Hey Y'all! I'm in Texas!

Alex and I have been in Texas for about a week now and it has been good. I probably should have updated sooner, but you know how that goes. I'll start off with West Texas; West Texas was not fun to drive through; it was a whole lot of nothing. Totally flat, dry nothing.

Our first stop was in Abilene, Texas. It’s a smaller town and the people have the distinct Texas “Twang” accent. In Texas they have the Texas “Twang” and the Texas “Drawl.” Twang accents are in West Texas and Drawl accents are in East Texas.  We actually learned the difference in Abilene. Now every time I hear a Texan talk I try to distinguish what accent they have. The Twang is more nasally and the Drawl emphasizes the letter “A” and they seem to add extra syllables to some words. I find the different accents to be pretty entertaining. 

You’ve probably heard the phrase “Everything’s bigger in Texas.” Well, it’s true. Everything is significantly bigger. They give pretty huge portions of food at their restaurants. Most people drive a truck or SUV. Every Walmart is a Super Walmart and they have Super Targets. Oh yeah, and they give free food samples everywhere. Alex and I were walking through the mall in Arlington and every food place in the food court offered free samples.  I’ve heard a statistic that 60% of Texans are overweight and I now can see why. If people are always offering you free food and you get twice as much food for what you pay for then it is kind of hard not to gain weight.  We were at a Super Walmart in Fort Worth and I went to the Deli to buy some turkey pastrami for our sandwiches that we were going to make later that day. I asked for 0.4lbs, which is about 6 oz, of the turkey and lady at the deli over estimated. She put the turkey on the price scale and it came to 0.8lbs; she took half of it off the scale so that it was the amount I wanted, then she priced it in and once the price sticker printed out she gave me the extra turkey. So, I got twice as much turkey for half the price! I was happy that I got almost a pound of turkey for less than 2 bucks, but it was more than I needed. Alex and I ended up having the turkey for lunch and dinner. Like I said, everything is bigger in Texas.

Another thing about Texas is that Texans are really proud to be Texans. When driving down the street you will see more Texas state flags than American Flags. The Lone Star symbol is everywhere. It’s almost like Texas is its own country. 

The people in Texas are really friendly. When you walk down the street every person you pass will smile and say hello to you. At the grocery store the customer next to you will strike up a friendly conversation. It makes me feel good that the people are so open to being friendly to a stranger.

We haven’t explored Texas too much yet, but from what we have explored Fort Worth has been my favorite place. I absolutely loved Fort Worth. It has a ton of old English architecture mixed in with a ton of modern architecture. It was a really neat contrast. Alex and I walked around the Fort Worth Downtown area for a bit and went to the Museum of Modern Art.

Downtown Fort Worth

   

In Arlington we went on a really long bike ride at River Legacy Park and we saw an Armadillo for the first time. They look really weird and I was glad we got to see one.

For the last few days Alex and I have been staying with a friend of mine and her husband, Melody and Stephen Buie. They live in Mansfield, TX, which is a little southwest of Dallas. Melody and Stephen are a really neat couple. Melody has a true gift of hospitality, and it totally comes naturally. It doesn’t seem like she has to try hard to be hospitable. The week before coming to their house Melody was messaging me on Facebook asking what type of foods Alex and I like and if we drank coffee so that she could prepare in advance in order to make us feel at home when coming to their place. She even planned out things for us to do in the area. 

We went to a small town called Waxahachie, also known as the “Gingerbread Town” due to the style of houses built there. The town is very old and rich in history, which I really like. We walked around and admired the town and the architecture.

Waxahachie Court House

The next day we went to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. Even though it is winter, the gardens were still very beautiful and the weather was amazing. The whole weekend at Melody and Stephen’s it has been in the 70s and sunny. God has really blessed us with good weather for the past few days. 

