Tuesday, April 22, 2014

NLCV Day 3

Big Travel Day.  The Long Haul from New Mexico to Arizona.  The drive alone was going to be somewhere between 6-9 hours, depending on our final destination in AZ.

     We got a decent jump on the drive.  We had to wait for the pharmacy to open at 9 AM to pick up Caz’s medication.  I got up fairly early to pack the car.  I tried to use the 3rd row and creative packing, to maximize the personal space for the boys.  I also had to keep certain items handy: everyone’s electronics, the cooler, neck pillows, sunglasses, etc.  It is really an art form, if I do say so myself.  The boys appreciated it.
     We stocked up at the pharmacy/grocery store.  We got drinks, lunch, and snacks for the ride.  I needed windshield wiper fluid.  The amount of bugs splattered on the windshield numbered in the hundreds. 
      Our first stop took longer than expected.  Both Demi and I had read the printed directions wrong and grossly underestimated the time for our first stop.  The VLA.  Very Large Array.  It is part of the SETI project.  Our second issue was using SIRI.  We didn’t have a physical address for the GPS.  Demi used SIRI.  When we started down the side streets of New Mexico State Technical & Mining School, then into neighbor hoods, we knew something was amiss.  Unless the DISH satellites on the homes were the Very Small Array, we were not in the right spot.  SIRI, we found out, took us to the official head office of the VLA.  So it was back on the Road.
     Talk about middle of nowhere.  The direction included turning left at mile 82.  No sign.  Why have a sign?  That is when we saw the barbed wire and small signs that read: “ US Government Property.  No Trespassing.”  I was waiting for the black SUV’s to come hassle us.  The arrays were scattered all over the place, not even close to each other despite the pictures on line.  As we started out the door to the viewing area we saw a hand written sign that said there were snakes on the grounds.  Sure enough 2 six footers were bearing down on the door.  That was enough for Demi.  We did the Griswald quick look around, snapped some pictures, and loaded up back in the car.
     We got to the Rainbow Museum in the Petrified Forrest with no issues.  The time was about as expected.  It was a lot different from what we expected.  Not so much a forest as you would picture in your head.  The history was interesting.  .  The fossilized wild life and vegetation was a good learning opportunity too. The walk around the premises was leisurely and short.  It was a good chance to stretch our legs.
     The boys decided they wanted to press on to Sedona, so off we went.  We tried to get dinner 30 mins out but the town of Winslow turned out to be a ghost town in the making.  The GPS took us to a diner that no longer existing.  It took us through a rough stretch of town to get back to the highway.  We would have been better off cruising Bucket of Blood Blvd in Holbrook by the Petrified Forest, on old route 66.  We did however find a hidden gem in Flagstaff.  Bigfoot BBQ.  It was tucked away in the basement of a small walk in market area.  Great southern BBQ.  We rolled out of there back into the car to head to Sedona. 
     This was the only night we hadn’t booked a hotel room. We were gambling.  It paid off.  We found a really nice room at a place in Sedona online.  We used some frequent flyer miles (so to speak) to offset the cost difference between that and the a decent hotel room.  The drive to Sedona was a bit more exciting than planned.  We dropped 4K feet in elevation, winding down some hairpin turns, with no guardrails, in the complete dark.  We almost did a mule deer.  We couldn’t appreciate the sights but we could appreciate the comfortable beds when we finally made town. 

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