So much to see, so little time!

Today we did a good bit of picture taking... so please enjoy all the photos!
We spent most of the time today driving through New Mexico, with a small stop in Albuquerque. We stopped there for three reasons... 1. To stop by the post office to take care of some last minute things for the apartment; 2. To find a starbucks to get internet, since the hotel room last night stopped working! We needed to find an address for a hotel in Flagstaff!; 3. To get Sarah a charger for her camera.... all of these things were completed! So we got her camera working and she instantly began snapping photos.... and we got a lot!

I should point out we entered Albuquerque listening to the song "Albuquerque" by Weird Al Yankovic. I'm sure Sarah loved it... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8293203147995019225

After that we drove forward into Arizona, we stopped to see the Petrified Forest National Park... we saw the opening gate and then drove through to the visitor center and wanted to drive through the park... but you had to pay to drive through it! We both looked at each other and said "This isn't worth it." so we turned around and got back on the road!

We were really in awe of the beautiful scenery today! Everywhere we looked we saw beautiful red cliffs or snowy mountains or wide open plains. It was truly breathtaking!

After driving for another 100 miles or so we stopped to see a Meteor Crater in Arizona, just east of Flagstaff. Again we had to pay to see this... but this one we both wanted to see, so it was worth it! Beautiful!!

My only beef with our trip today is the national parks charging for admission! The Meteor Crater was a National Landmark.... I understand the need to get money to preserve the sites, fine... but make the damn Government do that! Not the people who want to come see it but are traveling on a budget! If the Government can bail out stupid companies that deserved to crash and burn due to their own stupidity and negligence, they sure as hell should be able to fund the preservation of their own lands, parks, and landmarks!

Whew that felt good to say!

Pretty easy drive today.... stopped here in Flagstaff, AZ for the night. Tomorrow not much planned except for our one big stop... which was our first planned stopped from the moment we knew we were driving... The Grand Canyon! After that we drive straight through to California, the Pacific Time Zone, and we'll stop right outside of Los Angeles! (We're finally seeing signs on the highway pointing us to Los Angeles, it made us excited to know we're getting so close!)

Thanks to everyone for following along so far and for all the comments (both here and on facebook), text messages, phones call, and e-mails! It's nice to know so many people are following along with us as we make this journey!
Keep following as we still have 2 more days to go... plus all the posts we'll be doing as we establish ourselves in LA and put up photos of our apartment and lives!

Enjoy these photos and videos! Will update again tomorrow.


The seemingly endless miles of highway ahead of us.

Some of the hills and red soil/clay around us!

The Phillips 66 Casion! Phillips 66 is a chain of gas stations all along Historic Route 66... cheap gas and literally at every stop. They had a casino at one though! It's also fun because of Sarah's last name... duh.

Me doing my driving thing. This was her I'm glad you got me the charger for the camera picture.

Us on the side of the road in New Mexico! Just beautiful behind us... the pictures don't do any of these sceneries justice!

Some of the mountains we could see in the distance! (I think they were the south tail end of the Rocky Mountains)

This is what was on the left side of the highway in New Mexico...

And this was on the right... literally at the same time. It was weird to see dry desert on one side, and snowy hills/mountains on the other.

Crossing over into Arizona!

Us outside of the Petrified Forest National Park! Sarah is sitting on a petrified stump!

Me and Sarah's car whom she likes to call my his name... Preston!

Us on the top ridge of the Meteor Crater in Arizona.

Sarah with miles of land behind her! You could see really far from the top of the crater ridge!

Me with a chunk of the Meteor... this is called a Meteorite!

Sarah just heard the news!

She's also learning about the heavens above!

God Bless America! and NASA!

Look at this thing! (this may or may not have been a fake background set up that was in the museum for people to take photos to make it appear they are inside the crater. You decide.)

A nice shot of the crater. It is 2 miles around, 4,000 feet across, and I forget how deep...so much for listening to the facts in the museum!

Us and the crater again, this is us on an overlook a little lower into the crater.

I found a space pod!

So much road... LA HERE WE COME!

This was the name of a town... and I'll tell you the story I told Sarah for how this town got it's name (see below picture)

It was the Wild West. Outlaws ran rapid... the threat of Indian attacks was constant... and there exsisted one town that stood in the middle of this untamed land! One day with the town in desperate need of justice and rescue, two gunslingers came into town and cleaned up the streets. One took care of the outlaws and declared himself Sheriff... the other took care of the Indian attackers and also claimed himself Sheriff. The two now had one problem... each other. This is where the story becomes the infamous story of the towns name... It was a town run by two guys, each owning one gun... hence the town was ruled by two guns constantly pointed at one another.

Pretty epic, huh?

This was as we were stopped on the side of the road in New Mexico getting a photo!