the road home
Leaving Mesa Verde, we still weren't entirely sure of our plan. In the immediate, we set out for Durango. En route, as my ankle continued to throb in pain, we decided to skip Great Sand Dunes NP. We got to Durango, walked around for a little bit and grabbed lunch at a Mexican restaurant.
Since we'd decided to skip Great Sand Dunes and already knew the baseball game was not going to happen, we were bound and determined to get home as fast as possible.
After lunch, we hopped in the car and started driving, trying to get as far east as possible, but still with the goal of going to Kansas. Both of our GPSs told us that heading south and driving back along I-40 would be the fastest route, but the thought of driving that again was rather unappealing and wouldn't have taken us through Kansas. So we headed to Colorado Springs. We ate dinner in the parking lot of a gas station somewhere in Colorado. Somewhere around this time, the lift mechanism that keeps the door of my trunk open quit functioning. That made making sandwiches a week bit difficult.
We made it to a KOA in Limon, CO that night where we picked up I-70. We pitched the tent and walking back from the bathroom, it started to rain and we made it into the tent as it started pouring. The next morning, we spent some time letting things dry out before repacking them. While we waited, we downloaded a new audiobook for the drive home.
We hit Kansas pretty quickly and we were in Kansas FOREVER. Our one stop other than gas, was at
the Oz museum in Wamego. My standard for marking off a state on my list is that you have to spend the night there or actually DO something there. And this was all we did. Thankfully, student tickets were only $2 because the $7 adult entrance fee would NOT have been worth it. I'm not quite sure what I had hoped for, but I was disappointed in the museum.
The were lots of artifacts from the movie, advertisements, happy meal toys, and many versions of the Oz books. Each character had a display, but they were kind of lame and you could not touch them- disappointing for she who likes to pose with statues.
From there, we just kept driving. And driving. And driving. We got to St Louis just in time to hit rush hour and kept driving. We knew we did not want to stop in East St Louis (thank you, Jonathan Kozol) and we had no idea where any campgrounds in St Louis were, other than a KOA south of the city and we needed to keep heading east. Not to mention that the temperature as we headed east and down out of high elevations had gone up 20 degrees and the humidity had increased by 200,000%. We wound up that last night at a Super 8 motel somewhere east of East St Louis.
In the morning, we got up and drove the last 5 hours home, finishing our last audiobook as we crossed from Kentucky into Tennessee and never have I been so happy to see Nashville.
Labels: roadtrip '10, travel
mesa verde
By Sunday afternoon, we'd pretty much figured out that we were going to make it to Kansas City well before Thursday night and would not make the baseball game. Without that event to extend our trip, it turned into more of a "we're tired, how quick can we see all these things and get home?" sort of attitude. Not to mention, though it was fine while we were hiking, as soon as we got in the car, especially if I was driving, my ankle, rolled on Friday, was killing me.
So when we got back to the car a little after 6 on Sunday afternoon, we decided to press on to Colorado rather than camp that night in Canyonlands.
We stopped at some random grocery store just west of
Mesa Verde and bought an ace bandage for me. We got to the campground at Mesa Verde just before the concessionaire closed for the night and set up camp in the dark. Definitely the highest elevation we'd been at during the night since Santa Fe and it was chilly!
The next morning, we headed to the visitor center to figure out what we were going to do. My ankle was not feeling so hot and as heights are generally not my thing, we eliminated any cliff dwellings requiring climbing up 50+ foot ladders. Instead, we drove to Spruce Tree House and toured it. The only ladders there are a few rungs and that was doable.
From there, we decided to take a short hike into the canyon by Spruce Tree House on the Spruce Canyon Trail. My ankle was wrapped and I was wearing my hiking boots, so I figured I'd be fine. WRONG. Near the bottom of the canyon, my ankle began to burn and ache. And as we climbed slowly out of the canyon, that intensified and I could hardly walk once we got to the rim and had to walk back to the car. Laura was a super-star though and regaled me with stories the whole way out, trying to get my mind off it.
Feeling like we had not given Mesa Verde the time it deserved, we drove the Mesa Top Loop Road. We got out at a few of the Ancestral Pueblo dwellings, mostly pit houses, but after 3 or 4 they all seemed to look the same and I was still in pain and we hit the road, bound for Durango.
