Welcome to the Kirby family

Ok - Yes, I am a sucker. Anytime an infomercial comes on TV, I always end up believing that this is the greatest product invented, and that I have to have one. Fortunately, my lack of motivation of actually picking up the phone and ordering something usually wins. Except for that one late, lonely night that I ended up ordering the Double CD set of 80's Monster Ballads - although it is a rockin' album.

Well, as cliche as this is going to sound, I had a vacuum salesman come to the door last week. Actually it was a woman, who said that they are doing a promotion and will vacuum and shampoo one room in my house for free. This is a promotion, and there is no obligation to buy anything - they just want to spread the word about their product and cleaning services. Then Joe, a really nice college guy looking to start his own business comes in and cleans the stairs. This vacuum is amazing!! In hind sight, amazing might be exaggerating a little, but it is a really good and multi-functional vacuum, shampooer, sweeper, and hardwood floor buffer. So 3 hours, a trip to go pick up Bear at the kennel, and $1600 later, I was welcomed to the Kirby brand family. Scott wasn't at all surprised when I told him I bought a vacuum (I have been eying the Dyson for months) but when he heard how much it cost - I could hear his eyes pop out of his head. Oh well, maybe this will be the motivation I need to try to have a sparkling clean house!

This darn PC

Ok - so when I bought this thing, I thought it was the coolest damn thing on earth. I would load all of my pictures on here, be able to edit videos that I take with the digital camcorder, store all of my MP3 files and learn to use my ipod... Endless possibilties, right?

Last week, the thing crashes. I am not doing a single thing - it' is basically just sitting there with the desktop up and no applicatons running. All of a sudden, I hear a pop and the thing turns off. Then it magically starts up again, then before Windows even boots up, it shuts itself off then starts back up again. I watch in horror as this cycle continues 5-6 more times. Then I turn it off, let it rest for a little bit, and try again. The cycle starts over.

I had to completely do a recovery on the harddrive, meaning that I lost all my pictures (which of course I deleted off my camera when I transfered them to the PC), and didn't have a back-up. Thanks to Brian who helped me find a way to get all the music that I had on the iPod back onto the PC - but still - I am pissed!

I have learned the lesson of backing up. The stupid eMachine didn't even do this in the 4 years that I owned it. Hmmmmmm....

Coronado - an island or peninsula?

This past weekend Scott and I decided to take a weekend for ourselves and have a little getaway. Scott was out in the field all week, and I was out most of the week in DC. We had to kennel the dog, and decided to let him stay the weekend and enjoy ourselves.

We went to Coronado Island for the weekend (which is really a peninsula). I cashed in tons of points and got us a nice room at the Marriott resort and spa for the weekend. It was right on the water (bay side, not beach side), and backed up to a trail that allowed us to walk along the water, walk to restaurants and bars, and a little shopping area. I booked us both appointments at the spa - thinking that Scott could use a massage after a strenuous and sleepless week in the field. Little did we know that the masseuse would be a large lady who liked to use elbows on his back. The poor thing looked more weary coming out of the massage than going into it!

All in all, a very nice weekend, and the dog got to spend a week at doggie camp. He was very well behaved the night we brought him home - but now he's back to his usual antics. We did get him into a 6 week group training course that starts this Saturday - so we'll see how that goes!

And they go round and round

I had another great time this trip back to DC (although the monthly meetings are starting to get old and pointless, and this flight is way too long to do every month). I came in a couple of days early to stay with Tricia, go to a Nascar race, see my family, and go out to dinner with friends. Other then the work stuff, it was a very productive coupel of days!

The Nascar race was in Dover, Delaware - the Monster Mile. Tricia was able to get great tickets, which allowed us to go into the pit area and our seats were in the suite. Nothing beats watching the race from an air conditioned room with free food and beer! So this Nascar experience was completely different from any other race I had been to. There was no tailgating, there was no paying $20 to park in someone's lawn and then walk a mile to the track, and there was no sitting in the sun wishing the race was 100 laps instead of 400. I still think the greatest part of the race is the flyover by the airforce planes. Another very neat part was being in pit row. We were there for the first part of the race, and were there when they yelled "start your engines"! We stayed there for about 20 laps or so, and got to see a tire change from right behind the stands.

Here are a couple of pics, and thanks to everyone for another great trip home (yes, VA is still what I call home).

So you wanna be a rock star?

