Chillin in Flagstaff Arizona....

Hello again everyone! You get a few posts because we are stuck here by choice. We DID make the right decision to stay over! We have googled the weather and it appears there may be a few inches tonight but overall it will start to clear by the morning. We decided about 3.30 pm to wander down the road to The Galaxy Diner. We figured have a nice lunch / dinner and then we would not have to go out again till the morning. So ~ we rugged up with me wearing jeans, singlet,T shirt, woolly jumper and my Hollywood Hoodie WITH  my Burberry scarf and my gloves AND my new fleece lined boots. Mr Fab wore Jeans his desert Boots and a Tshirt. He also wore his Edi Downer Hoodie for the first time and only the second time in about 5 years he has worn a jacket of any kind!!!!! The Galaxy Diner is like an old time 50's diner exactly like in the movies!!!! The girls wore Pink Ladies jackets and it was really good. We had a really nice meal and it was toasty warm inside as we watched the snow falling outside. We actually enjoyed the walk in the snow as it was beautiful....until the cars splashed the sludgy snow over our clothes *lol*. We have even become quite good at kicking our boots and shaking ourselves like dogs to get the snow off our clothes. The waitress was lovely and of course Mr Fab ~ the King of Tipping left her a good tip. He still wont let me do any tipping because I apparently dont leave enough.........

So ~ we will leave here in the morning and head for The South Rim of the Grand Canyon ~ then down to The Hoover Dam then onto San Fransisco. Loving this trip ~ absolutely LOVING what we have done. We will be back and we will do the driving part again. Everything has been wonderful and even the Crap United Airlines and the rude people still make memories and thats exactly what we wanted. As soon as we are home we will be planning the next Fabulous Adventure! We have the Travel Bug well and truly!!!
Some more random pics of this Fabulous Flagstaff!!!!

ITS SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some more pics as we are enjoying this sooooo much!!!!!

 

Let it snow let it snow let it snow.......

PERFECTLY perfect!!! Flagstaff this morning at 5.40 am I woke up and opened the curtians to the motel room...ITS SNOWING!!!!!!!! I cannot begin to describe how thrilled I am. Mr Fab has never seen snow so the conversation went like this:
Me: Ronnie wake up quickly quickly wake up wake up now please wake up
Mr F: *snuffle snort* whattt?
Me: Its SNOWING!!!
Mr F: Your kidding
Me: *squirming and wiggling and grabbing his hand to drag him outside in our jammies* Noooooooo
Mr F: Have you had red cordial?
Me: *singing and dancing about* Let it snow let it snow let it snowwwwwww

 Last night listening to the weather updates (there have been severe storm warning issued 24 hours in advance for only the second time in history apparently) anyway it did mention "a chance of snow flurries in Flagstaff but I didnt actually think it would snow!!!!!!! Mr Fab has understandably now said we need to rethink the travel plans today so we are having a Green meeting to decide what to do. He has never seen snow let alone driven in it so I am happy to go with what he feels safest doing, ( God I am a bloody good wife!!!)
Gotta go ~ have snow angels to make and have to throw a snowball at my husband...Oh and find my wool jumper and boots....and gloves and my Burberry scarf........*mwah*

Kickin it on Route 66

Phew!!! Another MASSIVE day of driving but finally settled in on Route 66 ~ kickin it and chillin ohhh yeah. We left Carlsbad and headed on down the highway to Roswell New Mexico. Both of us concured ~ you cannot drive all the way through the United States and NOT go to Roswell when it was an hour out of the way. We also had to go past Dexter so I had to get a Pic of that!!!! We were quite surprised at how big it was and then the laughing began....Everywhere you look there are statues and blowups of Aliens. Aliens Aliens and more Aliens. We parked and wandered into a little store which sold all the Alien crap and spent the entire time laughing. The owner was a lovely chap who looked a bit like an alien...or an alien pretending to be a human...hmmmmmmmmm we understand how it works and wont tell anyone ~ promise. Mr Fab even found a shirt he liked and we also brought a really good book on what happened and the "alleged" cover up on the "alleged" crash *wink wink* Everywhere you looked businesses had Aliens outside their stores. We thought it was Fabulous and we both agree it was well worth the side trip. Back on the highway and heading toward Flagstaff Arizona. Its a long day but we now have a few extra days up our sleeve to relax and take it easy.