We have been on the road for almost three months and my perspective on life is changing. Alex and I have experienced so much love, kindness, generosity, and hospitality from so many people and it has inspired me to want to have those same qualities in my life. Developing relationships with people and having a love for others is so important in life.  When I’m back in Sacramento I want to open my home up to people and be hospitable, I want to be more involved in my church and the community, I want to be open to meeting new people and showing them God’s love. I can even start doing some of those things on the road right now. Melody and Stephen are really involved in their church which makes me want to be involved as much as they are. They help out with the youth group, kid’s church, worship team, prayer team, and they are involved with multiple small groups during the week. They both work full time and have time to contribute immensely to the church body. They genuinely care about people and are dedicated to serving the Lord.  It really amazes me.  There aren’t very many people like them. 

We still have much more of Texas to explore. I'm looking forward to Austin, Texas. So far I've only heard good things.

Mixed feelings about New Mexico

I had a love hate relationship with New Mexico. My opinion only covers the southern parts of New Mexico because we didn't go any further north than Hobbs, NM. I want to go to Albuquerque and Santa Fe someday, but during the winter is not the best time to see those places due to the cold weather. Well, actually New Mexico in general is cold during the winter, that is part of the hate I had towards it. It was sunny for the most part, but that doesn't always mean it's warm. The first city we stopped in was Lordsburg, NM. It's basically a pass through town, meaning there is really no reason to spend the day there and especially not a night there. It's just filled with more abandoned buildings, which seems to be the norm for the southwest. The reason why I wanted to stop there was because there is a ghost town near there where Billy the Kid used to wash dishes as a kid. I've never been to a real ghost town before, so I thought it would be neat to check it out. The road to get to the Ghost Town was a 3 mile horribly rock/cement paved road, which I'm surprised that we didn't get a popped tire. When we got to the entrance to the town it was all gated off and a sign was posted saying that you could only see the town by appointment. Are you serious? Appointment only? Is a ghost going to give us a tour or something? We were not about to make an appointment, and as far as I could tell it wasn't much of a ghost town. There were a few old buildings that resembled much of what Alex and I have already seen driving through the desert. I was a little upset, but mainly because we had to drive down a ridiculous road to find out that we actually couldn't see the town. That was our first New Mexico disappointment.

Next was Las Cruces, NM. I really liked Las Cruces. It's a larger town and it's home to New Mexico State University; another college town. So far only good experiences have come from college towns for me. Alex and I road our bikes to the college campus and then walked around for a bit. We saw a flyer posted on an info board for Improv(Improvisational comedy) going on that night. Alex and I love to watch improv and we had nothing better to do. Before Improv Alex and I ate at a ridiculously good pizza place. Probably the best pizza I've ever had, and it was cheap! They served us sourdough bread and seasoned olive oil before we got our pizza. My sister, Elizabeth, is a huge fan of bread and olive oil, and as I was eating it all I could think of was how much she would truly enjoy this experience.We went back to the Campus for improv and found out that it was more of a participational improv class. I wasn't really feeling up to participating; I'm not a big fan of embarrassing myself, but Alex joined in and it was very entertaining. That was one of the positive experiences in New Mexico.

The next day we went to Carlsbad. To get to Carlsbad you have to go through El Paso, TX first. It was over a four hour drive; our longest drive yet. We stopped in El Paso for lunch at the Delicious Mexican Eatery, and it was DELICIOUS, as well as, cheap! It's a little hole in the wall place and was a little hard to find, hence the "hole in the wall." It is also the restaurant where Julia Child learned how to cook Mexican food, so you know it has to be good.

We continued on to Carlsbad after filling our belly's. The hwy from El Paso to Carlsbad is pretty desolate; there is absolutely nothing for 160miles. No food, no gas, no services, nothing. There were some abandoned cafes, shops and gas stations, but that was it! By the time we got to Carlsbad it was getting dark, we were tired, and it was really cold. Oh yeah, and Carlsbad is a crap town. Their main street needs a serious makeover. We opted for staying at a hotel since it was pretty cold and we just needed a place to relax and be comfortable. I was dying to soak in a nice hot bathtub. So, as soon as we got in the hotel room that is what I did! Everything was really nice, except for at 2am I got woken up by screaming and yelling in the parking lot right outside our room and really loud music bumping from someone's car. That just gave me another reason why not to like Carlsbad. It got down to 28 degrees that night and in the morning our van would not start.....I thought maybe it was because it was too cold. Alex and I pushed the van about 20 feet so that the van would be sitting in the sun. After about 20 minutes of sitting in the sun it finally started. I was so happy because I didn't want to have to stay another night in this town.

