Well we are headed west and almost at the ocean! At the moment we are passing what looks like a UPS truck convention at the gas station...twelve double-trailer UPS trucks! We will be passing through Paso Robles, past Cambria (where we are staying tonight) and then to San Simeon to see Hearst Castle.
Yesterday was fun - after four straight hours of conference calls (thanks for driving, Will!) we got to Sequoia National Park - wow, was it beautiful. The trees were amazing. The views were amazing. The cliffs and rock faces were amazing. The fun curves in the road in my fun car with our fun tunes were amazing. The bears were amazing. Yes. bears. We accidentally ran into one on a trail and politely backtracked while he stared us down. Will can elaborate more...
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Monday, July 9, 2007
Day 8: Week 2! California Here we Come!
Well out mom asked us if we were able to "escape from Las Vegas" - the answer is yes, and we have made it to my new home State of California! Oddly enough, I actually have really enjoyed Vegas both times I have been there. Once you get past the overall problem of a large city consuming mammoth amounts of water and electricity in the middle of a desert (if you can ever get past that...) it is an interesting place.
Most visitors to LV seem to fit into one of two groups (at least based on how they dress in 100-degree-heat): "white trash", or those who go to evening dinners dressed in their american flag/nascar tee shirts, and "socialites", those who dress up in eveningwear and full-blown make up and hair for everything (even a morning coffee run). Of course, there are lots of "normal" people too...whatever that means...but they don't really grab your attention.
Will went on a walk while I did some work with some interesting affirmations of what he thought he would find: slot machines along the walkways and no places to sit so that people who are tired will just sit at the slots (and hopefully play). Change given in really large bills so you tip bigger or are more likely to change out more money for chips at a time that you would have otherwise. Casinos designed like black holes so you can't find your way out to another one, thus your money is held captive.
Will and I had a fantastic time though...I got a ton of work done in the afternoon while it was still hot, then we walked around the shops and tried to find the baby dolphin at the Mirage (turns out you have to pay a lot to see it....we should have seen that one coming). We took the fun little tram over to Treasure Island and caught the very begining of the fantastically (or awfully depending on your mood) cheesy pirate show and won $5 in blackjack before eating a super delicious awesome yummy dinner at the c. The food there was just as good as I had remembered. One of my favorite things in Las Vegas is not just the food, but the service - which is almost always outstanding. It puts every other city in the world to shame. Man are they on top of their game! Anyways, our meal at social house consisted of a lot lot lot of delicious sashimi including white king salmon (which i didn't know existed!). We finished our meal in the perfect time to walk to the Bellagio, get drinks (don't worry mom, will had Ginger Ale), and sit in our FRONT ROW tickets to Cirque du Soleil's "O". Our tickets say "splash zone." Wow.
First of all, the theatre itself is an amazing piece of art. Second of all, the show was...."Wow!"
For those of you who are not familiar with the dozens of shows that are put on by Cirque Du Soleil, "O" is the one that is done partially in a giant pool of water (thus employing not just former olympic gymnasts, but former olympic divers and synchronized swimmers as well!). By the end of the show I still had 3/4 of my drink left because my attention was so glued to what was going on. I don't think I have EVER seen a performance that complex, nor executed so smoothly. I kept thinking about all the stuff that went on backstage at my shows or when I worked with Carolina Ballet - what went on at "O" was so complex that I had nothing to compare it to. It was beautiful. Even Will thought it was "OMG AMAZING" and "highly entertaining"....he also (being a former Techie) was super impressed by the set and execution. His other rave was "it was impossible to fall asleep in"...which I'm sure he never said about any of his sister's dance performances. I wont give anything more away about the show because I highly recommend that you go see it. Yes, the tickets are super expensive. Yes, when we bought them I highly doubted that it would be worth it. But....it was. Wow. After the show we toured the Bellagio gardens and checked out the flowers. We also saw a store that was selling a ton of Chihuli that was pretty freakin beautiful as well.
So that was it, our Vegas experience. It was delicious.
We just passed through Barstow California. That's right North Carolinians....I-40 does truly end in California...in the middle of basically nowhere! We are on our way to eat at the In n Out Burger in Bakersfield (we figured this was fitting for our first meal in California) and then to Sequoia National Park.
Most visitors to LV seem to fit into one of two groups (at least based on how they dress in 100-degree-heat): "white trash", or those who go to evening dinners dressed in their american flag/nascar tee shirts, and "socialites", those who dress up in eveningwear and full-blown make up and hair for everything (even a morning coffee run). Of course, there are lots of "normal" people too...whatever that means...but they don't really grab your attention.
Will went on a walk while I did some work with some interesting affirmations of what he thought he would find: slot machines along the walkways and no places to sit so that people who are tired will just sit at the slots (and hopefully play). Change given in really large bills so you tip bigger or are more likely to change out more money for chips at a time that you would have otherwise. Casinos designed like black holes so you can't find your way out to another one, thus your money is held captive.
Will and I had a fantastic time though...I got a ton of work done in the afternoon while it was still hot, then we walked around the shops and tried to find the baby dolphin at the Mirage (turns out you have to pay a lot to see it....we should have seen that one coming). We took the fun little tram over to Treasure Island and caught the very begining of the fantastically (or awfully depending on your mood) cheesy pirate show and won $5 in blackjack before eating a super delicious awesome yummy dinner at the c. The food there was just as good as I had remembered. One of my favorite things in Las Vegas is not just the food, but the service - which is almost always outstanding. It puts every other city in the world to shame. Man are they on top of their game! Anyways, our meal at social house consisted of a lot lot lot of delicious sashimi including white king salmon (which i didn't know existed!). We finished our meal in the perfect time to walk to the Bellagio, get drinks (don't worry mom, will had Ginger Ale), and sit in our FRONT ROW tickets to Cirque du Soleil's "O". Our tickets say "splash zone." Wow.