Is anyone else addicted to Rock Star INXS? Scott and I are completely addicted, and we find ourselved having conversations about the show during dinner. Is this what married life is?

I do not want the show to end - what are we going to do on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednnesday nights now? We are going to have to fill the void with something productive, I guess.

Here are our thoughts on this - Scott and I actually agree:
Marty is going to be the big winner. (JD is too "fly by the seat of his pants", and Mig is too nice for them)
Jordis, Suzy, Mig and JD will all get record deals or start their own bands.
And honestly, if INXS chooses someone that they end up not liking or working well with, they can just fire them!

I do think Marty will win, but Mig is my favorite.

On to more practical topics! I am volunteering with our local humane society, and this past weekend we had a pet adoption at PetSmart. I was in charge of a little chihuahua mix, and he is so darn cute - I am tempted to adopt him myself. He is older - maybe 7-8 years old, but he is well trained and so cuddly. He sat on my lap in the car, and he seemed to really bond with me. He wouldn't walk with anyone else unless I was with them, and he kept looking up at me asking me to pick him up. There was one couple that was interested in him, and hopefully they go to the shelter and get him. Otherwise, maybe we'll take Bear and see how thy interact with each other. :-)

Labor Day weekend

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend.
Here's a guick recap of what we did:
- we did not buy any more cars this weekend! yippee!
- we went to the "conert on the green". This is an annual orchestra concert at my parent's community. It was fun, and they played the exact same songs as last year. There was one song, that as they were ending I wispered to Scott "I think they are going to play Tomorrow from Annie next", and sure enough...
- we went to the San Diego Zoo. Scott says it was much more impressive when he was little, but we had a good time and it was nice to get out of the house and do some major walking
- we broke in our new patio fire pit. I love this thing. We took down the gazebo siding on our back patio, and now we have firewood for at least 5-6 burns :-)
- Bear got his first ride in the Xterra, when we took him to the dog park

Stay safe everyone - and I'll talk to you soon.

In fond memory of the F150

Well, we made another purchase and this one came much earlier than we expected. Scott and I have been talking about trading in his truck for an SUV since we moved out here. We were thinking that with the MINI, we needed a more practical car for the dog, especially since I would be driving it when he is deployed. A couple of weeks ago, I read a very good review of the 2005 Nissan Xterra, and we test drove one on Saturday. We went home liking it, said we would do some research and look into our finances, and the dealer would get back to us.

On Sunday, we decided to go see what the Nissan dealer down the street from us had in stock. We were just going to look. Well, we ended up going home to get the truck and have a trade in appraisal done, and then having the car that met the exact specs that we wanted brought up from the San Diego dealer's lot, and we went home driving our new Xterra.

We really like it - obviously. They have gotten so much bigger and sturdier than when they first came out. It's dark gray (called Knight Armor) and 4x4 with an Off Road package. The back is so cool, because there is no carpet and it wipes down easily, for muddy dog moments. There is a hidden storage compartment in the back, which is seamless, so we could even fill it with ice and keep our beverages back there :-)

Scott is going to dearly miss his F150, which has been good to him and brought us cross country. Who knows, we may see it again - apparently it is going to find it's way to TJ, Mexico and is going to be sold down there! I'll post a picture of the new car when I get a chance...

Mission AIRPORT, accomplished

I have drive to the airport and back, all by myself, and without rolling into any other cars. Mission accomplished.

I had to go back to DC for a work meeting this week, and I decided that I would try to drive the 40 miles to the airport myself, rather than take the shuttle that I have used the past 2 times. I was a little nervous, because I still don't feel like I know my way around, and because of the big hill I had to tackle on my way home from the airport.

I made it home - but I think I got lucky. I was fortunate to have a red light at the bottom of the hill, and when it finally turned green, I made it to the top of the hill for my next red light. So maybe I didn't achieve anything, but my mission was still accomplished!

PBR - no, not the malt liquor...

We've had the opportunity to do a couple of things these past 2 weeks.

First, we went to a Professional Bull Riding Tournament (PBR). It was actually lots of run, and this is so much more of a big deal to people than I thought. The one we went to was part of the PBR network, which is the national competition that is shown on TV. Everyone was decked out in their Western wear (hats and boots), and there were rodeo clowns and all. The overall winner of the night was the first to "ride" the bull in the bull's career, meaning that the bull threw every rider off and this was the first 8 second ride of his career. It was also neat to be a the DelMar racetrack, which is where Seabiscuit became famous. We need to get to a horse race one of these weekends.

