Day 5 – NCECA Road Trip

This was the day that we finally arrived at the main event!!
We headed north to see Walnut Canyon before heading back south.
It’s a cute little national monument – and since I’m counting – at $5 entrance fee, we are almost half way to our national park pass cost!
There were over 250 steps down to see 25 different ruins! I used it as an additional portion of my workout!

It was another fun time for hubby and I trying to decide how they lived, how they ate, where they “shopped”.

After that stop over we headed south to Montezuma’s Castle National Park. Another cool ruin and apparently where all the idiots in the area congregate. Sigh.

It was another great view despite the idiots flittering around. Amazingly large structure, so far up the hillside built so long ago, with no apparent way to get in!

We got our view (another $10 save with the pass!) and got out of there as fast as we could!

Then it was 2.5 hours to phoenix!! I had been warned of the police presence by friends that have spent time in the area. We saw a bit of it in flagstaff – police doing radar checks everywhere – everywhere! Photo tickets, and more. So we kept our speed in check as we headed into the sprawling metropolis of Phoenix. And we also found the heat! It started to warm up as soon as we left Flagstaff – 60 degrees, 75, then 90 as we hit Phoenix…

We got to the hotel by 2:30, were able to check in – although their valet area is crap – in and out in the same place and only 1 lane wide… ugh.
Our room is beautiful. Amazing work desk (that is where i am now).

After a shower and some relaxing hubby went with me to pick up my badge for NCECA and get my goodies! It was fabulous. No lines! Love that!

Our goodies included a recyclable shopping bag – yeah!!!!

After my quick jaunt to get my badge we walked around the area and same some weird art:

Found the science museum and a cute place to grab a beer!