Road Trip: The Final Half

Alright! So, go figure, we're still in Texas. Bill is actually letting me drive the car now. We didn't get on the road until around 6pm, so there isn't much except blackness as far as the eye can see. A few hours into driving there are no gas stations, no cities, no rest areas, no nothing, and of course, nature is calling to both of us! Bill looks through the rear window and says, "Man, if that car wasn't behind us I would have you pull over. I really have to go." Within the next 5 seconds, we see two sets of glowing yellow eyes fly past only yards from the edge of the road. Coyotes. Drooling, anticipating the road kill we might splatter for their dinner, or that one silly Michigander to unknowingly take a leak in the middle of Nowhere, Texas. "Good thing that car was behind us!" I say, nudging Bill with my elbow.

Along with 'company duty', Bill is also on camera duty now. Unfortunately, there really isn't too much exciting scenery on this leg of the trip. He did, however, shake up the navigating. Just past El Paso, TX, basically the furthest west in Texas you can go, we had a couple options on which route to continue on. Considering this was the beginning of January and we were coming up to the Rocky Mountain range in my little, non-winter-weather-friendly car, our original plan was to stay on I-10, taking us across the southern borders of New Mexico and Arizona. This route was probably our safest bet, but did not include many interesting sites along the way and we were having such fantastic weather, so far. Bill called the local authorities in New Mexico, who claimed the weather forecast was looking good further north of us. We were in no hurry to get to California, so we decided to be daring and adventurous and made the turn to head north on I-25. When, in our lifetimes, would we be making a trek across the country like this again? Why not take the scenic roads and visually soak in all we could, while we could?

I drove north, and the mountains slowly reared their peaks on the horizon. The winding roads began to cut their way through the elevated terrain. We passed through a small town called Truth or Consequences. Hmmm... that's odd. We made our way to Albuquerque and stayed for a night just outside the city. The next morning, we realized the snow had caught up with us. There had been a couple inches on the ground when we stopped the night before, but when we woke the next morning we found another 6-8 inches covering everything.

We were back on the road heading west on I-40, which actually runs along the legendary Route 66. Bill was driving again and the snow was now falling non-stop. My poor car was letting us know it was not having a good time. The ups and downs in the mountains were bad enough without the added slickness. Semi-trucks were flying by us at what seemed like mach-speed, rocking our heavy load nearly off the highway. We didn't make it too far, not even out of New Mexico, before we had to stop again for the night.

We made sure to get an early start the next morning. No surprise snowfall overnight this time. Nearing Arizona's eastern border we began seeing signs for a scenic ice cave. Earlier, we had found a pamphlet at one of our hotels for the ice cave and it sounded interesting, so we made another little detour to see what the hype was all about. The site was located on a mountain range at almost 8,000 feet elevation--it was definitely snowing again up there! We hiked a short distance through the thin air then climbed a few flights of stairs. The ice cave was located inside of a dried out lava tube that had long ago trapped water inside of it. The temperature inside oddly never reaches above 32 degrees year round. There is a weird green glow to the ice caused by a "prehistoric algae"; apparently no one knows how it got there. Oooo... mysterious.

Our visit to the ice cave was quick. (It was actually smaller than we expected.) Regardless, we had to get back on the road before we were snowed in on top of the mountain. The Arizona border was upon us in no time; Indian country, as the signs claimed. The snow was letting up as we neared our next destination: The Petrified Forest National Park. I think this was my favorite stop on our trip. This national park is located in the Painted Desert, which is technically a grassland. The Painted Desert is named so because of the detailed, colorful layering of earth and sands giving the hills a striped effect. The park rangers were not expecting us to be able to see the colors very well due to the recent snowfall, but I ended up getting a couple really awesome pictures.

The drive through the park was approximately 30 miles with several lookout points throughout. There happened to be an archeologist taking pictures along the way closely behind us. He claimed to have been in the park dozens of times prior to this visit, but he had never been in the winter to see everything snow covered. Bill made another friend as we made our way through... Two crows flew overhead and landed 10 feet in front of the car, literally forcing us stop. Bill decided to see how far they would follow us and fed them a few corn chips. To his surprise (not mine), one of them travelled all the way through the park with us, practically begging for more food. Kids... can't take them anywhere! ;)

Also scattered amongst the beautiful, painted hills were a multitude of ancient Pueblic petroglyphs. I had heard of heiroglyphics, but never knew these only referred to words or writing carved and petrified into stone. Petroglyphs are drawings and pictures carved and preserved into stone. Remnants of old building structures, some former living quarters, also remained scattered all through the park. And, of course, rainbowed, petrified wood lay strewn about the valley floors. These were more difficult to pick out with the naked eye due to the dusting of snow covering the entire landscape.

In addition, the Petrified Forest is home to a variety of wildlife. Our archeologist friend advised us to keep a look out for a certain breed of golden eagle he has seen quite often during his visits. Near the far end of the park a herd of antelope are commonly found grazing in the tough grasses, as well. Unfortunately, we didn't see either while in the park. We did, however, spot a large cat of some sort (a bobcat, we were told) running for cover in the rocky hills. I couldn't get my camera operational in time for him, though. We were really bummed that we didn't see the antelope until, lo and behold, 10 minutes outside of the park, Bill pointed to the right and there they were! Hanging out with the cows. I think they were just lonely.Moving on through Arizona, we are sick and tired by now of being in a car. We fell behind a day or so because of the weather in New Mexico. We even maybe thought it was our minds playing tricks on us as we pass by a side street in Arizona named Bucket of Blood. (No joke.) At this point, Bill and I want nothing more than to arrive safely at our destination and be DONE DRIVING! We finally reach California and push the last few hours to Los Angeles. We made it!