Alamogordo NM to Fort Worth TX

The final leg of our trek from Edwards to Fort Worth started just outside Alamogordo, New Mexico. We showed up in the mid afternoon and quite naturally stopped in to the White Sands National Monument visitor center. Elizabeth got the passport stamp and I learned about a ranger led walk on the sand dunes. Most ranger talks are good, but Ranger Michelle was outstanding. Walking the dunes on your own is a mistake - we learned so much more about the area from Ranger Michelle. Had we more time, we would have spent time sled-riding down the dunes (NPS condoned) or taken a longer walk. Sunset over the dunes was filled with awesome hues.

For dinner, we tried Memories Restaurant in Alamogordo. This restaurant is on the first floor of a residential house/inn, decorated with a random assortment of old glassware. That aside, the food was solid (bonus points for the green chili soup) and the service was on par with what I'd expect from a fancy spot. It's the best restaurant I've found in Alamogordo to date.

Holloman AFB 's lodging is fine - USAF standard.

When in Alamogordo, be sure to check out the world's largest pistachio nut (and other area pistachio growers). Several have small visitor areas and pistachio tasting bars. There's also the New Mexico Museum of Space. We didn't stop on this trip because I've been before. But for a first-timer, it's a must-see. They have the burial site of Ham, the first space chimp and a most impressive meteority collection.

We pushed on to Roswell, New Mexico and visited the International UFO Museum. They have a military discount, but you may feel a little odd showing your ID at a place that suggests military conspiracy in the UFO matter. There isn't much else to do in Roswell. But if you've got time to jog 20 miles south to Dexter, visit the Dexter National Fish Hatchery. You can call Michelle Bell and arrange a tour. We missed the tour, but will probably try if we head back that way.

From Roswell to Fort Worth, the travel story becomes less exciting. We planned to overnight in Lubbock TX to visit the windmill museum, Buddy Holly Center and prairie dog park. But instead, we had a burst of energy and make it to Abilene. There, we stayed with a college/grad school/USAF friend named Kelsey. It was good to catch up with her after a long trip of strangers. We dined at a place called Little Italy and had such good conversation, we closed the place down. Their claim to fame is an outstanding sundried tomato salad dressing.

The following day, Elizabeth and I drove the blue Toyota Matrix along I-30 to the Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth. Our trek to Texas was over. The trip marked our first inter-state road trip as a couple. And this opportunity to explore a part of the American Southwest did not disappoint. I'm happy to say that we're now road-trip partners and look forward to our next trip together.

Postmarked Tombstone

The one thing Jeff wanted to do on this trip was go into a mine... so we were up and out of Tuscon before the sun heading down Highway 80 to Tombstone.

You reach Boothill Graveyard before you reach the town - its free to walk through the graveyard but you are forced through a gift shop on your way in and out. In the graveyard head to the left for some old tombs with great rhyming epitaphs. Unfortunately, we were in such a hurry we forgot to charge the camera the night before - so no pictures of the "We're open! We know your dying to get in" sign on the gift shop door. This stop will take you 10min tops - it took us 5min because who wants to be wandering in a graveyard when its freezing.

Just down the road is Tombstone. The night before my friend told us about its cute and touristy attractions - unfortunately we arrived before anything was open. We parked and walked down the boardwalk, snapped a picture of the OK Corral with the cell phone and got back in the car and headed toward Bisbee.

We arrived in Bisbee just in time to make the 9am Queen Mine Tour. As it was the first week of January, we were the only people on the tour. So after being outfitted in hats, slickers and mining lights we were taken by train down into the mine. You stop a few times and get a chance to explore, with your guide, parts of the mine. Our tour guide was fantastic - a former mine worker himself he was able to tell us stories of both the Queen Mine and the open pit Lavender Mine located right next door. The tour lasts about an hour and is appropriate for all ages as long as they can make it up 40 or so stairs. Five tours are given daily and in the summer reservations are recommended and it costs $13.

After the tour head over to The Copper Queen Hotel for breakfast. Don't search around town for something else, because in the winter you won't find anyone else serving breakfast and if you look around for too long you'll miss breakfast time! The Bisbee breakfast is the real winner - eggs, hasbrowns, toast and bacon or ham. Keep a menu and read about the three ghosts that have taken up residence in the hotel while your breakfast is prepared.

