Honeymoon Day 17 - Nebraska City, NE to Urbana, IL (27 November, 2005)

The drive from Nebraska City to Nixa, Missouri was completely uneventful. We narrowly avoided some traffic around Kansas City, but honestly it was pretty pleasant.

Laura's father Ken was dumbfounded (I think Laura said he was found dumb) when he saw his daughter's blurry likeness whoosh past him on the way to the facilities saying 'hi dad!'.

In his mind, he had already worked out 'a perfect plan' to have Linda drive a rental car from Nebraska City and later in the week they would drive to Urbana to drop off our dog, Dog.

By the time we left Nixa (at about 4:30pm) Ken had adjusted to the idea that we were cleverer than he and that we saved them a trip with a giant black dog.

It was good to see them again after the trip, and it was also good to be headed home when we left. We had some very strong thunderstorms to drive through on I-44, but once we had cleared those storms it was very smooth and easy driving - perhaps because Laura was behind the wheel.

It felt good to get home and relax a bit, but I think I can say without question that this was one of the best trips I've ever been on and that I was able to share it with the woman I love makes it even more special.

Thank you Laura - I love you with all my heart.

Yours ever and always,
Mark

Honeymoon Day 16 - Denver, CO to Nebraska City, NE (26 November, 2005)

As it turns out, Nebraska City is only a hop, skip and 520 jumps from Denver. We got there very close to 6:00pm and went straight to June's house - the social hub of the greater Nebraska City-Otoe Metroplex.

We spent the evening chatting about the trip and Susan's new baby and offered to take Linda back to Nixa, MO to save her some trouble with a rental car and give us the opportunity to spend a few hours chatting in the car on the way.

The weather all the way across Nebraska was wonderful and aside from a severe (and worsening) case of dead-ass, the drive passed very quickly.

Honeymoon Day 15 - Craig, CO to Denver, CO (25 November, 2005)

Our goal today was to head out early and get to the east side of Denver to spend the night. Thinking that it would be too hard to drive all the way to Nebraska City in one day, we felt good about our decision.

We also decided to try and see some of Rocky Mountain National Park (as long as we had the national parks pass) and perhaps do some shopping at REI Camping Store in Denver.

Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park was closed after the first 10 miles of road, but we were lucky and saw a mother and baby moose walking through the woods just next to the road.



We managed to do everything we set out to do and found a couple of pretty nice deals at REI (down jacket for $60 - who could resist?!?)

Just around the corner from REI was a nice sushi restaurant and Laura and I really enjoyed our meal there.

From there we decided to try and drive to the junction of I-76 and I-80 to find a hotel, but our options were growing more and more scarce as the miles ticked by, so we stopped off at some place in the middle of nowhere and turned left where we should have turned right...4 miles and quite a bit of frustration later we were in a nice clean room with a good shower and decent wireless access.

Tomorrow we take on Nebraska!

P.S. - from Craig, CO to Denver, CO (by way of Steamboat Springs) we were climbing and descending mountain passes all afternoon. In spite of this, we managed to reach 40+ miles per gallon...woo hoo!!

Honeymoon Day 14 - Craig, CO (24 November, 2005 - Thanksgiving)

Today was a day we spent with Laura's Aunt Jane and her son who lives next door. He and his wife were hosting us for Thanksgiving - a very tasty meal with just about everything you could imagine.

Very lazy quiet day, and very enjoyable overall.

Honeymoon Day 13 - Moab, UT to Craig, CO (23 November, 2005)

Nothing much happened today - we had a good long drive from Moab (late morning...needed the sleep and a decent breakfast) and took the opportunity to replace the second set of sunglasses Laura squashed.

The only real thing of note that happened today was at a tiny little gas station/convenience store in Meeker, CO: While I was waiting for Laura, two guys who were very clearly excited about a long Thanksgiving weekend of deer hunting walked past the magazine stand where there were two magazines prominently displayed.

On the left was a hunter's magazine with a picture of a large bull elk, while on the right was a magazine with a picture of Cindy Crawford dressed in the bare minimum for decency.

Guy #1 pointed and said 'nice rack'

He was pointing at the elk.

From there we proceeded the rest of the way to Craig, Colorado to spend some time with Laura's Aunt - Jane Hume.

Honeymoon Day 12 - Canyonlands National Park (22 November, 2005)

^ Mesa Arch looking East at the La Sal Mountains ^

Another late start for a short day at Canyonlands.

We started at Mesa Arch at about 10:15am. It was absolutely beautiful with the clear blue sky and the canyons and mountains through the arch.

