So, we went to Colorado. Why? Because there is snow, and we live in Texas normally where there isn’t snow. Except this year, where we had an absurd number of cold days and snow and freezes in Texas. That was.. odd. But, Colorado. We decided to give yuppie a try and went skiing (neither of us had done so in years. I usually snowboard, and he usually doesn’t live near mountains).

I was sad to see this today about the Texas teen who died at Beaver Creek. Beaver Creek is gorgeous and has numerous greens (all we were really up for) and it’s a shame that this happened. First time skiers should NOT be on intermediate slopes, I don’t care how much of a “natural” the kid is.

Some pictures from the drive and the slopes after the cut.

Entering New Mexico…

OOOoOOOoo those look like ski slopes!!!

Believe it or not, I was not attempting to photograph the UPS truck…

Drive by Photography:

The rules for Drive By Photography are simple.

1. Take a photo while the car is moving.

2. The car must be going at least 60 MPH when the photo is taken.

3. No slowing down.

The rules for Drive By Photography are simple.

1. Take a photo while the car is moving.

2. The car must be going at least 60 MPH when the photo is taken.

3. No slowing down.

The rules for Drive By Photography are simple.

1. Take a photo while the car is moving.

2. The car must be going at least 60 MPH when the photo is taken.

3. No slowing down.

After our quick trip to the donut shop, we proceeded to Phoenix. Mind it’s still pretty early during this part of the journey, only around 6 AM when we finally get on the outskirts of Tucson. There’s a reason this region is.. rather well known for it’s large and particularly spectacular cactus plants. This is why:

The man in the photos is over six feet tall. Those are some BIG cacti.

Yes, those are crops. In a very aired environment (see above). No, those crops aren’t naturally present in a desert ecosystem.

This is what it is SUPPOSED to look like. See the small trees and cactus plants? That is normal!

We hit Phoenix in time for rush hour, which was bad planning on our part. But we are from Houston, so a little traffic certainly doesn’t hurt us, and it seemed like a perfect excuse to pull over and find a Starbucks before moving onward.

Downtown Phoenix at 9 AM… kind of empty.

This photo was taken right next to an outdoors mall in which we found an open Starbucks. I know what you’re saying.  You are sipping on an organic brew from your neighborhood cafe, possibly even there right now surfing the web for interesting road trip stories, and you’re thinking, “FW, we know you’re just getting started here with the whole photo blog thing, and you sound pretty cool, and your posts are quirky yet odd, but honestly… how can we give you any cred for being both fearless and  a wanderer…  if you drink the Starbucks?”

Folks, let’s keep a few things in mind here.

1.  At this point in the trip, we had not slept except in short bursts inside  vehicle traveling over 80 MPH, for over 30 hours. This is 9 AM Phoenix time. That’s 11 AM Texas time. We woke up at 6 AM Texas time, worked a full day, then got into our car and started our journey across country. That’s Fearless. That’s Fierce! That’s the Wanderer part of the equation. Normal people don’t begin road trips at 4 PM in the afternoon. Abnormal people squeeze the most out of every second they can, including husband’s vacation days.

2. We really, really wanted coffee. Like, whoa. Those cold frap drinks, the “latte” machines at gas stations, the “french vanilla espresso” machine at the donut shop, those don’t count. We needed real. coffee. made. with. real. beans. We needed espresso. We needed triple espresso shots. We needed something right then. We couldn’t drive around for an hour to find coffee roasted locally. Oh. No. We needed our fix IMMEDIATELY.

3.  We kinda had to pee again. Yeah.

So don’t go judging me! No Judging! You’d get Starbucks too, if you were in our shoes.

Next up, the trip from Phoenix to Las Vegas, including the Hoover Dam!

Having survived the lightening storm from Day 1 without destruction of vehicle, we continued on through New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. Whew.

New Mexico… not much in the way of photos. It was kind of dark, you see. And by dark I mean pitch black middle of nowhere without any 18 Wheelers beside us since they had all (sensibly) pulled over for the night.  We did love the signs proclaiming “WARNING SUDDEN DUST STORMS! DO NOT STOP!” every few miles, however.  That was not so amusing. Rather concerning actually.  Fortunately

It was just outside of Tucson Arizona when the sky began to lighten and we could see that while we’d driven through New Mexico, mountains had begun to creep up on us…

Sunrise outside of Tucson, Arizona.. Did anyone order some mountains with a side of highway haze?

Yay!  Food!… Unfortunately, as the empty parking lot suggests.. it wasn’t open yet.  Did I mention that we survived on this road trip by eating crackers, sandwich meat, and lots and lots of apples.  Yeah we were a little disappointed that the first place we saw upon the sun rising wasn’t open yet.  We did find a donut shop to pee and purchase donuts at.  No photos, unfortunately, since it was 5:30 AM and I’m not sure the place was technically open yet.  The owners were, shall we say, slightly disturbed to see us arrive at their shop disheveled, starving, and in drastic need of a toilet.  Best.  Toilet.  Ever.

Tucson’s three office buildings… Alright, next stop (and just in time for rush hour) Phoenix!!!

Somewhere in Arizona..

The last time I traveled this route through Arizona, I was 2 years old, and it was via train because I had the chicken pox and the airline wouldn’t let us fly home… Look, it’s a train!  Ah the memories.

Day 1: Houston, Texas to El Paso, Texas Route

We departed Houston at 4 PM and reached El Paso around midnight…  Attempts to depart earlier were foiled by work, work, and more work, oh, and needing to purchase ice for the cooler.  Not too much exciting about spending ten hours attempting to get out of the state, let me tell you.  However, the lightening storm outside of Fort Stockton was pretty exciting… Especially considering close family friends had their car totaled a few weeks before in a lightening storm in Kansas.

Boooooring….

Sun starting to set… and we’re not even close to El Paso yet…

Sunset somewhere in Texas… and no laughing about the camera shake, I took this photo while driving!

]]> http://www.fearlesswanderer.com/2009/09/wild-blue-yonder-day-1/feed/ 0 http://www.fearlesswanderer.com/2009/08/daily-photo-southern-china-day-6/ http://www.fearlesswanderer.com/2009/08/daily-photo-southern-china-day-6/#comments Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:51:51 +0000 FWtravel http://www.fearlesswanderer.com/?p=73

A last look at the farming lifestyle outside of Yangshuo...

Hiking through the countryside...

...and after the tourist busses arrive (just after noon). Things quiet down again by 3 or 4 PM.