Day Log 07.09.05 Saturday

For a day where we didn’t need to get up early or travel very far both
seemed to forgotten. We were up and on the road at 8 AM MDT which
seemed to be a confusion factor in AZ. Then in this great state do not
follow the rest of the Day Light Savings time changes so as we watched
the TV or looked at our watches, or cell phones they were showing an
hour earlier. It all settled back to normal when we crossed the Utah
border later in the day.

Anyway we left Holbrook and as I outlined in yesterdays notes headed to
Snowflake for a look around it was only 25 miles down Rt-77 so we had
decided to have breakfast there and was it worth the wait. A little
place on Main street owned by a local family, place ended in EVA.
Mexican food so we had the two omelet specials and being the only ones
in the place were able to talk to son of owner, a teen with a willing
ness to talk about his town and attitudes of “those Mormons”. Very in
lighting conversation about how our brothers and sisters treat the
minority in the area, as well as the police actions. Anyway it was a
good meal and fleshed out some of the questions we had. We then toured
the city, found the temple site and took a hard look at the development
that was going up around the site. Makes me wonder if some one on the
planning board didn’t buy up the site and area around it, donate the
temple site so they could then build a community around it. Have to say
if had the money would consider living that close even with all of
those “darn Mormons” so close. Did pick up some paper work and may do
some on line research later. I was able to get mom to change her plans
and we traveled on down Rt-77 to Show Low as it got us closer to the
mountains. It is a larger town with all of the shopping that Snowflake
didn’t have. Looks like the price of homes is more due to its being in
the ski area. The fire damage of two years ago really sad. We saw a
sign that said that the Show Low fire took 476,897 acres of land and
trees. Because we had gone to the on down to Show Low it was decided we
would follow RT-260 back west across to Payson and then up to Camp
Verde to catch I-17 up to Flagstaff and then Rt-89 and Rt-89A to
Fredonia then Rt-389 to Hurricane then into St. George. The 525 miles
we traveled in the 13 hours it took had us both amazed at the totally
different country within one hour. We went from the dry desert into the
low hills of cedar trees, to the high mountains with pine trees so
thick it was hard to see off of the road, to the fire ravaged mountains
back from 8200 feet into the low hills then flat dry desert again. We
were able to cross the Colorado River, at Marble Canyon by using the
Navajo Bridge. I called it in my photo file the green river because of
the color as it flows down stream. I wonder if it because of the rocks
it flows through? We should have eaten in Flagstaff but didn’t so when
we finally found a place open in Fredonia we stopped and again were
delighted with the meal. Good thing we carry the apples, nuts, and
cheese sticks or speaking to each other would have been short and tight
for those long afternoon miles. Taking the 389 route was a good idea as
road is in good shape and keeps one from paying to go through Zion park
when you can’t stop any way. The highway goes through Colorado City and
Hildale where the houses are very large and most likely hold a number
of families. Also looks like quite a few have been started but will
never be finished. Mountain ranges off to our right were and looked
like the back side of Zion with their many shapes and colors. Dusk or
setting sun makes those ranges look a lot different than when sun is
high over head. Was a good day but due the loop down to Snowflake and
Show Low we were not able to drop down to the North Rim of the Grand
Canyon this trip. The extra two hours needed would have gotten us to
the rim at sun set and into J’s place way later then we wanted. It is
on another trips list of things to do. We were glad we made the loop
and have in so doing taken New Mexico off the list of states to live in
and added parts of Arizona that were not being considered.

We arrived at J’s at 9:10 PM and by 11:30 had cloths washed, some
ironed, and were looking forward to a good nights sleep with no certain
time to get up.