Okay, for those who are paying really close attention, you'll notice we've altered our itinerary just slightly. Tonight, I'm in Plano, Texas, just a few miles from Parker, Texas -- home of Southfork Ranch! We hit quite a bit of traffic today in Austin and Dallas and didn't reach Southfork while it was still open, and since it didn't look like we'd make it to Marshall until very late, we decided to stay here, so that I could see the inside of Southfork, and so we could get some sleep! So, we're at the Days Inn in Plano.

It's been a long, interesting day in Texas. We awoke in our San Antonio suite, and immediately headed out to explore the Riverwalk and the Alamo. Cindy was amazed to learn that the Alamo is right in the downtown area, since in pictures it always appears to be out in the middle of nowhere. But it's actually amidst the downtown hubbub. The Riverwalk was pretty -- it's a pretty city, and we spent some time walking around there before checking out of the amazing hotel and beginning our drive up to Austin. PS, there was a cowboy trying to get people to go into some weird museum of animal antlers or something there, who asked where we were from and when we told him, he responded-- Oh, Santa Monica, are you near Montana Ave? Third Street Promenade? Great. The cowboy now knows where we live.

We sat in traffic going up to Austin. We were driving behind a barn for a while, yes, a barn. And at the gas station Cindy opened the gas flap and found two giant locusts in there. All I can say is it's a really good thing it wasn't me or you all would have heard my screams from around the country. No idea how they got there.

Anyway, Austin was a traffic nightmare, but seemed like an interesting city. Mykl introduced us to Bubble Tea, which I had had once before... but this time I was wise enough to order it without the little balls of tapioca. If you've had it, you know what I'm talking about, if not, well, I guess you're just not up on the latest trendy foods. Anyway, for those who are interested, Mykl is doing great in Austin, even if he is calling himself Zaius there. ;) You can see the picture of him above.

Then we headed out of Austin, hoping to get to Southfork in time to attend the tour of the ranch -- but alas, the last tour was at 4:30 and with the Dallas traffic, we didn't get to the area until after 6. So, as I mentioned, we wound up staying here in Plano. Once again, our hotel was out of standard rooms but they offered us a suite for the standard rate... okay so it's no St. Anthony's, but we've got a nice spacious room in the Days Inn here for just $55. And hey, a bonus... cable here seems to offer an Air Force channel here, where you can learn how to plan an attack and bombing raid. Things I never wanted to know were out there...sigh...

So, after the tour of the ranch tomorrow, we're heading to New Orleans as fast as we can get there... More updates then!!

Oh my God!! So here I am writing from the most amazing hotel room I have ever stayed in!!! Note to Sharon and Em: This place makes our Catalina suite look like a dive!! I've added the St. Anthony to my links of places we're staying... Here's what happened: I was looking for a place to stay in San Antonio, since we hadn't booked anyplace yet, and everyone we spoke to said to stay downtown. Having never been in the city before, we were nervous about staying off the beaten path, and since Cindy has this Disney Discount card, we can sometimes get 50% off at really nice hotels. So, even though it was more than I wanted to spend, I wound up booking a $95 room (with the discount) at the St. Anthony in San Antonio -- a great rate for a nice hotel, but more than we'd been spending at our normal motel 6 type lodging. But I booked it anyway, so that we'd be in a good area, and near the Riverwalk and the Alamo. We arrived, and when we got to our room, I almost thought there must have been a mistake. I'm sitting at the desk in a palatial suite with couches, chairs, an armoire, a dining room table, separate bedroom, and 2 walk-in closets. In addition, the mahogany furniture, ornate paintings and decor are nicer than the Beverly Wilshire. I can't believe I'm here. We didn't want to leave the room for the precious few hours we have here, so we ordered room service and ate at our table, almost embarrassed by our own decadence. Anyway free advertising for the St. Anthony -- I recommend it to anyone who happens to find him/herself in San Antonio. I think it's a little known travel secret that if you make reservations at a nice hotel day-of, you can get a bargain rate on the nicer rooms because they'd rather get what they can, than nothing. So, here we are!

