Texas: Part 5, 6th Floor Museum, Dallas TX

The day after our eventful night at the Rangers game we went to the 6th Floor Museum in Dallas. The 6th Floor Museum is about the assassination of President Kennedy. It is called the 6th Floor Museum because supposedly Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK from the 6th floor window of the School Book Depository. The museum is actually located in the old School Book Depository and located on the 6th floor (you get to see the window that he was at when he shot JFK).
We got lucky and they had audio tours for free so we got to be guided through the museum by headphones. The narrator of the tour was actually a reporter who witnessed what happened and ran into Oswald when running into the depository to call his boss at his headquarters. The tour began with some history about JFK and his campaign, winning the presidency, and the first two years of his presidency. Then it went through that fateful day. Investigators received actual video footage from a woman who was filming the motorcade, they broke it down into photo stills for each second. They had diagrams of where everyone was when the shots came. They also had about a dozen other cameras and film from other spectators all around the streets and grassy knoll. It was gut wrenching watching it happening and listening to people who witnessed it. You were then able to look out the 6th floor window where Oswald was set up with his rifle when he shot the president. You could see the route that was taken by the motorcade, the grassy knoll, and they have markers on the street exactly where JFK was shot.
The tour proceeds into the next few hours after the shooting, the president being pronounced dead, Lydon Johnson being sworn in, the chase and capture of Lee Harvey Oswald, and the investigation. Oswald never actually confessed to the assassination and while he was being transferred someone shot and killed him. The tour goes further into the investigation, which at the time killing the president was not a federal crime so the investigation was lead by the local Dallas police department. (crazy to think that shooting and killing the president of the USA was not a federal crime, but robbing a bank was...) It then goes into other theories about what happened that day... that there was 4 shots not 3, that Oswald could not have acted alone, the perfect bullet, etc. Lots of different theories, lots of conspiracy theories.
The entire museum was done very well, very informative and interactive. It took most of the day to get through it and then we went out to the grassy knoll, which is a beautiful place along the famous street. We were not allowed to take pictures in the museum but I got a lot of good photos in and around the grassy knoll, it was a really beautiful day that day. The day made us very reflective and melancholy.

Texas: Part 4, Texas Rangers Game

We headed back into Dallas on Monday to catch a Texas Rangers game. We went to Brittany's apartment again and BBQ'd and swam in her pool all day until it was time to head to Arlington for the game. The stadium where the Rangers play is located next to the newly finished, $1 Billion, Cowboy Stadium, which was huge! We had some pretty good seats right behind the out field next to the visiting team's bullpen. Once again it was pretty hot but that didn't matter it was Joe's first professional baseball game! It was a pretty uneventful evening until Joe, Tony, John, and Tiff all decided to go get something to drink. While they were all gone a home run was hit right to our bench, literally right where Joe and Tony were sitting. Not going to lie, Brit and I were a little scared to get hit, so a guy in the row in front of us caught the ball and threw it back. But Britt and I did get on the jumbo screen! Joe was sooo pissed he missed it when he came back he never left his seat again, and of course no other ball was hit our way. We all still had a really good time.
We decided to stay another night in Dallas and head to the 6th Floor museum the next day.

Texas: Part 3, Fort Worth, a ride on a Longhorn

After our super fun (way too much fun) time in Dallas we checked out Fort Worth. We went down to the stockyards, where everyday at 4pm they heard the longhorn cattle through town to their other pen. We got there just in time to catch the end of the heard being put in their pen. We walked around the town, everything was centered around the stockyards, I guess they have auctions and rodeos every week! We got a "cold one" and were able to walk the streets with it, which was really nice because once again it was super hot! As we were getting ready to leave to head to the Movie Tavern we saw a gentlemen with just one longhorn letting people take pictures. He let me get on the longhorn (for a price!) and take pictures with it. You would not believe how long their horns really are! It was pretty cool, luckily the longhorn was pretty mellow, the guys said he wasn't "straight from the pasture".
After my date with the longhorn we went to this place called Movie Tavern. It is exactly what you think but better. It is a movie theater where you can drink beer! The boys and I went and saw the Hangover. When you get into the theater it is set up like a normal theater but more space between rows so that servers can get through to bring you beer and not only beer, but food! We're not talking popcorn and nachos, we are talking restaurant food! It was an awesome experience and the tickets were cheaper than seeing a movie in California! The next day was the Rangers game!

