Roaming Through Retirement




July--Just Awesome!
This is our family with Rainbow Bridge in the background, which is billed as the largest natural bridge in the world.  We hiked here from a dock where we had our 21 foot speed boat tied up along the shores of Lake Powell (on the border of Arizona and Utah).  We rented this boat to more fully enjoy the 70 foot houseboat we rented, with four state rooms, fully air conditioned and a hot tub on the roof.  After our weeklong 50th anniversary party in Cancun over New Years, it is getting harder and harder to truly spoil our grandkids.  We know they enjoyed it none-the-less.  

After spending eight months in Ajijic, the longest since we started coming here, we flew from Guadalajara to the Tijuana International Airport which is located along the border of Mexico and the United States.	Once we landed in Tijuana, we got our luggage and bought a ticket to walk on a bridge 390 feet long to the San Diego Terminal, located on the USA side of the border and went through customs and immigration.
From there, we took Uber to San Diego to catch Amtrak to downtown Fullerton where Carmen, Mike, and family greeted us.  They took us to the old train depot which is now the Old Spaghetti Factory.	On the 4th of July, Mike and Carmen treated us to a tour of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum near Fullerton and where we listened to patriotic songs by the Placentia Symphonic Band.
As we were leaving the library, we found this magnificent water fountain where we decided to memorialize our presence and snapped a few pictures.	After a day in the pool and hot tub and shooting off some fireworks in the driveway, we took advantage of their back patio to enjoy one of the best views in Fullerton to watch the 4th of July fireworks.
We got to enjoy Dakota and Sierra perform in a live production of  Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat put on by a local church.  They had three performances.	We received the sad news that Larry's brother, Bob had passed in his sleep.  We flew to Omaha to spend time with family and friends to memorialize his 82 plus years of life.
We spent one evening with nieces and nephews who came from North Dakota and Minnesota at a great restaurant/microbrewery in Lincoln.  Funerals seem to be one of the few places to catch up with family.	Our next stop was Benson, AZ where we had our RV stored for the winter.  We set up at this local park and worked to get it ready for another season of RV road trips with our daughters and grandchildren.
Benson is also near where Larry's cousin Dennis and Nancy have a seven acre spread and where we spent several nights dining, playing cards and watching movies.	We took a short side excursion to Tombstone AZ, a tourist town which reenacts the famous shoot out at the OK Corral.  This stagecoach no longer runs long trips but rather from one end of Tombstone to the other.
With daytime high temperatures reaching 100 degrees and higher, we used early mornings to do our touring as we moved the RV to northern AZ.  We stopped to tour Montezuma's Castle, an ancient cliff dwelling that dots the landscape throughout the four corners area.	This was our first time in Sedona AZ and where we were overly impressed at the stark beauty of the town and surrounding area.  It is billed as one of the most beautiful cities in America, which it is hands down.
Tlaquepaque is a small shopping center in downtown Sedona, which we were drawn to because Tlaquepaque is also a major shopping destination near downtown Guadalajara.	Next stop was the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, which is America's second most visited national park.  This is one of dozens of vistas we enjoyed along the 25 mile scenic drive along the canyon.
The mighty Colorado River snakes along the canyon floor, but at one time raged through the canyon leaving behind what is now the Grand Canyon--270 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and over a mile deep.	We spent four hours walking and driving the scenic drive and had a hard time pulling ourselves away from this spectacular slice of America.  We also had a hard time discarding the hundreds of pictures we took.
We arrived at Antelope Point Marina on Lake Powell to get ready for a week-long houseboating trip with our family.	Lake Powell was created in 1963 when the Glen Powell dam was completed and took 11 years before the lake reached its high water mark of 3,700 feet.
This would be home for five nights and six days.  We tied up along the shores of Lake Powell nearly 20 miles from the dam.  The water was clear and cool which became our main source of entertainment.	We also rented a 21 foot speed boat to further explore the 180 mile long lake and its beautiful canyon walls.  Chase and Hunter found a baby lizard which they were quite fascinated with.
