The drive from Mojave to Death Valley featured the most barren landscape we’d seen yet. The road stretched on for miles with nothing but creosote around us and mountains on the horizon. By the time we reached the park, after hours of ominous monotony, my sleep-deprived mind was a little worried about what the next …
After Organ Pipes National Park we passed through two Border Patrol checkpoints (we’re good at them by now) on our way to the Sonoran Desert National Monument, and quickly found out there’s nothing there. Oops. I guess that’s kind of the appeal to the wilderness, but we weren’t about to take the Versa off-roading. So …
We packed up our snow covered tent and crossed into Arizona. After a night in Tucson, we hit Saguaro National Park. It’s pronounced suh-WAH-ro, which I’m still working on myself. After weeks exploring all over the Chihuahua you’d think we’d be done being surprised by the desert, but here we were entering the Sonoran Desert …
Our first glimpse of Silver City looked like a field of stars in the valley below us, a welcome sight after the winding mountain roads through Gila Forest with only our headlights and the occasional, distant lightning for illumination. The rainy drive had been a little stressful but uneventful, except for the beautiful fox who …
We’ve learned that we can’t see everything and that we have to let some things go, so when we went through Santa Fe we were comfortable passing by Bandelier National Monument. But then we found ourselves talking to a ranger who worked there while we were checking out Taos, so we surrendered to kismet, followed …
“Hey, cool! There’s a passage behind this bookshelf!” “We still need to find the laser harp.” “Let’s go through the washing machine again, that was fun.” “This massive neon mastodon marimba thing is like the model from the kids’ room.” “Make sure you read the mail, and definitely open the fridge.” These are the kind …
Three nights in the car was enough; while free and warmer than the tent, sleeping on the boards is less comfortable and makes my hips hurt. It’s also impossible to get dressed without mildly assaulting Kate in the process. So on the drive to Santa Fe we searched for a place to stay that hit …
The Arctic air still found us in El Paso on Monday morning, even though any further south and we’d be in Mexico. Our first hot showers in a couple days warmed us up, thank you Planet Fitness, and we did some exploring. I discovered machaca, maybe my new favorite meal, at a tiny lunch counter …
We spent two nights in Fort Davis State Park as we got our planning done and checked out Marfa. Like many of the places we have visited on this trip, Fort Davis would not exist without the Civilian Conservation Corps. Responding to the Great Depression, one of FDR’s first acts as President was to start …
Our day in Marfa started out with such promise: we found a laundromat coffee shop, a quirky combination that checked two big boxes for our town day. While our clothes were getting clean, we sat down with our surprisingly good coffee and the first WiFi we’ve seen in six days and set to work planning …
Beyond the Fold 