First of all, the theatre itself is an amazing piece of art. Second of all, the show was...."Wow!"
For those of you who are not familiar with the dozens of shows that are put on by Cirque Du Soleil, "O" is the one that is done partially in a giant pool of water (thus employing not just former olympic gymnasts, but former olympic divers and synchronized swimmers as well!). By the end of the show I still had 3/4 of my drink left because my attention was so glued to what was going on. I don't think I have EVER seen a performance that complex, nor executed so smoothly. I kept thinking about all the stuff that went on backstage at my shows or when I worked with Carolina Ballet - what went on at "O" was so complex that I had nothing to compare it to. It was beautiful. Even Will thought it was "OMG AMAZING" and "highly entertaining"....he also (being a former Techie) was super impressed by the set and execution. His other rave was "it was impossible to fall asleep in"...which I'm sure he never said about any of his sister's dance performances. I wont give anything more away about the show because I highly recommend that you go see it. Yes, the tickets are super expensive. Yes, when we bought them I highly doubted that it would be worth it. But....it was. Wow. After the show we toured the Bellagio gardens and checked out the flowers. We also saw a store that was selling a ton of Chihuli that was pretty freakin beautiful as well.
So that was it, our Vegas experience. It was delicious.
We just passed through Barstow California. That's right North Carolinians....I-40 does truly end in California...in the middle of basically nowhere! We are on our way to eat at the In n Out Burger in Bakersfield (we figured this was fitting for our first meal in California) and then to Sequoia National Park.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Day 7: Zion to Hoover Dam to Las Vegas
We just finished the Hoover Dam tour and are headed to Las Vegas for good sushi.
Observations:
-The price of Prime Rib Dinners is proportional to the distance from downtown Las Vegas
-It is 112 degrees outside. My car's interior is black leather. After turning our bodies into salt licks from the quick evaporation here we decided for this segment of the trip (Hoover Dam to Las Vegas) we would roll in with the top up despite losing our cool factor. We are cool enough already.
-Will is awesome at roulette. All the cash would not fit in the car with our luggage so we hired une bande de chamoux to carry his winnings.
Family members - remember our family's fondness for speaking in different languages/accents in public places? Will and I made the mistake of doing this in one of the shuttle busses in Zion but soon realized that everyone around us in the bus was also speaking french. Will says that they were sure to be impressed with his l'accent tres bon (we can't remember if l'accent is masculine of feminine...its aways hard to do that with "L" apostrophe vowel begining words...oh well).
We are turning on Flamingo Road now - mmmm, jalapeno tuna sashimi here I come!
Observations:
-The price of Prime Rib Dinners is proportional to the distance from downtown Las Vegas
-It is 112 degrees outside. My car's interior is black leather. After turning our bodies into salt licks from the quick evaporation here we decided for this segment of the trip (Hoover Dam to Las Vegas) we would roll in with the top up despite losing our cool factor. We are cool enough already.
-Will is awesome at roulette. All the cash would not fit in the car with our luggage so we hired une bande de chamoux to carry his winnings.
Family members - remember our family's fondness for speaking in different languages/accents in public places? Will and I made the mistake of doing this in one of the shuttle busses in Zion but soon realized that everyone around us in the bus was also speaking french. Will says that they were sure to be impressed with his l'accent tres bon (we can't remember if l'accent is masculine of feminine...its aways hard to do that with "L" apostrophe vowel begining words...oh well).
We are turning on Flamingo Road now - mmmm, jalapeno tuna sashimi here I come!
So now for my perspective on the past few days...
One of the coolest parts about driving out west is how far you can see. The map we have has topographic landmarks on it - we could see many of the landmarks from over a hundred miles away such as various mesas, Navajo Mountain, etc. When we were driving through Arizona many of the landmarks we saw were even in a different state! This was certainly a treat considering that we didn't take some of the back roads through Mexican Hat and Monument Valley due to time constraints - but still got to see most of the monuments (which were amazingly awesome). Another cool thing about being able to see so far is that we see ALL the weather that is going on - even if it is in no danger of getting close to us. This provided us with such treats as "natural fireworks" on July 4th as well as driving everywhere the past few days. It is really really cool to be driving with the top down and see a giant thunderstorm that seems like it is right next to you but in reality is in no danger of getting you wet. Nature puts on quite a show out here! However, we have had our share of bad weather when driving - two hail storms so far and some rough rain. When the rain is not too hard we just leave the top down because we can drive through it and not get wet.
Will informed me a few days ago when we were driving that on this trip I MUST take a picture of every power plant we pass...so far we have passed 3 power plants of three varieties: a nuke plant in Arkansas, a coal plant in Arizona, and a hydro plant at glen canyon dam at the end of Lake Powell in Arizona. An interesting note about the coal plant.... A while before we passed the plant, we passed a topographic feature named "black mesa". While dark in color, it was not exactly dark enough to warrant it to be called "black." Then we passed a "coal slide" that went from black mesa, over the road, and down to an electrified rail line that we had been noticing had been running alongside us for many miles. Close to Page, AZ we passed the coal plant, which we figured outwas operated by the Navajo, on the coal that they mined on their land and then transported with the electric rail. Our uncle had told us about how many of the Native American tribes had been trying to start having their power production "in-house" instead of just selling the mineral rights on their land - thus giving them cheap energy as well as jobs so it was interesting that we got to see an example of this (although coal...pflebpbp!). So anyways - today we are headed to yet another power plant...although this time it is on purpose. The Hoover Dam! The woman sitting beside us at breakfast this morning at the B & B was from Southern California and said her cousin was the plant manager there...and if it hadn't been a sunday she would have called him to give us a behind-the-seens tour. Oh well, we will have to deal with normal scenes.