As you leave town pull into the Lavender Pit Mine "scenic view" to take in the vastness of the Lavender Pit mine. Luckily we were able to charge the camera in the car - because you don't want to miss capturing the memories of your family donned in parkas looking for the surface!

Saguaro National Park

After leaving Biosphere 2 we headed across Tuscon to Saguaro National Park. I had lots of questions about the Giant Saguaro and figured the National Park was a good place to start.

The Giant Saguaro were almost brought to extinction by cattle ranching and invasive plant species. In fact the park is split into two parts because they feared preserving just one forest wouldn't be enough. They are much more pervasive now, thanks to protective state laws, but the state still requires each Giant Saguaro sold to be registered with the state.

From the moment you enter the park you are treated to sweeping vistas of Saguaro forest. When we visited in early January it was cold and getting dark so we did not venture down any of paths into the forest. We did stop into the visitors center where a Ranger handed us a book with all the facts about the Giant Saguaro that we could browse at our leisure. The movie focuses more on the native cultures that arose around the Saguaro forest, so if you want to learn about these giants ask the ranger for the Saguaro Binder.

In the wild the Giant Saguaro don't grow their first arm until they are between 80-100 years old, but after that can grow a new arm every few years. The bands in their trunks are evidence of frosts - which are the Giant Saguaro's greatest enemy. These cactus live to be about 200 years old, and then begin to decay leaving only their rigid interior structure behind. The visitors center has some wonderful examples of decaying cactus.

Each side of the park has a scenic driving tour you can take. We had just enough daylight to take the scenic drive on the west side of the park. The ranger told us it was passable to all vehicles, and the dirt road proved passable but very bumpy , so take it slow. We stopped a few times to venture out into the forest on short (.5 mile) walks to see other types of cactus and some petroglyphs.

With the sun setting, we headed back across town for 6pm Mass at Saint Francis de Sales and then back into downtown for dinner with a friend at El Charro Cafe in downtown. Turns out El Charro is the nation's oldest Mexican restaurant in continuous operation by the same family. Gourmet magazine named it one of the 21 legendary American restaurants you must visit. We found the food and service to be excellent. It was the perfect end to our busy Arizona day.

Biosphere 2

Biosphere 2 is out in the middle of nowhere Arizona - about 1 hour outside of Tuscon - but is worth the visit.
I guess I expected an actual sphere, but what you see in the picture is the glass enclosed mini-earth. The glass pyramid structure is home to the climatically different eco-zones. The white structure in the middle was the home to the "biospherians" for the two years they lived in the enclosure. The dome structure to the far right is one of the buildings two "lungs" that maintained consistent pressure in the whole structure - preventing it from collapsing in on itself.

The Biosphere is currently being used by the University of Arizona for research, but at the time of occupation had livestock, rice patties and even a Caribbean ocean. As you walk from zone to zone you won't believe that this was built for only 150 million.

The Public Guided Tour is a comprehensive, 45 min walking tour. It includes a video about the biosphere and its inhabitants, both plant and animal, and then a compound walk through. After the tour you can walk through the living quarters -which are 90's fabulous and wonder how the six individuals managed to eat only what they grew for two years. There is also an underwater viewing area you can explore on your own, although since cleaning the glass is against their "natural" policy there is not very much to see. Admission is a steep $20, but they do offer a military discount (along with several other discounts.) Jeff loved the engineering portions of the tour - and we can't stop talking about the lung design. I loved hearing about the drama surrounding the biospherians - including a pizza delivery to the compound and one of the woman leaving for a medical emergency. (Don't worry she was fine!)

I really cannot put into words how cool and weird this place is. You certainly don't need to come here more then once - and its starting to fall into a bit of disrepair - but if you remember reading about this at all in your science class, have some free time and find yourself just outside Tuscon it is worth checking out. Oh! Make sure to pack your lunch because although the Biospherians may have gotten Pizza delivered there are not many food options nearby.

Here is one final picture from inside the Biosphere:

Casa Grande

There is a lot to see between Phoenix and Tuscon so we took our time and hit as many of the landmarks (and National Parks) as we could. We lost an hour heading into Arizona so our start on Sunday was a bit delayed. Jeff would also add that we had to drive nearly 2 miles out of our way so that I could have some Starbucks - I say what's 2 miles when your headed all the way to Texas!

