April 23rd – April 24th, 2026
I was right! I was right! I was right! I know, because I am now an official BARK RANGER! Moms said that they weren’t National Dog Parks. They were soooo wrong. Ranger Lex Shane made me OFFICIAL! Moms said they will post photos of my certification for all to see and admire. Yippee!
Yes, Eddie, you are now official as Lex, the park ranger you met at the Petrified Forrest National Park, certified you after we showed him your tricks and how well behaved you are.
Well, of course Moms. I’m perfect.
The two-legged members of our trip and Eddie got on the road early on Wednesday morning and headed to our overnight destination of Holbrook, AZ. But first we stopped to get Sandy a soda and Michelle a chai tea. We got Michelle’s tea at Starbucks (natch), and Eddie got her first ever “pup cup”!
Moms, moms, moms! We should always stop at Starbucks! That was yummy!
Eddie, it’s only an occasional treat as we need to watch your girlish figure.
We decided to go “news free” for our ride and turned on SirrusXM Classic Vinyl. Since that is all music of our era, we sang along to Dobie Brothers, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, and, honoring a musical giant, Dave Mason. The songs of our youth. All three of us were so happy to be on the road and we were grinning ear to ear. Michelle loves being on the road on her birthday and Sandy and Eddie just love being on the road.
We planned to visit the Painted Desert on the way to Holbrook, so we confidently plugged “Painted Desert” into our Wyze app and off we went. However, we neglected to account for the time change because we wrongly assumed that the Navajo and Hopi Nations in Arizona would follow the state of Arizona’s lead and not do daylight savings time. Alas, they ARE on DST so it was hour later than we realized so suddenly, as we entered tribal land, our GPS indicated we were due to arrive just as the ‘park’ was closing. But the real and most critical problem was that our trusty Wyze app was not so trustworthy and led us to the middle of nowhere. Don’t get us wrong, the painted desert was all around us – it just wasn’t part of the National Park. In fact, it was at least 30 minutes away from the park. Oh well, we loved the scenery and that’s part of the joy of traveling so we turned around and continued on to Holbrook. Apparently, we were not meant to see the National Park until Thursday.
National DOG Park, Mom.
We checked into our usual hotel In Holbrook and had a lovely dinner at Mesa Italiana Restaurant, our go-to place in Holbrook.
Moms took me too, but forgot me in the car. I think there are drugs to help them with that. Oh well, I just took a nap.
Thursday we are up and out the door at 7 AM and on our way to the real National Park. We stopped at the Painted Desert Inn which serves as the park headquarters while the official visitor center undergoes a massive renovation. This is where we met Lex and he certified Ms. Eddie as a Bark Ranger. As usual, she utterly charmed him so it’s no surprise she aced the “test”.
There is no possible way to do justice to the amazing landscapes and colors of the painted desert and to the incredible sight of prehistoric, petrified trees just tumbled all over the hills and valleys of the desert. If you ever go, Newspaper Rock is a must. It is full of ancient petroglyphs and can be viewed with binoculars at the overlook. An antelope also visited us from the side of the road, that was pretty cool. All of the amazing scenery was like traveling back in time. We’ll post a few pictures, but they in no way can convey the grandeur and vastness of the space. We plan to return and spend a couple of days without the canine just exploring the many, many hiking trails. We’ll add a couple of pictures below.
What? Say that again?
Alas, after about three hours we left the park and resumed our trip to Albuquerque to meet up with sister Laura and her friend Roni. In our next blog installment, we will tell you all about the Gathering of Nations and our further adventures in Albuquerque with Laura and Roni!
🧡🌈🐾🕊️