So it’s been 16 days since I last updated and I really should not let the gaps between posting get that big! I need to remember that two weeks on a holiday of a lifetime is equivalent to probably 6 months of events back home! This post will cover Denver, Colorado, Mesa Verde National Park in New Mexico, Dallas Texas, Austin in Texas, San Antonio in Texas and Houston in Texas!

After Yellowstone we headed on down to Denver, Colorado. Leaving our Gardiner motel we went back into the Park to drive out the east entrance and so we got to see the part of Yellowstone we hadn’t driven through yet and I still marvelled at the fact that the landscape was completely different from what we’d seen so far. There were forests of burned up tree skeletons, all still in their entirety and I was struck by the thought of this is exactly what a Tree Graveyard would look like. But it’s all part of the constructive burning they do. There were dried up salt beds and lakes and the road curved around the massive lakes to almost give a feel of being on the coast! We had to stop for some elk crossing at some roadworks but eventually we worked our way out of the park saying goodbye to it after a few hours drive. If I lived in the US I would definitely make this park a regular holiday event.

We then had the most boring drive we’ve had so far on our trip. The drive from the East Gate of Yellowstone on into Denver was broken up by an overnight stay in a place called Wheatland and also the Buffalo Bill Lake…

The drive through here lasted all of 15 minutes….the rest of the time, driving through Wyoming on this route was very reminiscent of the Nullabor with less heat. For about SIX HOURS.

It got to the point when a random house built on top of a hill was interesting.

So yeah – driving through Wyoming down to Colorado is definitely a practical, functional drive only. You don’t do it for any other reason than to get from Point A to Point B. We need to be in Denver to pick my sister up from the airport on the 17th so hence the selection of the more efficient aesthetically unpleasing choice of route. The playlist got a work out along with some very random conversation topics.

But Colorado? Very, very pretty 🙂 We drove into Denver and stopped at a camera store on the way through to our hotel and were just stunned in the best way with the customer service we received. Nothing was too hard, no question too difficult, explanations were given, Tim’s got his camera cleaned up as it had a dust bunny on the sensor, no charge…I was helped with a postcard order I wanted to make and we were given free stuff. It was all so very, very good and so sadly surprising. Australia has a long way to go in the customer service department.

We checked in and then went downtown to check out a bookstore I had heard about – Tattered Covers. This is a GREAT bookstore downtown in Denver and I loved it, some great book deals, the cafe nestled inside it was cute and the chairs comfy and welcoming.

We then went to Sam’s No.3 for dinner, a comfort food restaurant Tim had read about. It was delicious! They also had very cool art on the walls in the form of screenprinted spray painted representations of classic food and drink products of old. Each one of the pieces of art was spray painted using stencils, usually over a thousand stencils per art piece taking hours of work. I was impressed!

Very good food. The next day we met up with Cindy and Eric and the VERY adorable narcoleptic french bulldog puppy named Rupert. Traditionally I have never ever found these sort of dog faces appealing at all. Now I don’t know if it was because he is 9 and a half weeks old or the black mask or the fact that he’s a biker dawg but this little guy totally won me over.

We met at Steuben’s, a well renowned diner/bar type place which always has lines of people waiting. We didn’t have to wait too long though and the food, once again, was very worth it!

After a great meal we headed up into the mountains just outside of Denver to check out the colours and give the bikes a run. We followed behind Cindy and Eric who rode their Harley Davidsons complete with a Rupert rucksack.

It was a great day interspersed with good drinks, great food and even better company. It was good to catch up with Cindy, meet Eric and chat about home and also life in Denver, Colorado. We finished the evening after we left them at the Hard Rock.

I was pleased to see they had the right guy on the wall.

The next day we headed to the airport to pick up my little sister Nicole. This all happened without a glitch (apart from some vocal complaining about the fact that security had gone through her bag!) and I snapped this pic on the wall at Denver airport baggage claim area because I thought the map of USA was very cool complete with quirky places to check out.

We then started the drive into New Mexico with the aim of getting to Mancos which is about 7 miles out of the entrance way to Mesa Verde National Park. We achieved that with a few stops along the way.

Nicole was asleep but she wasn’t too mad we woke her up for this view! This was the top of the Pagosa country overlook. And it was breathtaking!

We stayed at a motel called The Enchanted Inn. Poorly named really because I was definitely set up to expect magic and fairies and many enchanting creatures. It was run by a Biker couple and the place was great and we were very lucky to get a room (Turns out there’s only 3 motels in Mancos and one of them probably failed Health Inspection so it was reduced to two and by the time we got there the first choice was fully booked…we schlepped down the road and got the last available room in this one!) it was clean, had great wifi and was relatively inexpensive. Two thumbs up for the inaccurately named Enchanted Inn!

The next day was Mesa Verde National Park!

“Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to 1300. Today the park protects nearly 5,000 known archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings.” So basically it is the first and most renowned archaeological preservation National Park in the US.

