You’re probably looking for an excuse, or if you’re like me and you don’t like excuses, you’re going to be angry reading this one: Look, I’m sorry. We spent the last month of our road trip zipping from state to state, taking in as many sights as we could. Once we arrived back in New Jersey, everything slowed down, everything stopped. Suddenly, sleeping past 9am didn’t seem so bad, so we slept until 3pm! Suddenly the internet didn’t seem so important, so we played MarioKart Wii non-stop. But deep down inside, I think the real reason we haven’t been updating is because we don’t want to face the reality of being back in real life. When we weren’t tricking our brains into thinking we were driving across new terrain by playing MarioKart, we were pretending all the characters in the many movies we’ve watched since coming home were friends we met on the road. In fact, the first few weeks being back haven’t been so bad because we haven’t faced the facts: We’re back in New Jersey and it’s cold as hell.

We spent the first week back celebrating the holidays, and the second in Massachusetts visiting my dad (and sledding in snow, not sand). The third week was spent attempting to live in my parent’s vacated home, the one I grew up in. When that didn’t work we moved back to Montclair, where we are bartering babysitting for apartment living.

Mark and I were talking this afternoon and he said he’s enjoyed himself the past few weeks, as have I. We like sleeping, we like watching television and ignoring the cold weather — but don’t get me wrong, I can’t live this way for much longer. The living is easy but it’s just not interesting. We hope that by January 2010 we can get back on our feet, or wheels (wink) to live on the road once again….Only this time, we hope to do it for good (aka for a few years until we are absolutely sick of it.)

FOR NOW! We still have a few more stories to tell you. And a T@B tour (don’t forget, email us your questions). PLUS videos that have been uploaded to my computer, but never sorted through. Here’s what you have to look forward to in the next month:

Find out what happened when Mark and I tried to climb NUMBER. HILLLLLLL:

Arco, ID

A beach covered in glass?! But how?! Answers, coming soon.

Fort Bragg, CA

I’ll publish my love letter to Frisco.

San Francisco, CA

Find out who Daniel, here, suggested take off all their clothing and pose nude in front of an exotic succulent plant.

Just outside of San Diego, CA

Find out who lives here?!

New Orleans, LA

Read our post on White Sands here.

But it’s not. In fact it was warm enough for us to walk around like this all day:

It was incredibly windy that afternoon, when just the day before it was sunny and calm. We passed this guy on the ride over…

Really? Reliable Carriers? Except for when the wind blows you off the road.

We were on our way to White Sands National Monument — somewhere I’d been looking forward to exploring since the beginning of our journey. Two people from opposite sides of the country told me White Sands was their absolute favorite place to visit in the states, which meant we had high expectations for the national monument. We wondered what we could do besides hike around the dunes and take photos. “This will only be a two hour stop, I’m sure.” We also wondered how it’d be possible to hike around the dunes and take photos when the wind was causing sandstorms in every direction. Surely we’d need some sort of protective eyewear to enjoy our time in White Sands.

Our first white sand dune sighting was a few miles outside of the national monument. They were beautiful but covered in dead plants and other brush, and I was pretty sure the Boyz II Men music video from my childhood showcased incredibly smooth, white sand dunes and incredibly smooth, matching white outfits. It was an exciting first dune sighting, Boys II Men or not.

We arrived at the monument around 1pm. It was so frickin’ windy out, there was a traffic jam of tumbleweed in the parking lot. Every second another one went whizzing past our heads. Usually I get excited about tumbleweed, (I also got excited for corn, so you can tell how exposed to other parts of the country I was when we first started the trip) but tumbleweed is another story when it’s really windy out, they no longer tumble…

We headed into the visitor center to see if the park was open to visitors. Despite the intense wind, they were. We searched around the gift shop for some food and discovered that one can SLED down the dunes in White Sands National Monument and, lucky us, the gift shop was selling used sleds for just $10!!! So we talked to the woman at the register about sledding and she told us that, “nah, the conditions today aren’t exactly perfect for sledding.” “Are you sure?” “Well I wouldn’t sled in weather like this.” She said.

