Arizona snowmen with an Aussie twist

After a night of little sleep (for me anyway), we got ready, had some breakfast and were on the road. It was Mum’s turn to drive this morning so she drove us to our lunch destination of Sedona, Arizona. We had some delicious burgers at the Cowboy Club on the main road – very filling! There were even a few cowboys with cowboy hats and boots in there, making the club seem more legit. Mum managed to find a man who was dressed as the typical cowboy and took a photo of him for $1.

After lunch we continued on to Williams, which is about an hour from the Grand Canyon. On the way, M&D made a random stop over at some markets at a lookout, purchasing more goodies for friends and family. When they say snow on the sides of the road, they made another stop to construct a snowman. I couldn’t be bothered getting out of bed, so I left them to their shenanigans. The funniest thing was that they weren’t wearing any gloves!

We were originally going to stay in a KOA RV Park tonight, but upon our arrival there wasn’t anybody camping there and nobody was manning the shop so we left and hunted for another park. We settled for the Canyon Motel and RV Park Williams – Grand Canyon. I was very pleased to realise that they had a little bit of snow covering the ground that we could use to make an awesome snowman!!

Once we’d found our ski gloves and collected all the necessities for making a snowman, we went in search of enough snow to create our masterpiece! It must have been entertaining for the people in the office watching us make the snowman out of practically no snow- we were giggling like little school girls. Ernie the Snowman ended up being pretty awesome! Naturally, we set him up and made him pose for lots of photos – like true tourists that we are. He even had his gangster gear on – true Redcliffe representation! Mum carried Ernie back to the table next to our RV so he wouldn’t get lonely all by himself near the office. She nibbled his nose and chomped his eye, but he managed to survive – just!

Hitting up the Grand Canyon tomorrow, getting pretty pumped to see the world famous area. Wish I wasn’t so sick, but hey, what can you do?

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Clipped wings

Last night was pretty cold, but thanks to Mum, I was a lot warmer than the previous night. She bought two Indian saddle blankets and I put one underneath my two sleeping bags. It was much much warmer and I slept a little better, despite not being able to breathe through my nose.

Our main tourist destination for today was the Pima Air and Space Museum where M&D did a bus tour of the Aircraft bone yards and the museum. I wasn’t feeling well, so I chilled in the RV and tried to sleep. We drove all the way to Old Town Scottsdale this afternoon, which is close to Phoenix.

Upon our arrival at Scottsdale Trailer Corral (RV & Mobile home Park) I helped Mum reverse the RV into our section – very stressful! Following a relaxing cup of tea and some more painkillers, we went for a stroll through the Old Town section of Scottsdale. The area was dominated by expensive jewellery and tourist shops. On the way back to the RV Park we grabbed some cold and flu drugs and some more tissues.

We had chicken satay and vegetables for dinner – very healthy. Now the planning begins for the Grand Canyon in the next few days. Only 11 days till we fly home!

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Sniffed out

It was sooo cold last night that there was actually ice on part of our RV where water was dripping out of. We will have to start sleeping in thermals I think.  

The people who run the City of Rocks have figured out a way to make sure you don’t have long and drawn out showers. Instead of a shower dial like normal showers in Australia, they had a button that you pressed not only to make the water heated but also to keep the water flowing. Each press of the button only allotted you approximately 30 seconds of water. As expected, our showers were a lot shorter than usual.

We left the City of Rocks, crossed the border into Arizona and headed for Douglas, a small border town. We drove past the line up of cars to get across the Mexican border, parked in a Walmart car park (since the RV is too big to park anywhere else) and strolled along the empty Sunday streets of Douglas to Denny’s Restaurant. Naturally, steak and mashed potato was my choice for lunch. Mum went for ‘traditional’ Mexican and got an open toasted Tortilla while Dad had a chicken and avocado burger.

Following lunch, Mum and I went for a quick squiz along the local shops, found some cool handbags, wallets, clothes and much more. On the road again and it was definitely time to have my midday nap.

