Can we leave yet??

It's hard to focus on much of anything right now.  I'm so ready to get on the road and start this awesome adventure!

The open road

Still lots to do before leaving.  Laundry is done and clothes is folded and set aside.  I'm pretty sure I have everything.  I feel like I've packed everything I own!  Well not really, but a girl's gotta have options!  I'll be in Vegas so I gotta have cute dresses and bikinis.  I'll be hiking and trekking through the wilderness so I'll need sneakers, and stuff that can dirty.  Comfy clothes for long drives.  Clothes was whitewater rafting.  Don't let me forget a baseball camp for bad hair days and on the rafting trip.

I have a bag for shoes - sneakers for hiking, sneakers that can get wet while whitewater rafting, cute flip flops, flip flops for camp showers, heels for Vegas and a pair of cute flats.

I have a bag for camping stuff.  Pillow, sheet, sleeping bag, bath towels, beach towel, flashlight, mat for under the sleeping bag, lighter, campfire forks, foldable chairs and some other stuff.

Not my actual pile of stuff, but you get it.

I have a bag for the car - GPS, Atlas, snacks, drinks and chargers.  We bought a case of water to bring and a cooler.  I love those crystal light to-go packets.  I always have them with me.

Wild Strawberry is my favorite flavor.

After work today, I have to go drop off my dog with my aunt and uncle.  I'm so glad they are able to watch him for me.  He's like a furry nephew to them and their schnauzer is Kobi's BFF.  lol.  I know Kobi would love to go on this road trip but we will save that for another time when we can make the trip for dog friendly.  I'm gonna miss the little booger.

Kobi loves to play outside.

Kobi loves car rides too!

Stella is gonna pick up the rental car and all of our camping gear before we leave.  I gotta have all my stuff ready to just load up so we can get outta here!

Woo Hoo!

So what's the weather like out there Stella?

We checked out the weather and we gotta pack for all sorts of weather. Vegas looks to have the hottest weather of 108 degrees during the day. Looks like we will be hanging out by the pool during the day.

We are hoping for lots of sunshine during the trip. I'd hate to have to bust out a poncho! Lol. Rain could be in the forecast but if it rains, hopefully it's a quick shower.

We also need to pack some cool weather clothes. At night, it could get as cold as 48 degrees. Brrr. That sounds chilly compared to 108 degree weather. I also read that at the top of Sandia Peak it could be a whole 30 degrees cooler. Pants and sweatshirt packed. Check!

We are ready for what's ahead of us. I'm almost packed and ready to go. Stella is picking up the rental car and camping gear. I'm always worried about forgetting something but hey, Walmart is everywhere and has everything so no need to worry.

Meet my road trip "gnome"

I thought it would be fun to bring a toy on the trip and take pictures of it everywhere we go. I've done this before with McDonald's happy meal toy, Scrat from Ice Age. I renamed him ICEE.

He's played chess in NYC, tried cider, frolicked on the beach, went swimming and ate some pizza in VA beach.

I have since misplaced the McDonalds Scrat toy so he has been replaced with a new and improved Scrat.

Meet the new ICEE. He's looking forward to sharing his adventures with you.

The wise man travels to discover himself.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."
from Mark Twain

Wow, I can't believe this trip is right around the corner.  It's definitely going to be a memorable adventure.  Let's hope everything goes smoothly.  I'm not too worried about keeping a schedule except to be in the city of our lodging reservations by nightfall.  I think the fun part about a road trip is the experience and what you find along your journey.  I've been on long road trips before but I was always with family.  I've driven from Maryland to San Diego, Maryland to Houston, and Houston to San Diego.  I've been on many short road trips, but none were long enough that we had to really plan the trip out.

From Maryland to San Diego, I was in high school I think, or just about to be in high school.  It was a long trip and I was a teenager so I had my headphones on the whole time.  I do remember driving through the painted desert, stopping to take pictures of the gigantic cactus, and my mom having a cooler in the car so we could make our meals.  I also remember that we arrived at the Grand Canyon after dark so we couldn't see much of anything out there.  I think we slept in the car that night.  But wow, waking up to the Grand Canyon really was an amazing site.  But other than that, I don't think we stopped all that much.  We really just wanted to get to Sunny San Diego. 

