Life is a Highway

Miles: 1,140

Route: Alamogordo, NM - Dallas, TX - Eutaw, AL

The past two days have basically consisted of driving, sleeping and eating. We left White Sands early Thursday morning, made it to Dallas by evening, then woke up today and drove through Louisiana and Mississippi so we could attend the Alabama college football game tomorrow with our friends (and longtime Tide fans) Andrew and Meredith. Not a whole lot to report about our drive so I'll let a few pictures tell the story.

Somewhere along the way. Seemed appropriate!

We made it to a rooftop bar in downtown Dallas right before sunset. 

Not a bad way to spend a few hours in Dallas.

Dinner in Dallas. Putting Alex's gift certificate to use for an early birthday dinner!

First taste of Southern cookin' at Cotton in Monroe, LA. Not pictured: Pimento cheese and green tomato beignets.

Dinner in Meridian, MS at Weidmann's. Reunited with my college favorite: Abita purple haze. 

Tomorrow we get to sleep in a bit before heading to Tuscaloosa for game day. Roll Tide!

White Sands

Miles: 225

Route: Santa Fe, NM - White Sands National Monument

Sarah and I made the four-hour drive from Santa Fe to Alamogordo yesterday. It was quite a remote drive - we were on state or county roads the whole time (not even one interstate highway) - but the driving was easy and the views of New Mexico's open plains were nice. Plus, we started a new book on tape to keep us occupied.

We had views like this pretty much the whole time.

Alamogordo is a small town that seems to only exist to serve tourists like us who visit the White Sands National Monument and to host friends and family visiting loved ones stationed at Hollman Air Force Base. There are a lot of cheap hotels and pretty much every chain restaurant you can think of (Sarah's actually pretty happy about that part!). We had a quick dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings - not our favorite experience, but the food was good nonetheless - and got to bed early.

We woke up early today so we'd have a full day to explore the white sand dunes that make this area famous. We watched a short video at the Visitor Center to learn how the gypsum sand dunes formed then headed into the park. Given that it is the middle of the week in October, the park was practically deserted...but we didn't mind having the place to ourselves!

The first views of the white sands. Unlike any place we've been before!

Like I said, we had the place to ourselves. We stopped under one of these shelters to eat our lunch.

Sarah took advantage of the open spaces and did a cartwheel in the sand.

After we ate lunch and filled up our water bottles, we drove to the north end of the park to take a hike through the dunes. Unlike other hikes we've done, this one did not have a path - just a series of markers to guide you. We never lost track of them, and there were footprints in the sand to reassure us that we weren't lost, but it did feel a little isolating to be alone in the middle of a desert...

There wasn't anyone else there to take a picture of both of us so we had to settle for solo-shots today.

We passed this plant along the way. Given how much the dunes are moved by the wind each year, some plants have developed extremely tough roots in order to stay put. This one used to be on top of a sand dune, now it stands on its own.

Walking into the desert.

Nothin' but sand dunes and mountains.

At the halfway point of our hike we arrived at the Alkali Flats. Beyond our view (closer to the mountains) is Lake Lucero which is responsible for the annual gypsum creation that eventually becomes the sand dunes.

We slightly underestimated the length of the hike. You would think the signs in the park would clearly explain how far a hike into the desert would be before you embark, but it was not labeled on any of the park's maps. Anyway, we were expecting around three miles but by the time we could see the parking lot again we'd just walked past the five mile marker. Good thing we brought an extra bottle of water!

We returned to Alamogordo for a frozen custard at Caliche's as a reward after completing the long, hot hike. We rested at our hotel for a few hours but then returned to the park for sunset. The welcome video at the Visitor Center notes that the best times to photograph the dunes is at sunrise and sunset - and they were definitely right!

If it weren't still 70 degrees by sunset we might've thought the dunes were snow!

While we were waiting for the sun to set Sarah tried out the sled she bought at the gift shop. Turns out gypsum is a little more difficult to sled down than snow.

Almost sunset...

...and here's the shot we've been waiting for!

Our trip to the White Sands National Monument was an amazingly unique experience and, despite its very remote location, we'd highly recommend it to anyone taking a tour through the Southwest. Tomorrow will be the first of two days of driving to get to Alabama by Saturday to watch the Crimson Tide take on the Aggies.

Santa Fe

Miles: 415

Route: Monument Valley - Four Corners - Albuquerque, NM - Santa Fe, NM

Alex and I woke up early on Sunday morning  as the sun poked through our tipi in Monument Valley. As we hit the road we realized the route to Santa Fe took us right past the Four Corners. We suspected there wouldn't be much to see besides the state lines (we were right) but couldn't resist the chance to be in four states - Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico - at once.

Since we were there early we had the place pretty much to ourselves...and could take absurd photos like this one.

After about five minutes of snapping pictures we had enough of the cold wind and headed back to the car to complete the drive to Santa Fe.

At my sister's suggestion we stopped at El Pinto - apparently frequented by the Breaking Bad cast - in Albuquerque for lunch. The restaurant is massive and so are the portions!

Really hard to be healthy with so much southwestern fare around but good to take a breather every once in a while.

Alex ended up saving half of this for lunch the next day.

This was also our first introduction to sopapillas; we are still trying to decide whether we prefer them to the Navajo fry bread - both are so delicious!

After a late lunch it was just a 45-minute drive to Santa Fe. Our hotel had wifi, a gym and laundry facilities so we spent the afternoon getting organized and settled. Since we spent the past week at a different hotel each night we took the opportunity to relax a bit during our two-night stay in Santa Fe. Once we got cleaned up we headed to Blue Corn Cafe for dinner and a disappointing Sunday night NY Giants performance. The restaurant was walking distance to our hotel but we were shocked at how cold it was - the temperature gets into the 30s at night so we are really feeling the fall weather now!

We had a slow morning on Monday and headed into downtown Santa Fe during the afternoon. We had three primary observations during our excursion:

1. Hardly anyone is younger than 50 years old. Alex and I definitely brought the average age down substantially!

2. Santa Fe is small. We didn't realize that the population is only about 70,000!

3. Perusing art galleries and jewelry stores is pretty much the only thing to do here.

We checked out the town square and browsed through some of the jewelry stores before heading toward Canyon Road to look at a few art galleries.

Typical Santa Fe scenery: adobe-style buildings and bright, blue, cloudless skies.

Santa Fe's main plaza.

View of The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, near the main plaza downtown.

Sculpture outside one of the art galleries we went into. The makers of True Detective MUST have gotten inspiration here, right?

Our favorite gallery had these really unique sculptures that spun in the wind.

Unfortunately we weren't really in the market for expensive art or jewelry but it was still fun to look around.

We walked back to the car so we could drive through the Santa Fe National Forest and Hyde Memorial State Park before dinner. We climbed nearly 2,000 feet and had some excellent views of Santa Fe from the top.

Fall has definitely arrived in the Southwest.

Just after sunset.

After our drive through the hills we headed to La Boca for wine and tapas - a welcome change from the southwestern food we have been feasting on for the past week. Tomorrow we will make our way to Alamogordo, NM to check out White Sands National Monument.