ted to get in the high 10's, so it seems that dropping the speed has gained us 1mpg. Or 10% better if that sounds more impressive. Under darkening skies we mosied into Santa Fe and began looking for the two RV parks we had identified from AAA's book (internet and cable being the prime requisites, given that we were going to hibernate through the bad weather). The one we preferred, of course, was on the other side of a divided six lane street, necessitating a U-turn, but that's why we like the 23 ft model -- no drama in such maneuvers. Alas (I had stronger words), the park had a small "no vacancy" sign, so we continued on to find the other. It, naturally, was on the side that we had just vacated, so another Uey and . . . where the *&%$)* is their sign? A virtually unmarked entrance was not a good sign (pun intended), but it turned out to be ok. Not as nice as the first, but at least it had space. We hooked up to power and cable, turned on the heat and tv, and settled down to Saturday college football while the rain started falling. The internet worked sporadically, and I ended up poaching a signal from the Ramada Inn next door. Popped some popcorn, hit the couch, and all was well.Sunday dawned chilly, overcast, and breezy, so we opted for the local bus line to take us the three or so miles to downtown. Santa Fe's attraction needs no explaining to those who have been there, but for youse rest, it's a great walking town as virtually everything is focused on the old square and the surrounding five blocks or so in all directions. Pueblo style construction, narrow streets, tons of shops and restaurants, the cathedral, the old government building, and the Native Americans selling their jewelry on blankets around the square. The action used to be confined to the square when I was last here 30-odd years ago, but it has bulged out to all the neighboring streets. We opted not to pay the fee to see the world's strangest staircase (no visible fasteners), but did take in a couple of museums and virtually every gallery and shop. Kudos to Loni: no purchases! Saw some things I definitely would buy if we were in a much higher tax bracket: a unique pot with braided snakes around the rim, and a turquoise turtle broach that
was dazzling. Sigh. Another life. We opted for lunch at the historic (official register) La Fonda Hotel in their main atrium restaurant. Unlike most hotel eateries, this was great. Nice ambiance, and terrific, giggle-while-you-eat food. We asked another diner to take our picture and he obliged. Turns out photography is his avocation, and he uses his work to make stationary cards. [Postscript: he actually mailed us some which were waiting for us when we got home. Quite nice.] The only problem was that he moved the camera when he took the shot, and it was badly blurred. Oh well. I took this one of Loni, but without the good backdrop.On Monday we unloaded the scoot and suited up for a chilly
ride to Los Alamos to see where the A-bomb started and the Bradbury Museum which traces the history. Los Alamos is really isolated, and must have been even moreso back in the '40s. It sits on a series of finger mesas surrounded by deep gorges. The scoot climbed well, but we were both pretty cold by the time we got there. The museum wouldn't open for another hour, so we perused the adjacent bookstore, which was loaded with science stuff as well as books. I spotted a 1,000 page volume of the complete short stories of Arthur C. Clarke, in chronogical order, and couldn't resist it. I'm up to the 
late '40's. The museum was excellent and we recommend it highly. I'm posing here next to models of "Fat Man" and "Little Boy," the two bombs dropped on Japan. The presentations here were pretty balanced, with the negatives all set out as well as the pros. One neat display (this is a general science museum as well) had you answer ten questions (on a computer) about your physical characteristics (eg, eye color, whether one of your fingers is longer than another (I forget which), etc.), then it matches these inherited traits against those that have been inputted by previous visitors to the museum. I, apparently, am a mass of recessive genes, as my pattern matched only 62 out of 59,000+ visitors. Loni matched 360.
