped mesas.  Tonight we are staying at the Santa Rosa Lake State Park, which overlooks the lake off in the distance. The weather was a balmy 70 so we took a quick ride around the park on our bikes and then enjoyed a cocktail on our ‘deck’.

 Farewell Flagstaff. Today we began our journey home. First stop was Winslow AZ, ( Such a fine site to see ). Rob was even standing on the corner near the flat bed Ford. 😉 I feel my blog wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t include at least one food photo, and today was the day! We stopped for breakfast at one of Derald’s fabulous suggestions ; La Posado, where I enjoyed “The Corn Maiden’s Delight”, and it was!  We arrived at our campsite early enough to set up and then drove the 28 mile road through the Petrified Forest National Park. Colorful small shards to massive trunks of petrified wood are strewn across the landscape. It is hard to believe that a pine forest once existed here millions of years ago, which was also the stomping ground of dinosaurs.   We then took the scenic drive on through the Painted dessert. More spectacular scenery, and apparently we were even picture worthy as a little Asian woman asked if she could take a picture of us on the motorcycle at on...

 Today we headed north of Flagstaff to another national monument ; the Sunset Crater Volcano National park.The black lava rock and ash dunes were quite a contrast from the the landscapes we have seen before. We hiked 3 miles though the area. We had the local park ranger take a picture of us all bundled up on the bike.  We completed the 75 mile loop through the Wupatki National Monument which has preserved dozens of ancestral Puebloan villages/ structures.

 Today we headed south hoping to find warmer temperatures and less wind, the temperatures were warmer but the wind followed us. We took a beautiful ride through Sedona and then onto Jerome via the Upper Red Rock Loop. Jerome was once a booming copper-mining town, turned ghost town after the mines closed in 1953. It is once again thriving shops, art, and historic sites, and of course beautiful views. Just  when you think it can’t get more beautiful, it does!  We were rewarded on our return drive with the sun setting on the rocks. Tonight we had a delightful dinner ar Derald’s sister Chris, and his brother Dan & wife Sandy.

 Another grand day! We decided since there was so much to see at the Grand Canyon, it needed another visit, so today we took the more scenic route and returned.  We passed interesting sites like this abandoned hotel, which was part of the Painted Desert Project which was started by a Navajo Nation physician. In addition to the many beautiful vistas we also visited the Desert View Watch tower  which was one of many structures designed by Mary Colter.  Today we made our way along the southern rim from the Bright Angel Trailhead ( you can make out the trail hundreds of feet below in the last photo) to the Hermit Trailhead. The pictures hardly do the views justice. As we were leaving the park we had the opportunity to view the local wild life grazing along the roadside.