Back in Greece – Just Under the Milky Way

My new answer to the question about the location of our Greek Stone House on the Hill is going to be, “Just under the Milky Way.”

As we do seem to be just about mid-point under that filmy, far-away brush-stroke of galaxy that sweeps from left to right above our home.

Sunset over the western point of the Peloponnese as seen from The Stone House on the Hill

On warm clear nights, the type we’ve been having since we arrived two weeks ago, we can sit on our deck, watch dazzling sunsets and then a bit later crane our necks back as far as they will go and ponder the Milky Way’s path across the heavens above us. Relaxing our neck for a front-on view, we gaze at The Big Dipper that sits like a big movie screen showcasing the village. 

The Stone House on the Hill is far right on the row of grey-stone houses mid photo

Our little hillside slice of The Mani is in an area without street lights and few homes and just far enough from the village lights to make for some incredible star-gazing.  We’d pondered last year – along with our neighbors – whether the government would destroy our ‘big screen’ by adding lights along our road as they have in other areas.   Now the government has more to think about than street lights. They need to find money to repair streets damaged by the massive storm that struck our area in late September. 

A section of the road near our home and 'my' car that got away

The narrow black-topped road that leads to our house and on up the hillside to the village of Platsa was severely storm damaged. The little automatic car pictured above, that we were scheduled to rent, is low to the ground and wouldn’t have made it over the sunken surface of the road. The Scout has done a great job ‘ threading a needle’ –  and getting us up and down the hill in the small standard shift we've rented in its place. Ours is just one of so many roads damaged that we suspect repairs/replacement are years away from ever happening.

The Valley from the entryway of The Stone House on the Hill

We are settling in again to this segment of our part-time ex-pat life. Our temperatures have been summer-like and continue to draw European tourists to the beaches and small villages near us. This month – when the sea water is warmer than in the summer, bouquets fill our gardens, and before the shops and restaurants start closing for olive harvest and subsequent winter hibernation – is really one of the best times to be in The Mani.

Stoupa village's beach shortly after our arrival this fall

We were lucky to have little storm damage at our place.  My fledgling vegetable garden was washed away and we lost small sections of two terraces in the olive grove so we’ve spent much of our first two weeks working on restoration and planting in those areas. But now our 'chores' are back to normal and our pace has slowed.

Our crop of olives is good and we are awaiting harvest

We appreciate those of you who’ve inquired about the area and expressed concern after learning of the 100-year storm and the damage it caused. (See my post, about it, here.)  There were many who were hit far more severely - we lucked out. Admittedly, I am being a bit home-focused in this post, but I wanted to provide a bit of an update for all of you who’ve asked for a report after our return. And you know this is both a travel and a lifestyle blog. Today you are getting a bit of the lifestyle.

Our rental car for this portion of our stay - one of our mountain village roads near us

Our travels and life will be Peloponnese-focused for the next few weeks as will the blog. We've got travel tips for exploring the area and we'll tell you more about the ex pat life of living here as well.

Every day street scenes just waiting to be photographed

We appreciate the time you spend with us each week. And we love hearing from you either by email or in the comment section below.  Until the next time, safe and healthy travels to you and your family ~

Linking this week with some wonderful bloggers at:

Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday – 
Photo Friday
Weekend Travel Inspiration

“Where God Put the West”

Moab, Utah “where God put the West’.

        -- John Wayne, 1961, while filming The Comancheros on location

Thanks to movies and television, when you think of the ‘Wild West’ or ‘Out West’ or ‘Cowboy Country’ in the United States, images come to mind of a vast, barren landscape. Probably with a tumbleweed or two rolling past, a desert wind howling with an ominous cloud overhead, maybe a herd of buffalo, coyote, and, of course, a cowboy looking a lot like John Wayne atop his trusty ol’ Paint. 

Monument Valley, Utah in the distance

You are probably thinking of southeastern Utah, the location where a large number of those movies were filmed in the mid-20th Century. On our late summer road trip through the area, I wouldn't have been surprised to see a cowboy or two gallop past. With so many National and Navajo Parks in the area we will need to go back one day for another dose of what has drawn film-makers and tourists to the area for decades.

National Parks in Southeast Utah and Northwest Arizona

While I’ve previously written about Monument Valley and Moab, today’s focus is Arches National Park just four miles north of Moab. Established as a National Park in 1929, it features more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches well as hundreds of unique geological formations.

