A lot of driving...a lot seen!

Hello guys! So Amanda left you in Carlsbad, New Mexico (which is in the southern part of that state). We are now in Cheyenne, Wyoming, so we have all of New Mexico and Colorado to talk about :)

We left Carlsbad on our way to Santa Fe, NM but making sure we stopped in the White Sands National Monument. This place is beautiful. The sand is so white and so cool to the touch, no matter how hot the day. We drive in and I see kids sledding down the sand dunes... I have never seen that before so I was in completely awe. Amanda tried to sled down on one of our bin tops. However, it didn't work out too well and she face planted haha. Mildly entertaining for me. After playing in the sand for a little bit we decided to head towards Santa Fe.

My idea of Santa Fe is adobe houses everywhere, Spanish influenced restaurants everyone and everyone on horseback haha. I was right on two of the three (no one rode horses). That night, Amanda was set on finding a great little Mexican/Spanish restaurant to eat at. The first one was closed, the second one was crazy expensive, but the third one was just right. Blue Corn Cafe was the name of it...it was so good I bought a t-shirt to remember them. The second day we walked around the town for a little bit. Stopping in the oldest house and church of the US (which happen to be right next to each other). We went into a few other places and then left to our next destination...Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado.

The original plan was to stay there for a couple nights however as soon as we got there we learned that the campsite was closed and we were forced to come up with other options. But before that let me tell you about the Sand Dunes! We climbed up the biggest sand dune I have ever seen in my entire life. 750ft tall!! I'm not the most physically fit person, but usually I don't have that much of a problem climbing up a mountain. But with the air thinning because we were higher up and it being a mound of sand, I was out of air. Amanda was killing me climbing up the stupid sand hill. However at the top it was totally worth it and Amanda got a lot of practice in using her panoramic shooting on her camera. The way down was 100 times easier and took us only about 20 min whereas the climb took us a little over a hour.

Afterwards, we decided to drive to Colorado Springs and stay the night there. We didn't do much in the town (because the only thing I wanted to do was rafting and it was closed), so the next day we drove into Denver. We were planning on staying in Denver but both decided eh, let's go to Fort Collins instead. But before leaving we went to the Denver Downtown Aquarium! There were so many cool things here, even tigers (I know in an aquarium? I thought the same thing).

Finally we left and went to Fort Collins and stayed at a KOA there. It was soo windy though, to the point that I could not sleep at all. So what did I do? My stupid self thought it would be a good idea to sleep in the car. And though I did fall asleep finally, I woke up in some pain haha. Oh well, the price I pay to actually sleep.

We decided to head to Chimney Rock in Nebraska before going to Cheyenne and I was so disappointed. It literally is a rock that is far away... you can't even walk up to it, the national historic site committee or whoever won't let me. And then they tried to charge us $5 a person to go through a "museum." By museum they mean one room that I can see from the entrance. Three hours out of the way for nothing. I got a picture and that's it. Oh well, I guess I would have never known that unless I went. So we are in Cheyenne now, hanging out with Araina's parents who are so nice. It will be so nice to just relax and catch up on the sleep I am so desperately missing out on :( But totally worth missing it for the stuff I get to see! I will post an update soon. Bye guys!

Nadeen

SNOW...in New Mexico??

Hello again!

OK really fast because we lost the first blog written due to Internet errors..

So we Spent a second day at Carlsbad and got up early to explore an unimproved cave. IT WAS AWESOME! But the hike up to the cave... not so much. Nadeen trying to be super woman made me look bad (for the first time so far). I was dying! haha I think maybe because it was too early in the morning or at least that's what I'm going with. Anyway the cave had no lights so it was just us, our flashlights, 10 other people and their flashlights, and the two guides.

At one point of the cave we were over our head in bat poop... it sounds worse than it is. But a quick lesson.. apparently they used to mine in the cave for the bat poop and bring it out my the truck load. Bat poop is a great fertilizer for plants, and well being in New Mexico that's pretty valuable for all the farming that goes on out there (we saw pecan farms mostly).

Check out the pictures on facebook though to see all the cool formations and columns inside the cave, although it wont be as cool as in person.

At the end of the day we went to out first drive in movie ever!! It was exciting. We took a couple of banana fudge sundaes from sonic and sat in the comfort of our own car and watched Cope Out on the big screen. After working out how to sit, angle the car, and get sound (a good minute or two after the movie started) it was quite enjoyable.