We drove into the park for a few miles and saw some kids sledding down the dunes. We asked them and they concurred, sledding just wasn’t working out today. The further in we drove, the higher the dunes got and the less crowded the parking lots were. When finally we reached an empty parking lot in the back, surrounded by 30ft tall dunes, I was ready to burst! “When is the next time we’ll have the chance to sled down white sand dunes!??!?! And for all we know those kids have no idea how to sled. They’re from the south, they don’t get snow! They don’t sled!” We turned around and headed back to the gift shop.

$21 dollars later and we had in our possession two used sleds and two blocks of wax. I was pretty sure the reason those kids couldn’t sled was because they were on a crappy dune, so we drove back, way back to the empty parking lot and super-tall dunes.

We got ourselves ready to sled like we never have before. Sunglasses, a light sweatshirt and no shoes.

“Are you ready Mister?”

“Hell yes.”

Once we climbed to the top of the dune and saw how steep it was, I knew a few adjustments needed to be made. How, I wondered, could I sled down this dune, hold on to Mister and keep my balance at the same time? Ah yes…

We climbed up and sled down that same dune for hours. Taking a break every so often to shoot some photos and appreciate the wind-created patterns…

Only one side of the dunes were steep enough to sled down, but it was an awesome prize when we finally reached the top.

“Wheeeee!”

Just before sunset we embarked on a journey — hiking eight or nine dunes out, camera in one hand, sled in the other, we watched the sunset at the top of a dune for a good hour.

Looking all around us, the only thing we could see for miles were white sand dunes. I took so many vertical landscapes that I liked it was hard to cut any out.

On the way back to the T@B, we climbed back up one side of every dune, and sled down the other. That was just the freaking icing on the cake. I was so happy and in love with our day, I didn’t mind that my eyes were crusted with sand and tears, or that I had so much sand in my hair that it would take at least five showers to get it all out. White Sands National Monument is in my top three experiences of the whole road trip, I highly recommend a visit to the dunes (make sure you sled!!!)

Click here to see all our photos from White Sands.

And if you’ve gotten this far: Tune in at 2pm today, we have a video of our visit to White Sands!!!

HOORAY! It has been over a week since we last updated and you probably thought we had driven off a canyon side, never to be heard from again. Instead we have excuses, 16 hour driving day excuses. We’ll be back tomorrow and things will be explained. Please tune in again this coming week, we have many more tales to tell from the road. Until then, have an awesome Christmas.

As we continued down the highway my mind began to wander as I imagined finding another stray chihuahua on the streets and taking him in — this of course could never happen because a) Mister would probably not like some stray dog just waltzing into his life and b) stray chihuahuas are MEAN! c) they are probably smelly and very dirty too. And what were the chances we would find another stray chihuahua just walking around town? We missed our chance with the mean dog back at the gas station.

In the distance to the left I could see a black SUV driving toward Route 20, down a long, straight side road. When we reached the street I took the left. Not even twenty yards ahead of us I spotted another. “OH LOOK! Another chihuahua!!!” Really?! My dreams have come true and even more so, Mister’s, he was in the back clawing at the window and crying for a chance at sniffing his fellow chihuahuas butt. This sure beats cow sightings for Mister.

(Do you see him, he’s a tan dog toward the middle center of the photo) The dog continued running from us as we stalked him all the way down the road trying to take a photo of him. He led us to his neighborhood full of one story houses with messes all over the lawns of each home. He met up with two larger dogs who escorted him back to his yard, making sure we didn’t get out and try any funny business.

As we turned the corner on the next block we found yet another chihuahua running around the streets!

He was yappy as well but a little more friendly when I busted out the Mister bait.

After making a big fuss about this third adorable sighting we realized we were interrupting a celebration going on across the street. Everyone stared us down — embarrassssiiiinnnnggg. We hopped back in the jeep, drove around the corner, AND THERE WAS ANOTHER CHIHUAHUA!