Arches, arches everywhere

We set out about 9:30 a.m. Friday morning of Labor Day weekend to visit the 73,234-acre park. (That is about 119 square miles or 310 square kilometers). I note the time because as the day wore on the lines grew significantly and by Saturday morning cars waiting to enter the park stretched the length of the entryway and out to the highway. Wait times can become significant. Rangers will close the park when they’ve reached the maximum number of visitors.

Looking back at Moab as we head into Arches National Park

The 40-mile round trip road through the park begins with the two-lane road climbing sharply just after the entry gates. Elevations in the park run from 3,960 feet along the Colorado River to 5,653 at its Elephant Butte.  That tiny building – as it appears in the photo – is the large Visitor Center and shouldn’t be missed.

Petra, Jordan or Moab, Utah?

‘How could anything top Monument Valley?’ that wonderful stretch of land we’d traveled through just the day before. We couldn't imagine anything topping that, but we were only a few minutes into the park before we knew it was going to rival, if not exceed, what we had seen in Monument Valley. We were stunned at the similarities between Arches and Jordan’s Petra so we weren’t surprised to learn that parts of ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ had been filmed in both locations.

Mother Nature's handiwork

Precipitation in this area is less than 10 inches a year and on the day we visited the sky was so blue and the sun so bright you needed sun glasses to look at the amazing rock formations (and sun screen and hats).

The national park roadway

According to National Geographic, 300 million years ago inland seas covered this vast area, refilling and evaporating 29 times leaving salt beds thousands of feet deep. Because salt is less dense than rock, it rose up through it forming domes and ridges.

Views at every curve in the road

Most of the arches in the park are red sandstone which was deposited a mere 150 million years ago.

Stones or statues?

Small pull-outs and parking areas are provided along the route through the park.  In some areas trails lead from the parking areas taking visitors a bit closer or allowing a different perspective as was the case with the balanced rock below:

Balanced rock

From the parking lot, this is how the rock appeared. But from the trail that led around it, this is how it looked:

Everything has two-sides to its story

A good reminder that there are two sides to every story and its good to remember it is all in your perspective!

Some needed to get up close and personal

The arches were many – and you’ll note from my photos – never devoid of the tourist who needed to get up close and personal.

Trails in the park are user-friendly

Trails were well maintained and easy to navigate.  Some used walking sticks as the gravel made it difficult in places to get a foot-hold, but most were easily traveled. (Not recommended to do them at high noon as we found ourselves doing them – early morning or late afternoon would be much better both in terms of heat and lighting for photos.)

Too much to see in only one trip

They describe the formations as fins, towers, ribs, gargoyles, hoodos and balanced rocks in this park.  By whatever name, we found them all stunning.

Nature's varnish

The black substance, we learned at the visitor’s center, is a natural ‘varnish’ that the stone produces.

Use your imagination on this one

Our National Park’s just celebrated their 100th birthday and it takes a trip to a park like this one to remind us just what a national treasure we have in these magnificent places.  And for those of you ‘boomers’ out there a reminder that 'old age' has its benefits, like the National Park's life-long pass that gets you in to every National Park as many times as you wish to visit will cost you only $10.  And that to our way of thinking, is one of the best travel deals to be had!

Arches National Park - 'a must-visit' in Utah

For all the information you need on Arches National Park go to the park’s website: https://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm

For information on the National Park Pass for Seniors: http://store.usgs.gov/pass/senior.html

Thanks so much for the time you spent with us today ~ it is always nice to have you with us.  A big welcome to our new followers and subscribers; we hope you’ll comment often as that is what makes this blog fun!  Our wishes to you for safe and happy travels until we are together again ~ and next week we begin our tales from Greece where we've taken up residence at our Stone House on the Hill for the autumn.

Linking up this week with:

Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday – 
Photo Friday
Weekend Travel Inspiration

And then came Moab. . .Utah, that is.

The name Moab is a Biblical name for a land just short of the Promised Land.

The Moabites were historically regarded as the perpetual enemy of the Israelites, "God's Chosen People." Physically, the region was a green, verdant valley in the middle of a serious desert; an emerald in the sand, so to speak. Because of those similarities, our little town was dubbed Moab by Mormon settlers in the 1800's.