From Mesa Arch we drove down to Grand View Point and had a little hike. The view from there is unbelievable. The scale of Canyonlands is quite impressive and the hike from Grand View Point takes you out along the rim of the canyon...which is not for the feint of heart.

We took some time to drive to the Upheaval Dome section of Canyonlands' Island in the Sky district where there's some debate among geologists as to what caused this 1-mile diameter hole in the earth, but to us it was just full of pretty colors.

Again we called it an early day and went back to Moab to get online again to help our transition from vacation to work a little easier. Oh - and Laura wanted to buy an electric tea kettle online.

Honeymoon Day 11 - Arches National Park (21 November, 2005)

^ Delicate Arch ^

We got a late start after catching up on some much needed sleep. We started at Delicate Arch - a relatively difficult 1.5 mile hike from one parking lot...but you can get right up to the arch and we had the whole thing to ourselves for about 15 minutes.

From Delicate Arch we drove up to the Devil's Garden section to see Landscape Arch.

We did some wonderful hiking and got up behind Landscape Arch with a little effort and had wonderful views of the arch, the whole Devil's Garden section and the La Sal Mountains in the distance.


We ate a little lunch and then drove down to the Windows Section of Arches where we spent some time at Double Arch - featured in the opening sequences of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.



We called it a day early and went into town to catch a bite to eat and try and find an Internet Cafe.

Honeymoon Day 10 - Bryce Canyon, UT to Moab, UT (20 November, 2005)

We saw Bryce Canyon National Park today - this place was very unusual. The little spires of sandstone are unbelievable and look exceptionally fragile.

The pictures we took simply can't do the scenery justice, but may provide some idea of what's here.

We felt like we'd seen what we wanted to see after about 4 hours, so we hopped in the car and headed out to Moab.

One thing you should know about the drive from Bryce to Moab is that once you get on I-70 from US 82, you drive about 20 miles and then there are no services...NONE...for the next 107 miles or more. Make sure you and your vehicle are in good shape to drive the distance.

Once we got to Moab, we were a little hungry...so we stopped off at a pizza house and had some food. The most interesting thing to us about Zax's pizza place is that on the walls were pictures of Lower Antelope Canyon - where we had just been the day before. The second most interesting thing about Zax's is that it was open - November is the off season for Moab.

Afterwards, we were in dire need of clean unmentionables and such, so we did some laundry and then went to the hotel.

Honeymoon Day 9 - Grand Canyon, AZ to Bryce Canyon, UT (19 November, 2005)

^ Lower Antelope Canyon ^

The first order of business (after dragging our VERY sore butts out of bed) was postcards. Following that, we headed to Page, Arizona where we found Lower Antelope Canyon. This place is a 1/4 mile long stretch of sandstone canyon that has been smoothed out over the centuries by flood after flood...the most recent of which happened in 1999 when several tourists were killed while taking photographs. They have metal staircases and platforms throughout much of the canyon, but while they seem out of place, they don't seem to be in the way of your pictures.

This place is an absolute wonder. We spent over 2 1/2 hours there taking picture after picture and hoping they'd come out even close to the real thing. Everywhere you turned, the light was reacting differently to the stone and producing ever more amazing colors.

Lower Antelope Canyon is very definitely one of the most sensational places we went to on our trip, and we'd recommend it to everyone who comes within 100 miles of Page.

The trip up to Bryce was completely uneventful except for the grocery store we visited...they had signs over the aisles for Cola, Root Beer and Shasta - and they also had Ketsup (not Catsup or Ketchup) as well as Chilie Beans. Very unusual, but they were friendly enough so we waited until we were out of earshot before we made comments.

We made the turn off of US 89 to Utah hwy 12 to head to Bryce Canyon late in the afternoon, but there was still enough light in the sky to get a few interesting pictures on the way in.

Honeymoon Day 8 - Grand Canyon, AZ (18 November, 2005)

^ The view from Plateau Point ^

We hit Bright Angel Trail (located approximately 367 feet from our hotel room) at exactly 8:00am. We had decided to hike to Plateau Point which is 1.8 miles past Indian Gardens. The total hike distance was approximately 6.4 miles and 3100 vertical feet - one way!

Long story short - down was easy...back to Indian Gardens was easy...Indian Gardens up to the South Rim at first made us afraid we were going to die...by the time we got to the 1.5 mile resthouse (that's 1.5 miles from the end), we were afraid we wouldn't!

We left at exactly 8:00am and arrived back at the south rim at 4:07pm for an average of 1.6 miles per hour - we felt pretty good about that because the last three miles of that trek is very much up and not very much out.

