Our First Cross Country Trip of 2010

Hi everyone and Happy 2010 to you all.

Well we began the New Year by taking a 7 day tour through the southwest of the US. We were very lucky to be travel between all the giant storms that the midwest has experienced and although it was cold in some places, we had sunny days on most days. Our tour took us through the southeast area of California, through Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and Nevada. There are lots of pictures included so I hope you aren't too bored. We had a great time!

Our tour started with breakfast in Palmsprings. We try to always stop at the information/visitor centers in most states and cities and Palmsprings was no different.

The main road in Palmsprings. Not too busy on a Monday morning but totally different on Friday and Saturday nights.

Here we are having breakfast outside on the main Blvd. This is what makes Palmsprings great. You can have breakfast outside on the 4th of January.

Here he is enjoying short sleeves on his first trip to Palmsprings.

Our first border crossing from California to Arizona. Now we got gas just on the other side and it was about 20 cents cheaper per gallon. One of our first mishaps took place at this station. I backed up into a pickup that was waiting behind me at the pumps. Now our van is a 1994 minivan so I wasn't too concerned about ruining the car but hey, how much damage on the big ol' truck behind me. Out I went and looked and not a scratch on either car. Good luck on both our parts.

We stayed our first night in Tucson and then visited the Saguaro National Park bright and early the next morning. It was beautiful. These cactus are only found in the Sonoran Desert and it was worth the dust and dirt of driving over the dirt road through the park.

One of the many different types of cactus we enjoyed seeing throughout the park. It was just starting to bloom.

OK so these cactus are much bigger than you think. Here we are standing below one of many beautiful samples. Please keep in mind that Wolfgang is about 6'2".

This is a Chollo Cactus in Bloom.

Traveling with the "Vogelmann" requires a bird picture or two.

Notice the beautiful blue sky. I bet at night the stars are fantastic.

Here is the road we drove over. It was 9 miles long and we saw only one other car. I was the perfect way to see the Sonoran desert.

A small snapshot of the park. Just imagine turning around and everywhere you look, there are cactus.
Here are real Petroglyphs from the Indian tribes that inhabited this area.
I think that Alfred Hitchcock must have also visited this site.

It's hard to imagine that these drawings are probably 1000 years old.

Our second night was spent in Tombstone famous for the Fight at the OK Corral. Now it still has some of the original buildings from the time of Wyatt Earp and we got to see a reinactment of the fight at the actual site but tourism is all this little town has.

Main street Tombstone. Not too crowded but fun to walk through.

The reinactment of gunfight at the actual site. Incredibly bad acting but lots of fun. Here is Wyatt Earp.

The rest of the group just before the big gunfight.
Wolfgang standing with the gunfight survivors.

We took a stagecoach ride around the town. Our coach ride was shared by a family from India. A real international group.

Boothill Cemetary. These are the graves of the three men gunned down at the gunfight.

Just a grave of a guy that had some bad luck. Yes a lovely picture of me.

A little dark but here is Wolfgang at Big Nose Kate's Saloon. It is one of the original buildings that still exists. Most of the other buildings were rebuild after a fire in the early 1900's.

Inside Big Nose Kate's.

There is no smoking in the motel rooms where we stayed and a cute reminder not to do so.
After Tombstone we headed to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico but had to drive through a little bit of Texas. We had a couple of small problems in this area with the Border Patrol. We didn't think that we would need to bring Wolfgang's passport with his visa since we weren't leaving the US. Twice we were stopped at a border patrol checkpoint. The first time they let us go but the second location made us wait for about a half hour while they checked his status.
Again we stopped at the Visitor Center. They are great to get free maps of the state and the bathrooms are always clean.

El Paso is directly on the border with Mexico. While we drove through El Paso, we could look over and see this huge flag for Mexico showing how close we were. This is also the reason for the Border Patrol checkpoints. Below is a picture of how flat and empty Texas can be.

Finally we crossed over to New Mexico. It was a very long day of driving but no traffic and absolutely beautiful landscape.

Carlsbad Caverns is located in the Gaudalupe Mountains. They are filled with all kinds of caves.
After the flat of Texas, these mountains looked huge and dramatic.