Labels: roadtrip '10, travel
the needles
Canyonlands NP has 2 entrances that are not accessible to each other by car, and we knew we didn't have time to see both. (Word on the street has it that Canyonlands is best enjoyed from the water.) Leaving Arches, we stopped at the visitor center to ask which section would be most different from the things we had already seen. The ranger told us The Needles, unequivocally. She almost mentioned that it was much less frequented. Bonus points in my book after how horribly crowded Arches had been.
We set off and had a beautiful drive through fields of wildflowers and amazing rock structures that took shapes I'd never seen. Sadly, I don't have a good picture of them and I certainly don't have the words to adequately describe them. You'll have to go drive US 191 yourself.
We got to the visitor center there and asked for some hiking recommendations. The ranger warned us that we needed to consider how much daylight we had and probably would not be able to hike that far. Apparently, everywhere we went on this trip we had "stupid, naive girls" written all over our faces. Knowing that we had a good 3 hours + of daylight left, we headed out to the trailhead at Elephant Hill which takes you into the Needles formations and decided to hike till about 5:30, see how far we got and then turn around.
A few raindrops fell and the sky looked menacing as we set out, but as long as there was no thunder, we decided to go for it. Laura and I were both in ridiculous moods and we had a fabulous hike. All of the formations we saw reminded us of cartoon characters and video games. It sounds silly to record, but it was a delightful, silly hike with amazing scenery and a rainbow on the hike out.
The smurf hut we found on the way.
Labels: roadtrip '10, travel
Arches
We arrived in Moab a bit before dark and immediately tried to find a campground. We first checked in at Arches, but the campground was full and the only other campsites I knew of were by the river where last summer we'd been attacked by mosquitoes. Maybe it would've been different there in August from June, but that was not a chance I was willing to take. We wound up at the KOA just south of Moab- it was one of my favorite KOA's that I've stayed in. Probably second only to the one near Devils Tower in Wyoming.
The next morning, Sunday, we got up and headed to Arches. After stopping at the visitor center, we drove the length of the park to Devils Garden. The park road gives fabulous views of tons of arches and other formations. Once we got to Devils Garden, we hiked about a little past Landscape Arch. That part of trail takes you past a few of the most accessible arches in the park, but I wanted to hike to Delicate Arch that afternoon, so we knew we did not have time to hike the whole 8 mile Devils Garden trail, which was disappointing because it gets you far away from most of the tourists and on Sunday, there were plenty. Somehow, I forget that I am one of them and others are probably just as frustrated with my presence adding to the crowd as I am with theirs.
From there, we drove down to another road that accesses Double Arch and some others and hiked up into Double Arch. After I climbed up much farther into the arch than Laura, she informed me that she did not think I was actually afraid of heights, but that I was afraid of coming down from heights. I think it just depends on the day. It was a beautiful, sunny, clear day and such a contrast to the foggy, rainy day before in Bryce.
Delicate Arch was our next planned stop- its about a 3 mile hike to the arch. Unfortunately, the trailhead parking lot was super-madly-crazy over-crowded with cars driving in circles waiting on spots to open. And much as I may have wanted to hike to Delicate Arch, that ridiculous-ness was not worth it. I felt like a real wuss though giving in and driving to the viewpoint. The viewpoint wound up at least requiring
some physical exertion, not just walking 30 steps on a boardwalk.
After viewing Delicate Arch, it was only about 1:00, but there wasn't much else to see. Our originally planned schedule was already thrown off and we were going to have to extend our stay somewhere in order to catch the Royals game in Kansas City on Thursday night. Finishing early in Arches was not helping that cause, but by that point, Laura said she didn't really care that much about the game. I told her I'd yet to take a cross-country roadtrip that lasted as long as we'd originally planned. So from then, we decided to head on to Canyonlands.
Labels: roadtrip '10, travel
a hell of a place to lose a cow
aThe next morning (Saturday, I think), we woke up to ominous clouds and thunder. I poked my head out of the tent and made my best rational decision amidst the clouds of pre-coffee-I-only-slept-a-few-hours grogginess: get up ASAP and get everything back into the car as quickly as possible. Which we did, and found ourselves sitting in the car with all our gear in the back as the first raindrops hit. In our pajamas. With all the food in the back. And no one else having stirred from their tents.
We managed to grab the cereal and had breakfast in the car. While the rain mostly stopped. And other people got up to start their leisurely mornings. Oh well. It gave us an early start on the day and we headed back east out of Zion. As soon as we got out of the park, we stopped at a convenience store/gift shop where we brushed our teeth, changed clothes, and grabbed a cup of coffee before heading to Bryce.