This morning, we woke in our $39 a night room in Carlsbad, which seemed quite nice yesterday, haha -- and went to Caverns. They were awesome!! And going from the tops of the rocky mountains (14,000 feet in the air) to the caves (750 feet below the ground) in just a couple of days is almost unreal. We took lots of pictures of the stalagtites and stalagmites (spelling, anyone??), and we picked up some souvenirs. Then we hit the road for San Antonio, through more and more empty farmland. It's amazing how much unused space there is in the U.S. Cindy says she read that if you took every single person on the planet and set them a foot apart from each other, they would cover only the state of Texas. I'm beginning to believe it.

So through the farmlands of Texas, we made our way to San Antonio. We arrived around 9 pm to find this amazing room, and here we are. Tomorrow we'll hit the Riverwalk and the Alamo, and we'll hopefully see my cousin Mykl aka Zaius in Austin... Plus, the event I've waited for my whole life... we'll be seeing Southfork Ranch (the location from "Dallas")!! All for tonight. Have to go jump around my room!

No pictures today – we spent most of the day driving from Colorado Springs down to Carlsbad, New Mexico. In the morning we went to the Garden of the Gods, which was pretty, but somewhat unimpressive after the splendor of Arches. It’s a small park with some giant rocks, which I climbed on. We took a few pictures there, but nothing great, and I’m once again on the cellular connection… so, hopefully, more photos tomorrow.

Anyway most of the day was spent in the car, except for a few pee breaks in some very sketchy areas. There was actually a bumper sticker for sale that read: “With Guns, Trucks and Beer, who needs women?” Ah, nowhereseville.

It seemed like it took forever to get out of Colorado – and everything from southeastern Colorado to southeastern New Mexico is mainly huge expanses of farmland…endless, endless farmland. We were looking forward to stopping in Roswell and finding some tacky alien stuff, but we were pretty disappointed with what we found. The UFO museum was closed, and other than lampposts featuring “alien eyes” we saw few signs of the famed Roswell mythology. We couldn’t even find an alien café or anything like that to eat at, so we left, a bit disappointed. We did, however, spot a UFO circling the sky above us… Actually, it turned out to be a stealth fighter plane. Not sure which if that’s better or worse…

But fortunately, we got to Carlsbad in time to reach the Carlsbad Caverns by dusk, when 100,000 bats emerge from the entrance to the caves… We were able to watch their nightly migration, which was really fascinating. They were much smaller and quieter than I thought… but it was a really intriguing sight to see.

It was finally Cindy’s turn to avoid wildlife on the road… a deer and a jackrabbit. Now we’re in our room at the Continental Inn, and I’m bummed because McDonald’s stiffed me on my hamburger so I had to make do with salad and half a McFlurry (Emily, stop screaming at me… also had a bite of Cindy’s chicken sandwich and I ate plenty of other food today).

Anyway I guess that’s the update. Tomorrow morning we go back to the Caverns to see the interior of the caves, and then we drive to San Antonio…

All is well… enough for now.

So, Blogger was down for maintenance when I tried to upload this… hopefully it will be back up and this will get posted soon. Anyway, we’re in Colorado Springs tonight after another interesting day. First thing this morning we went to the Rocky Mountain National Park. Oh, random sign of the day: by the entrance to a bridge, there was a sign that read:

“In case of flood, climb to safety”

Or, I guess, you could always drown.

Anyway, we went to the park, which was filled with wildlife and… OMG… SNOW. Tons and tons of snow. But I have to say it was wild looking DOWN at the Rocky Mountains. I do believe I know the meaning now of Rocky Mountain High…

Of course (since this is now a daily occurrence for me) I was forced to stop for a herd of bighorn sheep crossing the road. We also saw elk, deer, and numerous birds as well as ground squirrels that we made friends with. One even jumped on my lap (and promptly realized where he was and jumped off!). We ate lunch by Bear Lake, and shared crumbs with the squirrels (don’t tell the rangers). Then we left and headed for Cheyenne, a side trip that I begged Cindy to go on… (“But…but… Garth Brooks and George Strait sing about Cheyenne…. I HAVE to go there”)… She indulged me and we drove up to Wyoming, but Cheyenne itself was something of a letdown. It actually reminded me of Middletown with a cowboy flavor. But I was glad to get the chance to see it anyway since it’s doubtful I’ll ever be anywhere near there again. Oh, and it was back up at 80 degrees in Wyoming… allergies, here they come…

The sky was getting cloudy, so we figured we’d better get out of there fast (ok…Cindy wanted to get out of there fast anyway)… and we escaped before the rain hit. Then we drove down to Colorado Springs where I find myself now. Tomorrow we visit Garden of the Gods and then head down to New Mexico for Roswell and Carlsbad Caverns!!

