El Paso to ...... Florida!

Hey Everyone,

Sorry we have been slackers for the last 6 days.. Well, not really since we drove around 2,000 miles and unpacked a stinkin' huge Penske moving truck!

We have been arranging stuff and getting everything out of boxes so we can have a complete home. Meanwhile, I have also been working on getting the Tampa QC office up and running.

Here is a picture of us right after we pulled into Sunny Florida.



We had to drive another 6 hours or so to get to Tampa!

We hope everyone is doing well and we will post some pictures of our new home as we finish setting it up!

JoAndy

Raton NM to El Paso TX

I-25 SB Mi: 165
Joanne is driving
Currently listening to: Nickel Creek

We had a pretty eventful day today. We decided to take the scenic route from Raton, NM to Santa Fe, NM going from a suggestion from Jeanne ;) That leg of the trip took us thru Cimarron Canyon State Park, Carson National Forest, Taos, and finally to Santa Fe.
Presently we are headed to El Paso, TC, but heard some news that some parts of Texas may not be so desireable to visit in the near future. Tropical storm (currently) Erin is moving closer to coastal Texas and may cause us to reevaluate our route to Tampa.

Cimarron State Park was beautiful. We drove through and stopped for the Palisades. The drive was a long windy road that bordered a small river that had great Rainbow and Brown Trout fishing. We didn't do any fishing but I talked to a lady who had caught three Rainbows and one Brown.




Taos was an amazing little town! The town was very artistic and had a ton of character. While we were there we managed to catch a great cup of Jo, make conversation with some eccentric (aren't they all!) hobos, and get a parking ticket! It's very difficult to park a 24' moving truck while hauling a car behind!
We arrived in Taos via Hwy 68 SB - as we entered I thought the town was going to be comparable to that of Shady Cove, OR, or (for those of you that don't know Shady Cove) basically just a small tourist town with a few stores selling random nick-nacks with their city name carved or etched into them. What we discovered was completely different though! If you know Ashland, OR, then you have a good idea of what this town was like. Now add tons of Adobe buildings, lots of fun shops, nice people, and you have Taos, NM!

Ooops..




Tweedle dumb and Tweedle dumber were two hobos that we met outside of Coffee Cats coffee shop. They were street performers and were very sociable. The topic of discussion was whether or not it would be OK for Tweedle Dumber to leave his chair leaning up against the building near Coffee Cats.
Upon arrival to the outdoor shopping area we saw the two hobos rapporting (is that a word?) about the quality of the chair the other was in possesion of. Tweedle Dumber was exclaiming how smooth it was, upon witnessing this I subconsciously assumed he was on something. We walked around for awhile and then came back to find the two discussing where would be a safe place to stash the chair until they returned the next day. They were asking people as they walked by if they noticed the chair - no one noticed. Tweedle dumb told Tweedle Dumber to turn the chair around because their was more color on the other side of the chair, and it would blend in better because this was an artistic community... Makes sense, I guess.

Tweedle Dumb on the left and Tweedle dumber on the right. They really were nice guys!




Coffee Cats was a pretty tasty treat. The lady that served our drinks had just purchased the ccmpany about 6 weeks prior to our visit and had made a few customer-friendly driven renovations. She served Organic, shade grown fair trade coffee called Grounds for Change and used Ghiradelli chocolate in our tasty mochas!

Coffee Cats store front - Joanne is deliberating her drink choice!



Best part about Coffee Cats, besides the caffeine!, BENDY STRAWS!
Joanne was especially pumped, as you can see since she took this pic...




We ate dinner in Santa Fe at a place called The Five and Dime General Store - home of the world famous FritoPie! The question is - who invented the FritoPie? Santa Fe or San Antonio? We decided to be the judge of who 'Merits' the Pie creators title. More on that below....

We visited the Pueble of Pojoaque Poeh Museum just outside of Santa Fe on our way from Taos. The museum was amazing and was currently hosting three artist with their galleries. There was free food and lots of cool exhibits. I would definitley suggest paying the museum a visit if you are going to be in the Santa Fe area.
Unfortunatlely when we were inside one of the galleries it started raining like mad outside. Remembering that our windows were cracked, we had to make a dash for the truck! We got soaked in the 150' sprint - the parking lot has veritable rivers running through and the rain drops were pelting us like snowballs on a fat kid (sorry that joke was in bad humor...)!