Bryce Canyon was my favorite park in Utah from the summer before and I was
so excited to be headed back. Unfortunately, we headed straight into more clouds and scattered showers. We threw our stuff down at a campsite and headed to Sunset Point for a hike. En route, I learned that Laura had not slept at all the night before. Not the makings of the best day. It wasn't raining too hard on the rim, but it was really muddy. As we started down the Queens Garden trail, a quarter of a mile down, some hikers coming up warned us that we should consider starting at the top of the Navajo trail and hike in the opposite direction as everyone coming up the switchbacks out of the canyon was slipping and sliding in the mud. We heeded their sage advice. It wasn't raining on the canyon floor, but it was so cloudy there were no views. Kinda disappointing.
After our hike, around one, we headed to the Lodge to regroup and figure out how to spend the rest of the day since the rain was forecast to get worse. Hiking in the rain with no views did not seem that appealing, nor did sitting in our tent in the rain. We decided to drive further into the canyon to check out some view points and then go ahead and head on to Arches and put ourselves a little ahead of schedule.
We stopped at Bryce Point and at Farview Point. As we drove, the cloud cover only got worse- the view at Farview Point made it clear there was no reason for us to keep driving, so we turned around and started the five hour drive to Moab.
Labels: roadtrip '10, travel
utah rocks, pt 1
Friday morning, we left Las Vegas and headed to Utah and Zion National Park. We lost an hour heading back into Mountain time and arrived a in the early afternoon. After a quick lunch at our campsite, we headed to the Visitor Center to fill up on water and board the shuttle to the top of the canyon. I appreciate the canyon shuttle- both in that it keeps traffic down and therefore helps preserve the canyon and because of the informational-audio recording that continually runs. And it's nice not to have to drive and just be able to take it all in.
Our first stop was the Narrows, literally, where the canyon narrows, my favorite trail from last year's Utah trip. I'm not quite sure what it is about the Narrows, since it's basically walking on rocks, one of my least favorite things, covered in water, but I love that trail. I really cannot express in words how much... I mean, I revel in it, I cannot stop grinning, and it is sheer pleasure for me. Since it was monsoon season, the current was fairly strong and it was deeper than last year's hike in late June. And more crowded.
But still blissful. For me, at least. It was not Laura's favorite thing ever- I'm pretty sure she thought I was crazy. We walked in for about an hour and then turned around so we could see other parts of Zion before it got dark.
Of course everyone says, Make sure you hike Angel's Landing. But, given my ridiculous fear of heights, I know that's a bad idea for me. I've learned that when the literature warns, "Not for people afraid of heights," I should heed that warning. We got out first at Weeping Rock to check it out. Yep, water dripping out of the canyon wall. Though word on the street has it that it takes 10,000 years or so for that water to drip out of the rock.
Laura had never been to Zion and even admitted she'd never even heard of it or the other Utah NPs before we started talking about this trip, so she was fine doing things I'd not done before. That meant our next stop was The Grotto where we took the Kayenta Trail to the Emerald Pools. It took us into the Middle Emerald Pool first, which was rather disappointing. Very little water, certainly not emerald water, and full of teenagers smoking. Next we headed to the Upper Pool, following a few rabbit trails to nowhere en route. The Upper Emerald Pool was much better, quiet and peaceful, but still not particularly emerald. And on the way out, stepping over a small rock, I managed to twist my ankle. People keep asking, were you climbing over a boulder? Coming down a hill? Nope. Just walking.
It wasn't bad enough to call in the medics though and I was able to walk it off. We took the trail down to the Lodge- it offers some amazing views of the canyon and the river valley and I could not stop taking pictures. The sun was beginning to set and the changing light made it even more amazing. At Zion Lodge, we browsed around in the gift shop for awhile before heading back to our campsite as it got dark.
Labels: roadtrip '10, travel
fear and loathing
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas? Pretty sure there's not a thing that happened during our time in Vegas that I'm not comfortable sharing here. Sorry if that disappoints.
We left Flagstaff on Wednesday morning and headed to Las Vegas. We drove over the Hoover Dam but did not get out for the tour or to take any pictures. Driving west across the dam gave a great view in the rearview mirror of Lake Mead. Nevada made new state #3.
We pulled into Vegas just after lunchtime and headed to our hotel, Treasure Island.
