Arizona & New Mexico

We didn't want to leave San Diego, but if we stayed any longer, we wouldn't have any time, or money, to finish the southern leg of the trip. We drove east for the first time in weeks. We made it to Flagstaff, Arizona, where we held up for the night at an altitude of 7,000 ft.

The next morning, we visited Walnut Canyon National Monument. This canyon contained cliff dwellings of migrant tribes from centuries ago. In order to investigate these dwellings, we had to descend 221 steps; a feat that would prove difficult at our elevation. Jojo made fun of visitors that were making the trip back to the top, winded and gasping for air. I laughed at her, knowing she would have to make the trip too. Then we'd see if she was still making jokes.

We hiked the mountain path, taking time to stop inside some of the ancient cave homes. Jojo commented that, "It was probably really hard to go to your friends house! you had to climb a mountain, barefoot, in the snow sometimes!" I agreed.

As we began our ascent, I kept a close eye on Jojo. Twenty steps up, and we were gripping the hand rail. Forty steps up, we were huffing and puffing. Sixty steps up, and we took a break on a bench, while we gasped for air. She wasn't making jokes anymore. When we arrived back at the top, we both agreed that life at 7,000 ft. was a lot different than the life that we lived at sea level.

We had no time to waste. Our day in Arizona was packed full of natural landscape adventures, and we only had another eight hours of daylight left. We drove East to Meteor Crater. This stop was not originally scheduled, but Jojo insisted we go since it was on our way. It was worth the detour. On the drive to the crater we drove by the abandoned Twin Arrows Trading Post on Historic Route 66.

We arrived at the crater, paid our admission fees, and made our way through the museum. We couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. We saw nothing that resembled a meteor, or a crater. When we left the exhibit and stepped outside onto the viewing platform, we were speechless.

We were standing on the outer edge of a massive crater, formed by an astroid that collided with the earth over 50,000 years ago, at approximately 26,000 miles per hour.

The result was a crater a mile across, 2.4 miles in diameter, and over 550 ft. deep. As we looked out at the Arizona desert, then back at the crater, the red-orange sand of the dessert seemed more like the landscape of Mars than Earth.

Meteor Crater is one of the largest meteor collision sites on planet earth. It was an amazing sight.

(In the middle of the Crater, in the white area, there is a 6' tall astronaut holding a 3'x5' flag. Just to give you a picture of how big the crater is)

Our next stop was the Petrified Forrest National Park. The way the park was laid out allowed for us to take a 22 mile driving tour of the sights, with stops and look out points every mile or so. Our first look out point was the painted dessert.

These badlands had hues of red, pink, orange, brown, and purple, depending on which way the sunlight hit them. It looked like a multi-colored bed sheet, crumpled across a mattress after a night's use.

After the painted dessert, we stopped at Tepee look out point, where tall, tepee shaped rock formations scattered the landscape.

They all had the uniform color scheme of bluish-gray with maroon stripes. They looked like large Tepees.

We also stopped by Newspaper Rock, where ancient farmers had carved thousands of pictures, shapes, and characters into the rocks, centuries before. At first we had no idea what we were looking at.

Thankfully, a knowledgeable old man showed us where to point our binoculars, and we were amazed at how many carvings were right under our nose.

Just when we started wondering why the park was called the petrified forrest, we arrived at Jasper Forrest. This arid, dessert landscape was littered with thousand of petrified logs.

These logs looked as if they were crystalized, with rainbow colored streaks throughout the rock like wood.

The 200 million year old logs were dated back to the Triassic period, which, together with their gem-like appearance, made it easy to understand why hundreds of thousands of the them had been stolen from the dessert floor.

Jojo and I toyed with the idea of picking up a large log and carrying it back to the car, just to see peoples reactions. We decided against it. It was a long day, and we were too tired to lift 200 million year old logs.

We spent the night in Albuquerque and visited the art museum there the next morning. We didn't have much time to spend in the city which was unfortunate. We kept driving East toward Texas. We kept hearing good things about Santa Fe, so we took a northern detour and looked up D3s in the area.

