Charlie graduated from Navy recruit training at Great Lakes Naval Station this past weekend. Tom and I flew up to see his graduation ceremony. It was great and Charlie looked so handsome.

I love this photo of Charlie - he looks so happy. 

Charlie enjoyed eating junk food, drinking Diet Coke and talking on the telephone.

Charlie had most of these muscles before training - that is why he was second out of about 85 young men in PT. He is now in Rolla Missouri for the next 9 weeks in training - I believe it is construction engineering. 

We spent the three day weekend in Truth or Consequences, NM. In the 1950’s they changed the name from Hot Springs – something to do with the show. Anyway, when we first arrived I was afraid I had led Tom on an unsuccessful adventure – the whole place was full of trailers – that’s all. Over 60% of the people there are retired and I guess on limited incomes. Our motel was an old one that had been remodeled and the room and bathroom were really big. We drove into town and found the use bookstore I wanted to visit and spent about an hour there – both of us finding good bargains.

Sunday morning we made our way to the county fair grounds to see the Texas Longhorn Steer contest – I think they were going from here to some place in Ft. Worth and only the winners would go. These steers were fantastic and I never knew they had such tempers. At one point the winner (the choclate cow in the photo) was charging one of the other steers and this rancher just stepped right in front of the steer and said “Whoa” and that steer nearly tumbled he stopped so fast. The horns on the steers were fantastic – what I found fascinating is that as they stormed through the gates coming and going, they knew exactly the moment to turn their heads just the right angle so as not to hit their horns on the gates. I was impressed.

Later we drove out to the SpacePort – where Richard Branigan (?)  in six months is going to send folks to space from this 2 ½ mile runway. We were really just following these little rocket like graphics on a couple of directional signs – we had no idea how far it was. After about 15 miles after driving out to the middle of nowhere we were at a dead end and had to go right or left – of course we had not seen a sign in miles. We called the owner of the bookstore we visited the night before  cause that was the only local number we had (on her book mark) and she said take a right and drive 12 more miles. So we did and that is when we saw Ted Turner’s buffalo ranch. A woman at the fairgrounds had told us to watch for them. There was another animal she told us to watch for, but we had never heard of it before…. Let me tell you they have a lot of work to do on that SpacePort place in the next six months. Tom and I had a nice long chat with the security guard.

When we got back to civilization we went down to the RiverBend Hot Springs and soaked in the springs for two hours. It was around 65 degrees and a breeze was blowing so those hot springs felt just wonderful. We enjoyed talking to the other folks there – it was sort of like a communal bathhouse.

In the late afternoon we decided we wanted to go find this ghost town which was only about 40 miles but we had to go up the mountain and through the pass and we knew we didn’t have time. We did not want to come back though those curvy roads and switchbacks in the dark. We decided to just drive to the pass and then come back. It got colder and curvier as we got higher and higher, more and more snow. By the time we got to the pass it was freezing. We got some great views from Emory Pass at 8220 ft. It was a lovely drive – so strange to be so cold when a couple of hours earlier we were in the hot springs. We saw beautiful horses, eight deer, a baby cow on the side of the road, a longhorn steer on the side of the road, goats, Shetland ponies, and a bobcat! I took this photo of the tree with microwaves stacked in it.

The next morning before heading back we checked out the museum which was wonderful – so much old stuff and hundreds of old pots. My favorite was the beautiful embossed saddles and the photos of all the Hollywood stars who had been at their annual fiesta for the last fifty years. 

Here is our apartment in the Zuni teacherage. It is the nicest housing in the area. We had about five inches of snow lat night following I don't know how many inches of rain. This place is really soaked. It isn't that cold though and I believe much of the snow has melted already. School was called off today so we are taking it easy.

A neighbor's dog attacked Roxie for the second time last night - Roxie was leashed but the black dog was not.  He is looking for a big stick to take with him when he walks Roxie now.

We got our first correspondence from Charlie. Seems to be doing okay.

Here are a few of my students in the library - 6th graders ! You can see some different parts of the library. I have finished the inventory, discarded over a thousand books, and marked over 26,000 books as lost. I deleted those titles from the database this past week. So now, the second part of the year will be dedicated to getting the records straight for the books we actually have on the shelves.

We had a nice Christmas in Georgia. Ended up having to replace gutters on the house since water was gathering underneath it.  Georgia has had an emormous amount of rain this fall. We purchased Elizabeth's airplane ticket so we could see her at Christmas, and then all the city and couty taxes were due. So the month of January we are laying low.

