Day Five - Santa Fe

Day Five got off to a slow start. Our alarm was supposed to go off at 8am so we could get to Bandelier fairly early, but that didn't happen and we slept in. Yay! Finally got off our butts and headed up to Santa Fe for lunch. We went to the downtown square (no idea what it's called) and got some street carnitas. So tasty! And a cup of Jamaica (Ha-MY-Ca), which is hibiscus juice. Then it was another hour or so (I was sleeping, who knows how long we really drove!) to Bandelier.

Bandelier is part of Frijoles Canyon, where Ancesteral Pueblo people settled, building cave dwellings and adobe homes. It housed about 400 homes and quite a few families. Today, the caves remain in tact, and the pueblo homes still have foundations. The cave walls have carvings on them, we're assuming to label them as to families or tribes.

Remains of Pueblo homes

Overview of the Pueblo Village -- all the homes were in a circle around a Plaza area.

Look carefully to the right of the hole with rocks in it. See the carvings? Pretty cool.

Some of the caves have ladders up to them, so visitors can climb in and see what it's all about. Pretty fascinating to see where these Pueblo people lived.

Stone Pueblo houses below the caves
More pictures of Pueblo homes below the caves.

On our way out of the park, Mr. Adventure decided he didn't want to take the main road, but he wanted to take a scenic detour. The GPS said we'd arrive home in the same amount of time, so I agreed. Never again!!! This was the rockiest, most uneven path we've ever taken. At one point, Justin had to get out and scout the next 100 feet or so, to plan his route of attack. The little Hyundai that could, let me tell you. That thing acted like the biggest, baddest pick-up truck you've ever seen.

Mr. Adventure, running to see what the road ahead looks like and whether we'd be able to continue driving.

Then when we'd gone 9 miles, of the 9.5 miles (taking about an hour or so), we came to a tiny water hole at the bottom of a creek. Panicked that we'd now have to somehow manage a u-turn and go all the way back, we got out and assessed the situation. A woman in a pickup truck was as dumb as we were, for taking this path, and she soared through the water with no problem. So the little Hyundai that Could picked up some speed and blazed through it like it was just a tiny puddle. Finally. We were at the end of that path and onto tar-paved streets! An adventure, that's for sure.

Tomorrow we're heading to the Tinkertown Museum before taking off for Carlsbad Caverns. All in all, Albuquerque was fun, though it's insanely dry here and we're ready to move on. We're both still sick, but the only thing it's kept us from doing is the Sandia Tramway which takes you to the top of a mountain, and has various trails to hike. We were really looking forward to it, but the pressure on our ears right now would just be painful... Oh well. If that's the only thing this damn cold keeps us from doing, sobeit.

Day Four - Pueblos, Old Town and El Malpais

Day Four started with a tour of Old Town Albuquerque. This city is full of history and religion... Pretty interesting stuff. Justin has a knack for sitting with dead people. First the graveyard at the prison, now this bench picture. Underneath the walkway and halfway under the buildings, lie 3 bodies that cannot be removed. So he's sitting on dead people...again...

After that, we headed West, about 50 miles, to see an Indian Pueblo, Acoma. It's the oldest continually inhabited city in the US. No water or electricity up there, so it's quite peaceful and serene. Most of the people who live there are elderly, and it's considered a type of retirement home, almost. Many of the villagers hand make pottery like bud vases, traditional wedding vases, and seed pots. Really intricate designs. Here's a few pictures of the pueblo and the incredible views from the village.

View from the Pueblo village into the valley.


Our tour group in the Pueblo

To get down, we walked along an old rocky path that's incredibly steep and almost vertical. This is about halfway down.

About to go down a really steep stone stairwell through the rocks.

On our way out, there were some cows on the highway. Ok, it's a 2 lane road, through the middle of nowhere and is hardly considered a highway. But anyway, we stopped to snap a few shots. These are for Kayleigh...don't say I never gave you anything!

Took a little detour to El Malpais -- a valley full of volcanic remains. The volcanos aren't active, and just the core remains, but the valley is covered with lava rocks that can be viewed from a little scenic overlook. Yet again, an amazing view.

That concluded our day...with a stop to Albertsons for sicky food. Ick. Not sure if it's the insane dryness in this part of the country or what, but the moisture has been sucked from our bodies! Not fun. So if this damn thing will finish uploading, we can catch some rest before heading to Santa Fe tomorrow. Goodnight... Justin says, "Santa Fe. Woot. Woot."

And for you Simpson's fans, the Albuquerque sports team is named the Isotopes... hah.

Day Three - Grand Canyon to Albuquerque

Day three started off with a fantastic breakfast at the Pine...something or other restaurant in historic Williams, AZ on Route 66. Get your kicks... Then we hopped (ok, not really, we actually just sat down normally) in the car and started our trek to Albuquerque.



Thanks to Roadside America, and our trusty GPS unit (named Patricia...she speaks to us in British American, as they call it) we were able to successfully locate several random roadside attractions. First stop was the world's largest dreamcatcher.



In the same area as the dreamcatcher, you will find the world's largest map of Route 66, complete with little cartoon renditions of various sites to see.



Next stop was to see Wild Bill! He's a 2.6 billion year old alligator fossil. Pretty cool.


It's also home to one of the coolest petrified wood shops around. And home to some weird dinosaur sculptures in the parking lot. Never passing up a photo op, we had to pose...


Something about a meteor hitting Meteor City (assuming the city was named AFTER the meteor hit...) and leaving a large crater behind, draws huge crowds willing to pay large amounts of money to see a giant hole. We're cheap, and would rather spend that money on food, so we just took the 6 mile drive through a ranch to get to the crater, take a picture, then drive 6 miles back through the ranch and continue our journey. Here's the crater...