We decided on Zia Diner. I ordered the smoked salmon quesadillas, but all I could taste was smoke. Jojo ordered a salad instead of a signature dish. It had fried goat cheese, cranberries, walnuts, with a vinaigrette. She was quite partial to the guacamole as well. We decided on 3 Burps

After lunch, we walked around the town square, where shops and restaurants lined the streets.

Tourists packed the sidewalks, as vendors sold jewelry, knives, artwork, and music to the public.

After purchasing a few souvenirs (Jojo with a new ring, and I with a new knife), we were back on the road, and cruising Southeast, toward Amarillo,TX.

San Diego

We left the city early the next morning, and went hiking through Muir Woods, where Giant Sequoias trees dwarfed everything they loomed over. We felt like ants compared to the enormous trees that seemed to stretch through the clouds. Finished with our morning exercise, we raced Southward to San Diego; our midway relaxation point.

We drove all day and all night, with one mission: to reach our beloved Rebecca Brooks Goldstein, with whom we've been separated for months.

We pulled up to her house around 1am and called her to come outside. Jojo and I ran to her, as she hurried, arms outstretched, down the middle of the street towards us. In the cool California night, we embraced in a triple hug, jumping up and down with joy. Somewhere in the distance, a stereo played Peaches and Herb's "Reunited;" and it felt so good.

We ended up staying nine days in San Diego; the perfect amount of time to shake off the road weariness from the northern leg of our country tour. Becca showed us around Balboa Park and took us to look out points where we could see the entire city, with the Pacific Ocean in the distance.

After our first day of activities, Becca took us to the ocean in time to see my first Pacific sunset.

Jojo had seen a few before, but it was an entirely new experience for me. All along the bike path on which we stood, bikers, joggers, drivers, surfers, skaters, and just about every other San Diego resident stopped in their tracks, and paused for a few moments to take in the sunset.

Once the sun had dipped below the horizon, everyone resumed their respective activities. Throughout our stay, sunsets became the highlights of our days.

We took a few breaks in our relaxation to do the typical tourist things. We went to Sea World, and the San Diego Zoo where we saw polar bears, penguins, and Shamu. We watched Sea Lions and Sea Otters perform comedy acts. We saw huge Sea Turtles, camels, elephants, and just about every other animal you could think of, above and below water.

We took a day trip to L.A. and visited the Chinese theater, the Kodak Theater,the Hollywood walk of fame, and the Hollywood sign. Jojo was reunited with her long lost love, Angelina, in Madame Tussauds Wax museum. The highlight of the day trip was when we went to a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live. Jojo and I had seen a taping of Late Night with Conan O'Brien and were surprised how small his studio was. We we even more surprised when we saw that Jimmy Kimmel's studio was less than half the size of Conan's. From any seat in the house, you could throw something at Jimmy's feet.

His guests that night were Elizabeth Mitchell from "Lost," Miley Cyrus' boyfriend, and a stand-up routine by the one and only Kevin Nealon. It was a really funny experience. After the show, Becca drove us around to see more of the city. She took us through Beverly Hills, and drove us down Rodeo Drive, with Jojo hanging out the windows, psychotically stalking any celebrities she could find. Unfortunately, she had to settle for a few well-dressed shoppers instead. On our way back to San Diego, we stopped at an In-And-Out to see what all the rave was about. We arrived at Becca's house with a box full of burgers, and a few white paper hats; our day was complete.

Of course, our stay in a new city would't be complete without a stop at a D3, and San Diego had one with a lot of potential: the Studio Diner.

I ordered the Samson's Steak Sandwich: sliced and marinated prime rib, grilled with cheese, spinach, mushrooms, bean sprouts, and onions. Jojo had the Count of Monte Cristo: a battered and fried sandwich stuffed with turkey, ham, swiss & cheddar cheeses, served with raspberry preserves. Becca had the Pastrami Rueben. My sandwich was amazing, but Jojo and becca said theirs weren't setting the world on fire. 3 Burps. An interesting side note - we split a Crab Cake Benedict for the table. It was excellent.

All in all, San Diego was paradise. Pure relaxation and good people. Jojo felt the sudden urge to continue her studies, while I scoped out lawn prospects. You stay classy San Diego. We'll be back soon… maybe for good.