On the drive back Tom and I stopped in Hot Springs Village, AR to see his Uncle Dick and his wife Inge. Uncle Dick is 90 years old now. We were so pleased to find both him and Inge in wonderful shape living a a beautiful home on the lake. Inge said that Dick was an inspiration to the other older folks there. He still plays golf about three times a week, drives, does whatever he likes. I'm not quite sure if this was a retirement village or not - but it was certainly a restricted development - just houses in the woods - no signs or businesses, lots of lakes, quiet, and huge. Over 15000 people live in this gated community.

Charlie is now in Great Lakes Naval Station in basic training. We have had only one very brief phone call from him telling us he had arrived and was fine. We miss him a bunch - very quiet here without him. Roxie has slept on Charlie's bed since he left.

View from a bridge at Zion National Park.

We left Tuesday after school and drove to Flagstaff AZ. The next morning we drove to the Grand Canyon via Williams, AZ. Tom had not been there since he was a child and it had been over 30 years since I was there. We were all certainly impressed – the weather was clear and sunny. We wore layers, which we were constantly taking on and off depending on the sun and shade. Crowds were low. I will post a few photos below. We spent the night there and the next morning tried to get out by nine am, but there is so much to see – it was probably after one before we left the park.

Tom threw Charlie over the side! Not really - there is a ledge underneath Charlie...

This huge elk was eating cactus at our motel. There was a traffic jam with eveyone snapping photos.

On the way to Zion - 89A the scenic route.

Zion Park - you can see a small bus at the bottom of the photo - I took this one.

Weeping Rock - it was surreal.

Charlie fit right into a little mini-cave.

There are two rock climbers in this photo.

There are three of them here and they are carrying sleeping gear.

Charlie took this one and the few below on his high rim trek.

Notice the chain they have to hold onto to get around this curve.

This guy was just standing beside the road - he was posing for people.

I recommend the Magestic View.

Tom and Charlie found a friend!

We left going out the same way we came in - this tunnel is a mile long and has windows for beautiful views. It was a little eerie going through this thing at night.

We started our drive to Zion National Park and saw some beautiful scenery, stopping lots of places to look at pottery and take photos. Now, I had read somewhere that you need to arrive at Zion National Park before dark because of the switchbacks going down in to the canyon. Of course I had forgotten all about that – cause I can’t remember things as well as I once did. So it is around 6pm and dark and we reach the park and I immediately remembered reading to arrive before dark. It was quite dark – and we could see a couple of headlights way, way, way down below us. Stayed at the Majestic View resort for two nights and it was so nice. The next morning was a delight – cause remember it was pitch dark when we got there. Honestly we were overwhelmed with the beauty of the place. We saw people rock climbing on sheer surfaces. Charlie took the high route treks and Tom and I stayed low. Zion was just a fabulous place. The photos cannot do justice to the enormity of those cliffs and rocks.

We took 264 across Arizona to get home on Saturday - saw lots of beautiful scenery - just went on forever.

Charlie and Tom are packing today to drive back to Georgia. I’ll fly back on the 20^th – same day Elizabeth is flying in from Alaska. Even though I have been working this fall I feel like we have been on an extended vacation.

Today I am posting a couple of photos of a really lovely sunset. Charlie took these photos. I am so busy at school I have hardly any time to update this blog. I have a second Family Night scheduled this week at school and then I have a book fair in two weeks.  I  had ordered the games for Family Night too late and they are not going to have arrived by Tuesday.

Tom and Charlies are leaving NM early - around the 30th. I will miss them  - but it will be nice and quiet here and I get to watch anything I want on television. I just hope I can drive myself to the Albuquerque airport and board that plane by myself - Tom takes care of all that stuff.

We had rain and sleet today in Zuni - it is pretty cold but not freezing.

We have decided to go to Scotland this summer and we are putting a down payment on the trip tomorrow. I went online today and loaded up my Netflix queue with movies made in Scotlant. We are really excited about this trip. We'll take the boat over, train up to Edinburgh and then spend two weeks drivng around with a rental car. I don't know that it could possibly compare to our trip to Australia - but I have high hopes. Two of my favorite actors, Brian Cox and Peter Mullan are from Scotland!

Tom and I have been really busy on the weekends recently. I work really hard at school during the week – staying late lots – but weekends are for traveling. I’ll start with our snowfall yesterday morning. Charlie took these lovely photos. Some snow is still here – Gallup schools started late today. I have these huge floor to ceiling windows in my library and had lovely winter views all day.

It was already beginning to melt when we woke up.

The second weekend in October we drove to Durango-Silverton steam train, which has been in continuous operation for 125 years. The scenery was fantastic and some of the curves were a bit nerve racking. We only had about two hours in Silverton – we should’ve taken the bus back – but Tom loves those trains.

Grumpy guys at Grumpys!

That is my old Size 5 coat - I look huge!

Scenes like this were at every turn.

We enjoyed eating and shopping – I bought a lovely Navajo pot that reminded me of a vase of my grandmothers. Mother said she always put Nasturtiams in it.