That's all... I said real quick and now Nadeen is reminding me of that. :)

Amanda

Oh yeah and to go with Nadeen's title we saw quite a bit of snow on the drive through the mountains of New Mexico. Neither of us thought the first snow we would see on the trip would be in Texas and certainly not that the second would be in New Mexico.

"I feel like a mountain goat!"

Hello all :) Amanda told you about our first day adventures to and during Big Bend. Well let's continue on with the rest of our fabulous trip there. Our first night was unbelievably crazy, constant wind the entire night. I thought the tent was gonna flop over with us in it. Needless to say, I did not sleep very much that night. However the night came and went and soon enough it was morning and time to start the rest of the day.

We began with driving to Santa Elena Canyon Trail. Since I am a wonderful navigator it took about an hour and half to get there. Regardless, we started hiking through the canyon itself. We reached the end which was almost a rock quarry right on the "beach" of the Rio Grande. This side of the river did not have any Mexicans trying to come over. Amanda learned how to use the self timer setting on my camera up there as well :) It was beautiful!

As we left, we just decided to stop at the Mule Ears Overlook. As we were there, Amanda felt it necessary to go on another hike, this time through the desert itself. We started hiking towards the Mule Ears Spring. About 40 minutes later, we both came to the conclusion that we had to have passed the turn off to the spring. Great, so we now how another 40 minutes to hike back to the car! It did help that the scenery was amazing.

Back at the campsite, we decided to make dinner and then take showers, woooo! Big Bend National Park likes to charge for everything they can and that includes 5 minutes of shower time at $1.50. You basically are trying to do 2 or 3 things at a time so you don't end up soapy at the end of the 5 minutes so you don't have to spend another $1.50. I knew that if I didn't finish I would have no way of reaching Amanda because I didn't have my phone (not that it would help because I didn't have service in the park) and she didn't feel like waiting in the bathroom, she went to the car. Thus leaving me alone with a group of middle school girls, one being in the other shower saying she was going to come out naked because no one else was here (even though we started our showers at the same time). Slightly annoyed I had to inform them that I was there and that I didn't want her to come out naked!

Finally clean, we drove up to Chisos Basin to see the sunset through the Window view, a popular place to watch it from. We basically got there just in time. Amanda was more excited about the soda and ice cream in the store than the actual sunset. Afterwards on our 40 minute drive back to the campsite we saw a group of Javelinas (pig like animals)!! Amanda was so happy to see some wildlife other than birds and roadrunners. A great ending to a great day!

After a very cold night, we packed up and headed to Guadalupe National Park. We ended up passing another border control station (both stations being about 80 or 90 miles from the border), who were much nicer than the last station. He did ask if we saw anybody hiking on the road, like really we were going to say yes and have to be interrogated longer??!! We finally got to the national park and got out of the car. Gusts of wind at around 50 mph! I've never in my life had to push through a wind and I felt like I was seriously working out sometimes. After some serious consideration we decided to just pass through and head to Carlsbad National Park. We got there just in time to tour the Big Room of the caverns. They were dark, creepy and wet....I loved them! Tomorrow will be a continuation of more caverns and more cave walks and dealing with more rude hotel clerks.

Until then....bye folks.

Nadeen

PS

The title came from me. Lately I have been speaking without thinking and we were in Santa Elena, climbing down the path. My stupid self just absent-mindedly said I felt like a mountain goat because of all the rocks that overlook the cliffs and the river. I meant to say mountain lion but didn't say it and Amanda wouldn't let it go. Thus the title of my blog!

I'll find a way like the Mexicans did...

Wednesday March 24 was probably the most eventful day so far...

Nadeen and I headed out of San Antonio in the direction of Big Bend National Park bright and early that morning. After being in San Antonio for a couple days we were excited to get to the rugged side of Texas.

Along the trip we ran into a couple of different boarder control stations. At one in particular we were motioned to stop so that two men and a dog could check the car for obvious reasons. As we approached I thought it would be a great idea to get a picture of the boarder control station/workers to add to the scrapbook and have for memories, as a snapped a shot I look out the window to be greeted by a man shaking his finger at me.. apparently a picture of him is not allowed and is a violation of national security. Nadeen and myself found this to be absolutely absurd but none the less we deleted the picture.

