Day 1: RIchardson, TX - Petrified Forest National Park

We left this morning at about 6:00. We drove straight through to New Mexico with a stop for gas in Amarillo. 

                                                           Texas is really, really flat and boring.




But at least there nothing at all to look at.

We stopped at the New Mexico Welcome Center for a while and got some lunch and switched drivers. 

 

 

New Mexico is serious about welcoming people to their state.




The secondary (backup?) "Welcome to New Mexico sign".  It's always good to be prepared.

Natalie drove through most of New Mexico.  We stopped again, near the Arizona border, got more gas, and I started driving again. 

 

 

 New Mexico wins at scenery.

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At around 4:00 PST we arrived at Petrified Forest National Park.  We went to the welcome center, and a video presentation had just started, so we watched a short film about the history of the park.  When it ended we got a backcountry camping permit and an annual pass for the national parks. 

 

Our first National Park!

We drove into the park, along the main road, and stopped at several lookouts over the Painted Desert.  The colors are quite spectacular. We stopped at the Painted Desert Inn, an old hotel from the 1930s.  We packed our things into backpacks, left something draining power in the car, and hiked into the desert. It took about 20 minutes to hike into the desert, and another 25 to find a suitable camping spot. 

 

 

We were literally the only people camping in the desert that night.  It was incredibly quiet.  We set up the tent, got situated, and started dinner.  Our meal was vegetable pasta primavera.  It was pretty good for a dehydrated backpacking meal! 

After we ate, we just sat for a while and watched stars appear.  Finally got dark around 9:00, and it was pretty incredible.  There were tons of stars, and we could see the Milky Way and a few shooting stars.  Around 10:30 we finally went to sleep for the night.  

Prologue

So today is the day before our road trip west, the one we have known about for months and have had weeks to prepare for since school/work ended.  Obvi this means we are not even close to ready to go.  I think the packing strategy is just put things that seem useful for a car trip or camping in my car, and assuming we will at least live. 

This dog does not understand what is happening, but she knows people are leaving, and she is not happy about it.

I guess it’s ok.  It would be better if we weren’t leaving at 5:30 AM, or if we had been asleep several hours ago.  As it stands, we’re going to have like 7 hours of sleep before our long drive tomorrow.  Unfortunately, that is split between both of us.  Basically, at this point, we’re both just kind of wandering around, trying to imagine what else we could possibly need.  Lots, I’m sure.

 

Band teacher mode.

 

Camping mode.