Texas: Part 2, Dallas, took us for a ride!

We headed into Dallas on Friday 6/5 and met Brittany at her apartment. Her apartment was really nice and right in the middle of downtown Dallas. We decided to walk downtown and pick up a trolley to go to the restaurant that Britt worked at. It was really hot that day and not just normal hot, no they have this thing called humidity, which makes it like 10 times hotter than it "really" is. So as we were looking for the trolley (Britt was not totally sure where to get on the trolley)so we decided to stop in a pub (you know because it was sooo hot outside). I believe it was called Ye Old Alley Pub, and it was awesome because after we bought a round, the bartender bought us a round! (let me tell you this is not the first or last nice person we met while in Texas!) The girls chatted and caught up, while the boys played an old bar billiard game. Someone else that worked at the pub was nice enough to not only tell us where the trolley picked you up but when it would pick you up. We finished our drinks and caught the trolley to Primo's, another TEX MEX restaurant, this is where Brittany had been working for the last couple years.
Once again we ate delicious food and had a wonderful time with friends and food! Brittany then took us around town to different bars and pubs. We had an awesome time checking out the local scene in Dallas, a little too much fun! Oh I forgot to mention that Britt's dad owns Primo's and was so awesome and bought us all dinner (it was cool because he was there and we got to see him and say hello)! I forgot to mention the freaking taxi's in Dallas... they were ridiculous... Britt had mentioned she hated them but we needed to take one because the bar we were going to was too far into downtown to walk form where we were. So check this out, first the taxi driver did not know where the place was that we wanted to go, he had a GPS! and still didn't know, so I had to take the GPS and find the place! He still charged us (a ridiculous amount too!) I thought taxis in SLO were bad, not compared to Dallas!
The next morning (some of us hurting more than others... me) Britt took us to a local diner to have some hearty breakfast, funny thing we ran into Britt's dad again! Awesome! We took it easy the rest of the day, the boys BBQ'd some steaks and we watched another Laker game. We had made plans to go to a Texas Ranger's baseball game on Monday, can you believe Joe has never been to a pro baseball game, ever?!?

Texas: Part 1,Benbrook, TX, finally getting there!

So the first night we were at John & Tiff's we got to go to where Tiff works for dinner. She works at a TEX MEX restaurant called Papasito's. We were pretty lucky it was Wednesday because it was half price fajita night! (they came with homemade tortillas!!!!) We ate delicious food and had great service all while drinking some fab margarita's (you would have loved Tiff's margarita Mom!)
We went back to their house and played some games and just chilled. It was a very nice change of pace from National Parks and Walmart parking lots! In the next couple days we checked out their city of Benbrook. We went to a man-made lake right by their house and enjoyed the nice weather. As I mentioned before John made some awesome RIBS!!! We watched the first couple Laker games and did lots of laundry.
We got ready to head to Dallas the next to day to visit my good friend from SLO town, Brittany!

TEXAS!

Here we are in Texas. We are staying with my good friends John and Tiffany in Benbrook, which is right next to Ft. Worth. So far we have gotten to eat delicious food (thanks for the RIBS John!), shower without "shower-shoes", and sleep in a real bed. And our good friend from SLO, who now lives & works in Louisiana, Tony came and met us!
We are very lucky to have such wonderful hospitality. We are planning on going to Dallas tomorrow and meeting up with one of my college friends. Then who knows... Austin, Dublin (the town where Dr.Pepper originates, so many possibilities!