Not much farther down the road we ran into some more excitement... As Nadeen drives through a small town a sherrif deputy points and waves to her to pull over. Naturally Nadeen gets pissed and says she wasn't speeding... but the sherrif just wanted to see her insurance and license and went back to his truck. Luckily he came back with a warning citation, called my Jeep at 96 (not cool!), and let us go. We continued on our way stopping at a gas station a mile up the road where it seems we have already become famous. People are staring at us on our way in and one guys stops what he is doing to ask is we were issued a ticket.. it was quite exciting to see how popular we had become in just a short visit to the city.

After arriving at the park we set up camp and headed out for a hike before it got dark. We chose to hike at Boquillas trail... this trial took us to the Rio Grande. We went to the viewing area where we got anxious to get down to the river so we made our own trail and hiked our way down the hill, through the shrubs and avoiding the cacti. After that we headed over to the "real" trail where we meet some of the other campers and made friends quickly. We were able to climb a huge sand dune up to a cave and watch as many Mexicans tried to find a way to cross the Rio Grande without being spotted by the boarder patrol. Many of them were coming on horseback with their families and important belongings. It was amazing to see what these people will go through to get into our country, its something I always saw in history books or movies but never really thought it still happened this way... It makes you think about what you take for granted each day.

The days are flying by and each one has its own adventures. I am looking forward to all the excitement that has yet to come.

Amanda

Everything is bigger in Texas!

Hello all :) Amanda has done a great job summing up New Orleans and Arkansas and my feelings about them. Unimpressed about New Orleans, but thouroughly enjoyed seafood gumbo! And sticking my foot in the Mississippi River. After New Orleans we drove to Arkansas, my GPS is stupid and got me all turned around. Arkansas....yea not much to say. Hot Springs National Park and the town of Hot Springs are very proud of giving the US Bill Clinton and Arkadelphia (that's where we stayed the second night) does not believe of peanut butter milkshakes!!!!! That makes me despise Arkansas :)

After Arkansas we drove to Dallas, Texas to see my friend Morgan. IT SNOWED IN TEXAS IN MARCH!!! Apparently that doesn't happen and folks in Texas don't know how to drive in snow at all. We saw two pretty bad accidents, yet everyone continued to drive like maniacs. Well we got into Dallas finally and so far I like Texas. We didn't do much but enough to make an impact on me haha. We drove over to the new Cowboys stadium but couldn't see much of the inside because they were closing. Morgan made us some amazing crab legs for dinner and then we went to watch Alice in Wonderland in 3D (which is pretty good just not in 3D). Morgan was an amazing host and I was thrilled to see him after so long.

The next day involved Amanda and I packing up once again and driving to San Antonio to stay with some of my family. Today we didn't do much but relax. Amanda chilled while I played with my cousin's 2 little girls all day. That night Amanda and I experienced our first hookah ever. Not so weird to hear that Amanda has never done one, but my cousin was shocked that I hadn't especially because my family does it all the time (we are Middle Eastern if you didn't know, and if you didn't know that then you shouldn't read this blog because you aren't a true friend haha). Nevertheless, some wine and some hookah, I got little buzzed fairly quickly. It was nice :) The plan was to leave tomorrow but as Amanda mentioned in an earlier blog, my family is usually very insisting that we stay another night and this time they succeeded. We will be going downtown with the family to the Riverwalk and the Alamo. It should be nice. I like Texas and I like that they do everything bigger (though I haven't seen anything bigger other than the movie theatre). Talk to you guys again soon! Bye guys.

Nadeen

The scenic route

The past two days we have been in Arkansas.. Sounds exciting right??

On the way to Arkansas from New Orleans Nadeen was driving (while I was napping) and I woke up to her freaking out and yelling at the GPS. Lets just say the GPS is super confusing when its in a big city with a lot going on. So we missed our exit. And the next one.. AND the next one, so luckily we ended up taking the scenic route :) well I liked it.. Nadeen not so much. We saw A LOT of the countryside in Mississippi and Arkansas.

