Since I haven't posted in forever, I thought I'd shock anyone out there who actually knows I have a blog. We have been having fun! Kris and I have been going on lots of little road trips over the last few months. The picture above is from the Lake Havasu Balloon Festival in January 2012. This was such a blast. The festival is just getting on its feet, it being only the 2nd Annual, but there were all the great booths, carnival rides, carnival food (funnel cakes--yum!), and of course hot air balloons. We were too lazy to watch the sunrise ascension, however we did enjoy the 4:30p.m. acsension. We counted 26 beautiful hot air balloons hovering over Lake Havasu City and the Arizona desert on the Friday afternoon we were there.
The next day was stormy so the balloons were grounded, but we had moved on to Kingman, AZ. I don't know why I love Kingman so much, but I do. There's not a lot to do, but there is just a great old mining town feel even though they now boast Carl's Jr and Wal-Mart. And we met such an interesting old gent in Walmart that evening in the denture cream section. We heard all about his old buddy Aha, an old timer from the mining days of Kingman, and about his dentures. A long story, but you do meet interesting locals in Walmart.
We went to Grand Canyon Caverns, and the storm outside made it even more eerie. We were the last tour of the day, they were ending early at 1p.m., because the tour guide was closing down due to the high winds and rain. He said the electricity was flickering and he was concerned about getting stuck down in the caverns. This is one of only 3 dry caverns in the U.S., pretty neat, and after a lot of testing done by University of Arizona, it was discovered that the fresh air in the caverns (which are 26 stories down under) comes from a crevice that lets out in the Grand Canyon and it takes the air 2 weeks to get to the caverns.
The weather was so amazing that as we drove from Kingman to Peach Springs, then up into the tree covered mountains, we went through a dust storm, a rain storm, then hail, then snow. All this in the space of 3 hours.
Our last stop on this trip was to Oatman, which is a great old mining town. There is not much left but a little main street with shops filled with tee-shirts, artwork, and leather goods. There are wild burros that roam around the streets looking for handouts, and a couple of guys that do a main street gun shoot out. They are Shriners taking donations, so they wore their Shriner hats under their cowboy hats. A fun afternoon before we headed back home.
Kris & I have so much fun jumping in the car and taking off. We've been to Flagstaff & Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and this latest trip all in the last 5 months. With a flat of water, a bag of pretzels, a diet Coke for me, and some Jojos, we are ready to explore. It feels like being 23 again which isn't too bad.