After almost 10 weeks away,  we are just about home.   We traveled thru another nation,  the Navajo Nation, along parts of old Route 66 back into AZ. And ended crossing the London Bridge!

Overnight tonight on the California border at Lake Havasu, AZ, Home is the London Bridge!

We stay tonight at the eight of our timeshares along this trip,  Havasu Dunes.  We stayed. in order,  at St George,  Utah, Moab, Utah, Granby, Colorado, then Nashville,  TN, New Orleans. LA, New Bruenfels, TX, Taos, NM, and last Lake Havasu, AZ.  We visited 18 different states 4 of them 2x, 3 + foreign counties,  Ireland. Northern Ireland,  and Scotland. plus a bonus, the Navajo Nation.  Some might even consider TX a different republic,  but I digress.

Along the way,  we made chiropractic appointments for my aching back during our 3 day stay in NOLa, and a car appointment for our ailing vehicle!  It had a faulty Fuel pump and controller which we were able to repair while we were in Austin area for a week. And God answered our prayers,  got us safely there and the repair was covered under our extended 15 year emissions warranty!  He had been good at every step and every mile of the way!

An addition to our original itinerary turned out to be a highlight!  the SING Conference. A Symphony of Scripture quickly became the most amazing moments of the trip!  singing with a 550 choir and 7000 voices joined in praise singing The Hallelujah Chorus! unimaginable joy!  Great Memories forever.

Our sunset view

Until next time,  Thank you for following our adventure,  for praying for our safety,  and commenting along the way.  

What a beautiful drive today!

Today we traveled across a part of the Navajo nation in NM and AZ to visit the  center of their cultural, Canyon de Chelly National Monument.

We have family in Montrose Colorado,  our next stop.   George and Annalee Chaney,  Emmett’s Brother in law and sister in law are wonderful hosts and we enjoy visiting with them whenever we travel access southwestern Colorado.   They always introduce us to another beautiful area near Montrose and this year was an exceptionally gorgeous trip up to the Grand Mesa, a huge Flat top mountain in western Colorado,  the largest and highest flat top mountain in the world,  with elevations over 10000 feet, up to 11000 at the highest.   it is covered with lovely lakes and gorgeous Aspens.

After our visit with the Chaneys, we stopped for a too short visit with my cousin Laura Foss who was camping with her new RV at Preist Gulch Camp near Rico.  Again, there were gorgeous golden Aspens!  It was great to touch base with Laura again too!

Worldmark Taos is our next evening’s lodging.   We had a wet but beautiful drive north from Amarillo, passed by Capulin Volcano and Mt Dora, and thru 2 canyons, Cimeron and Taos.

Our timeshare here.  We have just a studio,  but it is quite spacious and comfortable.

We traveled today from the hot and dry  90+° weather of Texas to wet and cool,  56° and  altitude of Taos.  This is our 18th state,  and a we return home we will travel thru 3 – 6 states a second time,  depending on the route we chose.   Today our odometer read a memorable number!

For the past week we have enjoyed visiting the members of our family that live in Texas,  Emmett’s daughter Rebecca and her husband Joel, who live in South Austin,  and our grandson Trey, his wife Kaila and their darling daughter Zuriah!  We even got almost everyone together for dinner.

a little soccer ⚽️ practice too

Had a bit of weather. which cooled down the temps a bit.   We’ve had 90s to 204 since leaving Tennessee!

We did a little drive thru Dallas and saw the book depository building and the Hau knoll, For those of you over 60, you know what that is about.

We also had a quick lunch with one of Emmett’s Co workers from a job long ago, Cary Love and his wife Arlene, 

We enjoyed a great evening and dinner with our Chorale friends,  Linda and John Rutan.   Unfortunately John had an unexpected flight early to Pennsylvania and we missed getting a picture together.  it was great chatting and catching up with their news,  a new grandson Wyatt and growing,  adorable Deacon, now 7!

We are leaving Texas with an overnight in Amarillo,  on Route 66.

