I drove on Trail Ridge Road a few years ago. It was awesome! That's on our list of possible places to go.

It's 9:00 and we're still at the hotel! I should have left my wife at home. I don't understand why it takes women so long to get ready in the morning.

 

Tell her that her hair is going to get messed up anyway..LOL

Great pics so far...makes me want to do this sooner than later

 

I agree on the Sedona suggestion, but that will be a bit out of the way from a jaunt to the North Rim! I haven't been to the Utah Nat. Parks, but everything I have heard of Zion's, Bryce, et.al. is that they are worth the visit.

I'm sure you are entering the plains soon, so you should be able to find some wide open stretchs of road to blow some carbon out of the cat.

Have a great time.

 

Today is the Ozarks in Arkansas. We're going to a drive-in movie tonight and canoeing tomorrow. Tuesday will be either Oklahoma or Texas, just passing through. I hate driving through western Oklahoma. I might drive hours out of my way to go through Texas.

 

All the women in my life ( my mum , my exs , my gfs ) behave like that .It's in their disposition I guess, only a woman can understand another woman's jargon and may be not .
I left trying to understand them I just take them as they are lol
Thanks for your updates anyway , it's very nice to read your posts and I appreciate your helps as well

 

Flagstaff to Sedona is nice but if you can swing it head north out of the north rim of the Grand Canyon to Kanab, UT you can hit both Zion and Bryce Canyon. If you can only only do one do Zion. The roads are awesome, especially in the early morning, there is a long tunnel where you can hear your exhaust note beautifully echo, good switchbacks and some of the best geological formations around. Better than the grand canyon in my opinion. Bryce Canyon is very awe inspiring as well and to get there you go through the Dixie Nation Forest which looks like something out of a Roadrunner cartoon.


Also right outside of Zion is a place called Zion Mountain Ranch (zmr.com) it is a great place to stay with beautifully appointed cabins situated on a pasture occupied by a buffalo heard (never a fowl stench, they keep it very tidy)

 

MarcB,

Love that area! I had a Rolls Royce meet in Kanab and we toured all around the area. It was beautiful. Then came back through Albuquerque, NM for the balloon festival. Great trip.

 

Reverend - are you passing any air base or military training area at all? Check out this photo at 'Car and Driver':

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/..._alpha_photo_5

If you hit Las Vegas - Red Flag exercise is currently underway - park the car at the speedway parking lot, next to Nellis - you might be able to take pictures of the car with 'exotic' aircraft landing in the background!

 

Exactly what I was thinking... or this...

 

Here are a few pics from the last couple of days. We drove through this little town called Flippin, Arkansas. I thought the name of the town was hilarious. That's the word they use in the PG movies when everyong knows it is really supposed to be the F word.



And last night we went to a drive in movie! I haven't been to a drive in since I was about 9 years old.



And today we went canoeing on the Buffalo River in northern Arkansas. The rest of the day is going to be a drive across Oklahoma, and tomorrow we're going to be in New Mexico for the start of the real "out west" experience.

Here's the Jag on next to the Buffalo River.

 

diggin your photo diary Sam! thanks for sharing.

 

Looking like fun. Keep up the enjoyment!

 

^ What they said ^
Thanks for sharing. Looks like fun.

 

Today we canoed on ther Buffalo River in Arkansas. Here's a pic of my wife and I on a hillside overlooking the river. You can see the river down below. We're probably 300 feet above the river right here.




As we were traveling through western Oklahoma my wife noticed these weird rays in the sky about 15 minutes after sunset. I had heard of this before, but I had never seen it. It's caused by the sun's rays being blocked by mountain peaks and casting shadows on water vapor in the stratosphere. People in western Oklahoma and Kansas can see this depending on the season because of the mountains hundreds of miles away in Colorado. It was very cool to watch. The picture below only shows one little section, but the effect went from horizon to horizon. As we watched we could see the rays shifting counter-clockwise,



And then we got into Texas. The rest area on I-40 is a very fancy rest area. They light it up with the colors of the Texas flag, and of course they have to have the "lone star" as a part of the building architecture. I wasn't even planning on taking a picture, but then as I was walking around to stretch my legs I saw the building in the background and I KNEW I had to take a pic. I think this is probably the best looking pic of my car ever. I'm sure Matt will give me grief for not following the rule of thirds, but hey... I like it!

 

Oh yeah... the drive this evening was just spectacular. For those of you who haven't experienced the lack of humidity in the southwest, you need to go there. We put the top down an hour or two before sunset when then temp was still in the 90s, It was comfortable, though! Then as it cooled off it got even better. As we drove into Amarillo around 11:00 PM the temp was in the lower 80s with about 20% humidity. It was incredibly comfortable. And the sky out west is crystal clear at night. We could see the Milky Way even though the moon was shining brightly. Driving along, being able to look up and see the stars is just incredible.

I think I over-used "incredible". I simply don't have the vocabulary to explain the feelings.

 

Looking like a great trip Sam thanks to both of you for sharing it. Great scenery.

 

No photo critiques from me Sam, keep em coming. I do miss the amber side repeater though How is the car holding up on the trip so far? Did you PAM the front bumper? LOL

It is rare when you get to a part of the country with no air pollution and a clear night, so clear that you can see almost every star in the heavens, that's a evening you don't forget.

 

PAM? I don't know that acronym. The car's been doing great, though. My headrest quit working again, so I need to open up the driver's seat when we get home, but I don't move it, anyway. It's always all the way down. The traction control light has come on a couple of times, but I've been able to reset it easily just by turning off the engine and restarting it. I'm going to get a can of brake cleaner today and spray it on the little cog thingys on the front wheels. I cleaned the rear ones just before I left. If it keeps happening I guess I'm going to have to crack open the traction control/ABS computer thing when I get back home. It's not happening nearly as often as it did before I cleaned the sensors. I brought my OBDii monitor along with me. does anyone know if it will show me a code indicating which wheel is the culprit?

The one thing that really bugged me had to do with the GPS. If you remember, I replaced the factory GPS with a Garming 1490t. Yesterday I was typing in a name to do a search, and it just locked up. It's wired in to switched power, so I turned off the key and it stayed on. I had to take off the wood bezel thingy to access it to get it reset. That's a flaw in my design.

We're off to my hometown of Roswell, New Mexico today. I'll see if I can get an alien to sit in the car for a picture.

 

Sam, great pics of the trip. I love the one of the sunset in Oklahoma. I have never seen that phenomenum before. Have a great rest of the trip.

Sam, now we know where your interesting charactaristics come from... Area 51?!

 

Sam
It looks like you're having a good time, just keep the pictures coming.
Have Fun
Doug
2001 XKR Silverstone