The Only Problem With Austin Is...
...that it’s in Texas. But that’s understating it. Austin is Texas. Think cowboys with big trucks. A disdain for public transportation means tons of sprawl and traffic. But everything is bigger in Texas, including the fun. So we had a bunch of that. We just probably won’t be moving there.
We drove all day and into the night from New Mexico to Austin, avoiding deer and “Yankees Go Home” bumper stickers. We arrived at our friend Alex’s crib, who was a fellow Rutgers yokel that moved to Austin for grad school to study Usability. Alex welcomed us to town with a beer, and showed us around his north Austin neighborhood with our beers in tow (apparently you can drink on the streets, as long as the label is covered — brown bagging it). Tired from our long drive, we called it a night.
The next morning was a day we’ve been looking forward to, All Hallow’s Eve (aka Halloween). The day started off non-spooky with a tour of the city from our guide Alex, in his new pickup truck (he was obviously becoming a Texan). First, we met one of Alex’s friends at a great cafe right on the river to enjoy some caffeine and excellent desserts. Next, we went further up the river to one of the best spots in Austin to check out views of the city and surroundings, Mount Bonnell. Then it was on to visit Austin’s popular spring fed swimming pool, Barton Springs, and do a bit of hiking around there. It was time to eat dinner, so we headed to Magnolia Cafe for some excellent tex-mex and queso (thanks for the recommendation Joanna!). Emily’s eyes were bigger than her stomach, so of course we also had to stop at a converted Airstream trailer that sold yummy cupcakes.
We had been looking forward to Halloween for a while, since we realized that we could easily create costumes based on our current looks. Em’s short hair combined with an all black outfit made an awesome Audrey Hepburn. And my beard and glasses with a commie hat, army colors and a cigar was a pretty spot on Fidel Castro, if I do say so myself (if only because my beard is of the extremely nappy sort). Alex doesn’t look like an iPod, but that’s what he was… a working iPod made from an old laptop screen and boombox. Pretty cool, but he only had battery life for a couple of hours. We went out on Sixth Street to party it up, something like Austin’s version of Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The road was closed off, packed to the brim with off-the-shelf costumes (most girls using this day as an excuse to wear as little as possible, but with a nurse theme or other varient) and some more clever costumes like an spot-on Ghost Buster. We met some people that seemed too nice, but we figured out why when they started praying for Alex (“Dear Jesus, please save iPod man”). We bar-hopped a bit, met some more of Alex’s friends, and drank some Texas beers like Shiner Bock.
We got a late start the next day, worn out from the previous day’s festivities, but we still got to check out a bit more of Austin. We drove around to visit t a local home brewing supply store, and pick up some other local beers from Texas’ Real Ale. Then, it was on to get some Thai food which was rated best in Austin… it tasted pretty good, but much more like Chinese than any Thai we’ve had. Of course, we also had to check out the Wheatsville Co-op. Alex went off to work a few hours at his schools computer lab, and we spent some time exploring the Blanton art museum on campus. The whole museum was filled with lots of awesome and weird art, but the highlight was an exhibit called Mike’s World — a bizarre multi-media project centered around a fictional “everyday Joe” named Mike, that has been created over 30 years. Odd, but amazing. Our final stop of the night was the Alamo Draft House, a combination bar grill and movie theater, to see the Darjeeling Limited (which we highly recommend). Combine good pizza and a great beer selection with table service and an indie theater, and you have a winner.
On our final day in Austin, we decided to get out of the city a bit and visited McKinney Falls State Park for some bike riding and exploring. There was a great swimming hole (too cold though) and lots of little frogs. We came back to the city to see the famous bats at the Congress Ave bridge (the largest urban bat population in the world, although it was dwindling for fall). It was dinner time, so we went to get some grub at the vegetarian restaurant Mother’s. The food was great, and apparently it was much classier now after burning down and reopening recently. Our final stop of the night was Gingerman Pub for their huge beer selection and to play some pool.
So, we partied hard, but weren’t sold on Austin (sorry Alex). Next, on to the land of even more hardcore partying, New Orleans.
Oh, Deer. Another Desolate Highway.
We left Albuquerque for a long drive down to Carlsbad (our hub for a couple nights while exploring Southern NM). Since we left a bit late, it was mostly night driving for us…something we’ve learned to try to avoid. This stretch of highway across flat dry empty land was particularly bad. If there weren’t deer standing near the road ready to jump at your car, there were remains and blood splattered across the road or foxes eating half dead deer on the shoulder. We crawled down this highway gripping the wheel and hoping for the best.
Our arrival in Carlsbad was uneventful; a bit of TV to take our minds off the highway carnage and then to sleep in our cozy Motel 6 bed.