The difference between Bryce Canyon and Zion to mee seemed like the difference between Hillsborough, NC and Cary, NC. Bryce was full of adventurers and farms...people who enjoyed living on what the land gave them. The town in Zion is full of bleached blonde hair, manicured lawns, glass galleries, McMansions, and elaborate sprinkler systems. I conjured a theory that it was full of Southern Californians that was affirmed by many of the people that we met. Southern Californians moved from LA to Las Vegas to St George to....Zion?? Well, it seems that way, anyway. St. George (which is where we are about to drive through and is on I-15) is supposedly (according to our breakfast buddy sources who are looking for real estate in the area) the fastest growing municipality in the state. Well I have to say that even though Zion was freaking amazing, I liked the cute town, and the shuttle syustem was great....that I had a lot more respect for what was happening at Bryce. I think that Bryce has not suffered from the Southern Californiacation because to get there you have to drive THROUGH Zion (and pay a aprk entrance fee and wait to go through a tunnel for a zillion years)...its just not convenient enough to an interstate for those crazies...they wouldn't know what to do! :-) What is amusing about this is that I got this impression even though the woman who owned the B&B in Zion was FROM Santa Barbara. She was a curator at the LA County Art Museum - but some how she had adapter her lifestyle to fit in with what Bryce had to offer. They owned Goats, which they milked and made cheese from - they allowed their lawn to grow "naturally" (which in this part of the country means little 'growth' at all and mostly dirt and some bushes), their home was furnished in humble, locally-made furniture. In contrast, our B&B at Zion had a square, sprinklered, flowered, green green grass lawn. The house was a greek style mcmansion with fountains and topiaries and a three-car garage. It was furnished in the sort of upscale furniture that you are afraid to sit on. This morning we drank french press coffee with our stuffed brioche french toast. Don't get me wrong, everybody we met there was super nice - it just didn't feel real. MOre so, it seemed wrong to be living such an irresponsible lifestyle (the manicured lawns were what really set me off) right next to soo much natural beauty.....who needs a pretty green lawn when the views from both your front and back yard are the cliffs of Zion Canyon??? Who is going to be looking at your lawn anyways? Another note - Zion has Cell service....Bryce does not :-)
It really is odd to feel so connected out in the middle of nowhere...to the internet, Live Earth and news on XM radio, cell phones, etc.
Anyways...we are headed down I-15 now on our way to some good power plant viewing at the Hoover Dam. Then, we will go to the craziness that is Las Vegas in order to eat the best suhi in the world at The SOcial House and see some crazy gymnastics and dance/swimming at Cirque du Soleil. Tomorrow we are going to Sequoia National Park as long as it doesn't burn down before we get there....California here we come!
One of the coolest parts about driving out west is how far you can see. The map we have has topographic landmarks on it - we could see many of the landmarks from over a hundred miles away such as various mesas, Navajo Mountain, etc. When we were driving through Arizona many of the landmarks we saw were even in a different state! This was certainly a treat considering that we didn't take some of the back roads through Mexican Hat and Monument Valley due to time constraints - but still got to see most of the monuments (which were amazingly awesome). Another cool thing about being able to see so far is that we see ALL the weather that is going on - even if it is in no danger of getting close to us. This provided us with such treats as "natural fireworks" on July 4th as well as driving everywhere the past few days. It is really really cool to be driving with the top down and see a giant thunderstorm that seems like it is right next to you but in reality is in no danger of getting you wet. Nature puts on quite a show out here! However, we have had our share of bad weather when driving - two hail storms so far and some rough rain. When the rain is not too hard we just leave the top down because we can drive through it and not get wet.
Will informed me a few days ago when we were driving that on this trip I MUST take a picture of every power plant we pass...so far we have passed 3 power plants of three varieties: a nuke plant in Arkansas, a coal plant in Arizona, and a hydro plant at glen canyon dam at the end of Lake Powell in Arizona. An interesting note about the coal plant.... A while before we passed the plant, we passed a topographic feature named "black mesa". While dark in color, it was not exactly dark enough to warrant it to be called "black." Then we passed a "coal slide" that went from black mesa, over the road, and down to an electrified rail line that we had been noticing had been running alongside us for many miles. Close to Page, AZ we passed the coal plant, which we figured outwas operated by the Navajo, on the coal that they mined on their land and then transported with the electric rail. Our uncle had told us about how many of the Native American tribes had been trying to start having their power production "in-house" instead of just selling the mineral rights on their land - thus giving them cheap energy as well as jobs so it was interesting that we got to see an example of this (although coal...pflebpbp!). So anyways - today we are headed to yet another power plant...although this time it is on purpose. The Hoover Dam! The woman sitting beside us at breakfast this morning at the B & B was from Southern California and said her cousin was the plant manager there...and if it hadn't been a sunday she would have called him to give us a behind-the-seens tour. Oh well, we will have to deal with normal scenes.
