Life After Gee Gee's: Texas is big enough to be its own country!

We left Lake Conroe and headed to Mingus, Texas. It is a little town north of Houston and west of Fort Worth. There is a lot of open space and the sky is incredibly blue, often with big, white, puffy clouds.

This area of Texas had little towns scattered about with not much going on. We drove to three or four towns on Saturday early afternoon, and there was hardly anybody in town. I was drawn into the Nacho Mama consignment. I thought the signage was clever and when Ken said it out loud I really cracked up!! There was a little restaurant in town called Mary's that made chicken fried steak that supposedly put Gordon, Texas on the map. To be honest, we did not eat there, but it was where everybody that was in town seemed to be spending their time and money!

You could tell that this area was probably booming when the coal mines were in operation and the railroads were being built.

We left Mingus and drove and drove and drove to Midland, where John's company is located. The closer we got the more oil wells we saw. The city of Midland is pretty big, and has all the restaurants, shopping and services you could want, but the area around it is nothing but wide open dusty spaces dotted with oil wells.

We spent half a day out in the field with John, observing him do what he does. I had never been in an oil field before, and it was actually very interesting. The oil industry is definitely a "Good ol' Boys" network, and John has done an amazing job of securing
a piece of that pie. He and his crews work extremely hard, and their accuracy and customer service are second to none. He and his partners have built an incredible business with great sacrifice. We are hoping his "five-year-plan" can be shortened and he can return to Utah full time soon.

We caught the 40 out of Midland and headed to Roswell, New Mexico. Ken said he always wanted to go there. What an amazing town! It's a university town with several free museums, the famous UFO museum (the best $10.00) we've spent on this trip, and tons of alien paraphernalia stores. Surprisingly, there was also a humongous scrapbook store called Imagine That right in downtown Roswell. The owner said it was the largest store in the country. The class room was amazing and the inventory quite impressive.

Our next stop was Albuquerque/Santa Fe. We had hoped to meet up with our friends Lyn and Roy, but unfortunately they did not make it out of Carlsbad. Our park was nothing to write home about, but very well located and a great hiking trail.

We drove up the Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe. There were several small towns along the 57 mile long road. We really liked the town of Madrid. It was totally an artist colony with small businesses and art studios tucked into the coolest old buildings and houses. It was fun talking to all of the artists. I could see myself living in an environment like that. The trail ended in Santa Fe. It is a beautiful city with lots of high end galleries. I much prefer the smaller, working studios, but thoroughly enjoyed our time there.

Old Town Albuquerque was another day trip. I loved our time spent there. The charm for me was all of the coop galleries. Typically12 - 20 people band together to rent a space and two or more artists are always in the studio working on projects and on the sales floor. It is such a great concept. There is a beautiful old church in the center of Old Town, and a huge gazebo. I loved sitting on a bench, listening to a young man playing his guitar and singing his heart out. He was very good. Another interesting thing was juried art carts in the square with fine art pieces and jewelry attended by the artists right across the street from Native Indians sitting on the ground with their wares spread out before them. If you are in the market for jewelry, head to Albuquerque is all I have to say!

The Albuquerque Temple was only a few miles from the church building, and we were able to attend while we were there. It is a beautiful building sitting on a nice piece of property overlooking the valley. I love being able to see temples across the country and am grateful for the peace the temple provides.

It got real cold while we were in Albuquerque and actually snowed on Saturday morning while we were packing up to leave. We waited out a 45 minute blizzard and hit the road when it stopped snowing.

Within an hour the road was dry and skies were blue overhead but looming black in the distance. We ran into heavy rain for a very short while and then clear sailing until we pulled into the Root 66 Campground in Holden, Arizona.

You thought I was joking?

The Petrified Forest is very near Holden and close to Route 66. In fact, at one time Route 66 ran through the park. This piece of America's heritage was set aside in 1906 to protect, and make available for public enjoyment, one of the largest petrified wood deposits in the world. It reminded me of the Badlands of South Dakota. There is a 28 mile loop through the park with 12 key spots to see. The Visitor Center is amazing and informative. The scenery is amazing, and I hope my pictures do it justice. The Painted Desert, Petroglyphs, Paleontological Exhibits, Painted Desert Inn, 1932 Studebaker sitting where famed Route 66 once cut through the park, Crystal Forest and the Agate Bridge all made this trip so worthwhile. Interesting enough, we did not see any wildlife except a few lizards and a crow.