ROADTRIP!

My last week in New Orleans was spent training replacements and moving enormous tents so I was more than ready for the adventure of a roadtrip and some relaxation (although I really enjoyed disassembling the large tent and taking charge of the sledge hammer and pry bar team that removed dozens of 18 inch metal stakes which had been driven into the concrete with power tools; talk about stress relief). The roadtrip began with a stop in Texas; probably not the most visited road trip destination but we had a wonderful time full of laughs while visiting my family in Plano. It was great, we had real beds, indoor bathrooms and amazing meals of steak and TX bbq. After two days of being spoiled by my relatives we struck out across texas, and more texas, and more texas (the state goes on forever) until we reached a break in the flatness called Palo Duro Canyon. We decided to camp in the canyon which was beautiful and full of wildlife; we saw rabbits, roadrunners, eagles, longhorns, mountain goats and many turkeys. My uncle had warned us about the turkeys but we never expected the half dozen that performed their mating rituals around the area all afternoon while we were trying to read, hike and relax. The male ones put up their feathers and then ran around with their wings making noises and kicking up dust; quite a performance. That night we were tucked in our tent for our first night of camping on the road but our sleep was continuously disturbed by the howls of coyotes which kept getting progressively closer. By 5am they had moved from the rim of the canyon to right near our tent and we concluded that it was time to scurry to our car with the excuse of wanting to watch the sun rise. We departed Palo Duro early in the morning and finally entered a new state; New Mexico. Our first stop in NM was a dormant volcano which we climbed to the top of but then seeing the descending thunder and lightning storm coming across the plains, we decided not to walk around the rim. We then went to a small, quaint, ski resort town called Red River where we stayed the night and then breakfasted at a very local diner. Our next stop was Taos which is what I envisioned a little New Mexican town to be; it was an artist community with all adobe structures settled between the southern rockies and the desert. We stayed outside of town in a little valley which was filled with snow when we returned from exploring the town (out of all of our destinations, NM is not where we expected to encounter snow). We woke up early the next day and headed out of town. On our way we stopped at a classic diner (ie small with cranky waitress) in Las Placitas (pop. 76) and talked to Joe, the local forest fire fighter who grew up in a coal mine and now lives in a yurt. After breakfast we headed up to Durango CO where we stayed with my aunt and uncle at their beautiful house in the mountains. We spent a few days going on hikes, to the hot springs and just relaxing. We went on a day trip to Mesa Verde, the site of the Anasazi ruins; cave dwellings from 1100. From there we drove on the 'million dollar highway' through the magnificent views of the Rockies and into Utah. Utah's landscape was desert and red rock which was particularly magnificent in Arches and Canyonland National Parks. We spent three days camping and hiking around the parks and it amazed me that this desert landscape was only a few hours away from the snow covered mountains. We left our campsite in canyonlands and drove north towards the tetons but detouring to camp at bear lake in dingle Idaho. Idaho was great, we saw a magnificent sunset over the lake, at dinner at Delicious Dan's Drive-in, breakfast at Butch Cassidy's and learned about 'rock chuck' hunting. We left for WY and traveled a beautiful backroad along a valley stream to Jackson WY. We camped in Grand Teton National Park for four nights and spent our days investigating the town (great breweries), playing canasta, and hiking through the snow (it was in the teens one night and we woke up to an inch of snow one morning). Our friend Jen from Common Ground dropped in for a visit, we hung out around the campfire and then drove up to Yellowstone the next day. We camped on the riverside, stopped by the geysers and mineral pools and went on a few hikes (while talking loudly to deter the bears who were just waking up and hungry). Yellowstone was gorgeous and we were always driving along beautiful rivers and being stopped by buffalo in the road (tons of buffalo and elk). Unfortunately, we had to cut Yellowstone short because my friend's grandmother fell ill and we had to speed things up so he could get to Denver. We drove over to Cody WY where we stayed with Carol-Lyn and were even served buffalo for dinner. We went to the Buffalo Bill museum where we saw the biggest collection of guns in the world and an assortment of art and historical artifacts. We spent our afternoon in town at a horse auction, complete with hundreds of people in cowboy boots and hats and a fast-talking announcer, it was great. From WY we headed back into CO to visit some of Jason's friends in Ft. Collins where we hung out and hiked before I dropped him off at the airport. From there I spent a day exploring Boulder before heading to my friend Brenna's in Rocky Mountain National Park. We had a wonderful time catching up and I spent the day doing three different hikes (again through the snow) to lakes and waterfalls in the mountains. I left CO and headed up back through WY to South Dakota where I visited Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore monuments. The highlight of South Dakota was Wind Cave National Park where I took a tour through the most intricate cave in the world. I then planned to spend the night in Badlands National Park but there was nobody at park headquarters so I went to the nearest gas station to ask about camping and he said that there was none but I could sleep in the parking lot behind the store. At that point I decided to go for plan B and drove five more hours to stay at my cousin's in Nebraska. I spent a day at the campaign office for Scott Kleeb; they're attempting the feat of having a democrat elected to congress in western nebraska. I spent a few fun nights with my cousin and then headed to Newport KY. I had a wonderful time visiting my friend Messa and visiting the farm she works on. I had one more stop on my way home with family friends Bob and Kathleen in Cleveland. I then returned home to Newton, which I have to say, after a few months in New Orleans and traveling the US, New England really feels like home (although I was tempted to never leave Colorado).