                                                                           -- Moab-Utah.com

Sunset in Moab, Utah

Our heart rates were finally returning to normal after traveling that breathtaking section of roadway through the Monument Valley. We were headed to Moab (MOE-ab), Utah our own ‘Promised Land’ where after an eight-hour day on the road, we were ready for our two night stay in this small town. We were heading to the Fairfield Inn and Suites, just outside town near Arches National Park for this segment of our Southwestern road trip.

Fairfield Inn is dwarfed by the surrounding cliffs - Moab, Utah

At the time we decided to stay there – about two days in advance of the trip -- we didn’t know much about this small town of less than 10,000 residents nestled tucked in alongside the Colorado River in Southeastern Utah. But a bit of on-line research had convinced us it was time to visit – and to give ourselves an extra night there.

Colorado River, Moab, Utah

During the 1800’s the area around what is known as Moab served as the Colorado River crossing along the Old Spanish Trail. That 700-mile-long trail is a historical trade route that connected the northern New Mexico settlements of Santa Fe, New Mexico with those of Los Angeles, California and southern California.

Moab Valley

The downtown, as with most tourism-oriented towns, is lined with galleries, restaurants and gift shops. There are dozens of retail outlets that focus on the out-of-doors, from selling gear for outdoor adventures to offering tours. The area is an outdoors paradise with whitewater rafting and kayaking on the Colorado River, canoeing on the Green River, mountain and road biking, rock climbing, hiking, backpacking and camping.

Working up a hunger and thirst:

The lone food truck in Moab, Utah

With only a single full day we packed as much into it as we could: a visit to Arches National Park, and during the afternoon we tried out the hotel’s pool area and then headed into town to explore its many stores and find a place for dinner. (There is no end to the food options.)

Moab - Margaritaville, Utah!

We chuckled at the headline in one of their tourist publications: “How to Get a Drink. . .in Moab, Utah”.  As it was a question that had crossed our minds as we set out on this route.

Utah, with its Mormon population and influence has long been recognized by travelers as a place than can be difficult to find and consume alcoholic beverages. But the times are changing even in this ‘dry land’.  The Moab Brewery – yes, a real micro-brewery in downtown Moab – is the only place in town you can buy full-strength beer to go.  Beer with an alcohol content of 3.2% can be purchased at food stores and convenience stores.

The Utah State Liquor Store is the only retail outlet that sells bottled liquor, wine and beer with an alcohol content above 3.2%. You don’t find the beverages with that alcohol content and above in grocery stores.

However, Moab now has two local wineries:  Castle Creek Winery, located at Red Cliffs Lodge, 15 miles from town on Scenic Highway (The River Road) and Spanish Valley Vineyards, just off Highway 191, south of Moab.  Both wineries have on-site tasting rooms and wine is available for sale.

La Sal Mountains - Utah

With only a day we didn’t have time to drive the scenic loop road that would have provided a close up view of the La Sal Mountains, a part of the Manti-La Sal National Forest, just 20 miles south of Moab. With peaks reaching nearly 13,000 feet this alpine ranges is the second highest range in Utah. We also had to put Canyon Lands National Park a bit to the north on the ‘next time’ list.  But we did visit Arches National Park and that’s a whole post in itself.

As always, the time you spend with us is most appreciated! And another big thank you to those who’ve shared our posts on FB with your friends and family there. Hope to see you back next week.

We’ve just returned to our Stone House on the Hill in Greece where we plan to spend the fall. I know a number of you are waiting for more road trip tales from here so as soon as we finish up with the Southwest trip tips and tales, I’ll tell you about some of what the Peloponnese has to offer! And of course, I've got tales to tell 'from the hill'. Safe and healthy travels to you and yours.

Linking up this week with: 

Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday – 
Photo Friday
Weekend Travel Inspiration

Monument Valley: “Awesome ~ Simply Awesome”

AWESOME – adjective – extremely impressive or daunting,

inspiring great admiration, apprehension or fear.

“Awesome!” responded the young telephone sales clerk when I placed an order for curtains.

“Will that be all?”  We said yes and the young waitress replied, “Awesome!”

Neither of those things were awesome.  But on our Southwest Road Trip we found something that  really was:

Awesome is the Monument Valley that stretched from Northwest Arizona up into Utah.

We revised our route north while in Arizona's “Valley of the Sun” (as the Phoenix area is known), after reading a travel article in the local paper. The area sounded too good to miss - and it was! 

We were barely 25 miles beyond Kayenta, a small ‘census designated place’ of about 6,000 people (not even a ‘town’) in the Navajo Indian Reservation, when we come over a rise in the road and were met with an ‘AWESOME!’ sight – the kind that gives you goose pimples and a shiver even on the warmest of days.

