Friday, July 31, 2009

Day 23. Roswell, NM and Carlsbard Caverns


























































































































































Tony wanted to check out the alien zone in Roswell so we headed south. We toured the Roswell Museum and read newspaper articles, affidavits, depositions, presidential briefings, memos. The Eisenhower briefing was what stood out most to Tony. Some photos of the documents are attached. We checked out some of the local shops as well. The area is definitely not thriving. After buyin a T-shirt we decided to continue our journey by heading further south to Carlsbad Caverns. This is another destination that is in one of the stories that is part of the second grade curriculum where I teach so I could not pass up the opportunity to visit since we were only 100 miles away. The caverns were absolutely amazing. We opted for the self-guided tour. The photos capture much of the amazing geological wonders but cannot do complete justice. There is the option to go outside and walk down or take the elevator. Yup, we chose the elevator. We have been doing quite a bit of walking in the many national parks we have visited and felt that taking this one shortcut would be acceptable, especially with the weather being so hot. I was not a fan of the elevator ride, knowing we were descending one mile into the earth, but it was over quickly. We walked along the paths and tried to record some of the fascination in some photos. It is very difficult to get anything that is not close up due to the darkness. I did not take the flashlight with us and wish I had. It may have illuminated some sections just enough to get a photograph. On the way out they allowed me to take a few extra guides to share with my colleagues back home. We took some photos of the various cacti on the way out of the park. It was time to head further east so we drove into Texas and spent the night just outside of Lubbock.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Day 20. Bryce Canyon, Utah

Day 19. Grand Canyon, northern rim

Day 18. Grand Canyon, southern rim

We begin with the southern rim of Grand Canyon. This is definitely the most crowded part. We walked along the rim following a trail. It begins level

Day 17. Las Vegas, Hoover Dam













































































































































































We actually checked out earlier than planned. Tony wanted to see area 51 so we headed out to try and do just that. We reached a restricted area but Tony was not able to find the specific place he was looking for, based on some research that he did. You can see the road we had to take in the photo--doesn't even look much like a road. (Actually it wasn't much of a road.) After bumping along some dusty roads we decided to head to Arizona. On the way back toward Las Vegas, we took a photo of the alien outside the alien museum--which was closed at the time. Our side trip altered the direction we took and we ended up going over Hoover Dam, which we had not planned on doing. They are building a bridge so that traffic does not have to access the dam. You can see the bridge in the background of the photos. It was really quite hot while we were taking pictures--around 7:15. We continued traveling south and spent the night in Arizona.