Carlsbad Caverns National Park 6/2

After our Super Fun day in Roswell (NOT!) we headed south to Carlsbad, NM. We stayed at a cool little RV park, it had an indoor pool, tire swings, showers, wifi (didn't work that day), the works! We cleaned up, recharged our batteries (ours and the RV's) to get ourselves ready for the big Texas drive.
Woke up early enough the next morning to check out the Carlsbad Caverns NP before our 8 hour drive to Benbrook, Texas, where we were going to be visiting our friends John & Tiff.
The Carlsbad Caverns were quite a bit larger than the previous caverns we had seen at Katchner Caverns in Arizona. We took the "natural entrance" into the caves, which was a huge opening in a cliff. The trail winded down 800 feet into the darkness of the cave. We followed the trail down and down through the "natural entrance" and then headed into the "big room". We got to bring our camera and take lots of pictures. I do not know what my deal was that day (I'll admit it I was a little cranky...) but I was not really into it. Every stalagmite and stalactite started to look exactly the same. But Joe really enjoyed it and took some amazing photos (which was really hard because of the lighting and we are not professionals). The trail took us about 2 hours to complete. We ate our lunch and got ready to make the 8 hour trek to Benbrook.
I started off the drive (which probably wasn't a good idea because of the crankiness) and I swear we were in the twilight zone. The same exact mile of land over and over and over again, no cars either direction on the highway... (anyone ever drive I-5 in California?) After Joe didn't want to listen to me bitch anymore (hey I admit I was a crab that day) we switched and he began to drive. We were about 3 hours away from our final destination when we hit another "road block" yet again.
Here is what happened: Joe mumbles something, pulls over to the side of the interstate and jumps out of the truck super fast. I am like what the heck is going on and he yells at me to get out of the truck. He rushes into the trailer, grabs the fire extinguisher, and runs around to the left side of the trailer. Apparently the left trailer tire was sparking and caught a little on fire. Joe put it out and we pulled off at the next exit to call AAA. Did I mention we were in the middle of the craziest thunder and lighting storm I have ever seen in my life. About an hour later the AAA tow truck got there, another hour later the trailer was on the flat bed tow truck (more craziness to be seen) and we were headed to the repair shop. By Noon the next day they figured out what was wrong and got it fixed and we were ready to get back onto the road. Now I am not really savvy at mechanic jargon so if you really want to know what happened email questions to Joseph.
"On the Road Again..."

Roswell New Mexico 6/1

It's June! Cannot believe that we have been on this trip for almost a month. We have seen many things, but time is flying by way tooooo fast!
After Santa Fe we headed down to the infamous town of Roswell, NM. As we got closer we started to see some pretty strange stuff. We headed over to the local Walmart (you would believe how many there are and how many we have seen) and there painted on the outside of the Walmart were aliens and spaceships! I have to assume that everyone knows why Roswell is famous. If you do not here is a little recap. In 1947 a rancher who lived just outside of Roswell claimed he saw a flying object crash and land near his ranch. At the crash site he found debris that he did not recognize, took it into the local sheriff, who also could not identify. The events that followed were in the headlines in all major newspapers and started one of the largest conspiracy theories.
Let's just say that the town of Roswell took this conspiracy and ran with it. There were aliens and flying saucers on everything from the Walmart to the fast food chains. Everything was UFO themed!!! Even the street lights were topped with alien faces! (Joe was a little freaked out! haha)
The next morning we got up and I thought it would be cool to check out the International UFO Museum and Research center. Wow was I wrong. We paid $5 to get into the most ghetto museum I have ever seen. It looked like a bunch of crazy stoners collected their UFO crap together and hung it on the walls in this museum. Add some "B" movies and art and apparently you have an International UFO museum. I took my $5 worth of photos and we got out of there. WOW.
We headed on down to Carlsbad, NM to hit up our next RV park.