Bisbee was the next point of call. Although I was sleeping and lying about, M&D went for a walk around town, viewed an open cut copper mine and went to the Historic Museum of Bisbee, coming out with a bag of trinkets. They drove to Tombstone city and explored the ‘wild west’ town, including brothel houses, salons and tourist shops. Everything about this town was catered for tourists and the recreation of history.

On our way out of Tombstone we encountered our second border patrol. They stopped us, checked our passports, let the dog sniff the outside of our RV and then sent us on our way… Very exciting.

Benson KOA RV Park is our final destination for tonight. Not much to look at, but it will do for tonight.

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The grass isn’t always greener

As we reach day 69 of our trip, we’ve come in a full circle of weather. When we first arrived in LA 69 days ago, we had to have our winter gear out and ready for the chilly weather. We continued to wear our warm clothing until we got into the Caribbean and swapped them for shorts, flip flops and singlets. As we near the end of our trip, we get closer and closer to our beginning point and therefore, it makes sense that we’ve started wearing our winter gear again. It was 4 degree Celsius last night in El Paso. Needless to say, I’m glad that we didn’t send our winter attire home before the Caribbean.

Although we didn’t do much mileage today, we did a fair bit of sightseeing around El Paso, Mesilla and Deming. We started our day off with an exploration of the Mission Trail in El Paso, which is a street of all the old school missions that were set up in the 1650s. The four we saw were pretty similar to each other, a church with a gift shop attached. The Cultural Centre was pretty interesting with their museum, gift shops and their cultural dance. It featured a few of the tribe’s teenagers performing some traditional animal dances. When we’d watched the dance, investigated the museum and of course browsed the gift shops, we continued on to a well known American Indian Culture shop, the Saddle Blanket. Although we faced some crazy traffic on the way there, I personally think it was worth it. They portrayed the American Indian Culture very well, with the shop dominated by purely American Indian products. I wish we could’ve shopped properly, but once again, travelling back to Australia limits what you can buy.

It was strange to see in the car park and the entrance of the Saddle Blanket was an area devoted to homeless dogs. There were volunteers chatting with unsuspecting shoppers about adopting an abandoned dog in the entrance of the shop. The dogs were soo cute: I thought we should have gotten one, but I was outvoted…

After having a nibble of lunch in the car park, we headed to the small town of Mesilla, just North of Las Cruces. We had a walk around the historical area, sussed out the Billy the Kid shop and many tourist shops and just generally soaked up the culture of the area. Mexican architecture and culture dominates this town. What an amazing experience to have without having to cross the border into Mexico. I also found where you can find a ‘real man’. Turns out it’s not too hard if you know where to look and the signs to follow!

As we drove along the highway to Deming we could see across the border into Mexico. It looks like it’s mostly shanty towns that close to the border. Tonight we’re staying at the City of Rocks State Park in Deming. It’s not actually an RV park, but they have powered sites and there are many people camping here, in RV’s and tents, so why not? The area is basically a collection of oversized boulders in one area. It would be great to have an aerial view of the national park – now I just have to find myself a helicopter!

Throughout the day, we noticed that in most places there wasn’t any grass, let alone green grass. It was mostly dirt and rocks. I don’t know if I could live in a dusty, rocky place with no grass. Turns out the grass isn’t greener on the other side…

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In the belly of the earth

The Caverns of Sonora were our tourist event for today. What we didn’t realise was that they were actually accessible from the RV Park, not a few miles down the highway like we thought and actually went looking for. Thanks for the help shop girl!

Our tour through the caves went from 10am till midday and for future reference, I’m definitely wearing shorts and not jeans – it was way too hot! There were many different mineral formations to be found in the caverns. Some of the many included: stalactites, helictites, moon milk, soda straws, fish tails, bacon and popcorn. It was fascinating to walk through the caverns, admiring all the amazing beauty that has been created and is still being created over time. I would’ve liked to take my tripod and get some awesome pictures, but I wasn’t permitted to carry anything extra.  After seeing some of the tight spots you had to walk through I guess I understand.