This isn't the above mentioned cattle range, just the view we saw in all directions for about 100 miles on a highway that had no curves. Highway hypnosis, anyone?!

Last stop in Arizona was the ever famous corner in Winslow, AZ, as referenced by the Eagles in "Take it Easy."

Well, I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona I'm such a fine sight to see It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford slowin' down to take a look at me Come on, baby, don't say maybe I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me We may lose and we may win though we will never be here again so open up, I'm climbin' in, take it easy..."Alright"

After all those stops in Arizona, we headed into New Mexico.


Just got to Albuquerque a few hours ago and had a fantabulous dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse. Now it's time to map out the next 3 days here, make some more hotel reservations, and catch some zzzzzzzz's. Oh. And we walked into our hotel room to the sound of GUSHING water, only to find the water on full blast in the bathtub and water about 1 inch from the top...looks like we arrived just in time! Weird.

This stupid blog site won't stop typing in italics...

Day Two - Grand Canyon

Sun was definitely up and shining around 5:15am. HOLY CRAP. It was bright!!! Trains were blowing whistles, construction crews were paving roads beneath our window, and everybody seemed to think this was just fine and dandy. Bizarre!

We headed to the Grand Canyon, about 50 miles from our hotel, early yesterday morning. It was far more massive than we could have ever imagined. Taking pictures of something that large, is sort of pointless, as it doesn't capture the beauty of the area, or give you any idea just how large 277 miles across really is.

Never actually seen a REAL cowboy before. So when we saw a cowboy with a pack of mules coming up the trail with all their gear from the campsite below, I had to take a few snapshots. The only way to reach that campsite is by mule, or hiking. It takes about 4 hours by mule and 7 hours by hike. We opted for a few shorter trails along the Kaibab Trail instead, which was more peaceful and not nearly as intense as the 4 hour hike!

Because the Grand Canyon is so large, you tend to lose perspective of the topography that lies below you. So things that stand hundreds of feet tall (cliffs, bluffs, etc) seem to look flat. It's like your eyes play a trick on you and you don't really understand what you're seeing.

Can you see Justin?!

Yes...I have dust on my camera. It's been cleaned though, I just haven't gotten around to Photoshopping these pictures to get rid of the spots...

Spent the day there, saw the sunset from Hopi Point, which is as far West as you can go on the South Rim, right now. The rest of the Western part is under road construction, and is closed until November of this year. This pic is hard to see, because it was so hazy. But the black area below the sunset is actually the Grand Canyon. I wish things came out a little clearer, but oh well...

Oh, and the pressure up here is ridiculous. Check out our bag of chips that nearly exploded!!!

And Justin is still sick...yuck.

Once he wakes up, we'll be wandering around the cute little Western town of Williams, AZ where our hotel is. Lots of random little places to walk in and out of and a few tempting places for breakfast. From there, we'll be driving to Albuquerque and stopping at a few roadside attractions along the way. Staying 3 nights in Albuquerque, so there should be plenty of time to explore and see Santa Fe as well.

Day One

Day One -

Who would've thought San Diego county would have such cool views!! On the very eastern tip of the county, we drove through some amazing mountains. Very peaceful and cool, definitely didn't look like we were still in California.


This one's for Peggy. We couldn't get out of the car b/c we got off the highway just before it, but I don't make empty promises! ;)


Next on our list was a stop in jail! Really. We became prisoners.

It was at the Yuma Territorial Prison in Yuma, AZ. Built in the 1800's it housed 3000 inmates, 29 of which were women. The cells are still set up, with 6 beds in each teeny tiny cell. There's also a museum set up there with lots of cool artifacts from the prison. Made for a neat stop for a few hours, that's for sure. There's also a cemetary out back where the 100 inmates who died in jail are buried. So of course, Justin felt the need to lay next to them! Is that disrespectful?! Who cares...


Headed up to Phoenix for dinner. Stopped for the World's Famous Date Shake along the way, of course, it's located in Dateland, AZ! Interesting little shop -- totally reminded me of something from the 50's. Cool though, that's for sure.

We also drove through this remote road in AZ and saw a few thousand cows, literally (lots of dairy farms in this area), some awesome cactus and other fun random things.




Stopped at Chino Bandido for dinner. Oh my god, I've never been so confused at a freakin' restaurant! It's a mix of Chinese and Mexican with a little Jamaican thrown in for kicks. So you can choose your meats, your style of plate, quesadilla, burrito, or just meat, various rice dishes and beans. Thankfully they have a fun little how-to orientation to the food and ordering system. Made it a lot easier. Good food, I'd recommend it, even if you do need a Chino Bandido for Dummies class before you can eat.

And now we're in Williams, AZ where we stayed last night. Today, we're hitting up the Grand Canyon!!

Packed and ready to go!

So our trailer had a little drama that went with it. Including a massive parking ticket that we are going to appeal downtown, this morning. But it freaked us out, made us panic, and lose sleep, so we decided to bust our asses with some friends and get the entire thing packed yesterday. It should be picked up today and sent on it's way. Thanks to all our moving helpers! :) Really, we would not have gotten as much done without their help.

Now we just have a few stray items left, like clothes, toiletries, an air mattress (which sucks, by the way), and some other random things. Those will all get shoved in the car and taken with us. Here's a photo of our lovely gihugant trailer.

Now I need to go walk to the coffee shop for some fuel. I have coffee, and a coffee grinder, but no coffee pot or filters. Doh!

5 Days...

Until we make the long-awaited move back to the East coast. Packing is going slow, Justin is working fast, and things are just starting to fall into place. Lots of reservations still left to make, for hotels and various events, but I'm sure it will all come together sooner or later.