Destination: Belgium

We are back in Belgium, we are completely broke, in debt and homeless... but we are truly happy.

Most persons our age, by now, have invested in a house and/or children but we decided to invest in unforgettable memories and an experience we wouldn't trade for anything in the world! The past 1 year and 8 months have been amazing (as you may have noticed when reading this blog). We are sad to leave the US and definitely could have lived in NYC for some more years. If anyone out there is doubting to make the move abroad, don't think to much about it - as Nike put it so cleverly: just do it!

But moving back to Belgium does have a lot of pro's: family, friends, my pet parrot, affordable appartments with terraces, boterhammekes met préparé (the local delicacy), frietkoten (another local delicacy), affordable French wine and champagne, social security (finally, we can afford to go to the dentist!), ... oh and last but not least, direct flights to New York City!

Since we are back in Belgium, this blog officially has no purpose any more. Maybe I will post some more pictures of our road trip but except for that, I guess, this is it... the last post... (insert Frank Sinatra's hit "I Did It My Way" here).

Honestly, I didn't think I would be able to keep up posting 'till the very last day in the States (on the other hand, one of my stronger character trades is that I always finish what I start, no matter how difficult it gets). I hope our followers enjoyed reading our blog but also for us personally, it's nice to have a log of the past months. In the meantime, I caught the bloggers microbe so I don't exclude that maybe, one day, I will start another one. Or maybe, one day, we move back to the greatest city on the world, New York City!

Sequoia & San Diego

The Final Countdown

From Las Vegas, we drove about 6 hours to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. We've heard of these amazing large trees but we didn't imagine them to be this big! You feel like tiny ants walking among them! The General Sherman Tree which is the largest (not tallest) living tree in the world is about 1500 square meters in volume and has a base circumference of 31 meters!

Before heading to San Diego, our final stop, we checked in in a nice "real" hotel in Indian Wells near Palm Springs: the Miramonte Resort & Spa. We booked this great hotel on a discount through Jetsetter (I recommended it before in this post - definitely check this site before booking your hotels!).

Two days ago, we arrived in San Diego for the road trip finale... We were thinking of relaxing at the beach but once again, we couldn't resist to see the sights. So, we visited La Jolla with its seals:

The Gaslamp District in San Diego:

The Coronado Hotel (where Some Like It Hot was filmed with Marylin Monroe):

And we did some last minute shopping, mainly window shopping, this being the end of our three month road trip slash budget but I just had to go see some of my favorite American stores before leaving.

As a side note, and because we're fanatic Apple fans, while we were in the mall, we saw - of course - one of Apple's famous concept stores and next to it... this ridiculous concept store selling Microsoft products which happened to look exactly like the famous Apple stores. Microsoft imitated everything from the slick, glass, minimalist design to the "Apple guys" with colorful t-shirts helping customers with their questions. Pretty sad... guess Microsoft's marketing department ran out of ideas (see this article for more info).

Red Rock Canyon & Death Valley

Nevada Deserts

Our second day in Vegas, we had to escape the casino’s and went looking for some more nature. In the morning, we drove half an hour to Red Rock Canyon. It’s very hard to believe that only a few miles from The Strip, you can go hiking amidst colorful mountains.

After a short break at our swimming pool (which had a slide going through a shark aquarium – Vegas, baby!) and an insanely cheap lunch buffet, we filled our water containers and headed to Death Valley National Park. We had to drive about 1,5 hour (which is OK according to our new American road trip standards) and we gradually saw our thermometer go up… and up… and up… until it reached 121° Fahrenheit (49.5° C). Why would someone voluntarily go to a sauna like park nicknamed Death Valley? Because it’s out of worldly beautiful!

We arrived there at about 5 pm (yep, and still almost 50° C in the shade), just in time for the golden hours and sunset.

Devil’s Golfcourse:

Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the Western hemisphere at 87.5 meters below sea level:

Artist’s Pallette:

Zabriskie Point:

While watching the sunset, we suddenly found us surrounded by Belgians… there were practically no other nationalities there. I guess Death Valley must be on sale in Belgium? Or are only Belgians (incl. us) crazy enough to visit Death Valley in August? It was a very weird experience to be watching a sunset in the hottest desert in America, surrounded by Flemish and French babble (some of them were talking about us – we used our American accents to listen in for a while – I know, naughty!). And of course, Ward recognized one of the Belgians as our former Brussels landlord. Our return to Belgium suddenly felt very close…

Grand Canyon & Las Vegas

We're On a Roll...