When we were finished with our tour, we jumped back in the RV and continued on to El Paso. Not a lot of difference from any other day of driving across miles and miles of earth. We arrived before dark at Mission RV Park, El Paso. They have a heated pool, spa and a games room available for guests. We might head over and check it out later.

Important note: we are now on Mountain Time which makes us 17 hours behind Australia instead of 16 hours and we will go through another time change tomorrow as we cross the border.

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Deliciously purple

M&D picked me up from Letu around 9.20am after I’d had breakfast with Yoni and Rachel in the student dining hall. I have to say, Letu campus may not be much to look at, but their dorms and dining areas definitely beat UQ dining halls and dorms.

We programmed the GPS for Sonora Texas and we were off. For the most part of the day I read while M&D drove, but after lunch and the stop at the mechanics to fix the storage pipe for the sewage pipe, I decided it was time to catch up on some sleep. I slept for a few hours on and off as M&D drove through many smalls towns and a lot of flat, open highway.

Around 7.30pm (what a long day of driving!) we arrived at the Caverns of Sonora RV Park, chatted with the office guy, avoided running over the sheep in the middle of the road (since the RV Park is actually an active ranch) and settled in for the night. We had some purple beef stroganoff tonight because we didn’t have any tomato paste and that’s what evens out of the colour of the dish. It was still tasty if you didn’t think about it being purple. We’re going to check out the famous Caverns of Sonora tomorrow on our way to El Paso – another full day of adventure.

Ipswich of America

Yoni used to think it was funny that I was always woken up so early in the morning by my parents. I’m sure he feels a little empathy for me after this morning. He should be grateful though because he was woken up at 8am instead of 6.30am.

After we’d gotten ready and had some breakfast, we headed back to LeTourneau University for our grand tour of the campus. Our tour guide, Yoni, even took us to the LeTourneau Museum for M&D to have a look around – riveting. After we’d seen the campus M&D went into the city for their own adventures and Yoni and I chilled around campus. We sat in the sun, chilled in the common rooms (until the little children got too much for me) and went for a drive to get some lunch and admire the fancy side of town in comparison with the ghetto that surrounds Letu. It was so depressing to see the mansions of the North side, they were sooo amazingly grand. Apart from the mansions in that section, Longview seems to be the Ipswich of America (well from what I’ve seen).

Funny note: when we were getting lunch, I was looking at the menu, standing out of the way of the queue and I had two different people come up to me and ask in their Southern accents, ‘Y’all in line?’ It made my day!  Yoni didn’t think it was funny, but that’s just because he’s slowly becoming a Texan and it’s the norm for him.

We watched a little bit of The Three Musketeers before Yoni had class and I went to the library to read in the lounge. The movie seemed pretty average so I didn’t mind.

Dinner was an affair to be hosted at the Texas Roadhouse in town. Naturally, I had steak and mashed potato, but I was sadly disappointed that it was a little too rare – oh well. When we decided on the Texas Roadhouse for dinner we didn’t realise that it would be dinner and a show. The show started when the girl on the table next to us had to stand up, shine the light on her face and everyone wished her a happy birthday. The funniest thing about it was it wasn’t in the normal sense of ‘happy birthday’. The waitress called out to the restaurant: ‘now everybody give me a good loud Texas Roadhouse yyeeehhaawwww’ and of course everyone responded ‘yyyeeeehhhawwww!!!’- Mum being the loudest. We are definitely in the South. We were certain it was Yoni’s birthday today, but he assured us it wasn’t. Maybe next time.

Following dinner M&D went back to the RV Park and Yoni and I went back to campus to set up for Parkour (which is basically free running and gymnastics). We grabbed the constructed equipment from the warehouse, loaded it into a Ute (pickup truck for all you Americans), took it to the gym, unloaded it and set it up. Around 15 people of varying talent showed up to participate in tonight’s activities. It was very interesting to watch and of course take some photos, but would you believe it I even did 3 different vaults! Shocking I know, especially since I was wearing skinny jeans and converse.

