The Prius Has A Large Meal... of Bugs

Guess there are a lot of critters in the Arizona desert, cause this is what the Prius looked like after our drive:

Car Scenes: Homeward Bound!

Leaving Taliesen West, Kaii and I stopped for a quick lunch, then hit the road for our 7-hour drive to SD. (!) Along the way, it was cacti, cacti and more cacti. We drove through the late afternoon and the night...

Day 18: It Was Bound to Happen...

After 2.5 weeks, we finally hit a bad road on the way from Monument Valley to Holbrook, AZ. The pavement on the Navajo "highway" we took petered out after about 20 minutes and we were stuck in the middle of the mountains going 15 miles per hour on a dirt road sometimes covered with ice, mud, water or all of the above.

We gave up after about 40 minutes and turned around, losing two hours in the process. :(

Day 15: Road Scenes: Leaving Santa Fe

This morning we headed from Santa Fe to Four Corners National Monument -- the only spot in the US where four states (New Mexico, Utah, Arizona & Colorado) touch.

The scenery on the way was beautiful as well as varied. Not far from Santa Fe, the flat desert land all of sudden turns into huge mesas and rock formations. Further along, snow starts to appear. It's incredibly striking -- the white on top of the red, against the blue sky.

Loving the New Mexico Sunsets!

They are super.

Windstorm!

Tuesday afternoon we started the rather arduous trek from San Antonio to the little town of Marfa. All in all we drove EIGHT hours, only stopping a few times for bathroom breaks and dinner at Pizza Hut. There was NOTHING around. Rest stops were sometimes 200 miles apart -- no lights, no MacDonalds, no nothing.

The most dramatic thing that happened is that, about halfway through, we drove straight into a windstorm. Little Prius really got knocked around, and we watched other (taller) cars swerve in and out of lanes due to the wind. At about 10 pm, we passed a pileup of about 20 18-wheelers (yes, I counted) sprawled in the opposite lanes and all over the grassy median. Middle of nowhere. Pitch darkness except the flashing lights of about 10 police cars.

Later we found out that winds that night were up to 85 mph! Here is kind of how it went...

A couple hours outside of San Antonio, we passed through pretty ranch country under a perfectly blue sky.


Then a dark cloud appeared out of nowhere. It was a sunny day... boom. A yellow/gray haze.


Here comes the wind!!

Driving from LA to TX

Here are some pix from our six-hour drive from New Orleans to Houston today.


My Gursky rip-off: like the Autobahn, except not. This is a gravel driveway up a levee.


Above a gas station.


Me.


Somewhere in Louisiana, we passed streams and streams of birds flying in big long ribbons that stretched out farther than we could see. Inexplicable.


Late afternoon sky.


The sun setting somewhere over the Louisiana/Texas border.


Final approach to Houston.

Driving to Mobile

After Mrs. Wilkes, we said a fond goodbye to Savannah and embarked on our 8.5-hour drive to Mobile, where we spent the night last night. Overall it took us 10 hours, as we made a few stops, most notably at this fancy McDonald's. OK, the interior design is a little early '00s, but for McDonald's, you gotta admit, it's FANCY!

Check out the pendant lamps, mosaic tile and leaf photo blowups!