Riding with Steve

Next stop is Sedona because Cathy is meeting her yoga group from home at the Enchantment Resort in Sedona for a retreat starting this Sunday.   The trip from Mesa Verde to Sedona is one of the most boring drives we have encountered, the landscape is relatively plain, and there are no places to really stop and look around — I guess this is why the U.S. government gave it to the Navajo.  Its just miles of Indian Reservation with lots of tumbling tumbleweeds and sage brush.  This all changes when you get to Sedona where there is water,  trees, and spectacular red rocks.

We stayed a couple of days at the Cozy Cactus B&B which backed up directly to the national park. We could hike right out the back gate.  Our hosts were great and we had a good time just hangin’ and eating and hiking and ….

A few views  from the Cozy Cactus backyard Saturday morning

Saturday we went on a long hike out around the Courthouse and Bell rock formations and it was just a beautiful day with crystal clear blue skies against the red sandstone rocks.

Sunday morning we separated with Cathy off to the Enchantment for yoga and me back to Danville for a few days.  I left Sedona at 5:00 am so I could get back to Oakland and catch the Raiders  – from airport to stadium — and they even won the game (barely).  I’ll head back to Sedona Friday morning so we can finish the trip.

The name Sante Fe brings up images of the old west, old rail trains, and cowboys working the ranches.  Now it is more a home to artists and wealthy second home owners (it’s where Don Immus escaped) than it is to working cattle ranches and the local saloon.  You can get the old west in alot of places but Sante Fe with its laid back elegance,  its first rate restaurants  (I’d rather eat Chef Distefanos’ fare at Geronimo than dinner at Gary Danko’s) and the mile or so of art galleries on Canyon road make it a treasure.

The town is a favorite of ours and we have been there many times.  True to all western towns it has a central square which has a church and a government building plus shops.

The Alameda riverside has been made a walking park with all the art you would expect from a wealthy art colony.

The main industry is tourism and art.  You can’t really go anywhere in town with being surrounded by statues and sculpture.  While much is not to my taste there were some standouts this trip.

Every year Cathy and I shop together for our anniversary gift which is usually a painting, a sculpture, or some other keepsake that can draw us back to the time and place.  This year even though it was a month early we did the same as we strolled Canyon Road.  We talked to numerous gallery people who are preponderantly older white women who are passionate about art and really like to talk to prospective buyers, I mean really like to talk.  We did find actual proof that we are not so young as we lamented the news that several of the artists we like are now deceased — mortality is a bitch.  Canyon Road…

Just so y’all don’t die from the suspense, we did find our anniversary gift which we expect y’all to fawn over when you mosey round our little spread this fall, y’hear.

Route 66 is an iconic drive with its history, of course the song, and yes the old TV show.  US Route 66, like US Route 50 both run from Chicago to California — 66 going to LA and 50 to San Francisco.  The road has been replaced almost entirely by Interstates.  I 55 goes from Chicago to St. Louis then I 44 angles southwest to Oklahoma City where I 40 runs to Arizona.  We picked up old 66 in Oklahoma City and followed it pretty faithfully to Sante Fe.

The old route has the original concrete in many areas, with the original curbs and no high highway striping.  It was a blast to drive — beats the interstate.  However, some times you are only 50 feet to the side of the intestate and it definitely ruins the ambiance.

The fun of driving old 66 is the roadside sights and attractions where you run into all of the other Route 66 pilgrims.  There are a lot of them especially from Europe.

We had a great guide that covers every mile of the highway and there is a huge emphasis on old buildings and gas stations.  I have to say I am a fan also

We stopped in a non-descript hotel in Amarillo and the next morning took a detour 30 miles south to Palo Duro Canyon.  The Canyon just drops out of the flat prairie and is considered the Grand Canyon of Texas.  It was pretty with the recent rains and we hiked the river bed.

I’ll leave you with some of the images.  Take your pix on Route 66 ………..

