Day 24 - Roswell, NM - Carlsbad - Big Bend - Fort Stockton, TX

It's funny how plans change and in a lot of ways I am really glad that I'm on this trip alone, just because I can decide to just turn the car wherever I want to go and jet. Most of the time I have a skeleton idea of what to do and a few backup plans but that's about it and sometimes it's come back to bite me but most of the time it makes the trip more memorable. Anyway, today was one of those days where plans changed for the better in a way that I certainly wasn't expecting...

Anyhow, I actually got out of the hotel pretty darned early about 8am. The reason being that one of the tours that I had wanted to take of the caverns was on at 10 and 1, and I knew that the only way I'd get to take it was if someone cancelled so I wanted to be there for either one. Why was the tour such a big deal? Well Carlbad has a few regular walking tours but also they have a 'caving' tour where you actually strap on pads, a lighted helmet and gloves and follow the ranger throuw newly discovered areas while crawling on your belly, climbing etc. Luckily I got there just in time for the 10am tour and someone had cancelled, really lucky apparently because these tours generally are booked months in advance. So I strapped up (they didn't let us have cameras, it would have been crushed anyway) and the five of us headed through 3 hours of chasms and narrow passageways. It was really neat to be able to see what only a very few have ever been able to see. I'm not about to be a lone caver however, it was great with a guide but I think you've got to be crazy to just head into an unknown passage and hope for the best. Honestly, you could so easily fall and get knocked out and never be found. After the tour I actually did the main areas of the cavern and let me tell you, this place is awesome. Luray is cool and all, but Carlsbad is on a completely different scale. The 'big room' can fit the Astrodome inside it. It was made entirely different too, actually forming when underground gas deposits (including hydrogen sulfide) met with water and created sulfuric acid which ate away at the limestone to make the caverns. It actually took me until 2pm to finish touring all of the caverns but I still was out of there a lot earlier than I would have thought. I had figured that if I was lucky then I'd be on the 1pm tour and not get out until almost 5. So I had a lot of extra daylight and I wasn't ready to head to San Antonio quite yet. There was another National Park about 40 miles away called "Guadalupe Mountains" so I headed that way. Unfortunately when I got there I realized that this park was only 20+ mile hikes and roads that are only 4wd accessible, no dice. What to do??

Well I fired up the GPS and found that I was only about 200 miles from Big Bend National Park. For those of you who've never heard of it, it's basically the Western dip of the Rio Grande in Texas. I hadn't planned on going there because I thought it was too far and had I been at the Caverns until 5 it would have been. So I pointed the car and got on the road, luckily Texas speed limits are generally 75 so I was there with about 2.5 hours of daylight left. Big Bend is a lush desert if such a thing can be imagined, with these huge rock mountains in the background. I had just enough time to go on the scenic drive and see the most spectacular sunset of my life. I was able to get up on a rock hill as the sun went down over the mountains. Totally worth the drive and more.

Unfortunately, Big Bend is smack dab in the middle of assbackwardsville. The only motels were crazy expensive and kinda shabby. I had told myself that I would find a place in time to finally have a decent dinner that wasn't a 24 hour diner. Oh well, maybe San Antonio. I finally was able to stop in Fort Stockton, which was about 1.5 hour away. Best laid plans...but it was certainly worth it. Now on to San Antonio.

Day 23 - Moab, UT - Monument Valley - Roswell

Today was definitely unexpected, at times a little scary but pretty memorable overall. One of the reasons that I went on this trip mostly alone was that I was fully aware that some things were going to happen that I didn't exactly plan on. When these things happen, I can generally stay pretty calm and take them as they come since its only me being affected. I've certainly had quite a few of these little unexpected episodes since leaving D.C. and they make for great stories.

Anyway, we'll get to that in a minute. So this morning I got out pretty early and headed back to Arches, since it was honestly too late to see much last night. Arches is less well known than some of the other parks in the Southwest but honestly it has some of the most unusual sights of anywhere I've been. As the name implies, there are more than 2000 natural stone arches within the park, some keyhole small and some are massive. I went to a couple, but the more bizarre is called Landscape Arch. From base to base the span is actually 300 feet even though at some points the actual beam(?) is only about 6 feet thick. Apparently in 1990 a 180 ton slab of rock fell the few hundred feet to the ground, hence not being able to walk underneath it anymore. However, I was able to walk right up to it and honestly I think I stared at it for about 20 minutes. I mean, it just doesn't make sense...300 feet across, tons upon tons of stone, just almost floating there...just bizarre.

So after a couple of hikes I headed south to Monument Valley. Most of you have probably heard of it before, or certainly seen the area in movies. It's pretty iconic for Westerns and its really beautiful. Although they call it a 'valley,' its more of a flat plain with these huge red buttes that seem to just rise a thousand feet high from nothing. As you drive into the area too, you pass another iconic movie landscape, highway 191 about 13 miles north of the valley is where Forrest stopped running. It was pretty neat actually, because when you drive to the spot you know it automatically. I recognized it the second I crested over the hill. I had wanted it to be sunny and bright, but the weather wasn't exactly cooperating. It had been raining on and off, and that continued in the park. At first I was a little disappointed knowing that my pictures wouldn't quite come out as well as I'd hoped but as I was at one of the lookouts, the rainstorm changed to a thunderstorm. A desert thunderstorm in Monument Valley, thats something pretty unexpected and pretty awesome in reality. When you experience a thunderstorm on a desert plain, it looks entirely different because you can see so much further. Hence I'd see four or five bolts every few seconds and some might have been 50 miles away. Although the photos might not be quite what they could be, I felt pretty lucky to experience such a rare event.

So on to the really unexpected episode... I pointed the car to the next destination Carlsbad Caverns, NM. Thats not real close, about 550 miles. I knew that I wouldn't quite reach the whole way tonight but I figured that I'd get close. I had to drive through the Navajo reservation which is actually really large, it takes up a good 100 miles by 100 miles. Thing is, the road system there leaves something to be desired, but the GPS doesn't really know that. Well it was directing me and told me to drive from highway 59 to 591. Now 591 isn't paved, but it was really wide and seemed fine. I figured that it was probably just going to be for a minute or two so I turned. Well pretty quickly the road became more or less nothing, as in it became nothing more than a couple of tire tracks. I followed as per the GPS waiting to get back to a main road and then the sky opened up and it started hailing like crazy. So there I was no civilization in sight, driving on what could have been a ditch honestly with no cell phone reception. Not the brightest of moments. The GPS lost me and so I had to try to find my way back to an actual road. I'm pretty sure that I was actually driving on a riverbed for a few minutes and I almost got stuck a few times. Finally I found my way back to the unpaved but large road and just followed that until it got to something paved. Apparently I didn't do too bad because it actually had me saving time from when I turned off the road before. Alls well that ends well, but it could have been REALLY bad.

So here I am in Roswell, NM finally, about 100 miles from Carlsbad so I'll be getting up pretty early to see the Caverns then on to Texas!

Day 22 - Panguitch, UT - Bryce Canyon - Capitol Reef - Arches - Moab, UT

I'm sure that to someone who's never been to this part of the country before it must seem like I'm spending an awful long time in Utah. I honestly didn't expect to stay here anywhere near as long either when I set out from Virginia. It's funny that when we think of the natural beauty of the Southwest, we generally think of Arizona, New Mexico but certainly not Utah. Before I left, I had planned to spend a day skiing here, but that was about it. I honestly thought that Utah was skiing and Mormons, and yes, it does have both of those things. However, this state has some of the most spectacular scenery that you could ever imagine. Some of these places I'd heard of before, like Zion and Bryce Canyon but I didn't really know what they were or even necessarily that they were in this state. I could probably spend another two weeks just in Southern Utah and still not see anywhere near all there is to see. So I guess I should just put up the pictures and move on...

After heading out this morning from dowtown Panguitch, I started down the road to Bryce Canyon National Park. Bryce is another place that's really hard to fathom until you actually go there. It's basically a road that goes along a ridge overlooking a wall of eroded stone. The erosion however, has created these towers called 'hoodoos,' which apparently is an Indian word. These hoodoos can be more than a thousand feet tall and there are literally thousands of them along the 20 miles of the park. It was pretty awesome to see and really improbable, i can't think of a better word... When you stand at the top of these vistas looking over the rock formations, they just don't make much sense. You stand there amazed at how impressive they are but then when you look closer its impossible not to wonder how on earth this landscape was randomly created, why these towers don't just fall or erode further into simple rubble. The park took about two hours all told and afterwards I was on to park number 2 of the day.