The next morning we hung in bed for a bit and then headed back to Roswell for a day trip. We didn’t want to pay for the Roswell UFO Museum (which looked like a grade school science fair), so we just walked around and took some photos of the alien themed street lamps, stores, and McDonalds. Next it was off to Emily’s hot spot, Target, for some Halloween costume accessories. And finally, to Red Lobster for some fishy goodness. By the way, Red Lobster blew us away with how classy (and expensive) it was for a fast food joint…and the coconut shrimp was amazing. But it’s definitely not good for you.
The next morning, we were up early for our 9 am lantern led tour of Left Tunnel in Carlsbad Caverns. This was one of our favorite things we’ve seen/done so far on this trip. We learned a lot about the caverns and had a really incredible tour guide. Carlsbad Caverns is a dry cave, meaning it wasn’t formed by flowing water which makes for interesting formations and layouts.
Our tour led us through a tunnel that was formerly used to store rations during the Cold War…the caverns themselves were set up as a fallout shelter in case of an emergency. We saw a few bat mummies (which are preserved perfectly in the cave environment), lots of bat guano, neat rock formations, and a couple natural pools of water (each one with its own ecosystem because there are no animals/environmental changes to mix the bodies of water). But the best part was when we all blew out our candles and sat in complete darkness for a few minutes. This was darkness like we’ve never experienced. And then Nick farted (just kidding).
After our tour we walked around the largest room in the cave and then hopped on the elevator to go back up 700 feet to the parking lot. Then it was into the car for our long ride to Austin, TX.
Dias de Nuevo Mexico
Being nervous after our dangerous Rocky Mountain pass in Colorado, we were a little freaked out to find out that northern New Mexico is also at a pretty high elevation (I thought Taos was a hot little desert town, but apparently it’s a popular ski resort area). Luckily, New Mexico doesn’t get cold nearly as early… so we cruised from Boulder to Albuquerque snow-free.
We arrived at my cousin Jenny’s place in Albuquerque, a nice studio steps away from the university that she rents for barely more than what we were paying for utilities in Jersey (not really, but it was cheap). Albuquerque is a cool but inexpensive city, unfortunately that means a not-so-great job market. Jen is living there because she got a very cool grant to work on immigration issues. As a lawyer, she is going to be single-handedly building an organization that will protect the rights of immigrants in New Mexico…a group that is consistently denied due process. Go Jen! That night she took us to a great French restaurant for crepes that was previously a popular hippie hangout with Grateful Dead cover bands.
The next morning we helped Jen bring her car in for a check up (because that’s what family does), and then set off to Albuquerque’s Old Town. We started with an excellent docent led tour of the city’s history and great adobe architecture. Funny thing we found out… many of the buildings in the old town were actually converted from other historical styles to adobe in the middle of the last century to attract tourists (trying to compete with Santa Fe). Despite that, we had a great time wandering around, checking out the local artisans and the Albuquerque Museum.
We left Old Town and headed back to meet my cousin, but before that we had to stop at a thrift/vintage store chain, Buffalo Exchange. I was happy to find the final touches for my halloween costume (yes, now you can tell we are about two weeks behind on our blogging — it’s a lot more work than we thought!). Then, it was off to meet Jen at the local excellent co-op to pick up some groceries to make dinner with. We had a coupon to get 20% off with a purchase of $150 or more, but unfortunately we weren’t as big spenders as we thought and had to settle for just 15% off. For dinner, we concocted a big tasty salad and an almond flour crusted pizza. Jen follows the Specific Carbohydrate Diet which limits most carbs and some other foods, but is supposed to be great for people with auto-immune and digestive problems. The pizza was excellent, and filled with protein thanks to the almonds… it looked great in the iron skillet as well.
The next day we headed to Santa Fe, home of more adobe buildings, art galleries galore, and tons of tourists (us). We first went to a place called Atomic Grill for their wifi, decent beer selection, and mediocre food. Then, it was off to explore the city checking out all the galleries with pictures of wolves and paintings of typical southwestern scenes. Of course, Emily was ready for ice cream so we headed to a coffee and gelato place in town. The gelato was pretty bad, so we decided to get out of Santa Fe and drive back to Jen’s to make dinner (Jen had actually left to visit her boyfriend Shelby where he works in Aztec, NM). We stopped by a local Trader Joe’s (our fav) to pick up ingredients to make some tofu burgers. Good stuff.