I ran accross a few birds that I am not positve about the identification. I think one of them is an Eastern Kingbird and the other I have no idea! Some kind of RAPTOR! There was tons of cool birds and other wildlife from Raton to Santa Fe.
Anyway, if you're reading this, David Gordon Crisman, we could use the help in identifying these two bird species!

Eastern Kingbird?



Some Bird of Prey...??




Frito Pies. I read somewhere that both San Antonio and Santa Fe are trying to claim invention of the FritoPie. Joanne and I have decided to try and figure out which one deserves the title based on food quality, presentation and price. We haven't made it to San Antonio yet (we may not at all due to the storm rolling in!), but we thought that Santa Fe's FritoPie was pretty tasty at a measly $4.15. It was a lot of food at a small price. We shared it and it pretty much filled us up! The FritoPie consisted of a bag Fritos cut open with Chile and cheese mounded on top. We will update you all on that later!

That's it for now!

Adios friends!

Colorado Pictures...

Here are the pictures Joanne promised!

We had an awesome time navigating through the many 14,000'+ mountains on the trip from Salida, CO to Copper Mt, CO.

Here are two pictures of the Fowler residence - one of the house and one of, pretty much, their front yard! They live right next to the Little Arkansas river and their backyard is National Forest. Black Bears have been visiting their trash cans regularly, while a Grizzly bear was spotted just 7 miles away from their humble abode. Exciting stuff!






While on Copper Mt we decided to partake in our first Starbucks binge of the trip! OK, we didn't really binge but we were tempted! Joanne did order two drinks, but one was for Sarah.... She still wanted to drink it though!

Joanne was cold - wearing my sweatshirt and soaking up the White Chocolate Mocha warmth!




I would love to come back and board Copper Mt in the Winter! Looks amazing!




What the.... HAIL!? Where did that come from??? We had to pull over to be able to tell that this was hail because it looked like it may have been snow!

Not that big, but still pretty impressive!



We almost had to chain up!!!




Last but not least... We had to make a stop at the Mining Hall of Fame in Leadville. Why, you ask?
Well - when I was young I aspired to be a championship miner. However, it just wasn't in my blood... So I kept to hauling around sand in my Tonka truck in the backyard.




More to come soon! Please ignore any typos, as it is very difficult to type in a moving truck on REALLY bumpy roads!

Colorado to.... Colorado!

Wednesday August 15,2007
AKA Andrew's 27th birthday!! (and our one month wedding anniversary ;) )
8:53pm Hwy 24 E Mi: 262
Andrew is driving

11:45 last night we got into Salida, CO and stayed with my best friend, Sarah Fowler (who was one of my bridesmaids)'s parents. Their names are Brian and Betty and they have two dogs and a cat. Both of the dogs are about the same age. I remember when they got Lady. At the time, their other dog Rocky was still alive and well, and lady was challenging her youthfulness. Puppies tend to do that, its their job! Smoky, the cat that they still have is so stinkin funny. I dont think she likes to be held anymore, and both Smoky and Nala were kind of territorial when introduced to one another. Anyways, Maggie, the other dog that they have now is the one that is the same age as Lady. She is what Brian described as a pound dog.. I think that means she was a rescue? We totally spaced on getting pictures taken with them, b/c we had been driving for over 24 hours- all we could really focus on was catching
up for a few minutes and then hitting the pillow. Speaking of their pillows, they were pretty much amazing. I think they were the best pillows i've ever slept on.. and i'm pinching myself now b/c i didn't look at the label. maybe I will use that energy to start a mission for myself-- I will call this mission "the search for the holy pillow". We woke up at about 10am and took our showers. I had some brownsugar frosted mini wheats and coffee for breakfast, and Andy didn't have anything. Something about eating in the morning... i dunno! We hit the road at about noon to get on Hwy 24N to Hwy 91. We were heading for Copper Mtn, where Sarah is
going through a week long training course before she leaves for her year long trip to China! How exciting for her! After about an hour we had to start backtracking to Buena Vista where we had parked the Penske Truck. We loaded the Honda back onto the Dolly and got on Hwy 24 E toward Colorado Springs. Too bad its pitch black out now, I really wanted to show Andy the beautiful red rocks of the Garden of the Gods. They are soo nice to look at. Especially what is called the Kissing Camels. Not too far from there is the home that i grew up in, and was next door to the Fowlers. Thats how Sarah and I met. I think Erin, my sister, and I were in trouble and had to wash the huge 12 seater red and silver dodge ram van. Sarah came over and asked if she could help. Either we were the first kids on the block that she saw since she had moved in, or she really liked washing cars... either way, that started our friendship.. when we were 6. Sooo.... on our way out of Copper Mtn, we drove through the aftermath of a hail storm. We placed a penny on the ground to give something to compare the size. The hail wasn't all that impressive.. about the size of peas but, it. But it reminded me of the time we got caught in the middle of a golf ball sized hail storm while living in the Springs. We had to park grampas lincoln in the garage b/c we didnt want it to get dented... meanwhile our family cars were getting beaten like a nerdy schoolkid during recess.