We changed into more citified clothes and headed out to the Strip. We spent the afternoon exploring casinos. Highlights: the amazing flowers at the Bellagio, the fountain show at the Bellagio, getting TOTALLY lost in MGM, and the 4 story M&M store. Lowlight: the roller coaster at New York New York, on our top 5 list of things to do there, was closed for repair.
That night, we partook of Treasure Island's buffet and went to see Cirque de Soleil's Mystere. I believe it was their first show (definitely the first one in Vegas). We walked in and quickly began to hear a super-irritating baby crying. After awhile, with my irritation level growing, Laura realized that the object sitting on the stage was a baby carriage and that the noise was part of the show. That changed my perspective and one the show started, it was fabulous! Lots of circus-y parts, which are my favorite.
The next morning, we got up and waited for 15 minutes in line at Starbucks for breakfast. Starbucks in Vegas do not accept gift cards and have higher mark ups than Starbucks in airports. Vegas: capitalism at its best (worst?). We headed toward the other end of the strip and Circus Circus, where there was another roller coaster we wanted to ride. There is a major difference in the quality of hotels down at that end of the strip. Nowhere near the poshness of the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, etc. The indoor amusement park at Circus Circus was a disappointment too. We did ride the roller coaster as we'd planned too, but it was not nearly as exciting as I'd hoped. I found a pirate too, so that was a plus.
On the way out, we stopped at the half-price ticket booth to figure out our evening's entertainment. We walked away with half-price tickets to the late showing of the Blue Man Group at the Venetian. Where we also got lost among the canals there trying to find our way to the theater. Ooops. As we wandered, we were able to take in an opera performance in one of the "squares."
I was feeling pretty crappy, so I spent the remainder of the afternoon lying in bed watching TV while Laura alternated between napping and the pool. After another Las Vegas buffet for dinner, we headed back to the Venetian. We were in Vegas, so we had to gamble a little bit, at least. Last time I'd played a slot machine was on a cruise when I was 18, when you could still put coins into the slots. But apparently, they've been brought into the 21st century and now even the penny slots only take bills. And, you don't have to pull the lever, you can just push the button. BORING. Yet, there were tons of people sitting there for hours on end. I just don't get it. Quote of the day from Laura, as we tried to figure out where to put the coins:
"Gambling: one of the things two over-educated white girls just don't know how to do." In a text exchange with my dad, he informed me that my mother was unimpressed with my decision, as all of the money from gambling in Vegas goes straight into the pockets of the drug traffickers, according to her. Alas, $6 into their pockets.
After my $6 was gone, we headed to the Blue Man Group. Before the show, an usher pulled the guy sitting beside me out of his seat for participation in the show later. It was an interesting show, but I don't need to see it again.
Overall thoughts on Las Vegas, stolen from the mouth of Laura: desperate and shameless. I enjoyed our 36 hours there, but I don't need to go back.
Labels: roadtrip '10, travel
ain't she grand?
Tuesday (?) morning, we got up just after the crack of dawn to drive the hour and a half from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon. The plan was to hike Bright Angel Trail to Plateau Point, 12 miles round trip, and to get out of the Canyon before it hot insanely, ridiculously hot, and before the monsoons came. Our goal was to be on the trail by 8am. I think we made it by about 8:15 or so. Even by then, parking lots were ridiculously full and the trail was crowded.
We'd debated whether to hike Bright Angel or the South Kaibab. I'd hiked Bright Angel before and Laura's goal was to see the Colorado, so in many respects South Kaibab could've been better. It's shorter, goes to the river, as is supposed to have great views, plus I'd never hiked it before. But, it has no water along the way. So we chose Bright Angel instead, with its rest stops every mile and a half.
There was no reason to be concerned about my hydration- I made use of every rest stop except the 3 mile on the way back up. There was a volunteer posted at the mile and a half station on the way down who we chatted with a bit and told us he hoped we were still smiling on the way back up. That's where the signs reminding hikers that going down is optional, but coming back up is not begin, along with signs warning people not to attempt hiking to the river and back as a day hike. Of course, they also warn you not to hike all the way to Plateau Point in the dead of summer. Oh well.
The crowd on the trail thinned out a lot once we got past the first rest station and we had a great hike down, involving much singing. As we passed a pack of mules carrying people back up, the first tourist in line, an older man, informed us that the last tourist in the line was an attractive single man about our age and we should definitely check him out. He was right.We got to the Point about noon and spent about 45 minutes there, eating lunch and taking in the view. I'm pretty sure that of the 20 or so people down there, we were the only Americans.