We had dinner at the famous Big Texan Steak Ranch, home of the free 72 Oz steak…(free if you can eat the whole thing plus fixings in 60 minutes).  And no, we settled for much smaller ones!

We were waited on by a big Texan too! A nice tall young man!

We left New Orleans for Texas on Sunday to visit family in Austin, with a stop near Houston to visit a life long,  dear friend from my childhood,  Matt Cortese, and his wife Becky.  We spent a great couple of hours chatting,  catching up on 70 years of life,  the last 50 in different states. 

God Bless you 2

Unfortunately, our trusty 10 year old BMW is protesting!  3x now we have had a Drivetrain Malfunction!  And all power cut off!  We were able to get to the side of the highway each time and as we left it sit for 5 to 10 minutes,  it reset to all systems ok. 

Luckily one time it was close to a BUC-EEs!

But after the second time,  we decided to call a local BMW dealer and repair shop.  We are here in the Austin area for a week so getting it in for diagnosis and (hopefully) repair is possible.   We drop it off tomorrow and we need your prayers for a quick and not too major or expensive solution!  We will keep you posted on that!

  In the meantime we have a huge 3 BR unit in New Braunfels, TX where we can cook breakfast and relax! 

Great news from BMW!  The problem was a faulty Fuel pump and the control module for it!  Even better,  it is covered under our extended warranty!  YAHOO!  Thank you,  Lord!  Answer to prayer!  We have a rental car for a couple days to get around in the meantime!  God is good!

Dinner tonight at Willie Mae’s for Fried chicken.  Emmett had the quarter chicken in his favorite dark meat,  with corn bread,  cabbage,  a cup of Gumbo, and I had the ‘chicken and the egg’, 3 half deviled eggs with a small piece of chicken on top.   We shard a big salad and a great peach cobbler!

Breakfast at Mother’s

Dinner at Superior Seafood in the Garden District

Oysters, scallops and bacon wrapped shrimp.

We walked a bit back towards midtown then caught the tram back the rest of the way.  Beads still hanging everywhere

Our stay in NOLa is crowned by a presentation by the Preservation Hall Band!  Some great New Orleans jazz classics including Figgity Feet, Tulane Swing,  aka the dummy song,  What a wonderful world,  and the classic,  The Saint Go Marching In. No pictures or recordings allowed during the performance.   But,  take my word for it!  These were younger guys but very good!  it gave us a real taste of New Orleans Jazz! 

Our next destination on this adventure is the city of New Orleans with another stay at 1 of our timeshare,  very close to the French Quarter.   La Belle Maison is an older building but quaint,  on Magazine St 1 block of Canal St.  

It is an easy walk to all the sights and food in the French Quarter and since the last few times we have visited have been in the Garden District,  I think we will concentrate our walks here this time! 

On April’s recommendation,  we have already enjoyed a fabulous dinner at Mr. B’s and shared the BBQ Shrimp in brown butter sauce,  a great salad and the very best pecan pie I’ve ever tasted!

Our first breakfast was at a local place,  Mother’s,  and we followed that with a walk in the French Quarter.   We got free tickets to the Historic New Orleans Collection,  a museum of the history of New Orleans. It is house in an old mansion on Royal Street and shows the history of the settlement,  the music,  the people,  and the art of the French Quarter.

This well they discovered during renovation was built in the early 1800s was primarily used to indicate rises and falls in the Mississippi water level! 

We continued our day just walking the French Quarter,  visiting Jackson Square, and the banks of the Mississippi.

The weather is warm and a little much,  but not as bad as it could have been!  A benefit of the heat this time of year,  the crowds are down,  so sightseeing is very enjoyable!  We have been here several times in the past,   so this visit is just relaxing!  And eating our way thru a few of the great restaurants this city boasts!  Stay tuned for our meals report and our exciting end to tomorrow evening!

We were able to visit with our granddaughter Carlee’s dad,  Craig and his wife April.   We enjoyed catching up on all their exciting lives one a delicious Mediterranean dinner.