Second to last day...and the art!! Wow.

As we headed back East from the Grand Canyon, our minds were completely blown by all these wheat pastes. All right--all of you from our gorgeous SouthWest...who is this guy? He / She is phenomenal. I don't even want to taint it with words.

We found most of this art within a hundred miles or so from here:


Perspective...my head reaches the bottom of the window. These are truly awesome.

(my favorite)

Some food, too. Tacos Los Altos in Flagstaff, AZ. Holy cow. For a tiny little taco shop off the interstate, this was fantastic! No web address, but please visit it if you're headed down US 66.

Fish tacos...
Barbacoa--Tavo said it was off the chain.

Hey, you can sleep in a wigwam.

We hit a storm while heading east...


We spent the night in El Paso. Ready to drive across Texas to meet Tavo's sister in Houston.
(unrelated--wow!! They are pulling up the first Chilean miner!)

Day 5-6: Four Corners and the Grand Canyon

I just realized that I'm never going to finish this if I don't hurry it up a bit. Here are massive amounts of photos, with a few words to tie them together.

This is actually the evening at Great Sand Dunes--but I'm pretty sure it was near or after midnight, so we'll just stick them into this post. I am grinning maniacally because I'm doing three of my favorite activities all at once. 1. Camping 2. Cooking 3. Drinking and I'm doing them all with my best friend--this is what its all about, right?

Chopping a variety of vegetables...

Master firebuilder, in repose.

Rabbit food always tastes better over fire--veggies tossed with oil, salt, pepper and thyme.

Potatoes with oil and cajun seasoning--this is the time I don't mind all the extra salt.

Next day, we stopped at the Four Corners--here is me hovering above Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

Thank you GPS for more gorgeous backroads...

We decided to stay on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, as it is more remote and (I think) more beautiful. You have to drive for a couple hours through the middle of nowhere, though, to get there. The scenery is amazing throughout and shockingly enough, NPR signal stayed strong even though our cell phones were useless.

We stayed in Kaibab National Forest and even managed to get a (blurry) picture of the Kaibab squirrel--look at his ears!!!

This guy had on skin tight white leggings and moon boots. It could be super high tech.....it could be too many days in the hot desert sun...

After hiking all morning, we came back to the campsite and read. A few miles hiking into the canyon is a breeze, but coming back up? Sheesh. It took hours, and I'm not even exaggerating.

Oh yeah, we get to cook again :D

I have a superior s'mores technique, developed after years of bonfires and camping with my family. Check the melted chocolate....

Happy 30th Birthday, Tavo!! Here is to many more.

Day 4: Cadillac Ranch, TX to Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO

We slept in Amarillo, and got up early to head west. This was our big driving day. So, Ant Farm's Cadillac Ranch is just outside the city limits, and we decided to stop by it. I was shocked by the police presence and just sheer number of people there! It turned out to be Larry Frederick's Life Across America ride through Amarillo. He is a retired policeman who was injured in the line of duty and saved by blood transfusions. He rode across the United States on his bicycle as a nationwide blood drive. Please, go on out and donate blood or plasma and support this great cause!

We also decided to support Tavolini ;)

We headed west...on super, super back roads. I have always been a fan of paper maps, AAA maps to be specific. (Rand McNally, I'm sorry--but you are not nearly as accurate) I do have to say, over the course of this trip, I found that GPS is even more dedicated to finding rural routes than I ever was with my box of AAA maps. What can I say---I'm impressed!

Fine dining outside the Valero station. Tavo opted for deli meat and some cheese...

..and I went for my Grandpa's favorite fishing snack--sardines in hot sauce ;)

Gratuitous New Mexico shot in honor of Christo. Yep, we were in your home state for a couple minutes ;)

Then we hit our destination, Great Sand Dunes National Park in Mosca, Colorado. So beautiful! They backed up to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains.

It's bear country, and the ranger SCARED me to death by saying that bears can tell what coolers are and that they have food in them....even if they're in my car! (lol......I think he was pulling my leg??!!)
Our view. Can you believe this?? I really was amazed. Okay--I'll be honest. I kind of wanted to stop and just stay here for the rest of the week. It was THAT beautiful. Seriously.

(Only drawback? No showers. We found this out AFTER playing in the dunes and hiking all over and getting really filthy and sweaty. Well, there are always baby wipes...)

Our view. OUR VIEW!!! We fell asleep and woke up to this!!!

After setting up camp, we went hiking all over the dunes. This is so fun!

Then we went back to our campsite. Camping and food to come!