All for now…

Yippee!! Finally, we have a good internet connection here at the Snowshoe Motel in Frisco, Colorado. So I can write this at my leisure. Forgive me if I'm a little shell-shocked; we began the day in the 90-degree Utah desert and ended up amidst snow covered mountains in 45 degree Colorado. So I've got a little Rocky Mountain delirium going on...

As I mentioned, the day began in Moab, Utah. We drove first to Arches, a national park filled with these amazing natural rock formations. We took a zillion pictures. From there we went to Canyonlands, which is, incidentally, according to National Geographic, the most infrequently visited national park in the U.S. As we approached, I once again was forced to avoid livestock as some cowboys led their herd across the street. This seems to be a pattern for me. FYI, I also had near misses with two chipmunks and a gecko. In addition, we did our good deeds for the day providing a plastic spoon for a tourist in need, and notifying the park rangers that several other travellers had locked themselves out of their car and were stuck in Upheaval Dome. We also decided that Canyonlands was more beautiful than the Grand Canyon, in our humble opinions. It was incredibly hot though. Over 90, I'm sure. Sharon would have died.

(Sidebar here...) Oh, and by the way, I meant to do an ongoing restrooms across America commentary. Don't worry, just the highlights. FYI, the restrooms at the Mobil in Kingman are very clean and well-maintained. And in case you're in need, the women's restroom at the Conoco in the Keyenta, Arizona, featured a vending machine that sold flavored condoms and some other assorted sexual accoutrements. They did not sell tampons. Canyonlands, by the way, has the best smelling outhouses I have ever been in. I'm not kidding.

Anyway, back to the day. After Canyonlands, we drove for just about 5 hours straight (well, except for a pee break, of course) to Frisco, Colorado (which is about 20 miles east of Vail). It was a long, but incredibly beautiful drive, once we got into Colorado. We drove along the Colorado River, and I freaked out when I started to see snow. As we climbed in elevation, the snow got closer and the outside temperature got increasingly chilly. I began to realize my shorts and tank top were not going to cut it here... We quickly checked in, changed into warmer clothes and walked to the restaurant across the street. It was almost 9:00 and we were starving, so we weren't picky, and it turned out to be a pricey steakhouse. You'll all be surprised to hear I ordered chicken ;)

I'm going to update the photo section now... So please check out the "Photos" link on the navigation!!

More tomorrow! :)

Today began at our wigwam. It was cool. So, I’m a sucker for novelties – sue me. First thing this morning we went to the petrified forest, which was pretty cool – basically it’s wood from millions of years ago that has turned to stone. Not too much to say about that other than that they had some unusual souvenirs that I picked up. Right after that we went to the painted desert. By this point, I wished that I had come up with more Arizona songs for my mix because by about the third time through I was getting a little sick of Jamie O’Neal. Oh and note to self: No matter how hard I try, I still hate Tool. The whole stupid band name=sucky music, still applies. Sorry, Ann and Chris ;) But I tried.

Anyway, after that we spent a long stretch of highway in Navajo country… which was quite an experience. Suffice to say the Navajo don’t seem to believe in fencing in their livestock. First, when I stopped for a pee break at Burger King, two stray cows were hanging out right in front. Personally I believe it was a bovine protest march – all they were missing were signs saying “eat me here.” No one else seemed particularly fazed by the cows. Then—picture driving down the highway at about 65 miles an hour when you’re forced to come to a sudden halt because a herd of sheep is crossing the road. Yup, it happened.

After that we spent a really really long stretch of road in Navajo land all the way through to the Utah border, where we visited Monument Valley and took lots of pictures. Then an even longer stretch of highway pulled us into Moab, where we are now. I’m tired and have to go to bed, so I won’t say much else other than that the road here, though long, was truly indescribably beautiful, and sadly I don’t think pictures can quite capture it.