The Casa Grade Ruins National Monument is just off the 10 between Phoenix and Tuscon. Casa Grade is a 3 story Hohokam ritual house built from caliche. You can actually see it - or more specifically the large roof they have built over it - miles before you turn into the protected land. The video in the visitors center talks about the archeological digs they have been doing in the area, but will leave you with lots of questions about Case Grade and its large roof. Heading outside to see the building will give you a sense of how enormous it really is. but the interpretive signs never seem to address the house or its origin. Just when we were about to leave confused a park volunteer asked if she could show us her favorite artifact in the small museum - a paint pot with the original pigmentation still intact. Next thing we knew she had a binder of old pictures of Casa Grade and all of our questions were answered. They are actually finding so many artifacts out here that once they dig them up they put them back and fill it in with sterile gravel for preservation - there is nowhere else to put everything.

Casa Grade is definitely worth a stop and it will take you under 30min to see everything and you get an NPS Parks Passport Stamp. Plus when you leave you can debate if you think the roof looks more like an alien spacecraft or a large picnic tent.

Dates & Dinosaurs

Day one we decided we wanted to get to Phoenix, AZ, getting us out of range of weekend trips before we really decided to do anything crazy. (We have to leave something for when we get back to Edwards!) The short winter days means that daylight is limited. Phoenix is about a 6 hour drive from Edwards leaving us plenty of time to get things packed before heading out - I hate being rushed when leaving for a long trip - so this was perfect timing.

Jeff and I always debate about whether to leave from the South or the North gate when heading toward PalmSprings but since he was driving we left via the North gate. (I'm looking for someone who can prove that the south gate provides a more direct route to the 215.) Regardless of how you get there, Palm Springs is about 3 hours away from base and is a great place for your first min-break. We were in Palm Springs last February and had a blast, but there is more to do then one weekend can hold. This small stop allowed us to check off a few things from our list.

First, Hadleys Fruit Orchard claims to have the Best Date Shake in California - so we had to stop and check it out. There is some debate online about if Hadleys should be able to count their shake since they used crystallized dates and not fresh ones. Despite the controversy we stopped to check it out. Hadleys has a small restaurant where you can order the date shake - they also have sandwiches if you need a bite to eat. The bulk of Hadleys though is dried fruit and snacks and resembles Casa de Fruta on the way to San Fransisco. I know your dying to know what we thought of the shake - personally I like the one made with fresh dates better. but that is just my opinion. It's certainly worth the stop to see if you think Hadleys has California's Best Date Shake.

Just down the road are the Cabazon Dinosaurs, which claim to be the worlds largest dinosaurs, but, in my mind anyway, are more famous for being featured in PeeWee's Big Adventure. It is completely free to take your picture in front of the two large dinosaurs and there is a gift store inside the belly of the non-T-Rex dinosaur that you enter through a door in the foot. To go inside the T-Rex or see any of the other robotic dinosaurs you will need to pay admission to the park. This is a photo opportunity you cannot miss!

The drive from the dinosaurs into Palm Springs is easy and takes you through some beautiful windmill farms. We dropped into Palm Springs for lunch at our favorite place - Fisherman's Market & Grill. They have ample street parking and a free city lot right next door, meaning you won't spend any time looking for parking. I had the grilled mahi-mahi fish tacos and Jeff ordered the Grilled Fish of the Day sandwich - both come with a side so if you don't like coleslaw be sure to ask for something else. As always the food was delicious and fast so we were back on the road in no time.

Next stop Phoenix!

Road Trip!

For as much as my husband is an airplane guy, he cannot turn down a good road trip. When we found out we would be making a "mini-move" for a few months to Texas his head filled with great road trip ideas. We are taking five days to drive from Southern California to Northeastern Texas and have some great stops planned along the way. We looked to RoadTripAmerica and Road Trip USA for some suggested routes and are still debating some side trips that will be time dependent. We hopefully won't be eating too much fast food - thanks to the internet and sites like Google's dining guides and Trip Advisor we have already found a few great options in towns along the way.

While we thought we were keeping this blog mainly for our own posterity and to give us a place to send friends when the asked where we stayed or what we ate on one of our day trips, we discovered over the Holidays that many of you are family and friends just wondering where we are at any particular time. We are going to do our best to update the blog as we travel but you can always check Twitter or Facebook as they are a bit easier to update from the road.