Entrance to the Cave

We made our way to the Famous Carlsbad Caverns. 750,000 people come here every year from all over the world. It's considered to be one of the most beautiful caverns in the world. Well, so is Kartchner Caverns, which is a cavern that Alex and I visited when we were in Arizona. I really liked Carlsbad Caverns. The tours that we went on were self-guided, had three miles of cave trails, and descended 79 stories into the ground. The pictures I took do not look as amazing as they did in person. All I can say is, Carlsbad Caverns should be on your list of things to see before you die. It is absolutely breathtaking. I liked Carlsbad Caverns way more than Kartchner. Alex thought Kartchner was better. I'm not sure why, but he said that Carlsbad seemed too American and Kartchner had a more European feel to it, which he liked. In other words, Carlsbad was like a popular food chain restaurant and Kartchner was like a unique gourmet restaurant, but that is just Alex's opinion. If you only had one chance to visit one cavern in your lifetime please choose Carlsbad. I promise you won't be disappointed.

A big boob

As soon as we were done with Carlsbad Caverns, I got a call from my mom and she told me that my older brother was in the hospital for a possible heart attack! At the time they weren't exactly sure what was going on, but he had been having chest pain and pain in his shoulder off and on for the past few weeks. He passed out in the middle of a friend's funeral after having a bout of chest pain and was taken to the hospital via ambulance. I seriously started freaking out!I burst into tears as soon as I got off the phone with my mom and told Alex what was going on. My brother is not that old, he is in his mid 30s, so this was not normal at all. I seriously couldn't imagine losing him. Alex and I immediately began to pray that God would heal whatever was going on in my brother's body and that he would be okay. My brother is okay thanks to Jesus. I'm not exactly sure what was happening to him, but God got him through it and that's all that matters. All I have to say is Praise Jesus! It was an emotional roller coaster that ended on a high point:)

The last city we stayed at in New Mexico was Hobbs. It's basically another pass through town. There wasn't really anything to do there. We stayed in our bus most of the time and walked around WalMart for a bit. It was crazy windy that night and again we woke up to people yelling and screaming in the parking lot at 2am. I started feeling really uneasy and kind of scared. It sound like a pretty intense fight. In the morning I was happy to leave and eager to get out of New Mexico. I hope Texas brings fonder experiences.

A View of Texas

Arizona fun!

Wow! I'm so sorry I haven't gotten around to blogging in the last week. I could say I've been too busy, but that's not true. Alex and I have been pretty relaxed and not too rushed with anything, but we have seen a ton since my last post. I'm not going to bore you with every single detail. I only will highlight my favorite parts of these last 8 days.

First off is Phoenix, AZ; Phoenix is an insanely huge town in the middle of the desert. The actual city only has 4 million people, and the surrounding area has 6.5 million! Why in the heck would so many freaking people want to live in this area? Supposedly, it's the weather. Yeah, the weather is perfect during the winter, averaging 70 degrees, but in the summer its in the 100s. There is barely any green grass and trees are sparse, but I guess there is something about the desert and climate that attracts people to this place. I do have to say that the architecture is amazing! Much of the architecture is inspired by Frank Loyd Wright and there are a lot of great architects who come out of ASU.  So, it's plain to see why the architecture is amazing. Unfortunately, Alex and I didn't get very many pictures because our stinking camera ran out of batteries and we didn't have access to charging it until later in the day when we stayed with some old church friends. The capital in Phoenix had an awesome museum and it was free. I love it when I can learn history for free:) I learned about everything I wanted to know about Arizona.

