Author: Mike Pekrul

After all of the rock hunting we did this morning, we drove a little way up the road to a place called The Little Painted Desert. Not to be confused with the Big Painted Desert where we’ll go tomorrow. Has to be seen to be appreciated, the pictures just can’t capture it. Afterwards, we drove…

I thought Susy was crazy about trees. Big old live oak trees. She swooned every time she was near one. But she might just be crazier for rocks. We’re exploring some hills in Homolovi State Park near Winslow AZ. I’m walking around looking at the view from the hills, off into the distance at the…

It’s 4am here and I’m awake, so let’s see what comes out of my brain… I sat in the sun yesterday, reading a bit, dozing a bit, and listening to the wind through the pines a bit, and just thinking about this trip, and my life. How different it’s turned out from what I had…

We left Manzano’s RV Park in Silver City NM and came to Show Low AZ. If you get a chance to make that drive on US-180 up through the Apache National Forest, do it! That was a beautiful drive, changing terrain from desert to mountains to grasslands to heavy Ponderosa pine forests several times. Along…

Nah, not that Rock City. This was City of Rocks State Park outside Hurley NM. It’s a cluster of rock formations dating back about 35 million years, to when a huge volcanic eruption blasted the area, on the order of 300 times the Mt. St. Helens eruption back in the 80’s. Volcanic ash and pumice…

It’s been more than a month since my last fix. Not sure if I can take it much longer, the shakes are getting stronger morning by morning. Looking at our route, I don’t see any relief in sight, and I’m having second thoughts about this whole adventure. What am I going to do? Eggs over…

So we spent the day driving in the mountains north of Silver City NM. We headed out this morning for Gila Cliff Dwelling National Monument, up in the Gila National Wilderness area. Shortly after leaving Silver City, we passed the Chino Open Pit copper mine. An ENORMOUS hole in the ground with machines and excavations…

After waking up to an awesome view of the mountains out my bedroom window at Oliver Lee Memorial SP, we headed for our next spot. The drive took us up and over a mountain pass through the San Andres Mountains and into Las Cruces NM, then across to Deming and up to Silver City. We’ve…

Last night we stayed up late watching the lunar eclipse. It never really turned red like we expected, but was interesting nonetheless. Today we slept in, and then went to McGinn’s Pistachioland outside Alamogordo, home to the World’s Largest Pistachio. Four years ago I tried to come here with my son Ray, but they were…

First it was snowballs on the beach, and now we’re going sledding in the desert. We visited White Sands National Park today. Pristine white gypsum sand as far as you can see. It’s actually quite cool to the touch and easy to walk on, mostly. It’s packed together in most places so it’s quite sturdy.…