Balboa Park, San Diego

I've driven the route from Maryland to Houston a few times.  The first time was a round trip.  My family and I came to visit an Aunt and Uncle here in Houston over Christmas break.  It was my first time in Houston and I loved it.  The people were so friendly compared to the east coast.  I loved that it was December and I was fine walking around in a sweater.  My favorite things were the many malls around Houston and all the palm trees.  There are no palm trees in Maryland.  The driving on that road trip was pretty crazy.  My dad and brother did most of the driving and we rarely stopped except to eat and use the restroom.  The second time I drove to Houston from Maryland was when I decided to move to Houston.  It was a fun one way trip with my mom.  She was nice company, although not much help in the driving department.  I think she drove a total of 4 hours in the 24 hours of driving.  haha.  But it's okay.  At least I didn't have to drive by myself.  We took it pretty easy.  We would stop driving by dinner time, have a nice meal, hang out by pools and took our time getting to Houston.  We stopped at a boat casino, drove through New Orleans, and visited a Cajun Village.  I still love the swamp that you drive over in Louisiana.  Much more my style road trip.

Part of the Cajun Village

From Houston to San Diego, was the same year I moved to Houston and our trip was delayed a day or two because a huge hurricane hit Houston the day we were suppose to leave and we couldn't put the dogs at the boarding kennel until after the storm.  Don't get me started on the hurricane, that was an experience in itself.  My aunt, uncle and I took turns driving to California....non-stop.  Well we stopped to eat, use the restroom and take a nap when we were all too tired to drive.  I remember there being not a whole lot to see on that road trip.  We just wanted to get to San Diego.  I think what kept us all sane was listening to audio books by James Patterson.  The books were great!  We almost didn't want to get out of the car because we wanted to know what would happen next!

Highland Village, Houston, TX

My girl Stella and I are different but similar.  I'm sure we are going to have an awesome time.  We are bringing lots of old CDs and mixed new CDs, along with our iPods and iPhones, Kindles and laptops.  I'm going to buy some Audiobooks for the road and we can listen to The Secret.  I love that book.  You just feel better and powerful after listening to it.

"The wise man travels to discover himself." 19th Century American Poet James Russell Lowell


I think we will be able to keep ourselves occupied inside the car.  It's what will happen outside the car that is unforeseen.

Buddy System requried

"All that is gold does not glitter; Not all those who wander are lost."
from J.R.R. Tolkien


So now that Stella and I have figured out the main attractions of this awesome road trip, what do we need to bring?  How can we plan for the unexpected?  We are two women alone out on the road.  I am a little nervous about the wildlife and strange men.  The strange men, just cuz they are out there and it would be stupid to think we that something bad could never happen to us.  I'd rather be safe than sorry.  So we will take precautions and watch out for eachother.  Buddy system!



We are getting pepper spray for the trip.  It's good for creepers and I've heard it works on bears too...maybe it would work for any other wildlife we might come across.  Which is hopefully none up close and personal.  Stella thought about getting a taser, but I saw a video of a friend getting tased for 10 seconds and it really didn't do all that much except give him a burn mark so I'm not sure how well it would work on a creeper.  Maybe it was on a low setting.  I'm just glad I wasn't around while they were doing that cuz it was a pretty dumb move to be tasing eachother.  Note:  Friends don't let friends tase while drunk! 

I'm nervous about spiders, scorpions and snakes that could sneak into our tent while we are asleep.  I think that would be my worst nightmare!





I got the heebie jeebies just looking up pictures of those things.  Yuck.

My mother informed me that we should be fine as long as we always keep our tent closed in between getting in and out of it.  She also mentioned that we are on campgrounds with lots of other people so wildlife will probably stay away.  I'm really hoping she it right.

What other dangers/unknowns could we encounter? 

Running low on gas with no gas station in site!  Precautions: Fill up tank when half empty.  Know the distance between towns and the gas mileage of the car.