From Sedona, we planned on directly driving to Las Vegas. But when we saw on the map that the Grand Canyon was "only" a detour of 3 hours, we couldn't justify not going. (Note: During our road trip, we started measuring distances the American way, meaning: a one hour drive is not worth mentioning, a three hour drive is not too bad, with a 5 hour drive you need some snacks, and a 7 hour drive is starting to get long.)

The Grand Canyon was not in our original road trip schedule since we've visited it already three years ago during our honeymoon (along with Zion, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Arches, Capitol Reef, Mesa Verde and Monument Valley). But it turns out that the Grand Canyon is as impressive as the first time you see it! We also took the opportunity to have lunch in El Tovar, a nice restaurant at the canyon rim.

We arrived late in Las Vegas, but I guess Vegas is not meant to be seen by daylight. This time (we also visited Vegas during our honeymoon), we didn't stay on The Strip but in the older part of town, Fremont Street Experience. It's older, thus cheaper (hey, we're almost at the end of our road trip slash budget) but definitely worth a visit - it's part of Vegas' history. We gambled a whopping 6 dollars (we each had a budget of 5 bucks, Ward didn't get lucky, I only lost a dollar) but we got two free corona's out of it so strictly speaking, we won one dollar. I know, we're pussies when it comes to gambling!

Except for the huge gambling going on (the casino's were packed, even on week nights!), we also noted a lot of binge drinking. Las Vegas is of course a notorious bachelor/bachelorette/birthday/wedding/any kind of party destination. But in general, during our almost two years in the States, we noticed that many Americans have a weird obsession with alcohol, male and female, young and old. We blame it on the fact that in the US you're only allowed to drink as of the age of 21... Once Americans finally reach that age, they go crazy and seem unable to not drink when they're in a bar or restaurant, as if it's the Holy Grail. Very weird...

Sedona

Red Rock Country

After the extreme desert heats of Phoenix, we were glad to arrive on August 11th in a "cooler" part of Arizona: Sedona. Well, when I say cooler, I mean temperatures in the mid 30s (Celsius)...

When we found out that you can go swimming in Oak Creek flowing through Oak Creek Canyon, we couldn't imagine a better way to spend our afternoon. By evening, when the air started to cool down, we hiked the Airport Mesa Loop with a beautiful view of Sedona city.

On August 12th, we explored some of the other "red rocks" in Sedona, among which Cathedral Rock and Bell Rock.

After three hours in the sun, we sought refuge in our air-conditioned car touring some of the attractions nearby Sedona:

Tuzigoot National Monument , an ancient pueblo about 1000 years old

 

Montezuma Castle National Monument, another 1000 year old pueblo this time built inside a limestone cliff

and Jerome, an old copper mine town now turned into a touristy but nice little place.

Tucson & Phoenix

Cactus Country

I don't know why - maybe it's a childhood fascination - but I'm very intrigued by large cacti (the plural of cactus so I learned recently). For me and probably many others, they symbolize the Wild West and no trip to the South West can be complete without seeing one. But strangely, even though they pop up in every Wild West movie ever made, these large famous cacti can only be found in a small region of the South West: the Sonoran Desert. Lucky for me, we happened to be in that region on August 9th.

Our first encounter with cacti was during the evening in Saguaro National Park. I think the evening light makes them look particularly beautiful. And it also helps that the desert feels a little bit less hot (just a little bit though, it only starts cooling down after the sun has set). We learned that these "Wild West" cacti are actually called "Saguaro" (pronounced sah-waa-roh), consist for 85% out of water, can grow 150 to 200 years old and can reach a length of 18 meters.

The next day, we woke up early trying to beat the heat (no luck, at 7 am it's already 27°C) and went to the Sonoran Desert Museum. The museum is actually a nice zoo showing desert wildlife: bobcats, coyote, foxes, desert birds, owls, reptiles and my favorite, hummingbirds.