Our trek back out of the canyon was rather uneventful. At the first rest station, we did hear a number of people telling stories of the
expensive rafting trips that had dropped them in the bottom of the canyon to hike out. After the 3 mile rest station, the sky had clouded over and we began to doubt the likelihood of getting out of the canyon before the monsoon hit. We'd been warned by Brent's roommate that the trail gets super-crazy-muddy in the rain and makes it a rough hike out. And, common sense told us that the middle of a canyon might not be a good place to be in the middle of a thunderstorm.
We were right at the mile and a half rest station when the bottom fell out. There were tons of people, including the volunteer from the morning, hiding out in the shelter. I put the cover on my backpack and decided that I was so sweaty I didn't really care if the rest of me got wet. Laura attempted to bust out her emergency poncho; unfortunately, it seemed to be made out of plastic wrap and was ridiculously hard to pull apart. And she might have looked a little ridiculous in it... the volunteer warned me that I might want to walk a few steps behind her and not acknowledge knowing her.
By the time we reached the top of the canyon, it had stopped raining, but Laura still had her plastic wrap on. I'm not sure I've ever been sweatier after a hike. Every place we'd been so far, we'd had our clothes in the car, except this time, there was no change of clothes since all of our stuff was in Flagstaff. We tooled around in the visitor center for a little while and then hopped in the car for the drive back to Flagstaff. We got back around 6, ordered pizza, stuffed ourselves and started some laundry. I switched the laundry into the dryer and fell into bed, looking forward to driving to Las Vegas in the morning.
Labels: roadtrip '10, travel
such a fine sight to see
Monday morning, we left Grants, NM headed to Flagstaff. First stop on the way:
Petrified Forest National Park. The first time I went to Arizona, my junior year in college, the Painted Desert was the thing I most wanted to see other than the Grand Canyon. It didn't happen then, so I was super-excited this time. It was amazing and beautiful. We started with the Painted Desert Rim Trail where I all I could do was stop and stare.
Next we headed to the Puerco Pueblo where the ruins are not buried and we could see them! On the same walking loop is a pile of rocks covered in petroglyphs, so we got to see some in spite of the mean man in Albuquerque.
We also drove the Blue Mesa Loop road and meant to hike the Blue Mesa Trail, but somehow missed the trailhead, so we only got a driving tour. It was still a-mazing.
We also did some walking around the Petrified Forest Visitor Center and I finally learned where all that petrified wood actually comes from. I've been fascinated by petrified wood for a looong time. I remember going far off the main road in Yellowstone a few years ago to look at petrified log. This one was in the middle of a forest, so it made more sense. This petrified forest is in the middle of the desert though. And I understand that millions and billions of years ago, it was not a desert, but it still didn't make sense. And then I found out that it's driftwood. That makes SO much more sense!
Next stop, Winslow, AZ so we could stand on a corner. We were the youngest people trying to stand on that corner by about 30 years, but for some reason, this was something I was ridiculously looking forward to. The fact that there was a statue there, waiting for me to stand with, made it even better. As did the Willie Nelson look-a-like also waiting to stand on the corner as if this were the thing he had been waiting his whole life to do.
On to Sedona. As we passed through the outskirts of Flagstaff on I-40, I briefly considered exiting the interstate to get gas, but we had a quarter of a tank, so I kept driving, south on 89A through Oak Creek Canyon. This is one of the most beautiful drives I have ever been on, but sadly, this time all I could think about was whether or not we were going to run out of gas. Thankfully, we arrived in Sedona with no problems and immediately put more gas in my tank than has ever been required before.
We drove down to Red Rock Canyon State Park and arrived about 4:30, only to find out that the park closes at 5. What is with all these places closing so early?! So back in Sedona, we stopped at the Red Planet Diner for milkshakes. Sedona is weird place. No thank you, I do not need to have my crystals re-charged. Nor do I believe that Martians are going to land in Sedona, of all places. So I called Brent and asked him if we wanted to a little bit of hiking where we should go. He gave a couple of wonderful recommendations and we did not take them. Instead we managed to get to the Cathedral Rock trail and planned to just pop out of the car for a bit to see the red rocks up close and personal before it rained. It turned into more of an hour hike and was jolly good fun as the rain held off.
