Arizona and New Mexico

I finally have good Internet service again so I can post samples of things that I have been doing over the past few weeks.

Before arriving at the Petrified Forest area of Arizona, I took in some very interesting locations on I-40. I took in places like Twin Arrows.

Two Guns where you can see the remains of an old roadside zoo.

The Standing On The Corner in Winslow, AZ that was made famous by the Eagles.

If you are a fan of the movie CARS like I am, you would like to see the Wigwams in Holbrook that were the inspiration for the Kozy Kone Motel in the movie. And of course Mader was there.

I couldn't pass up a chance to ride on a giant rabbit.

All that before I even got to the Petrified Forest. Most of the places were favorite stops while traveling the old Route 66 Highway. I am working on a slide show production on that famous road.

Petrified Forest

My next campground was Root 66 in Sun Valley, AZ. While there I paid a visit to the Petrified Forest National Park. Take a look.

I even met a "tree huger" while walking around the park.

Here is one of the many pictures that I took of the Painted Desert.

Train Watching in Kingman

Yesterday I explored the Kingman area and wound up catching a few trains with my camera. I caught this west bound as it went by the old Kingman Station.





Note below the hotels in the background on Route 66 that were built in 1909.








A beautiful 195? Hudson Hornet parked outside this pupular 50s Mr. D'z burger place.









This morninng I'm heading east to Holbrook, AZ.

Weather Delay

I had planed to travel east on I-40 on Monday morning after the bluegrass festival was over, but the weather forecasts showed that Williams, AZ was getting snow and below freezing temps. I decided to call the campground in Williams where I had reservations for four night and postpone my arrival for a day. Tuesday's forecast did not look any better than Monday's forecast so I called again and postponed my arrival another day. On Tuesday, the forecast for Wednesday still was bad with snow and freezing temperatures, but I waited until this morning hopping the storms would be cleared out. But NO, they were still hanging on.

I called the campground in Williams and told them that I needed to cancel my staying with them this time, but that I may stop there in May on my way to Oregon from San Antonio in May. I spent the last two days and nights in an old Walmart parking lot in Lake Havasu City and I found a RV park in Kingman, AZ that could find me a site for the next two nights. I arrived in Kingman around noon today and after getting set up, I took my camera and went into town to check out some of the historic buildings.

Tomorrow, I plan to take pictures of trains in the area. The past two days I spent most of my time working on the slide show for the Bluegrass On The Beach festival that had a lot of good bands. I have the timing of the music to the pictures down to within hundreds of a second. So you can guess how many times I had to run the slide show to get it that close. But that is what I like to do for a challenge. I am very pleased with the outcome.

I will be cold here in Kingman tonight. Somewhere around the low thirties with a high near 50, but that's much better than in the middle teens in Williams that will be having a high tomorrow of just 32 degrees.

Bluegrass On The Beach

Well, I spent the past week in Lake Havasu City at the state park on the eastern shore of Lake Havasu. That was the site of the bluegrass festival that was a lot of fun. The music portion lasted three days, but the four days before hand were busy visiting with good friends that I have made over the past few years while attending various bluegrass festivals in California and Arizona. There were nine very good bands, but the last day was RAINED OUT. That gave me time to edit the more than 450 pictures that I took of the performers. I get music from their CDs and use that to go along with the slide shows. Here are a few pictures of the area, my dry-camping site in the parking lot and several of the bands.





I am using WiFi at the local library and it takes FOREVER to upload just one picture.

A band that everyone likes is the Bluegrass Brothers (below) from Virginia



Below is some the crowd. I had my chair on the fourth row and tree seats in from the center. It was great weather for most of the festival.



There were nine bands in the festival and everyone had a very good time, even with the rain.

On Tuesday of last week I traveled over 300 miles round trip to Kingman and then over the old Route 66 through Seligman where I got back on I-40 and headed back to Lake Havasu City. I took a lot of pictures for my Route 66 slide show that I am working on. I hope to get more pictures of places tomorrow or the next day in Williams, AZ. I have spent the past two days waiting for the weather to get better so I can motor on up there. The latest weather forecast is for snow showers in Williams for tomorrow. They are predicting a high of 32 in Williams for tomorrow and a low of 18. This should be fun.

Anyway, I will post when I can. The campgrounds that I am have reservations for all have WiFi. We will see if it is working when I want to use it. Stay tuned.