a white sign with JESUS printed on it in blue letters, but nothing on the back (Arizona)
white building with aggressive red neon lighting but nothing on the sign (new mexico)
abandoned gas pumps (new mexico)
mysterious, overwhelming death stench (new mexico)
the largest cross in the western hemisphere (texas)
four white signs: “FREEDOM” “CHRIST” “SET US” “FREE” (oklahoma)
decomposing cat skeleton at a gas station, of which @deep-disparity harvested the jaws, 2 teeth, and some vertebrae (oklahoma)
a well-lit billboard with the 10 Commandments, no context (oklahoma)
a billboard with an evolution diagram (monkey to man silhouettes) crossed out next to a picture of earth with “in the beginning, GOD CREATED” on it (tennessee)
random aquarium that looked like it was in the middle of the woods but realistically probably isn’t (tennessee)
large cross built from scaffolding with a color changing light pointed on it for illumination that happened to be an ominous red as we approached and stayed an ominous red until like .2 seconds before we were completely past it (virginia)
HUGE banner for the Arizona Diamondbacks … in Tennessee
a frame for a billboard with no boards, leaning way the fuck over and partially out of the ground (arkansas)
a billboard with the side panels gone so it was just a middle panel and the only readable word was DIE (texas)
r o a d k i l l (everywhere)
yellow port-a-potty miles away from all civilization stationed in the middle of the desert (arizona)
red banner proclaiming REPUBLICAN PARTY in a shopping plaza with no context (arizona)
White Sands, New Mexico. The desert is located in Tularosa Basin New Mexico. Its white sands are not composed of quartz, like most desert sands, but of gypsumandcalcium sulfate. Unlike other desert sands, it is cool to the touch, due to the high rate of evaporation of surface moisture and the fact that the sands reflect, rather than absorb, the sun’s rays.
We had about a 4 hour drive from Great Sand Dunes National Park to Mesa Verde National Park. The directions took us down route 160, such a beautiful drive. The winding road takes you right through the Rio Grande And San Juan National Forests. About 2 hours into the drive we stopped at a local farmers market and got some delicious food and checked out some crafts made by the local artisans. Lots of beautiful hand made items.
We booked two tours at Mesa Verde National Park. The first tour we took “Balcony House” was incredible. Starting off the tour with a 30 foot wooden ladder that takes you right into the heart of the cave dwellings. The Puebloan’ s created these insanely beautiful seated dwellings in the 12th century. It’s pretty cool that 800 years later we can be blown away in awe by their creations. The second tour was called “Cliff Palace” which is the largest Native American cave dwelling in North America.
Needless to say Jess and I can’t get over how cool Mesa Verde is. Tomorrow we are off to Arches National Park. Which we didn’t plan on going to. I think that’s the best part of this trip, freedom. Rolling with the punches…
Feels nice that the weather cooled down as the sun dropped behind the mountains. Can’t wait to crawl into bed..