We saw at least three more before leaving and each time Mister flipped out and nearly clawed our eyes out trying to get to the other dog.

The only road leading out of town was the same road leading in, so we turned around and began driving back to 20. We passed by the celebration again. This time they were playing the drums and dancing around in costumes. A few minutes down the road I realized, “MARK! We have to go back! I have to take photos!” This was exactly what I was looking for: something interesting and Mexican.

Unsure of whether they’d let me in, I gathered some courage to get out of the jeep, which by now, we had driven slowly past the celebration four times, and ask for permission to take photos of the festivities. Although no one seemed too excited about it, nobody protested either.

The previous day was the Virgin Mary’s birthday, so that’s what everyone was celebrating. They dressed up in these fabulous outfits:

And preformed a choreographed dance with maracas, while these guys played the drums.

Every so often these two masked fellas would dancefight, then tell jokes and everyone would laugh. The jokes might have been about that idiot photographer girl…

The dancing and drumming were great, but what I really had my eye on were these five kids playing on the other side of the yard. When I felt like no one was looking, although that was probably impossible being the tallest, whitest person there sticking a camera in their business, I walked over to the kids and said hi to them.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” I take a picture.
“Nothing much.”
“Do you mind if I take some photos of you?”
“Okay!” said the kid in the red hat.
Now, if I’ve learned one thing from drawing caricatures of kids, it’s that kids LOVE to tell you how old they are and to get real specific with fractions they don’t yet understand.
“I’M FIVE”
“I’m six!!!”
“I’m five too! No I’m five and a half.”
“I’m not.” said the girl.

She was probably four, but before she could answer me I complemented her on her complete set of silver capped teeth. Without hesitation everyone else stuck their fingers in their mouths and pulled the edges of their lips apart to show me all their silver molars.

“Can I take your photo over here?” I pointed to a spot they could stand so the sun wouldn’t be behind them.

I swear, I didn’t set them up this way, and I am so glad they all knew how to pose.

But this was just one stop on our border town drive, we needed to continue on.

Photography is thirsty work. I was so thirsty I could drink a Mark Head sized cherry limeade.

We drove down Route 20 for a little bit before we stumbled upon a flea market. I suppose in the summer this place is bustling with shoppers and vendors, but on this Saturday in December it was dead.

The chihuahuas we met earlier in the day all looked a little skanky, like you wouldn’t want your dog sniffing their wormy behinds. This guy though, he was on a leash, and clean looking!

Unfortunately Mister was a jerk and only felt like growling at the other guy. Or maybe we can just pretend that’s a smile Mister has on his face…

The hottest flea market item?

PUPPIES!

The owner was trying to sell one of the puppies to two guys standing behind us. On of them replied “yeah, I’ll have to get an iron.”

You know, ’cause they’re so wrinkly! Hilarious and adorable!!!

Back in the jeep and on Route 20 again. The next place to catch our eye…

An outdoor pottery store.

Cheap pottery.

The theme of the day was Mark Really Wants Mexican Food (and is going to go on about it for five hours). That’s alright, I suppose this is to make up for all those Thai food cravings I’ve had.

Chile Limón chips held him over for a few hours.

We found a store that sold vintage clothing, disco shirts and Mexican dresses.

Some were too big, too bad.

Mark couldn’t handle not having his mouth full of Mexican food any longer. After reaching El Paso, only to find that the smaller towns we stopped in were more charming than this large city, Mark turned us around and we headed back to where we started so we could finally get him some dinner.

Mark was describing all the creative Mexican dishes he hoped to consume that night, when we drove past a row of colorful storefronts with hand painted text all over them. “Ooooh!” I began to get excited but knew we couldn’t stop because Mark was on a mission.
“What Katie?”
“Oh, it was nothing it was just–”
“Well, what was it?”
“Colorful buildings with text all over them!!!”
“Okay, we can turn around.”

What a guy!

Finally!

Mark is in heaven.

It was no surprise to me, when we drove from Zion to Bryce Canyon, that the two look completely different from each other.

