What country is this again?

As a first time visitor to the southwest of the United States, I find myself surprised all the time. Sometimes it is hard to believe that I am still in the same country where I was born and raised. Here are a few things we have ran across when driving through Texas, New Mexico  and Arizona.

In Austin, TX, my French Partner in Crime (FPIC) and I were walking around the city to see what was what when we saw large groups of people gathering on a bridge. We walked over to investigate and found that there were also people waiting in the river in kayaks and gathering on the banks of the river. What was everyone waiting for? We asked and we found out that everyone was hanging around to see the nightly

Congress St Bridge, Austin, TX

occurrence where the 1.5 million bats that live under the bridge fly out for the night. We waited too, of course, and were thoroughly amazing when, right on schedule, 1.5 million bats began flying out from the bridge under us. It took a full ten minutes for them all to exit. Even after they had flown off, we could still see clouds of them off in the distance. It was a really unexpected, amazing sight, and the first time I have ever seen large groups of people waiting and watching in the opposite direction of a sunset.

When passing through New Mexico, we stopped at White Sands National Monument. I expected, with the name, that we would be seeing some white sand...what found was 275(!) square miles of white sand. It was amazing. The best part was when we ran into a couple and their pet camel. They live in the mountains around the sand dunes and liked to bring their camel down to play in the dunes about once a week. It is funny to stand in the middle of miles of white dunes and watch a camel lay down in the sand. I felt very far from home.



The difference between cactus and trees is that cactus do not give off shade. We drove around the campground next to Saguaro National Park, AZ about 6 times before realizing that there would be no getting away from the desert sun. We pitched our tent in record speed and left to find a place out of the 100 degree weather. We are not made for that kind of heat. Getting up early the next day was easy. No one ever tells you how loud the desert is in the morning. With an alarm clock of about 1804575 singing/screaming birds and other animals, we were able to get up, eat, pack and hike all before the heat of the day at 11am. After 11:00 we just took refuge in the visitor's center and learned about cactus while all the rangers told us we were lucky because it was cooler than usual for that time of year. Arizona is beautiful and I can't wait to see more of it, but if I lived there I would be dead after the first summer.

Hiked through Apache lands...

In the Southwest we also...

Camped out in the City of Rocks...

Crossed through some areas where, for miles, the only things we saw were
 ourselves and the dirt road we were driving on...

and witnessed both staged and real live(!) shoot-outs in Tombstone
and Tuscan Arizona. Yikes. 

That's all for today! More later.
-Laura

Houston, We Have a Problem

Hello!

On our road trip around the United States, my French Partner in Crime (FPIC) and I made a stop in Houston, TX to visit some friends.

Upon first glance, Houston does not really seem to have a lot to offer to a passing visitor. The city is very industrial with few places to walk around. Out of Google's "Top Ten Places to Visit in Houston", seven were shopping malls/plazas. Not too exciting for people who have a week to kill. Lucky for us, our friends and friends of friends had better advice than Google.

The best tip came from a night of trivia at the Front Porch, where your hamburger is barbecued for you on a grill out front. In between trying to guess order of Texas cities according to size and remembering the actors from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, our teammate brought up Brazos...and we are glad she did.

Brazos Bend State Park is know for being home to alligators. We went expecting to read some signs and pamphlets, chat with a park ranger, and walk around. What we found out is that the park is know for alligators because it is FULL of alligators. It is hard not to spot them. And there is the thing...they are not barrier-ed off, or behind a fence or anything. They are just there living, and crazy people like us go and visit them. There are signs everywhere that say things like...
-Don't let your dog wander off or swim
-Stay away from tall grass
-Don't throw anything in the water
-Remember, alligators are fast
-Stay at least 30 feet away from the alligators

This last recommendation proved hard to follow. We were walking back on a trail when we came across an alligator right on the path, just waiting with it's mouth wide open. We were like, uh oh Houston...we have a problem. We couldn't get by without going past and we couldn't do past without coming within 4 feet of the open mouthed alligator. All we could do was wait and look at him looking at us.