The difference between Bryce Canyon and Zion to mee seemed like the difference between Hillsborough, NC and Cary, NC. Bryce was full of adventurers and farms...people who enjoyed living on what the land gave them. The town in Zion is full of bleached blonde hair, manicured lawns, glass galleries, McMansions, and elaborate sprinkler systems. I conjured a theory that it was full of Southern Californians that was affirmed by many of the people that we met. Southern Californians moved from LA to Las Vegas to St George to....Zion?? Well, it seems that way, anyway. St. George (which is where we are about to drive through and is on I-15) is supposedly (according to our breakfast buddy sources who are looking for real estate in the area) the fastest growing municipality in the state. Well I have to say that even though Zion was freaking amazing, I liked the cute town, and the shuttle syustem was great....that I had a lot more respect for what was happening at Bryce. I think that Bryce has not suffered from the Southern Californiacation because to get there you have to drive THROUGH Zion (and pay a aprk entrance fee and wait to go through a tunnel for a zillion years)...its just not convenient enough to an interstate for those crazies...they wouldn't know what to do! :-) What is amusing about this is that I got this impression even though the woman who owned the B&B in Zion was FROM Santa Barbara. She was a curator at the LA County Art Museum - but some how she had adapter her lifestyle to fit in with what Bryce had to offer. They owned Goats, which they milked and made cheese from - they allowed their lawn to grow "naturally" (which in this part of the country means little 'growth' at all and mostly dirt and some bushes), their home was furnished in humble, locally-made furniture. In contrast, our B&B at Zion had a square, sprinklered, flowered, green green grass lawn. The house was a greek style mcmansion with fountains and topiaries and a three-car garage. It was furnished in the sort of upscale furniture that you are afraid to sit on. This morning we drank french press coffee with our stuffed brioche french toast. Don't get me wrong, everybody we met there was super nice - it just didn't feel real. MOre so, it seemed wrong to be living such an irresponsible lifestyle (the manicured lawns were what really set me off) right next to soo much natural beauty.....who needs a pretty green lawn when the views from both your front and back yard are the cliffs of Zion Canyon??? Who is going to be looking at your lawn anyways? Another note - Zion has Cell service....Bryce does not :-)
It really is odd to feel so connected out in the middle of nowhere...to the internet, Live Earth and news on XM radio, cell phones, etc.
Anyways...we are headed down I-15 now on our way to some good power plant viewing at the Hoover Dam. Then, we will go to the craziness that is Las Vegas in order to eat the best suhi in the world at The SOcial House and see some crazy gymnastics and dance/swimming at Cirque du Soleil. Tomorrow we are going to Sequoia National Park as long as it doesn't burn down before we get there....California here we come!
Saturday, July 7, 2007
pictues from zion
here i am in the narrows of zion with my rented stick.
heres elizabeth in the narrows
a view of the canyon, there was alot of greenry.
the water carved canyon had alot of v arious features that were stunning.
Day 6: Bryce and zion national parks
today we woke up and ate at the buffalo sage bed and breakfast. the owner had a real sweet dog named zoe who was a rescue lab from hurricane katrina. after breakfast, we drove to bryce canyon national park and decided to take a trail called the navajo loop which connected to peekaboo loop, since both parks had free shuttles, we took the trail to the other end of the park where we took teh shuttle back to the car. the rock was all differnt colors from very red to almost pure white. there were also streaks of purpleish blue which we later figured out were from manganese. the park was beautiful. after we got settled back into the car we drove to zion national park. at zion we got a park pass and parked near the visitors center, after much debate, we decided to hike the narrrows which is a very narrow canyon. rick had told us tha tif we hiked the narrows that we would need boots and a walking stick becuase it is mostly walking through the river. we asked the ranger to driect us toward a rental shop and we took the shuttle down to town. we rented the boots and got a 5 minute safety lesson. the only problem was that we had to return the rental by 8 so we had to get a move on. we took the shuttle up to the very end of the line where the shuttles run. we hiked for a while on a trail and then went into the river for a while. we didnt have enough time to get to the waterfall at the very end but what we saw was spectacular. we got back in time to return the rentals and ate dinner at a mexican cafe which was delicious. the rock at zion had horizpntal cracks most of the time while at bryce they were vertical ones. al in all it was a very exhasting but fun day.
Will
Will
Friday, July 6, 2007
day 5: durango and drive to bryce
At the moment we are driving through a rainstorm right outside of Durango, we have jsut left for Bryce canyon. This morning we woke up and had breakfast with Rick, Lori and of course, cousin Fred (the beagle). We then went on a horseback ride through trails near where Rick and Lori live. everyone's horse had its qualities, elizabeth's had a tendancy to bite the horse in front of it if it got too slow, rick's liked to eat and take its time to smell the roses, and then eat them. we rode out to a cave and went spelunking with lights to the end of the cave. it was a very cool cave, in both senses of the word. We then rode back to where we started the ride and drove back to the house where we showered. Poor fred wasnt allowed to come with us on the horse ride. E-lo jsut told me that we are averaging 30.9 MPG on our trip, even after going up mountians. our trip has led us just over 2000 miles so far. after we all got cleaned up, we packed up the car and drove to downtown durango to eat lunch with Ricka and Lori. downtown we passed a picture store where one gets dressed up in western garb to have portrites made. in teh window there was a picture of Gayle and Opera all dressed up! we had mexican at francisco's. it was delicious. and now we are on our way to bryce, just entering montazuma county, we are not sure if we will have internet for a while so we wanted to rush to get a blog in. at our current mpg our range is 700 miles!! since i started to blog, the temperature has changed 30 degrees, from 54 to 84 degrees, in about 5 minutes
Will
Will
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Day 4: Durango!