My mom informed me that I have a cousin in Phoenix and gave me his phone number. I called him up and found out he lived in Tempe, which is south of Phoenix and home to ASU, in other words; a college town. I was so excited to meet a cousin of mine that I had never met before. I have cousins all over the U.S that I have never met and I'm hoping to meet most of them on this trip across the country. My cousin's name is Lyle and he was so awesome! He and his wife took us to lunch at a very unique restaurant that used to be an adobe home in the 1800s. It felt like we were in an old ranch house. Lyle later took us around Tempe and showed us the lake there and drove us through ASU. My cousin is a retired architect and he actually designed and helped design some of the ASU buildings. He also met Frank Loyd Wright when he was going to architect school. He has a picture with him about 6 months before Frank died. Lyle said he was actually surprised to even get a picture with him because he wasn't a very nice man. Supposedly, he was quite the narcissist.
I absolutely loved Tempe! It just had a good vibe. I think college towns are really cool; they have the unique shops and pubs and the crowds are young. It really makes you feel young, and I love feeling young!

After Phoenix we went to Tucson and stayed with our old youth pastor and his family for the next few days; Dusty and Jamie Farmer. Dusty was an awesome youth pastor. He was super fun and passionate about God, I was happy to see that he hasn't changed. In my opinion, Dusty and Jamie were actually more fun to be around than when I was a high school student. Jamie has so much spunk and energy, and she is very humorous. If you met her you would never imagine she was a mother of three and you would probably think she was in her early 20s. We were able to talk about married stuff and relate to each other on an adult level. I had a blast with them and their kids. Dusty is now a senior pastor at his church which is a little south of Tucson. It is a fairly new church, about 4 years old. God called them out to Tucson to start a church. They didn't have a church building when they first started out. They actually met outside for two years. Yes, you read this right, their church service was outdoors! They patiently waited on the Lord to provide a building for them and it took two years of waiting. Now that is dedication. If it was me, I probably would have thought I heard God wrong after the first 6 months of not having a building to meet in. They now meet at a school and they recently bought 8 acres of land for a 10th of the original asking price. Good thing they waited on the Lord, he was ready to bless them all in good time. I was eager to see if Dusty still had the same preaching style as he did when I was in High School. He always presented God's word in an interesting way that could always capture your attention. We went to their church on Sunday, and I was happy to see that he hasn't changed. He's one of those pastors that is so passionate about God's word and he doesn't have to yell at you to show his passion. It was a true joy to hear him preach. Dusty and Jamie are a neat couple and they were so generous and hospitable to us. Alex and I were blessed by them.

Dusty and Jamie's leading worship

There is a Mission near Tucson that was founded in 1692 and built in 1783. It is probably the most beautiful mission we have been to so far. It is known as the "Dove in the Desert" and it represents Mission Architecture in the U.S. The halls and doorways in the mission were very skinny and short, as you can tell from the pictures. It was a beauty and I'm glad we stopped by to see it.

Inside the Mission San Xavier

Tombstone

From Tucson we went to Tombstone. Growing up I watched tons of old western movies and thought that I would marry a cowboy. I did grow out of the phase, as you can tell:) My sister and I used to play an old western song on our record player; I think it was a song from the western "My name is Nobody," anyways when we played the song, we would pretend our wounded cowboy husbands were coming home to us from a gun fight. We would pretend cry and try to help them recover form their wounds. Pretty silly, huh? We were about ten and eleven years old at the time. Tombstone is often what I had imagined when it came to western towns. It has been well preserved, but is extremely touristy. The people that work in the store and shops are dressed in old time western garb. We went to a saloon that was originally ran by Doc Holiday's brothel girlfriend. I'm assuming from the name of the Saloon that she had a big nose.

My favorite part of Tombstone was visiting Boothill Graveyard. On each tombstone it notes the cause of death, whether it be murder, suicide, shot, hung, natural death, or stabbed. I thought that was really cool that they added the cause of death, because then it makes the death seem more real. When I die I want the cause of my death to be added to my tombstone.