After the museum we had a late lunch at one of the few spots open (ok, but nothing to write about), saddled up and took off for Bandelier National Monument. This is located at the bottom of a steep, narrow canyon, very impressive from both top and bottom, and contains both pueblo and cliff dwellings that are very accessible. It was 4:30 when we got there, and it closed at 6:00, so we only had a whirlwind tour. I would spend at least half a day here if we had the opportunity. It was active with tourists when
we got there, but not crowded. Apparently, it gets absolutely choked in the summer, to the point where they have to shut down access until enough people leave. The dwellings here date back to 1150 or so. These aren't virtually inaccessible, like those in Mesa Verde or Canyon de Chelly, so they must have been harder to defend, although there doesn't seem to be any evidence of warfare. Saw another LazyDaze in the parking lot, but no one was around. After our quick tour, we headed back down the hill to Santa Fe. Tuesday dumped more rain and wind, so we opted to stay put for 
another day, and lazed about reading.Next on the list was Taos, and it felt like we climbed the whole way. Once there, we were entirely unimpressed. The Taos square is rather small, not at all rustic, and a letdown after Santa Fe. Didn't seem to be much else about the town that bore investigating, so we cruised in and cruised out. Our real goal was to take the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway, an 84-mile drive that loops from Taos east to Eagle Nest, north to Questa, and then
south again. This was a beautiful drive, with spectacular mountain 
and valley views all along it. We stopped for lunch along the roadside and found that the Texans (Tessa, perhaps?) had left their mark. After the loop, we headed west on US64 and crossed the Rio Grande Gorge bridge, three miles long and 650 feet above the river. We got out and walked to the middle. The shaking when the trucks went by did not promote confidence, and we were glad to get back to solid ground. 64 
continues through the Carson National Forest,
and is another scenic drive all the way. We ended the day at Heron Lake State Park near Tierra Amarilla. The campground had no view of the lake, but when we saw it coming in and going out it was a very pretty one, but you'd have to have a boat to enjoy it. Uneventful night and extremely quiet. We seem to have been camping within earshot of trains for the last couple of weeks, and it was wierd not to hear them at night.The next day was a fairly
long haul to Canyon de Chelly (that's pronounced "Shay") National Monument, through such dreary spots as Farmington, Shiprock, and Mexican Water. This is "just keep driving" land, and we did. We skipped Chaco Canyon as the road was reported by other LDers to be ten miles of 5mph washboard. Not my idea of a good time, no matter how nice the park might be. The last stretch to C-de-C was quite beautiful, with dramatic rocks and vistas. Chelly is a National Monument, but is entirely on Indian land, so it is jointly administered. As a result, the campground (no hookups) is entirely free. It was not bad at all, with good-sized, well-spaced 
sites that were level. Besides, we needed a break from having the amenities (and paying the price for them). We had fun with time, as Arizona does not observe daylight savings, while the reservation does. I don't know how they keep things straight. Canyon de Chelly, like Bryce, is a travel-the-rim-and-look-down-in type of place. Canyon floor, with one exception, is off-limits to tourists unless accompanied by a native guide or a ranger. There actually are two canyons, 26-mile de Chelly and 25-mile del Muerto, and we toured one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, 
following the photographic advice for the best lighting for each. There are a number of overlooks that you stop at along each rim road, and each does provide quite different views of the canyon, which twists and turns. It's about 600 to 1,000 feet deep with sheer walls, and the dwellings seem to be in impossible places way up the cliffsides. You'd have to be very afraid of something to put up with the difficulty and danger of daily ingress and egress to those sites. How they built homes up there is utterly incredible. These were much higher than any we saw at Mesa Verde. You are allowed to climb down into the canyon at only one spot, the "White House" dwelling site. We watered up and made the trek down, down, down, across the canyon to the other side to where it's located, then the haul back up. It actually felt good after so many days driving. Having done that, I can't see much value in paying for a jeep tour (the principal stop of which is the White House), but there are a lot of folks, I guess, who can't or won't hike. There were some nice pictographs, which we could see well through the binocs, but which didn't come out clearly in the photos. The scoot was a big attraction at the overlook stops, and we answered lots of questions about touring on it.After Chelly we went south on 371 to I-40 (which only reminded us
why we try to avoid the Interstates: racing trucks and boring scenery), then west to Winslow, another garden spot. On the way we stopped at the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert. It was nice to see these, but I wouldn't rank them as must-sees. The Painted Desert would have been much more colorful at dawn or dusk with the low light, but it was pretty blah at high noon. Bad timing. the Petrified Forest was interesting only at the major southern entrance, the Rainbow Forest, where they have entire petrified trees instead of only pieces. We thought the coloring was not as good as the petrified
area we saw in Utah. So, a nice detour, but nothing memorable. At Winslow we jumped off the interstate and took SR 87 southwest, through Clints Well, then 280 over to Cottonwood, where we stayed two nights at a decent, if small, RV park. This was almost entirely occupied by long-termers, and it was interesting to watch the families bundling the kids off to school in the morning. Mostly 5th wheels and trailers. We saw only one other class C and a couple of A's.Cottonwood was our homebase for Sedona. We took
a reconnaissance trip that afternoon, 19 miles to Sedona on the scoot. Nice ride. Sedona is truly beautiful, with red-orange hills shouldering right into the town. In the Fall afternoon light it simply glowed. We stopped near the Visitor Center, which had just closed for the day, and wandered around. Turns out this was the first day of a week-long plein-aire art festival, and various artists had their easels set up around town, painting the local scenery, with tourist gawkers clustered around each. We watched a few and then wandered the galleries in that area. The paintings here were better on the whole than we saw in