All for tonight… more tomorrow—hopefully tomorrow I can also add pictures to the photo section – it’s way too slow on the cellular connection, but I don’t have a local access number here… sigh…

At the end of a long day, I’m writing from my wigwam in Holbrook, Arizona. Unfortunately, this won’t actually be posted until tomorrow because the wigwam has no phone and the cellular signal wasn’t strong enough for me to connect with that either. So, by the time you see this, we’ll have checked out of the wigwam, and will most likely be en route to our next destination. So, if I actually get a chance to post all the pictures I’ve been taking… you will see the Grand Canyon in all its splendor. Contrary to Jamie O’Neal’s anthem, there is indeed an Arizona, and a Grand Canyon, and I have the pictures to prove it! J Anyway here was our day:

This morning we woke up in Laughlin, just a little later than scheduled, and before leaving, took a few photos, and held our own little memorial service for Desmond, as Laughlin was his favorite place in the world. Then we began the drive to the Grand Canyon. The ride was mostly smooth sailing, until we got to the Grand Canyon itself which had a line of cars to get in that made Disneyworld seem like life in the fast lane. Once we got in, what can I say? You have to be there to really take it in. The downside is, once you’ve seen one scenic overlook, you’ve pretty much seen them all and we wound up wasting 90 minutes on an awful (and I mean awful) bus ride (we’re talking Kathleen Turner’s failed attempt to reach Cartagena in Romancing the Stone awful) to Hermit’s Rest and back only to see that the other end of the rim was just like the one we’d seen at the beginning… But anyway I picked up a souvenir keychain.

We were there for most of the afternoon. It was pretty hot – probably upper 80s-low 90s. When we finished, we headed back to 40 and drove to a Cracker Barrel outside Flagstaff for dinner. Good stuff. Then we reached our wigwam in Holbrook. It’s a total novelty kitsch thing but I love it – concrete wigwams complete with full bath and A/C (but as I mentioned, no phone). We arrived late, but fortunately Norman Bates… err… I mean, the hotel owner/manager greeted us with the key, and made sure to inform us several times that there was a shower in the bathroom. (No, I’m not making this up) He also made sure we knew that the rooms were furnished just like they were back when he was a little “tyke.”

Cindy, fearing she bears an uncanny resemblance to Janet Leigh, piled the suitcases in front of the door. I’m still not making this up.

Oh, and the whole wigwam shakes when a train goes by.

Anyway that’s all for today. Hopefully when I post this, I’ll post the pictures, too.

Off to bed…

EIGHT freaking hours later... we are in Laughlin. Never underestimate the near impossibility of escaping Los Angeles on the Friday before Memorial Day. We left around 3:30, hoping to beat the rush... but alas we did not succeed. It took us five hours to get to Barstow... normally you can make it all the way to Laughlin in that amount of time, but ah... traffic. Anyway... I somehow managed to only take two pee breaks, one of them in like, West Covina or someplace -- the other in Barstow, the famous halfway point between L.A. and Vegas (or Laughlin, for our purposes) -- and pretty much the closest thing the desert has to civilization. It's basically a fast food mecca, where we ate at Hana Grill. Not too exciting. Cindy drove us out of L.A.-- but I took over after the first pee break for fear that she might pull a Michael Douglas in Falling Down and have an attack of psychotic road rage. She doesn't do traffic well. I don't do mergers well. But, we managed. I don't have any pictures yet cause the first four hours were spent staring at the back of a scaffolding truck, and the second four hours were darkness in the desert... which, if you haven't experienced this, is pretty much a black hole. There was a full moon though. That was cool. But I didn't think that would come across on camera. It was after midnight by the time we rolled into Laughlin and we made the mistake of carrying all of our luggage up in one trip. Note to self: Don't do that again!!

Now we're about to go to bed. I bought $20 worth of keno tickets, but as usual, I'm losing. Fortunately we will be gone before I can do any real damage to my wallet in the slots or roulette.

Tomorrow, we'll be seeing the grand canyon and spending the night in a wigwam... more from there!! I should be able to get some pics up too...