Story time is over, and now we are just past Manitou Springs about to get onto I-25. We are going to go N about 7 miles and head over 10 minutes to see my old stomping grounds. We're so close, we can't refuse! and then we'll get back on I-25 going the other way. Our goal is to shoot for Santa Fe tonight. Its now just past 10pm, and we're having a hard time finding a place thats still open to get some food. I'll bet we find some by the Chapel Hills Mall. Man this is so cool being back!

More to come later! I think I'm driving for a while after this, so I'm sure Andy has some stories to tell! I'll also ask if he could load the pictures to go along with the narrative above.

mmmbyebye!

Utah to Colorado (Part II)

I-70 EB Mi: 202
Currently listening to Ben Folds Live
Joanne is Splenderific! She is currently driving and I think there may be a career for her in truck driving!

We have been driving for over 24 hours now and have gone over 1,000 miles - We're definitley ready for a warm shower and some sleep in a comfy bed!

Joanne mentioned Snowville in our previous post - we stopped to fill up and take a short nap .Here is a picture of part of the bug infestion that the, seemingly, whole town maintained! The other part consisted of dead flies all over the gas station mini-mart's floors and dining area AND thick mats of flies anywhere there was shade outside. God must be preparing us for Florida!




Joanne dominating the 26 foot-r!




From Salt Lake City we decided to take the scenic route - Hwy 6. It was a fun drive and we got to see some historic markers, including a super old coal mine that was still in operation!
We ran into a little bit of a thunderstorm on Hwy 6 though - see pic below




The storm blew over - here is a pic of the storm off in the distance. Notice the rocks reflecting the water




We gotta sneak into a picture every once and a while! - us being cheesy!




Here we are! We made it to Colorado!




We love you all and will update you again soon!

Utah to Colorado

Tuesday August 14, 2007 1:40pm (MT Time)
I-15 S Mi: 314
Andrew's my hero
Listening to Radiohead
Here's the story on today... We drove clear into the morning. Beautiful sunset, and I'm sorry to report that I didn't take any pictures. We were both truely just wiped out. We decided to take a break in Snowville, UT- Mi: 15 on I-84. If you've never been to Utah, let me tell you- you aren't missing much. Unless, that is, if you enjoy a whole lot of nothin! Lots of flat land running into some pretty bland rolling hills on either side. We both had stomach aches from drinking Rockstars, No Fears, Adrenaline Rush, and 5 Hr Energy drinks during the course of the 15 hr drive. I know what you're probsbly thinking- "didn't they eat anything in between drinks?!" -my answer is "well sorta" But the most important thing, is that it kept us running till 8am. Once we hit Snowville, I had to eat something breakfast related. Andrew had i guess snuck a bite at the rest stop before. I had taken a little power nap at that time.. anyways!..Inside the Flying J foodmart (the stop in Snowville), they had some warm egg mcmuffin rip off things. It was okay, and I never thought I'd say this- but I've had better at McD's. yikes! And to top it off- the place was swarming with flies. Andrew pretty much got attacked by 3.5 trillion of them on the way back from the bathroom! We pulled into the large dirt area that all the other truckdrivers pull over at to catch some shut-eye. So we did the same, for about 30 minutes. That was pretty much all we could handle. This bench was not meant for two people to lay down and sleep- the fun part (sarcastically speaking) was smelling eachothers feet because we had no choice but to lay opposite of eachother to even have a chance at fitting. We woke up and decided to hit the road in search of a hotel to catch a few more hours. By the time we came up on another city- we had already caught our second wind.. or third or maybe even fourth. Who knows at this point? Our stomachs began to talk around Salt Lake City- so we pulled over and got some Subway! (1) foot long Subway Melt on Honey Oat bread. Double pepperjack cheese, toasted. Ranch dressing with green bell peppers, lettuce, olives on half... We sat down to share it, and surprisingly enough, it filled us both up! Nala laid out in the grass for a little while with us. She hated all the cars that drove by- she would hide behind us like a wimp! Now we are at Mi: 291 on I-15 heading S to Hwy 6. From there, we'll cut on over to I-70 going E to Colorado. No pictures at this time. Hopefully the next update we'll have some!