Well sorry for not blogging much today - cell service of any kind was........spotty. I guess it is not very profitable to spend your money erecting cell towers in between every mesa/mountain when it will serve only half a dozen people living there! There also won't be any pictures in this post b/c the signal isn't quite strong enough to withstand an entire image upload.
Anyways, we did manage to go tell Los Alamos what we thought of TRANSIMS (and i have the pictures to prove it). Thay have this hand notebook where you get to put your opinions on what they are doing in....oh yeah! There was also a movie about TRANSIMS with Alan Alda and a nice exhibit about how they were going to save the world with it. It was....amusing :-) The drive to Los Alamos was BEAUTIFUL. So. Amazing!
After having too much fun with geiger counters and fiestaware we headed north and had lunch in the small town of Chama, NM. We also tried to see some Elk in the "Elk Viewing Area" however they must have had better things to do than model for us! Chama had a narrow gauge rail road that was pretty cute and a historic train depot.
From there, it was North across the state line and West to Durango. We had some just amazing views the whole way - and we were lucky to be in a roadster to be able to take advantage of such a giant sky! However, we did have to put the top up to avoid some hail on the way (Will thought the piles of ice in the road were "foam").
We headed up the mountain from Durango and were greeted by Rick, Lori, and Cousin Fred. After a delicous dinner of Salmon and Steak, Fred took us for a walk down to the creek. We also decided to protect our car from bears by putting it in the garage (seriously). It is so fun to see a place that you normally just see in the winter all green and bright and warm! I love this part of the country!
Tomorrow we are getting up early to go Horseback Riding and caving, then driving to Bryce Canyon via Monument Valley, 4 corners, and Arizona! We had never planned on driving through Arizona but hey, I guess we get a bonus state!
Anyways, we did manage to go tell Los Alamos what we thought of TRANSIMS (and i have the pictures to prove it). Thay have this hand notebook where you get to put your opinions on what they are doing in....oh yeah! There was also a movie about TRANSIMS with Alan Alda and a nice exhibit about how they were going to save the world with it. It was....amusing :-) The drive to Los Alamos was BEAUTIFUL. So. Amazing!
After having too much fun with geiger counters and fiestaware we headed north and had lunch in the small town of Chama, NM. We also tried to see some Elk in the "Elk Viewing Area" however they must have had better things to do than model for us! Chama had a narrow gauge rail road that was pretty cute and a historic train depot.
From there, it was North across the state line and West to Durango. We had some just amazing views the whole way - and we were lucky to be in a roadster to be able to take advantage of such a giant sky! However, we did have to put the top up to avoid some hail on the way (Will thought the piles of ice in the road were "foam").
We headed up the mountain from Durango and were greeted by Rick, Lori, and Cousin Fred. After a delicous dinner of Salmon and Steak, Fred took us for a walk down to the creek. We also decided to protect our car from bears by putting it in the garage (seriously). It is so fun to see a place that you normally just see in the winter all green and bright and warm! I love this part of the country!
Tomorrow we are getting up early to go Horseback Riding and caving, then driving to Bryce Canyon via Monument Valley, 4 corners, and Arizona! We had never planned on driving through Arizona but hey, I guess we get a bonus state!
Day 4 - Me versus TRANSIMS
This morning Will and I jogged around Sante Fe to see the town - it was pretty cute, but not much going on other than art galleries. There was one gallery in particular that had some awesome rocket ship like things. We then proceeded to cancel out any calories we accidentally burned by eating giant Green Chile Breakfast Burritos...yum!!!
So today we are driving to Laurie and Uncle Rick's in Durango, CO. I am really excited about the drive because it is going to be SOOOOOOO pretty!!! On the way though, I thought we could pay homage to the creators of TRANSIMS and maybe tell them what I thought of it....
We are also planning on stopping at Bandalier National Monmument to see the Pueblo ruins and hopefully a few Ghost Towns...ooooo...freaky freaky!!!! We'll update you guys later on any spirits that we encounter and on how our nuclear engineering laboratory lesson goes at Los Alamos!
So today we are driving to Laurie and Uncle Rick's in Durango, CO. I am really excited about the drive because it is going to be SOOOOOOO pretty!!! On the way though, I thought we could pay homage to the creators of TRANSIMS and maybe tell them what I thought of it....
We are also planning on stopping at Bandalier National Monmument to see the Pueblo ruins and hopefully a few Ghost Towns...ooooo...freaky freaky!!!! We'll update you guys later on any spirits that we encounter and on how our nuclear engineering laboratory lesson goes at Los Alamos!
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Day 3 Amarillo texas
we have been listening to this story about teddy roosevelt and he just took this trip to the western territories and he talks about how he eats really well out there and eats a lot of steak so he gains a lot of weight. when he comes back his wife has built him a tennis court to make him loose the weight, after hearing this, and realizing that the likelihood of us playing tennis anytime soon was slim, we decided to forego the 72 oz Big Tex steak (free if you can eat it within an hour) we then opted to eat our 4th BBQ meal in 3 days! YUMM!
Picture of bbq in amarillo
it was a little over a week ago when kelsey and mike called elo told her they were in Big Tex. and and out to pass the cadillac ranch, elo cant believe that she didn't know what those were then but can now say that she can now write those on her life list of ridiculous roadside attractions. even if we only drive past it on the free way and had me take pictures of it whilst driving by, a sort of drive-by tourism if you will. (elo wants to note that she did slow down to 60 MPH)
From there we jumped off into the great beyond full of cow ranches and corn farms.