Finally, we headed back north to Flagstaff, to spend the night at Brent's in his absence. With a full tank of gas, I got to enjoy the drive this time. After making dinner in a kitchen for the first time in a few days (though we still had hot dogs), we settled down on the couch for an evening of Arrested Development watching.
Labels: roadtrip '10, travel
more from the Land of Enchantment
The next morning, we woke up and it had finally stopped raining. One of my favorite (strange) things about a good rain storm in the summer is the way the earthworms come out of the ground and wind up in places far from the earth they've come out of like the middle of the driveway. Or between the tent and its footprint in this case. Gross.
Our first stop of the day was the Pueblo of Tesuque flea market. It was supposed to open at 8, but even when we got there, close to 9, there were not many vendors open yet. However, because we are two clearly non-native white girls, those who were open seemed to think that we were ripe for spending too much money on stuff we could not possibly need. There were a number of beautiful necklaces, original creations made by local artists, but, well, I just don't wear necklaces. Nor am I particularly prone to spending tons of money on things I could not possibly need. So we bought some green chile beef jerky and some pistachios.
From there we headed south to Albuquerque via the Turquoise Trail. We stopped first in Cerrillos, where there is a trading post, mining museum, and petting zoo. And no paved roads or even four-way stop signs. Not worth the stop. Next up was San Antonito, where there were more museums to not go into. There were also tons of art galleries, but they were way above our price range, so we didn't spend much time there either. Last stop on the Turquoise Trail was the Tijeras Pueblo. I was a little disappointed by that, because the pueblo is buried underground today, so you just read signs about what is buried and look at pictures of the way it used to be.
Next, to Albuquerque and the
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, which came highly recommended. It presents the history of the 19 New Mexico Pueblos. We spent some time perusing exhibits and then sat down for the afternoon dance performance, by a group of Navajo dancers from Arizona. I've been to pow wows before, but this was totally different and really neat to watch.
After
that, (wow, it's beginning to seem like this was a long day) we headed to downtown Albuquerque. It was same ol' same ol' as Santa Fe, but not as interesting.
Laura didn't want to go to the Rattlesnake Museum (and I'm not sure exactly why I did...) so wound up, we got some ice cream and headed to
Petroglyph National Monument on the edge of Albuquerque. We got there at 4:18 and walked in to the Visitor Center to ask the ranger what we should do. Never have I experienced such a jerk of an NPS employee. He looked at us like complete idiots for arriving at 4:18 and thinking we would be able to actually do anything and informed us that the Visitor Center and everything in that part of the park closed at 5, there was only one trail that was really open, it was a mile up the road with its trailhead was virtually impossible to find, and the trailhead closed at 4:30. Who ever heard of a National Park/ Monument closing at 5?! And when I told him that we did not know it closed at 5, he looked at me as if I were the stupidest visitor to ever enter and informed me that it has always been that way.
And since it was 4:30 and maybe going to rain and there was nothing else we wanted to do in Albuquerque, we went to see a movie. Salt. It was really good. And then after the movie, we ate dinner at the Blue Cactus Grille. Roadtripping with an iPhone is way different than any other roadtrip I've ever taken. But it sure makes finding things easier! The Blue Cactus was soooo good and had an amazing view. Laura had some sort of avocado burger and I had beef sopapillas. And then, since it's New Mexico, they brought us sopapillas and honey and they were to die for! Laura claimed it was the best meal she'd ever eaten.
We didn't finish dinner till close to 9 and had planned to camp in a state park about 100 miles west of there. We were a little unsure about what time the park gates might close and could not find any information on the iPhone, so instead we wound up at a KOA in Grants, NM. There, we got the second set of crazy stares of the day, from the brothers, in their 60s, I'd say, in the campsite next to us. "A little late to be setting up camp, huh?" one asked and continued to pepper us with questions as we pitched our tent. Om, no sir, I'm thinking to myself, it takes hardly 5 minutes to set up camp and head to bed, but thanks for your concern. I'm also thinking, is it really necessary for you and your brother to have separate 4 man tents? Really, are you in a position to judge me?
Labels: roadtrip '10, travel
cleaner than regular mexico?
Saturday morning, we got up and headed west out of Texas. I believe the morning started with pancakes and I must say that Laura is an amazing pancake maker. Didn't even burn the first one.
We stopped not too far out of Amarillo at Cadillac Ranch. The number of people also there taking pictures at 9:30 in the morning was remarkable. As was the couple that appeared to be having their engagement photos made there. As I reflect, I am now wondering why on earth I did not document
that...
