DAY 22 - 46.8 Miles

A record walking day today as it was cloudy and chilly but not raining.  More rolling hills and lots of trees, and there were a couple of areas that might have been burned at some time.  As we were packing the car in the hotel parking lot, we ran into Marty Rainy and his buddy, Chris. Marty is the host of Discovery Channel's Homestead Rescue, and Chris is in production. We had a fun conversation with them, and Chris lives in Brooklyn only a few blocks from where Maxine grew up. They were headed to Montana to film season 2 of the show. We'll look for it when we get home. Before we drove out of town to start walking, we went back to take photos of the statue in the middle of a park depicting the Seven Up (not poker) game that was played for the land on which the town was built.  Tonight at dinner we talked to several people in the local restaurant.  One couple had seen us walking on the road earlier, one guy recognized our Gasparilla jackets, and a young girl who had a birthday party in one of the rooms gave us some leftover birthday cake.

DAY 21 - 20.4 Miles

It rained all last night and was nasty this morning, but we decided to try and brave the elements and walk from the hotel. Eva walked over 14 miles.  Maxine was the driver and got to hang out and watch the Cubs parade and rally. We went to see Inferno in the afternoon and to a Mexican restaurant.  The town we are in was named for a poker game that was played to see who got the land for the town. The photo is of a mural. Hope to get a photo of the statue tomorrow. Check out the backs of the benches in the restaurant. 

DAY 20 - 29 Miles

Today was our first rainy day. We thought we might be able to get in a few miles before the weather got bad, but after only 4, we were chased back to the car by thunder and lightening and some rain. We decided to drive down the road about 36 miles to our next town, and after a stop at the Starbucks in a Safeway, we were able to start walking again and managed another 25 miles before it started raining again. Not too much to see today as it was really cloudy, so here a few photos from yesterday and a couple from today. Note the mural on the way to the restrooms in the restaurant where we had dinner tonight.  It's not a very good photo, but the horse is being held by someone in the outhouse. 

DAY 19 - 42.2 Miles

After breakfast with the locals at our motel's cafe, we walked in to Arizona. It was 36 degrees when we began, but it was sunny and warmed up nicely.  The scenery was beautiful with rolling hills, red rocks, mesas, and a couple of mountains.  After walking we went to a visitor center in town and took a guided tour of Casa Malpais, a Hopi and Zuni Indian Pueblo that is located in the Round Valley and was established in 1250. The natives lived there until 1400, and there were lots of ruins and rocks to walk through. We saw the kiva that was used for ceremonies, outlines of rooms where they lived, petroglyphs (carvings on rocks), a pictograph ( painted on the rock with some of the reddish clay), and a rock where they tied eagles to use their feathers in ceremonies among other areas. The whole pueblo was built on volcanic material, so the rocks on top are natural, and then the natives built the structures below with rocks that were put together with no mortar. We also scrambled up some rocks to get a 360 degree view from  the top. Our guide, Jeff, was so enthusiastic and knowledgable, and we were so fortunate that Mary Kay found out about this tour.  We topped our day off by going to a sports bar for dinner so we could watch the start of Game 7. There is no Daylight Saving  Time in Arizona, so we gained another hour, and the games started at 5:00.  What a game it was!!  Way to go, Cubbies!!!

DAY 18 - 42.6 Miles

After breakfast at the cafe next to our little 8 room motel, we headed out. It was cloudy and cool and windy on the second leg. We crossed the Continental Divide and were looking forward to having some pie in Pie Town, but the famous Pie-O-Neer restaurant is only open Thurs-Sat, so we missed out. There was another place open, but it was too early, and we chose not to drive 30 miles round trip to go back for questionable pie.  Checked into another small motel in the next town, and the woman behind the counter in the restaurant said she had seen us walking several days ago back in another town. The hotel owner came to our rooms and fixed the tvs so we could watch the Cubs win Game 6 after we had dinner in the restaurant and talked to some of the locals. 

CUBS WIN!!!!!!

No post yesterday due to no wifi and no post today due to Cubs win but all is well out here, and we'll get back to the blog tomorrow. 

Monday - Grannies Day Off

We took a well deserved day off to go to Albuquerque where we spent the day walking around Old Town.   We visited the main square, the church of San Felipe de Neri, shopped and had lunch in a real restaurant in the beautiful courtyard. There was a block where Narive Americans from several tribes sold their jewelry on the sidewalk. In the later afternoon we drove to the airport to pick up Mary Kay and then headed back west catching a beautiful sunset on the way. We stayed in a small motel with a cafe, but there was no wifi in the room, only in the cafe where we had dinner last night and are having beak fast now.