Both are the product of erosion, but while Zion is the result of millions of years of carving away by the Virgin River….

…Bryce is the result of millions of years of the wind blowing.

We’ve been sticking to a travel agenda (something we haven’t done since day one) since Yosemite, and it’s actually working out quite nicely. I realized after we spent four sick days lazing around Yosemite, that, holy crap, we have less than a month left! (Followed by lots of pouting and anger towards New Jersey). But I couldn’t waste any more time worrying about our lack of time, what a waste of time! I wrote up an itinerary of things we wanted to see before the end of the trip. Zion and Bryce Canyon were on the list, and luckily they’re within 90 miles of each other. First up, Zion:

The campground we stayed at was less than a mile from the park’s entrance in Springdale, UT, so that was awesome! What was not awesome was the bitchy lady at the front desk. First she spent 10 minutes fussing around with a bowl of weird tokens, only to hand us two and say “you each get one coin a day for a shower.”
“Okay, can I get another one if I want?”
“For $5 yes, you get 6 minutes for $5.”
“WHAT?! ARE YOU CRAZY SIX MINUTES I TAKE SIX MINUTES JUST TO GET ALL THE CONDITIONER OUT OF MY HAIR!” She showed me no compassion, she was short-haired, a curly hair hater.
“Do you have wifi?”
“MmmhmmmNO.”
“Well what if we came up to the lobby, is there wifi up here?”
“NOPE!” She was hiding something, I could tell.  We later found out they DID have wifi.  LIES!

We set up camp on the river, it was probably the best campsite we’ve had this whole trip! There was only one other camper on the river, and he was far enough away it didn’t even matter. After saving up two days of tokens, and receiving a few from campers who were leaving, I was able to complete a shower in 12 minutes. This is a record for me and Mark now knows that I am capable of taking showers that are less than 40 minutes. Damn.

Usually Mark drives as I gawk at all the sights, but this time I drove us through the park, and gave Mark a chance to enjoy the view. I propose someone create a future-car that is completely glass on the top, then we can all appreciate our surroundings a little more, even the drivers.

Zion was great and all, but we never seemed to catch it when the sun was just right. Zion was a photographic disappointment. I want someone else to comment and tell me that no, I am just an idiot who was there at the wrong time. And if you are that someone, and have experienced a sunny Zion, please tell me what time of day/year is good for that. (See the photo to the right above - half is in black because of the shadow!)

We hiked, but it was a trail that many people take. I am not a fan of those kinds of trails. Unfortunately at every National Park we visit, all the “must see” sights are located off trails that everyone takes, because everyone wants to see those sights. Wahh.

We did see this guy on the trail:

Here is a tip: Take the back country trails at National Parks if they have an open back country policy. We had a lot more fun in the Badlands because they had no rules or boundaries, just “If you slip and fall and hurt yourself/die: Sorry.” or “We told you to stay away from the buffalo, now you are dead - Way to go.”

The waterfall was not falling (DISAPPOINTMENT!)

So just like our campground which had some perks (the riverside campsite), Zion also had its perks (a supremely breathtaking drive through a single road that winds up and down a canyon side, take it during sunset if you have the chance). And while the campground had some negatives (6 minute torture tests showers), Zion also had it’s negatives (passing a couple dozen tourists on the boring trail who were also on their way up to the Emerald Falls). I’ll go to Zion again, we’ve just gotta find that perfect season where it’s warm enough in the day that we can swim through canyon waterways, but still won’t see too many people on the trails.

We took that drive I mentioned up the canyon side and headed to Bryce Canyon after spending two days in Zion. The drive is magnificent and we had the chance to drive through a creepy tunnel that was built in the 1930’s. Creepy tunnel? I’ll say.

We ended up getting sidetracked on the other side of the canyon and spent an hour just walking around.

Look, mountain lion tracks AHHH!