Last weekend we finished off our bedroom (painting and putting the new furniture in), and treated ourselves to an evening out at the Carlsbad Art Festival. There were vendors selling art, photos, and other craftwork. Nothing really caught our eye, so we came home empty handed.

This past week, Scott was out in the field for a training excercise, and I had my first taste of being home alone with the Bear. He had his ups and downs, and Tuesday was the worst. I had to give him a bath twice that night beacuse he found a muddy hole with about 2 feet of water and tried to go "swimming". I also had a traumatic experience at the dentist that afternoon - 1 piece of advice, don't get a deep cleaning if you don't have to. It is miserable!

I've finally got some pictures to post! This new computer has taken me a while to actually break in. Here are pictures of my mini (which I am still thinking about putting bonnet stripes on), you can see the front of our house, and one of my silly husband!
Talk to you all soon.

Pirates - oh my

Friday, Scott cooked a wonderful meal for my first night back home from VA. Truly experimental, but it came out great - homemade guacamole, homemade pepper salsa, breaded pork, yum. The best part was the homemade (well, not the wine) sangria - I am addicted to this stuff!

Saturday, we went to see the Pirates of Penzance. We knew nothing about the play and what it was about, but the actors were very good and very funny. We saw it at a place called the Moonlight Theater, and they have shows all summer in the evenings in an outdoor ampitheater. It reminds me of a very small Wolf Trap. So we brought a bottle of wine and dinner, and sat on our blanket watching a play.

I'm glad we are finally going out and trying out some of the things this area has to offer. I am still feeling rather homesick and unsure about liking it out here, but we have our good days and our bad days. There is a bull riding rodeo this weekend that we need to check out!! yeehaw.

On my own...

Yes, I am a true slacker, and now don't apparently keep my word. Sorry - here's an update for you!!

Well, hills still scare me - BUT - I was able to drive all the way to Balboa Park and back. I even got on the highway. It was a madhouse - stop and go bumper to bumper traffic, so I did stall once on the highway because I forgot that I was in 2nd gear once. Any I thought I was leaving DC traffic behind.

I was in Silver Spring this past week for work, and had a great opportunity to catch up with my family and friends.
To my uncles and aunts - it is always great to see you and thanks for dinner. Please take care of yourselves, and don't stress out about walking the dog, you will all be fine. Just go on walks after the sun sets to keep it a little cooler.
Miss Tricia - I hope you had a wonderful birthday - it was great seeing you all.

We'll see what this weekend has in store for us - not much I'm sure...

It doesn't fit!

Ok - I've been a slacker, and thank you for everyone who's pointed that out to me!

Here are some answers to the questions that I get asked:

• No - we have not ventured out and gone into San Diego yet. We hope to do so in the next couple of weeks. Maybe dinner this weekend :-)
• Yes - I am getting the hang of driving my car, and I have ventured out alone. I need to get quicker at shifting, apparently I am the grandma on the street in a mini cooper.
• No - we haven't finished unpacking yet. There are still boxes everywhere, and once we buy some furniture, maybe we'll have a place to put all the crap that is still in boxes!
• Yes - I am slowly adjusting to working from home. It's a lot tougher than I thought it would be, and to all of you who think this is a sweet set-up, really it's not. You go absolutely stir crazy. I think I am driving Scott nuts, because I am ready to go out when he gets home, and I'm sure he just wants to chill out and drink beer on the sofa.
• I am going home at the end of July for a couple of days - home being VA. I'm not used to it out here.

Well, we did buy one piece of furniture. We have a 91" cut out in the living room for an entertainment center with shelves, and we bought this really nice one from a guy outside of LA. We went up there to browse, placed the order, and went up on Sat to pick it up. On Monday we brought it into the house and started setting everything up - and the darn thing is about 97"!!! I needed a stiff drink after that realization. So now we have an armoire to hold the TV that takes up a little more than half of the cubby hole, and the 2 shelves have been put next to each other and are serving as a china cabinet in the dining area. What were we smoking when we placed this order - and I took a picture of the catalog page and right there in front of us were the measurements and yup -too big!! So now people are going to think that we are strange and are trying to match every single piece of furniture in the whole house - really we're not, we're just stupid.

Another big purchase as of late - I got my own digital camera for my B'day (thanks, honey) and I gave in and bought a new PC. It's still in it's box as I wait for the office furniture to come in - but I can't wait to get that media center all set up.

