If you're viewing this:

"You're still here? It's over. Go home. Go."

courtesy: Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Thanks for playing....

Today we will arrive full circle, back in the Bay Area, after almost 8 months on the road. We stayed overnight in Bakersfield in the middle of an orange grove and as I was checking out the ripe oranges on the tree next to us, I couldn't help but also notice our US map, on the back of the van, now covered with the states that we stayed in.



So with appologies to Jonny Cash.... sing along if you know the words:

I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breatherd the mountain air, man
Travel - I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere

We've been to:

Watsonville, Redwood Shores, Arcata, Bandon by the Sea, McMinnville, Portland (Oregon), Deschutes River, Coeur d'lane, Glacier National Park, Two Medicine, Three Forks, Emigrant, Yellowstone, Jackson Hole, Grand Tetons, Cody, Thermopolis, Devils Tower, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Ft. Collins, Estes Park, Rock Mountain National Park, Breckenridge, Colorado Springs, Dunes National Monument, Durango, Ouray, La Junta, Dodge City, Kansas City, Des Moines, Cannon Falls, Brainerd, Duluth, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin Dells, Door County, Bailey's Harbour, St. Ignace, Tarvas City, Detroit, Grafton, Alleganey Forest, Niagra Falls, Cooperstown, Moose River, Bangor, Bar Harbor, Portland (Maine), Scarsborough, Cape Ann, Mystic Seaport, Milton, Lancaster, Washington DC, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Charlotesville, Monticello, Lurray, Staunton, Wytheville, Myrtle Beach, Savannah, Gainesville, Sarasota, Naples, Everglades, Juno Beach, Titusville, Homosassa, Ozark, Birmingham, Hattiesburg, New Orleans, Westlake, Houston, San Antonio, Fredericksburg, Waco, Dallas, Carlsbad Caverns, Roswell, Deming, Bisbee, Tucson, Tonopah, Indio, Joshua Tree, Bakersfielde, Santa Cruz

I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere.



Our plan is to stay in the Bar Area for the next month or so, deciding where we would like to settle down, and then head that direction when weather permits.

We will occasionally add to the blog, but not as often. Thanks to everyone who followed our adventures, posted comments and sent emails, it was like having our friends and family along for the ride (without having to feed you).

We'll see you soon!

Where in the world are we?

Time to play that exciting game show "guess where we are?"

OK, it's getting near the end of our trip and I'm running out of blog ideas.... humor me....

Here are the clues:

...gardens of Chollo cactus....



...wild coyotes....(this one darted across the road in front of us, and then hung around)



...cool rock formations like "skull rock", I think it looks more like Mr. Burns)...



AND....here's the big clue.... they have Joshua Trees.....did you get that Josh-ooo-uh trees.....



You guessed it, Joshua Tree National Park. Whew that was exciting... are you still there?

The Southwest...We blew by it!

Or you could say it blew by us, with lots of strong winds. Actually most of what we wanted to see in the southwest, Flagstaff, Taos, the Grand Canyon was already in the throws of winter. So we stayed south...and I mean south, like Bisbee, Arizona, 80 miles from nowhere, right on the Mexico border.



This former mining town (our RV site was perched on the edge of a copper strip mine) looked like the type of place you went to either, become a famous artist, become a starving artist, or just disappear from the human race.

Tombstone was just OK.



Tucson provided spectacular desert beauty.



One final word about Roswell, be careful of whom you ask directions or you might make a wrong turn.



Today headed into California... here we come... right back where we started from...hey there's a song in there somewhere.

Starbucks in Roswell???

Every now and then we get a question in the "comments" section that we're sure everyone would like to see the answer to:
chaz said...
"I'm curious, does Rosewell have a Starbucks? 'cause even Alpha Centauri VII has a Starbucks."

NOPE!

But they do have:



and what town would be complete without:

We are not alone, especially if you BLOG!

After getting unsolicited comments from complete strangers after our JFK posting I'm a little tentative about a Roswell BLOG.... ah what the heck.

With the exception of a small section of downtown that features alien street lights....



...and the usual souvenir shops....



Roswell looks like any typical small town. In fact according to one shop owner we talked to, it wasn't until the 1990's (the crash was in 1947) that they decided to court tourism. That was when the "UFO museum" opened up.



A timeline walks you through the crash...



...complete with a fragment from the craft..



and lots... and lots.... and I mean lots... of written documents like one government issued memo that provides guidelines as to what to do in the event of an alien crash (hint....deny, deny, deny)

There are photos that point towards a cover-up...



...along with an alien autopsy re-creation



The museum is really a collection of raw data that challenges the visitor to connect the dots.

THERE YOU GO... a completely unbiased, non-judgmental blog on Rosewell.... yep... no implants or probing needed here.

a thousand words

New Mexico sunset.

The Grand Canyon with a Roof....

You really don't get the full perspective until finding the people in the shot!




Will Rogers called Carlsbad Caverns, NM, "The Grand Canyon with a roof over it". Since it's cold and windy here, a roof seems like a pretty good idea. We took an hour and a half, self-guided, tour of the "big room". Since the last photo archive I posted was of Niagra Falls, so I thought this would be a good place to blow the lens dust off the camera. A few are posted to the left under "Photo Archive". If you don't have time here is one last picture for now:

"X" still marks the spot

The nice thing about not having to be anywhere is that you can change your plans at the drop of a cowboy hat. Over Christmas my sister, Leeann, described a tour she had taken of the Texas School Book Depository, now called The 6th Floor Museum. It sounded so interesting that we decided on the spur of the moment to turn north to Dallas. Hey, it was only 300 miles, that's "just down the street" in Texas.

The self guided audio tour takes place entirely on the 6th floor. Old photographs and video footage walk you through the Kennedy years leading up to November 22, 1963.



The climax of the tour is a sniper's view from the 6th floor window, (no inside pictures allowed) with boxes of books set up exactly as they had been when Oswald shot Kennedy... or did he....

Take a trip outside down Elm street, where an "X" marks the point of assassination, to the "grassy knoll". You'll still find conspiracy theorist ready to preach to anyone who will listen. Most are selling something. Here Donna is listening to a man who said he was a business partner of Zapruder (of Zapruder film fame), selling secret congressional findings that are not supposed to be released until 2035...oops looks like the cat is out of the bag.



My favorite was a man who claims to have been 18 feet away from Kennedy when he was assassinated. Here, he is pointing to a picture of himself at 13 years of age, in the crowd, as shots rang out.



He states that he saw the deadly shots come from behind this fence on the grassy knoll.



What I found interesting, is that he was the only one not asking for money.

This was one of the best tours that we have seen on our trip, well worth the detour.

Happy New Year!

Lots of people have sent emails asking where we spent the new year (ok 5 people). Fredericksburg, Texas, a small town settled by the Germans. No partying here, were asleep by 9pm. I can't understand why, I only had one beer.



All our best to you in 2008!