Capitol Reef is much less well known than Bryce or Zion, partially because it is a lot smaller. Unlike those two, with large visitor centers and strict admission fees, Capitol Reef was more or less a scenic drive with a small shop attached. That's not to say that it wasn't worth it, quite the opposite. In some ways it was so memorable because it felt like I was the only person who was lucky enough to see it. The park is basically a slot canyon with red rock walls on either side that made unusual formations. The colors here were almost too bright to believe, when I say red, I don't mean red-'ish,' I mean red that's brighter than any brick house you'd ever see. Against the crystal clear blue sky, it made some of the most dramatic scenery I'd ever seen. In addition, there were Indian petroglyphs and raging waterfalls all right next to the main road through the park. It only took about 1.5 hrs to go through the park and after that I was headed on to the final park of the day, Arches.

Luckily, my folks had been to this area before because they were able to tell me how to take the scenic route (more scenic, that is) to Arches through the small town of Cisco. It didn't seem real great when I first turned off onto highway 128. Cisco is nothing but a lot of old jalopies on cement blocks and an abandoned gas station. So I wasn't expecting too much. Within about twenty minutes of the fifty mile drive to the park however, the road started to parallel the Colorado River. The area became a state park as I drove and the crap town of Cisco was a distant memory. The landscape was red rocks on either side, the river in the middle, and snow capped mountains in the far distance. It almost didn't seem real honestly, i mean you really could just point the camera anywhere and it would turn out pretty damned good. The drive in and of itself was as awesome as any park and so it took a little longer than I had originally intended to get to Arches.

When I did arrive, it was getting close to dusk. So I was able to enjoy a good sunset among the rock formations but I'm planning to see most of it tomorrow morning. There was a pretty interesting ranger talk at 8:30, about the nocturnal animals in the area, which meant that I didn't get to Moab (the closest town) until almost 9:30. See herein lies the problem, I forget that EVERY RESTAURANT except for Denny's on earth has to close at 10. It's pretty obnoxious honestly, because I've had more dinners at Denny's than anywhere else on the trip. Not that the food is horrible, but it leaves a little to be desired. Honestly, theyre always busy at 11pm, don't other restaurants notice this?!? I can't be the only person who's ever realized that there is money in keeping your kitchen open an hour later...oh well, there's certainly worse problems to have.

Anyhow, the plan for tomorrow is to see Arches, Monument Valley and end up somewhere in New Mexico...hopefully that happens, we'll see.

Day 21 - Williams, AZ - Grand Canyon - Zion National Park - Panguitch, UT

If you get a chance in the next day or two, try to googlemap Panguitch. You'll find that it is in NOWHERE, heheh, seriously this is the largest 'city' within a hundred miles of here and there isn't a single actual fast food joint in the whole town. It is Mayberry it seems, but its pretty interesting. It's hard to fathom that people live their whole lives in such a small place but as I've seen time and time again over the last few weeks, people seem to adapt to wherever they are. Today was pretty awesome all things considered, and I've got WAY too many photos but oh well. That's the great thing about digipics, I can just dump them on the laptop and I'll clean them up when I get home.

So the day actually, for once, started off pretty early. Last night was great, I had an awesome time in Vegas, but after two late nights, it was great to just watch American Idol and go to bed by 11:30. This morning, I was out of the room no later than 9 this morning and heading to the Grand Canyon. Since I got there kinda late last night, I didn't get to see but so much of the park. Hence me getting out early, and through the Southern entrance. GCNP is a little unusual as far as parks go in that there isn't but so many trails per se, its mainly a 40 mile drive along the southern rim of the Canyon. Its actually only about 10 miles across at the middle but to get from the south entrance to the north entrance takes about 5 hours and 180 miles. I just took the southern rim road and it really is as impressive as you could imagine. Its funny because we think that Arizona is all desert, but the area around the canyon is actually a fir forest and it was kinda chilly up there this morning. I made sure to get a ton of pictures at the different overlooks and of course, I had to be a little bit of a daredevil in that I handed my camera to an older couple (already zoomed in) to take my photo as I climbed out to the edge and scooted out so that I could dangle my feet. (3000 foot sheer drop there btw)

