A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words...

Hello again.. so you be wondering why my map says i'm in North Carolina, yet my last post was talking about New Mexico.

Well, that would be because of a few things:

1. I'm busy having fun and am being too lazy to write blog posts.
2. I'm a pictures person.. writing doesn't come all that easy to me
3. Internet access is infrequent and i spend more time editing pictures and uploading them when i do have access.

Now, i don't want to come across all whiny about this.. so i am going to try my darndest to correct this..

So here it goes, hold on to your butts as thing are about to get wild.

Having left Las Cruces we set course for the dessert.. in particular the White Sands Dessert. This place is home to a few different inhabiters. Firstly: The US Army and their missile research facility. 

We visited the museum they had their.. but there was a whole army base there for those who work there and do research. That was fun and all.. but they had a V2 Rocket there on display which got me angry about how very little was mentioned in the museum about the destruction this weapon brought to London.. and instead it was glorified, as the rocket that put man on the moon.

Next up was the White Sands itself.. an area of dessert that was composed of fine gypsum powder, and formed moving sand dunes.

We had fun jumping around on the dunes and somebody also had a lovely chat with the local park rangers about his driving style..

Needless to say we were dripping with sweat after all this frolicking around in the dessert, so as we drove further East it was quite remarkable to see how different the landscape became...

New Mexico - Lincoln National Forrest

We drove the rest of the day right the way across the ever changing landscape of New Mexico until we finally reached our destination for the day: Carlsbad Caverns.

Having got their too late to enter that caverns that day, we instead planned to stay the night in the van and gaze at the starts... for you see the sky was alive that night...

The next Morning was spent 800ft below the ground exploring the largest underground cave system in the western hemisphere.

After finishing up, we pointed the van's nose East again and entered the Lone Star State: TEXAS. 

The Trip so Far...

I'm going to start this blog post of by saying, that for more up to date progress of what im doing, check out my google map here as its quicker for me to write little tid bits about what ive been up to and show the route we took on there.

So last time i wrote i had stopped off in Slab City... well i can tell you know, we're far, far from there!

After leaving the slabs, we headed for the desert mirage, otherwise known as Las Vegas! however we took a rather long detour via the Joshua Tree National Park..

(Clicking the Picture should take you to my Flickr feed for more pics)

spent an hour or two at  most stopping every now and then in the park for a few pictures.. then carried on our merry way on the Vegas.

As we drove into vegas a rather large thunder storm erupted in front of us, but luckily it was still a good way off and wasn't over vegas in the end.

we spent around a day and half in Vegas in the end.. having got a cheap deal on a hotel off the strip.. but the heat was intense. so most of the day was spent either in the pool, in the room, or in a starbucks!

the evening we went out for a walk down the strip to see what was going on.. my overal impression of Vegas was a rather seedy, dirty, tourist hot spot kind of city.. i'd maybe go back for a day or two to see more of the shows they put on.. but i didnt fancy losing lots of money there which will be sorely needed further along on the trip.

We left Vegas in the afternoon and drove down to Hoover dam, getting there just before closing.. but still to late to see the museum.

i wanted to get some pictures to show the sheer size of this structure, but even this doesn't really do it justice.. you have to see it for yourself.. and to think they built it in 4 years in 1934!

leaving the Dam in the late evening we set the SatNav to the Grand Canyon and carried on driving..


as we're getting close (we had set the destination to the skywalk... big mistake) the lovely paved road, stopped. "Rough Road" "14 Miles" said the sign.. rough was an understatement.

we were luckly to get more than 10 mph along that road, any faster and i'd be in a neck brace...

i should also add, it was around this point that yet again, lightning began to make its self evident in the distance.. as cool as it looked, neither of us thought that it could possibly be heading our way...

we finally got to a point where the road was paved again! (i nearly got out and kissed it, had it not been for the fact the lighting seemed to be getting closer). We drove toward the skywalk, hoping to be able to park there for the night and be the first on it in the morning. Thats when the rain started. its also when we saw flashing lights coming towards us.

"Turn Around!, the Skywalks Closed"

"Can we not drive down there and camp for the night?!"

"No. Follow me, and i'll show you where you can camp"

"OK."

we were back at the start of the paved road, end of the dirt road. but we'd driven back out of the storm. so we thought.

I managed to get a few pictures of the lighting before the rain reached us.

this picture only gives a very small glimpse into what we witnessed that night... after a few beers, wide eyes, and distaster theories later, we ended up calling it a night and going to bed.

The next day Andreas decided to go for a jog from where we were down to the Skywalk. thinking it was only 5 miles or so (according to the satnav... which we're sure is lying to us on a daily basis).

i stayed in bed.. however after what felt like hours, i decided i best get up and drive down the road to see where he'd got to.. a mile or so down the road i found him. Turns out now it was more like 9 miles one way... he'd spoken with people at the Skywalk.. a few things of Note: 1) it was $60 a person (rip off) 2) didn't look that good anyway. 3) he'd never have run that distance had he known it was 9 miles 4) according to a park ranger, that was the worst storm he'd seen in his lifetime.

We packed up, and made our way to the Grand Canyon Village, which was a long drive East.

we took a route via a section of the old Route 66. had lunch at a Native America Restaurant (the food was distinctly american.) and made it to the canyon ($25 later) just before sunset... oh not before old Gavin (The satnav voice that we blame for mis-direction) took us via some crazy dirt road again.. which somebody, decided to drive along as if we we're in a rally car... )

anway.. the view was breath taking..

We stayed in the visitor car park that night, and even ventured out at night to see the canyon, with the hope of a clear sky and no more, to try some more star trail pictures. sadly it was neither clear, or no moon, and was also rather cold, so after one test shot of a ten minute exposure (which came out rubbish) we retreated back to the van.

i'm going to end it here for now.. as i write this, i'm in New Mexico, but i'll save the next post for the journey south in Arizona and then on to New Mexico. Havent got the pics up on flickr yet either so you'll just have to wait!

Thanks for reading..

Ady