This place was amazing and I’m really glad we got to fit it in. Since getting out of high school decades ago I have now got a very healthy interest in history. I wish it had been the other way around! It’s weird how as an adult you realise that you really should have had an interest in learning about things like history and maths. I’d love to go back a redo a whole range of subjects high school level. I haven’t found anyone yet who pays you to do that so until I do I just geek out through my travel experiences instead. And try to do maths as often as I can. Although thanks to a friend I now have elevator music playing in my head anytime I remotely even try to do number stuff. It just fascinated me how these people as a group came to the decision that back breaking, physically hard and often dangerous labour was the best choice for living quarters. All in a very protected but also hard to get to location. The Pueblo people are the original EXTREME HOMEMAKERS. Our Park Ranger tour guide was great, clearly very passionate about her subject and feeling privileged to have the position she has. At 3 bucks a head it’s the best value tour you’ll ever go on! But it does involve climbing and stairs so it is not for those who suffer from any kind of height phobias or vertigo or enclosed space issues because you do have to slide through pretty close rock faces.  It was a fascinating and engrossing way to spend a half day 🙂

Our next destination was Santa Fe, New Mexico. Where we stayed in a very Sam and Dean Winchester type Motel called The Silver Saddle! This place, in the “lobby” office area had autographed black and white photos of Clint Eastwood, Chuck Norris and other famous cowboys by the looks of things. It was quirky and clean and cheap so no complaints and some pictures from us!

This Bull has a name. I can’t remember it but it was a piece of art hanging right outside our door which you see on the left there. There’s a whole story and everything to this piece of art. Something to do with a local Santa Fe farmer attempting to breed cattle with shorter legs for some very bizarre reason….something to do with fence jumping?

This was our table lamp. I loved it. I would have kept it but my parents raised me better than that. Also it wouldn’t fit in the suitcase. But it’s just perfect cowboy kitsch no?

The next day it was onto TEXAS!!

This was our first stop in Texas – Amarillo to be exact to stop at the place with the world famous 72 ounce steak. This place is INSANE. But it also has INSANELY good food. And no – none of us attempted the ridiculous steak challenge.

After this it was onto Dallas. This is where Nicole and I were going to get our fangirl on and go to the Supernatural convention. Tim checked out some of Dallas and you can read his entry here: The Road To Dallas

The Con was just as good as Vancouver – even better because we had VIP Backstage passes (two of ten people who had these) and they provided us with lunch everyday, refreshments and of course the two big bonuses were being able to skip any lines and also meeting every guest behind the stage over the course of the weekend and getting to chat with them. I also got to have a Meet and Greet with Jared (who plays Sam on the show) and ask him some questions there. The vibe of excitement and expectation and anticipation for the start of Season 8 was tangible and again the uniqueness of this particular show certainly shone through. There’s a crazy karaoke concert with the cast of the show getting up and singing Karaoke with fans, there’s a very casual cocktail party whereby the cast circulate through the room talking with the fans (some of the cast insisting we go to the bar afterwards to talk more), there’s a breakfast in the morning with Jared and Jensen and then of course all the Q&A panels that happen over the course of the three days. The guys (Jared and Jensen) are both Texas born and raised and they felt comfortable enough about the groups of fans that attend these Cons to bring their entire families along with them to this Convention and to let them be a part of it. Made another group of new friends and the upshot of that was also that we had one of them, Missy who Nicole and I met and befriended pretty quick, offered to put Tim and I up when we got to Houston. It was a great time, chatting with other fans, talking about the show, meeting the cast, getting to ask them questions, all in all having pretty a pretty meaningful social interaction with other human beings. I don’t tend to gravitate towards these sorts of things at all but when you share a common passion everything just seems easier.

These guys are very hug-comfy I must say.

Poor Jared – I said to him (thinking he’d grin huge) “Can ya show the expression on your face when Thomas (his 6 month old) first smiled at you?” Photo was taken and he immediately said “Oh man I think I was kinda dopey looking” apologetically! I still like it anyway!

This one was taken at Vancouver – I figured it was good enough! I didn’t need a Dallas one!

I managed to take a few pics which didn’t turn out too bad.

We did manage to get out of the hotel to go for a run on at least one morning (Nicole went twice – she’s young *vbg*)

There was a decent trail near the room which was great!

The Monday after the Convention we had to say goodbye to Nicole which was all a bit sad. But she had to go so she can come back to Perth when she finishes work in Singapore! The shuttle took her off to the Denver Airport and we made our way to Avis/Budget to arrange a long term car rental. We have ended up in a Ford which makes me happy and goes some way to alleviate the pain of not getting the Dodge Charger.

The car Simone really wanted to rent.

The car Simone is driving (as well as Tim). It’s a good drive and pretty good on fuel, roomy and with all the mod cons. Plus it’s Ford so it’s always got that going for it 🙂

So from Dallas we headed straight on into Austin. Austin is a nice place….but it is a Texas BBQ MECCA! We decided Austin would be the place we would be trying the true taste of Texas BBQ. Austin did not fail us. In fact I’m still wondering if there is anyway we can slide in another side trip back there. First place we tried was SaltLick

After a day to recover from that meal…which was basically two days of food (we had leftovers the next day) we checked out the infamous Bat exodus just outside the Four Seasons Hotel.