After the Canyon, I headed North toward more uncharted territory: Zion national park. I'm sure a lot of you haven't ever heard of Zion which is really too bad. I can't say that I'd really heard of it much before my folks went there a few months ago, but they couldn't stop talking about the whole area and so I had to see it. To be honest, Yellowstone had amazing wildlife and natural phenomena, Yosemite had monoliths and countless waterfalls, Tetons were awe inspiring...but for sheer beauty, Zion wins. I spent most all of the day hiking around the park and seeing everything I could. Its entirely different than anything I'd ever seen before. It's basically an extremely narrow valley with sheer flaming red rock cliffs on either side. These cliffs are generally between 2500 and 3000 feet above the valley floor. Yet, there are rivers and plantlife everywhere. Honestly, words can't express how beautiful this place is. You know, sometimes when you go to a place, you realize as youre there that its becoming a part of you. Thats been a few places on this trip, but certainly Zion. I could have spent days just staring at the cliffs...honestly. The pictures, which I have a ton mind you, will serve to give people a vague idea but you can't really understand the scale and color of this place until you are standing in it. So I ask any of you, if you EVER get the chance to come here, don't hesitate. It's actually only 140 miles from Vegas, but its worlds away. Eventually, it started to get dark which meant that I had to go.

So tomorrow, the plan is to go through the other parks of Southern Utah before my great swing south and eventually home. Bryce Canyon National Park is the first on the list and that's why I'm in Panguitch, it's about 10 miles from the park and cheap as hell, woot!

Day 20 - Las Vegas, NV - Williams, AZ

So today started out a little later than I wanted it to again ::sigh:: oh well. I actually didn't wake up early because I didn't get my wake up call...no free internet and faulty wake up calls...hrmm. I had to make two quick pitstops and get some lunch before I could leave Vegas (and probably civilization for a few days).

First, a favor for my dad, the Harley Store. Afterwards, of course, the Hard Rock Cafe. I got my pin; I'm thinking that I'm going to have to get a new board when I get home. I was running out of space as it was but now I've already got Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Los Angeles and now Las Vegas. The last thing before I was officially "Leaving Las Vegas" was to go to the shrine of indulgence, the world buffet at the Rio. It's generally considered to be the best buffet in the country and I'd have to agree. I'm not generally a buffet person but this place was nuts. Seriously 400+ different things, sushi, oysters, prime rib, crab legs and more desserts than you can imagine. I left completely stuffed and my dinner has been a diet coke and a slim jim, still full.

Anyway, I headed out afterwards for the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, there was a roadblock after the Hoover dam which actually added about an hour to the trip. Because of that I didn't actually get to the Canyon until close to sunset. It was still pretty amazing though, and I can't wait to take the scenic park road tomorrow. It should be a pretty full day, I'm planning to spend an hour or two going around the Grand Canyon and then its off to Zion National Park in Southern Utah. Apparently its even less populated there than in South Dakota so hopefully I won't be sleeping in the car. We'll see!

Day 19 - Las Vegas, NV

Sorry about the absence of a post yesterday night, right now its actually the end of day 20 but I'm going to attempt to post for yesterday and today this evening. A lot of pretty great adventures have happened in the last two days, but I ran into the first instance of not having internet in my hotel last night. I WAS staying at the Tropicana but they wouldn't let me stay in cool room for the second night for the same price. Honestly, it was real nice but not quite 80 dollars nice. Hence, I crossed the street to Excalibur for the cheap. Great place but they get you in the door for cheap and then want $22 bucks to access the net. I figured that my demanding audience could deal with a day without news, I'm sure you were all waiting with baited breath.

Anyway, I got started on Monday a little later than I had originally intended. Even though the two casinos were only across the street from each other, these places are so big that you can spend half an hour walking from one to the other. By the time that I was re-checked into Excalibur, it was actually 11 but that was okay, one of the important things about Vegas is that honestly most people are still recovering from the night before until about 5pm. Vegas really is hard to fathom until you actually come here. It has changed a lot since I was here about 8 years ago. Back then, it was still sort of a family place and it wasn't very expensive. It was kind of like a much bigger version of Reno, mostly parents and kids and then retirees it seemed. Nowadays its really an adult playground. I don't just mean adult as in sex, I mean adult as in the best of the best of everything. It seems that the standard day for a Vegas vacationer is to gamble, shop, tan, or sightsee during the day and then at some point in the late afternoon go back to the room, get fancy and go see a show (of which there are hundreds it seems) and then eat at one of the five star restaurants (of which there are also hundreds it seems). Although I'm not exactly one to spend fifty dollars on an entree, certainly not when I'm trying to keep costs down, I think its a good thing for Vegas. It makes a lot more sense than trying to find some line between fun for adults and being kid friendly.