Santa Fe. We were looking for the work of two artists that we first met (and bought) 35 years ago on the old Santa Monica Mall and at the Westwood art show, Tommy Lorimer and Lisa Danielle, then married but since split (still friends). Couldn't locate them this day, so we got on the scoot and headed back to Cottonwood for dinner. The next day we got an earlier start and went to the main gallery area called "Tlaquepaque." This is a series of buildings, courtyards, and paths that is quite pleasant to stroll around. We found a gallery that featured Lisa's works, which are now commanding a pretty penny that is well out of our range, but still no Thomas, and no one had heard of him. The gallery folks were also surprised to hear she had an ex. Hope we didn't tell tales out of school. At one gallery we walked into a room and we both were simultaneously struck by a painting that was unlike anything we usually gravitate to, as it was impressionistic. We thought for a long while about buying it, but I suggested we go out and cool off and come back later. Went to an ice cream shop and had a malt, always a good cooler-offer. We decided that we could live without it (whew). We checked a phone directory, found a listing for Thomas, gave a call and left a message on his machine. Time for an early dinner as the ice cream was our lunch. Picassa's Pizza had a good description in a writeup, so we went there and weren't disappointed. We split a medium, with half-and-half exotic toppings, and were happy campers. Midway through the meal, Thomas called, we reintroduced ourselves, and he invited us over (only 3 blocks away). He graciously spent a couple of hours with us, showing us his studio and his collection of western and indian artifacts, including museum-quality pieces. We know that to be the case, as we've traipsed through all sorts of them. The impressive thing is that he explored for and found most of what we saw, and they were wonderful objects. His house is jamb-packed with things that left us dazzled. He had no finished works, but was active on a co
uple. Everything he paints gets shipped out to Western-themed art shows, which is why he had nothing in the galleries in town. We were very happy to reconnect with him after a long time (we had seen him about ten years ago in San Dimas). Wish we could afford his work today, but will be happy with what we have from his early years. We also admired his six vehicles, including a beautifully restored '42 Ford that he works on when he's not painting. It was pitch dark when we left, but the scoot ride back was uneventful.Leaving Sedona we traveled through the Oak Creek Canyon on the way
to Flagstaff, the gateway to the South Rim. This is a beautiful canyon, but very twisty. Look closely at the photo of the road I posted and you can see three elevations of it, one above the other. Once again I'm glad we're "only" 23' long in those hairpins. The shot of Loni is taken looking back down the canyon we just navigated, towards Sedona.After a brief, unplanned detour through the University of Northern Arizona campus (thanks to the distaff navigator), we gassed up and headed out of the city. Just north of Flagstaff is the Museum of Northern Arizona and across from that is an annex in an
old house. Tommy told us that he had consigned his most recent painting here, so we stopped for a look. It was a beauty, but the $5,500 price tag ended any yearnings we had. We'll stick with what we have.Route 180 out of Flagstaff is much more scenic than the alternative 64 that goes up from Williams. Nice drive, but it's always much farther than I think (about 90 miles) to get to Grand Canyon Village. We had no problems getting a spot in "Trailer Village," which was located within walking distance of the shuttles and the headquarters. Once settled, we took the scoot on a tour of the surroundings and saw the steam train from Williams (Grand Canyon Railway, complete with "bandit holdups" and all) pull into the station at the El Tovar hotel. Checked out the hotel and made
plans to come back one day for lunch in the main dining room ('30's CCC architecture of stone and beams-- love it!). Back to the rig for dinner and a DVD.The next morning we got up at o-dark-thirty and froze our way over to the shuttles for the trip to the start of the Kaibab trailhead for a ranger-led hike down into the canyon. There we met a half-dozen other folks who were trying to stay warm until the sun could get high enough to do some good. As it turns out, it never
went above 50 all day, but that was a good thing when you're trying to hike back out. Unfortunately, we had plenty of wind in certain areas which made for exciting scampering over the rocks. Didn't want to become a human glider. The ranger took us down about a mile, all the while giving us an excellent summary of the history of the canyon, rock strata ages, flora and fauna. We highly recommend joining these walks as you get so much more out of the hike when you understand what you're looking at. The ranger-portion of the walk ended at Cedar Ridge, which was quite windy 
but offered some great views. I wanted to go a bit further and, after a bit of "encouragement," Loni did as well. We descended down to Windy Ridge, aptly named, but with a view of Phantom Ranch (about 2,000 feet below) along the river. Very cool spot. In all we went down a little over 2,000 feet in the space of two+ miles. That was the easy part; climbing back out was a bit tougher. At one point we had to make way for a horse train to pass carrying (!) dudes who had spent the night at Phantom Ranch and were being hauled to the top. Hmmmm. We got to enjoy the horse plops
the rest of the way. Near the top we were overtaken by the mule pack train that carries all the supplies down to the ranch --- every day! I can't imagine making that round trip day after day. We dragged ourselves back to the rim and it was a VERY nice ride back on the shuttle.The next day we walked around the rim trail from Yaki Point to Maricopa Point, and took a shot of the lodge buildings on the opposite side. Then off to the El Tovar for an excellent lunch of a blue cheese steakburger and a decadent dessert. You only live once. The atmosphere of the dining room was great and we highly recommend having at least one meal there when visiting the park. It's a trip to the past.
After this it was time to head home. We headed west on I-40 and stopped for the night at a casino RV lot south of Bullhead City. Decent enough buffet dinner, but nothing to write home about, and a little off-putting to see morbidly obese families piling on incredible amounts of food over and over again. Took in a movie, avoided the tables and machines, and called it a night. Yup, geezers for sure. Next morning we pulled out an had an uneventful drive home to two months' mail and our sticks home. A great trip!