Outside of the caverns

We also went to the Kartchner Caverns; It is a smaller cavern, about two miles total. It was first discovered in the 1970s and wasn't opened to the public until 1999. They say the formations in the caverns are about 200,000 years old. I can see how a geologist would have a hard time believing in a 7 day creation after studying caverns, but the rate of the cavern growth does depend on the amount of water it is exposed to. So, there can be disputable theories on how fast parts of a cavern formed. I was really lost with all the different names for the different formations. It's like another language. The Kartchner Caverns were the first caverns I had ever been in, and it was absolutely amazing! The tour was on the pricey side, but it was worth it! They didn't allow us to take pictures inside the caverns, but they do have fake replicas of some of the caverns in the museum on the site. So, I snapped away at the fake formations:)

Shasta Sloth. The bones of one of these were found in the caverns

The replica cavern formations

Example of how small the crawl spaces were for the cavern explorers

Alex and I have made it to New Mexico. Today is a lazy day for us. Everyone has one of those days where they don't do anything all day and that is what today is for us. Tomorrow our plan is to see Carlsbad Caverns. I'm excited to compare it to Kartchner.

 

Finding Interest in the Middle of Nowhere

For the past few days Alex and I have been driving through the middle of nowhere...the desert. We have come across some pretty interesting stuff. I have never driven through the South East part of California or through Arizona at all; so, it's neat to experience this all for the first time. I find it interesting to see tons wild cactus and a bunch of random abandoned buildings in the middle of the desert. At some point in time someone occupied those buildings and for some reason or another they had to be left behind. It makes me wonder about the history of those places and what type of people lived there.

We stopped in Felicity, CA, which has a population of 4 people; how does a town with only four people even become a town? A post office; if it has a post office then it becomes a town. Felicity is famous for being the center of the world. Of course, you are probably thinking how can any one place be the center of the world? And you are right. Anywhere could be the center. As you are reading this you are sitting at the center of the world due to our planet being a sphere, but this small town got a bunch of other countries to name it the "official" center of the world. The U.S. government even made a circular plaque for the town naming it the official center of the world. Recently, Felicity has added an outdoor Museum of Humanity to their town. It consists of a bunch of triangular blocks with the engravings of human achievement and failure. At the end of the museum there is a church at the top of a hill and as you can see from the picture, the view of the museum creates the shape of a cross being illuminated. They have a stone in the middle of the cross that they are hoping to engrave on it a way for future generations to read the writing on the triangular blocks if language changes over time. They are still trying to figure out how they are going to relay that on to future generations, but I think that is a really cool idea.  Felicity also has a piece of the old Eiffel Tower stairs. It was taken out of the Eiffel tower years ago to be replaced by some new stairs and the town of Felicity bought it.

We stayed in Yuma, AZ for a night. Yuma used to be home to a huge prison when it was still a territory. It was shut down in the early 1900s. Other than that, there really isn't much to Yuma. We walked in their downtown area for a bit and they had a Farmer's Market going on. At the market I was shocked to see a lady selling Fuller Brushes. I know about Fuller Brushes from the movie with Red Skelton, "The Fuller Brush Man." It is a great classic comedy about a guy who sells Fuller Brushes. I used to watch that move over and over as a kid. The lady selling the brushes confirmed that it was the same company from the movie and she unfortunately had never seen the movie. I recommended she see it, but told her it might give her a different perspective on selling the brushes. In Downtown Yuma there were a ton of abandoned old buildings...big shocker there.. and the city did put the effort in creating plaques for the outside of the old buildings explaining what it used to be, but they are completely unpreserved. I wish they would put effort into preserving them, but maybe Arizona isn't big on preservation.

We stopped by the Painted Rock Petroglyph, which is a site where a bunch of rocks had carved pictures in them from hundreds and maybe even thousands of years ago. Archeologists don't know exactly what the pictures mean, but they think they were a carved by the Indians that settled there between 300 BC and 1400 AD. They aren't even really sure of that, though. It made me think of the Museum of Humanity in Felicity, and how they want to find a way to help future generations read the writing at the museum if language changes over time. Most of the Petroglyphs are animal images, so maybe those people thought the easiest way for future generations like us to figure out what they were communicating was to carve out pictures of the animals in the rocks that surrounded the area. I don't know...that's just a thought. Or maybe the rock place was their version of graffiti and the teenage Indians were vandalizing the rocks, or maybe it was where the kids spent there free time while their parents worked on the fields during the day. I could think of a million things of what it could have been.

