We make a trip to an alien planet

The next day of our trip was Monday and we headed to the Petrified Forest National Park. We woke up to a little bit of snow and hail in Flagstaff and discovered the crazy winds from the Grand Canyon were determined to accompany us through the next few days of our journey.

Petrified wood is essentially wood that has been turned to rock over a long, long time. That explanation is so boring. If you want the science and supposed "truth" of it all, google is your friend. However visiting the park with an overactive imagination it is easy to see that actually what happened is we shifted to another dimension, possibly another planet when driving through the entrance of the park. Here is a video proving that there is a clear reality shift at the entrance to the park. You can see Stephanie and I are obviously being sucked into the park by inter-dimensional force.

Once inside the park we found other proof of our shift to another planet. Take these rock trees, for example. They are clearly not normal Earth things.

The terrain was also very interesting. We are thinking that America's greatest TV and filmmakers must have visited this planet before because some of our best sci-fi has to have been at least inspired by these landscapes. 

We did find some evidence of Alien Life, but sadly it seems as if the creatures have either migrated or evolved to another place as these ruins are from hundreds of years ago. 

The last vista is apparently known as the painted dessert, and once we found it we knew we were almost back to reality. But surely, surely this kind of place can't be real?

At long last we made it out of the alien planet National Park and back to our trusty I-40. Soon after, we rolled into New Mexico!

The Grand Canyon

When I last left off, we had just checked into a hotel in Williams, AZ after a long day driving on I-40. Later we posted our Mother's Day videos and after that our lack of time and slow internet combined with exhaustion pretty much stopped me from posting. So I'll continue now starting with our day at the Grand Canyon.

Everyone experiences The Canyon differently. For me, it was my third trip there and it happens to be one of my favorite places in the world. It represents much of the Earth to me, as well as some significant personal family memories I cherish. However, the Canyon is big, and can be hard to take in. Looking at it in real life can feel like you're looking at a picture or painting. It almost seems unreal. If you're not careful, the whole thing can turn into a giant existential crisis. 

In fact despite this being my third visit, and even having experienced a trip to the bottom of the canyon and back up again, I still felt as if there was a little shield up between me and the canyon. The hazy day didn't help, and the really strong winds made it feel as if we were fighting a physical force just to be there. 

We decided to hike around some of the rim trail and also down some of the first part of the Bright Angel trail. At times, we felt like the Canyon was trying to swallow us up. Maybe it was. 

You see, the Canyon is not just a big ditch or another National Park or something to take pictures of. Maybe it was the timing, or the pace, or the vast empty space, but once we got to the Canyon we all got hit with our own versions of Crisis. Mark and I were suddenly confronted with our journey, our recent months of grief, the reality of the months and years to come, and we felt the weight of exhaustion and Life being Hard like we've never felt it before. 

The Canyon is beautiful, and Grand, but also fierce. Also it was cold and windy. We made the most of it though, and still stopped to enjoy many of its best views. 

photo credit: Stephanie Lingwood

We left the Canyon that night, tired, quiet with our own thoughts, and fully aware of many miles we had left in our journey. We made it to Flagstaff where we stopped for the night, making Sunday one of only two days in our entire expedition that we woke up and fell asleep in the same state. At the end of the day, the reality of just how far we had left to go started to sink in. But we plowed on!

photo credit: Stephanie Lingwood

A rare image of Mark in his natural habitat,
photo credit Stephanie Lingwood

FYI this is yet another post that I had a hard time picking pictures. Between Mark and Stephanie we got some amazing shots. Be sure to check out the whole album in our picasa web albums! 

Home!

Per request, I just wanted to do a quick post to let everyone know that we are in our new home, with our cats and all of our stuff, safe and sound. We've been here for a week now (with our cats since Tuesday night) and the reality has finally hit us. We're exhausted but settling in! I'll definitely be writing and posting pictures eventually so just wait longer :P

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

We made three videos to say it all. We love you! 

Dear Mom,

And

Dear Mom,

And

Dear Mom,

Love, 

Your kids.

So long, California!

First, I uploaded a few pictures from yesterday. Don't forget I have link to my picasa albums on the right column of the blog. If you want something even more obvious and easier, you can click HERE

Next, here's the run down on the last two days.

Day: Two
Miles driven: 0
City: Anaheim, California

We spent our second day of our trip enjoying the Disneyland Resort. We started the morning off in the California Adventure park (DCA as most call it) and then spent the afternoon and evening in the Disneyland park. Our evening was filled with fireworks and topped off with a quick round of last minute rides. I can't believe I won't be living close to Mickey Mouse any more. I guess I'll just have to go to Disney World!

Some quick highlights of the Disney pics for those not inclined to scroll through the picasa albums:

Toy Story Mania is the best ride ever! 

Steph and Julia have a tea party

Kristen and Mark go on a cruise

Steph and Julia on Mickey's Fun Wheel

Day: Three
Miles driven: 430
City: Williams, Arizona

Today was a driving day. we made good time on the road and we're well into I-40, which will be the interstate that we spend most of our trip on. We're all done with California and have seven states to go!




Here are the cliff notes from today's pictures:

GAS off of route 66

The cost of gas at formerly mentioned gas station

Arizona State Line

Tomorrow morning we're heading a bit north to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon! When I was seventeen I went on a very special trip there with my dad and aunt and uncle (we took the mules down to the base and back) and now I can't wait to share this fantastic place with Mark and Steph and Julia.

Starting out!

Day: One
Miles driven: 35ish.
City: Anaheim

We've got four exhausted people, but we're all excited! We left our apartment around 7pm tonight after managing to get work done, flights flown, and apartment cleaned and checked out. THEN we packed up the cars and now and we're all set for a big day at Disneyland tomorrow. Now the fun really starts!

No pictures tonight, but will upload some when I get the chance.