Day 3: drive to santa fe
here i am about to switch with elizabeth! i blend in pretty well dont you think.
Texas!!!! yay!
nice view of nature
Picture of shamrock, entered texas!! into lucky town in shamrock, here is the lucky gas, which for some reason texas doesn't sell more than 90 octane, i guess there isn't a market for it.
here we passed this sign and were so exited that we had to take a picture of it!!!!
here are the pictures of oaklahoma city from teh freeway
Day 3: Lunch in Oklahoma City
So it turns out that I should have consulted the NY Times when I was looking for "O.K.City Cuisine". Oh well, instead I had the opportunity to indulge my Chick-fil-A craving at a "mall". I say "mall" because while the building used to house a mall, its current state is more like a big empty building that happens to house a footlocker, athletic attic, sears, bath and body works, and chick-fil-a....the vast majority of the building was empty with empty store fronts still posted with "going out of business sale". Ther parking lot was about equal parts potholes and grass (which had grown through all the cracks in what used to be pavement). Something about it made me feel like I was entering a retail ghost town and that the "ghosts of shoppers past" might come haunt me. Anyways - luckly the Chick-fil-A was still alive and kicking and I thoroughly enjoyed my Chick-fil-A sandwich - YUM!
The mirror in Chick-fil-A revealed my beautiful suntan/burn. I had tried to move the shoulder seatbelt down a bit so that I would not have a giant diagnol line from my left shoulder down to the front of my shirt. While I was driving Will assured me that this strategy was working and he didn't see any line. Mission - failed (boys always tell you what they think you want to hear). Maybe I will be lucky enough to get a matching diagnol stripe from my right shoulder - however at this time we are driving with the top up due to some earlier thunderstorms. My face is fine due to a nice NC State visor - however I also have a great tanline on the back of my shoulders going straight across my back where my shoulders met my seat. This, I'm sure, will be a nice compliment to the previous "racerback" tan line I acquired when snorkeling in St. John....that tanline was SUPER pretty when I was wearing a strapless dress in Kelsey's wedding this past weekend (It was pretty obvious/ugly in all the pictures that Natalie and Jamie already posted at least). As soon as we got back to the car from lunch we retrieved the suntan lotion towlettes from the truck (thanks, mom!). However as soon as I had applied the SPF 30 liberally (as the directions indicated I should) then the clouds we had been thanking for their shade broke and we could not overcome the rain with our speed since we were in a workzone. Previous showers did not get us wet. Luckly, our pile of electronic equipment that we have with us seems to be working just fine.
We got a few pictures of downtown Oklahoma City but mostly it looked like there was a big Sonic Drive-In office building HQ like thing as well as a sports arena. We didn't make it all the way downtown to see the memorial for the Federal Building bombing.
Well - back to paying attention to our Theodore Roosevelt book....at the moment he's busy trying to get Panama independent from Columbia.
The mirror in Chick-fil-A revealed my beautiful suntan/burn. I had tried to move the shoulder seatbelt down a bit so that I would not have a giant diagnol line from my left shoulder down to the front of my shirt. While I was driving Will assured me that this strategy was working and he didn't see any line. Mission - failed (boys always tell you what they think you want to hear). Maybe I will be lucky enough to get a matching diagnol stripe from my right shoulder - however at this time we are driving with the top up due to some earlier thunderstorms. My face is fine due to a nice NC State visor - however I also have a great tanline on the back of my shoulders going straight across my back where my shoulders met my seat. This, I'm sure, will be a nice compliment to the previous "racerback" tan line I acquired when snorkeling in St. John....that tanline was SUPER pretty when I was wearing a strapless dress in Kelsey's wedding this past weekend (It was pretty obvious/ugly in all the pictures that Natalie and Jamie already posted at least). As soon as we got back to the car from lunch we retrieved the suntan lotion towlettes from the truck (thanks, mom!). However as soon as I had applied the SPF 30 liberally (as the directions indicated I should) then the clouds we had been thanking for their shade broke and we could not overcome the rain with our speed since we were in a workzone. Previous showers did not get us wet. Luckly, our pile of electronic equipment that we have with us seems to be working just fine.
We got a few pictures of downtown Oklahoma City but mostly it looked like there was a big Sonic Drive-In office building HQ like thing as well as a sports arena. We didn't make it all the way downtown to see the memorial for the Federal Building bombing.
Well - back to paying attention to our Theodore Roosevelt book....at the moment he's busy trying to get Panama independent from Columbia.
Day 3: Little rock to Santa Fe
this is elizabeth performing our aerodynamic tests to see if we get better gas milage by crating lift with our hands. the results are still inconclusive.
here is how elizabeth drove the whole way there, it was the only way she could take so long off work, she love working alright!!!!
here is the worlds largest can of spinich! i am not sure as so the authenticity of this claim but there were these two huge green tanks, elizabeth things they are water tanks, i might agree with her, maybe she just doesnt want to believe it because she doesnt want to eat any!
we stopped at an overlook on the side of 40 and this is all that we could see, oh well, it was akmsot as interesting as the Nuculear plant we ahd jsut passed. oh well
i was finishing an up load of pictures when we stopped at hte overlook, elizabeth took this picture.
Pictures from Memphis and little rock
at the moment we are trying to reduce hte friction with the road by creating lift with our hands out the windows, thus increasing speed and fuel economy, Brilliant!!!!
here i am on Beale street yesterday. Memphis is so awesome!
