Razing Arizona

DAY 6 - Today (Wednesday) would be our most accomplished day yet! We awoke this morning in the beauty of the Mesa Verde National Park and decided that we had seen quite enough cliffdwellings, so we packed up and headed out of Colorado into Navajo Nation. Soon we found ourselves at Four Corners Monument, where the corners of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, meet...and for a meer $3 you can stand in four states at the same time!!! Yeah, it was cool...but not as cool as standing in five states at the same time!

Next, we moved south to Chinle, Arizona, gateway to the Canyon de Chelley. Chase had been here before a while ago with his mother, so he made quite the excellent tour guide! Canyon de Chelley features Spider Rock, home to the Navajo deity Spider Woman, who taught the Navajo how to weave.

And thank God she did, because at our next stop, we saw local Navajo women weaving ornate rugs by hand. This was at the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. This was the central hub of trade for local Native American crafts. It served to both exploit Indian handiwork, as well as spread their culture across America. We missed the last tour by 7 minutes, so Chase had to act as a fill in tour guide.

We raced southward towards the Petrified Forest National Park and Painted Desert, in hopes that we would make it there before it closed. Luckily, we arrived at 6pm and the park closed at 7pm (and we got 3 stamps in our passport for this one folks!). For those of you who are planning to visit a National Park...don't attempt to do it in an hour! We found ourselves racing with another young couple (obviously of the tree-hugging persuasion) to each point of the Park. Though this provided for much entertainment, we found ourselves rushing to take pictures...sometimes even just jumping out of the car, running to the overlook, taking some quick pictures, and running back to the car. This is NOT recommended! We missed the best part of the Park by 5 minutes, and left the Park feeling defeated. Better luck next time.

Apparently, Jimmy was sad about it too, because as we were driving away from the Park, he began to shake. Shake like Jimmy hasn't shaken before. He shook so bad, that we are stuck here in a $30 motel in Holbrook, Arizona, until we can have him checked out in the morning. Prayers for tests and difficulties? I think so....

Overall, it was a good day...we hit 4 NATIONAL POINTS OF INTEREST!!

The "Green Table"

DAY 5 - We awoke after a fantastic night of sleep in Ouray, mailed our postcards from the small little post office, and headed out of town toward Mesa Verde National Park. What we didn't realize, is that the road out of town has some of the most amazing views that we have seen during this entire trip (we now realize why they call it the Switzerland of the US). We have included a picture that we took when we were leaving Ouray to give you an idea of the grandeur of the mountains in this area of the country. Also, we have included some other pictures that we just thought were gorgeous!

We thought that we would take a shortcut over to Telluride by taking a little road called Ophir Pass...I mean, we had taken one of these back roads before, why couldn't we take this one? Well, we realized very quickly WHY we couldn't take this pass. Actually, we probably could have, but as Chase put it ever so bluntly, "I don't want to die today". And so, we didn't take Ophir Pass.

After a beautiful trip through the last part of the snow capped mountains of Colorado, we arrived at Mesa Verde National Park. We both loved this park! The cliffdwellings were absolutely gorgeous, and the scenery here is breathtaking (we have included pictures so you can see what we mean). We watched the sunset together (our first time to do that together) at Park Point and then decided to head down to the campsite to set up camp and get some rest. Believe it or not, we have been getting to bed by 10pm for almost this entire trip!

A day full of sites and adventures!

DAY 4 - We awoke Monday morning to a beautiful Colorado morning in Buena Vista (see picture). A gorgeous sunrise at 6am, a cool 40 degrees, a bear paw print on our window...that's right, A BEAR PAW PRINT ON OUR WINDOW!!! We quickly realized that a thin sheet of glass was all that kept us warm and safe in Hotel Jimmy and seperated us from being ripped apart by a bear. Hmmm...how about some morning prayers? I think so....

