DAY 2 - Spring Break

Up and out early for the last leg of the drive west. Buddy is feeling fine. And we decided at the last second to detour through Santa Fe, just to check it out.

We get alittle nervous when the road goes to gravel.

I felt like I was back in KY for awhile with the washboard ruts, but it was all short lived. Santa Fe was awesome. It was a really unique place. The thing I'll remember the most is the adobe houses. There were basically no traditional stick build houses. I guess that's cause there are little trees here. Something else, I'm not a fan of.

Our next stop would be the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. Loved it!

The Man, as a geologist, was loving the rock formations. He educated Buddy and I on what we were seeing. It was nice having our own guide. On up the road we stopped at Newpaper Rock. It is a rock with lots of petroglyths on it. The picture is a little fuzzy, because I try to zoom in so you could see the symbols drawn by Native Americans hundreds of years ago.

The Man took this pic and I just really like it.

Last stop for the park, the petrified trees. It was absolutely amazing how this happens. Fallen trees get buried by sediment, mostly sand and silt, then over time and pressure the carbon in the tree changes its chemical structure to become silicas, thus turning into rock. Amazing.


At last, we reach Grandpa and Nana. Yay! It was wonderful seeing the boys run to them. This is going to only get better.