So I spent most of the day, checking out the various casino resorts. Each one has its own flavor and amazing things to see. I have to be honest though, you guys may have heard about the newest casino called 'Wynn,' it cost more than 3.5 Billion to make...I'm not real sure why. I mean its really really opulent and pretty. Compared to some of the others though that cost less than half that...Iunno, its certainly not the most remarkable out there. It was pretty amazing to see some of these places though and go shopping through stores like Versace and Prada. Not that i'd EVER buy a 5,000 blazer, but it's fun to look and be shocked.

The highlight of the day though, was actually something that I'd completely forgotten about. If you guys ever see it come on TV again, you should watch the international bartending championships. Bartenders from all over the world come to Vegas once a year for this tournament wherein they have to make varied drinks and show their 'flair,' which means throwing bottles in crazy ways and whatnot. Well, I'd seen it a few months before and totally forgot that the previous champion was tending right at the Flamingo. The 'bar' was actually outside on the strip and you could see the crowd around this guy. His name is 'Flippy' and he's somewhat of a local celebrity. With good reason too, he was amazing to watch. I got my own drink from him, of course, and he was throwing bottles everywhich way but always he was in control. I tipped him five bucks (I mean he's the world champion.) and he stuck it right to his head, he was pretty sweaty I figure. So thats my five bucks you see there.

My splurge for the day was going to see Lewis Black at the MGM that night. He was absolutely side splittingly funny although the guy who opened for him was just godawful. He actually had about five minutes of material about going on the Temple tour in Salt Lake and he was dead on. I ended up having a pretty late dinner and watching a band at the Excalibur Lounge until about 1:30. Pretty great day all told, I'll miss Vegas but hopefully I'll be back before too long. Maybe October??

Day 18 - Los Angeles, CA - Las Vegas, NV

Okay, so Las Vegas is just way too much fun, and way too big to possibly fathom until you actually get here. It really just seems like a fantasyland and once I leave it will be hard to imagine that it just keeps going all the time this way.

After getting out from Kevin's a little late due to sleepyness and I headed over to the Walk of Fame in downtown Hollywood. So that's where all the tourists were, I hadn't been seeing but so many it seemed. This place though was chock a block with families. I think the average weight on the walk of fame is probably about 40 pounds higher than the rest of LA, that's a big cultural difference I've noticed. I guess its the whole obsession with youth and beauty here, but I've seen hardly any fat people and its just kinda weird. It took me a while to notice but there is definitely a marked difference. Anyway, the walk of fame was a lot of fun; apparently me and Samuel L Jackson have similar shoe sizes.

I headed from there out to Las Vegas, its only about a 4 hour drive so not too bad. I got to the Tropicana at about 7pm and checked in. Great room, amazing view 22nd floor overlooking the strip. I wasn't about to just sit on my laurels though. I headed out to see some of the casinos lickety split. It's been a long time since I've been here and it really has changed. The newer casinos are certainly themed but its different than before. There isn't any more family focus, you really see hardly any kids here. Even gambling is downplayed somewhat, its more of just a big adult playground. Chic bars, gourmet restaurants, hundreds of shows, just everything intended to give people a good time...for a price of course. Some of these casinos are just so massive it's hard to fathom honestly. I mean, the Wynn cost 3.5 Billion to make, yes, with a B. I had a quick dinner of eight dollar steak at the Riviera and I had intended to go to a nightclub. Funny thing how plans change, I ended up sitting down at the Paris at a piano bar. Now this was not just some crooner playing standards, this was a dueling piano bar. These two guys would take requests and play on the fly...they were amazing. They knew everything that was thrown at them and we're not talking about just piano songs. Ever heard a piano player do 'gin and juice'? How about 'Dueling banjos'? When I requested 'Calling Baton Rouge' by Garth Brooks, they seriously owned the song. It was just awesome and the hundred or so people there were getting into it as much as the players were. They actually got a request for 'don't fear the reaper' and apparently that was fairly common. Out came the cowbell and they got a volunteer from the audience. I'm not sure if she got the 'more cowbell' reference but it was just a ton of fun. I actually ended up watching them from 11 til 1 and then headed back for some much needed rest.

So tomorrow, I'm out to see Vegas. We'll see where I end up and what I end up doing, plans have a way of changing.