The kids could not get enough of water tubing.  They spent hours and hours hanging on and sometime falling out of the tube.   While they were tubing, we took in the beauty of the canyon's walls around us.	And while the kids were swimming, we took the time to relax and catch up with Carmen and Denise.  While the temperatures were high, being on the water brought them down to an enjoy range.
Cookie Jar was a major landmark which we used to guide us back to the houseboat.  The lake is dotted with hundreds of landmarks with interesting names.	We never imagined how tall these canyon walls were until we saw this houseboat dwarfed in comparison to the wall beside it.
One of our side excursions included a hike to Rainbow Bridge National Monument, so to prep for the walk, the kids decided to take a dip in the waters to cool down.	Rainbow Bridge is said to be the largest natural bridge in the world.  It stands 290 feet tall and 270 feet wide.  Our hike included viewing this and the back side.
One of our many side excursions included this non-descript canyon that was extremely tall and deep but only an arm length wide.	As if the lake water was not enough, we took turns enjoying the hot tub that sat on the roof of our houseboat.
We spent an evening around a campfire, roasting marshmallows, making s'mores and enjoying the cool temperatures of the desert.	We found this enclave with buried islands to jump off and cool off as the daytime temps kept creeping upwards.
Our last morning on the lake included a hike as far up as we could climb to capture this picture of the sunrise of Cookie Jar in the background and our houseboat in the foreground.	We used this Mexican restaurant to say farewell to our Minnesota grandchildren, as they headed back home after a week playing and catching up with their cousins.
Our next adventure was a week-long RV road trip that began with us exploring slot canyons that dot the landscape surrounding Lake Powell.	These canyons are two to three time taller than they are wide and were formed  by raging currents of water heading into the lake.
We had this picture taken at the entry of the canyon by our tour guide who happened to be Navaho and filled with wonderful stories of the canyon and the pride they have of these canyons within their reservation.	Before the Glen Powell Dam could be started, they had to construct this bridge for workers and equipment to move to either side. At the time it was built, it was the highest arch bridge in the world.  Now it is ranked 80th.
We took an elevator from the Glen Powell visitors center down 50 floors to the bottom where eight turbines worked to produce five billion kilowatt hours of electricity distributed to seven western states.	Five miles south of Glen Powell Dam is Horseshoe Bend where the Colorado River snakes nearly 360 degree as it winds itself down into the Grand Canyon National Park.
Our next adventure was a tour of the Monument Valley, a tribal park owned by the Navaho Nation located in Northern Arizona and Southern Utah.	The Monument Valley consists of 92,000 acres of these majestic, free-standing sandstone buttes with names like Mittens, Elephant, Butte and Totem Pole.
This area of the United States was introduced to tourism in 1939 when filmmaker John Ford made his legendary westerns starting John Wayne, who stayed here during its filming in 1939.	Not to be outdone by Horseshoe Bend, the San Juan River, which flows into Lake Powell, carved this 1,000 foot deep gorge known as Gooseneck an area that  stretches one and one-half  miles long.
As we traveled through this desert terrain we came upon Moki Dugway, billed as Utah's most dangerous road, which we drove coming and going and got some of the most breathtaking and exhilarating views imaginable.	Natural Bridges National Monument is 50 miles from Four Corners and 6,500 feet in elevation. It consists of three bridges spanning from 106 feet by 180 feet to 220 feet  by 225 feet.  All smaller than Rainbow Bridge.
We crossed into Colorado, where we spent a couple of days exploring the cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people that lived between 600 to 1,300 AD.	To get around, we were either walking, crawling on our hands and knees or climbing ladders overlooking a deep canyon wall.
This is our third trip to Mesa Verde National Park and we continue to be overwhelmed by these immense buildings tucked into these cliff walls.	Cliff Palace, the largest of the 600 cliff dwellings located in Mesa Verde, contained 150 rooms with a population of about 100 people.
The round structures behind Carmen and Mike are called Kivas. They were once covered by wood beams and thatched roofs.  They were either used as living quarters or ceremonial purposes. Take your pick.	We spent a couple of hours hiking below the cliff houses deep in the canyons below. We broke all the Boy/Girl Scout rules.  No water, no whistles, nor did we notify anyone that we went hiking, but we had fun.

July's web page includes July 1 through July 31.