We made it just outside of Bryce, to our campground in Panguitch, UT before dark. I chose a campground in Panguitch because I like saying Panguitch. Panguitch was not like Springdale. Springdale town was rich and a rip off to all tourists. Panguitch was quiet, dark and empty because the tourist season was well over. We were reminded of this when it began to SNOW! We were the only people at the campground. I like it better that way sometimes, I can pee with the bathroom stall door open. The shower at this campground was superior to all previous showers I’ve seen on this road trip (and I’ve seen a lot). This could be one reason why I liked Bryce so much more.

Usually when we’re in a small town we end up at the one open restaurant in town and eat something fried and disgusting. We attempted that in Panguitch but NOTHING was open! We ended up at the Flying M, where I would have been happy to just eat a bowl of oatmeal. Instead they stopped serving breakfast hours before and the only thing on their dinner menu without meat was french fries. We left and ate cereal for dinner.

I had seen photos of the amphitheater in Bryce Canyon online before, so I already knew I’d be blown away by the stunning views of the hoodoos. But I totally forgot that the drive there could be just as exciting!!!

I mean look at that! You can see it snowing miles away! It was a spectacular sight to behold.

What we were looking at was the storms that were rolling through Bryce Canyon, and once we arrived those storms were terrorizing the few tourists. And by terrorizing I mean it was completely white out in some parts of the park that we couldn’t see but four feet in front of us. It was gnarly.

When visiting a National Park with time constraints, we like to do a day of sightseeing and picture taking, and a day of hiking (which also involves sightseeing and picture taking). Our first day in Bryce was filled with driving to different look outs and looking out…with our cameras.

The days filled with driving and sight seeing are usually pretty lazy days. My solution for that was to have us run to and from the car whenever we got out to indulge in the scenery. It’s pretty awesome actually and even if I didn’t have that idea I’d probably be running anyway because it was FREEZING out.

After being turned away by a complete whiteout at Bryce Point, we drove two miles only to find ourselves with a blue sky in front of us. Such weird weather we were experiencing.

Just days before when we were in California I proclaimed I would wear only sandals for the rest of the road trip. Those dreams of comfortable, airy toes were smashed as soon as we reached Zion and met the cold air. Bryce was even worse with the snow.

That evening, determined to eat something delicious, even if we were stuck in a small town, I looked up a recipe for Pad Thai. Man, all I wanted was some Pad Thai and for the first time in my life I was willing to go so far and cook up my favorite Thai dish on my own, risking the chance of ruining my Pad Thai tastebuds forever if my concoction was as bad as I imagined it would be.

The ingredients weren’t too bad, the only thing the grocery store didn’t have were rice noodles and tamarind. An hour after we got back we had our first plate of homemade Pad Thai in front of us. It was good! It was really good!!! Well, the noodles were horrible and kept us constipated for days, but the flavors were just phenomenal! We made it a few days later with rice noodles and now I can proudly say I’ve made the second best Pad Thai of my life. Better than ALL other Pad Thai I’ve tried on this trip. I knew you would all be as excited for me as I am. Thanks a lot.

Oh look we made Belgian hot chocolate too!

The second day we hiked the “World’s Best 3 Mile Hike” according to the friendly, bearded park ranger. The hike was pretty great so I’ll let some of the photos do the talking for me:

Looking up…

Tall trees on Wall Street.

I’ve got a stupid zoomy lens addiction right now. So much FUN and SATISFACTION!

We took the road less traveled, up the side of some canyon which ended up just leading us to another trail.

Weeeeee! The only way to get down these things is to slide sometimes. Not very safe, by the way.

Towards the end we crossed paths with another couple who were hiking their way out of the canyon. We were all a little confused by the signs and joked about having to camp out for the night, thank god they had snacks. After hiking up and up for twenty minutes, we all had to stop (they were five minutes behind us) to watch the sun set. As they passed us on the way out, the only thing the woman said was “Spectacular” in her British accent. That’s a spectacular word to hear someone with a British accent pronounce. More more I want more!

