Busy Being Vagabrauns Vagabonds

We've been wandering.  That's what we do.  Nothing special, but we've been moving around.

Denny and I made our way to Las Vegas from Tonopah because I had promised my mother that I'd scatter some of her ashes there.  She loved the beach and she loved playing the slots.  Blazing 7s was her machine of choice.  So we hit a casino and played the Blazing 7s in her memory but due to the nature of our visit I  didn't feel like doing much in the triple digit heat.  We did find out that the heat was indeed quite different from the humid heat of Ohio and it was much more bearable being outside than we thought it would be.  Of course, RV air conditioners are only capable of cooling the interior air to 20 degrees less than the outside air, so we weren't "chilling" by any means during our stay.

We were greeted by the sight of this young woman riding her Arabian horse up Boulder Highway in the middle of Las Vegas.  You just never know what you'll see here.

Leaving Las Vegas we headed into the cooler elevations, landing in Williams for what was to be one night.  Our site overlooked the town of Williams.

Before we left Las Vegas I had gotten an email from a Phoenix based realtor who has been sending us notifications of homes for sale.  There was a yet unbuilt home that looked interesting so Denny and I decided to rent a car and drive to Apache Junction to look at the model with the idea of perhaps buying the model home itself and renting it back to the builder for a year or so until we were ready to settle down.  So we drove to Flagstaff to rent a car for the 220 mile drive (cheaper than buying diesel for the trip with the truck) and this is what we ended up with instead of the Malibu I originally rented.  Fun, huh?  It's been twelve years since we gave up our convertible when we traded in the motorhome for a fifth wheel and it felt good to be behind the wheel with the top down.

This is the style of home we would like to purchase if we bought something in the southwest; a Santa Fe style home.  Unfortunately, it turned out that the Santa Fe styling was mostly a false front and the rest of the house was basic stucco with a sloped tile roof.  Attractive inside, but not set up very conveniently for easy access to the kitchen from the garage plus the master bedroom and patio backed right up to Broadway Ave which is a six lane very busy thoroughfare.  This particular development has already gone under once and has been taken over by another builder so Denny and I decided that it might be better just to keep looking.

But it did have the view of the Superstition Mountains that I wanted.

Our stay in Williams was extended yet another day when the weather forecast along I-40 in Arizona and New Mexico was for winds at 45-50 mph gusting to 60 mph.  Plus when we woke up that morning it started sleeting so an extra day's stay sounded better and better.  Sunday morning's winds had changed to breezes and the sun was shining brightly so we packed up, pulled the slides in and headed east once more, landing in Red Rock State Park just east of Gallup, New Mexico.  When we step out of the door and look left we see this:

Turning our heads to the right we see this:

And this is what we see as we look straight out the door; Church Rock itself.

The view from our living room window.  The rocks looked like they've been scoured with steel wool and the ground is soft red sand.  There are some ground squirrels and a few small birds but for the most part it's very, very quiet here.  Next week however, people will come with 800 horses for an annual rodeo event.  A good time to be leaving, I think.

Next up, Albuquerque.  Home to Denny's sister and Linda from New Mexico and Trader Joe's.  Yay, yay, and yay.