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So, picking up where the pictures start, we have: Pipe Spring, worth stopping at after leaving the north rim of the grand canyon
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They've wagons.. |
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And.. animals.. with horns.. |
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We stopped at this lost city.. well.. I calmed the family with the cell phone that had been out of service for days.
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It was hot. Sure, there's Death Valley later, but first we stopped in the Valley of Fire
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I mostly stayed inside the car.. Max.. well.. he's fruity.
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Lookie, another road picture, but in the valley of fire.. oooh it's a fire road
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Ok, Vegas.. this is a story. We saw the blue man group.
They were pretty cool, but way over priced, $70 or $80 or something. !whew!
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We traipsed around, doing that Vegas thing.. lots of slot
machines dressed up in themes. We didn't gamble.. not really into that.. so
mostly we just gawked at all the.. stuff. |
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Some of it is actually interesting. Like a glass pyramid
with a beam of light piercing the top (the Luxor). |
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The glitz of Vegas is alright.. we had an ok time.. the
colors are pretty. |
| Things started getting a little blurry..
we had a few drinks. (ok, just one really huge one each). These pics are just
here because I actually like night photos with lots of lights. ;) |
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And late at night, in this blurry stage, we stumbled back
to the motel. Some mess of a place just behind the Tropicanna -- a block of
the main strip.
The next morning we wake up.. and some of our luggage is stolen. This
includes the laptop holding all the pictures we'd taken so far.
We're amazingly disheartened. Not only did I loose several hundred dollars of
personal things, we lost irreplaceable pictures of our trip so far.
- Mammoth Cave
- Flooded Mississippi river at the Arch of St Louis
- The Great Rocky Mountains
- Hanging Lake
- Great Mesa
- Arches
- Canyon lands
- Bryce
- North Rim of the Grand Canyon
- Zion
The pictures above are what remained on the camera.
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Fittingly, next was Death Valley |
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To see the Borax wagon train. Tons of oxen hauled this thing around, the tank is just for water.
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Max, he's cool.. |
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Badwater, Death Valley, Elevation almost 300ft 90meters below sea level.. and still toasty
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Finally, we've arrived in California. We stopped by Andrew's place.
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Now, imagine if you will, a whole summer passes. We work day and night at Angel Studios making games, we laugh, we cry, we live it up on the beach in sunny southern California.
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Joshua Tree, two deserts. |
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Joshua Tree is aptly named after it's quite popular tree.
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Max and I prepare to enter the Cholla (Teddy Bear) Cactus grove
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Cholla (Teddy Bear) Cactus is quite cute looking |
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What, the Grand Canyon? |
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Max and a Mule... |
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Vince and a sunset at the grand canyon |
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Max on the trail, the edge of the canyon |
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Max and Vince |
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Vince and the money sunset shot at the grand canyon |
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Sunset |
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The crater in Arizona, a mile around.. |
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Painted desert and petrified woods |
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We only got to the park late at night |
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Canyon De Chelly, a great park in the Navajo reservation
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We're hiking down to these ruins, the inset shows the cave dwellings that I'm pointing to
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A view down into the canyon, and the farms inside Canyon De Chelly
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Sandstone patterns in Canyon De Chelly |
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Hiking down cliffs in Canyon De Chelly |
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Cliff dwellings in Canyon De Chelly |
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Spider Rock in Canyon De Chelly |
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The road to Monument Valley |
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Monument Valley |
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Max and the Mesas |
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Vince and the three sisters in Monument Valley |
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The good old Ford Taurus in Monument Valley. If you only knew the miles we've traveled together...
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Playing around, another photo op |
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"The" Monument Valley shot |
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You drive the car around to see everything.. |
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The roads are dusty |
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Early the next morning we're on our way to the Hovenweeps. These horses helped point the way.
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Here we are at HovenWeep National Monument, and we still don't know what a Hovenweep is
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A Hovenweep is a valley with Pueblo village ruins in it.
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Many people have heard of the ruins at Mesa Verde, but
there were no crowds here. |
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So, we headed over to Mesa Verde. |
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click image for panoramic image.
click here for quicktime panorama movie. |
The pueblo buildings at Mesa Verde are large and packed together mostly in cliff overhangs
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Here you can see the whole structure protected from above
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The doors in these buildings are very small... |
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Max hanging out in a little door |
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Fires burn, but the land grows again, check out the black trees
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Mesa Verde pueblo ruins |
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The Great Sand Dunes! This is the sandbox of the USA |
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They are huge. The mountains of sand seem to have just been dumped next to a mountain range
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click image for panoramic image.
click here for quicktime panorama movie. |
Panorama at the base of the sand dunes. Take in the view, they're huge! What are we walking into!? Good thing it's early in the morning, the sand isn't too hot yet.
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Max walking |
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Vince walking |
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The sand is packed and settled. When you walk on the side of a dune, it breaks up and slides down ... making a great wooooshhh noise. You can see the tracks of animals in the untouched sand. |
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Max and I up high in the sand dunes, but still not at the top...
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Panorama from the top of a huge dune in the Great Sand Dunes
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click image for panoramic image.
click here for quicktime panorama movie. |
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Break up the side of a sand dune to make it soft to land in... and jump!
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JUMP! |
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Flip! |
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Now.. empty sand from shoes. |
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Now, we've been driving all over following an Atlas. It has little red dots where neat things are. That's how we found the Hovenweeps. Somewhere in Northern New Mexico we finally found this red dot. All there was to it was a sign. Hours of driving.. for just this sign.
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| But then we went to the Capulin Volcano. Here's the picture to prove we were here...
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The view from the top was ok.. but this was a mediocre last site on our trip.
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So.. we headed to historic route 66, and started the long trip home to North Carolina..
Back to school, for the last time.
But it wouldn't be long until I road tripped this way again... |
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