On Sunday - we went to LA to visit my great aunt for her Bday. Every year they do a family reunion of sorts - and it was so nice to meet and see some of my extended family. These are relatives on my paternal grandmother's side - so a whole new world. They even got Scott his own cake and welcomed him into the family - we are so lucky to have such wonderful family who love us. I think all the little old ladies got a kick out of seeing him wear his uniform to the reunion (they requested that he do so!).

I guess it's official - I passed!

Well, I guess my name change is official. I got my new Social Security Card, but the one very important name change that really sealed the deal for me was - the new credit card. That means that now, I am really going to be known as Colette Zelesnikar, and every time I buy something I must now remember to sign my new name. It's hard letting go of a name that you had for the past 29 years.

AND - the big event of the week - I successfully got myself to the DMV, parked my car in the lot, and got a new CA driver's license!! I had to take a vision test and a written test, but thankfully no driving test! The DMV was actaully not too bad - I made an appointment, and they shuffled me through an assembly line of sorts. Total, I was there about a half hour.

On the drive home, I did stall twice. I was at a red light, and the cars turning left in front of me (onto the freeway, so a crowded intersection) blocked me in, so when the light turned green I couldn't go anywhere. I had to wait until my left lane was empty to try to go around the stupid car blocking the intersection, and as I was trying to go around it - I stalled. So I was then the idot blocking the entire intersection - because no one could get around me. I calmly started the car again and tried again - then stalled AGAIN! I'm so glad no one started honking. I started thinking, oh no - I broke the car, or something is seriously wrong. Then I realized my problem - I was in 2nd gear the whole time. But I made it home the rest of the way without incident - whew.

Earthquakes and McDonalds

My first earthquake!! Sunday morning about 8:30am Scott gets up and I lay in bed listening to him go about his morning routine. I hear him open the door to the garage, let the dog out, and put food in his bowl. He then puts on the coffee, as I try really hard to get another wink of sleep out before starting another poopy day (literally). Then, the bed starts shaking, and I think that the dog must have really gotten into something this time. But then I realize that the doors and windows are making noise too - then it just passes. I get up and ask Scott if he felt that shaking, and of course, he says no. Later that night, we find out that it was an earthquake in Palm Springs, and we could actually feel it out here. Pretty cool. Survive an earthquake - check.

Today, I drove (in my mini cooper) through a McD's drive through!! I did stall once, just as I was leaving window #2. But overall, a good trip - and I think I can do this by myself next time. Scott starts working on Wed, so I have to be able to go get food by myself soon - tuna sandwiches just won't cut it every day.

And now, what is the deal with McD's in S. CA? McDonalds - the icon of America. As you drive through any state in the US, you can see that familiar and loveable building from a mile away. The red roof with the yellow beams, the golden arches towering over the building like a light beckoning for you to come in. Sometimes if you are lucky, there is a Playland right outside, with the purple and the yellow plastic tunnel slides teasing you to come in and relive you childhood days. Well, Southern California apparently doesn't believe in this clever method of advertising. I see not familiar buildings, no red roofs, and no golden arches. Instead, they hide their McDonalds in spanish architecture or blend them into the details of the surrounding strip malls. I hate it - I ave to look hard to find a McDonalds!! I might be walking distance (but I do need the driving practice) from one, and not even know it because it's walls are terra cotta and it has a spanish tile roof!! Get with it, please, So Cal - for the love of those of us who can't seem to look at our surroundings because we are trying to look at the road, concentrate on pushing in the clutch, and not accidentally shifting into the wrong gear (because apparently I can't look at the shifter when shifting - but then how do I know what gear I am in!). Things are so much more complicated now.

Sick and Tired

Well, sorry for the long pause between postings. I came down with the flu or stomach virus - not a pretty site. So in between trying to unpack and working every day this past week, this sickness did not come at the most convenient time. I'm still getting over it, but I feel so much better than I did on Thursday!

This past week I was able to get a little driving in - I went to the cable office to sort out our high speed internet, drove home from my parent's house one night, and drove to the Chinese take out place. Scott say's I'm doing better than he expected, but I am still a little hesitant to go out by myself. Hills still freak me out - hopefully I'll get there soon. I see a trip to McD's by myself coming up soon!