By noon, we gave up - the desert heat was too much for us. More than 40° Celsius in the shade! We, poor pale Belgians, are not made for this kind of weather, I swear we were showing the first signs of a spontaneous meltdown. For the rest of the day, we hid in our room and the (very warm) swimming pool.

On August 10t, we arrived in an even warmer Phoenix. We didn't want to spend another day in our boring hotel room so we spent it in the only other air-conditioned space we have, our car. We followed the Apache Trail, the amazing scenic Highway 88 curving its way through the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. We were treated with beautiful desert mountain views, full of century plants and cacti.

Before we headed back to our hotel, we stopped at the very nice, albeit touristy ghost town Goldfield. Thanks to the heat, the town was deserted... we were the only two fools wandering around.

Mesilla vs Tombstone

Same Old, Same Old in a Same New City

I have been praising the United States for quite a while now (and with reason, this country has amazing nature and culture). But maybe it's time for a little critique?

Well, here it is: we feel that many of the cities in the States lack a unique character. Of course, I'm not talking about the New York Cities, Chicago's, Miami's, San Francisco's, etc of America but about the average "John Doe Cities" (or how would you call an average city?). They all look the same, have the same checkerboard layout and it feels like they all consist out of the same neighborhoods. You have the broad highway or interstate running into the city, lined with the same commercial developments (Walmart, Target, etc), restaurants (McDonalds, KFC, Taco Bell, etc) and motels (Days Inn, Best Western, etc). Then, there's the business district with higher buildings often deserted during weekends. Maybe there's an art district (often not far from the business district) with some of the city's modern museums. And of course, the residential area with a suburban feel to it. The roads are often very big and it feels like there's no place for pedestrians. I understand that most of these cities are very young, so it makes sense they all have a logical, modern lay-out. And don't get me wrong, it's very convenient but I do miss the charm and coziness you can find in many European "John Doe Cities". I'm not saying our cities are more beautiful or more exciting but for some reason, they feel cozier and more inviting to visit with something unique to offer.

There are of course some older (100 years or more) "John Doe Cities" in the States, but their history is often so commercially exploited that they don't feel "real" any more. Such as Tombstone in Arizona, for example, with the nickname "The Town Too Tough To Die", an old mining camp which we visited on August 9th. They recreated the old West and made it into one big tourist attraction. It's very hard to believe that people actually live here - it feels more like Frontierland in Disneyworld.

But (there's always a but)... you can discover some hidden gems. We discovered Mesilla on our way to White Sands. Mesilla is just a small town near Las Cruces (Las Cruces being one of those same old same old John Doe Cities with the same old modern lay out and same old neigborhoods).  The very friendly and enthusiastic man at the visitor center convinced us to spend some time here. So we wandered around in the small village center (with adobe houses still built the old-fashioned way).

For lunch, we followed the advice of the visitor center guide and went to Chope's Bar & Cafe. The outside didn't look promising but we nevertheless had a delicious, authentic Mexican lunch.

We liked Mesilla a lot - one of the first smaller cities we visited with its own personality.  It felt like people actually lived to grow old there.

Oh well... it's probably just another weird European thing!

White Sands

Snow White Dunes

On August 7th, we visited another remarkable New Mexico landmark, White Sands National Monument. Ever since I've set eyes on this park in a guidebook, I wanted to visit it. It looked magical!

And it met my expectations... it felt like we were walking in a fairytale: snow white sand dunes (actually gypsum sand which is very rare) surrounded by glowing mountains. We liked it so much, we visited the park twice, once in the evening...

... and once very early in the morning.

Walking in a white desert is like walking on a huge suntanning bed... the UV sun beams are everywhere. We started our hike at 7 in the morning and three hours later we were completely exhausted. The temperatures of 35°C didn't help of course. We wisely decided to spend the rest of our day indoors.

Fort Sumner, Roswell and Carlsbad

Cowboys, Aliens and Bats

We started our descent to southern New Mexico on August 4th. Our first stop was Forth Sumner, an "in-the-middle-of-nowhere" town with a rich history. This is the town where famous outlaw Billy the Kid is buried.

