Let's see... I dropped off at White Sand National Monument and White Sands Missile Range (from here on referred to as WSMR). What made me quit writing earlier?--I was watching videos on YouTube and someone (if you really, really want to know who, ask) reminded me of my older brother. Anyway...!

White Sands National Monument was awesome! "A Place Like No Place Else On Earth"--that's is slogan, and it lives up to it. There's really no accurate way to describe it, so I think I'll leave that to the pictures I'm going to post and the description section of the deviation post, thing. WSMR was interesting. The military isn't really my thing, except when I get to see things getting blown up (Me = pyro, sort of). There are a lot of model missiles and canon and stuff, so it's interesting.

After we left Alamagordo we drove forever to get to Albuquerque, then through Albuquerque to Grants, NM. I tried to take a picture of Albuquerque, but it came out as just some squiggles. I'll still post it, because I think it's kinda cool. We were planning on going to the Petroglyph National Park, but we drove way past that stop because we had to drive to Grants. So, instead, we went to Bandera Volcano and the Ice Cave. (dramatic music) The Ice Cave was not what I thought it would be, but it was still fun. It's a 20 ft. deep ice lake-thing that formed in an old lava tube. The cave never gets warmer than 32 degrees F. The volcano was fun. There was a trail that led to the caldera that was kinda hard to walk on since it was made of loose pumice stuff that gave us no traction in a few places. It was a little expensive to get into the place, but it was worth it since we took our time to really enjoy the place. From there, we traveled to Hollbrook, AZ. At that point, we'd traveled about 1,492 miles from home (averaging about 400 miles per day).

Let's see... Next was the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert. Go there if you have any love for petrified wood and interesting colors in landscapes. I have way to many pictures from there, so I'll have to be choosy about which ones I post, unless you people tell me to post them all no matter how many there are. We spent the whole day there: got there around 8:30 am (it opened at 7) and left around 6 pm. Now I don't remember: we either stayed in Hollbrook again that night, or drove on to Flagstaff...

Either way, the next day we went to see the Grand Canyon! We "lost" my little brother for about three hours before we really got to see the Canyon. I'm not good with words, so I'll let my pictures describe the place. What I could say is that it's one great, big, ginormous hole in the ground. The BIGGEST doggon hole in the ground I've ever seen.

After that, we started our trek home. I don't remember where all we stayed, but I do remember the two things we stopped to see. We went back through Albuquerque and saw the petroglyphs at the Boca Negra site, and on our way down to Texas we stopped in Roswell. There we were kinda dorky and went to the UFO Museum. (No offense to anyone who believes in aliens.)

The only two things about the trip that I have left to say: HEAT. The heat was hot, but such a different kind of hot than we have here. It was DRY! ZERO humidity in some places! It was hot, but it didn't feel hot.

And... Twice! people thought I was my little brother's little sister. (He's 5'9"-ish, I'm 5' 2 1/2") First by the park ranger at the Grand Canyon who dropped him off at our car, then by the guy at the UFO Museum. When he was collecting our entrance fee he said, "So, that'll be two adults and two youth?" Nah... "She's a college student," my dad said.

Now, before I start posting my vacation pics, I'm going to post the pictures I took when I first got my new camera (Canon Powershot A480). Then comes the deluge of 300-some-odd vacation photos!