Arizona Adventure

What a couple of days it has been!

I woke up on Saturday in Philadelphia and by 9pm had been in Saint Louis, Phoenix, Scottsdale and Gold Canyon Arizona.

I was very anxious about getting my guitar on the plane - on a previous flight I wasn't able to keep it in the cabin with me and it was put below...and broken. Yikes.

So I got the guitar on the first plane and while they didn't have a hanging closet for suits, it DID fit in the above head compartment! Wooohoo! Same thing went for the flight from St. Louis to Phoenix. Thank goodness!



My cousin Heather picked me up at the airport and we hit the road for a little bit before stopping in to a Best Western in Gold Canyon - it was surprisingly quaint! There was a bar attached to the motel where they were having karaoke - we stopped in for a few tunes :)



Today I woke up to Heather yelling "Hey Mary! Come look at what's outside our window! It's a sign!!"



Apparently the bus was passing through on it's way back from a huge country music festival. This is my current tour vehicle in front, with my future tour vehicle in back. :)



After breakfast we hit the road and spent the day driving past the amazing landscape that covers Arizona. I truthfully have never seen anything like it!







The further we drove into the mountain the more amazing the rock was that made them all up. The mountains here look nothing like the ones out east!








(Self portrait in the huge truck mirrors on one of our many pit stops)

They sky is so blue and the land almost seems like a wide expanse of beach with mountains instead of ocean. Which I suppose is why they call it the desert!

We made our way to Heather's ranch, which is in a "subdivision" of ranches...the use of this term cracked me up since our subdivisions are developments and neighborhoods - they own 127 acres of land in their "subdivision."



We made our way throught hills and mountains to find our way to her home...and it really struck me, as it does anytime I visit an area with vast differences to my own home, just how many different ways of life there are out there. I am grateful to be given the opportunity to experience new things along my travels.


Finally made it to Solar Mountain! Home of a solar powered sculpture studio!

This is what greeted me at the door :)

That's Heather's dogs - Nook, Moon and Angel.

Oh, and here's the amazing view!




Their AWESOME solar system





It's safe to say, at this point, that I am EXHAUSTED...and so is Angel. :)