The next day we left on an ambitious journey through New Mexico that our guide book said would take two days… we thought we could do most of it in one. The first stop was Shidoni, a foundry and sculpture garden that we toured but left before the bronze pouring demonstration. Next was on to Chimayo, a tiny sanctuary out in the middle of nowhere, which claimed to have “holy dirt”. Something must have been holy there, because we saw this unicorn. We filled up our own film canister of dirt to bring with us, and snapped a picture of the display of crutches that apparently weren’t needed anymore by the saved souls. What we don’t get is where they keep getting more dirt to fill the hole with (30k people come to get the dirt every Easter) — maybe they found a company that specializes in holy dirt mining.
Next, we were on the Bandelier National Monument, home to historic Native American cliff dwellings and some petroglyphs. We got to do a little hiking, climb into the cliff homes, and even saw some deer (they really are everywhere). After that, we headed to Los Alamos where the U.S. produces most of its nuclear arsenal. That is where the Black Hole Museum & Surplus Store is – a collection of miscellaneous junk salvaged from the Los Alamos labs (think 20 vacuum cleaners, computer parts from the 1970’s, and missile casings). We were getting hungry for dinner, so headed back to Santa Fe to a famous New Mexican restaurant called Cafe Pasqual’s. Right as we got to the restaurant, we remembered that we had planned to go to a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) event in Albuquerque, so we got back in our car without eating our expensive meal. The event was worth it though, hosted by a great Day of the Dead shop in old town called Santisima, complete with live music, a costume contest, and a raffle for an art print by a local artist (which we were three numbers away from winning, bummer!). Check out the pictures and video.
On our last day in Albuquerque, we went to get New Mexican food for lunch at a place called Church St. Cafe that was recommended to us by a bunch of people (and we needed to have some authentic New Mexican cuisine since we missed it the night before). We sat outside and the bees were out to get us, but the food was worth it. We got a combo platter with chili rellenos (stuffed and fried chili peppers), cheese enchiladas, and a tamale. Yum. We then went to the local Michael Thomas Coffee to pick up some packaged coffee for Jen, because we had been drinking all of hers. Their bags of coffee were great, but the cup of brewed coffee we got there tasted just like cardboard… not so yum. Finally, we met up with Jen and Shelby who had just come back from Aztec, said our farewells, and left. Thanks again Jen! You rock the house.
Next up, martians and caves!
We Won, Again!
So, remember when we tricked all y’all and convinced you that we won the California State Lottery (but really just got engaged)? Well, this time we REALLY scored big. Vegas baby!
As the sun set, we neared Las Vegas and saw the miles of bright lights as far as our eyes could see. Here we were in Sin City, home to 1.7 million people and growing by 5,000 more every month (the city only grows out, not up, so the sprawl will just continue eventually forming what experts are calling Las Vegangelesdiego). We met up with our host, Tony, at his digs and then cruised around with him as he showed us the west side of the city. Then, we enjoyed an awesome (and slightly discounted) sushi dinner at the restaurant he works at, Sapporo. We stayed up late that night chatting with Tony about jewelry (he designs it) and life in Vegas. Thanks again Tony!
The next day we did what anyone in Vegas would do, slept late into the day and didn’t leave the house until the early evening. We went out to try our luck on the famous Vegas strip, casino hopping to see what all the fuss was about. We felt most at home in New York, New York of course, with the almost full size Statue of Liberty outside and brownstone storefronts inside. We were equally impressed by the Eiffel Tower at Paris, and the Egyptian pyramid and monuments at the Luxor (apparently we missed some working canals and gondolas at the Venetian).
Our first $20 yielded few winnings. We lost it all on the computer blackjack and slot machines (imagine our surprise to find out that the Enchanted Unicorn machine wasn’t lucky). Just when we were about to stop, we made change with a final five bucks to test our luck one last time at New York, New York. And that’s when it happened… I hit the jackpot bringing in ten bucks! My winnings at the quarter slot machines went a long way towards the cheapest meal we could find on the strip, a $10 sandwich from Subway (which costs $6 anywhere else). Okay, I admit it… spending $25 to win $10 means we actually lost $15. But come on, we did “win” even if we didn’t leave with any more money than we came with (good thing I stopped Emily before she made change for another twenty dollar bill).
The next day we drove west back into California to visit Death Valley National Park. Don’t worry, going to Death Valley in October meant that we wouldn’t have to suffer through 120 degree heat (it is among the hottest places on Earth). It was actually only 72 as we approached the park, but quickly heated up as we drove from the mountains down into the lowest elevation in Northern America (Death Valley is 282 feet below sea level). We drove around the park checking out all sorts of hellish named park features like Devil’s Golf Course and Dante’s View. We took Artist’s Drive to see some very pretty colored rock formations, and went to see some of the only remaining water in the park at Badwater. We even got to do a bit of off-roading – blazing a trail of dust behind us – to check out the salty crust on the valley floor.
