Tumbling Tumbleweeds

So, since my last posting, we have left Little Rock and crossed the rest of Arkansas, all of Oklahoma and on into Texas, stopping for the night in Amarillo. I had suggested to Betty that we stop off in Oklahoma City as we passed through town and renew our passports just in case we wanted to visit Mexico when we reach El Paso or maybe the Bahamas when we get to Florida. A "no go". If you recall, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed by terrorist Timothy McVeigh. She just didn't want to go there. I can sympathize with that. We'll renew them someplace else later.

I-40 through the later half of Arkansas, all of Oklahoma, and all of northern Texas was deserted of traffic for 100's of miles. Even more desolate than driving I-95 between Old Town and Medway. Amazing. Once we entered New Mexico the traffic density didn't change, but, the scenery sure did. All through New Mexico and on into Arizona the mountains rose thousands of feet on either side for hundreds of miles as we made our way south on I-25 to the town of "Truth or Consequences", New Mexico. Not far north of TandC, we had passed the site of the worlds first atomic bomb explosion which occurred on July 16th, 1945 in the northern portion of the White Sands Missile Range. We left the Interstate system not far south of TandC and heeded easterly toward Arizona and Linda's. We had to cross a mountain range, the Black Range and chose "Emory Pass" at an elevation of 8,228 ft which would put us into "Silver City, AZ" for the night. Our plan for the next day was to visit the "Gila Cliff Dwellings", a national historic site located in the Mogollon Mountains about 45 miles north of Silver City.

The next morning broke with the forecast of snow (over the local TV stations) for the Albuquerque area and northerly. We were over 200 miles south of the snow threat area, and, I thought, in the clear to visit the cliff dwellings. But, Betty was too anxious about driving up into higher elevations with the threat of snow in the state so we opted to head on to Linda's instead. We arrived at Linda's in Morenci, Az about noon'ish on Thursday, Decenber 16th.

After only one day of R&R, we headed off to Tucson. Linda wanted to do a little Christmas shopping there.
We spent the night in a motel, ate well, and had a very nice evening together.

I picked up a "Floozie" at "Big Nose Kate's" saloon

On our way back the next day, we detoured a bit to visit the town "To tough to die", Tombstone, AZ. We spent a few hours there walking the streets once walked by Wyatt Earp and his brothers, Doc Holliday, the Clanton's and the McLaury's, and "Big Nose Kate" (she was the saloon manager and lover of Doc Holliday). We witnessed a live reenactment of "The Gunfight at the OK Corral", had a beer in Big Nose Kate's Saloon, intended to visit "Boot Hill" but missed the stage couch ride and didn't have time to wait for the next one, and bought a copy of the local newspaper of the time recounting the events of the day, the "Tombstone Epitaph", October, 1881.

On the way back from Tucson to Morenci we passed through an area called "Texas Canyon". Photos will be forthcoming but it sure looked as though Dundee has been here. Some of you will know to what I refer (the monoliths he built of stones at nearly every campsite we stayed at on our canoe trip down the Allagash River).

Linda and Jim's home is beautifully decorated inside and out for this Christmas season and they make us feel so welcome. We look forward to spending some time here with them, certainly through New Years.

I have pictures ready to upload into my blog, but not tonight. It's Southern Comfort time. Stay tuned, I will try to add some photos in the next day or 3.   :-)

Oh yeah, the reason for the title of this blog posting, "Tumbling Tumble Weeds". When entering New Mexico, we stopped at a visitor center to pick up a state map of New Mexico and while Betty was doing so, I stayed near the car to have a cigar. Tumble Weeds were rolling and bouncing across the desert tundra in front of me and I really wanted to have one as a souvenir. So now picture this, the Loon is out running across the desert with a cigar in his mouth chasing a tumbling tumbleweed. Watching me would have brought a chuckle to you're face, I'm sure. In a 20mph wind, boy are they fast! Couldn't catch up with one. Maybe next time (when the breeze is less than 5 knots).

That's it from here for now -

The trials and tribulations at "Talking Rock"

Arrived at our daughters cabin in the Georgia mountains about noon on Sunday, Nov 21st. in a place called "Talking Rock" (named by the local native Indians because whenever they yelled at this large rock face, it would "echo" back).

Beautiful cabin in which Betty and I spent most of our time alone during the week but with family on the weekends. Had our traditional Thanksgiving feast on Sunday, the 28th with 16 at the table.