Despite the mix ups we made good time and got to Hot Springs National Park before dark on Friday. We managed to put our tent up and take a hike up to Goat Rock. Nadeen (my tour guide) told me this is called goat rock because it looks like a rock a mountain goat would perch on. I love getting to the top of a mountain and looking down on everything. The peace and quiet is refreshing. On the way down the mountain we collected wood for our campfire that was a HUGE success. We had an amazing dinner consisting of pizza (sauce and cheese on bread and toasted over the fire) made by Nadeen, and mashed potatoes, and green beans! It was awesome and we were so proud.

On Saturday we walked around Hot Springs; the park and the city. We toured an old bathhouse and.... thats basically it. We tried to take some of the hiking trails but the tour guide (Nadeen) and myself found the map and sigs hard to follow (I'm considering writing in about this) so we took the mountain drive instead, and still managed to miss a few things that were on the map.

After a little exploring we headed to Arkadelphia, AR for a cheap hotel since the weather was unpredictable for the night to come. We did some more relaxing and went to a local mexican restaurant where we were two of their seven customers and the server reminded Nadeen and I of our friend Juanita.

Now we're off to Texas!!!

Amanda

What do you wanna do now? I don't know. What do you wanna do?

Today was not too eventful. We took our time getting started and then headed out to see downtown New Orleans.

Unfortunately neither of us were too impressed. Nadeen was super excited to get here and I don't think the city quite met her expectations but we still enjoyed ourselves. We walked trough the city with camera in hand, Nadeen looking for the perfect Bourbon St. sign to snap a shot of, and I trying to predict where she was going to turn next. We walked down to the Mississippi River and put a toe in, it was pretty stinkin cold!. We also spent a good amount of time just looking for somewhere to eat (that wouldn't blow our budget) and Gumbo was a must on the menu.

I think my favorite part of the city was all the music. I enjoyed all the random people playing their instruments on the sidewalks whether it was the clapping of their hands or blowing on the saxophone.

Other than that we sat and waited almost 2 hours for an oil change and relaxed at the hotel.

Tomorrow we head out for Hot Springs, Arkansas and from there... well we aren't quite sure yet. Plans continue to change and so I've decided to plan for things to change so that things go according to plan that way :)

Amanda

Driving, driving, and wait....more driving

The past week has been incredible (and it's only the beginning), however there has been a lot of driving :( Already about 2500 miles on the car. Amanda's grandparents are the cutest people ever, I enjoyed being with them thoroughly. But alas, it was time to leave and we drove 4 hours to the Everglades. Holy cow I have never seen so many alligators in one area. It was so nice and peaceful and the sleeping was so comfortable. The temperature was perfect! The only downfall... I have been bitten freaking all over by mosquitoes. It's really bad right now, I'm scratching constantly. Hopefully they go away before I scratch off my skin.

Our next adventure takes us to Key West, Florida. A trip that should have taken only 3 hours ended up taking 4. Apparently Florida loves doing construction in the middle of the day on a two way road. I don't think I have ever gotten so much road rage. The drive was beautiful though. Woo spring break! There were people everywhere. We got there just in time for our parasailing reservation. I would recommend parasailing to everyone. It is so much fun and so relaxing in the air. I did get hit on by the fairly attractive, but slightly odd, guy on the boat helping us. It was funny, but like I said, odd. The rest of the day was us just hanging out in Key West. The entertainers in Mallory square were interesting and one of a kind. Everything from acrobatics to juggling fire and swallowing swords. Then we sat and watched the sunset in the southern most part of the US :)

We attempted to drive from Key West to New Orleans (we left at 830 and my gps placed us in New Orleans at 1030 the next morning). Yea that didn't work! We had to stop in Sarasota for the night and finish the rest today. Basically it has been a wonderful day on the road haha. We finally reached New Orleans at 7. When people on TV talk about the destruction in New Orleans I always thought it was just exaggerated. I didn't even walk through it, but by driving by it all it is clearly not! Tomorrow we will spend the day in the French Quarter and Bourbon St and I am stoked. Stay tuned for future updates haha :) Bye guys!

Nadeen

"What's on your agenda today?"

The past few days have been much more relaxed than the beginning of the trip. The last day in Atlanta we just hung out, it has been raining everywhere we went. On our way to Hobe Sound, Florida we stopped in Downtown Disney hoping to see Amanda H but that didn't work out too well. So we just walked around to stretch our legs.