Once in the Land of Enchantment, New Mexico (a new state for me!), we headed to Santa Fe. And highly touted New Mexican food. I have no recollection of where we ate, other than upstairs on a balcony outside over looking the square, across from the Palace of the Governors, but our margaritas were quite tasty as I recall. And there were lots of interesting people to watch.
After lunch, we wandered around for a while. Being the cheapskate that I am, we did not pay to go in to any of the museums. We did though pay $3 to see the miraculous staircase at the Loretto. The chapel is supposed to have been modeled after Saint Chapelle in Paris- not sure I buy it. I was hoping that some sort of supernatural/ghostly something or other was the reason the staircase was miraculous. Nope. Just because it has two twists and is self-supporting. Rather disappointing.
From there, we headed to the capitol to walk around. We found a lovely view and some sweet statues, including the CCC worker that I love. And then we found the New Mexico Department of Education Accountability. In a teeee-tiny building. Of course.
Our walked continued back to downtown and we popped into a coffee shop/independent bookstore to figure out what we were going to do for the evening. And the bottom fell out of the sky. So we hung out there a good long while, waiting for a break in the rain since we were parked pretty far away. We didn't pay close attention and missed numerous of those breaks. And when we finally did decide to make a run for it in the pouring rain, we discovered that the car was, in fact, in a parking garage about 40 feet away on the other side of the street.
We drove around a bit, rather aimlessly, and happened upon a chocolatier. Alas, we were entirely too full to partake. It had by then stopped raining, so we parked on the road where all the art galleries are. Canyon Rd? Almost all of the galleries were closed by then, but luckily, many of them have outdoor sculpture gardens, perfect playgrounds!
It started raining again and we decided to head campground-ward, to Hyde Memorial State Park north of Santa Fe, in the National Forest. We had a hard time finding a campsite, got the last one with a shelter. Thankful for that, as it rained all night long. At one point, Laura and I woke up having to pee at the same time while it was pouring. Our campsite was on a thin strip of land between 2 roads, a little wooded, and down a very steep hill. I was a little worried about my non-4 wheel drive SUV making it up the hill. Probably could have gone by a tree, but since it was raining, we hopped in the car, threw it in low gear, and chugged up the hill to the bathroom a quarter of a mile up the road. Probably not the decision I would have made in the light of day, but it seemed entirely rational at the time.
Labels: roadtrip '10, travel
everything IS bigger in Texas
Better? Well now, that's another question. Friday morning, we drove to Amarillo.
First stop along the way: Shamrock, TX, home of a chunk of the Blarney Stone. Located in a small park in the middle of the tee-tiny town. Of course we stopped to kiss it!
We also stopped at some old gas station on Route 66. Don't remember where. And it was closed.
We also a leaning water tower and the second largest cross in the country. They weren't worthy of stopping for...
Once we hit Amarillo, we drove straight to find the Huge Pair of Legs. I was pretty convinced that setting my eyes on them would mean finding The Island. I was sorely disappointed. It seems The Island must still be on the bottom of the ocean somewhere.
From there, we headed to Palo Duro Canyon, the second largest canyon in the country. Many thanks to Brandi for alerting me to its existence! The original plan was to hit up the amusement park, but I think we made a much better choice. After a stop in at the Visitor Center and a couple view points, we hiked to the Lighthouse.
It was a nice warm up hike for the Grand Canyon. The end of the hike was rather unpleasant: teeming horse flies! We hopped in the car as fast as possible and high-tailed it away from them.
Off to find a real bigger and better Texan.
That night we enjoyed a nice, leisurely evening at the KOA Amarillo, starting with a dip in the pool and ending with teaching Laura to play backgammon.
Labels: roadtrip '10, travel
Since we'd decided to skip Great Sand Dunes and already knew the baseball game was not going to happen, we were bound and determined to get home as fast as possible.
We made it to a KOA in Limon, CO that night where we picked up I-70. We pitched the tent and walking back from the bathroom, it started to rain and we made it into the tent as it started pouring. The next morning, we spent some time letting things dry out before repacking them. While we waited, we downloaded a new audiobook for the drive home.
The were lots of artifacts from the movie, advertisements, happy meal toys, and many versions of the Oz books. Each character had a display, but they were kind of lame and you could not touch them- disappointing for she who likes to pose with statues.
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