Some pics that didn't make it

Manhattan in Vegas. This "Mayflower" truck was driving by right when I took the picture. funny.







Ain't it grand?






Ariel's hair seemed very excited to be in Vegas



I became obsessed with photographing power lines.



Zzyzx Rd. LOL!!!!!!



Freight train in the Mojave. I love this shot.



Carved tree at a rest stop in the Mojave



They warned us about rattesnakes and scorpions in Arizona, but no one said ANYTHING about dinosaurs! This thing would have totaled the Saab.

OK, Here's my final "road trip" entry. I just couldn't let the blog go without including some shots of the grand canyon and Vegas. I've been busy in SF interviewing for jobs, taking ballet classes, shopping for furniture, and spending some time on the local beach, which is a gold-mine for sand dollars. We're moving into our place downtown on the 1st, and getting our "stuff" delivered from storage on the 8th. I'm *very* much looking forward to not living out of my suitcase. Our apartment is a cute, railroad-style one bedroom. It's modest, but has a few of the features we like....a dishwasher, a small back porch, bay windows.... It's pretty, and has a huge kitchen right in the middle of the apartment. I like this blogging thing, but not sure if the mundane details of our daily lives are interesting enough to write about on a regular basis. Regardless, enjoy the canyon shots. We arrived right before sunset, when the light shifts to brilliant golden and red tones. We drove from the canyon to Vegas, and arrived there around 1 in the morning. Stayed up at the casinos until about 5:30, napped until later that morning, and drove straight through to San Francisco. I also included some shots of the Mojave desert in CA.

Made it to SF+Pics from Carlsbad, NM

These "giants" are the largest ones. Maybe 30 feet high? They 're enormous.








We made it to the bay area tonight and are staying with Ariel's dad. In the past two days we've driven through deserts, visited the Grand Canyon, gambled in Vegas... For some reason, we had assumed that all hotels would have wireless internet in the room. Not the case in Sante Fe. The room in Vegas also had weak connections. So I missed a couple of days of posting, sadly. But I'll do it now. Here are some photographs from the Carlsbad Caverns. We stayed in Carlsbad, NM after driving from Atlanta. In the morning, we drove to the Carlsbad Caverns and spent several hours walking around in them. You descend 750 feet below ground through a cave opening. The most incredible place I'd ever seen. The stalagtites were so surreal. The photos can't really do it justice at all. We walked along a path for hours. Everywhere you looked, there was some incredible view. This was probably my favorite part of the trip.

TX pics tommorrow

I posted a couple pics on my computer, then my wireless seems unable to connect. For some unknown reason, Ariel's Vaio works better. I''ll post more Texas pics tommorrow.

I have neat shots of the speedometer before Ariel's first citation. The second one came only about 20 miles later. Arghhh...

Our only major "roadkill" so far was a beautiful monarch butterfly, which I also photo-ed. We breaked for a cute bunny (which we'd been warned about in this part of Texas).

Off to check out some caverns in NM tommorrow, and more pics in the desert on our way to Santa Fe.

2/3 of the way to SF!!!

Austin TX - Carlsbad NM

Had a drive through Texas on Route 10 for quite a while. I saw Mesas for the first time. Lots of Texas Longhorn, Oil digging-machinery-thingys, and a couple of "wind farms". Areas of hundreds of windmills on mesas. Very cool. We didn't spend a whole lot of time checking out Austin, other than eating a nice dinner and breakfast. It seems like a mellow, fun town.

The drive was gorgeous, and the pictures I managed from the passenger seat at 90 miles an hour don't do it justice whatsoever, but I took a bunch anyway. I started to feel like the dog on a leash who'se just out of reach of the water bowl....so many gorgeous photos, but no time to stop. Tommorrow in the desert, we'll have more time.

Austin tonight driving tommorrow

Pretty low-key tonight in Austin at Ariel's friend's house. We're getting a good night's sleep to prepare for a big driving day tommorrow. We're headed toward Santa Fe, NM tommorrow, which means doing quite a bit of driving through Western Texas. I know the route is over 10 hours. We may not make it all the way in one day. Ariel's friend Chris just told us there's hundreds of bunnies on the road at night, which resemble all the tufts of grass. Every once and a while a bunny will jump right in front of you. Loads of deer as well. Fun Fun. Will post tommorrow if we have a hotel with wireless.

New Orleans!

A few of the pictures I took in New Orleans. The textures and colors of the French Quarter are so dense...I wish I could have spent far longer shooting. I'm enjoying shooting shop windows in the places I visit. The voodoo shops were especially interesting to me since I studied about voodoo culture in grad school. It's such a mismash of pagan/occult/and catholic iconography and characters. Though hmmm....I don't think I included that shot here. he he.....

Very fun on Bourbon Street. You can just get a drink "to go" and walk around with it, so long as it's in a plastic cup:)

I've always wanted to visit New Orleans. And I *really* enjoyed it. On my list of places to return to.

Pics from the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Here are a couple of shots from a particularly devastated section of Mississippi. There were dozens of billboards and signs which blew out of thier skeletons. I found the McDonalds arch to be particulary interesting. The most striking thing to me visually couldn't be captured in one photo. It was the extent of damage...miles and miles...

Made it to TX!

We're staying in Texas tonight and the wireless is terrible. I have tons of pics from New Orleans and can't post them this evening. I'll do my best tommorrow in Austin. We should have a short day driving before meeting up with Ariel's friends.

We checked out the Gulf coast through the rest of Mississippi today. The extent of the damage from Katrina was overwhelming, even after two years. It's such a huge expanse that was destroyed. There was some rebuilding, but still a lot of stuff that needs to be demolished. A lot of property for sale as well.

New Orleans itself seemed fine downtown and in the French Quarter, although the outlying residential areas looked kind of bad from our vantage point on the highway.

Bourbon Street is insane! I could have spent days wandering around, shooting photos, drinking... Wow. I wished we could have spent a night, but we have so much traveling to do. I'll post my photos as soon as I get a better connection.

More Random shots from yesterday in TN

At the Welcome Center










Some shots from the road...some in "Old Town" Knoxville, where all the bars and nightclubs live. The giant "ball" is the Sunsphere, which was built for a World Fair a few years back.

Rain in Mississippi

Here's a pic of the road .

Day 4 Atlanta,GA-Gulfport,MS

Today we woke up in Atlanta and had a quick breakfast with Josh and Catie at a place called the "flying biscuit". I was a bit "under the weather" and enjoyed my biscuit as take-out, after a much needed nap in the car. We headed out hoping to reach New Orleans tonight. We ended up staying in Mississippi due to torrential downpours and fog on the road. For lunch, we stopped in Mobile, Alabama. These pics are from Mobile. There were lots of interesting window displays I enjoyed shooting. Also did my first driving today. About 100 miles in Alabama until we neared the gulf, and the rain got scary to drive in:)

Day 3 Virginia, Knoxville, Atlanta

Amber..At this moment, I'm cuddling with Ghandi and typing. She's so sweet. Both of the girls are happy here. We did a day in TN and met with Ariel's friend in Knoxville. More fried pork and Johnny Cash on the radio. Not kidding.

In Atlanta for the night with Josh. Very tired. Enjoy the pics:) Sorry they're kinda lame... I have others, but am too tird to edit and so forth. Bye for now:)