Here is a cool blues place, i could not get in cause i was not 21, too bad.
here i ma eating some amazing ribs, god they were so tasty, but a little messy
here is Elizabeth in fromt of Rendez vous, My camera was out of battery so i had to use my phone, oh well. this place was literally in an alley
Here we are at the Gibson guitar plant, it is fairly new, only 8 years old. in this step tehy press the sides into shape. they cut these into smaller strips, the guitars are not actually that wide.
here the sides that we just saw pressed are glued into place in these forms, the front and backs are also applied with glue herer, they do not use any metal fasteners such as nails or screws during construction.
here they attach a plastic strip[ along the edges of the guitar, they glue them adn then wrap corda around the guitar to holld it into place, here you see many of them hung to dry.
After the Necks were glued on they were staged for the next steps in racks, how exiting!!!
some of the solid bodies and double necked ones!
here is the govoners masion, this is where little Chelsey Clinton grew up.
Here is the Clinton Library!!! this was an awesome building!
Here is a cool bridge that was over hte ARkansas river, Which was very brown and gross looking, and it was right next to the clinton center, very cool.
here is the view while leaving the city, on our way to santa fe. we are still on our way right now, we will upload more pictures soon
Will
here i am on Beale street yesterday. Memphis is so awesome!
Here is a cool blues place, i could not get in cause i was not 21, too bad.
here i ma eating some amazing ribs, god they were so tasty, but a little messy
here is Elizabeth in fromt of Rendez vous, My camera was out of battery so i had to use my phone, oh well. this place was literally in an alley
Here we are at the Gibson guitar plant, it is fairly new, only 8 years old. in this step tehy press the sides into shape. they cut these into smaller strips, the guitars are not actually that wide.
here the sides that we just saw pressed are glued into place in these forms, the front and backs are also applied with glue herer, they do not use any metal fasteners such as nails or screws during construction.
here they attach a plastic strip[ along the edges of the guitar, they glue them adn then wrap corda around the guitar to holld it into place, here you see many of them hung to dry.
After the Necks were glued on they were staged for the next steps in racks, how exiting!!!
some of the solid bodies and double necked ones!
here is the govoners masion, this is where little Chelsey Clinton grew up.
Here is the Clinton Library!!! this was an awesome building!
Here is a cool bridge that was over hte ARkansas river, Which was very brown and gross looking, and it was right next to the clinton center, very cool.
here is the view while leaving the city, on our way to santa fe. we are still on our way right now, we will upload more pictures soon
Will
Day 3: Little Rock to Santa Fe
So I apologize for my brother's typos from his post last night. Apparantly he will learn to use spell checker in college.
Anyways, today we are going to be driving through 4 states (real-sized states...not new-england states): Arkansas, Ohhhhhhklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. I am looking forward to green chiles and perhaps some tex mex? We aren't sure what kind of food Ohhhhklahoma City has to offer us for lunch (what cuisine is OK?) so we may use that as an excuse to stop at Chickfila...yum! Some of the sights we hope to see (in case you couldn't decipher Will's post last night) include the worlds largest can of spinach and cadillac ranch. We will also wave at Kelsey's grandparents as we pass south of Dalhart.
I am off to breakfast but we will be on the road shortly after that.
Happy Fourth of July !!!!!
Anyways, today we are going to be driving through 4 states (real-sized states...not new-england states): Arkansas, Ohhhhhhklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. I am looking forward to green chiles and perhaps some tex mex? We aren't sure what kind of food Ohhhhklahoma City has to offer us for lunch (what cuisine is OK?) so we may use that as an excuse to stop at Chickfila...yum! Some of the sights we hope to see (in case you couldn't decipher Will's post last night) include the worlds largest can of spinach and cadillac ranch. We will also wave at Kelsey's grandparents as we pass south of Dalhart.
I am off to breakfast but we will be on the road shortly after that.
Happy Fourth of July !!!!!
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Day 3: Memphis and Little Rock
Today we woke up and ate breakfast in the talbot heirs room, elizabeth was glad to ge thte chance to check her email. after that we left for the gibson plant and the rock adn soul museum. we discovered taht the 11:00 tour was full so we bought tickets for the next one and then went to the Rock and soul museum for an hour. The rock and soul museum had an audio tour so we both learned about the development of soul, blues, country and then rock and roll in and around Memphis. we some what hurried through the tour so we could get on to gibson. We saw some of the first juke bokes. at the gibson guitar plant we saw how they made many different types of guitars, including a double necked one. tehy ahve to inlay the gibson name into the parts at the factory becuase if someone intercepted some aprts witht eh gibson name, they could use them to make fakes. i have pictures from today but i left the cord to transfer them in the car so they will have to wait till tomorrow. after the gibson plant we went to redez vous, according to chris, the best ribs in Memphis, which they were, in my openion. they were amazing, they had seasoning over the top and a choice of hot or mild sauces. the beans and slaw were also amazing. the resturaunt was down an alley and down some stairs. I did get a little messy though. After we ate we left memphis and passed the pyramid again.
