Route 66

Eventful day! Started the day by leaving my Amex card at the Coco's restaurant at breakfast:-) We were able to have it Fed-Ex'd home with Amber's help. We made it to Tucumcari tonight from Flagstaff, Az. pulling the trailer. We found a neat hotel founded in the 30's, and purchased by a Michigan couple this year, called the Blue Swan Motel... An old motor court with 12 rooms. Check it out online. Quite unique and a good night's stay for $60 cash. Credit comes at a price... Here are some images of the day.

A rain shower outside of Moriority NM.


The Blue Swallow Motel on Route 66


A memorial to Towmater on the wall of my room's parking space:-) Jack would love this place. Galen

iPhone 4 HDR photos from 40,000 ft

The iPhone 4 has an HDR photo capability. The high-definition capability is really very amazing for a phone. Who'd have ever guessed that we'd get this kind of image from a phone, flying 40,000 feet above the dessert at 450 mph. Not me. Check this out (I've lowered the size by 80%. The full size images are very nice indeed). I'm sure my fellow passengers think that I'm a bit of a nut taking photos with a phone, or maybe that it was my first flight... it was my first flight in the 1.5 million mile category:-) I'm fascinated by the creation. By what God has created that we so take for granted. I'm so glad He allowed us to fly. I'd have missed this.

A river in the dessert... I'm thinking we were about Lake Mead, or upstream a ways.

A dry river oxbow... in the rock

Amazing erosion

Dry riverbed

Looks so much like a tree. Check out the irrigated crop circles to the right. In the dessert.

Clouds and rain

California...

This past week I was in Claremont California with Mikki. It was a very nice week, when I look past the hard work. Then, there's this trip back to Texas we are on as I write this... we hooked on to the Triumph 5th wheel trailer this morning in San Dimas and headed to Texas. Shortly after getting on I-15 we get to Barstow, CA and I missed the I-40 turn-off, unbeknownst to both of us. We traveled very contentedly for a couple hours through the dessert and came on this giant-normous facility that appeared to be a casino. Sure enough, it was accompanied with a "Welcome to Nevada". Then, I saw a sign that said "27 Miles to Las Vegas"... oh brother! So, we are now in Flagstaff, Az, our initial destination, albeit two hours later. Here's a few images of some flora and fauna, and today in the Mojave dessert. 

Mik's roses at the town home in Claremont. 

A succulent plant next to the sidewalk at a resident in Claremont. I love the colors.

Some plant in the agave, yucca, cacti family... or not. Anyway, I like them.

Another rose... What's weird is that this blue color isn't altered, rather it was in a shady area and the iPhone camera just treated the shadow in blue. 

Our surprise visit to Lake Mead, Nevada:-)

The spectacular Mojave dessert. Sorry, a camera just does not do the landscape justice.

Las Vegas... surprise, surprise! 

This is as close to Las Vegas as we got. We took a hard right and headed back South as quickly as we could.

Our traveling rig.