Day #9 - Finally we are in Arizona

It has been a long day. We have driven half way thru New Mexico and then half way on in to Arizona. The plan is to stay in Flagstaff tonight. We stopped in Gallup New Mexico, right on the Arizona boarder and ate at this fun little hotel/restuarant, the "El Rancho". It reminds me of the quaint little place in Kanab that all the Movie Stars have signed their pictures and they hang on the wall there at that restaurant. This little place was the same. Must have filmed several movies here as well. It served very good Mexican food. We are excited to be so close to home.

Doug is getting really excited as he called his dad and had him pick up his new truck at Newby Buick and take it to his house. Then he called Brandee & Kevin and asked them if they wanted to go on a road trip and meet us near Flagstaff and exchange vehicles. They would drive down Doug's new truck and then exchange with us and drive our car back home. Doug is determined to purchase a trailer and take it home with us. He needs his truck to haul back a trailer. As soon as we get home the plan for Labor Day weekend is to go camping with the whole family. Yahoo!!!! We will get to keep a couple of the kids with us. Now that is what I am excited about.

Albuquerque New Mexico

We were grateful to be able to finally participate in a temple session. The last three temples have not been open when we were in their area. This is a beautiful temple. We were again asked to be the witness couple. We have been blessed with that opportunity alot.

This temple is quite unique in the fact that both the front and the back of the temple look like the front. The back where you actually enter is the picture with the fountain in front of it. Right next door thru the parking lot is a distribution center. We went in there to change our clothes and then on to 2 RV dealers to check out what they have to offer. To tell the truth, I am getting so tired of RV dealerships. But it does break up the day and the long stretches of road.

The temple location in Albuquerque reminds me of the Las Vegas temple location. They both are in the north east corner of the city in the foot hills of a mountain.

Day # 8 - spent most of the day driving

Random pictures at Armadillo Texas. They have leaning water tanks and a huge cross out in the middle of no where. Not sure what to think about that. Stopped at a couple of RV dealerships along the I-40 freeway. Most of the day was spent drivingggggggggggg

After dinner and a visit to the bombing memorial we rode 20 miles north east of Oklahoma City to see if we could find the temple. What we found was that it was out in the middle of no-where. But maybe that could be because it was 10:00 at night as we were trying to locate it. We did drive for-eeeeeeeever along dark roads until we came to it all light up. It looks very much like the Nashville and Memphis Tennessee temples. Very small.

Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial

After dinner at Zio's we made our way about a mile away to the site of the Oklahoma city Bombing Memorial. As you walking in along the fence, objects hang there on the fence put there by loved ones. At each end of the memorial time stands still depicting the time that changed lives. At one end it says 9:01, at the other 9:03. There is a beautiful reflecting pool where the road once was. The emply chairs were lit up depicting those who lost their lives. There is a lone surviving tree that stands up above the reflecting pool. A very tragic moment in history, but a beautiful memorial to all those who were affected, living and dead. (you'll have to click on the pictures to be able to see them.)

Day # 7 - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

We made it to Oklahoma City today #7. Found a Bass Pro shop and spent an hour in there. A man there suggested we go to "Zio's Italian house" to eat. What a fun place. It overlooks the Canal that runs thru the old "Bricktown" in Oklahoma city. We ate dinner out on the balcony and watched the water taxi venture up and down the canal. A band was playing from a restuarant across the Canal. Just as we got there we witnessed a swarm of birds circling round and round the area. Dinner was yummy and then we strolled down to the end of the Canal and found this mosaic mural. Fun beautiful very clean city.

Ending day #6 - Memphis Temple

We stopped by the Memphis Tennessee temple to find that it didn't open for a session for another couple hours. So we grabbed a picture and went on our way in to Little Rock Arkansas. Just as we were leaving Tennessee we happened onto this beautiful sunset.