2012 New Year in Santa Fe

We're spending a few days in Santa Fe, NM, with Lyn's sisters Diane and Joanie and their husbands Rick and Johann. We are in a great house in the countryside and are having a ball. Everyone is staying in most of the time (with occasional walks with or without the dogs, Lucky and Luna) just enjoying everyone's company. Lots of good food, drink, conversation, book reading, etc. So far we've celebrated Christmas, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, and today will be Joanie's birthday celebration. Happy New Year, everyone!

Sandhill Cranes and Home

We left Kearney this morning in light fog, but we could see lots of cranes in the fields. We must have seen 2000-3000 cranes! At first they were just in small flocks of a few to a few dozen. Then we saw some bigger flocks that must have been a hundred or more. Finally, near Grand Island, we saw one huge flock that easily was over a thousand cranes! It was pretty amazing. The news in Kearney was reporting last night that one Whooping Crane (only a few hundred exist) was seen in the area. If we do this trip again at this time of year, we'll have to plan to stay a day or two in Kearney to do some bird watching. The rest of the drive home was long, but the roads were decent and the traffic mostly light. We arrived home at about 6 pm. We had a great time on our trip, but it's nice to be home again. Now we get to start thinking about the upcoming sailing season.

Kearney, NE

Well, the drive today wasn't too bad, but we quit a little earlier than planned due to the weather. We had a mix of light rain, snow showers, sun, wind, etc. Sandhill cranes are migrating through the Platte River valley and we saw several large flocks of them grazing in the old corn fields. We stopped at a rest area just before Kearney and noticed some ice buildup on the antenna of the car next to us. That decided it! We got a motel room in Kearney. Tomorrow is supposed to be a little more of the same, but the road conditions look pretty OK according to the 511 sites online. We'll check again in the morning, but expect to push on after breakfast.

Denver

We arrived at Rick and Di's home in Denver late Friday afternoon. Since then we've been having a ball! They are such great hosts; we love staying with them. Friday night we all went out to dinner with their friends John and Deborah, who will be moving soon to New Orleans. They are both architects and John has started a new job there as project manager of a huge project to rebuild about 140 schools in the city. So they sold their beautiful home in Denver and will be moving in just a couple of weeks. They found a temporary rental in NO until they find a house to buy. Rick and Di will miss them a lot. Saturday was a free day for everyone. After a leisurely start, we did our own things. Lyn and Di went shopping for Lyn's summer wardrobe. It was a great success. Lou went for a 40-mile bike ride (big surprise!) and loved the trails in Denver. It's a great biking city. Rick tried to relax, but he had some of his work projects to check up on. He was also preparing an Indian curry dish for us for dinner. Rick loves to cook and is very good at it. The curry was very hot, but delicious, and we finished it all. Sunday started with Rick not feeling well, so he had to skip the brunch that he organized for Lyn's cousin Donna and her husband Jeff. The rest of us managed to pick up the slack and we had a great brunch and got caught up with Donna and Jeff. We also Skyped Joanie and Johann in San Francisco so we could all talk together. It was Donna's premier on Skype and she really enjoyed it. Later in the afternoon Rick was still resting and trying to get well. Lyn and Di went shopping again (this time for some new dishes for Di), and Lou went for a 30-mile ride. It was supposed to be a yucky day today, but it ended up being quite nice. Now we're trying to decide if we will leave tomorrow morning or stay for another day to wait for a good weather window. We'll check the weather sources again tonight and in the morning and then make the decision. We'll see...

Phoenix to Albuquerque

Our drive today was very scenic. As we neared Flagstaff the San Francisco Peaks reared into view. Also, there was snow on the ground, but luckily there was none on the highway. We turned east after Flagstaff and stopped at the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Park. We had a little picnic lunch there, although it was mostly prepared and eaten in the car due to the wind. All in all, it was a great driving day. Fairly stiff SW wind helped us most of the day.

Drivin' thru the desert

We left Encinitas a little after 9 am today. It was sad to leave since we enjoyed being there so much. But life goes on...

We took the scenic route to Phoenix, driving through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. It was really a very interesting drive. First we had to cross a low (4000') range of mountains. In the mountains was an old mining town called Julian. We had heard of a great bakery in the area and we stopped at the Julian Cafe and Bakery. Lyn had apple pie a la mode and Lou had an apple muffin with butter. Wow, they were really good. Highly recommend this place for anyone traveling through. They have a real cowboy theme, right down to the water glasses looking like cowboy boots.

After coming down from the mountains, we entered the park. It was not as colorful as we had hoped. The octotillo were in bloom with a red flower at the end of the stalks. We also found a few cholla that had a small yellow flower, but that was about it. We had an enjoyable ride through the park.

Later we drove through the Imperial Sand Dunes. That was pretty neat, too. Finally we got to I-10 and the rest of the day was freeway driving to our hotel in Phoenix. Dinner at Applebee's tonight. Tomorrow we head for Albuquerque by way of Flagstaff.

Time to leave already?

Yesterday we went to Janey and Ade's home in San Diego. We had a pleasant late afternoon and evening with them - talking, cards, dinner, and more cards. It was a lot of fun. We had originally planned to go sea kayaking with them, but that never worked out due to weather, other committments, etc. Maybe next time...
We spent today finding all our stuff, doing laundry, packing, etc. We did make some time though for a last walk on the beach for Lyn and a last bike ride to Oceanside Harbor for Lou. I think we're going to miss this a lot! Anyway, we plan to leave tomorrow morning for home. We'll spend three days working our way to Rick and Di's home in Denver and stay with them for a couple days. After that it will be a two-day trip to home. All dependent on the weather, of course, but it looks good at the moment. Here we go!