Stopped in this little town - classic Americana - complete with photos of the lady in the shop going bow hunting. Bought a drink which turned out to be one of the nastier tasting things I’ve had in the last while. 
The New Mexico roads were amazing…. especially in the late afternoon sun.
Big travel day today, as we got back on the road. Went through some pretty different country and took tons of pics…
Left Phonix pretty early - the freeway was eerily quiet.
We took a scenic route northeast of Phoenix (through the small town of ’superior’. I tried to get suitably moody photos, as this used to be Apache country (still is, depending on your point of view).
There are several Indian reservations around here, they seem to be for different sub-tribes of Apache. One of them is the ‘Tonto’
I’m way behind on my pictures, but I thought I’d add this one from Phoenix as we finally got proof of the temperature.
Another photo of the spray they have happening around the malls.
Chocolate mix! (actually not particularly nice, but I made Sarah buy them for me just to see!)
Yet another sunset.
We visited the Phoenix museum of history, and the Wells Fargo museum.
Random pics while driving around.
And this was at the garage we went to to fix D & S’s car.
- The Hohokam people are thought to have lived in the area for about 1000 years until about 1300-1450AD, making an extensive set of canals to harness the river systems. They were so well built that it was said in the 1870’s that it would not take much effort to make them usable again.
- The first europeans to visit the area were the spanish, in the 1600s and 1700s, but Phoenix was only settled in 1868, and had just 500 residents in 1877. Phoenix now has about 1.5 million residents, making it the 5th biggest city in the US. Phoenix has grown at a rate of 24% since 2000.
- the name ‘Phoenix’ was suggested, as the city would rise from the ruins.
- Phoenix has on avg 194.5 mm of rain a year, with 325 days of sun, and an avg temp high of 29.4 degrees c.
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International is the world’s sixth-busiest airport.
- Arizona became a state in 1912, the last of the continental states (ie, not Alaska or Hawaii)
Phoenix has a large Hispanic population, who’ve been shafted pretty much throughout the history of Phoenix. This church, St Marys (Santa Maria) was largely built and furnished by the Hispanic community, but in 1900 the priests relegated them to the basement.
Here’s some panoramas from a few days back, that I have finally managed to put together.
J.Paul Getty Museum
The J. Paul Getty museum is located on the hills above Los Angeles, so has some epic views.
Venice Beach boardwalk
I’m not sure how this managed to be as empty as this. There definately was more people around.
California Coast, near San Clemente
The view was great from the cliffs, though a little cloudy. This is not too far south of Laguna Beach.
San Diego Mission: Mission San Diego de Alcalá
The inner courtyard of the mission was very nice and cool…and green!
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, towards Salton Sea.
For those who want to see more pics of David & Sarah:
In a bar in Flagstaff, AZ, on Route 66, while eating pizza and drinking beer.
This one is with Chris & Erin Cohea, who we are staying with in Phoenix.
The Grand Canyon is a bit of a mind trip - because you’ve seen the images before its kind of like you’re looking at another big, very realistic, picture.
It’s pretty amazing though. Here’s a close up of a little ranch & group of buildings on the floor of one small branch canyon…. and with it a zoomed out image to try and get an idea of the scale involved.
The trail down is fairly insane too - if you can see, it starts near the top of this photo.
We climbed down for some photos, but it was fairly cramped on the rock.
An odd thing I noticed in the car park - the cars were almost exclusively red, black, silver or white.
And this is either very uncouth, or very ballsy, depending on your point of view - someone tagged the grand canyon!
