Dreams, Moments, Travels
This is nearly all that remains of the “Standin’ on the Corner” mural in Winslow, Arizona. Made popular by the pop song from the Eagles, “Take it Easy,” Winslow created this mural, but on October 18, 2004, a fire gutted the old J.C. Penny / Rasco building that the wall belongs to. The wall is still standing with the help of supports; the area, though, is fenced off.
We’re staying up here in Winslow tonight as we have some sightseeing to do tomorrow over on the Navajo Reservation.
With Caroline back at work, Jutta and I took off for a day trip north. Our first stop was Montezuma’s Castle National Monument.
I stitched 14 images together to create a detailed look at the cliff dwelling. The image on my computer is 11,255 x 5,239 pixels in dimension. Tours are not offered of this fragile monument, so the best one can do to see more details is either bring binoculars or take a super hi-res photo.
So you can have a better sense of just where this precarious cliffside castle is situated.
Without much of a plan, we continued north until reaching Leupp, where we stopped for lunch at a roadside stand selling mutton stew – a Navajo favorite.
Those snow-capped peaks on the left are next to Flagstaff, but that’s not the reason for the photo; my mother-in-law has rarely seen Navajo cowboys on her visits to America.
I guess they’re not totally wild donkeys, as I don’t think they’d approach us if they were.
Our last stop on this impromptu journey was Meteor Crater near Winslow, Arizona.
Jutta and I visited the Desert Botanical Garden today in Phoenix, Arizona. At only 9:00 a.m., the temperature was already over 90, and the Garden was not overwhelmed with visitors. The Garden was far more beautiful than I imagined for this time of year. Many cacti are in bloom right now, including an incredibly large flower blooming on the Echinopsis Cactus.
The photo above, though, is from the Barrel Cactus, whose bloom had this fierce-looking monster of a bug staring me down before it leaped 20 feet or more and attacked my mother-in-law with savage brutality, leaving her wrinkled and a bit stooped over.
Through the carnage, my mother-in-law still enjoyed the dangers the Botanical Garden had to offer; tomorrow, I’ll post information regarding her near-fatal encounter with “THORNS”!
Attention: all of the photos in this post were updated in 2023, while only the image with a bug was in the original post. The text above this is the original that was written back in 2005 while this part of the post is part of the 2023 update.
I’ve added the extra images to better represent the day.
And other than that, have nothing else to add to the memories of that day.
After much toiling, the order for a 12×16 inch Deluxe Photo Book was ordered this evening from MyPublisher.com. We whittled the more than 4500 photos taken over three vacations during 2000, 2003, and 2005 down to 130. These photos had to be color-corrected, resized and laid out. We are presenting the book to my mother-in-law’s granddaughter Katharina about her grandma’s travels in America.
This is the first book we are printing with an online book publishing service. While the basic service is reasonable, we quickly surpassed the number of pages allowed and started adding many more, driving up the cost of the book. If the book turns out in good quality and we have it in time before my mother-in-law’s departure, then all will be well. I will post in-depth details regarding the entire process as soon as we see the results from MyPublisher.com.
Too tired to cook tonight, we took the easy way out and went for dinner. Ok, we probably do this and use the same excuse too often. Lone Star Steakhouse was our choice this evening. Regarding Caroline and vegetarianism – well, there are always baked potatoes and salad on the menu whilst the carnivores masticate the flesh.
After Disneyland yesterday, we drove up to Santa Barbara to spend a little time with my Uncle Woody and Aunt Ann. They took us for German dinner, Jutta’s first German food in America, and, as usual, packed us up with a trunk full of lemons, drinks, TP, food, and miscellaneous stuff. Our visit was short, but my aunt and uncle enjoyed meeting my mother-in-law for the first time.
On the way home to Phoenix, we stopped at Tommy’s at Rampart and Beverly Boulevards, and while it is famous to Angelinos, it was Jutta’s introduction to the chili cheeseburger, and it definitely won’t be as memorable for her as for others. That might have to do with what happened just after eating her burger on the way back to the car when a man in a wheelchair offered to have his photo taken with my mother-in-law when he saw my camera and as she got into position, he offered a goose on her butt, that was first and funny enough, it elicited a good laugh.
While a typical stop for Caroline and me, my mother-in-law had no idea what boba tea was, but upon learning it was sweet, it was good enough for her, though she found the tapioca balls kind of awkward.