On our way out of Las Vegas we made some quick stops to get vegan donuts at Ronald’s Donuts and to pick up a vegetarian turkey sub from Capriotti’s (a chain that sells veggie sandwiches around the country, even in Jersey).
Now, from Sin City to the land of Mormons.
Get Your Kicks...
...on Route 66!
What great American roadtrip could possibly be complete without driving on the legendary Route 66. This now defunct highway was once the major driving route from Chicago to Los Angeles. Since it was decommissioned in 1985 it has only existed in small historic fragments and to those Americana revivalists (think Harley’s and RV’s) that try to retrace its original route.
Our drive to Las Vegas brought us through the small town of Seligman, Arizona’s center of Route 66 revival. We took the opportunity to snap a few pictures, buy a souvenir rubber cactus to put on our antenna, and drink a vanilla shake from a place that sells “dead chicken”. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to stop by the Roadkill Cafe for a foot high pile of onion ring.
After we had our fill of The Mother Road, we continued on past the extremely large Hoover Dam, which brings hydroelectric energy to keep all the neon lights glowing in Vegas (now that’s a good use for alternative energy). We took some more photo ops as we drove towards and over the dam, and stared in wonder at the mega-bridge they are building above the dam for commercial traffic.
Vegas here we come.
Where Hippies Go To Die
We headed to Tucson ready for a change of state…since we had been in the sunny Republic of California for about two weeks. A few things to note about our change of course: trekking to Arizona signified our first move back eastward toward the promise land (NJ, duh!), we hit 10,000 miles on our little blue wagon, Arizona does not observe daylight savings time and therefore we didn’t end up being late, and we reached the 2/3 point of this trip. Holy Moly. It has flown right by.
We’d like to take this time to admit that we do kind of feel homesick, miss everyone a whole lot and kind of feel like we need to get settled somewhere already. But, we have much more open road to conquer (and savages to tame) so I guess these wheels will keep spinning. In all seriousness, though we miss loved/liked ones, we are still super pumped to be on this magnificent trip.
We stayed with a wonderful couple, Francesco and Sylvia, in Tucson for a night and we feel very lucky to have met them. They are two amazingly warm and bright people and we loved spending time with them—too bad it was such a short time! After cooking up a delicious dinner (grilled cheese and tomato soup, anyone?) and chatting a bit, we headed to bed ready for a snooze.
The next day, we made our way through the Sonoran Desert to the Desert Museum where we spent most of our day. The Sonoran Desert spans much of Southern Arizona and a bit of Southern California and is home to many different animals as well as the famous Saguaro Cacti. Saguaro are the cacti that you most often see in Western films (you know, the long skinny ones with prongs) and they are only found in the Sonoran Desert.
We went on a fantastic docent lead tour of the museum/botanical garden/zoo (yep, it’s all of those things) and learned a ton about agave plants, mountain lions and mammoth fossils. About 25 years ago, they uncovered mammoth fossils and spear heads near the museum. This was significant because until this discovery, they didn’t know that humans existed at the same time mammoths were wandering in this area. Pretty cool. After the tour, we got some ice cream and called it a day.
For dinner, we ventured out to Guadalajara Restaurant with Francesco and Sylvia. This place had delicious authentic Mexican food and they even blended the salsas to your liking at your table. And they also had gigantic and tasty margaritas…slurp! Our next stop was at a KOA campground between Phoenix (which we sadly missed) and Sedona, our Grand Canyon resting place.
The next afternoon, we drove into beautiful Sedona and headed straight for the visitor’s center for some ideas on what to do while there. We met an amazing man who kept pulling out topographical maps and pointing and drawing red arrows on our paper map. We left, checked into our hotel, and drove over to the Airport Road lookout (a beautiful view) and then we took a short hike out to another picturesque red rock area near a pretty stream. Then it was back to the jacuzzi and then to bed.
We spent the whole next day at the Grand Canyon which is way more amazing then we could have imagined. So amazing in fact, that we’ll let the photos speak for themselves. Highlights of the day were exploring some of the South Rim Grand Canyon buildings built by one of the first female architects and finally spotting a moose chomping near the side of the road in the dark (good thing I had my high beams on).
The next morning we checked out of the motel and grabbed some greasy goodness at The Coffee Cup, land of 101 kinds of omelettes. I stuffed my face with an avocado, zucchini, tomato, and asparagus omelette and Nick ordered a guacamole and cheese one. Both were fantastic.
Before we hit the road for Las Vegas to gamble all our money away, we soaked in the beauty of Red Rock Country, and decided it wasn’t for us. Though it was a gorgeous location, the area was predominantly overrun by tourists and retired hippies with a lot of money. We really love old hippies, but don’t really want to live in such a touristy area…though we were very tempted to to get our auras photographed at a local vortex.