The Monument Valley from Highway 163

We were traveling a stretch of Highway163 that cuts through the vast, remote Monument Valley, a region of the Colorado Plateau famous for its clusters of vast sandstone buttes (the largest reaching skywards for 1,000 feet). This area is part of the 16 million acre Navajo Reservation. The number of outdoor hiking, rafting, horseback riding and camping opportunities are endless. 

There are even two hotels in this somewhat lonesome landscape – The View Hotel and Restaurant and the Monument Valley Trading Post, both just off Highway 163. One warns that because of the remote location, Wi-Fi might be a bit lacking in speed and quality.

Monument Valley straddles Arizona and Utah

The Anasazi, the Ancestral Puebloans, are believed to have settled in this region in 120 BCE; the cause of their disappearance is still being speculated upon by historians. Then came the Navajo culture centuries before the Spaniards arrived in 1581.

Monsoon season made a lush green carpet on the valley floor

The Navajo Visitor Center is about four miles from the highway. As Monument Valley is a part of the Navajo Tribal Park, there is an entry fee required for those who leave the highway and spend time exploring by jeep, hiking or horseback. All tours can be arranged in advance or at the Visitor Center. 
Entry fee is $20 per car with up to four occupants.  National Park passes don’t work here.

Mind-boggling in size and shape - the Monument Valley rock formations

We’d considered staying at one of those two hotels but our last minute itinerary change brought us here the Thursday prior to Labor Day weekend when rooms were scarce and the few that were still available cost many more hundreds of dollars than we wanted to pay. So our 'touring' was limited to the time we spent driving the highway through this wild, usually-sunbaked desert. However, as I told you earlier we traveled in early September at the end of the area's monsoon season which made for lush green landscapes.

Monument Valley - Arizona and Utah

In fact rain clouds skirted past and drizzled on us before we left the area.

A two-lane highway bisects the Monument Valley

Highway 163 is a two-lane roadway – it was nearly empty on this Thursday afternoon.

A mitten perhaps?

The land and monuments are considered sacred to the Navajo. There is something about this place - even just driving through it - that makes you understand why.

Monument Valley

While normally road construction delays are a source of frustration, we welcomed the one we encountered just as we were leaving the area.  It gave us a chance to get out of the car, feel the strong desert breeze that was pushing the rainclouds above us and get one final glance at that magical, no, make that, “Awesome!” place – Monument Valley!

A long and not so lonesome highway leads to Monument Valley

If you are planning a trip here in the near future check out the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park website as it is full of information about accommodations, and guides that have been approved by the Tribe for hire.

Up close and awesome!

Monument Valley is 146 miles from Moab, Utah or 380 from Salt Lake City, Utah, 395 miles from Las Vegas. Rent a car and set out on a road trip – it is one you won’t forget!

Our destination that day was Moab and its amazing Arches National Park - an area that turned out to be equally as 'awesome' as here. We'll tell you about it soon. And, as always, we appreciate the time you spend with us and hope that your travels are healthy and happy ones. 

Linking this week with:

Through My Lens

Our World Tuesday

Wordless Wednesday

Travel Photo Thursday – 

Photo Friday

Weekend Travel Inspiration

Utah to Greece ~ Taking Another Detour of sorts. . .

This has been the year of detours. Sometimes even the most well-thought-out itinerary needs an adjustment and sometimes so do blog posts.  I told you last week I’d be writing about our Southwest U.S. road trip this week and in a sense I am, but not quite from the perspective I had planned. . .because Wednesday morning everything changed. . .

I was up early sipping a cup of coffee and watching the morning sky lighten over the ski resort town of Park City, Utah, where we were in our second week of ‘timeshare life’ during our Southwestern road trip. Park City is a post-card perfect ski village about a half-hour outside Salt Lake City.

On this laid-back morning, I decided to check Facebook while I awaited The Scout’s emergence from slumber. . .

The first photo that came up in my feed was from Kalamata, Greece:

Kalamata, Greece

Kalamata. The big city just an hour from our place in the Mani region of the Greek Peloponnese.  The photo just didn’t compute. . .

I remembered reading a friend’s post the day before urging drivers to use caution on the roadways; it was raining -- a much needed rain but because it had been dry for so long – but she’d cautioned of slick roadways.  Not slick enough to cause that pileup though!

