Third Time Is The Charm, Right? Probably…

So today we attempted to hike to the top of the world in Arizona, also known as Humphrey’s Peak. The trail head is located at one of the Arizona Snowbowl ski area parking lots, 14 miles outside of Flagstaff. To get there, you head north on highway 180 out of Flagstaff for 7 miles, then make a right turn on the Snowbowl Road, and drive 7 more miles until you arrive at the ski resort parking lots. Flagstaff is located at around 7,000 feet elevation, the 7 mile stretch you drive to get to the ski area gains another 2,000 feet, so you start the hike at just over 9,000 feet of elevation.

Flagstaff, AZ

Flagstaff was our “chill out” place. We’d seen so many national parks and monuments and visited two large cities in two weeks’ time, we needed a place to park the trailer and just do nothing for a bit. We also needed a place to plug in the trailer and charge everything back up, as we’d been living off the grid for 5 nights straight. We picked Flagstaff because it was on the way to the Grand Canyon, and offered some decent hiking/biking opportunities.

Arizona Craziness

Did you know that the state of Arizona does not observe Daylight Savings? No? Neither did we. (Or did we miss the memo?) We were thoroughly confused when, after crossing the border into Arizona, the clocks on our phones went back another hour. I conferred the US map, and made sure that I wasn’t wrong on where the next time zone was supposed to be (between Arizona and California), and when I determined that yes, all of Arizona was indeed still in the Mountain Time Zone, I googled it and realized that the whole state had chosen to not participate in the Daylight Savings. What? That’s crazy and horribly confusing to poor travelers like us. But the upside is now we’re on California time! :o)

Arizona, and the Petrified Forest National Park

We crossed the Continental Divide on highway 40. There is a labeled exit off the highway that you can take, that places you right on the divide. There you will find this sign:

The Continental Divide in New Mexico on I-40 

El Malpais National Monument

After winning our big money at the Sandia Casino, we packed up our things and hit interstate 40 west to El Malpais National Monument. We’d called the park service earlier in the week asking about camping opportunities, and they recommended that we stop at the free BLM campground off of highway 117.

We drove in just before sunset, with enough time to find the brightly colored yellow cattle guard that marks the entrance to the Joe Skeen BLM campground. After a short drive down a bumpy gravel road, we circled the grounds and picked out our spot. This campground is very well developed for  its “primitive” status, although there is no water or other amenities.

We Paid a Visit to Albuquerque, Oh Wait, We Got Paid!

While visiting Albuquerque, we stayed at the Sandia Casino. The casino is located just north of town, right off of interstate 25. It’s a very large resort, with golf course, swimming pool, multiple restaurants and hotel, and a very spacious parking lot. We were instructed to park in the upper level, and when we pulled up, we were not alone. There were at least 10 other RVs already parked on the lot.

Two Months On The Road Today!

Today is the 2 month anniversary of us leaving Fayetteville, AR! Lets wish for many more anniversaries and happy times. Thanks for reading and following along!

Happy anniversary!

M.

Exploring Santa Fe and Bandelier National Monument

After all the excitement of the last few days, we decided to take a day off. We booked another day at the RV park in Alamogordo and chilled in the air conditioning watching unending episodes of Weeds. (We have a bad habit of finding a new show on Netflix and then loosing whole weekends to watching season after season…). It was awesome.

Thursday afternoon we packed up, dumped and refilled, and then hit the road. Our original plan was to head straight to Albuquerque, but at the last moment we decided to check out Santa Fe.

Recipes From The Road- Chicken Salad

This is a simple chicken salad that I like to make to mix up the boring ham and cheese routine with. I'm not going to list how much of everything is needed, its all up to your discretion and taste.

First you boil an egg or two. Every time I go to boil an egg, I swear its like tying a tie, I have to look up directions on the internet. Here is a link I like to use in case you need some help as well. While the egg is boiling, open a can of canned chicken (or use baked chicken breast if you have some laying around), and finely chop it.

Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing has been around for ages, and almost everyone has done it to some extent.  Nowadays though, there are numerous forums to meet up with complete strangers and couchsurf or just meet up over some coffee and exchange stories.  Through these new websites it is more formalized, standardized, and has some safety features added.  We have used Couchsurfing.org a number of times and have had great experiences.

You start out by creating a profile about yourself, where you've been, where you want to go, and what you are looking to get out of couchsuring (CS).

White Sands National Monument

Today we visited the White Sands National Monument. Thanks to our America the Beautiful pass, we saved $6 on the entrance fees. I can't believe they only charge $3 to see this gorgeous place!!

Welcome to White Sands!

Our First Visitors!!!

A couple we made friends with while living in Memphis happened to be on their own cross-country tour, and were nearby, visiting the Carlsbad Caverns, just as we were pulling into Alamogordo. We happily invited them to be our very first visitors in the trailer!

Carolina and Jeremy

Off to Roswell to Visit the Aliens

After visiting the Carlsbad Caverns, we drove another 50 miles to the Alien capitol of the USA,  Roswell, NM. We stayed the night with an awesome Couchsurfing host, Nadia.

Roswell is a quirky town of 50k people, the center for dairy farming, but most famously known for the Roswell UFO incident.

Carlsbad (BadASS!) Caverns National Park

Monday we left the Guadalupe Mountains National Park and crossed the border into New Mexico! This is our fourth state on this trip, after Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. We drove 50 miles through the Chihuahua desert to our next destination, the Carlsbad Caverns.

A visit to the caverns costs $6 a person, so we saved another $12 with our America the Beautiful pass. The entrance fee allows for self guided tours through most of the caves, but you can also sign up for a ranger guided tour through some of the more "decorated" rooms. These tours range from $7-$20. We decided to try out the free self-guided tours first and then if we felt like we hadn't seen enough, we would sign up for a guided tour.

On the Road Again and the Highest Peak in the World (in Texas)

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and started off the day by eating a great breakfast with Brett and his grandma at the Old German Bakery. Afterwards, we drove the trailer to the nearest dumping station (Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park, only $3 if you’re in the area!), and then to Wal-Mart to get the new tires put on the trailer. We also had the tires rotated on the truck, and threw in a new air filter.

Fail #3

Here is another Fail to add to our list. On our way back from Big Bend we were looking for somewhere to grab some dinner. After searching high and low for a place that A)wasn't out of business on the lonely I-10 route and B)wasn't closed on Easter Sunday, we finally found a Sonic in Ozona, TX. So much for America's Drive-In.....

America's drive-in?

Turns out this used to be a McDonalds...there was no drive-in to speak of.

Fail!

M.

A Visit to Big Bend National Park

This weekend we visited one of the largest, yet least visited, national parks in the US: Big Bend National Park. The park is located in the southwest corner of Texas, and is extremely isolated. To get there from El Paso is 330 miles and 470 miles from Austin. If you decide to visit Big Bend (or make any trip through west Texas), be prepared. Even on I-10, the highway exits are spaced so far apart that if you run out of gas, you might have to call a service to bring you some. Of the exits we passed, only 3 major towns had gas stations, and by major towns I mean towns with a population of 3k. Also, our ATT phone service was spotty at best, so if you did run out of gas, you might not be able to call your service...

A Soundtrack for the Texan Road Trip

Our time in Texas has brought us around to enjoying Country Music. Yes friends, before coming here we did not know the joys of a simple twang on the radio, as well as a good story from Johnny Cash. Well, better late then never! So to ensure that we have a proper musical variety for our trip to Big Bend, we put together a CD for our trip. Here is the list of what we put on there: