Colorado

Happy Halloween! We left Santa Fe yesterday evening after moving Christina into her new house. We only got about an hour and a half down the road before it got dark but we found a nice campground on a reservoir in Northern New Mexico just in time. This morning we crossed into Colorado and we are now in Pagosa Springs. We will probably drive through most of Colorado today and maybe camp near Grand Junction. There are no big cities in Western Colorado so hopefully we'll be close enough to Salt Lake City to get radio reception tonight for the Giants game.

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Santa Fe

We are still in Santa Fe, the weather is cold! Two days ago we took a drive up to Taos and it lightly snowed on us. The first day of winter! We will probably be here for a couple more days while Christina looks for a place to live or decides whether or not to stay. Santa Fe seems nice but there don't seem to be very many young people around.

Next Erik and I will try to drive to Seattle, we're not sure how cold it is out there. The roads into Yellowstone close on November 8th so we hope to get there before then, but they also might close earlier if the weather is bad. The route we thought about will take us through every state in the West except for Arizona and Nevada, which is exciting!

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Santa Fe and Albuquerque

Update: Pictures are actually up now. And on all of them are on Flickr.

We didn't drive all the way to Santa Fe in one night, we found a nice campground almost by accident in Cibola National Forest and spent a rainy night there. The storm had cleared in the morning and we go to Santa Fe early on Thursday. We explored downtown Santa Fe a bit and walked around the New Mexico Capitol Building. Later we went over to my friend Zoe's house where we are staying and fell asleep early camping style.

After celebrating the Yankees loss to Texas last night we drove to Albuquerque today to bring Jess to the airport so she could go back to work. The car feels empty with only three people and three people's stuff in it. Now we'll hang around Santa Fe for a while and hopefully go on an outing with Zoe tomorrow on her day off. We're thinking Taos or Los Alamos.

I got my camera developed today, here are some pictures, more on the sidebar, the rest I'll put on flickr when I can (I got 2 old ones from NOLA up before I ran out of library time).

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A storm approaches in White Sands!

We are being chased out of White Sands by a thunder storm. We're not sure where we're going to go yet, we'll drive North until we get out of the storm or all the way to Santa Fe tonight where we have a dry place to stay.

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White Sands

We are in White Sands National Monument tonight and will be camping among the dunes. The sand is very fine and looks like snow on the ground. We have a short hike in tonight so we won't be able to listen to the Giants beat the Phillies but we are tuned in to AM 1380 out of El Paso now and hoping that the Rangers can come back against the Yankees.

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UFOs tonight

We are camping tonight near Marfa, TX watching the mysterious Marfa lights. Theories of what causes the lights range from swamp gas to the ghosts of pioneers but the most common explanation is aliens! Tonight will probably be our last night not only in Texas but also our last in the central time zone. It is much colder here than it was the last few days in Big Bend, I don't know if that is because we are 100 miles north now or only because the weather is changing.

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Big Bend

We are in Big Bend National Park. On Thursday night we camped at the south-eastern end of the park at Gravel Pit Campground (which really deserves a better name) near Rio Grande Village. Last night we camped farther up into the mountains at Pine Canyon Campground. From there we took a short hike into Pine Canyon where the desert gave way to a forest (with a few cactuses). Tonight we will hike into a campsite at Chisos Basin and tomorrow we will drive to the other end of the park near Castolon.

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¡Bienvenidos a Mexico!

After camping last night near Del Rio at Amistad National Recreation Area we took a side trip today on foot into Mexico. The border crossing was very desolate and only a few cars passed us as we walked over the dam. It was Jess and Erik's first time in Mexico and we didn't have to show our passports on either side which was strange. Now we drive further into West Texas and will stop tonight in Marathon.

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Christina faces her fears at THE ALAMO!

We left Austin today and headed straight for San Antonio to visit the Alamo. After that we somehow ended up at the world's worst grocery store and then tried to get out of San Antonio as fast as possible. The city reminds me of El Paso and seemed very empty and bleak. The sprawl is enormous and somehow still seems empty. Tonight we will stay at Lost Maples State Park where we are supposed to see spectacular foliage.

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Goodbye Austin

We're leaving Austin tomorrow morning! We might go first to San Antonio to see the Alamo, maybe not! Tuesday night in Del Rio? Wednesday night at La Loma Del Chivo again makin' papercreate for a day or two! Then off to Big Bend, hopefully we'll see a dinosaur!

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Packing up

We are packing up at Belton Lake and heading back into Austin today. Tonight we will stay with my friend Alissa and tomorrow night we will go back to Joe's house for one more night. Yesterday after two days at Owl Creek Park we decided to check out the other free campground at Belton Lake, Iron Bridge Park. Unfortunately there wasn't much shade and the lake was more of a muddy river at that point so we decided to go back to Owl Creek after a trip into Temple. The Goodwill in Temple didn't have the amazing selection of tapes that the last one did but Erik did get a new hat.

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Lake Belton Camping

Last night after leaving Austin we stopped near Georgetown, TX at a campground on Lake Georgetown but today we drove a little bit further up I-35 to Belton Lake which is just west of Temple. This lake has better swimming (as long as the gars don't get you) and has lots of shady oak trees. Erik is just taking a walk, knife and tongs in hand to forage some prickly pear cactus to put in our monday night red beans and rice. We will stay here tomorrow night also and maybe wednesday. On the drive here we stopped by a thrift store and picked up a bunch of 50¢ tapes!

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Today we are graduate students

We are in Austin staying with our friend Joe who is a comparative literature grad student at UT. He is participating in a conference this weekend and we attended a panel this morning where he presented a paper. Now we are on our way back to campus for the closing talk of the conference. We will stay with Joe again tonight and tomorrow afternoon leave for a few day long camping trip at a lake west of Temple, TX. After that we will come back to Austin for a few days before we start driving west again.

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Texas!

We are in Texas. Last night we stayed in Big Thicket National Preserve as planned but we got a late start so we didn't get to camp by the river as it was dark when we arrived. Today we will drive to Austin and stay with our friend Joe. Hopefully today will be the last of the long drives and we will take it easy after Austin.

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