The Wheels Go Round and Round

"Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point."

I couldn't agree more with that statement. Especially when dealing with cancer, the closer I am to God, the easier it is to get though the bad days. I really couldn't imagine going through this without knowing the Lord. I think it would be "pointless" to try.

Mom and I got a little bit of a late start in leaving town. We headed to California via the southern route through New Mexico and Arizona. We stopped on the road for breakfast and a stop across the street for coffee in the car. We like to have our Starbucks on the road and try to find one near our stops for vehicle fuel.

We headed for the border of Colorado and New Mexico planning to stay overnight in Santa Fe since we got a late start. We made a light detour in Las Vegas, NM just to check it out. We didn't know what to expect, but thought we would just drive through the heart of the town and see what we could find. It was a Saturday, and people were having parties in the park and it seemed like a quint little town. Some older architecture along with some classic signs, vintage street clocks and old Americana feel. We didn't stop anywhere, we just took in the sites and made our way back to the Interstate.

Sporting a faux-hawk at Pecos National Historical Park.

We headed south again and soon found ourselves in a very nice mountainous area headed toward Santa Fe. We came upon a few signs for Pecos National Historical Park and I talked mom into heading off the Interstate to take a look there too. We found a small entrance off the Santa Fe Trail into a wooded area and found a visitor center. We stopped in to see what Pecos was all about. It had been an old Indian Reserve and the ruins of this little city had been excavated to find various ways of living. It was fun seeing this little site and walking around the ruins. The wind was pretty strong through here and you can tell so by may hair. I usually don't sport a faux-hawk, this is a rare site to see me with one. Mom and I didn't spend much more than an hour taking in the site before we left. When we left, we took a left turn down the Santa Fe Trail until we found a way back to the Interstate. It wasn't much longer until we were in Santa Fe. Downtown was bustling as they had a street fair going on. We had such a hard time finding a place to park because of it and it was beginning to rain.

We took in the site of an old church in town that was undergoing renovation and headed south again toward Albuquerque. We thought we might find a place that we could have dinner, but we couldn't really decided on anything and continued west from Albuquerque. We watched the signs on the highway for any place that we really felt we wanted to stop and look, but didn't really see much. We continued to make our way to Gallup, NM which is just before the Arizona border and settled in for the night as it was really late.

The place was pretty much a dive and the train ran through town blowing its horn nearly every 30 minutes. It was the worst night of sleep either one of us had ever had. We were both cranky the next morning and could hardly wait to hit the road and get out of that place. But, we needed fuel for us and the car, so we made the necessary stops before getting on the road.

A little of the Painted Desert behind me.

Now that we had our bellies full and were on the road again, we felt much better. We saw signs for The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park. We started at the visitor center and soon found that this was a place we wanted to check out for sure. We had some time and made our way through the pull-outs and beautiful scenery of the Painted Desert. We wound around the road and back under the Interstate to the other side which then becomes the Petrified Forest.

It was amazing to see all the trees that had crystallized over the years. We continued down every turn off to see what was there. if anything was new. We saw some petroglyphs, and more petrified trees. They really were beautiful. Some were not as formed as others, while others were huge and strewn everywhere in small chunks.

We found our way out the back entrance and by-passed a bit of the Interstate. We caught it again at a city called Holbrook and continued west toward Flagstaff. We turned off for Meteor crater and found that we were amazed at what it really looked like. We were extremely skeptical at first knowing the pseudo-science type of people that can be found in the southwest.

Finally as it began to get dark, we got back on the highway for Flagstaff, only another hour away. By the time we got to Flagstaff, we found a very nice hotel and got checked in. Neither one of us had eaten since breakfast and were now to the point that we snapped at each other with our answers. Neither of us would make a decision on dinner and both of us became irritated. Mom finally went in and took a shower while I just gave up and started to go to bed. When she got out of the bathroom, I apologized and told her I didn't know what was wrong with me. After a little discussion, we realized we hadn't eaten and we both needed protein to keep ourselves from snapping like that. We got ready and went out to grab something and take it back to the room. When we got back and got ready for the night, we called the family and let them know we would call sometime after we got back on the road again.

We were now at more than half through our trip and were beyond being tired from the lack of sleep that night before. Hopefully no trains kept us up tonight.

Next, we adventure a little more before getting to California.

Reflection:
"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." James 1:2-4