Motoring

I am now the proud new owner of a Mini Cooper. I got a dark silver Cooper S, with a white top and sun roof. I will get the bonnet stripes put on later, since they are just decal work that can be done in about an hour (who knew!). It is a used car - but with only 4000 miles, it was almost new and fully loaded. It's got:
The premium package - dashboard computer, cruise, sun roof, Xenon fog lamps and headlights...
The Sport package - super charger, premium wheels and run flat tires, Dynamic Stability Control, etc.
Cold Weather package - which I won't need at all here, but it's got heated seats and other cold weather stuff.

It is a standard, so starting tonight Scott is going to have to teach me how to drive a stick shift. Yes, that means that I did not test drive the car, but Scott did and I totally trust his judgement. Motor on!

Day 9: The final day

We woke up pretty early and started our trip to Sedona. We made it out there and it is absolutely gorgeous - we need to come back and stay a weekend. It was so early when we got out there that the stores weren't even open, and we had to walk a couple of blocks to find a coffee shop that was open. We then tried to find the church that is built in the rocks, and we must have passed the turn off for it, because after driving about 10 miles or so we ended back on the highway. I figure we'll check it out next time we are here with more time, so we decided to take a back road onto the highway that takes us to I-40, rather than backtracking to Flagstaff. Well, I found out that what looks like a straight shot on the map, is actually a switchback back and forth up and down mountain ranges, and it took us about 2 hours to get 60 miles from Flagstaff. Damn maps!! But we drove through the town of Jerome, which I do want to see next time too - it's supposed to be a town that hippies overtook in the 70's and is now a very bohemian town that many singers (like Springsteen) go out of their way to hang out at.

We then got on the highway and made our way to Oceanside. We stopped at the AZ/CA border to get gas, and it cost $2.99 for a gallon of 87 octane!! Robbery. Plus, it was 103 degrees, and Bear was panting like you wouldn't believe from just walking to patch of grass to pee. We went through some intense fog when we hit the 15, and stopped for our first In and Out burger as CA residents for dinner.

We went to my parent's house to pick up the keys of our new house, and then made it over to 520 Dakota Way. We walked in, and it was exactly like Scott envisioned (I thought the place looked bigger on the Internet, but it actually does fit all of our belongings). Bear went to check out the backyard, loved it, then did a circle of the entire place. He then came running down the stairs, couldn't really catch his grip on the wood floors on the first floor, and came running/sliding to what he thought was the open sliding door to the backyard. I have not seen him do anything funnier - he comes full speed and crashed into the closed sliding glass door. He stops, looks up at me in a dazed way, and then walks very slowly around in a circle. I open the door for him and he cautiously noses the air and makes his way outside. I'm sure this will never happen again!!

We then had our very first house guests - Bobby and Tracy. We still didn't have any furniture, so we all slept on the floor in our respective bedrooms, but it does count as houseguests. They brought us a housewarming present of a shower curtain and hooks, so we were all set!! Thanks guys!!

The next morning we were entertained once again by the marvelous Bear. The four of us are hanging out in the kitchen chatting and waiting for the movers to come, and Bear decides to snatch his jar of Peanut Butter off the counter and make a run for it. He bolts for the backyard and goes right through the sliding screen door. Off it comes, and we now have our first home improvement/repair project to work on.

The movers came and brought everything in, and now we are sitting around mountains of boxes in every room. We have started unpacking the kitchen and living room, and I think we are really making some headway. I'm sure this will take weeks, though!! I'm glad to say that we are here and making this into our home - thanks to all of you who have called and written to check in on us. Please come visit!!!!

Day 8: ER in AZ

Well, we did no traveling today, but it was an eventful day none the less!

This morning started out with sitting in the ER for Scott's split lip. Can I just say, ER rooms are not very efficient.
Bear was of course acting up as usual, and he head butted Scott in the chin, driving his upper tooth into his lower lip bed. It started bleeding and looked pretty nasty. So we ended up at the ER at the Flagstaff Medical Center waiting around for 2 hours, for them to treat him for a human bite. They gave him a tetanus shot, and told us that they can not stitch wounds that are inside the mouth or on the lips - it will cause an abscess that will immediately get infected. So now we know, don't waste time going to the ER unless you have a wound outside of your mouth. But it does look pretty nasty (swollen and purple along his lip), and I am glad that we went for them to take a look at. At least no one thought that his new wife was beating him up - but Scott thinks that makes a better story... They told Scott to avoid solid food for a couple of days and sent us on our way.

