Week 6

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Overview | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6
  • Day 36 (September 1, 2001) - Today was mostly a day of driving. We slept in and then hit the road at about 11:30 heading west toward El Paso to complete our journey across Texas (man this state is big!) In El Paso we decided to make a quick detour into Juacinta, Mexico to grab some lunch. That was a very interesting experience. It was a last minute decision and we were totally unprepared for entering a non-English speaking country. Somehow, we did manage to find a promising restaurant to grab some lunch. Now I wouldn't consider myself an expert or anything but I did work at Taco Bell briefly back in high school and I have to tell you, the stuff they eat in Mexico is NOT real Mexican food by any stretch...On the way back to the car we found a dog who looked homeless and injured and ended up giving him our entire doggy bag full of steak fajitas. Next, we headed back for the border weaving our way in and out of peddlers selling whatever they could find as well as through a cadre of uninvited window washers and finally reentered El Paso. We then crossed into New Mexico and headed north toward Santa Fe. Along the way we found ourselves surrounded by a beautiful sunset off to the left and a beautiful moonrise off to the right. We made it to Santa Fe at about 9:30 but, being completely oblivious to the schedule out there in the real world, we weren't at all prepared for the fact that this is a holiday weekend. Most of our familiar haunts (Super 8, Motel 6, Best Western, etc.) were fully booked so we had to settle for staying in a total dump. So much for planning ahead...
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  • Day 37 (September 2, 2001) - Today was a day of beautiful driving and breathtaking sites. We left the motel at about 10:30 and headed north from Santa Fe toward the Colorado border. This portion of the drive may well have been the most beautiful of the entire trip. Many of the pictures in today's update were taken along that drive. In fact, we kept stopping and taking so many pictures that I began to worry about whether we would make it to Mesa Verde before it closed for the day. We actually got to the visitors center and purchased our tickets for a guided tour about 5 minutes before they closed. Anyway, the tour of Mesa Verde was magnificent. For those who have never heard of it, Mesa Verde is an area where cliff dwelling peoples lived until about 1300 A.D. During the latter or pueblo period they built magnificent homes out of mud bricks which can still be seen today. Actually, we sort of lucked out by being a bit late because we ended up on a tour with only about 10 other people and we also lucked out by getting a park ranger whose passion for the subject made the tour all the more fascinating and informative. After Mesa Verde, our original plan was to drive into Arizona and stay the night somewhere near the Grand Canyon but by the time we finished the tour it was already 8 pm and we were pretty exhausted so we decided to call it a night in Cortez, Colorado, just a few minutes from Mesa Verde.
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  • Day 38 (September 3, 2001) - The sights were even more beautiful today than yesterday. We started the day by heading from Cortez, Colorado west and a little south to a place called Four Corners. This is basically the point where Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico come together and the only point in the United States common to four states. It sounds like a stupid place to visit, and it was, but I loved the irony. To get there you first have to pay a $2/person entrance fee to the Indian Park Service. Then, once inside you get to stand on the monument, place a hand and foot in each of the four states and take a picture (which we did of course) and then, when you look around you, you find that there is nothing else there but about 30 to 40 booths where Native Americans are selling various crafts and souvenirs. The irony of course is, here are the Native Americans, whose land was taken from them to begin with, charging admission and making money off of a bunch of mostly white people who want to come and visit a spot that is only significant because it is where their various state governments happen to have placed a bunch of arbitrary, administrative (and otherwise meaningless) lines. More power to them. I'm sure they're laughing all the way to the bank (with our money too of course.) Anyway, after that brief detour we entered Arizona and headed south toward our main goal for the day: the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Along the way..well..you may have noticed a new statistic added to the list of stats above. We think it was a rabbit and I really feel bad about it but there isn't much you can do when you are doing 80 miles an hour down a two lane highway. Poor Thumper. Anyway, we finally made it to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest (after getting a bit lost) and it was breathtakingly beautiful. I absolutely fell in love with petrified wood and even stopped at a petrified wood store and picked up a set of really beautiful bookends for my new office (to keep me grounded and remind me of the reality that awaits me this coming Monday morning...) After leaving the park we continued west to Flagstaff and checked in for the night. Tomorrow is the Grand Canyon...
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  • Day 39 (September 4, 2001) - Nothing could have been a more appropriate finish to such a fantastic trip than the sheer enormity of the Grand Canyon. We have visited so many incredible places over the past six weeks; always with camera bag in hand, snapping pictures, and taking videos (and of course never forgetting to actually enjoy the things around us with our own senses...) But the first time we walked up to the edge of the Grand Canyon I immediately recognized the futility of even attempting to raise a lens. There was just no way to capture such an experience, regardless of what technolgy you try to use. One of the viewing points had a sign which quoted a late 19th century visitor to the Grand Canyon who explained that no description could ever capture the magnificence of it and that it simply had to be experienced to be appreciated. This remains just as true today as it was more than 100 years ago. Of course I did try capturing a few of the views of the Grand Canyon on film but to no avail. What you see here doesn't even begin to compare to the actual experience. Anyway, after sundown, we headed down to Williams, Arizona (about an hour or so south of the Canyon) and spent the night. Tomorrow we will be stopping in L.A. to visit some friends before finally heading back home to San Francisco.
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  • Day 40 (September 5, 2001) - Today was to be another fairly long drive so we got an early start. On the way out of Williams, we were a bit surprised when we saw a cop car sitting in exactly the same spot as the night before when we drove into town. Then, as we got closer we realized that it was actually just a decoy complete with a fake cop sitting in the drivers seat. Anyway, we continued west through Arizona and into California and we made it to L.A. by about 5pm. There, we stopped in at the home of our friends Jeff and Claudia (I used to work with Jeff back in Tokyo) where Jeff already had dinner barbequeing on the grill. It has been a little over a year since we saw their daughter Alyssa (now 16 months) and she was even more adorable than the first time we saw her.
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  • Day 41 (September 6, 2001) - All good things must come to an end and unfortunately this trip was no exception. We hit the road at about 11:30 and headed north for San Francisco. However we weren't headed straight home just yet. After all, Ikuko has gone for 6 weeks now without eating at her favorite ramen (Japanese noodles) restaurant so our first stop was in San Mateo, just south of San Francisco. After Ikuko got her fix, we finally headed home. We have quite a bit of unpacking to do but it was an absolutely unforgettable trip. We hope you enjoyed sharing the experience with us.
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