We fueled up, got some coffee and headed up Cottonwood Pass on our way out of Buena Vista and heading toward the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. As we ascend the mountain, we watch the temperature drop until it finally bottoms out at a crisp 24 degrees!! (You may wonder how we see the temp drop, but the Jimmy has a digital thermometer) Now, remember, we started at 45 degrees...and it was 90 degrees in Kansas...so we have seen a temperature change of about 66 degrees in less than two days. We are 2 miles above sea level and there is 6 feet of ice and snow on either side of the road. (See picture of Jenn on top of snow) At the very top of the mountain we realize that we are at the Continental Divide! On one side of us, all the ice that melts flows into the Pacific, and on the other, it flows into the Atlantic.

Marj had told us about the road that were marked "unpaved roads" and "other roads" on the map...but we had yet to experience those. Now was the time. As we stood there looking out over God's beauty, we also looked down a dirt road that had no railings and could easily lead to disaster if you are not too careful. More prayers? You got it! We headed down this road and tested out the brakes quite a bit (I think maybe we finally broke them in...hahaha). Jenn enjoyed the breathtaking scenery as Chase white-knuckled the steering wheel and listened to her descriptions of the surroundings. We have included some pictures of those surroundings as well...

After our harrowing adventuring down the mountain, which ended up taking us 90 minutes to go about 20 miles, we arrived at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Ahhh, our first use of the National Parks Pass (which got us in free) and the second stamp in our passport! Yeah, we are nerds. This natural wonder was formed over 2 million years ago by a volcanic eruption that met with the Gunnison river. Because of its hard igneous rock and slow moving water, it takes close to a century for it to erode just one inch! We peered into the gaping chasm many, many times and discovered that once you've seen one part of the Black Canyon, you have seen it all. There are only so many pegmatite dikes that one can stand. :-) One thing that did catch our eye, though, are the lunatics that decided that they wanted to spend their Memorial Day weekend trying to climb up the sheer face of this canyon. Thanks to our Mennonite friends with the binoculars, we were able to get a good look at a couple of these people, who apparently sleep on those rocks as well.

We left the Black Canyon and headed 30 miles Southwest to a little town called Ouray. This is Jenn's favorite place in Colorado! We took a break from Hotel Jimmy and decided to stay at the wonderful Ouray Hotel which is managed by the same cool guy that was here 5 years before when Jenn visited named Dale. Google it, check it out, it's a cute little place to stay and it's not expensive at all! We walked up and down the main street and stopped to have ourselves a free-range organic hamburger and a buffalo burger (we had to get one while we could you know) at the Goldbelt and then got some fudge at the Ouray Candy Shop. We went back to the hotel and spent the night writing out our postcards, typing up these blog entries, and just resting up for the final leg of our trip.

Toto...We're Not in Kansas Anymore!!

DAY 3 - Much to our dismay, we wake up and realize that we are still not out of Kansas. There is no one at the rest stop except the boy who replenishes the four single-ply toilet paper rolls in each bathroom at the rest area, who we realize is passing his time by playing Gameboy and staring at us. As we leave, Chase remarks "I think we need gas", which is a phrase that can bring an intense amount of fear as you are driving through Kansas. As we have been told, EVERYTHING in Kansas is closed on Sunday...it's Sunday folks. Gas stations are closed. Oops. As Jenn begins to pray (there has never been a better time for Remover of Difficulties), we see a sign for 24 hour gas! Woooo hooooo! WE DO GET TO LEAVE KANSAS!!! Not so fast...we have to make it there. And we do, but not before the car stops right off the interstate! Luckily, it started once again and we made it to the pump...fueled up and high-tailed it out of Kansas, never to return again!

Eastern Colorado is a pretty flat place, but still is much more beautiful than Kansas (or maybe it's just because we hate Kansas...have we said that already?). Finally, we see Pike's Peak in the distance (see picture attached at the top)! Colorado Springs is close! If you haven't been to Colorado Springs, it is a great combination of nature and city and the weather is gorgeous.

