Lake Powell/Capitol Reef

The journey west continued with a ferry across Lake Powell,


a huge artificial lake in the middle of the desert created by

a dam on the Colorado river. It's quite surreal driving for hours through

the desert without seeing any sign of civilisation, and suddenly arriving at a perfectly blue

lake between the sandstone cliffs, with thousands of people zooming across

the water in their powerboats and jetskis (and not a single sailing boat on the whole lake).



After the ferry we drove to a camping in the Capitol Reef national park, after a slight navigational

error on my part (missing the only turning in 100 km...) Luckily, because of my error, I got to drive

what has to be one of the best roads in the trip (route 12), which winds up and down through the canyonlands.

At one point it takes you up among the eagles along the top of a ridge with 100+ m cliff drops on either side.

Fortunately we made it to Bryce Canyon NP by the afternoon.

Allan

Mesa Verde (green table)

We arrived in Mesa Verde and visited the impressive cliff-side citadels, where the excavated houses look onto a 150m drop...ok, I'm just making up a number, but who's counting? Although they were very impressive, it was funny to think these 'ancient' civilisations were living in caves over 1000 years AFTER the Roman Empire, take that Americans! anyway, after our guide explained that people back then also needed food and clothing (you heard it here first) and lived in harmony (though if I was going to dig a house into the rock it'd be for more than a view...I'm no archeologist but defense bells are ringing!), we were back on the road.... and what a road, as far as I'm concerned, I was driving through Mars, and it's no stretch of the imagination. Ale

Santa Fe

On tuesday, we drove to santa fe. We stayer in THE Black canyon, americas youngest national park. Theres still plenty of wildlife, we almost hit à deer on the way up. Santa fe itself is a nice looking town, although most of its famous adobe buildings are not original. As ale called it, it was a bit like a Mexican Disneyland. We checked out a few modern art galleries before heading to Mesa verde.
Allan

The deep south (Dallas, TX)

Coming from Memphis and heading to Dallas, TX we hit our first 100 fahrenheit (ca. 40 celcius)and for TX it's one of the longest periods of above 100 since 20 years. So we used to 20 celcius are swetting like pigs in the heat. Once hit Dallas we went to the JFK memorial of the assasination. It's was quite intrigued but there is nothing much to see. At night we went to the campsite but found out that it was the same price to pay a motel, so we went for the good old airconditioned place :)
Now we are heading to Mesa verda to see some nature after spending all the time in big sities.

Philip

Elvis here we come

After Chicago, we headed for a long drive south to get to Memphis, TN, famous for being the birthplace of rock 'n' roll and Elvis. We stayed in a State Park shared with mosquitosn and assorted other bugs, and decided, because of the mosquitos and the heat, to head out to Beale Street, the city's famous blues themed nightlife area.n The next day we saw the civil rights museum, the motel where Martin Luther King got shot, and some music places. We ended up missing most of the Elvis related attractions, because Graceland was the opposite direction from Dallas, the next stop on our trip.
A.

The City of Wind

Welcome to the city of wind, today we entered chicago! It's a very nice city like new York but just a bit more smaller (which is nice). Lake Michigan is HUGE! it feels like the ocean.  In the morning we got "raped" by moscitos, Gregg got the worst out of us :) We are now chilling in the center and drinking water to recover from the long walk. Because Chicago is so nice we decided to stay a day longer befor we got to Memphis!

Philip

Ps: tonight back to the moscitos!

Lake Erie, Canada

Since our last post we've headed north toward buffalo and the niagra falls. We camped nearby and after setting camp worked our way through a bottle of dutyfree gin with a couple of colombians, which was nice until ale (myself) and the guy began on politics (at length); all good hearted though :-). We went to the site in the morning(ish)...well, that was the idea. in truth the lovely saphire took care of us not leaving till about 12:00. Anyway, site does not fail to live up to expectations. Trully a force of nature of the kind that inspires poems and all that jazz. In any case, sporting some niagra chic consisting of a blue condom-like poncho we boarded the boat and esentially got soaked...definitively a must once in a lifetime, not that you can see through all the watermyst, but you can say you've done it I guess; like skydiving, but completely different. We've now crossed the border to Canada and are camping around lake erie, after a long drive through the rain with a leaking car, and a 1 hour d-tour to find the "scenic view", except of course we couldn't see a thing... A small miscalculation by the navigator... Not to name anyone but it was Allan. Dinner at an authentic diner on road 3, motel and waitor that appeared as though he stepped out of the hotel California song.. whole shabang. Anyway., i'll Finish this epic Poem As Typung on à Phonetik is One step ahead of me in Evolution. Over and out.

Alejandro