Several of y'all have asked so here is a run down of my road trip.
Jennifer, the boys and my mom struck off last Sunday evening. As part of my upcoming conversion to Catholicism I attended a ceremony with all of my fellow converts within the diocese Sunday afternoon. The car was loaded so as soon as I shook hands with the bishop we were off.
We got on I-40 here in Amarillo and headed west at precisely 5:00 PM central time.
I took this shot not long after we crossed into New Mexico.
We drove to Gallup, New Mexico that first night arriving at 9:30 PM mountain time.
Day 2 we made several stops in Arizona ...
... to see the painted desert ...
... and The Petrified Forest.
The areas littered with petrified wood were cool ...
... but my favorite section of the national park was an area called Magazine Rock.
Here is some info (stolen from the park's website, but condensed for my purposes) about the petroglyphs carved into this rock.
Thousands of prehistoric petroglyph sites are scattered throughout the southwestern U.S. . These images are composed of petroglyphs (rock carvings) and pictographs (rock paintings). For the vast majority of sites, the meanings and functions of these drawings have been lost. During the last 16 years, Bob Preston working largely in Petrified Forest National Park, has shown convincingly that many of these sites were used as "solar calendars" to track the yearly movement of the sun across the sky through the interplay of sunlight on the petroglyph. As long as time has not altered the alignments or surfaces of the rocks involved, these solar calendars function the same today as they did when they were created almost a thousand years ago.
Most petroglyph sites in the park date from about 1000-1350 A.D.
I find it fascinating to think my eyes are seeing something created that long ago.
From the Petrified Forest it was on to Vegas.
This was the boys first ever stop in Vegas so we took in the sights ...
Ate hearty ...
and had a dam good time.
15 comments:
Now THAT'S a slab o' ham!
Welcome back! What wonderful open space shots! Looks like it was quite a road trip.
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What a fun trip! I haven't seen Petrified Forest or Grand Canyon in like 20 years!!!
That was a big ol' pile of meat! And sounds like a fabulous trip!
I've taken that same trip - but over several years. I love the photo's too. Looks like your family had a wonderful vacation. I'm glad you got to go. Good memories you are creating for your family.
Lana and I are headed out west this spring after school, but south of there.
I hope you played the "Vacation" theme song...
Awesome pictures, though - looks like a fabulous time!
Awwww your boys are adorable!!
Look at that petrified forest with its ancient rock carving!! Amazing!!!
Glad you ate heartily too!!!
Take care
x
A wonderful trip, judging from the pictures.
You're gonna make a great Catlick, Travis! (Praying for you on the journey.) :D
Welcome back! It looks like a great trip!
We took a similar trip across the country when I was seven and my two memories of Vegas are a really big, hot parking lot and the stuffed elephant I won at Circus Circus. :)
so how did the midgets do at Texas Hold "em?
I suppose the petroglyphs were the blogs of their time.
Imagine carving every letter of this in stone?
I've never wanted to go to Las Vegas, but I do want to go out west.
Vacations are perfect to get away to rejuvenate one's creative juices. Nice photos, Travis.
I use to live in Gallup when I was in kindergarten and on the Navajo reservation, we use to find shark's teeth on mesas.
Looks like good times for everyone.
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