:) Arika

We leave tomorrow! I think everything's pretty much all set. OK, so I haven't packed yet... but everything is in place otherwise. I finally finished making all the CDs for the trip... which was of course a massive undertaking. But it's done. We've revised the itinerary a little bit, forfeiting Houston so that we can have more time in New Orleans. As it turns out we'll be visiting several random family members along the way -- In addition to my parents, Cindy's mom, Cindy's Dad, and Sue and Jenny, we've now discovered we'll be able to see my cousin Mykl (now known as Zaius) Gilgoff in Austin and my cousin Jennifer Green in Atlanta, plus we'll be crashing with the Rothblatt family on Long Island... who, by the way, just welcomed Sam Alexander Roth Gordon into the world. Congratulations, Jen and Derek!!

Speaking of babies, our kittens have had their first vet visit and they are all doing well. Their mama cat, Libby, has a cough, but she tested negative for FLV, Feline AIDS, and heartworm, so that's a relief. She's getting an x-ray, hoping it's something minor. Other than that, all is well!!

I'll be updating this as often as possible so feel free to check back often. Once we get going I'm sure I'll have much more interesting stories to tell than the kitty health diaries, haha. Tomorrow we hit the road for Laughlin!!!!!!!

The kittens are safely in Asheville!!! This is great news. It looks like the mama kitty, Libby, as well as the black and white one and the gray one, will be staying with Cindy's mom-- their new names are Rex and Jack.

As for us, we'll be taking the little orange one and the little brown tabby-- and their names will be Simon and Bianca!!



I can't wait to meet them. We went to Petco and got supplies for them today... can't believe the trip is 5 days away.

Okay, so we are a week away from the trip. And I'm freaking out about how much we have to do!!! Mainly, we have to:
*prepare the house for kittens
*prepare our car
*buy groceries
*pack (!!)
*make all the music mixes.
*pay rent
*book passage on LI ferry to Connecticut

We have already taken care of a few things-- we got an adapater that lets us hook the laptop up to the cell phone, techno-geeks that we are, so that I can update this site from the road-- while Cindy drives, of course, LOL. I printed out the locations of Carvel and Friendly's and hope to patronize these places as frequently as possible. In fact, I'm going to add them to my links list.

We've made reservations for Laughlin, Holbrook, Moab, Frisco, Carlsbad, and New Orleans, and aren't too worried about finding hotels at the more populated locales. We'll book the rest later.

Getting excited and nervous at the same time. I'm psyched to see sooo many places!! But I'm nervous about being away from my home for 3 weeks, and about the kittens and hoping the move doesn't traumatize them too much...

Guess that's all today. I signed up to take some class at SMC tomorrow from 9-2 (what was I thinking!!???). Grrr. Well, one more week till there are interesting things on this site, and cool photos!!

-Arika

So, the kittens are being picked up this weekend... Cindy and I have been discussing their names. Right now we're thinking about calling them Bianca and Skylar. Thoughts?

In other news... I took the "which Winona are you?" quiz and wound up with Girl Interrupted Winona... though really I think I'm more of a Reality Bites girl..

Which Winona Are You?

All for now. The trip is less than two weeks away!!

Okay, well, I thought I might as well start updating this a little, even though we aren't on our trip yet, as we make our preparations. Mainly because I'm bored of looking at this index page with just one line of "This is the future home of our trip" text! So anyway... our trip is now only 2 1/2 weeks away!!! Yippee!! I got my brand new digital camera to take pictures with from the road. It's a much better one than I expected to get, but Mom and Dad were very generous. So I figured out how to use it and I got an account with Imagestation to post the photos. With Ann's help, I added that link to my 'lil navigation. Yesterday we ordered a bunch of supplies for the kittens to be sent to Jen in Florida, who is currently taking care of them until Steve picks them up and brings them to Asheville. We got an update on their condition -- all are doing well -- they're starting to eat real food, and even the littlest is litter trained now! I wonder if they're ready for the road trips ahead... They will get their shots as soon as they arrive in Asheville-- a vet has already been selected. Other than that... we've booked some hotels for the trip -- some places we're going to play it by ear. I put links up to some of the hotels. What else? Oh, I added Gary's brand new kitten Bronco to the cats page! Welcome to the world, Bronco!! :) Guess that's all for now.