We stayed the night in Carlsbad and then the next morning we headed off to the caverns. It was freezing outside and extremely windy. The caves were warmer than outside and they stay at a constant 52 degrees fahrenheit. It was a long underwear day!

Here I am standing by the entrance to the park. I think I was only outside for about 30 seconds.
The caverns are famous for their summer visitors, Mexican Fruit Bats, about 4 million. In fact the 16 year old boy that discovered the caverns saw something that he thought was smoke coming from the mountain. It wasn't smoke but millions of fruit bats leaving the cave in the evening. Here is one bat that has stayed thoughout the year. One is OK but 4 million, yikes!

Here we are in the cavern. We took an extra tour with a guide through an area outside the main ballroom. It was fantastic. We recommend that you do the same if you ever visited the caverns.

Some of the beautiful formations.
Sitting in the middle of one of rooms with our guide. I wish you could really see and feel how big these rooms were. At one point they turned out the lights. It was unbelieveable how black it was in that room and although it was only for a few seconds, it was enough to be thankful that the lights were working.
Just a picture of us inside.

This is the actual opening to the cave. Here is where the bats fly out every summer evening. There is a small open area to sit and watch the bats come out in the evening. Creepy to me but Wolfgang would love to see it.
It takes an hour from this point to actually reach the main ballroom of the cave but a fantastic walk down.

More pictures of inside the cave.

Yes, I know. I thought so too.

Isn't it cute!

After we left Carlsbad, we drove to Roswell and spent the night. The only alien we saw was the man sitting across from me but he was a legal alien. The next morning we woke to snow on the ground but what was interesting was as soon as we hit the edge of town, no more snow anywhere. Only in Roswell, oooooooohhh spooky!

We drove over 600 miles from Roswell to the Grand Canyon. Thank God for cruise control!

We stayed night at the Grand Canyon directly on the rim of the canyon in a wonder little cabin. Although the bed was a little small, we were able to watch the sunrise directly from our room.
About 7:30 in the morning. It was cold but one of the most beautiful things we have ever watched.

We had breakfast at the El Tovar which is the original lodge at the rim.
Here we are in the lodge enjoying breakfast. Say nothing about my hair. The entire morning it was covered with a hat.

Look at the food not the fat!
A hugh icicle and slick ice below but we had to do it.
The view of the Canyon is fantastic no matter where you stand.

Our little cabin.

During the winter, you are allowed to drive on the roads where only buses drive in the summer months. While we were heading along, we had to stop of a small herd of Elk in the road. One bull and five cows.

We were also lucky to see Mule deer .

We drove from the Grand Canyon and spent the night in Kingman. The next morning we drove to Hoover Dam. We wanted to see how far the bridge they are building has been completed. It is suppose to be complete in the fall of 2010. I think it is almost as fantastic as the dam.
If you don't think that there is a water shortage, just visit the dam.

A very rare site of the dam almost completely empty of cars and people.

Can you imagine working on that bridge? I don't know if I will be able to drive across it much less work on something like that.

Hoover Dam is the border crossing between Arizona and Nevada.

A chipmunk. Super cute.
Lake Mead. Normally, you only see the top of these islands. Where the tops are dark is the normal water level.

Coming down into Las Vegas.

Driving across the state line from Nevada to California. Last chance to gamble.

Baker, town in the middle of nothing. Famous for a giant thermometer and the entrance to Death Valley.
The Thermometer.

My favorite road name of all time. A perfect example of when "y" is used as a vowel.

Between Vegas and LA, just outside Barstow is the mining town of Calico. It is only ghost town and actually just a little tourist spot but we stopped and had some fun before the last part of our drive home.
The mountains around Calico are filled with old mines and somewhat dangerous to hike around. When I was a kid, our family would often go to the ghost town for the day. My mom would read and my dad would sleep. we four kids were allowed to run wild. Maybe our parents were trying to have a few less kids. It didn't work so we will never know.
Wolfgang at work.

Walking through the mines.
Wolfgang reliving his childhood.

Isn't he great!

Luckily I had the car keys or I might still be inside.

Hanging with one of the locals.

So that's it and I am sure it was enough for you. We head back to Germany at the end of February (Wolfgang is already there waiting for the storks to arrive). Our trip this year was lots of fun. We will see where we head to next.