Low on gas!



Getting lost during a hike, although I don't think we will be going off the path, but you never know.  Precautions: Survival Pod, Compass, mini first aid kit, Waist pack with water bottles and reflective tape.

$7 at Walmart

Compass - $3 at Walmart

Bison Survival Pod Keychain:  Includes two 4 ft. lengths of 550 lb. test paracord, 1 in. Sharp Eye hidden knife, 1 in. Fire Stick flint, 6 in. Jute firestarter/tinder and 3 in. strip of duct tape

Survival Pod Keychain - $12 at REI

Getting lost because our GPS stops working and our cell phones have no signal.  Precautions: 2013 Road Atlas map in the car with highlight route and have directions printed out from google maps.

Only $11.88 at Sams Club



Those are the major things that I've worried a little about.  I think we are pretty well prepared for this time.

Let's do this!







Aliens VS Ghosts. We are about to know the unknown.

Alright, so after surviving our whitewater rafting adventure, we are going to head to Alb. to crash for the night.  We reserved a cheap hotel because we might be too tired and sore to set up camp after whitewater rafting.  I really have no idea what to expect. 

This is what I imagine happening during whitewater rafting!!!

The hotel is also close to the Sandia Peak Ski & Tramway, which look amazing!! Not for those afraid of heights. Luckily, this girl and Stella aren't. http://www.sandiapeak.com/

The tramway is $20 for adults. $1 Ground Admission per car.

Sandia Tramway near Albuquerque, NM

 There's a ski museum at the base of the mountain, and it's free.  I love FREE.  :)  Ooo...and they have a restaurant at the top of the mountain.  Yes please.  We may need to bring a sweatshirt on this trip, the Sandia Peak website says it could be a whole 30 degrees cooler at the top.  We may try to see if we can hike around this area.  Stella was mentioned yesterday that she wanted to hike through a forest, and see bears.  Hiking is cool with me....but bears??  I'd rather see them at the zoo or from the car, where we are safe from being eaten!

And yay! We can check out Old Town Albuquerque the night before the Tram.  http://albuquerqueoldtown.com/   I'm sure it has nice restaurants, and shops.  Hopefully they have a Starbucks.  I forgot to mention that I collect Starbucks mugs....but only ones that have the city or state on them.  I have San Diego, Chicago, Houston, Orlando, Miami, NYC and Washington DC so far.

Starbucks mugs....not my collection.

They have a ghost tour too.  Stella is super into ghost stuff.  We took a ghost tour in downtown Houston.  It was pretty cool, more like a historical tour than a ghost tour.  So I'm open to going to another one.  I'm not sure if I believe in ghosts or not but I know I still wouldn't want to stay somewhere haunted because I'm sure my imagination would get the best of me. 

So the ghost tours in Alb. are $20 for adults and $18 for college students.  Sweet, they also have historical tours during the day for $10 a person.  http://www.toursofoldtown.com/

It sounds like there is actually a lot to check out in Santa Fe/Albuquerque.  Where to next?  Let's go UFO hunting! Roswell, NM here we come!  If we wear tin hats, aliens can't abduct us, right?  ;)

Tin Foil Hat

Welcome to Roswell, NM

So I think everyone knows that Roswell, NM is known for UFO sightings.  Let's do some of our own investigating.  Where can we stay in Roswell?  How about Bottomless Lakes Park?  Seems nice and quiet.  Hmmm....I wonder what's at the bottom of those bottomless lakes?  Maybe the UFO's or aliens are down there?  

Bottomless Lake State Park

They have a UFO Museum.  http://www.roswellufomuseum.com/   Admission is only $5.

UFO Museum

I wonder if the residents of Roswell, NM are proud that they are known for the 1947 UFO incident, which was actually over 70 miles away or if they are annoyed by the people that visit their looking for UFOs and Aliens.  Guess we will find out!

Homeward bound - What's up New Mexico?

The weekend is over.  It was way too short.  Stella and I attended a going away party for our good friend.  :(  We are gonna miss her a lot.  But hey, now we have another adventure to plan when we go and visit her.