The next morning we left when it was still dark out in order to catch the sun rising over the amphitheater in Bryce. COLD AND WINDY! We ended up arriving when it was already bright out, and were informed by another couple of photographers up on top of the canyon that the best part of the sunrise had already passed. Lesson learned. But who can be disappointed when you’ve got one of the largest concentrations of hoodoos in the world to look over as the sun rapidly rises over them? That was a good way to start our day before a 9 hour drive…

In other news: PLEASE email us or leave a comment with your T@B questions/inqueries. We posted a call for questions last week and have received only two questions so far for our T@B Tour video. What kind of crap is that?! I know you want to know “Where do you keep all your belongings in such a small space?!?!” and “Does that thing have a shower?!?” Well, we can’t answer those questions until you ASK US. ASK NOW!

Here in Panguitch, Utah, the temperatures are dipping by degrees every day.  It’s a drastic change of environment when considering that, just a few days ago, we were in San Diego touring a greenhouse in weather so warm that our tour guide opted to go shirtless.  Currently, the temperature is 14º, Fahrenheit.

We’re about 30 miles from Bryce Canyon, one of the most gorgeous eroding territories I’ve seen since the Badlands.  Yesterday, as we were driving around getting a feel for the National Park, a snow storm blasted through.  At an elevation of nearly 9000 feet, you have to be prepared for the worst.  We saw the clouds coming in from miles away, the big gray clouds with streaks beneath them that you can tell is snow falling in the distance.

It hit us at a lookout called Bryce Point, forcing us to run off the path and jump back in the car, screaming “WE HAVE TO GO BACK!!”  But we drove only about three-quarters of a mile before we were out of the storm.  It dumped half an inch of snow, then moseyed to another destination — leaving a big wall of clouds to block out the sun, but dropping no more flakes.

As the weather cleared a little, we saw the jagged rocks and hoodoos capped in snow.  The bright red Utah canyon glowed like ember, with a gentle white snow adornment to soothe the blushing rock.

The word “hoodoo” may not be familiar to many people, but in Bryce Canyon the word is everywhere.  Even the park newspaper is named The Hoodoo, and defines the word inside.  [hoo’doo] n. 1. A pinnacle or odd-shaped rock left standing by the forces of erosion.  2. v. To cast a spell or cause bad luck.    3. Voodoo.

The voodoo spell that a hoodoo casts may cause tourist’s jaws to drop and eyes to bug out at the spectacular sight of it.  We got a glimpse of some hoodoos before the evening shadows fell over them.

This morning we were supposed to wake up in time to see the sunrise in the canyon.  The ranger said it would be an absolutely beautiful sight to behold.  “Just think of it,” said Katie, “We’ll drive into the canyon while it’s still dark, holding big mugs of coffee on our laps.  When the sun comes up we’ll go, ‘Waaaaaoooow!!!’”  But we worked long into the night trying to catch up with the frantic pace at which we’ve been traveling this month.  We worked and worked, taking a break to experiment with Katie’s own recipe for Pad Thai, which was a little chewy but spicy as the dickens and nutty and delicious.  By the time 2:00 a.m. came around, we had barely gotten anywhere but were so exhausted that we had to put the table down, set up the bed, and get some sleep.

At 5:00 a.m., I nudged Katie awake.  She turned to me with drool shining on her chin, mumbled something in monkey syllables, and yanked the blanket over her head as she fell back on the pillow.  “It’s not too late,” I said, my own voice distant and my eyes blurry.  “We can hitch up the T@B and make it for sunrise.”

Katie growled like a demon through the blanket.  “I — JUST — WANT — TO SLEEP!”  I wasn’t going to argue.  My eyes rolled back in my skull and I lapsed into the narrative of my previous dream.  It wasn’t until this afternoon that we got to Bryce Canyon to embark on a hike that the ranger claimed to be “The best hike in the world.”  He continued with a smug joke, “If you can find a better hike anywhere, call us or shoot us an email — but I don’t expect to be hearing from you.”  Did the three mile hike live up to its hype?  Find out soon.

Right now we’re making homemade Belgian Hot Chocolate with marshmallows.  We’ll drink it down and go to sleep solidly determined to see the sun rising over hoodoos tomorrow.