Our 3 month cross country adventure.

[Southwest Dave]

Thanks for reading

It's an absolute pleasure, thank you !! What a wonderful trip report.

We went tubing on the Guadalupe river. Lot's of drinking and scraping my ass on that 6 hour trip

Can imagine you getting out of that tube with the back of your shorts torn to shreds after that comment lol.

Great picture of you addressing the good people of Texas. ;-)

[Megan and Tony]

thanks for the comments Southwest Dave

Day 51

A day of driving through west Texas, which is like nowhere else in the country. I have 50 pictures that all look like these out my windshield.











530 mile/9 hour drive. We passed by Big Bend NP and Carlsbad, 2 places we will see on our next trip.

Here is our map of those couple days:

http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=265414
(I hope the spot thing works if your not logged into it, if someone could let me know I'd appreciate it.)

[glc]

Spot works fine here.

[Megan and Tony]

thanks for the update

You can zoom in to see specific streets and places we visited.

[Megan and Tony]

Day 52 Roswell NM and Santa Fe NM

We stayed with a very nice couch surfing family in New Mexico who shared their travel stories and dinner with us. We told them of our travels and our future plans on the road. They suggested we skip the alien museum and check out Bottomless Lakes, Roswell museum, and the Roswell Free zoo. We did her suggestions and also went to the alien museum(probably should have skipped it, but while in Roswell)

This is from Wikipedia:
"Bottomless Lakes State Park is a state park of New Mexico, USA, located along the Pecos River, about 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Roswell. Established in 1933, it was the first state park in New Mexico.[2] It takes its name from nine small, deep lakes located along the eastern escarpment of the Pecos River valley. The escarpment is an ancient limestone reef, similar to the limestone mountains around Carlsbad Caverns, 80 miles (130 km) to the south. Caves formed within the limestone, and as the Pecos River eroded the escarpment, the caves eventually collapsed, leaving behind several deep, almost circular lakes known as cenotes.[3]"

It is a very beautiful and interesting state park that we would have never heard of without our couch surfing hosts.








we hit 6000 miles as we left Bottomless Lakes

Then we went to the free Roswell Zoo








Roswell Museum was free and fantastic (also empty)




Alien museum was packed and very cheesy


what our drive to Santa Fe looked like the whole 200 miles


the first thing we did when we got to our couch surfing hosts house was meet his neighbors pet wolf


our host, Terry, brews his own beer and used to be a brewer for Flying Dog Brewery. He appropriately had some Santa Fe beer available.


Terry drove us around in his small white school bus to bars around the Santa Fe area. He picked up some of his other friends and along the way we saw these people who were staging a "monster war" and they gave us push up pops


the monsters were filming their weirdness so they asked to get on and off the school bus for the film


Hanging out at a karaoke bar in Santa Fe (Fat Tire on tap, you can't get that in PA)

Thanks again for the comments. We are getting to my favorite parts of the trip: a bunch of National Parks, the Rockies, more beer, and Las Vegas.

[Megan and Tony]

Day 53 Santa Fe

We spent our day in Santa Fe looking at art, local (weird) people, and a church.










Terry's house was on a mountain with a 360 degree view. We had a great rainbow after a storm:



and an amazing sunset:



Terry found a rattle snake by the side of the road and brought it home:


foreshadowing??

Terry suggested that we drive to Durango, CO and spend some time there, so we did.


the drive to Durango was my favorite drive of the trip, at that point.


our first pass of the continental divide


entering 1 of our top states to move to.


first view of Durango, built into the mountains


We did a brewery tour at Ska Brewery. (delicious)


we found a place to camp way up on the mountain

Day 54 Durango

We walked around Durango in the morning and spent the afternoon in Mesa Verde National Park (that will be a new post)


No matter where we turned, we had a beautiful view of the mountains


of course we went to another brewery and drank a few before heading to Mese Verde


Note: The last time I shaved or cut my hair was a few days before the wedding, May 21st. I still haven't shaved or gotten a hair cut.

[Megan and Tony]

Day 54 Mesa Verde National Park




A rattle snake that was making lots of noise next to the entering Mesa Verde sign


When you enter the park you drive all the way up that mountain and around the other side is where all the real Mesa Verde stuff is


The view from the top of the hill.




Our first day in Mesa Verde we drove down into the park and checked out some amazing views and nature walks






nice view of the road

Day 55 Mesa Verde
The campsites in Mesa Verde are stacked on top of each other and the deer have no fear, they come right up to your tent. We woke up with the sun and spent the whole day touring the park. We saw many dwellings including: Cliff Palace, Long House, Spruce Tree House, and many pit houses.

























I don't know what to say about Mesa Verde other then it is beautiful, way beyond what any of the photos can show. Also the rangers are all friendly and they help make the park interesting and educational.

When we have children this is one of those places where we will visit again.

[Megan and Tony]

Day 55

Like most of our drives lately, this drive was beautiful. We drove from Mesa Verde NP to Big Water, UT to stay with a couch surfer. We stayed on the border of Utah and Arizona most of the drive and drove right past Monument Valley. Most of these pictures were taken as we drove.

Our first stop was Four Corners Monument:

something that everybody has to do when on a roadtrip in the southwest. We spent 6 minutes there.















When we got to Utah and met our Couch surfing he host he immediately gave us a tour of his very small town. It's one of those towns where he knew everybody there(he was the former mayor of the town) He showed us where the local polygamist live and where the whore house used to be


Also he took us to a museum that had dinosaur bones that were found yards from where we stood.


We spent the night in Big Water and left the next morning to go to Zion National Park

[Lifemagician]

I don't know what to say about Mesa Verde .....

Agreed! It is a place which leaves one (amost) speechless. Probably one of the most meaningful places I have seen, on the North American continent.

Lifey

[Megan and Tony]

Agreed! It is a place which leaves one (amost) speechless. Probably one of the most meaningful places I have seen, on the North American continent.

Lifey

Agreed. This sounds cliche but it really does a great job of making the past interesting. When we got back I bought a book about the area right away.

Thanks for the comment.