The Southwest

Beth and I returned from the southwest last week after six weeks of travel. Those of you who have been there know that the USA west of the Mississippi presents a completly different landscape than the east, and I prefer the southwest in winter for its warmth and lack of rain. People here in Warren tell us that February was a particularly cold, snowy and icy month, so we are glad we missed it. The pics (click to enlarge) depict various places, including the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona, and the dog is one of many 'reservation' dogs that wander the Navaho land.They are essentially community dogs, friendly, and accept handouts from passerby. We fed several of them during our travels. The copper mine is in Cliffton, Arizona and covers about 80 square miles. You can get a sense of scale by the trucks being loaded on one of the distant 'steps', but this is just one small portion of the mine that stretches for miles.The self portrait is at Canyon de Chelly in AZ We stayed mostly at AirBBs and are already making plans for next year, probably staying 2 weeks at a time at each location before moving on.