The countryside is incredible and its amazing as it goes from dry arid flat lands to hilly red and rocky. As we drove we listened to a radio station playing American Greats and I was well chuffed when one of my all time favs ~ Sugar Sugar by The Archies came on. I was promptly told I cant sing ~ duh ~ which of course makes me sing louder. Dexter is the only one who just jumps around and sings and dances with me. We finally crossed over the border into Arizona and Mr F felt the need to share with me as the temperature dropped....and dropped......and dropped!!! I thought we were in the bloody desert???? By the time we stopped for the night in Flagstaff the temp was 42 which we think is about 12? Whatever it was and is now we have the heater going full blast and these fragile Queensland Bones are freezing!!!!

From just before the border ~ Everything is Indians. They have a million shops to sell the various crafts and such and also they randomly have Casinos stuck out in the middle of nowhere. Bright gaudy and lights flashing!!! They all have the biggest,cheapest,best of whatever they are selling. We would prefer to see more of the real culture and not the commercial part so we hope we will see that in The Grand Canyon. When we mentioned we were going to The Grand Canyon Skywalk the Hotel chap said its a waste of money ~ $100 to look through glass. Well we knew that but we have been googling and it seems if you go to The South Rim you see the same for free??? So now we having a meeting to decide what to do. Its not even the cost part ~ its the extra 3 hours driving. If we do the South Rim we could then head down to Hoover Dam. We want to spend a few days in San Francisco so I will update when The Gypsy Greens have made their decision. Missing you all!!!!

Aussies on the Road ...Y'all

Well here we are settled in after a HUGE day at The Days Inn ~ Carlsbad. Y'all read that right ~ Carlsbad. Its just over the border in New Mexico and oh my ......Interesting town. Mr Fab and I spent the day using the word "Y'all". We reckon we sound pretty darn American!
Me: Can I get Y'all a drink?
Mr Fab: Y'all can indeed and thank Y'all
Me: Y'all is welcome.
Silly but makes the time go faster. The landscape has been amazing. Miles and miles of breathtaking beauty and then dry sparse arid open plains with nothing but ramshackle abodes and maybe a raggedy cow. I also sang to Mr Fab ~ The Theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies. I told him he should be extremely chuffed to have such a multi talented wife and he said he is concerned he has a wally of a wife........ I think its pretty darn special to be able to sing the entire Beverly Hillbillies Theme and now you will not be able to get it out of your head...bahahahahahahahaha!!!!! We drove from San Antonio through Fort Stockton, Pecos (seriously Pecos) and through Loving to Carlsbad New Mexico.

 We have checked our maps and it looks like we will go to Flagstaff Arizona tomorrow. Firstly though we HAVE to do a side trip to Roswell New Mexico as its only and hour or so up the road. Cant come all this way and not go to visit now can we?????
We stopped today for a cuppa and to stretch our legs. We wandered into the Diner and it was EXACTLY like the movies!!! We just sat (at the counter of course) and watched everything that was happening. I forgot to mention ~ The odd waitress plonked down 2 cups of coffee with a spoon in the top to have with our Cobbler and it was refilled 3 times.We also ordered the traditional Apple Cobbler which we shared just so we could say we have had a cobbler!!! It was scrumptious by the way. The entire cost of this was $7.76 including all the taxes....... I thought it might be boring driving and driving but there is so much to see!!! We did the Interstate 10 once again until our GPS told us to turn off and head toward Albuquerque?. So now we were on the back roads and oh my is it different!!!! We had not seen any truck stops of anything for miles and when we came to the New Mexico sign I said I had to pull over and take a pic as well as find a bush to do a wee!!! I was worried sick about being bitten by a bloody rattlesnake but happy to report all is well. A car drove past and I was concerned they may have seen me but Mr Fab said they were probably dazzled by the sunlight reflecting off my bottom.........rude man!

We are not even sure what road we are on but as long as that damn GPS is not saying "recalculating" we are happy. We anticipate being at The Grand Canyon Skywalk by Saturday morning.

Chain Gangs and Magnolias.....

Well another day on the Fab Adventure is now almost at a close. I forgot to mention that yesterday as we drove through Louisiana we came across a fair dinkum Chain Gang. *Cue Heartfelt Blues* Neither of us has ever seen anything like that except in the movies so it was exciting enough that we both stared and talked about it for a few miles. Orange shirts and the traditional? black and grey striped pants. The Sheriff with his shotgun and the chaps all doing gardening on the side of the road!!!! How exciting is that???? Well not for the chaps working but for us it was. We traveled today from Houston to San Antonio. We initially thought we would drive to Dallas but decided it was a better idea to head upwards toward The Grand Canyon. We stopped on the way and found a Walmart (bahahahahahahahahahah) to grab a few supplies. It seems that the Battery recharger works fine but it is running at a lower voltage so after 8 hours of charging we get about 6 pictures on the camera and the bloody thing stops. So ~ plain ol batteries from Walmart and we are now good to go.
Arrived in San Antonio and checked in. I of course had Wifely Duties to do like washing while Mr Fab had the usual Mr Fab duties like laying about, sitting around and generally relaxing........