We entered Oklahoma with the rain playing havoc with driving.  We had intended to pickup old Route 66 in Tulsa but it was just too gray.  So after yet another roadside burger we headed down the interstate to Oklahoma City, OKC as the locals call it.  I 44 was the first interstate used, everything else being small highways and scenic routes.  But with the rain coming down at 3″ an hour nothing was visible — even the road at times.  Cathy brought us in to OKC and I thought she would never drive on the trip again, she got a little tense, lets just say it was touchy for a while.  She is over it and her normal self again but just in case I am writing in the closet this morning.

The next day was gorgeous and we got a chance to see OKC — which is impressive.  We started at the National Cowboy Museum, again beautiful buildings and grounds and a great history of the cowboy in art, in film, at the rodeo, and today’s hall of fame.

The grounds were really pretty and we wandered around the gardens.

A Remington bronze!  They had a set of murals commissioned for their great room that were magnificent, huge but magnificent.

It was Sunday and he town was quiet which made it really easy to get around and provided the perfect emotional backdrop for the monument to the OKC bombing.  Again really well done, somber yet positive.

The empty chairs represented those lost, small chairs for children, and large chairs for the adults.  They are positioned by story of the building and the location of the individual at the time of the blast — each chair has an identity.

OKC had a redevelopment plan done in the early 1960′s by famous architect I.M. Pei.  He designed an entire garden and walking/multiuse area in the center of downtown.  He also designed, rather I should say originally designed, a Crystal Bridge.

We had lunch just off of downtown an area called Bricktown where several blocks of old factories were reconditioned.  We loved the city it was just the right size at 500,000 metro area, everything was close, and the people were great.  Unlike Arkansas and Mississippi there was a mingling of blacks and whites everywhere — in the stores, the resturants, downtown, etc..

With the sun at our backs we headed out on old Route 66.

Had to stop in Bentonville on the way out of Arkansas.  Not to see the birthplace of Wallmart, which was actually started in the neighboring town of Rogers, but to see the fabulous museum created by Alice Walton.  The Crystal Bridges buildings and grounds may be more impressive than the art itself which provides a very good linear view of American Art from the late 1700s to the present.  The building was designed by Moshe Sadfe, for you architectural buffs, the same man that designed the famous Holocaust Museum in Israel.

The museum entry fees are paid by Wallmart so admission for everyone is free. As a great piece of architecture and an educational stop we would highly recommend it and it is only a couple miles of the I 40.

By the way it just occurred to me while standing here in the middle of Wallmart country — Was the television show “The Waltons” just a folksy propaganda ploy to softly introduce the coming of the corporate behemoth?  Think about it John-boy………..

On the road through the Ozarks we hit our first bad weather.  It was rainy and overcast most of the day which didn’t hurt the scenery but made for a poor photo day.  The Ozarks in Arkansas are different from Missouri which is farther north and I think a little more rugged.  Regardless, there are still great vistas and some real feelings of Americana as you look down on some of the mountain farms.

We drove about 150 miles stopping for the view and making a few side trips, like one to a wildlife refuge where we met the naturalists and learned about central USA bird migration — very cool.  We ended the day in Eureka Springs, a small town built as a tourist town in the late 1800s.  It shares a lot of similarities to the resorts in the Poconos and the great camps in the Adirondacks.  The town is built in a canyon and has a series of winding streets and staircases.

Every possible space to build is used and since the the entire mountain is limestone it works pretty well.  The architecture is what you would expect for the 1860s thru early 1900s.

We spent a couple of days here relaxing when it rained then seeing the town and area when the sun came out.   One highlight was the Thorn Crown Chapel which was built deep in the woods and designed to bring nature to the pulpit.  Now it has had millions of visitors and three weddings were planned the evening we were there.

We really enjoyed Eureka Springs,  I just loved the architecture and the limestone formations.  We did spend some time in the stores, Cathy did the shopping

and I hung around outside, maybe snapped a few pics!  tomorrow off to the west — Oklahoma.