Truely Majestic Photos

This really is embarrassing!  I have had this blog post sitting here in “edit” mode for a month!  When things get quiet around here, you know they’re not quiet in real life!  We have been overwhelmingly busy with the sale and showings of our home, baby appointments, and a part-time job I have had out of town just for these few winter months.  Oh..and yes, the new farm is still in the works…coming along nice and slowly.

Wait!  I haven’t even properly announced on the blog.  Yes!!  We are expecting!!  A baby…no, were not going to find out the gender, so…I am having a baby Due August 29th, and currently 18 weeks along (starting the 5th month).

Onto the post.  Months and months later, I continue our All American Road Trip photos.  It is a long one, but I have been very eager to show these to you for a long time.  Here it is, Roswell, NM to Nevada.

Roswell is a place that I have wanted to visit for years.  YEARS!!  I became obsessed with the Alien craze in my early double digit ages.  So why not go to the first place that comes to mind when anyone says “Alien!”?

The town is sprinkled with extra terrestrial decor.  Stores, tours, gift shops, decorations, media, museums, restaurants.  Everywhere you look, they are there.  We actually decided to stop at the tourist booth, and the lady greeted us with a little glassy eyed grin, and a handshake only to announce “Welcome to Roswell, what planet are you from?”  Landon didn’t skip a beat and blurted out “Canada!”.  I was still in awe.  It was like seeing Mr. Dressup for REAL in concert 20 years ago!  I became that little glassy eyed, grinning lady.

Below are a few tidbits from the Roswell UFO Museum.  Here there are artifacts, newspaper clippings, art renderings, actual samples, visual and audio recordings and many other things that pertain to the very famous UFO encounter that happened in the New Mexico desert many years ago.  They even had this little show (pictured below) where the space ships spewed smoke, lights flashed, and the aliens talked.  Very surreal, but cool!!

An actual piece of the UFO that was captured after crashing near Roswell in 1947.

Pictures of me were always taken when I looked horrid..I swear it!  Whatever…I was THRILLED to be there…so who cares!?  Ha Ha.

Here is an actual Alien prop used in the Roswell movie.  It was very realistic and…yes, cool!  I really did feel like a kid.  Just happy to finally see all of these things I had heard so much about.

Now we were off to the Bottomless Lakes State Park.  One of my most favourite places we camped.  Below is a picture of a racehorse farm.  There are a lot of Thoroughbred and Quarter horse tracks in this particular area of the USA.

What is over there!?!

A HUGE HOLE!  Really, this was considered to be one of the “lakes”.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottomless_Lakes_State_Park.  This place was absolutely fascinating to me.  Laying amongst the absolutely stunning red rock formations are these lakes.  Deep, suspicious, and dangerous.  I had to find out more!

At our campsite were these pretty little trees with tiny blossoms.  After a mini monsoon rain, we went for an evening tour to the lake we were camped at.

GORGEOUS!!  Lea Lake, 90 feet deep, and about the size of a large slough back home.  I was in love.  You can see why through the photos.

Water as Jade coloured as Mexico!  We were so thrilled to finally find a place where we could swim.  However, as our luck would have it, swimming was closed for the time we were there as there was a large fish kill (fish found mysteriously dead) in one of the lakes.  BOO!

It was warm!  We hadn’t had air conditioning since South Dakota.  So, we were fans of fans!  They were the only way we could sleep, and even if they were blowing hot air, it was still something!  We spent about 10 days in 100 degree plus weather.  Little did we know, we were just getting to the warmest parts!  Literally, it was so dang hot we drove down the freeway with ice packs on our back.  Vehicles of all kinds, both old and new, semi’s included were overheated on the sides of roads.  It was cooler to keep the windows closed as we drove because the air outside was hotter than that in the vehicle.  WHEW!

Through the countrysides of New Mexico.  A very diverse landscape.

Had to take a picture of this motel.  Sure don’t see that around home!  Very cute.

http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/recreation/roswell/valley_of_fires.html.  The next place we toured.  The Valley of the Fires.  All of this is Lava.  The valley is a few miles wide, and several miles long.  Some of the lava is 165 feet thick in places.  What an amazing sight.

