Home again.

After such a long and wonderful trip, seeing so many beautiful places in 15 states, meeting some really nice people, we are finally home for a while this time. What you see in this picture is my favorite part of Oklahoma

And the best part of Kansas is getting out of Kansas, and away from the smell of cattle!!



It really is bad... but the pool at the hotel was sure nice after the heat of the day.
















The pool in Chadron was also nice after the ride.











The faces of Crazy Horse and Rushmore were worth enduring the heat and cold and smells to get there.

















North Dakota had some beautiful sights. The pheasant was something to see as well as the owl and deer.

Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado all had something worthwhile to make the trip to see. If I never get to go anywhere again, I can say that I was fortunate enough to see some of the most beautiful places in the good old USA on a motorcycle with some very dear friends.

Thanks to all who have kept up with our travels and I will post again on the next adventure.

Old Santa Fe

Old Santa Fe is very nice. We spent a little time
looking through some shops had some lunch and did some site-seeing.















There were beautiful sculptures in the galleries there. This is just one of the bronze statues on display around the town. See the pictures in the albums for more of these. The detail is amazing.












This is billed as the miracle stairway. It is located inside the church in the next picture.






















The Loretto Chapel. This church was built in 1873 and has been the subject of an "Unsolved Mysteries" TV show.


More pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/fleming49/OldSantaFe

The Grand Canyon

We made a run up to the Grand Canyon on our way to Rio Rancho. It has been 43 years since my brother and I were there and Billie and my sister-in-law had never been. The last time we were there it was free admission I think. Now it is $25 per car for a 7 day pass. 5 million visitors a year keep this place packed. It is still something to see.

Billie and I standing on the south rim trail overlooking the Grand Canyon.

This lone tree on top of the rock was sort of odd so I took the picture. It is a wonderful place to visit but stay away from the edge if you have a problem with heights. It is about ten miles across and a mile deep... not for the feight of heart for sure.

I found this hole in the side of a cliff and wondered how anyone could get there to actually chisel out the opening in the rock face. The conclusion was that they were lowered by rope over the edge and worked. There sure is no trail to it that I could see.

more pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/fleming49/TheGrandCanyon

The Giant Redwoods and Eureka area

As we headed up the coast from Fort Bragg we came through this little stretch of highway. The trees formed a beautiful canopy over the highway. There is such diversity along highway 101 and highway 1. You just don't know what to expect around the next turn. What a beautiful drive.






This is the world famous tree house from Ripley's Believe It or Not. Unfortunately it was not open either day we were by it. We still stopped and took some pictures.













Note that I cannot get the tops of these trees in the picture, even rotating the camera did not help. These trees are hundreds of feet tall and live up to the title of this section of highway 101, "The Avenue Of The Giants" around Fortuna.













When we got to Patrick's Point we went out to the park and found these sea lions on a rock just off the coast. They were at least a half mile away and we could still hear them above the roar of the waves. They are incredible!

More pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/fleming49/SequoiasAndEureka

Fort Bragg and Mendocino Area of California

We took a little road trip to explore some of the Northern California coast around Fort Bragg and Mendocino. The rugged coast has a beauty that is very hard to capture in a photo. Here you see how the land just drops into the sea. What is not so obvious in this particular picture is the abundant vegetation growing right out of the rocks along this coast. It was an overcast evening and the lighting does not give the best photographic opportunity in these shots.





This rock was covered with vegetation that was continually awash in the waves as they rolled in along the coast. It was something to watch as the waves would cover this and sway the plants to and fro.











This plant was growing on the side of the cliff. It was impossible to get down to it but the beauty of it was something to behold. The plant looks like some sort of succulant and it was growing in abundance along this stretch of coast line.













Here is another view of the rocky coast and some of the variety of plants that call this place home. We loved it there and it was a great place of solitude and reflection upon our good fortune to be able to see these places.

More pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/fleming49/FortBraggCalifornia