Our first destination was Tennessee. We got up at 4am and headed out. I slept in the back seat until sunrise and then it was my turn to drive. We did not stop too many times because our first trip was going to be 800 miles. Oh! Tennessee is a wide state. It seemed like forever before we got to...
Arkansas. We had to take a detour because Interstate 40 was closed from the flooding. Our trip about 45 minutes longer than it would have been. The picture below on the right shows the water up to the highway and the tops of trees just showing above the water. One place we saw sand bags encircling houses. Other places we saw just the tops of buildings in the water . It was a sad sight to see. We spent the first night in Arkansas.
Next state, Oklahoma! OOOOk-lahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain! Have you ever watched the movie Oklahoma? If you have you remember part of this lyric from the song. Well, let me tell you while we drove across the whole state the wind blew for every mile we drove. One stop we did make which was recommended by a friend was to see the the memorial from the bombing in Oklahoma City in1995. It was very moving and when I saw the statue of Jesus with his face covered and the saying at His feet, "And Jesus wept", I started to cry myself. 
Next state is Texas. We only traveled through the panhandle which was flat, dry,windy, and hot. See the car thermometer, 106 degrees. When we got to the KOA camp ground in Amarillo it was 102 degrees. It really wasn't too bad because of the wind and it wasn't humid. Here is my hubby setting up the tent. By morning the next day it was 58 degrees and we woke up to a beautiful sunrise.
Here are some images from Texas. We stopped to get gas and I saw the guy with the spurs on his boots so I had to get a photo of them.
Next state we traveled through was New Mexico. So many different land formations. I really like New Mexico. It was really windy and the temperature stayed in the 70's the whole time. I asked a waitress at one of our stops if it was windy a lot and she said that it was only like that during May and June. The landscape was really hazy looking in certain areas along the highway because of the soil being blown about. We were told it was like talc. Real fine.
We went through Albuquerque, New Mexico on Interstate 40. All along the highway the bridges, overpasses, and the sides of the overpasses were pieces of art work. It really was a beautiful city.
When we got to Arizona we stopped to see the Meteor Crater. It was the one thing my husband really wanted to see. Oh man! was it cold! and winds gusts up to 45 mph. I almost got blown over several times. It really was awesome to see it.
This is a zoomed in photo of what is down at the center of the crater. If you look close you can see an astronaut and flag. You can not see if from the rim with the naked eye.
So now we are at another KOA but we are staying in a cabin and we are so glad we reserved one instead of staying in the tent. The temperatures are in the 40's during the day and 20's at night. Today we woke up to sunshine but it quickly got cloudy as we headed toward the Grand Canyon. As we were heading up the road we both thought the clouds looked like snow was coming from them instead of rain. Sure enough as we got closer it started snowing. When we got into the town called Tusayan look what it was doing!!! Within seconds the parking lot was covered with white pellets that the locals call "hominy" when it snows like that. So we decided to go back into Flagstaff and look around.
We went a different route which was through the Coconino National Forest. At one point you can see the elevation we were at during our ride. It was cold and snowed off and on. I saw Aspen trees for the first time. The ones down in Flagstaff were getting their leaves on them.
These are the San Francisco mountains. It was so awesome to see these.
So we spent the day in Flagstaff today. It actually snowed off and on during the day down there too. We did a little bit of window shopping and seeing the town and drove on parts of the famous Route 66.
When we finally decided to come back to camp it was pouring down snow. It was beautiful on these Ponderosa pine trees.
We did find two quilt shops. The photo on the left is Odegaard's Sewing Center in Flagstaff. The photo on the right is another shop in Williams, Arizona called Quilter's Mercantile on Route 66. Both shops had a great selection of fabric.The plan for tomorrow is to go back to the Grand Canyon. We were told the weather would be better. But it won't matter what kind of weather it is because we will be leaving the next day so we have to go. If you want to see where we go next you will just have to come back to read my blog. Forgive me for if I don't answer comments but you can see why. Pretty busy...
Seeing the USA,
Carrie P.