Till then!...

Oregon to Idaho

The John Day Dam just outside of The Dalles..


As the sun is going down..





Monday August 13, 2007 11:25 pm
I-84 E mi:288
Andrew's driven the whole way so far...
We just passed the 45th parallel,while listening to "such great heights"-Postal Service. I'm taking pictures of Nala as she lies on the dashboard looking out.



Andrew takes a picture of Nala and me looking in while we fill up on diesel..



We're both about to down some energy drinks to use the cans for our sun flower seeds that we just bought on our first fill up at a Shell Station in La Grande. Nala loves the cold windshield and decided to flash the world...


Speaking of flashing... I cant get over the awesomeness behind semi truck drivers flashing their lights at us when we put our blinker on. Isn't it amazing that its pretty much a universal way to show that the lane is clear!? Nala has now moved to the bench seat along the top, stretching out as she does on the window sils at home.


Shortly after getting comfortable she discovered the bungy cord right above her, and decided that it was a toy..




Tuesday August 14, 2007 12:50 am
I-84 mi:376 on into mi: 3 of ID
Andrew is still driving..
We've just passed the exit for a Correctional Institution just outside of Ontario, Oregon. We have also spotted our first searchlight. Searchlight hunting is something that Andrew and I have always wanted to do, but have never had the chance. We are pulling off at a rest stop to stretch out legs a bit, and to hang out with the other truck drivers.. not really, but it sounds like it could be fun. We hope to munch on some of the crackers, cheese and meat that the Bellamy family sent us off with. Our first real bite of food on the road. Pulling into the rest stop, we have paralleled next to a sign (dont worry, Andrew is taking a picture of it right now so that you all can see..) it says "No unloading of livestock or horses" .... at a friggen rest stop. This must mean that someone at one time had the gall to do this. hmmm....



Tuesday August 14, 2007 2:30 am
I-84 (..still) mi: 29 in ID
Andrew is STILL driving....
So... Andrew is staring at a map trying to decide our route for the night. We are going to drive to CO tonight. Depending on what route we go with-- it is going to be roughly 1350 miles. 97224 to 80920. Until then, Andrew has downed two Sobe No Fear Energy drinks and just bought two more. In addition, he picked up 4 little bottles of 5 Hour Energy- another kind of energy drink, of course! Its one that Isaac told us about- but he advised us to only drink half of it at a time, which i think was VERY smart. Especially given the fact that Andrew is now to the point where he's answering his own questions. :) We're passing signs for The Warhawk Museum in Nampa (sounds like Tampa! ;) ) which would be pretty cool to beable to stop and browse, but I dont think it would be open at 3am.. bummer! We've just passed searchlight #2! Too bad these things would be nearly impossible to capture on film... they're so darn quick!! As we are driving, we are also making two lists. The first list is of all the license plates we have seen... I know, I know, pretty cliche... but honestly, what else are we going to do at 3am? So far (in order of appearance) we have seen: OR, WY, WA, NM, British Columbia, MT, KY, PE, MI, NE, TN, and ID. Not bad for 9 hours of driving! Silly that ID is the last one that we've seen, given the fact that we're in that state right now. I guess everyone wanted to see Oregon's beautifullness.. :) Here are some of the pics that we have taken so far..

Tuesday August 13, 2007 4:21am
I-84 Mi: 115 in ID
Andrew is truckin along.. teeheehee..pun
I'm finally posting this thing. It took forever to resize those pictures and to load them. Darn internet keeps fading and then the LT crashed and the mouse decided to not work upon reboot. Computers are awesome- but they sure know how to be a pain in the booty. ehhh what should i care, I've got all the time in the world (right now anyway) to rewrite everything... Anyway- Hope you guys all enjoy these pics... more to come in a few hours, I'm sure! ooooo!!! We just saw some lightening!! -- Now, if its a thunderstorm or heat lightening, we're not sure, but it sure is pretty!!!

mmk- more a little later!