We did nothing else that day except grab a bite to eat and crash.

Honeymoon Day 7 - Grand Canyon, AZ (17 November, 2005)

We woke up early to get to the airport and take a helicopter ride around the Grand Canyon. Laura got a window - I got the hump...back seat - middle. To make it worse, I was sat next to a guy that everyone thought (including the check-in folks) was a total ass. Nevertheless, both Laura and I could see very well and the experience was fantastic...especially the first time we raced out over the canyon.

Once the flight was over, we drove the length of the south rim to Desert View and began working our way back at a leisurely pace (and in the interim bagged a number of license plates including Deutschland - some guy riding his motorcycle across the country).

We had to be in Flagstaff later to meet Laura's friend Lisa and her husband Tom at a Mexican restaurant none of us had ever been to, but according to the Internet (and our friend David), Casa Bonita has the best Mexican food in Denver, Colorado. The one in Flagstaff, Arizona's pretty good too.

We got back to the hotel (Bright Angel Lodge - historic cabin 6171) at around 11:00pm

The National Park Service was performing a controlled burn in the Kaibab Forest and at night as we drove by we could see the flames very clearly - one tree was completely enclosed in flame and we both wished we had brought our cameras.

Honeymoon Day 6 - Mexican Hat, UT to Grand Canyon, AZ (16 November, 2005)

Following Goosenecks, we headed out for Canyon de Chelly. We had never heard of it, but a picture on the Internet was enough to make us give it a go - in my opinion it was the most fascinating part of the trip. A Navajo settlement now called 'The White House' was built into a crevice in the sheer granite wall approximately 30 feet above the ground. The hike down was unbelievable - the setting was very unusual and at the end of the path was a traditional Navajo house 'hogan' where an old woman who appeared to be 176 years old was chopping wood for the fire burning within.

We spoke to a Navajo man who was making jewelry and his niece whose father was the head park ranger for Canyon de Chelly.

We finished at Chelly at about 2:00pm and then made our way to the Grand Canyon by way of Tuba City. After all that hiking, the 3+ hour drive was VERY long, but we had a full moon and it was quite pleasant overall. In fact, we learned an interesting thing about Native American tribes in the region...the Hopi have cell phones!!

We were hungry for a little something as we got into Tuba City (still 90 minutes from the Grand Canyon) so we stopped off at McDonald's for a Hopi Meal.

The Grand Canyon by full moonlight is quite amazing. While you can't get the same spectrum of vistas that you can when the sun is out, the soft light is quite pleasant and surprisingly you can find details that are washed out by the brighter sun.

P.S. - the Maswik Lodge is HARD to find at night!!

Honeymoon Day 5 - Durango, CO to Mexican Hat, UT (15 November, 2005)

Got another early start and headed out to Mexican Hat by way of Hovenweep.

My personal opinion here - Hovenweep after Mesa Verde is a letdown with a captial ETDOWN. It has nowhere near the offerings, but it does have one saving grace - few people visit it (compared to Mesa Verde) and the ruins are in a very compact little space that can be hiked around comfortably in an hour (including a point where you traverse the canyon floor - 80' down and 80' up).
We then hopped in the car and headed out to Mexican Hat and Monument Valley. You can see Monument Valley from roughly 40 miles away, and when you get up to it, it just keeps getting better and better.

We pulled into the park ($5 per person) at around 4:45pm and started taking pictures immediately. The Monuments are absolutely enormous and can only be seen 'cleanly' (without shanties and trailer homes) from inside the park...it would have been nice to have an SUV with 4 wheel drive and at least 10" ground clearance, but we didn't have that luxury so we stopped at the first major turnout. The moon was beginning to rise between the monuments so we found some high ground and started taking as many pictures as time, our batteries and the cold would permit.

At about 5:30 we went to the hotel to check in (the San Juan Inn in Mexican Hat) and ate dinner at the restaurant there - good hot beef stew with Navajo Fry Bread.

After dinner, we went back by the front desk to reload Laura with new sunglasses and spoke with the guy at the desk who had worked there off and on for 19 years.

He suggested that if we only had one sunrise in the area...and that we had already seen the monuments at sunset...that we drive north a few miles to Goosenecks State Park and view the sunrise from Mulley Point - you can see the monuments from there and you can also see the San Juan River twist and turn several times in just a few miles.

Honeymoon Day 4 - Mesa Verde (14 November, 2005)

Today was Mesa Verde - that's Spanish!

