Tuesday, October 4, 2011

We landed in Flagstaff, AZ in anticipation of a few restful days. The infamous Route 66 runs through Flagstaff, AZ.

 I would imagine, you would believe traveling the way we do, it is not hectic, tiring, or pressured. Although it is alot of fun. At times it is very stressful. Not to take away the appreciation we have for what we are able to do and see, but I have been astray, health wise, for a couple of weeks. My shoulder hurts all day and night, and lately I have been lethargic and weak. My shoulder I can handle with ibuprofen until getting home. The tiredness and weakness is driving me crazy-ER. Lol.

After researching on Web-MD, I was confident I have Mono. But today, I woke up at 8am, and so far, 8 hours later, I’m still good to go. Tommy is convinced I am just physically exhausted. We run around and around everyday, every place we stop. We try to get in all that there is to see and never just sit around the RV park like most RV’ers do.

This trip, this year, we have, up until now.... driven and explored over 11k miles, in 5 months, and are still over 2k miles from home.

 Albuquerque is our last major stop before going home. I am very much looking forward to getting home. Although, I am truly excited to participate in the balloon fiesta.

In flagstaff, we looked at several houses, all to no avail. It is so frustrating to find a new place to settle without making you broke, or having to rip apart an older house and re do the entire structure. We have done that in our Florida home and are not interested in remodeling again.

seismic meter

molten lava

One night while in Flagstaff we visited to the U.S. Navel Observatory. It was the only night of the year that it is open to the public. Our timing seems to be impeccable sometimes. Unfortunately, the weather that evening did not cooperate.  We were able to see the moon and its craters up close.

lava rock

We were not able to see Jupiter or its moons. Nor were we able to see any constellations. The dome in where you observe is a very complicated piece of equipment. The entire roof of the observatory rotates and opens in panels as the astronomer programs it to a certain place in the sky. Once a desired location is achieved there is a lens you look through to see the astonishing, illusory, ’out of this world’, vision. It truly is amazing to take into account what is above our atmosphere at all times of the day and night.
We additionally visited Sunset Crater National Monument. I was not prepared at all. I did not wear hiking boots and was under the weather by the time we arrived. We did get out of the car and look around for a while but not long enough for any good mentioning. We did walk on lava rock and it was pretty interesting looking. I am sure we would have enjoyed hiking up to the  actual volcano. However, I did get yet another cancellation in my passport book which made me happy.


We spent Sunday afternoon downtown Flagstaff, which is historic and very impressive. We hung out in a sports bar and watched football. We still do not have our new Dish Network receiver so unless the campground we stay at offers cable, we have no TV. Our new a receiver was shipped to my cousins house in Albuquerque, so as of the end of this week we should be back in business. YEAH!!

The greater part for me in Flagstaff was dinner at Black Bart’s. It is a saloon venue with authentic memorabilia everywhere you look.  It is over priced to say the least, but the entertainment is a lot of fun. Dinner consisting of a 9 oz. prime rib with baked potato and side salad = $30. Vegetables, bread, drinks, and anything else you request, is Ala carte. It was a very expensive dinner for not so great food. I’d say mediocre at best. Total bill was over $100.

What made it pleasurable nonetheless was the staff. You do not just have one server. All the servers help all the tables all the time. Also, at any given moment the staff would break out in song. They would intermittently join together on the stage with a piano player, or sometimes just stop where they stood and belt out an old Showtime tune. Tommy knew none of the songs which made it uninteresting for him. He kept saying it was merely a big karaoke contest. I loved it. They sang songs from Oklahoma, Fiddler On The Roof, the Music Man, etc. Tunes from all the plays I was dragged to as a child at the Jones Beach Theatre and hated back then, but  appreciate so much today.

the servers/entertainers

On the way out of the restaurant we dropped in on the saloon. I started taking pictures and chatting with the people at the bar. It turns out that one of the guys I chatted most with was the manager. OPPPS, found that out after I berated the menu! BUT I did say I enjoyed the entertainment and the ambiance! 

The Black Bart’s Saloon is arduous to find. It is located inside the RV park in which we stayed. It is a big tourist attraction. It was packed every night, with a waiting period. 

Black Bart himself, was notorious for robbing stage coaches during the time frame of 1875-1883. What made him so ‘famous’ was the fact that he always left behind a poem after a robbery. He never killed or hurt anyone. He would never take a woman’s purse and he always used an UN loaded shotgun. His poem was as follows:

    So here I stood while wind and rain
    Have set the trees scrubbin’
    I risked my life for the damned stage
    That wasn’t worth a robbin’

Eventually he was apprehended and sent to San Quinton. He served a 5 year prison sentence, after which, he disappeared forever.

We are now on our way to Albuquerque NM and will stop at the Painted Desert/Forest National Park along the way. Thanks for reading.