Getting home and remembering the Apache Trail

We got back to Tennessee late Thursday, 3/1, just before all the tornadoes arrived on Friday.  I had been watching the weather all week, checking the internet for forecasts of the cities we would go through.  In Dallas we had to decide if we would head north to Arkansas or stay straight toward Louisiana.  This was about the time Branson, Mo got hit and we choose to head east instead of NE.  In Chattanooga most of our bad storms come up from the SW, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa area.  I knew that we had to drive through these cities and would be on the tornado path on Friday unless we pushed hard.

greetings from my yard

grape hyacinths

It felt great to get home!  Just seeing all the green on the roadsides excited me.  The first jonquils were sighted east of Dallas before we hit LA.  Then the redbuds started appearing along with the red maples and carolina jasmine was hanging from the pines in Mississippi.

We have been back about a week now and I have been trying to think of a fitting way to end this chronicle.  I want to post a few more pictures of the day trip we took on the Apache Trail.  This road was AZ 88 from Apache Junction through Tortilla Flatts, up over mountains, down into Fish Creek, past Apache Lake and Roosevelt Dam.  It was an old native american route that was eventually made into a road. We were on 20 to 25 miles of rough, washboard dirt that took many hours to complete.

Apache Lake

Apache Lake

view down to Fish Creek

David and I have memories that will last the rest of our lives.   We don't plan to stay still long..Next year, Alaska?