Views on the Ride and a failed Hike

So on my drive, i passed some cool things and used my handy little phone to document my trip.... visually. preparing for this post. so i get home (i'm back in Michigan now) . and go to upload my pictures, and BAM! they are deleted. long story short my "synchornizing" settings deleted them upon impact. they never had a chance. sooo i have searched the web and done my best to recreate my ride in picture form. all pictures are stolen and chosen because they were the closest thing i could find to the ACTUAL pictures i once had. so enjoy. the trip in images.

I know. it's a well known image... the arch in St. Louis. my picture was similar... a rainy day and blue tones. super cool.







Everyone knows that i hate Oklahoma. However, there were these fields of giant windmills. it was a particularly striking image. completely flat land with towering beasts churning away.





In Oklahoma City i picked up I-40. And i traveled it for 852 miles. Going through Amarillo, and across the entire state of New Mexico. This is the scenary the entire drive. Very typical Southwest look, but when you are ACTUALLY driving through these bad boys you feel amazingly small. totally surreal.















Moby got sick on the last day of travel. We had to stop a lot and i took pity on him and let him sit in my lap while i drove. He was pretty pathetic.










So the highlight of my drive was passing the BBC election 08 bus. I know this sounds completely retarded but - one. British people are cool. and two. i have been completely sucked into the presidential race like never before. who knows why. maybe cuz i'm older. maybe because thomas is more into politics so we talk a lot about it. or maybe because this is the FIRST time since i was born that my birthday falls on election tuesday on a presidential election year. I was born the day Reagan was voted into office. anyways. it kicked butt that i saw them.



So it gets a little silly about now. S & B convinced me we should go hiking. and this sounded like a great idea since i had sat for three days straight in a car and added countless pounds since i had eaten crap food, as well. This is the "small" mountain that was to be the "prep" climb to a planned trip up Camelback - a serious hike... and um. needless to say... i didn't even make it to the top... but they did! goooo them!

Um... ya... below... that is camelback. big.




like i said. i did NOT make it to the top of Thunderbird Mountain. the mountain that was suppose to be a 20 min hike up and 20 min down. i don't know if i was out of shape. (probably). or the heat (105 degress that day). the altitude... um it was high and the air was thin. all i know is my body protested... BIG. the REALLY discouraging thing, was that 5 minutes after i told B&S to go ahead without me... i would wait for them right where i was.... i kid you not... a 7 month prego lady RUNS up the mountain. boy did i ever feel like i sucked.

and this concludes the tour.