Our next stop was in Gila Bend. Gila bend used to be a major stopping point on the Butterfield Stage Coach route, which operated from 1858 to 1861. It went from Missouri to California in 25 days at about 5 miles per hour. It cost $200, meals included. The Gila River flowed in abundance during that time and supplied lots of water for the people and animals who lived in the area. The river is mostly dried up now due to modern dams and farming irrigation. I really don't know how Gila Bend still survives to this day. Most of the buildings on the main street are abandoned. It looks like it is slowly becoming a ghost town.

I love finding out the history of these old places, but it makes me sad that they dying out. I guess that is a part of life. Phoenix is next on our places of destination. I think Alex and will found plenty of things to do there. It seems like a pretty populated area.

An oasis in the desert

I know I just blogged yesterday, but I had to write again today because today was an awesome day in the desert! Alex and I went to Salvation Mountain. Some of you may not know where or what that is, but if you've seen the movie, "Into the Wild" then you have an idea of what I'm talking about. We actual never intended on going to Salvation Mountain, but we went to a church service on Sunday at Valley Baptist Church and we mentioned to one of the member's there that we were going to the Salton Sea. He told us about the whereabouts of Salvation Mountain, which is only a small detour off the hwy through the small town of Niland on the way to the Salton Sea. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the place.

The crunchy ground

We decided to go to the Salton Sea first and then hit up Salvation Mountain on our way back to Hwy 8. So, first I'll tell you about our experience at the Salton Sea. It is not a the prettiest place in the world. It's a huge body of salt water in the middle of nowhere. It is slowly drying up and the ground around it is very dehydrated. As you walk to the water you can feel the ground crunching beneath your feet. Hundreds of dead fish surround the shores. As Alex and I were walking up to the water, we were hypothesizing how the water got there and what the pioneers thought when they discovered this undrinkable water in the middle of desert. How devastating would that be to finally find water after not seeing any for hundreds of miles only to find out that you can't even drink it! I would be pretty bummed out. Well, we eventually found out the real story behind the Salton Sea from a man we met along our way to the water. In 1914 there was a break in the levee on the Colorado River. The Salton Sea is 200 feet below sea level, so the water from the river flowed down to where it is today. It took two years for the levee to be fixed. So, the water had a pretty long time to accumulate there. The water became salty due to the rich minerals in the desert. The fish were put in the water by man and since the Sea is slowly drying up that raises the salt concentration, thus causing the fish to die. So, my image of the pioneers finding the Sea never happened and someday the Salton Sea will be no more. I was glad that guy was there to tell us the story about the Sea. He was a pretty interesting guy, an ex-hippy. He has is own blog about his travels at www.godavidfrancis.com 

You can see the salt in this pic

The Salton Sea

A few of the many dead fish

Okay, now to Salvation Mountain. You can tell from the pictures why this place got it's name. We parked our car and as soon as we got out an old man, probably in his mid 80s, greets us with in a squeaky, raspy, old man voice, "Whyyyy Hellllooo!" His voice was so classic and matched is appearance and demeanor. He welcomed us and told us to feel free to explore the place. He had paint on his hands and told us to be careful of wet paint as we explored the place. Well, I guess I wasn't very careful because I stepped in the paint:/. The place is painted very colorfully with bible verses everywhere. Not only has he created beautiful art on the mountain, but he has also created a "museum," as he called it, with tree limbs, hay stacks and scrap from cars and junk. 30 years ago he broke down at that spot and he only planed on staying there a week. During that week he decided to create a monument to Jesus. That week has never ended and he is still continues to add onto his monument to the Lord, hoping it will bless those who pass by. He was such a neat guy. His art is truly an oasis in the desert.

The creator (Leonard) and Alex

The entrance to the "museum"

Wet paint, oops!

Inside the "museum"