The Owl Bar.  The cute tourist booth lady told us we had to stop here.  Celebrities are often spotted in this tiny town’s bar in San Antonio, NM.  Apparently the desert of NM is becoming the new Hollywood and many movies are filmed out there.  Luckily for us, it was Sunday.  No food or celebrities for us!

The view!  Oh the view.  Rain just off the freeway and in the mountains.

That river you see is the Rio Grande.  The RIO GRANDE!  Crazy.  We crossed it a couple of times…no, not into Mexico.  Along the river are many many produce farms that use the water supply for irrigation.  It was not strange to see grey and brown surroundings, with the odd few acres of very green and lush foliage.

Beautiful, clean black freeways…why can’t we have you here?  Darn Winter!

Back on Route 66 in Albuquerque.

Next major stop…VEGAS!!!

Oh right…but we had to go through Arizona to get there.  Oh how I loved the culture of the south.  The real Cowboys and Indians.  We drove through some of the most historic and popular Native country.  Everywhere we went there were artifacts, stores, popular road-stops, and art.  This particular place is very popular and has been featured in history through television, photographs, and books for years.

The Petrified Forest National Park.  Landon’s thinking Jurassic Park.  Im thinking…I gotta go there!!!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrified_Forest_National_Park.

What an amazing place!  So much history it makes you feel so young!  Millions of year old petrified wood, rocks, art (inscribed on the rocks in one of the photos…which I cannot find myself, but it is there!).

On the other hand, it was very cute to see Landon using the film camera we brought along.

The different foliage/trees/grass are always the first things I notice when traveling.

Two crows so ugly they…well, they were ugly!

See all the petrified wood that looks like little brown poops?

More petrified wood.  Looks like wood chips, and it is…but their all now rock.

Colourful!  Very beautiful.  It constantly amazed me how much diverse beauty each state had.  Most were things I didn’t know existed.  I would recommend the stop here to people of all ages.  It is a place so rare you feel like you must be in a dream.

Had to do these van pictures every once in a while so that if we were ever questioned it was proof.  I KNOW people thought we were crazy when we suggested a 10,000km road trip in this 1983 beauty.  We grew to love it.  We have since grown to miss it.  What a thrill to only have a 6x12ish foot space to clean!

Mr. Tourist.

Wind turbine blades.  Rather large, taking up 2.5 railway car lengths each.

Why are houses like this so rare around home?  Seriously…you just want to sit across the street and smile.  So cute

Filling up with gas.  Probably for the 47th time.

A very random valley of wildflowers.  I am sure that is even what it is called.  It lasted for a few miles along the Interstate, but was worth it even if it passed by in two minutes.

Route 66!!  The real deal.  The stores and restaurants and novelty and motels and landmarks and history all as seen on TV and movies for years.  We were there http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_66.

On part of the Original Route 66 Highway.  Much of it is not driven on any more.  It is now along the same route, but rebuilt, doubled and called the I-40.

What the heck is this you may ask?  Well…this was what we saw one morning after desperately parking in a random approach at midnight after searching for a campsite, driving up and down a mountain, and back and forth  down the interstate.  We had literally parked in a pasture.

We were off to the Hoover Dam and Las Vegas that morning.  Turned on the van, cranked the A/C, and sat back for some cereal.  ggrrrreeeeesssshhhhrrrrgggggssseeeeeee.  Overheated!  Yes, the van was overheated in this very convenient place.  Turn off the A/C, keep the motor running to help cool itself, and open the hood to further investigate.  MAN was I ready for some civilization, a real shower, a hotel bed, and some coolness!

Upon further investigation we realized it was time to leave!!!

Driving through the desert at about 108 degrees (plus 42).  The desert is precious in its own way.  Full of nothing but rock and vastness it holds a giant mystery in its rocky peaks.

I had to capture the moment we passed by 100,000km on the odometer.  Almost exactly at the Hoover Dam.

We saw so many cool vehicles we couldn’t photograph them.  Often passing by on the Interstate we would just point and excitedly jabber at each other.  We are lovers of old and unique vehicles.

Crossing the Mike O’Callighan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bride.  I knew it was a bridge…but I didn’t know how high!!!  Opened in 2010 it is a Bypass of the Hoover Dam.  You used to actually drive across the Dam, but it has been so full of tourists they had to create another passage.  It is 840 feet above the River below.  Holy scary when you drive down to the dam, look over, and realize how high you just were!!

Next…Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and the California coastline.