On Route 66 "The Mother Road"

Our national landmark highway spreads throughout the country so there is a chance you have been on Route 66 once on your travels.  It's referred as the Mother Road or the National Olds Trail Highway and stretches from Chicago to Los Angeles.

There are several old west stops along this historic highway and on this day, I stopped in Seligman, Arizona.  The small town is famous for its old route 66 relics including shops and landmarks that cover small stretch of highway.  It's a tourist dream.  You can take your picture with "Elvis," drink at an old saloon, buy knick knacks or take a seat to watch the entertainment pass you buy.  That is exactly what the locals did.  A typical Saturday for them includes pulling up a chair, enjoying a cigar and watch the tourists pass by.  I decided to chat with them for a while.  I told them I was from California and they were pleased that I was even speaking to them with everything going on in Arizona at this time.  One gentleman wanted to tell me he met the pope and pulled out his pocket photo album to prove to me that he in fact, met the pope.

As I walked along the town, there were plenty of sights to see.  It was a mini amusement park with tour buses pulling up every twenty minutes or so with herd of people unloading to take pictures and browse shops for things they can't live without.

I enjoyed my time in this town and I look forward to visiting more towns on this stretch of road.  I would recommend getting off of the freeway to see these little towns full of history.  Who knows, you may never get the chance to meet someone who met the pope or admire the carefully placed mannequin art on top of a gift shop.

A Day In The Life On A Northern Arizona Ranch

This past weekend I joined the Sisters on The Fly to camp, relax and take a day trip to visit a working ranch.  This was my first time joining these ladies who's motto is, "we have more fun than anyone."  Oh yeah?  We'll just see about that!

I will write more about these wonderful ladies in an upcoming blog.  For now, I will talk about the day trip we took to a working ranch in Northern Arizona.  I knew that the plan was to visit a ranch, however I didn't know what was in store for us.  We were greeted by some amazing and welcoming people at the ranch house who were gracious and more than willing to take time out to pose for a photograph or two for me.  The kids were wonderful.  The scenery was unreal and everything was what you might imagine a ranch to be.

Being from California, I haven't had the opportunity to witness a working ranch and see how these folks live.  It's a life of hard work and love for what they do, since you won't get rich being a farmer.  It's a way of life that they love and for them, they wouldn't have it any other way.  We took a tour of the ranch, were able to pet some horses and at the end of the tour, it was time for all of us to watch as they branded several cows.  I am not a meat eater, but I do respect what they do for the people who do eat meat.  It was hard for me to watch at first, especially seeing how stressed the animals were to be put in the situation they were in. As far as treatment of the animals go, I know that there are much worse situations so I would consider these cows lucky to live on this particular ranch.

I am thankful to the family that allowed us to come to the ranch and witness what they do on a daily basis.  They are pretty proud of what they do, as they should be.  If it weren't for ranchers like these, you wouldn't get to enjoy many of the foods that you are able to purchase at the store.  I have great respect and admiration for the amount of work it takes to run a farm.  It was an education to see it first hand. I would recommend a visit to a local farm in your area if you get the chance.

I look forward to more experiences such as this one.  For more photographs of life on this ranch, click HERE.