We then went to eat lunch in downtown Flagstaff at a restaurant called Monsoon's. It was kind of like a Thai/sushi place with a modern flair. Of course, Scott didn't stick to liquids as he was told, and then ended up splitting his lip again on a chopstick as we were eating. But we enjoyed our meal of unusual sushi, soup, spring rolls and salad and started making our way to the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon was amazing. I have never seen anything like it - and all the way there I kept looking for a mountain or something that indicated that we were getting close. I just figured that in order to go way down into the ground, we had to drive way up onto a mountain first. But we came upon it, and I think it's neat how you don't even really see it through the trees until you are coming on to the edge. For some reason, I also thought it was going to be a huge hole in the ground, not a winding gorge. Maybe I was thinking of something else entirely, but I thought it would be round and look like a huge crater where a meteor struck. I pictured us on the rim of the round hole, with a metal railing separating us from the deep fall into the middle of the hole. Isn't the Grand Canyon what they were driving to in the movie "Starman"? And didn't that alien ship come up and take him away from the hole in the ground? Maybe I was too little when it came out to really remember the details.

We did some light hiking, drove part of the Desert View Drive, and stopped to look at the Market area. I would really like to come back and actually camp at the ground and spend all day hiking. I wanted to take one of those steeper trails that take you down into the canyon - but we didn't really have time. Next time - good thing we got one of the National Park Passes that are good all year.

We are now back at the room relaxing and spending time with our stupid dog. We were so mad at him this morning, that we just left him in his crate all day at the hotel room, and didn't come back until about 8pm. He's actually behaving for the most part right now. One day, maybe he'll grow up.

We want to make an early start tomorrow, and try to hit Sedona and Jerome if we have some time. We then are on the last leg to Oceanside, and we will see our new house for the first time. So exciting!!

BTW - thanks to everyone who is reading this and posting comments. The Erie frog question is finally answered!! Thanks!

Day 5: CO / Day 6: NM/ Day 7: AZ

Day 5:
Today, we headed out to Denver to visit my friend Carrie. We left Casper, WY in the morning and took out time heading out to CO. We stopped by Target, and the mall in Casper - an obviously small town mall, but with some interesting things. Scott has been looking for a western shirt for a while, and he finally found one at the mall. It is blue and white striped(like most of the button down shirts that he owns) but with a little western flair to the buttons and the design. Very cute. Oh - and we went into a pet shop at the mall (that's our thing, we are always checking out the pet shops to play with the puppies) and there are very stange people, and animals at this place. There was nothing cute here at all (except 2 bunnies, which I think were meant for food, not pets). The place was full of boas and pythons, and there was about a 3 ft. alligator for sale in an aquarium!! And people were in there in awe looking at all these gross things. We couldn't get out of there fast enough.

We stopped for lunch at Arby's, and the manager was a hoot! There was a bit of a backup at the register because it looked like a baseball team had finished up a game and went to get lunch afterwards. She was on the only register, and she kept yelling at everyone who worked in the store that they were leaving her hanging and that she wanted to fire all of them because some customers were waiting about 10 minutes for their orders to be filled. Scott thinks it's her that should have been fired.

We then ended up in Denver to visit Carrie and Chris. They have done a great job with their house and it is so nice. We had a great cook out, and lots of wine. A perfect end to a great day (minus the 3.5 mile walk that we went one around the park - you know I hate to excercise!)

Day 6:
After a great breakfast at Carrie's, we went through CO Springs, drove through the Air Force Academy and saw the house that Scott used to live in, and stopped for lunch at the Pizza Hut in Pueblo, CO. So much for not eating chain food. There was a lot of fog all throughout CO, and when we got the border of CO and New Mexico we drove through a hail storm. It was so freaky, and it was coming down so hard that the ground looked like it was covered with snow. Once we got through that storm, the weather turned beautiful!

We made it to Las Vegas, NM - and our first stop was Montezuma Hot Springs. I really wanted to find a natural hot spring, and this was exactly what I was looking for. Basically, it was a hole in the ground (well, many holes since there were 4 different pools) with hot water in it. They were right by the river which was ice cold, and Scott was daring enough to do what "they" say you should do - go into the hot spring and then jump into the river and then back into the hot spring. There was one pool that was so hot that I could not get into it. But it was great, and we met some interesting people at the pools.

