The Adventures of Jim & Rhonda

Oh, the joy that is a Willie Nelson song! Actually, after our 10hr drive today we most surely are NOT excited to get back on the road again tomorrow! We really enjoyed our time in Sedona, what a gorgeous spot. We drove south to Montezuma Castle, so named – incorrectly- that it was named so upon discovery because they assumed the Aztec chief Montezuma had built it. Later it was proven that the Aztecs never got that far north but the name stuck. It is an interesting multi-level housing structure built into the cliffside and believed to be built around 1300. The Indian tribe that occupied the space dispersed in around 1450 to incorporate into other tribes and simply abandoned the site..pretty interesting.

Next, on to Santa Fe. It was a pretty long day, around 9hrs driving, because we also stopped along the way to visit the Petrified Forest National Park.  Fascinating how trees became petrified and are now basically colored stone, other than that it was a very baren, windswept environment. It was an uneventful drive until we got closer to Santa Fe. We got a cabin at the KOA camp just outside of town which was very cute. Simple, just a bed, front porch with swing and BBQ but comfortable for two nights and the facilities were worlds better than the national park campgrounds!! Santa Fe is absolutely incredible! I loved Sedona but the heat was incredibly oppressive so I could never manage a summer living there (89 when we woke up Fri morning with the news warning people to stay inside to avoid the dangerous heat of midday!) but Santa Fe is equally gorgeous but averages daytime highs in summer in the low 90’s and because of the altitude at 7000 ft it cools off very nicely at night. We spent all day Saturday in town checking out the booths at Saturday market, exploring galleries and shops and visiting the Georgia O’Keefe museum. The St Francis of Assissi cathedral has the oldest Madonna statue in the US and there are some fantastic restaurants. We had a great lunch at Ore Cafe, right on the plaza…wonderful southwestern cuisine. A blackened chicken salad with mandarin oranges for Jim and Tacos de Yucatan with rice and pinto beans for me and a cadillac margarita for both of us. So good! And, we found our dream store! It’s called Seret & Sons and has thousands and thousands of old carved doors, tables, pillars, etc mostly from India. Rugs from Tibet, armours, etc. It was just amazing and we were in hog heaven. Of course, none of it is inexpensive and we don’t even have a house right now but it’s sure nice to dream!

Then there was today, a VERY VERY VERY long day of driving through some of the most boring, remote landscape we could imagine. We drove for 565 miles and never actually had to make a turn once (except from the KOA in Santa Fe and into the hotel we’re in now). Just endless miles of barely changing scenery and flat, straight roads. I will say, it made for easy driving (except for the bad wind gusts) but we are glad it’s over. Why anyone chooses to live in East New Mexico, Northern Texas or Western Oklahoma is beyond me! We stopped at a particularly cheesy place in Amarillo, Tx for lunch called the Big Texan Steak House. I heard about it in Lonely Planet and it was too fun to pass up! Their big promotion is that if you can eat a 72oz (that is not a typo) steak along with all the sides in under 60 minutes it’s free- otherwise it’s $50! No one was attempting it when we were there but they even have a stage with a big timer beyond it where people go to try and accomplish it..crazy! We had the teensy (ha ha) 8oz prime rib lunch which was very good. The place is total wild west kitchsy but a fun stop.

Now, we’re at the Holiday Inn Express in Shwanee,Ok. It was 105 today and still hot out. Yuk. We wanted to get east of Oklahoma City to make our drive to Little Rock a bit shorter tomorrow and not have to mess with any Monday rush hour traffic so we drove forever and treated ourselves to a nice hotel. Some delivery pizza and a couple of lemonades and we’re good! Tomorrow we are at the KOA near Little Rock and then on to Memphis for 2 nights at the Graceland RV park! Woo hoo, Elvis, here we come!!!

Hope all is well for you all and we’ll get pics up soon! The dream continues…..love, Jim & Rhonda

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