I videoed some of it after taking a bunch of photos of the sun going down. Which I haven’t bothered to take off the SD card yet! By parking ourselves at a strategic point along a smallish dock we got to watch as 1.5 million fruit bats flew the coop so to speak to go out for a night’s hunting. The streams of bats take over ten minutes to dissipate and it really reminded me of the demon smoke you see on Supernatural when you see the black smoke swirling through the air.

We then went to Franklin’s on our last day in Austin.

For Franklin’s you have to get there early like 9.30am because there are lines down the road by the time the place opens at 11am. Once we tasted the food we knew why. Melt in the mouth meat with flavour I think it would take a huge numbers of hours, probably years to perfect. They served brisket, ribs, turkey and sausage here. I tried the brisket and the ribs and lamented the fact that I had now been ruined for life when it comes to BBQ. I doubt I will ever taste such perfect BBQ’d meat ever again back in Australia. Then I was imagining ways to get Tim started with a business because it would hands down make a killing in the food industry. Aussies would be lining up down the road and around the corner. And then we would make our millions and I could return to a life of travel and post graduate studies and playing agility. All goals should be lofty I feel.

We said goodbye to Austin with the car now smelling of mouth wateringly good leftover BBQ and headed down to San Antonio. San Antonio was a good place to break up the drive from Austin through to Houston. It is a city of around 1.3 million people, is the place of the Alamo (and some say the birth of Texas) and it is very, very pretty. The river that runs through the city has been made into a very attractive tourist and local spot because of the Riverwalk. It runs about 2 miles and is lined with trees and plants and paved pathways that lead under and up and over bridges and whole gamut of shops, stores and restaurants. It is very pretty to look at and walk through although the heat and the humidity does tend to get a little trapped down there.

That was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon, I acquired a Dallas Cowboys teeshirt at the Mall at the end of the Riverwalk and my answer when any Americans ask me why the Cowboys will be quite simply that blue is my colour and I like the star. 😉 We also did the Alamo of course.

This place is pretty important to Texans and after reading about the story I could understand why.

“The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (modern-day San Antonio, Texas, USA). All but two of the Texian defenders were killed. Santa Anna’s perceived cruelty during the battle inspired many Texians—both Texas settlers and adventurers from the United States—to join the Texian Army. Buoyed by a desire for revenge, the Texians defeated the Mexican Army at the Battle of San Jacinto, on April 21, 1836, ending the revolution.”

After the Alamo we moved on and took a three and a half hour drive on down to Houston

where we ended up at our new found friend Missy’s place, a lovely cared for house in the Willow Bend area of Houston. Missy has two dogs – a Cairn Terrier named Travis and a Mini Schnauzer named Teddy and it was great to get our puppy fix on!

Houston was more a place to relax and recharge rather than rush around checking out the sights – we basically had three very nice meals out, checked out the main Galleria (4th largest mall in the country apparently and again with it’s own ice rink) where I finally was able to replace my Mason and Pearson hairbrush lost somewhere in Missoula, dropped in at the Hard Rock,

met up with my friend Brenda (who I had made friends with back in 2010 when I came to Houston for a school related conference) and met her lovely daughter Katie and hubby Randy after we enjoyed a very classic Texas style meal at a place called Mel’s Country Cafe.

Tim had the fried catfish and I tried my first ever chicken fried steak…I’m still not sure how that concept works but I do know I loved it! I tried some fried okra which…you know, meh. But I had to give it a go – it’s Texas! Oh and I had my first cornbread which is awesome and shall be referred to as corncake by me because the idea that a bread can have the consistency, texture and sweetness of cake APPEALS endlessly to me.

Of course there were more leftovers…makes me realise what good value food is over here. And this boxing stuff to go thing is a brilliant idea.

At Brenda’ place, besides meeting her hubby Randy (she wasn’t just telling us wild stories after all ;)..) we also met Molly her five month old Maltipoo. I know, I know (all my dog friends reading!) it’s okay…I’ve had the conversation about designer breeds and where to source your next furry family member from!  But anyway Molly does indeed have the best home and will grow up to be a civilised, well behaved family member once her Mum starts training her and not the other way around! Hee! Also she is as agile and light on her feet as anything! She’d be cleaning up in the 200 class if Brenda lived nearby our house back in Perth and I could steal her and train her in agility! It was a great evening, catching up with Brenda again, meeting some of the family and talking puppy training and talking DisneyWorld visits. We spent much of Saturday after we were very slovenly and slept in late going online and organising the next leg of the trip after New Orleans which is basically Florida – Orlando, DisneyWorld and Key West.

We had two great meals with Missy, one at a family owned joint called Jax’s Grill and the other one which had GREAT Mexican (also something sadly lacking in Perth) called Escalante’s. Tim has documented the Houston food here in his post: Big Ol’ Texas

We stayed three nights in Houston, leaving today to come to New Orleans where we arrived late afternoon. And this is finally the end of this post! I am determined to get in another one on New Orleans before what is sure to be a behemoth of a DisneyWorld – Orlando Florida blog entry!