We stayed at a really old timey place that night in Durango – Charlie slept in the loft. Very comfy beds. It was one of those places that was probably pretty popular in the 60’s and 70’s before all the chains moved in.

Look behind us to see the huge - infinite valley just before we got to Mesa Verde.

The next morning we drove over to Mesa Verde National Park. On the way, driving through Colorado – we saw some of the prettiest and happiest cattle I have ever seen. The fields were so green and the cattle were black as could be and spread all over those huge fields. They just looked happy.

Tom at the ruins we visited.

I did not go below - but of course Tom did.

That's old Ann after she climbed back up from the ruins - it was quite a climb, but I did it.

Charlie crawling down to the ruins.

That's Charlie in the middle front.

The drive up the mesa to Mesa Verde was breathtaking. I swear we could see for a thousand miles – huge plains that just went on forever. We kept going up and up and up. The weather was clear and beautiful. We finally got to the top. Tom and I walked down to some ruins we could get to pretty easily. Charlie took the two tours where one has to tread rocks down, through, around, up, and actually climb ladders to get in and out. I never in my life though I would be able to see these cliff dwellings. It is something I’ve wanted to do since I was a child …and there we were. To know how old these places were and how hard life was for the people who lived there was a really odd feeling.

Last week I had my first family reading night at school – so I was really nervous and planning for that all week. We had over 70 people and it went great. I had made a scavenger hunt to learn about all the different activities and areas of the library. The parents seemed to have a wonderful time. So last weekend I was really relieved for the week to be over with. We were going to stay home and relax – but then we figured we could easily get to Monument Valley and back in two days. So I called up and made reservations at Guilding’s? Lodge – what a smart move!  The next morning we had to deliver Roxy to the kennel and then stop by Wal mart. We can’t go anywhere without stopping by WalMart first. Charlie was really impressed with Window Rock and the other scenery we had on the way there.  We got there after lunch and were just so surprised and pleased. This motel was really special and was backed up to a huge rock – I mean huge – I was a little nervous it might fall forward.

The motel is over to the right.

We could see Monument Valley from our room. We took a much needed nap and then headed out for the 17 mile loop though the valley. We were not disappointed. The road was rough and ready and we got some fabulous views. Now the reason Tom wanted to go to Monument Valley was because his favorite human being, John Wayne, made some movies there: Stagecoach, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and, my favorite John Wayne movie, The Searchers. So we were able to see some of the same scenery from the movie.

These horses were roaming free at the turn in to the Valley.

Nice photo. There were several folks with tripod and big cameras trying to capture the colors - it was almost dusk.

This was John Wayne's cabin or something in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

Charlie and Tom went to the motel theater to see Stagecoach that evening – I worked on school stuff. The next morning we ate breakfast at the restaurant, went to see John Wayne’s cabin (actually a set used in one of his movies there), and visited the gift shop where I bought two pots. We debated about whether we would drive home – or if we wanted to drive north a bit. North won out.

We headed towards Mexican Hat  - but looking back we saw absolutely beautiful far off views of Monument Valley. We had to stop like ten times before we got to Mexican Hat. We saw a gravel pile so huge it looked like a lake. Mexican Hat is called Mexican Hat because it has a rock formation shaped like a Mexican hat!

We decided to go be further North to Gooseneck Park – where the San Juan River has eroded some rock and looks more like a snake than a gooseneck. It was special – there was nothing there hardly to keep one from falling over and down – I was a little nervous because the wind was blowing and I just knew one of us would blow over the side. We didn’t.

We decided to keep heading north and intersect with 191 before we headed south. About a couple of miles north of Gooseneck Park, we came to Valley of the Gods – a mini Monument Valley. It was okay but the best was about to come. We could see a huge mesa in front of us – but we could not tell where the road was going. Ended up – it went pretty much up the side of the mesa – switchbacking all the way, skinny gravel road, straight up and straight down on the side. How exciting! I held my breath the whole way, thankful that Charlie was in front and Tom could not see me gripping the seat.

 At the top there was a dirt road off to the side and it led to a point. Eager for another great view we took if and drove several miles to the end. Oh my gosh! It was the highlight of the weekend! We ended up at Glen Canyon – there were huge rocks everywhere and we all started climbing on them – the views got better and better. I felt like we were at the Grand Canyon. There were only two other people there  - just sitting there looking at the view. It really was fantastic. I’m so glad we kept going.

I love this photo of Charlie - it can't possibly show how grand this place was.

This is my pot I got at Four Corners.

I got this one at Monument Valley. These are Navajo horsehair pots.

We ended up going to Blanding Utah, then catching 191 south from there. It was dark when we got home. It was a wonderful weekend.