Mesa Verde is roughly 35 miles west on US 160 out of Durango, CO. We were lucky to get a pretty early start (8:00am) and we showed up at the front gate of Mesa Verde at about 8:45.

20 miles (1 hour and 10 minutes) later and we were at the ranger station/museum just in the nick of time to take a guided ranger tour - although we might have exceeded the posted speed limit just a bit for the final few miles.

This was a tour of the 'Spruce Tree House' dwellings and was very informative. The park ranger allowed us all the time we wanted (there were roughly 10 of us on the tour) to really see the site. Without the tour, you don't have an opportunity to get right up to the dwellings which are largely inaccessible to anyone who isn't a 13th century Pueblo Indian...or a Park Ranger with climbing equipment.


We also took a hike up the 'Petroglyph Trail' - a 2.8 mile moderately strenuous hike that took us just over two hours, and when we got back to the tour start point there were approximately 35 people on the 1:00 tour which made us feel very good about hustling to catch up to the 10:00 edition.

Laura and I got numerous pictures of both Spruce Tree House and the Cliff Palace, and one place in particular that was very unusual - no visible way of accessing the site - Square Tower House.

Honeymoon Day 3 - Walsenburg, CO to Durango, CO (13 November, 2005)

A nice breakfast of cereal and juice (packed in the cooler) allowed us to get a very early start for Durango by way of 'Great Sand Dunes National Park'.

This park contains the largest sand dunes in North America and the largest - Star Dune - is over 700 feet tall.

From the hike-out parking lot, we trudged across loose superfine sand for about 1/3 of a mile to the first dunes (like walking through knee-deep mud, only more difficult) and then proceeded to hike to one of Star's sister dunes - at approximately 550 feet.

It was cold and windy, but it was completely unlike any place we'd ever seen and the museum/visitor's center is fantastic. Truly one of the best displays at the national parks we visited.

Honeymoon Day 2 - Nixa, MO to Walsenburg, CO (12 November, 2005)

We set out at around 8:00 a.m. for Walsenburg, Colorado. 815 miles away. We were making very good time all the way to Amarillo, TX where we turned north to Dumas, TX and then over to I-25 to head North to Colorado.

In case your map is a tiny little back-of-the-matchbook size, the United States is frickin' huge! It takes a long time to drive across it, and you have to do things to keep your mind active or you face a very real danger - driving comas. Your mind can just shut off and you'll drive and drive without really knowing where you are or where you're going.

Fortunately, we had Laura's sanity and Mark's dimentia to work with. We spent over an hour trying to come up with all the names of states so we could hunt down license plates. It shouldn't be too difficult, but it really is...we had to remember all of them and then put them in alphabetical order (ok - we didn't have to do that, but if you want to cross them off the list you need to be able to find them in that list).

The first day we got over half of them...including Massachussetts (thank you, Big Texan!).

In case you ever decide to pass the time this way, the trick to license plate hunts (yes - there IS a trick) is to focus on 18-wheelers...they frequently have two different license plates on them - one on the trailer and one on the cab.

Stopping off at the Big Texan Steakhouse in Amarillo was a very interesting experience. We got there at approximately 4:30pm which was just on the front edge of their busy time. Big Texan Steakhouse = Big Thing in the parking lot, and there's now a huge steer in our collection of 'big things'.



The rest of the drive to Walsenburg was uneventful, and the glowing sign of the Anchor Motel welcomed us almost as much as the queen-size bedbowl in our room.

I feared for Laura's well-being as we went to bed...I flopped down on my side, and she almost went flying through the air scraping her head on the popcorn ceiling.

Honeymoon Day 1 - Urbana, IL to Nixa, MO (11 November, 2005)

After a year and a half we have finally been able to begin our honeymoon vacation. What tropical destination you ask?

While most people going on their honeymoon in mid-November would choose Jamaica, Aruba or Hawaii we have chosen another less crowded route: The American Southwest (Colorado, Utah and Arizona). Nothing's more inviting than Colorado mountain passes in the refreshing November rain!

Well, we headed out from Urbana after work on the 11th of November...our first stop was Nixa, Missouri where Mr. and Mrs. Hayden live. We had to drop off the dog and it was a free night's sleep so we thought that was a good deal. It also got us a 6 hour headstart so we could make Colorado by the end of day 2. From Nixa we're going to visit squished penny (elongated coins, if you're European) machines through the panhandle of Texas, the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, Mexican Hat, Lower Antelope Canyon and other such exotic locations.

We hope you enjoy reading the text and seeing the pictures as much as we enjoyed living it.