Santa Fe, New Mexico 5/31

We finally got to our next state... New Mexico!!! We hit up Santa Fe, which is a very artsy town with a long old history. We had really no idea where to go or what to do, so what did we do? We hit up the visitor's center... We talked with this very nice lady who told us some of the history but didn't really give us any advice on what to see. We took a map and decided to wing it!
It was a Sunday so we were a little worried that things might be closed (especially with the Spanish influence) but we were really lucky and most things did not close until 7pm. We headed to downtown Santa Fe and the first thing we ran into was the old Spanish Mission. We got to get a glimpse inside right before they started Sunday mass. The inside totally reminded me of the San Luis Obispo mission. It was very beautiful. We walked further into downtown checking out the art galleries and shops. There was a small flea market set up that we were fortunate enough to catch the end of. I got a beautiful hand made silver indian ring. The gentlemen that made the jewelry told me about the stone and that the one I picked (it was soo hard to chose) he had just made the previous day. It was truly unique. We did not have a chance to go to any of Santa Fe's many art museums but we got to take pictures of the buildings they were in. Santa Fe's architecture is really something to look at, all of the buildings we so beautiful. After we walked all through downtown we hopped back on the road and headed down to Roswell, NM. I must say that Santa Fe is definitely a town I would love to visit again!
*I forgot to mention at the beginning that while driving into New Mexico we encountered some crazyiness! While Joe was driving, I was playing some solitare on the iphone (I am hooked!) and all of a sudden he tells me to look out the windshield. What I saw looked like SNOW! But it was really about a 1/4 mile of road that had been hit by hail, hail the size of marbles! We also saw a truck on the side of the road that looked like it had slid off the road and turned onto it's side. Joe pulled over and helped the guys flip the truck back onto it's tires. Both of the right side tires were totally destroyed, we new how they felt since we had not two weeks earlier experienced a trailer flat.Crazyiness!

Garden of the Gods & Great Sands Dunes NP 5/30

After Fort Collins we drove south on I-25 to Colorado Springs. We stopped in at a Red Robin (yum) for dinner to catch the last Laker vs. Nuggets game, the food and the game were awesome!
We woke up the next morning to hit a couple sights on our drove south to New Mexico. We had been given the suggestion that when driving south from Colorado Springs not to take the I-25 but take the scenic route west and then south on the 285. So because we decided to take the scenic route we had a couple of cool things to see. We stopped in at the Garden of the Gods. Basically it is this park where there are a bunch of crazy rock formations in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. We didn't really have time (or a place to park) to stop and walk around, so we just took a bunch of pictures from the car. Some really amazing looking stuff...
We got back on the road and headed south towards Great Sands Dunes NP. This national park is comprised of huge sand dunes at the base of the Rocky Mountains. Even this description does not help paint the picture of what you see. As we drove the long country road into the park you begin to see the dunes at the base of the mountains. While looking at them when you are driving you do not think that they are that big compared to the huge Rocky Mountains. We arrived at the park and did our usual thing of checking in at the visitor's center. We got the unfortunate news that their campgrounds were full (no biggie we had a back up Walmart plan) so we decided to head to the main dunes entrance.
At the main dune entrance you have to cross a stream to get to the dunes. In the spring most of the snow melts off the Rocky Mountains and makes this stream between the dunes and the mountains. It was really neat, kids playing, making sandcastles, all at the base of these enormous dunes. We took in the incredible sights, took lots of photos, and soaked up some more sun before we decided we were too lazy to hike up the dunes. One of the coolest things we saw were kids running up the dunes with slides, tubes, and snowboards to ride down the dunes with. It was really an interesting place to see, we were really glad we caught it.
Now off to New Mexico before Colorado sucked us in for good!

