road trip -- santa fe, new mexico to flagstaff, arizona -- day 5

read about our last day of driving here.



and remember, my website has changed to www.iscreamforsunshine.com, be sure to change your bookmarks! 

the continental divide: where does the rain go?

the continental divide is kind of super cool. it runs from the bering strait in alaska to the strait of magellan in chile, over 6700 miles long. because it's so long, it passes through twelve countries (us, canada, mexico, guatemala, honduras, nicaragua, costa rica, panama, colombia, ecuador, peru, & chile) and six us states (alaska, montana, idaho, wyoming, colorado, & new mexico). it's nifty to think that at any given moment someone else is passing over the continental divide in another country or state.

i also think it's pretty neat to think about how rainfall reacts near the continental divide. if it's raining on the west side of the divide, the water runoff is draining into the pacific ocean, while if it's raining on the east side, the rain drains into the atlantic ocean. and of course, this all makes sense, but it's still awesome to revel in nature's beauty and common sense sometimes. 

georgia in the southwest: the georgia o'keefe museum

black mesa landscape, new mexico

out back of marie's II 1930

georgia o'keefe has always been one of my favorite artists. so going to her museum in santa fe was a no brainer. unfortunately, the museum was a bit of a disappointment. at $12 a ticket, csv and i expected to see tons of her work -- her flowers, landscapes, and images of the southwest -- but were disappointed to see that this museum in particular, only focused on her southwest images and so landscapes that she'd painted of new mexico. now, don't get me wrong, everything was amazing and beautiful. i just wish there had been more of it.

normally, i'm not a fan of taking pictures of artwork in museums -- for me, art is something you should enjoy and soak up while you're standing in front of it -- but since we'd paid so much money, and i had my fancy new camera, i couldn't resist. these are just a small sampling of what was being shown in the museum; truth be told, this might make up one quarter of the collection. i hope you enjoy them as much as i did.

 

pedernal 1941/42                                                                           ghost ranch landscape 1936

horse's skull with white rose 1931

 

        church steeple 1930                                    bear lake, new mexico 1930

ram's head, blue morning glory 1938


blue-headed indian doll 1935

kokopelli 1942                             kokopelli with snow 1942

road trip -- tulsa, oklahoma to santa fe, new mexico -- day 4

in the course of driving across the country, we noticed that every part of the country is distinct -- the landscapes for each region are unique and different. the east coast is a plethora of tall trees and rolling hills. and it's green. green green. (at least in the spring and summer.) but as we traveled west of the mississippi we started to watch the landscape change. in missouri, it was still green, we were driving through the ozarks after all, but the hills began to flatten. and then we started driving on day four, the day we drove across oklahoma and texas. and we saw a whole new landscape start to emerge. 

 

oklahoma and the texas panhandle are flat and covered in farm land. specifically farm land for grazing and raising cattle. as a result, we saw a lot of cattle during the course of our twelve hour drive across the two states. one of the farms we passed had more cattle on it than i've ever seen before in my life. and because i know nothing about cattle, i couldn't even begin to guess at how many cows there were. but it was a lot.

 

 this region is also known for it's tornados. in fact, a pretty deadly tornado had destroyed a couple of towns in oklahoma the week before we drove through, so we made sure to read up on what to do in case of a tornado as we drove through. (in case you're wondering, don't pull over under an underpass, it creates a wind tunnel. instead you should pull over, get out of the car, and get into the ditches that are so conveniently dug along the side of the highway.)

 

  

we didn't stop in texas for very long, because we were trying to hightail it to santa fe for the night, but we did take in some of the route 66 wonders along the way. like the leaning water tower and the giant cross in groom, texas, the midpoint of route 66 where i desperately had to pee, and for a quick dinner at the big texan in amarillo. since we were in a bit of a rush, we didn't get a chance to pull over to check out cadillac ranch just west of amarillo, texas. which is unfortunate, because i would have enjoyed checking out those ten cadillacs buried in the ground. they're supposed to be quite the sight. all we saw of this historic art piece, was what we viewed at 70 mph from I-40.

but we made it to new mexico before it was too dark and we couldn't get a good picture of the  welcome sign!

maybe the coolest thing that happened during this long day of driving was after we put the camera away for the night -- we drove through one of the craziest, most awesome lightening storms. we were never in any danger, in fact, we were barely even rained on, but the lightening was spectacular. it was like the god's were at war and throwing lightening bolts at one another. the flashes were constant but muted because most of the lightening never even hit the ground; it was all in the grey and angry clouds.   it's a bummer it was too dark for pictures because those photos would have been amazing.

santa fe, new mexico -- home to some of the oldest buildings in the us

i've always heard great things about santa fe and it's supposed to be one of the most travelled to destinations in the united states. so instead of spending the night in albuquerque, we traveled a little farther north, through some crazy lightening storms, and stayed in santa fe. when we woke up, we were greeted by beautiful blue skies and peach colored adobe as far as the eye could see. 

we didn't have a lot of time to explore downtown santa fe, but we did walk around a bit and we were amazed at how old santa fe is. not only is the palace of the governor, located in santa fe's plaza, the oldest public building in the united states but both the oldest church and the oldest house in the usa are located in santa fe as well!

(oldest being a relative term, of course. in this case it refers to oldest colonial buildings and not the oldest buildings constructed by native peoples.)

 

 

 

walking around santa fe, i can see why so many people come to visit every year: the weather was beautiful, the buildings were gorgeous, and it had an old world feel. plus, the art scene is supposed to be amazing. but what i loved the most was our breakfast at tecolote cafe -- try their huevos yucatecos; they're spectacular.



what do you love about santa fe?

2013 -- week 21 -- road trip!

i feel like everyone's bucket list should include a long cross country road trip. ideally you would take your time, seeing all sorts of weird things, eat strange but local delicacies, and stop in a lot of states. so when csv was talking about how she needed to get her car from vermont to arizona after her graduation, i jumped at the chance to accompany her. not only would i finally get a chance to drive across the country but i would also get to go to some new states -- this was especially exciting since i haven't been to a lot of the midwestern states, and my goal in life is to go to all 50.  

we've been planning this trip for a couple of months. we've looked at maps, ordered aaa books, read books about the sights and eats along the road, and researched the things to see along route 66. and all of the planning really paid off -- we had an amazing time, saw nifty things, and ate awesome food. and since i bought a fancy new camera the pictures are super cool. which means the blog posts should be great; be looking for those in the coming weeks, including a guest post by csv about all of the food we ate along our trip.

some highlights from this trip include the four new states i went to (missouri, kansas, oklahoma, and new mexico), local food in oklahoma (fried onion burger, a coney, and calf fries), the changing landscape from one state to the next, and the grand canyon where we met up with rcg.

have you done a cross country road trip? where did you go? what did you see?