The wild and crazy jounrey to Texas

We woke up in Taos at 5:45 in order to hit the road by 6. Pretty impressive huh? Stopped back in Santa Fe for a quick breakfast before we committed to the road for the next 14 hours to Austin. But don't worry we managed to find some fun along the way. First we stopped in Roswell for lunch. If you don't already know of this bizarre place from its infamous UFO crash site, Katja recommends you watch a few episodes of the TV drama "Roswell" and you'll get the drift.
The entire town is dedicated to alien-featured tourism and of course we had to venture into the into the International UFO Museum and Research Center. It's very insightful. Apparently the thing that crashed in Roswell, although very close to a nuclear test site, was in fact a UFO complete with at least two alien bodies and not a missile with crash dummies. What can we say, their argument was convincing. We also ate a hopefully forgettable lunch in town- some beans, rice, and a few pathetic strands of lettuce. We don't recommend Roswell to vegetarians, only alien lovers.










Hundreds of Oil drills, tractors, and cows later we found ourselves recovered from our last meal and ready to eat again in San Angelo, Texas. Laura found a great blues cafe with live music for dinner. We were very excited to hear our first "yall's" in southern twang. They were surprisingly accommodating to our veggie needs, our waiter even telling us she pondered becoming one herself, not an easy feat in Texas.

Soaking in the glory of New Mexico

Laura guides you through the town of Santa Fe... get excited.




In search of Santa Fe's proclaimed "2nd largest art market in the United States" we headed to Canyon Road, but got lost in the narrow Santa Fe roads that wind through Pueblo style houses and fences that look like they are made out of loose branches strung together with rope. We some how eventually popped out of our delightful detour and found our intended destination. There were so many galleries we couldn't possibly hit them all. We saw everything from tricked out glass kaleidoscopes, paper mache paintings, to massive wire sculpture people. We ate lunch at an adorable tapas bar- yummy! To try to fit in all in one day, we headed to the Plaza to see the Native American hand-crafted jewelry and the New Mexican Museum of Art.
Although we could have spent all day roaming around the friendly streets of Santa Fe, we had to continue our journey. We booked it to Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs to make it before the mud bath closed at sundown. For the low price of $15, you can soak your body in the four pools of natural mineral water known for their healing effects- and we did just that.
Afterwords we dragged our loose muscles and overheated faces to the Ojo Caliente Restaurant for our potentially last healthy meal for a while as we looked southward.
To keep our clean track record of our no hotel track record, we planned on staying at Annika's mom's newly purchased and unfurnished house in Taos, about an hour from the springs. Little did we know what was in store for us. To begin, we encountered four elk on the road, they posed for some glamor shots (see below) and headed on their merry way. Then our seemingly unhazardous highway suddenly turned into a dirt road that suddenly turned into a massive gorge. No knowing what else to do, we continued down the narrow switchback dirt road, now pitch black. We eventually crossed the bottom at a small bridge to find that the road was a dead end. With minor panic, we managed to locate a paved road which directed us to a freeway on the other side. Our struggles weren't entirely over, as we had difficulty finding Annika's of the map house and had to be rescued by Joe the maintenance man. We shared their one piece of furniture, an over-sized couch and snoozed the night away.









Elk! check out their cute fuzzy bums

Ken Catches the Snake!












Crazy Rainbow Rock Shop

Cacti and quails and snakes, oh my!

Staying in Tessa's home set the bar high. Their backyard offered an array of Arizona wildlife including quails and woodpeckers scampering about. We were generously offered an amazing stir-fry dinner with a fruit platter for dessert (or should we say desert...) until our stomachs would not accept any more food. A lost snake even wandered up onto Tessa's driveway, allowing us to poke and prod its slithery scales- don't worry, we were prreeettty sure it wasn't poisonous. The night ended with wonderful conversations over wine and a warm snuggly bed that Tessa offered us.
Yesterday we awoke at a respectable 9:30 am, filled up with coffee, and said goodbye to Tessa and her extremely adorable and super accommodating family (thank you again if you are reading this!!). It was very hard to leave that house, but alas, we had a very exciting next stop: Santa Fe, New Mexico! Our drive totaled about 8 hours and offered a variety of intriguing landscapes: Swarrow cacti freckled all over rolling hills, tall green trees in Tonto National Park, and even empty brown expanses.
We stopped for a quick lunch at the Knotty Pine Cafe. It is a kitchy little place with very standard American lunch options. It was perfect and right next door to the Rock Shop. The Rainbow Rock Shop may be the most bizarre thing we have encountered thus far. Dinosaurs tower over the little brown building that sells rocks and giant hunks of glass by the pound. Turns out that the town of Holbrook Arizona is home to fossil and geode discoveries that have resulted in massive hand painted dinosaurs scattered all along the 101. One sign even promised meteorites!

We continues on our way and eventually found route 40 which would bring us to New Mexico. Minutes before arriving in Santa Fe around 7:45, Lara Bache called to open up her home to her two favorite wanderers. Although not home herself, we were very warmly welcomed by her Mom and Step-Dad. The undeniably best view from this southwestern style house is from their bathtub, which is surrounded by giant glass windows overlooking the beautiful forest that stretches for miles beyond their house. If you are ever as lucky as us to stay at Lara's house, you should request a bath.
After getting settled we headed off to dinner at Tomasita's, which Lara recommended. Tomasita's is south western in the best way possible. Some funky decor, family style seating, and massive south western dishes that leave you uncomfortably full. We ended the night visiting some local bars and challenging Santa Fe Natives to some Pool. I know it's surprising, but we got skill.
Headed out to explore SF for the day and then off to Ojo Caliente to experience some natural hot springs.

Arizona Sign (we're the tiny people below the sign)

First Stop: Arizona

Check! Made it to Arizona. We got a bit distracted by the pretty landscape and forgot to fill up on gas. Classic move. Only 100 miles out of Cali and we're already dealing with our first crisis. Luckily we rolled into a small town before Blythe (the first thing in about 80 miles) sweating from the no AC situation in the nick of time.
Also, fun fact, the Arizona Sign is enormous! Check out our sweet photo. Yes we stopped and got honked out by at least 10 truckers.
We knew we were close when we pulled off the freeway and were driving on perfectly paved roads splatted with proud conservative political signage and funky low-riding Pueblo style houses. We stopped in a CVS to pick up some wine and all the employees wore giant yellow tags that said "DELIGHTED" They've taken extra steps to make their costumers happy.
We are currently safely tucked away at Tessa's house and about to eat some delicious stir-fry with her family. Next stop Santa Fe : )

And so it begins....

Sorry It's Sideways... our filming abilities will continue to improve as the trip goes on.