Look at him! He is ready...

I am writing this blog now...so I have not been eaten, but I won't lie by saying I wasn't worried for a moment there. It certainly made for an interesting afternoon and a +1 for Houston. 

Until next time, Laura 

4 Cities in 4 Days

It has been one year since my French Partner in Crime (FPIC) and I moved to the north in Vermont. After months of -20 degree temperatures (Fahrenheit) and dealings with an insane downstairs neighbor, we decided that one year was enough. We have embarked on a journey across the United States in search of a new home. Monday, with a car full of snack and camping equipment, we headed south. Here are a few highlights so far from the road.

Day 1 - NH to Pittsburgh, PA (10 hours)

Why Thank you Pennsylvania! 

Our first day on the road we passed quickly through New England, stopping only for gas, until we reached Pittsburgh, PA. The city is small, with most of it's inhabitants living in the areas surrounding rather than in the city. Walking around after working hours leads to an "I Am Legend" feeling of being the last people living on earth. We stayed with a young couchsurfer host who does film work for reality and National Geographic television programs. He took us salsa dancing and gave us a late night history lesson from Mt. Washington, over looking the Pittsburgh skyline at night.

Day 2 - Pittsburgh to Nashville, TN (9 hours)

An Elvis sighting in Nashville 

We arrived in Nashville after what seemed like an endless drive through West Virginia, Ohio (very flat) and Kentucky (pretty and green). It poured rain but Nashville was still everything I wanted it to be with a blinking neon downtown area, streets of recording studios, cowboy boot shops, friendly people, good breakfasts, and a chance to hold a guitar and sing into a fake microphone at the visitor's center. Our couchsurfer host was a grad student getting her PhD in Anthropology with  the most cuddly dog imaginable. I wish we had had more time to spend in Nashville...maybe on the way back.    

Day 3 - Nashville to New Orleans, LA (8 hours)
New Orleans is a funny place. I was in constant conflict in deciding whether I loved it or hated it. It is awesome to wander around the French Quarter and see the cute buildings with their terraces and flowers but frustrating to be doing this with about 238472387 other people with cameras, sunhats and good walking shoes. The French Quarter lacked a bit of the authenticity I was looking for and seemed to be working only for tourist's benefit. It wasn't until we ventured out in search for sandwiches that we found a bit of "real" New Orleans with shops, restaurants and bars not filled with people who were taking pictures of themselves eating or drunk (or both). This part was very nice and I wish we had thought to do that sooner. I would visit New Orleans again, but I would want to make sure to stay with a local.

Day 4 - Western Louisiana
On our way to Houston, My FPIC and I meandered through the western part of Louisiana and stopped at a few historical sites. I am not sure if tourists are more rare through this area, but everywhere we went we were received with enthusiasm and more information than we could imagine. We visited one plantation where we planned to take a self-guided tour but ended up spending over an hour talking with the three women at the front desk. We got the whole history of the plantation plus their own lives plus a recommendation of enough things to visit in Louisiana to stay a month. Our next stop went similarly and we left with more stories, maps and recommendations to stop by a music festival that was nearby. We stopped by Lafayette to visit the festival expecting to see a few local bands and maybe some food stands...but instead we found that this was the 27th International Festival of Louisiana! There were 6 stages playing with different bands from around the
world every hour for five days. We saw an excellent

group from Israel, some break-dancers, rows and rows and artisan vendors and a funny group from our next of the woods in Quebec wearing kilts and playing violins and accordions. Instead of just dropping in we ended up staying the whole afternoon and not wanting to leave. We even got interviewed by a local newspaper guy who saw our NH license plate and wanted to know if we had driven all that way just for the festival (sadly no but we might consider it next year). It was great and I consider it to be the best part of our voyage so far.

Stay tuned as we head off to Texas and even more off the beaten trail!
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