But this is also the town where in the 19th century, the Americans built the Bosque Redondo reservation (rather concentration camp) for the Navajo and Apache Indians. The Indians were forced to walk there from their homes (more than 400 miles or 640km) in the mountains during winter - referred to as the "long walk" - anyone who was too weak (elderly, children, sick or pregnant women) were either left behind or shot by the Americans. The indians were forced to become farmers (which was not in their nature, they were hunters) but crops failed miserably... After a few years, the Americans finally realized their mistake and allowed the Indians to return to their homes. Now, I have heard of the "cowboy and indian" wars (I even dressed up as one of them when I was a kid) but I never realized how bad things really were.

After this confrontation with a rather unpleasant part of US history, you can imagine that it was hard for us to appreciate the kitsch of Roswell's alien tourist trap. Nevertheless, we felt obligated to also see this part of New Mexico... but quickly decided that the UFO Museum was maybe not worth our money (sorry, Mulder and Scully, we don't think the truth is out there).


We spent most of August 6th in the dark, in Carlsbad Caverns, an amazing cave in the middle of the desert, very famous for its huge population of bats. I have been to many caves before (mostly in France) but I never saw anything like this.

We took the natural entrance down (of course there's also an elevator), passing already an incredible number of beautiful cave formations. But the real treat was the "Big Room", a cave so big that it would easily fit 14 football fields! Everywhere you looked, there were hundreds of stalactites, stalagmites or draperies. See some pictures below but they don't do the caves justice. There's only one way to describe how you feel after more than 6 hours in Carlsbad Caverns: insignificant and small.

 

Northern New Mexico

Bright and Spicy

We made our way to New Mexico on August 3rd and our first stop was charming Santa Fe. We were very pleasantly surprised by this city and would rank it in the top 10 cities of the States (New York City still being number one of course).

The city - although modern - still feels very authentic with buildings in the famous New Mexican adobe style and has a lot to offer. We started with a New Mexican lunch at the rooftop cantina of Coyote Cafe (forget about what you know about "Mexican" food - this was really delicious!).

There are numerous museums in Santa Fe of which we only visited two: the New Mexico Museum of Art with a nice collection of modern art and a fun temporary exhibition on cowboy boots and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, an amazing collection on the artist inspired by New Mexico. The city is also filled with art galleries and nice jewelry shops (we'll have to come back in a few years with a budget). We ended our Santa Fe tour with some coffee and delicious "chocolate chili soup" at La Casa Sena.

The next day, we explored some other pueblos in northern New Mexico starting with Pecos National Historical Park.

We drove by Las Vegas, NM, stopped at Taos, and had a peek at the Rio Grande Gorge.

Great Sand Dunes

Big Mountain Beach

August 2nd was our last day in the state of Colorado and we finished with a "bang". If you can only visit one national park in Colorado, we would certainly recommend this one: Great Sand Dunes, the tallest dunes in North America.

The dunes are not at the sea though, they are surrounded by grass- and wetlands on one side, mountains on the other side and there's a creek running at the bottom of the dunes... all this creating a very amazing, strange and beautiful landscape.

We arrived at the park at 6.30 am (photography's golden hours do not allow you to sleep in) and immediately got a wonderful overview of the dunes. To top it off, some wildlife decided to strike a pose for our pictures.

At 7 am we started our hike in the dunes. We were lucky to have arrived so early since at noon, the temperature of the sand can run up to 60° C. Plus, the park's at 2500 meter altitude - in combination with the hot weather (30°C and up), we figured it was better to go hiking early morning. We didn't regret getting up so early - we were more than rewarded with the incredible views!

View of the creek crossing through the dunes:

At 9.30 am, we finished our hike but the rangers at the visitor center pointed us to another hike in the mountains. Continuing on our adventurous path, we followed the trail to an ice cold little river, which we had to cross for about 30 meters (damn you open toe hiking shoes!) - bringing us into a cave with an amazing waterfall. The picture doesn't do it justice at all - it was far more beautiful (although it might have been just an ordinary waterfall but if your feet are freezing - to the point of losing a toe - cold, you tend to appreciate things more).