It was Happy Birthday to me kind of day

The day started out slow and a little bit lazy.  The weather is wonderful here. After eating lunch outside, Libbie and I went exploring.

Our first stop was Rock window.  This natural formation is located at the Navajo Nations seat of government and capitol.  In addition to the  Navajo government buildings, there is also a monument to the Navajo Code Talkers of WWII.

While there we met two young  girls that were there to climb the mountain.  When I asked her to please be careful, she told me she had be climbing these mountains since she was 12.

            Can you see them up there?  They came down and got my camera to take pictures for me.

                                                        They had a great view up there.

                                        This is looking up on the mountain they were on.

and of course they had to take a selfie!

A better shot of the mountain they were on.

 We left there and headed back to Gallup.  The drive was fantastic.  Every turn had something new to see.

When back in Gallup, we headed for El Rancho Hotel.  Back in its day, it hosted just about every Hollywood star.  While making movies, western movies mostly, this was the place the stars stayed.

                      Upstairs they have photos of most of the stars that have stayed here.

All the walls on the second story are just like this, photo after photo after photo.

                                                   Finally we return to our RV Park.

                                                                 The Registration office.

                             They have several different metal sculptures that line the drive.

Plus this nice stone fountain.

A wonderful birthday spent exploring more of this United States.

Later!

Traveling to Gallup, NM

                                  The pictures above were taken at the Meteorite Crater rest stop.

                              The scenery is a lot the same around here, all beautiful.  

 We are getting close to the NM border and still the mountains with their color impress me.

We are stopped at the USA RV Park in Gallup, NM.  The sites are close but fairly level.

 The best thing here is that the internet seems to be fairly fast.  It's been so long since I had good internet, it sure is nice.  It's crazy how dependent I have become on it.

  We will stay here tomorrow and then leave for Albuquerque on Monday.  I am going to look for a Rock Window tomorrow.  They say there is one around here...
Later

Grand Canyon day

Today we went to the Grand Canyon.  But before we got there... we stopped at.... BEDROCK!  Home of Fred Flintstone.

I am sure that when it was first built this was a place the kids would have loved.  Sad to say it is in a state of neglect right now.  The many buildings that they have are in good shape, they just need a coat of paint.  Whoever built this "city", was very talented and did a lot of hard work.  There are probably 20 buildings and a bedrock movie theater that plays Flintstone cartoons constantly.  Cute, but not enough to hold todays kids attention.

 The entrance to the Grand Canyon.  It costs $25 a carload that is good for 1-7 days.  Or if you have a Senior Pass, it is free.

I took so many pictures, it will be hard to pick out just a few.

One of the 2 views of the Colorado River deep down in the basin.

I can't believe that I walked out on some of the ledges.

If you look real hard in the center, there is a guy dressed in kilts playing a bagpipe.  It was beautiful.  He was there with the MacDanuld clan.

Internet is too slow so that is all I will post.  I might post a few more pictures when we get to better internet.  There was a watchtower built at the last stop we made.  It was at the Painted Desert View.  Very nice.   Hold that thought....

Williams AZ

We left Las Vegas this morning heading east.  We are staying at Grand Canyon Railway RV Resort.

But let me back up.  I never posted anything about Las Vegas.  We were going to see "Pawn Stars" downtown.  But when we got there the line was so long out the door, we decided it wasn't that important to go inside.

 Leaving "Pawn Stars" we saw several wedding chapels.  This blue and white one is Graceland Wedding Chapel.

 This is just a picture of a piece of unique architecture.  I couldn't get the entire building but I loved the steel arbor or whatever it is.  It was very large and this picture just doesn't show that.

Let me just say we were overwhelmed by the Strip.
                                                        We went to old downtown first.

Then we headed to the newer strip.

There was just so much to see.  It looked like there were more stores and hotels than casinos.  But I am sure there were casinos hidden in those huge buildings.

One of the funniest things we saw, were these young people on motor scooters.  It was the Beverly Hillbillies come to Las Vegas!  They were riding these scooters like they had never done so before. They would make them buck, burn rubber when they took off and slammed on the brakes to stop.

This guy had noticed us taking pictures and wanted us to take his.  He rode up next to us and started whipping his scooter like it was a bronco.  It was hilarious!  He then turned and gave us the big grin.  I hope they survived the day.