When we arrived to Little rock we went to teh clinton presidential library. which was awesome, they had a dhort movie about his life and mock up of the oval offfice as it was when he was president. it was right on the river. the library also had a giant timeline through each year of his presidency. we only spent an hour at the library as it closed at 5 and we arrived at 4. after the library, we went and checked into our bed aqnd breakfast, which is amazing. our dinner was at a place called boscos overlooking the somewhat brown river. it started to thunderstorm so we had to move inside out of the rain. after dinner we drove around downtown for a bit before we returned home and watched Crank on my laptop, one of my favorite movies ever!
tomorrow we are leaving for our 12 hour drive to santa fe, happy fourth for us!!! yay! at least we will be seeing the largest can of spinish and cadillac ranch. that should be fun Yipee!! ok well im tired and i wil try to upload all those pictures tomorrow.
Writing from the rosemont in little Rock Arkansas,
William Wesley
When we arrived to Little rock we went to teh clinton presidential library. which was awesome, they had a dhort movie about his life and mock up of the oval offfice as it was when he was president. it was right on the river. the library also had a giant timeline through each year of his presidency. we only spent an hour at the library as it closed at 5 and we arrived at 4. after the library, we went and checked into our bed aqnd breakfast, which is amazing. our dinner was at a place called boscos overlooking the somewhat brown river. it started to thunderstorm so we had to move inside out of the rain. after dinner we drove around downtown for a bit before we returned home and watched Crank on my laptop, one of my favorite movies ever!
tomorrow we are leaving for our 12 hour drive to santa fe, happy fourth for us!!! yay! at least we will be seeing the largest can of spinish and cadillac ranch. that should be fun Yipee!! ok well im tired and i wil try to upload all those pictures tomorrow.
Writing from the rosemont in little Rock Arkansas,
William Wesley
Monday, July 2, 2007
Day 1: Memphis, TN - Dinner and Blues on Beale Street
Umm....can I move to Memphis? I have been here just a few hours and already love it.
Well first off, they have a MONORAIL. I had forgotten all about it but our innkeeper reminded me that it was featured in The Firm. He also told me that MATT DAMON stayed here during the filming of The Rainmaker...ooo!
So anyways - back to the next few reasons why I want to move to Memphis. Reason two would be - awesome food! I loved getting some NC BBQ today no doubt....but the shrimp and cajun spices and baby back ribs and catfish all rolled into one awesome lip-smacking cuisine just made my day. YUM! We ate dinner at a place called Blues City Cafe...it was yummy and we were pondering changing the name of the blog to "elizabeth and will eat across america and gain 50 pounds each". However, we realized that at some point we both wouldn't fit in my car if we continued to eat this way...
Reason Three - Friendly people...I love the South! I also love being in a city where the people are relaxed enough that you are not sure if the person showing you to your table is either homeless or a famous musician.
Reason Four - I love live blues music...and this place had a ton even on a Monday Night! So far tonight we have seen Gary Hardy and the Memphis 2 perform Cash, Elvis, and one of my favorites Carl Perkins. Awesome! There was a great little outdoor cafe venue featuring the Juke Joint All Stars (who are the self-proclaimed "gangsta rap of the 40s and 50s) and several other bands playing outside and at parks and in the street that we didn't catch the names of. Just like the Hollywood walk of stars there were music notes embedded in the sidewalk. We saw such greats as Elvis, BB King (I love you BB!), and the award-winning 3-six Mafia. Of course the cool locally bred places were intermixed with some chains...most noteably a Coyote Ugly and Hard Rock Cafe...all full of tourists - my favorite (umm). I had forgotten that one of my favorite bar chains was actually started here in Memphis so I can't count it among the things that don't belong.
Reason Five - I love a city that wastes money on stadium boondoggles two decades in a row. Behold, the Memphis Pyramid! It was not cool enough for an NBA team....so Memphis built another arena (near Beale Street) and now the Pyramid is available for your private party or event! Its the third biggest pyramid in THE WORLD! And.... is bigger than both the Statue of Liberty and Taj Majal. If that is not enough - it has a great view of the Mississipi river ...and is designed to reflect Memphis' namesake Memphis, Egypt and Memphis, Egypt's close relationship to the Nile (see mississippi river). Oh yeah!
Tomorrow we are going to see the Rock'n'Soul museum and the Gibson guitar factory because we found out that the Civil Rights museum is closed on Tuesdays :-(
DAy 1: Raleigh
well we left cary early this morning headed west adn i fell asleep while elizabeth was driving and when i woke up i saw a sign for Raleigh at the next exit. apparently we circumnavigated the globe!! i knew the TT was fast, but damn!!!!! (parents should disregard that comment and realize that we have been obeying all speed limits and traffic laws, the physics however, were ment to be broken ie wormhole)
out for some ribs and blues
Will
out for some ribs and blues
Will
there is another picture of downtown nashville
this fireworks stand was next to the BBQ pit where we ate, sadly, we didnt have enough room
SMOKEY!!!
this was the BBq place we stopped at, western NC BBQ but it was in Tenn
that was sooo tasty
we are about an hour from memphis and the talbot heirs bed adn breakfast and i am sooooooooooo hungery, i jsut finished the last of the pita chips. and we found livewire at a gas station so we bought a few.
~Will
Day 1: 5:35 pm central
there were some cool clouds ove rhte road so i got out the camera
when we were leaving nashville we saw this cool b uilding so we took a picture of it
here is elizabeth driving!
this is the sign at the johnny cash rest stop!
therrrs nashville!
we jsut drove through nashville and we stopped at the Johnny cash rest stop off of 40 to switch drivers. the only evidence that this was, in fact, johnny's rest stop, was a sign near the restrooms that said so. slightly dissapointed. they didnt even have his music plaing in the restrooms! we ahve been taking pictures and i jsut uploaded some onto my computer so here they are. we have jsut entered the tennassee national wildlife refuge.
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