Back to planning, this trip will be here before we know it!!

Ok, so where were we.....  oh yes.  The Grand Canyon.

Adios Grand Canyon.  It was nice to see you again.

Grand Canyon Sunrise

We are off to New Mexico!  I don't really know anything about NM so gotta use the internet to figure out what there is to do out there.  I want to go to Albuquerque cuz I've heard its really pretty, it's also a good place to stay for a night on the way home.  Man, could you imagine growing up there and having to learn how to spell Albuquerque??  It's a tricky one. 

Alb. is about 6 hours and 30 mins from the Mather Campground.

Albuquerque, NM

Mather Campground to Albuquerque, NM 6 hours 35 mins, 401 miles

Ok, back on track.  What is there to do around Alb?  They have an Old Town Albuquerque.  I dunno what it is about Old Town's, but they are always cute and I love checking them out.  Old Town San Diego is my favorite but we will save that for another adventure.  Alb. also has that huge hot air balloon festival, but it's not until October 6th to October 14th.  Too bad because it looks like something I'd love to check out. http://www.balloonfiesta.com/

Hot Air Balloon festival in New Mexico

Stella has been wanting to go whitewater rafting for a while now so we looked into rafting near Alb.  I didn't think we'd find any rafting around there, but ha.  who knew the Rio Grande is right there!  Well we found a few companies that offer whitewater rafting, but all of trips are north of Santa Fe, NM.  We originally planned on staying two nights in the Grand Canyon area, but we can stay two nights in the Alb/Santa Fe area so we can go whitewater rafting.  Exciting!  All the companies seem to have similar routes, and pricing so we went with the one that sounded the friendliest on the phone.  Far Flung adventures was our winner.  $55 per person for a 3 hour trip on the Rio Grande.  Gotta make sure I get a waterproof camera for this trip!!  This is going to be fun and exciting and a little scary.  I hope I don't fall out of the raft. 

Whitewater Rafting in NM with Far Flung Adventures

Wanna hear a joke?

A rafting guide walks into a bar, tells the bartender “Man, what a rough day. I’m parched, gimme a beer, a whiskey.” Bartender brings the guy an ice cold beer, and a shot of whiskey. The raft guide looks at him, and says “No, man, not both. Just one, the other. I just wanted either a beer, a whiskey.” The bartender was totally confused and pretty annoyed, and says “buddy, you aren’t making any sense at all, what do you want to drink?”. The raft guide says “Oh, yeah. Sorry about that, like I said it was a rough day. We flipped over a raft going down the river and I lost all my OR’s”…

Ok so the meeting place for that awesome adventure is 2 hours away from Alb and we gotta be there by 8:30am.  Anyone that knows me well, knows I'm not a morning person. 

Albuquerque, NM to Far Flung Adventures meeting place.  115 miles, over 2 hours.

So maybe we need to stay the first night closer to Santa Fe.  Which is cool with me.  I get to sleep a little longer and we can check out what's happening in Santa Fe.  Ya know, without this roadtrip, these are place that I would probably never see.  I found a campsite in between Alb. and Santa Fe.  There wasn't much around and this campsite is still over an hour from the rafting trip, but atleast it's not over 2 hours away. 

Cochiti Lake to Whitewater Rafting  1 hour 43 mins, 87.1 miles

We are staying at Cochiti Lake.  It looks pretty cool and our tent site has an awesome view.

Our campsite at Cochiti Lake.  Great view!

And they have some unusual formations in the area called tent rocks.  "These cone-shaped tent rock formations are the products of volcanic erruptions that occurred several million years ago and left pumice, ash and tuff deposits over 1,000 feet thick."  http://www.cochitilake.org/

 Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument

Yes, I'm a nerd.  I like cool looking rocks.  I've taken a few physical geology classes in college.  I find it very interesting.  I dunno bout Stella, but I kinda think I'm more excited to see all the rock formations than Vegas.  haha.  Is that bad??

Maybe we will check out Santa Fe after setting up camp.  And what do ya know, they have an Old Town Santa Fe!