Number 6's Blog

Yesterday I drove from State College Pa. to Baltimore to fly  back home to Dallas.  The plane was delayed 2.5 hours because of weather in the Dallas area.  I finally got to bed at 11:30PM.

This morning picked up rental car at DFW – yes back out to the airport in the rain – rain in August is really strange for our part of the World.  Packed up and am ready to go.  Camping tonight in Palo Duro Canyon State Park (Grand Canyon of Texas) which is south of Amarillo.  Wish me luck driving today and no rain tonight or tomorrow morning!

Have to post a picture of what my better half is missing to go on this adventure with me – 2 Aggie football games!

Gig'em

Pagosa Springs lodging

This is another place of the place we are staying on Pagosa Springs.  We have vacationed here the last two Summers and always enjoyed our time here

Twin Sisters

This is an interesting rock formation a few miles west of Pagosa Springs.  Great view from here in all directions.  There is an ancient small Anazi ruins here also.

New Mexico, North of Santa Fe.

Driving North out of Santa Fe on the road to Pagosa Springs the scenery is beautiful.  This is truely Georgia O’Keefe country.

Rio Grande in Northern New Mexico.

7 days until vacation and counting!!! In State College Pa. on business so I missed blogging the last couple of days.  If you are ever near Santa Fe you should take a side trip to Taos.  The Rio Grande gorge there is well worth the the trip.

Looking out my back door in Pagosa Springs

This is the balcony view from where we will be staying in Pagosa Springs. 105% in Dallas today and 79% in Pagosa Springs — I can’t wait!!!!

11 days until our vacation starts!! We know where we are staying every night of the vacation and Saturday night we have tickets to the Pagosa Springs Folk Festival to see Ricky Skaggs.  Otherwise, we have no plans.  I am torn between developing a plan of things to do to fill up the time or just playing it by ear.  Maybe the middle road is the best alternative.  Tomorrow I will start searching the Internet to find at least a list of things to do if we want to.

Also, I paid for the Folk Festival tickets but all I have is a receipt from Pay Pal.  Should I just show up with the receipt or do I need something else?  I am thinking I need something else. Will check on that tomorrow also.

Parting thought of the day — work is getting in the way of planning this vacation.  I have been working 80 hour weeks 6 or 7 days a week.  Need to find a way to resolve this next year!!

I have heard that planning a vacation is more fun than actually taking a vacation.  Don’t know if that is true. However, I do know I am having a blast planning our trip to Pagosa Springs Co. and Flagstaff Az. the 1st week of September.  Maybe the expectation of the vacation gives you a high.  At least I have something positive to look forward to besides another day off 100+% temperatures

This year I plan to blog planning the vacation the next 3 weeks as well during the vacation.  My goal is this will help my writing skills — we will see what we will see.

To date we have worked out our itinerary, planned how we are getting there, and where we are staying.  I don’t have a lot of time to plan because work is eating my lunch right now (if an alien or a computer read this would they/it understand?).  Since vacation starts on September 2 I need to get serious about the plan.  Our current plans are:

• 09/02 – Pick up rental car at DFW and drive to Palo Duro Canyon and campout at the State Park.  Do some major hiking.  This is one of the big 12 state park hikes.  I have a goal to do all 12 before I am too old.  This is the 1st so I better get hiking.
• 09/03 – Drive to Albuquerque.  Gwen flies in from Dallas.  Stay at the Hilton Garden Inn by the airport
• 09/04 – Drive to Pagosa Spring.  We are staying at the Wyndham Pagosa Springs Timeshare. Also going to the Pagosa Springs folk festival Saturday night.  Ricky Skaggs is in concert.
• 09/04 – 09/07 – Staying in Pagosa Springs 4 nights and leave the morning of the 8th.  No plans yet.
• 09/08 – Drive to Flagstaff.  Staying at the Wyndham Timeshare in Flagstaff.
• 09/08 – 09/10 – Staying in Flagstaff 3 nights; leave the morning of the 11th
• 09/11 – Drive to Amarillo;   Staying at the Hilton Garden Inn
• 09/12 – Drive home and recover from the vacation.