The cabin sits quite high up on a hill overlooking a passing creek. In fact, there are at least 40 steps to negotiate when descending to sit by the creekside fireplace at happy hour. One evening I was headed back up to the cabin when I lost my balance after only eight steps up. I managed to spin myself around and pretty much stay vertical as I careened out of control in a downward rush. I made the eight steps but lost it when I reached the flats at the bottom. Now horizontal and with still significant momentum, I continued to roll and within 8 or 10 feet or so, I dropped off the "cliff" (maybe four feet) and landed smack into Longbranch Creek. The back of my neck/head struck a football sized rock. My collision with the rock did about as much damage as my earlier collision with a moose. Nothing! They say a cat has 9 lives, I have already bested that.

Just 2 days after my fall, Betty tried to outdo me. This beautiful cabin has a nice loft and a rather long and steep stairway connecting the loft with the lower living room. I heard this clunk, clunk, clunk noise and when I turned, there she was face down and head first crashing down the stairs being fetched up at the bottom by a cabin wall. I feared for a broken neck, fractured wrists, or at minimum, damage to her recently operated on toes. Thankfully however, she came up laughing. She's a tough nut to crack as well. Perhaps Talking Rock is is a huge meteorite from deep space. An iron meteorite emanating a powerful magnetic field that effects the gravitational pull of the planet in the area of this cabin which causes human beings of the older generation to fall flat on their faces.

Since things run in three's, here's another one for ya. After the computer meltdown I had, I was at a Best Buy store to buy a new wireless laptop. On returning to my car, I couldn't get the ignition key to turn to start the car. By the time Triple A got help to me, I had missed our granddaughter Mary's evening musical performance. Rats! But at least Betty was in attendance. Betty was also treated by Lynn to a performance of "Cirque-du-Soleil in downtown Atlanta. Very much enjoyed.

Speaking of granddaughters, we were able to see Jessica and great-granddaughter Lillianne off for a three year stint in Germany with Ryan, her army husband.

At times I thought I must be still in Maine. For most of the 18 days we were in Georgia it was pretty nippy. Had snow flurries and saw temperatures in the teens. Brrrrr.

Left Georgia on December 10th headed for Memphis, Tennessee to spend a couple days with with a long time friend that Betty used to work with many years ago. Patty and Barry had brought their Memphis canoe club to Maine a handful of years ago for a week and I had the pleasure of guiding them on a few river trips.

The evening we arrived they took us to the famous "Peabody" hotel (built in the 1930's as I  recall) where they treated us (I mean me) to a $13 glass of wine. Thanks Barry. It was in the lobby that we got to witness the really weird "marching ducks". Five live ducks that spend the day swimming around the lobby water fountain. Every day at around six p.m. they exit the fountain and "march" down the hallway on a "red carpet" to board an elevator for the ride up to their "penthouse" on the roof of the hotel for the night. Still weird.

Then we moseyed along Memphis's famous "Beale Street" headed for famous "Blues" musician, B.B King's blues club. Here we savored a superb meal of the best of Memphis bar-b-que and an evening of great blues music. Thanks again Patty and Barry for everything you did for us. We'll never forget it.

Elvis's grave site at "Graceland"

We headed out again on December 12th but stopped after only 18 miles or so to spend a few hours touring "Graceland", the Memphis home and burial place of the "King of Rock 'n Roll", Elvis Presley. Toured the entire mansion, saw his well known "Pink" Cadillac, boarded his 4 engine private jet (named "Lisa Marie", after his daughter), and paid our respects at his grave site. Arrived in Little Rock, Arkansas that night with the intention to visit the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library the next day.

The "Oval Office"

Spending the forenoon at the presidential library in Little Rock, Arkansas was a real pleasure. Replicas of the Cabinet Room and the Oval Office were special highlights. We hit the road again after lunch to cross the rest of Arkansas and have now stopped for the night somewhere just off I-40 about 65 miles into Oklahoma. We should cross the rest of Oklahoma tomorrow and overnight somewhere in northern Texas. All is going well (except for the outside air temperatures - I thought 17 degrees in Georgia was a bit chilly but it will near 9 degrees here in Oklahoma by morning). I saw moments ago on the Internet that it was 46 degrees in Maine (makes me wonder if we;re traveling in the right direction).

Okay, this gets my blog post pretty much up to date (except for pictures - will add some soon, after I figure out how to do it). Gonna quit now and watch the football game with a beer in hand.

Stay tuned.