A car on the beach in Stoupa, The Mani

The next photos to scroll across my FB page were from the village Stoupa, much closer to our home, posted by the same friend, Maria Korma, who’d cautioned drivers the day before. Maria operates Mani Rental Cars in the village, and that red car above - we were to learn - was a new one in Maria’s fleet – just a week old. It had been parked on the street only hours before.  There were others:

Flood waters where the street should be

The morning calm in that Park City condo ended. Who could watch a sunrise in Utah when having visions of our Stone House on the Hill, its garden and/or grove being washed down the hillside?

Thanks to the wonders of Facebook and its feature, Messenger, I called my friend Sue who lives just down the valley from us in The Mani and we spoke face-to-face (at no cost, thank you, Facebook!) about what had happened.  By the time we talked – my early morning Wednesday and her late afternoon Wednesday – the storm had subsided and the clean up process had begun.

The aftermath - Stoupa

Sue and her family had made it through with little damage to their home and property. Still sounding a bit shaken though, from the ferociousness of the storm, she said Greek news was reporting roads blocked or destroyed, homes and businesses flooded. Some had lost crops; some had lost ages-old olive trees. Cars had been tossed and trashed by flood waters.

Divers were called in to locate cars in the bay

The storm that some are now calling the ‘100 year storm’ dumped 5.5 inches of rain in a single hour.  The Kalamata Airport closed; flights were cancelled. The Mayor of Kalamata was quoted as saying he’d never seen anything like it. Four people died as result of the storm that passed over our area as it moved northeast toward Thessoloniki.

Rallying to Recover

The communities went to work cleaning up streets, cars, homes, businesses and beaches.  The government declared five municipalities as being in a state of emergency and photos showed military troops and heavy equipment helping with the restoration and cleanup.  A call for volunteer help was issued in our area and the community responded.

Clean up efforts began immediately 

And the response from volunteers was immediate and enthusiastic. . .

Pantasi Beach, just below The Stone House on the Hill

Another view of Pantazi Beach

Back in Business

By Saturday, my friend Maria had posted the photos below saying that the sun was shining and tourists had returned to the beaches.  Recovery efforts had been swift at the beach-front town.

Stoupa - three days later

Beach-goers basked in sunshine

And the fate of the The Stone House on the Hill . .  .

Relief at seeing The Stone House on the Hill right where we'd left it

My friend Sue posted the photo above on FB a few hours after we talked on Wednesday to assure me our Stone House on the Hill and the four to its left were still in the same place they had been when we left last spring.

Many of you recall our friends Chuck and Marti from Kirkland who’d visited us last year had decided to move to our area this fall for a year’s ex pat adventures.  By a quirk of fate, their arrival brought them, their two cats and dog, to Stoupa late Wednesday evening. There they saw cars floating in the bay and recovery efforts underway. And they learned the road to their rental home had washed out.

The Road to the Stone House on the Hill - this was paved

After a night in town they moved to our Stone House on the Hill until they could get to their home. They reported we had water in the living room and curtains will need to go to the dry cleaners after we get back. They dried soaked things and mopped up the water.  The garden and grove – they tell us – look good, perhaps the olives look even better than they did when they visited last fall.

The road to our place was among those hard hit. . .it is bad, but so far (fingers-crossed that it gets no worse) we’ll be able to reach our house.

Sections of our road washed out

They were able to move to their home on Saturday, but are getting a different rental car – a 4-wheel drive) to navigate their road. You can see why from the photo below:

The 'road' to our friends' home is worse than ours

Obviously the photos in this post are not mine.  A huge thank you to Facebook (and real-life) friends, Maria Korma, Stavroula Nikoloudi, Chuck and Marti Bartlett, and Sue and Don Beattie and an unknown source (Kalamata car photo) for posting these photos of theirs on FB over the course of the last few days.

It won’t be long now before we are back in Greece but for the last couple of days, even as we  completed our road trip through the Southwestern U.S. our hearts and heads were with our many friends in The Mani. . .

And that’s why this week’s road trip tale took a bit of a detour!

As always, thanks for the time you spend with us each week. And another thank you to all who follow TravelnWrite on Facebook or who are FB friends and who have provided such an outpouring of support and concern for not only us, but the villagers and our friends in The Mani. It meant a lot to all of us ~ hugs to you all!

Linking up with:
Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday – 
Photo Friday
Weekend Travel Inspiration