Desert Adventures

We're getting to the last few weeks of our US road trip! This past week or so has been full of new states and new places to explore. After leaving Yosemite we headed to the Los Angeles area for a couple of nights. So far, LA has the worst and fastest drivers we have seen the entire trip. Combine that with the smog and we are glad we didn't stay long. Even while we were there we didn't spend much time in the city.

Joshua Tree

Instead of fighting traffic in the city we headed to Joshua Tree National Park on the only full day in the LA area. Joshua Tree is at the boundary of two distinct deserts and has the flora and fauna of both. The Joshua tree itself is so weird and unique, it was amazing to see them all over the desert. We drove into the park for a while and took a moderate hike. The weather was not too hot but we were glad to have a lot of water. After our hike we drove to some other notable spots in the park and climbed on the rocks. Some of the rock formations in the park look like someone intentionally piled them there. We eventually made our way back to the city and prepared for our next day of driving.

Las Vegas

The next day we geared up for some more desert driving and made our way to a new city and state: Las Vegas, Nevada! We had originally planned on only staying in an Airbnb while in Las Vegas but late in our planning we decided to stay one night in a resort on the strip. Our choice was easy; we had tickets to see the Beatles Love Cirque de Soleil show so we stayed at the same resort: The Mirage.

We arrived early in the afternoon and hit the pool after checking in. We had some time before the show so we got dressed and hit the casino floor. This was Maureen's first time at a casino and only my second so it took some getting used to but we eventually found ourselves at a craps table. We did pretty well and ended up winning some cash before it was time for the show to start. The show itself was awesome. Seeing the incredible acrobatic feats set to classic Beatles songs was a lot of fun. The next day we were feeling good about our luck so we hit the craps table again before checking out of the hotel. Turns out we were luckier the night before and we lost about half of what we made. Oh well, at least we ended out a little up.

The day we checked into our Airbnb was Halloween and we spent the day and night wandering around the strip. There were lots of people dressed up in costumes which was exactly what we were hoping for when we decided to be in Las Vegas for Halloween. In addition to admiring costumes we also checked out the free shows put on by the Bellagio fountains and the volcano outside the Mirage.

Our last full day in Vegas was split between preparing for camping the next day and exploring the downtown Las Vegas area. We went grocery shopping in the morning and found a couple of breweries in the afternoon, including Tenaya Creek Brewery which had some great beers. We also found a great vegan restaurant called VegeNation for dinner. Later, we wandered around the neon-lit wonderland of downtown Las Vegas Fremont Street and caught the end of the World Series before calling it a night.

Grand Canyon

We continued east from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon the following day. We made a brief stop at the Hoover Dam right on the boarder between Nevada and Arizona to admire the awesome feat of engineering. We kept going through Arizona and made it to Grand Canyon National Park with enough time to set up our campsite and start dinner before dark. We had to chase off about eight mule deer from sniffing around our dinner but they didn't bother us for long.

Two states at the same time!

Meeting the locals

We only had one full day at Grand Canyon so we spent it getting as many awesome views as we could. We learned all about the different rock layers and could easily see them on the canyon wall. The day was cold and windy but that didn't deter us from checking out as much of the south rim as we could.

Albuquerque

We packed up our campsite and left the Grand Canyon to go to yet another new state: New Mexico. When we arrived in Albuquerque we did some much needed laundry and went to Quarter Celtic Brewpub for dinner. On our one full day in Albuquerque we went to the Balloon Museum (mostly because it was free on Sundays) and ended up learning a lot about the history of aviation and of the feats people have accomplished with balloons. Did you know that in World War II that the Japanese sent balloons with bombs on them to the US? Over 1000 were recovered after the war and there might still be some in remote parts of the country! Later we found our way to tacos for lunch and then to a few breweries including Boxing Bear Brewing Company.

We left Albuquerque this morning and made sure to drive on the musical road that plays America the Beautiful on Route 66 not far out of town. We missed it the first try but we turned around and could definitely hear the song as we drove over the grooves in the road. The rest of the day was a long drive to Oklahoma City where we are just staying one night. Tomorrow we are headed to our second most anticipated city after Portland: Austin, Texas!