Category Archives: Photos-Landscapes

On The Road, Photos-Birds, Photos-Landscapes, Photos-Wildlife, Uncategorized

~Sunrise, Visiting Critters, RV Site Photos, Status of Edge, with an additional post needed for our trip to the Ruins and to town.

October 17, 2017 Sheila 6 Comments

~Homolovi State Park, Winslow, AZ, Tuesday, October 17, 2017

~Sunrise…

“I guess I might as well get up”, I told Howard this morning at 6:15. “Maybe I can capture a sunrise photo.” We don’t get up very early any more, and we linger way too long over coffee. It works for us. However, not this morning.

Howard had to be at the Winslow Ford dealer for 8:00am; a very tough chore for him. He did make it and luckily for him there is a Subway within walking distance of the dealership that serves breakfast sandwiches. We have never had a Subway breakfast sandwich, but they look good on their website. He told me later it sandwich was good.

Wishing I would have gotten outside a few minutes earlier.

Sunrise

_MG_0768

~Park Sites…

I thought it would be nice to show a few of the sites here in the park. They are big, level and have plenty room in-between them.

~Critters…

_MG_0777 — Look who came by for a visit. He was so excited he was shaking.

~Status of our Ford Edge…

Howard got back from the Ford dealer around 12:30pm. They ran diagnostics and downloaded software all for $200.00 plus dollars. They told us that the transmission needed to be ‘dropped’ and the clutch(es) checked. They also told us that they didn’t have time, in the near future, to do the work.

With that, we are headed in the morning to the Grand Canyon, keeping with our plans. On Tuesday morning we will bring the Edge to the Ford dealer in Cottonwood, AZ for them to do the work. Appointment made. We will be staying at Dead Horse Ranch State Park for the week, as we planned.

~~Tomorrow…

I will post Part 2 of our stay at Homolovi State Park. We took a ride this afternoon to see the ruins, tour the visitor center, and enjoyed a late lunch in town. And, we stood on a corner! (And, I was trying so hard to get caught up with the blog/days.)

PS: If you enjoy dark, clear skies this state park is worth a visit. The sky last night was beautiful, with a prominent Milky Way.

~Look Up Every Now and Then~

On The Road, Photos-Landscapes

~Pretty Sunset this evening

October 17, 2017 Sheila 7 Comments

~Monday, October 16, 2017, Homolovi State Park, Winslow, AZ

We left Albuquerque around 9:00am Monday morning and headed west traveling 244 miles. The traffic along I40 was good. We stopped for fuel at Route 66 Travel Center and paid $2.719 a gallon. We noticed the further we drove along I40 the prices for fuel increased.

There are a lot of RV’s on the road; heading in all directions. Some of these were leaving the Albuquerque Balloon Festival towing their baskets. Some are heading to warmer places for the winter I’am sure.

We haven’t traveled to AZ in a very long time and are looking forward to being in its different terrain. Dressed in cooler weather clothes we arrived at Homolovi to much warmer temperatures.

I am sure people were wondering about us as they sat in their shorts watching us set up. What are these people doing dressed in long sleeve shirts and long pants? We quickly changed into shorts. Hope it won’t be too hot for us in AZ. When the sun went down it got pretty chilly. Yay!

A bump along the way. When we were traveling to Albuquerque and pulled into a rest area Howard noticed a message in the Edge’s control panel. It read AWD is OFF. We arrived at Enchanted Trails and unhooked the car wanting to drive it to make sure things were okay. Well they weren’t. The car was chugging in low gear. We had to make a decision to stay in Albuquerque and find a Ford dealer or travel on to Winslow. Luckily Winslow has a Ford dealer. We called them and they said we could bring the car in Tuesday morning. So we left Albuquerque; it is so much nicer, for us, to be in a state park setting than in a commercial RV park.

Homolovi State Park is very nice. It feels like we are parked in the dessert, which we are. We have a 360 degree view of scrub grass with a few trees. Lovely! I have already seen two Roadrunners.

From the state park brochure: In the high grassland of 14th century norther Arizona, an ancient people found a home along the Little Colorado River. These people, the Hisat’sinom (known to archaeologists as the Anasazi), paused in their migrations to till the rich flood plain and sandy slopes before continuing north to join people already living on the mesas, people who are today known as the Hopi. In an effort to protect some of these sites, the Hopi people supported the idea of Homolovi State Park. The park was established in 1993.

After setting up, we drove over to the Ford dealer for a chat and then stopped at Walmart. The car was still acting up. So Tuesday morning at 8:00am Howard will bring the car in as scheduled. Howard and I play a little game each time we visit a Walmart somewhere by rating our experience. Don’t get me wrong I love Walmart (most of the time). Well my rating for this visit was a 1 out of 5.

Our plans. We are scheduled to be at Homolovi for two nights. Worrying about the car and wondering about the repairs, I’am not sure how much of the park we will be able to enjoy. While in Winslow, we want to visit “Standing On the Corner” park and the RelicRoad Brewing Company. Our plans are to travel to the Grand Canyon on Wednesday. We will see how things go.

This evening we were treated to a spectacular sunset.

_MG_0761 — Sunset over Homolovi State Park

_MG_0762 ~

_MG_0764

~On the Road, Enjoying Life

~Even with a few bumps along the way~

At Home, Photos-Landscapes

~Devil’s Backbone

August 11, 2017 Sheila Leave a comment

~Loveland, Colorado, August, 2017

A mile to the west of us is an open space area called the Devil’s Backbone. This area is very popular with locals and visitors, offering seven miles of trail for hiking, biking, horse back riding and picnicking. And, of course for taking photographs.

_MG_0408 — A path heading toward the unique rock formations.

For the last week or so we have had unusual rainy days. It has been nice for our dry environment turning the landscape green.

_MG_0430 — A green, lush meadow. Notice the bench for relaxing and enjoying nature.

_MG_0427 — A fallen Cottonwood Tree along the trail.

_MG_0413 — Looking west toward the Rocky Mountains

_MG_0423 — Great environment for birds and other wildlife.

_MG_0438 — Bullock’s Oriole nest hanging high in a Cottonwood tree. Good job!

_MG_0443 — I hope all the babies are somewhere else enjoying life.

_MG_0416 — A cloudy day in northern Colorado.

~Back in October, 2015, I took a night sky photograph workshop at the Devil’s Backbone. Here is the link to read about my experience.Night Sky Workshop

~Here is another one of my previous posts on the Devil’s Backbone. This one, a poetry challenge. Writing a Kyrielle-Sonnet