When we’d finished, packed up and delivered the equipment back to the warehouse, we went to meet up with Rachel in the common room of her dorm. She graciously let me sleep on her floor tonight. Chilled with Yoni till it was time for bed then crawled into the nice warm bed that Rachel had made for me.

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New Orleans – Longview

 - Drive

- M&D Plantation tour

– I read in the RV

- Drive

- Bathroom and fuel stop

- Drive

- Arrive at RV park in Longview

- Drive

- Kidnap Yoni

- Drive

- Party in Longview RV park

- Sleep

Another city, same tour

I miss the days of sleep ins, breakfast in bed and general relaxation in the mornings. I was woken up at 6:45am this morning in preparation for an 8:45am start of our city tour from the Marriot Hotel in the city. Of course, it was a freezing morning, especially at that time of the day, so we rugged up in preparation for cold weather before jumping in our taxi and heading into the city. I’m soooo glad I had my ski jacket today. Although we were in the tour bus for 3 hours (3 HOURS!!!!) and that was moderately warm, outside the bus was cold and windy.

When our tour finished around midday we hopped out at the French Markets and explored up and down the aisles for approximately an hour, much to Dad’s dismay. We even collected some cute little trinkets.

Dad was getting bored and we were all pretty hungry by this stage so we went to the place called Cafe la Mode ( I think ) which serves the famous cuisine of the area: beighnets, which are a cross between an America donut and a French puff pastry covered in icing sugar – amazing!

Upon finishing our sugary treat, we started the 4 hour walking tour of the French Quarter. The buildings (just like most other cities) were old, some in disrepair, some fancy and expensive and others were just regular houses. All through the city however are decorations for Mardi Gras festival, which in New Orleans isn’t associated with Gay Pride like it is in Australia and the ‘festival’ goes for around a month, although the actual parades don’t start straight away. It would be great to be in the area when all the parades begin, but such is the pattern of our holiday, we seem to leave before anything exciting happens in a particular city.

After our feet were totally dead from walking in circles all day, Mum and I sat near the bus pick up area while Dad kept exploring the area, leaving us vulnerable to the ramblings of a crazy homeless man. I can’t post some of the things he said to us because it wouldn’t be appropriate, but let’s just say that I was very glad when he left.

The bus finally arrived and we piled in with a few others who were going back to the RV Park. We got half way back and we had to turn back to pick up some people who were late and missed the bus – soo cut! Took us twice as long to get home – thanks guys! We eventually got back to the RV, made some dinner, repacked my suitcase and checked out my photos.

Longview is our final destination for tomorrow’s travels, with a tour around a plantation estate to start off the morning. It’s going to be a long day.  

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Just around the river bend

Everybody, hold onto your hats…. Guess what we bought today? That’s right, you guessed right… VEGEMITE!! It was the highlight of my day! We found it at a shop called World Market (which is a mad shop in itself) that sold it and we high tailed it over there to collect our prize. DELICIOUS!

Anyway, apart from that exciting bit of our day, we went to church this morning, since its Sunday, at Victory Church, New Orleans. It definitely had the ‘Hillsong’ feel to it, very Pentecostal. After church we headed to the shops to get some groceries, etc… You’d think that you’d walk in, grab what you needed, and walk out. It was not like this. In the end, it took us approximately 2 HOURS to get everything organised, bought and loaded into the RV! My goodness it was tiring! Who would’ve thought that buying groceries would be so labour intensive?

FINALLY got back to the RV Park, made some lunch and then crashed into bed for a nana nap. After an hour or so, I was woken up to get ready because we had to take a shuttle bus into the city for a River paddle boat cruise. The Jazz music dinner cruise along the Mississippi River was delicious and relaxing- didn’t feel nauseas at all. However, I was already dead tired so it seemed to drag on and on.

Grabbed a taxi, came back to the RV and now I am heading to my nice, warm comfy bed.

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