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!

New Years 2009 in Texas

You may laugh when you hear the overused phrase 'Everything is bigger in Texas', but during our journey through the state, I honestly couldn't find anything to disprove this statement. The city skylines are panoramic, the sunsets are expansive, the 4x4 trucks are huge, the meals are too much to finish, and the countryside is never-ending! Most often, there was a whole lot of nothing, but no matter how much driving we did, it seemed as if we just couldn't get out of Texas. 'Texas' is also my favorite nickname for Bill. I gave him that one after he returned from his 'move' to the Lone Star state--which lasted a total of 5 days. (I still take full blame and responsibility for that one!)

We started in the northeastern corner of the state, in Texarkana. Houston, also located in northeast Texas, was the next big city Bill and I drove through on our way to Austin, which is nearly the center of Texas. Bill's friend Aaron and his girlfriend, Jess, let us stay with them in Pfluggerville (just outside of Austin) for a few nights. We were lucky enough to sleep in the same room as Aaron's collection of fuzzy and not-so-fuzzy pets...tarantulas, snakes, and lizards. Good thing neither of us have fears of 'slimeys' and 'crawleys'! We did have to put the crickets in the closet for a couple nights, though. That way we could save the sound effects for the real camping.

On the first day we arrived, we picked up another friend of Bill's and Aaron's from the San Antonio airport, Smash, in town from Atlanta, GA. Strange as it seemed to me, this was the first time Bill had met Smash, though he has known him for years. (Computers are amazing things, aren't they?)

We were all invited to Aaron's brother and sister-in-law's home about 10 minutes away for New Years Eve 2008-2009 festivities. They were such a kind and welcoming family! We were all treated to a fresh, home-cooked, authentic Mexican meal including steak fajitas, rice and spicy grilled sausages. The homemade tortillas were excellent, freshly rolled out and fried to order! (Smash, unknowingly, tried a raw dough ball, which we all had a little laugh over! Honestly, had I not seen one made beforehand, I may have done the same myself!)

We played horseshoes in the backyard while we still had light from the sun and the beer flowed a-plenty. Shortly afterward, we relocated to the garage, one half decorated with orange Texas Longhorns paraphernalia and the other in maize and blue for the Michigan Wolverines. (Aaron and his brother both originated from Michigan.) Home is never too far away! In the center of the garage stood a ping pong table (another comfortable reminder of home). We played back and forth for hours, then switched to beer pong. I had volunteered as the designated driver, so denied myself participation in the final events, but we all had lots of fun.
No rush to be anywhere, Bill and I relaxed and enjoyed the warm weather for the next couple days. We wandered the main strip of 6th Street in downtown Austin on New Years Day. Austin is a big music city, and I'm sure there would have been plenty to see and do, but my foot is still mending from the break and the surgeries, so we took it easy. The next afternoon, we packed our car top carrier, restocked the cooler, and got back on the road...heading west again.

Road Trip: The Beginning Half

Oh, boy! Pulling away from the house I had spent most of my years growing up in, with my closest family members standing in the driveway (not many dry eyes to be found) was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do. Leaving all of my wonderful friends and a great employer I've worked with for over a decade, basically tearing my 30 year old roots from the cozy, warm surroundings they have always known... this decision took me years to reach. But, this was exactly why it was time for me to do just that.

Bill and I began our trip out west together on December 27th. We started out a bit later in the evening than I had anticipated and, of course, we had a couple of last minute stops and goodbyes to say before we started. My best friend Claudette, for instance. I almost had to beg her to come over to give me a hug before we left. She and I knew parting ways would be a tough one for both of us. I wanted to avoid the 'Until Next Time' farewell as much as she did, but I think I would have felt worse without it. My next challenge is getting her to relocate out to Los Angeles!

Being that we started rather late, Bill and I only drove for about 5 hours the first night. We had been so busy in the previous days getting everything in order to make the trip, we were still in Ohio by the time exhaustion hit. After quite a few phone calls, we found a cheap room in Piqua, OH. Oh yeah, when I say 'cheap', I mean 'CHEAP'. The rental office was drive thru only and the attendant may have known a total 10 words of English. We were almost surprised when he handed over a notched metal key for the door to the room. When was the last time you received an actual key and not a magnetic key card? I can't even remember... oh yeah, wait... Piqua, Ohio.

The first room he gave us had a broken and loose door jam someone must have kicked in at one point in time. The chain lock wasn't looking very promising, either. We also happened to be transporting Bill's 'baby'--his computer monitor--and couldn't leave it in the car overnight. If it wasn't safe for the monitor, it wasn't safe enough for us. We were able to get the room exchanged for another, which, unsurprisingly, was not really any better than the previous. The door worked well enough, as far as we could tell, but upon further inspection of the room we began having second thoughts. Too bad for us... the room was non-refundable. We could either hightail it out of there--eat the $40, try to find another room at 3 o'clock in the morning and pay for another night--or suck it up--strip the bed and cover it with everything we owned, stand on towels in the cold shower and try not to touch anything. Considering this was still the first 6 hours of our road trip, we decided to look on the bright side, grin & bear it, laugh and make light of a nasty situation, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah. I can definitely say we learned our lesson after that room. For a one night stay, saving a few bucks would not necessarily be the deciding factor in the future. Eh, we survived, didn't we? No known diseases, yet.

Day number two took us out of Ohio--(Thank all that is goodness!)--and into Indiana. Not far off our route, we made a stop at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indie 500! Left turn, left turn, left turn, left turn... Bill is also a Nascar fan. (Yawn.) The track was actually pretty GIGANTIC! There was a museum and a track tour (for nominal fees...) in which they actually took you out onto the track in a bus. It probably would have been cool, but we really wanted to get a chunk of driving done. We did, however, take a walk through the gift shop, where we found Bill's Christmas present from me--a limited edition Danica Patrick, MatchBox-sized replica race car. Oooohhh... Well, he liked it:) That makes me happy!

Bill did most of the driving. He insisted on driving all the way to Texas; wanted me to 'just relax'. Okay. Fine by me:) I was able to read my book, take pictures, control the radio, try to help with the navigating (Sorry, Bill. Everyone knows my nickname is Columbus, for obvious reasons.) and most importantly, be entertaining company for the driver! (Very proud of myself...I didn't fall asleep once during 'Company Duty'!) This leg of the trip took us through Louisville, Kentucky and on into Tennessee. We stayed in downtown Nashville one night and walked around the city a little bit. From almost every doorway we found a droning country twang, an art show exhibit or some little tourist-y shop. We parked on Gay St. down by the river across from the Tennessee Titans stadium. When we came back to the car we found a parking ticket under the windshield wiper:( Honestly, this was our closest and only run-in with the authorities our entire trip! Woo-hoo! And, after 6000+ miles, no issues with the car, either! (Although, I still need to get the oil changed since the trip:/ whoops!)

The next state we found ourselves in would be Arkansas. For those of you who don't know, Bill lost something very close to him last time he was in Arkansas. He was actually heading back to Michigan from Texas when his car decided to take a vacation in the lovely city of Arkadelphia, AR. Bill was basically stranded in a hotel room with all of his belongings for a few days figuring out how to make it the rest of the way home. Eventually he made it back to me in Michigan, many Waffle House visits and one stop in Graceland later. For old times sake, poetic or corny as it may be, we found the same hotel and stayed for the night.

The next day brought us through Texarkana (AR or TX, not sure?), which, in turn, brought us into Texas, the largest state in the union. And, yes, if you haven't heard, everything IS bigger in Texas! Which is why this story will have to be continued...