Hmmm...Colorado Springs...we won't even go into what events unfolded in this city, but we will tell you a few things:
1. The people at the K-Mart on Palmer Park Road are very friendly.
2. If you need to know where Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or Safeway are...just ask us.
3. If Baja Burrito and Taco Bell had a baby, it would be called Del Taco!
4. Don't be fooled..."Kryptonite" Doritos are only Guacamole Doritos with Superman on the bag!
5. New brakes take anywhere from 300 to 1000 miles to get broken in...

After a lovely stay, we left Colorado Springs, and headed towards Buena Vista. The scenery was breathtaking as we left the city. So breathtaking, that we turned the radio off and haven't turned it back on since so that we can fully enjoy being in amazing Colorado country! As we made our way towards Buena Vista, the temperature dropped approximately 20 degrees in a matter of miles! As seen in the picture attached...Chase quickly realized that his t-shirt and shorts would no longer be sufficient.

That night, after dinner at Jan's Family Restaurant in Buena Vista, we found the last available spot at the KOA Campground and bunked, yet again, at Hotel Jimmy.

Chase's question of the day: "Why is it KOA? Shouldn't it be COA? Free breakfast at the Kampground's Kook Korner? Is this place owned by the Ku Klux Klan or something?"

Gateway to the West

DAY 2 - After our not-so-restful night in Hotel Jimmy, we traveled to the beautiful city of St. Louis. Even though it was extremely HOT (90 degrees to be exact), we ended up spending a good amount of time walking around and taking some fun pictures at the Gateway Arch. With the help of a Park Ranger, we found that we could just walk to the Old Courthouse and not have to stand in a huge line just to go to the gift shop. This was no ordinary Courthouse...this was the Old Courthouse where Dred Scott was tried! We had a little bit of fun talking to the gift shop staff and finally acquired what Chase had been longing for...our NATIONAL PARKS PASS!!! This little baby is going to be our ticket to alot of wonderful sites as we make our way out west. We also acquired a National Parks Passport where we can stamp our passport as we visit all the different parks!

We then began our journey through Missouri, and were looking forward to a barbecue dinner in Kansas City! Little did we know, that THIS is where things would begin to get interesting...

WE MADE IT TO KANSAS CITY...WAIT, WE DROVE THROUGH KANSAS CITY!!! Enough said....

Next stop, Topeka...surely there will be a place there where we can get some good 'ol Kansas barbecue. For those of you who have been to Kansas, you probably know that this was NOT the case. We drove through the desolate streets of downtown Topeka (keep in mind, this is Saturday evening) wondering if zombies had come in and devoured the entire population of this sad little town. So, instead of barbecue, we settled for the ONLY OPEN RESTAURANT IN TOPEKA AT 6:00PM ON SATURDAY...Pepe & Chela's Mexican Fiesta, where we saw not one Mexican employee.

I will say one last thing...we hate Kansas. We never want to go back. They don't even have maps to give away. Sunflower state? We saw not ONE sunflower...except on signs.

Unfortunately, we could not get out of Kansas that night and had to spend the night once again in Hotel Jimmy at a rest area as desolate as the rest of the state.

News from the Daily Planet!

Finally, on Friday night, Chase and I set out on our long-awaited honeymoon! So as to not confuse you, we are going to post new entries for each day of our trip. To start, I would like to say that it has taken us this long just to find a wireless internet connection...so it could be a while before you hear from us again! Let's begin...

DAY 1 - Our journey begins in the city of Metropolis, IL. As you Superman fans well know, this is where Superman works (well, if he was real). Chase got to pretend for just a while that he actually was faster than a speeding bullet while standing outside of a gas station!

That night, we slumbered in the Hotel Jimmy (aka - the car!) at a highway rest area, and much to our family's surprise, we were NOT murdered in our sleep!

Juicy, juicy flower girls!

Last night we had the first fitting of the flower girls' dresses! They are going to be the prettiest girls at the wedding! I think I am more excited about what they look like than what I look like!!! You can probably see why...

Oh, and you KNOW there was alot of twirling going on!

Happy Graduation Chase!

This past weekend, Chase Jackson Block graduated from Middle Tennessee University with Honors! Congratulations, baby!