Today I went up in my first lighthouse ever!! It was gorgeous at the top. Amanda got to climb her trees and vines at the lighthouse. Then we walked on Jupiter Beach. The water was so blue, at least bluer than I have ever seen it in NC.



Tomorrow we leave for the Everglades and the Keys woooo! More exciting news later to come.



Nadeen

Hmm well like Nadeen said We have been relaxing and fitting in the last bit of TV we will see for awhile. Nadeen's family was awesome. They all wanted to give us everything we could ever need and more. And not only did they want to make sure we had everything but they wanted me make sure we never left for the trip. It was so cute, they keep trying to find a way to make us stick around for "just another day" the other popular question was, "can I come along?" Unfortunately we have my jeep packed ridiculously full and had to say no to everyone.
They were great and I hope it wasnt the last time I ever get to visit with them.

That being said I was also super anxious to get to Florida so that I could spend time with my family. Its interesting to see how different our families are and where and who we get our amazing personalities and character from :)

The stop in Downtown Disney was a good idea but a stressful one. The traffic was a nightmare. Really the traffic everywhere we've been in the past two days has been crazy! And I know its only going to get worse as we head to the Keys during spring break week...

The Lighthouse today was awesome! I got to swing from trees and vines just like Tarzan (or Jane according to Nadeen, but that just doesnt sound as cool to me). The Ocean was absolutely beautiful and the waves managed to catch me off guard enough that I ended up with sand in my pockets..

Its been great seeing family and friends but now its time to move on and see and do things we've never done before. IM EXCITED! So tomorrow we head to the Everglades and Key West. Pythons, alligators, and creepy men in trailers... PLEASE STAY AWAY :)

Amanda

Atlanta

Today was a mix of family and fun! Amanda and I went to eat lunch with both of my cousins, who are both in elementary school. It reinforces the fact that I only like kids in my family and of friends. Holy cow! They were loud and obnoxious. However, what have the school systems done to lunch? I got ssshhhed at because I was too loud??? Lunch is a time for them to release some pent up energy and the kids are told to be quiet. It doesn't make sense and it seems like an impossible task to be doing especially with elementary school kids.

Anyways....after lunch, Amanda and I decided to hike up to the top of Stone Mountain. For those who don't know, Stone Mountain is a huge piece of granite over 700 ft tall. It had rained that morning so the rock was fairly slippery. Dude! It was a steep as mess and a freaking workout. 2.6 miles there and back. The further you went the denser the fog and the more moisture we got on our heads and clothes. Amanda just thought I had sweat so bad from the hike. I mean I know it took a lot out of me but I'm not that bad out of shape haha. We hung out on top for a little and began our trek down. Amanda is fairly clumsy on the walk down and slips numerous times but only falls once :)

After the hike, we got home and went to a 7 year old's indoor pool party. This pool was insane with a slide that goes from inside to outside and back inside. A playground in the middle of the pool and a lazy river. I was really sad I didn't bring my bathing suit then. Overall, a pretty busy day from 9am to about 9pm. I'm exhausted and tomorrow is mostly family time. I will talk to you soon. Bye guys!

Road Trip Jitters

Hello folks! So it's day one and it's been a rocky start. First, when filling gas I overflowed the tank (I know, my b). I kind of knew that it was gonna be one of those days from then on. We finally got to Congaree National Park, right outside of Columbia, SC (a hour behind schedule let me add) and it's drizzling rain ALL DAY. We take a 5 mile hike through the park, which was pretty cool, and we learned a lot. Most importantly...don't wear your good tennis shoes on a trail when it's raining :) Pictures will be posted soon on here (if I can figure out how) or on facebook. Later, Amanda cooked dinner!!! Penne and marinara, because we both missed Italian food so much already haha. It was pretty good though. Then we set up for camp. While we settling into the tent to just hang out we kept freaking ourselves out. It was us and the creeper in his trailer and that's it. Keep in mind we are in the back woods alone!! Needless to say, I really freaked and we packed up everything and drove 3.5 hours to Atlanta to my family's place. I'm still trying to adjust living out of a car :(

Lessons for today:

Don't wear good tennis shoes on trails while it's raining

Muck is good for pollution

I'm mildly afraid of heights (don't ask)

Can't camp when no one else is around or I go nuts!

So we will be in Atlanta for a few days. I will keep you posted on upcoming events! Bye everyone!