We decided to go downstairs and have a drink and met the lovely barman and also this funny chap called Benjamin Nicholas Aloy. The reason I have put his full name Fab Readers is this guy made us laugh out loud...
Mr Fab: Gidday howareya
Ben: *seriously bad aussie accent* Y'all are aussies this is my Aussie acent!!!
Us: *falling off the bar stools larfing*.
We explained to Ben that Aussie dont sound quite as ........ nasal as what the Yanks think we do....(Think the so called Aussie in Eureka)
Ben is a comedian and yep he is funny. After he said he would introduce us as his parents and I blinked he redeemed himself by asking the lovely Barman had I been carded....good job Ben ......Good save...Well done. We had dinner in the Hotel and Ben also was our waiter. Made us laugh as we ate. Nice guy folks so if you get a chance to go see him? Go!
We have been incredibly lucky this section of the trip. While the first part was full of mean and cranky nasty people trying extremely hard to part us from our hard earned money ~ this part has been full of gorgeous lovely people who are genuine in wanting to help us have a good time! Generous people who go out of their way to help. No ~ NOT just for tips but just because. Its really making this part Fabulous!!!!

For Katy Redmond ~ an entire town!!!!

Tomorrow will be a HUGE day of driving as we want to knock quite a few miles off the trip to Grand Canyon. We really want to enjoy that part and the time is starting to run down till we have to go home. We miss home and everyone and of course mostly miss Dexter The Wonder Dog!!!!!

Deep in the heart of Texas .......*clap clap sing sing*

House in Lake Charles across from the Lake

Howdy You'all .........From deep in the heart of Texas coming to you live from Houston. Started this morning from Lafayette and headed West along the Interstate 10 toward Houston. It was a damn good idea to set goals and have clear destinations in mind!!!! We decided to stop at Lake Charles. We cannont figure out why but it seemed familiar. We drove around the not so rich part for a bit then came across the richer section...... if you will. Right on the lake and these divine little houses hanging out across the lake. Just the place to BBQ and have drinks and nibbles with friends. As far as we could figure ~ The main house is on that side of the road and the little Lake House is out along a jetty on the other as they seemed to match. We just wandered about and stretched our legs for a bit then got back in and away we went! We are enjoying looking at everything but I must say I am becoming quite stressed with the Highway driving. Everything flows smoothly ~ sure ~ but DEAR GOD is it scary!!!! We had a HUGE truck beside us and he started wandering over to our side of the road~ we think he couldnt see us. Well I can tell you Fab Readers ~ the Old Fab Poodot contracted to the point I am not sure if it will ever unclench again!!!! Geezuz!!! I grabbed Mr Fab which was really REALLY bad and its only that he remained calm as I was going OH OH OH OH OH as this truck got closer and closer to us. I am not exactly sure what yelling OH OH etc will do but it made me feel better as I rose off my seat in pure fright. My new and shiny husband *simper* should get a bloody medal for being Awesome as he is a Fabulous driver and shows no fear!!! Me on the other hand will NEVER get behind the wheel in the good ol' US of A!
Ohhh no no no its never going to happen.
After getting back on to Interstate 10 West we kept on till we crossed the border into Texas. From there on its been Longhorns and BBQ!!! *lol* We laughed out loud at the Petrol stations which have these dodgy Casinos attached. Seriously!!! You fuel up and go to the little Casino attached. We have as mentioned in previous posts ~ a GPS. We both hate her. Literally hate her as she tells us we have screwed up AGAIN. Yes she is very polite about it but we managed to get ourselves hopelessly confused as we tried to find the Hotel. Keep Left Keep right Keep left Turn right......we have figured out that keeping left means trying to get over lanes and lanes of traffic so we tended to keep right unless we could get over!!! Even Mr Fab started to get a teeny weeny bit stressed by the end of it. The roads are overlapping, overcrossing, over the top under that one over this one loops and loops and more loops!!! The traffic was starting to get busier as the day wore on and we have come to the conclusion it might be a good idea to get off before about 3 in the afternoon. We were going to keep going to San Antonia but made the decision to stop in Houston and regroup.

On the MAD MAD Interstate heading toward Houston Texas

So ~ there is another day of the Fab Adventures done and dusted. Not sure where we are headed tomorrow but kind of up the middle would be an apt way to describe it.