Then we checked into the Comfort Inn - showered all the icky algea off us - and then tried to find something for dinner. Since it was about 9:30pm, and this is a small town, we could not find anything. We ended up at a mexican restaurant attached to the hotel accross the street. We felt completely out of place in there - but when we were paying the owner started to talk to us. He said that Scott was the first white guy to come into the place in months, and that they are really hurting economically. He said a year ago, the place would have been packed and the highway busy all year round. Now, he says that there is not much traffic going through, and that everyone is feeling the effects of "that Bush". Too funny - and they were really impressed with my $4 tip - and even told me that I needed to come in there more often. I really hope things pick up for them. Oh - and he knew I spoke Spanish because he says that I look latin. I don't get it.

Day 7:
We left Las Vegas and headed to Santa Fe. We stopped along the way to check out the Pueblo ruins of Pecos. It was very interesting, and it made me feel very sad to see the effects of the Spanish invasions and to think of how the Indians must have felt about being forced to convert to Christianity.

In Santa Fe, we walked around the plaza and shops (fortunately, we did not buy anything!) and had lunch at a great Mexican restaurant called Coyote Cafe, on their rooftop dining area. We then headed west to Arizona, and had time to drive through the Petrified Forest National Park, and took some great pictures of the Painted Desert here. We then went on to Flagstaff, and are staying the night here at the Comfort Inn. We wanted to just chill and catch up on emails and such - so we ordered Chinese Food to the room and are wrapping our long day. Tomorrow - The Grand Canyon!! Good night...

Day 2,3, and of course 4

I really am trying to update this every day that we are on this trip, but with some of the motels that we are staying in and the slow dial up connections, it's just not worthwhile.

Day 2 - We started driving pretty early, and we passed Chicago. We kept on going and drove through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and made it to the border of Iowa. We ended up staying in Davenport, which is one of the Quad Cities.

I really wanted to try to not eat at any chain restaurants the entire trip, but sometimes that is just not possible!! We had dinner at the Lonestar Steakhouse, which was pretty good. We spent the night at a Motel 6 - my first time at a Motel 6. Very easy and convenient because we know that they allow dogs, but we probably drove up to 5-6 places to see if they allow dogs before finding the Motel 6. It was a decent room, but the standing circular shower just cracked me up.

Day 3 - This was a really early start for us! We were on the road before 8am, and we really wanted to make it to Rapid City, so we just kept on driving and driving. We drove through Iowa and into South Dakota. We did stop at a great rest area that looks over the Missouri River when we came into South Dakota. We took some pictures and then got back into the car to keep driving. We stopped for dinner at a very very small sketchy little town Kadoka, but dinner was really good! I had a Buffalo burger and fries at Jigger's Restaurant. Driving through town, we didn't see anything that looked like it would pass a Health Inspection, but then we saw this place which looked ok, and it had a police car and a bus in front of it. If cops and tour buses stop here, it must be pretty decent, right? We made it Rapid City at about 9:30pm. We stayed at a Red Roof Inn, again, another pleasant surprise of a motel.

Day 4 - We got up in the morning and headed out to Mount Rushmore. They advertised a breakfast speacial - where you can dine with the presidents for $3.95. It sounded great, and would be pretty so we headed out there first thing in the morning. Mount Rushmore is spectaculiar. We got some great pictures (look for postcards in the mail from us!) and then headed out to see Crazy Horse. At first, I was not really interested in coming here at all, but when we got there and saw the place and the plans that they had, I was really impressed. It is totally privately funded, and they refused $10M from the goverment to work on the project. I find this admirable, and I'm glad that they are standing their ground and not loosing focus of what they are doing and why. Considering Crazy Horse was shot in the back by and American soldier, I think they are going about it the right way. Scott said he thought I would like this because he knows that I don't go for government funded projects as much as private organizations. I thought that was funny, and it's something that I didn't even think of until he said it. He's right - I guess I did marry someone who knows me well!

We then went for a wine tasting near Mount Rushmore and got a couple bottles of wine (Prairie Berry Winery). We then ate lunch in Hill City, SD. Again, another buffalo burger - I can't get enough of it! Then we drove to Casper, WY. We took some little back roads which were incredible - and boring (a little 2 lane road). But we saw lots of sheep, cows, buffalo, and antelope. Very neat. There's not much going on in Casper, so we ate dinner at an Italian restaurant called Bodiccelli's in downtown Casper, and then saw Episode III. Amazing.

Now, we are headed to Denver!!