Remember my mystery building from a couple of weeks ago?

Yesterday we took the afternoon to do a little more investigation. After signing a waiver of responsibility (should we worry?), we climbed up to the main part of the building. Here is the indoor skydiving “arena” -

It’s really just a big tube with viewing area around the outside. If you look up you can see the four giant fans that are sucking (and I mean SUCKING) the air up from the bottom and creating the up-draft and ability for folks to fly.
Looking up -

Looking down -

Shortly after we arrived several experienced sky-divers had a training session. It was pretty fun to watch -



But after they were done a group of “regular” folks had their turn. There were about 8 in this group – cashing in, I think, on some Christmas presents!
Ah, the adventure of flying!

This little one was my favorite –



Oh, the delight on her face!! Look, I’m FLYING!!!!
You too can enjoy the thrill of skydiving without actually getting in an airplane. Just come to Eloy, Arizona and sign that waiver. Oh, and get out your wallet. The price is $50.00/2 minutes. Yes, that’s 2 minutes! Or – you can do the extended plan – 4 minutes for $80.00. Or, you can just enjoy watching the excitement for a much more reasonable price. Free. Gotta love that!

While we were there we also got to watch a little real skydiving -

Not quite so “up close and personal”, but still fun to watch.

---

Tomorrow we’ll be busy cleaning and packing. We have a 6:30AM flight out of Phoenix on Tuesday morning, so we should be hugging those grandbabies (not to mention Toby, Tammy, and Lara) by dinnertime Tuesday. Josiah and Abigail should be there late Tuesday.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to me!
One more holiday picture – You have to admire the creativity in Christmas decorations around here!

Now where were we….
The next day we headed out to do a little ’splorin’ on the historic Route 66.

This road went from Chicago to the Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean. It has been called The Mother Road, and carried many a traveller during the great Depression in hopes of brighter days in California. Judging from the stretch of road we traveled, if they made it to Nevada things would be looking up!

The views were amazing, the curves terrifying, and the drop-offs nerve wracking. But the road was paved, so that was a step up from other windy switchback turn roads we’ve been on recently! It was pretty hard to imagine those model T trucks loaded down with all your earthly possessions making the trip over these mountains, but I guess since it was all they had they made it work. Our destination was the old mining town of Oatman – now a town of shops whose main attraction are the wild burros that roam the streets.

I don’t know if these burros were interested in the oil paintings, soy candles, turtles, tattoos, magnetic jewelry, collectables, or other “good stuff” being sold in this shop!
We finally made it back to the “big roads”

and worked our way back to Golden Valley.
The day was quite a bit less intense than our Hoover Dam day and we were back in time for this wonderful gift at the end of the day-

---

Our original plan was to pull out the next day and head to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. We were prepared to weather the cold, but when the weather report called for snow and rain for the entire week, we sadly changed our plans. We WILL get to the GC, but it probably won’t be this year. Instead we took the road south and checked out Lake Havasu and the (famous?) London Bridge that was reconstructed there.

Um, not quite the Grand Canyon, but still and all we can cross it off our list! The rest of the trip was full of lovely scenery and clear roads.

So while we didn’t get to see all that we had hoped to, it was still a lovely little “vacation” trip to begin towrap up our time in Arizona. We’ll be here in Picacho for a couple of more days, will be flying to Columbus, OH next Tuesday for our Christmas with the kids (yippee!!!), and then will be heading to CA in early January. That was CALIFORNIA, friends!!!

Here are links for the rest of the pictures -
Route 66 Day
Lake Havasu and the drive home

Hope you’re having a lovely post-Christmas weekend! We’re heading off to help serve a turkey dinner to 30 or so hungry kids!

Today our middle child, oldest son, and father of our granddaughters turns 30. Thirty. The big three-oh.

The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes.
Frank Lloyd Wright

Happy Birthday, Toby! Welcome to your new decade!

If you have a little time between straightening up the family room and washing the dinner dishes, how about going for a little ride? Gary and I had a great weekend up in NW Arizona and of course I have lots of pictures to share. My plan is to give you the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version and then if you REALLY have the time, you can check out the whole set at your leisure. So pour yourself a cup of tea, grab a couple of those snicker doodles, and come along for a ride!
Drive from Phoenix to Kingman
Since this was all “new road” for us, I was busy documenting the changing scenery. Through the desert, into the mountains, around the curves – it was a great drive!

Snow on the mountains-

Then finally snow all around us!

It was a great drive, and the weather report was promising a bright and clear (though pretty cold) day for our next leg – Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. We settled into our campground in Golden Valley and started pulling out our hats and gloves and long underwear!
Hoover Dam Day
We started out pretty early (it was over 60 miles to the dam) and were met with a lot of fog. But that can present its own beauty -


This road pretty much only goes to the Hoover Dam, but along the way was Willow Beach. Since we had failed to allow for the time change we had a little time to kill, so down to the water we went!

I don’t know who was going to get into those kayaks – the guy driving the boat was wearing a down jacket!

Anyway, back to the main road -


And finally the Hoover Dam was in sight -

We opted for the BIG Dam Tour – a little pricey at $30.00/ea (a little pricey???), but we felt that it would be worth the investment. Sadly, we were wrong. Though it was interesting, it certainly wasn’t $60.00 interesting! But that, as they say, is water over the dam bridge.
The new bridge has a way to go –

The water in Lake Mead seems a little low – but it was beautiful nonetheless.

Which brings us to
Lake Mead
The drive north along Lake Mead started close to the lake

(this was where we stopped for lunch. Sweet!),
but soon starts going through the mountains -


The colors along this drive were amazing

But that was just the beginning. We exited Lake Mead National Park through
The Valley of Fire State Park
Spectacular red rock formations -

Petroglyphs

and generally eye-popping scenery -

made for a wonderful drive.
We eventually made it over to Route 15 which we took south to Las Vegas.

We can now say that we’ve driven through Vegas – but we were too tired to take any pictures!

Phew, I think that’s enough for today! Here are links to MORE pictures of the day -
Road to Kingman
Road to Hoover Dam
Willow Beach
Hoover Dam
Lake Mead
Valley of Fire

But you might want to get a fresh cup of tea before you start clicking on those links!
Safe journey!

Unlike my Arizona Grandparents, I saw my Vermont Grandparents much more regularly. I cannot remember a summer vacation that was not spent in Vermont. There was The Big House (located in the middle of town, it was where my grandfather had his medical practice and was the house where my dad grew up), The Little House (located outside of town, it was a small house that my grandmother bought without telling my grandfather!), and of course The Cabin. Along with our summer vacations we would also get to Vermont to celebrate Christmas. I don’t think we went every year, but I know we went often. I can remember many a Christmas that we had an early Santa arrival so all the gifts didn’t have to be lugged in the back of the station wagon up to the Little House. Here we all are (along with our cousins) on Christmas Morning 1962 -

My sisters and I are totally engrossed with something under the tree, poor Kim is totally hidden by the tree, and Wanda and Dewey are the only cooperative subjects.
We were almost always guaranteed a white Christmas on those Vermont holidays. And although I don’t actually remember this outing, this is one of my favorite shots that came out of my grandmother’s collection of slides -

So from here in the land of giant cacti and mesquite trees I wish you all a very blessed Christmas.
Oh, God….
help us rightly to remember
the birth of Jesus, that we may share
in the songs of the angels, the gladness
of the shepherds, and the worship of the wise men.
May Christmas morning make
us happy to be your children.
Robert Louis Stevenson