Fort Collins, CO 5/29

Now we had talked a lot about Fort Collins, CO but for some reason I was not that stoked on it but Joe was super stoked on checking it out. And since it was only an extra 13 miles out of our way we thought, really why not?
From different Coloradians ( I might have made that up... maybe not) we talked to we found out that Fort Collins has lots of micro-breweries and also the Budwiser brewery. We thought that we were just going to drive through the town but probably not make it to a brewery. Well... we made time.
We decided to visit the New Belgium Brewery, they are the maker of Fat Tire (I am pretty sure most people have heard of this beer). From the outside their brewery looked pretty awesome, bikes everywhere. We walked in and were greeted wonderfully by a New Belgium employee who informed us that not only were the tours free, you could taste for free! Sign us up!!!
So we had about an hour and a half before the next tour started so we got to sit down and taste some beers. We were also informed that you could send some "coaster-cards" anywhere in the world and New Belgium would pay the postage. We were given a list of beers and told to choose 4 and also put a trivia question (of any subject) on it. The server returned with our beer tasters and an answer to our questions. Joe asked "What was New Belgium's first beer and what year did it come out?", mine was "Can you explain the difference between sweet potatoes and yams?" Joe's answer: technically (as in first produced for distribution, not made in the basement) was Abbey Ale, closely followed (just minutes) by Fat Tire, and I cannot remember what year it was... Mine was funnier... the server couldn't really say anything other than one is orange, but like so many other people they are confused on which one is orange (the yam is orange inside and a sweet potato is white). We then got to taste our delicious beers, talk with some locals, and write a few postcards.
We then took a tour of the brewery, which was pretty amazing. I mean come on you get to find out how beer is made, try some beer, and watch it get bottled. What is really interesting about New Belgium is how sustainable (green) they are in all there processes. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at New Belgium!
It was time to head out of Colorado but still a couple more stops 'til New Mexico.

No Doubt, Denver CO 5/27

NO DOUBT!!!! So as I was looking for Laker/Nugget game 4 tickets on Craiglist when I found out that No Doubt was playing in Denver while we were going to be there! I found some really good seats and at an amazing price and went for it. Got lucky enough to have the gentlemen call me back and were able to meet with him not only to buy the tickets but get a chance to talk with him about moving to the Denver area.
Now most people do not know this but I have wanted to see No Doubt since I was in middle school! (Joseph was so surprised that I had not made a bigger deal out of it)
We drove down to Boulder from our RV park in Loveland and checked out the college town. (It is home of the University of Colorado). It was a pretty cool town, with a really neat downtown area. Joe and I walked around, checked out the scene, read some local papers to see what kind of activities the town offered and then grabbed a bite to eat. We then met with the gentlemen we were buying the tickets from, he worked right in downtown Boulder. We got the chance to talk with him for a couple hours about all the areas surrounding Denver, the economy there, house prices, etc. It was really insightful.
After our meeting we drove around Boulder some more to check out the neighborhoods and parks. Really pretty houses and parks, lots of outside activities. We then drove south to the south part of Denver where the concert was being held. We drove through some traffic but nothing like I have seen in Los Angeles.
Weather was awesome, which was good since the concert was in an outside bowl. Went and checked out our seats, 17th row, right when the first band was coming on. The Sounds were from Sweden and their female lead singer rocked the house (and a crazy outfit!). Next on was Paramore, another female lead singer, who also rocked the house. Then finally NO DOUBT!!!!
What was really awesome about the concert was that they did not have a new album, they decided to do the tour to get inspiration to make a new album. Which meant they played songs from all their albums! Pretty much almost all my favorite songs were played. Joe was awesome enough to take pictures the whole time (he got some really amazing ones, like we were on the stage). It was a sweet night!
The next day we were lucky enough to be shown around downtown Denver by a local. When Joe and I were in Canyonlands NP in Utah we met some people who were from Colorado and one of them was nice enough to give us his phone number and an invitation to be shown around. Well we took him up on it. He showed us all around downtown and took us to lots of different places. We rode the local transportation, a trolley bus, and walked all over. We went to the Hyatt (or Hilton, can't remember) and went to their sky lounge where you can see all of Denver from something like 26 stories up. It was a really cool "big city" town and had lots to offer. Joe and I really liked it (it didn't even scare him that much for a big city).
We were having such a hard time deciding when we were going to leave Colorado. There was one more town we wanted to check out in the Denver area, Fort Collins.