The last of the US - California to Pennsylvania

The end of our US trip has come and gone. Sorry for the delay in posting, but practical matters have been ruling our life lately (such as how exactly are we going to ship all of our stuff to Australia?). But we've snuck a moment here to post the last bits of the trip, from Southern California back to Pennsylvania, with a few stops on the way. We'd like to send out a big thanks to Christina and Jake for hosting us in Austin. Great place, great city, and great people - we really had fun!!

Joshua Tree -

If you want to see amazing desert plants, this is the place to go. Someone should have told Karen that, as she slept through the majority of the park (at least Ben took plenty of photos for her to "remember" it by!) Surrounded by these "trees" (they are actually yuccas and composed of only fibers and not annular tree rings) you feel as though you've wandered into a Dr Seuss book. Fantastic variety in shape and size - and like all desert-scapes, while they may initially seem empty and inhospitable, they have so much to offer.

Saguaro -

If you close your eyes and think of a cactus, we bet that these are the cacti that you would think of. These massive plants are full of character, some imposing with strong arms reaching for the sky, others comical or sad, with frost-damaged limbs drooping or damaged. They are very old and can weigh up to 10 tons! All the more amazing is that they only grow an inch in the first 8 years of life and don't start to branch until the latter end of their first century! The natives believe these to represent people or 'ancestral souls' - catching them at sunrise or sunset it's not hard to see why.

Carlsbad Caverns -

These caverns are huge, underground spaces filled with amazing structures. We took the natural entrance in (thanks for the tip Heather) and hiked the 1 mile down to the main cavern to fully appreciate the depth of these rooms. We also tagged on a worthwhile tour of the King's Chambers to see some really amazingly decorated rooms (that's decorated with stalactites and the like, not paint or furniture).

The highlight of the park though had to be the sunset bat flight when ~ 500,000 Mexican freetail bats made their way out of the natural entrance to hunt food during the night. We were awed by their massive numbers and mesmerizing spiraling flight out of the cave that was still going strong after an hour of watching - They created black 'ribbons' stretching out of sight into the evening sky and... well there's nothing quite like the smell of so much fresh guano!

Tennessee (Graceland and Nashville) -

From Austin, TX (where we hung out with Christina and Jake) we made a beeline up to Pennsylvania. We pulled out a map to see what we'd pass through on the way, and we realized that we could go to both Graceland and Nashville! Graceland was much more interesting than we thought it would be (we are only casual Elvis fans) - and it was really cool to learn more about this cultural icon. Besides, touring his house and jets were a trip....back to our childhood - classic 1970's decor, e.g. the jungle room complete with green shag carpeting on the floor and the ceiling!

We didn't take any pictures of Nashville, but we had a great time out on the town, hopping from bar to bar to hear live country music, and finally settling down to an excellent BBQ dinner, listing to more live country music, with rodeo on the TV! Yee-haw!!

To recap:

So, our US trip is over and it was truly amazing (see map below). This country contains many wonders - from desert to temperate rainforest, from farmlands to sandstone vistas - we feel very lucky to have seen as many of them as we did. For those of you on the East Coast, our advice is to take a trip out west if you can. Don't pass up the opportunity to see landscapes and animals that you will never otherwise see. To answer the most popular question about our trip (What was your favorite park?) we say this - they were all amazing. If we could only go back to one, it would be Yellowstone - we just didn't have the time to experience all of this varied and unique park. However, Olympic National Park also ranks high on our list - we didn't really have many expectations coming in, but we left in amazement of the trees, the wilderness vistas, and the amazing coastal life. And the best overall region to visit has to be Southern Utah / Northern Arizona - the high concentration of amazing parks in this area would make a memorable vacation for anyone!

The future:

Our departure for South America is rapidly approaching, and we are trying vainly to finalize all of the neccessary admistrative items before we go (who knew it would be so difficult to be bums for a year?). For those of you who are interested, here is our itinerary:

• Nov 10th - Fly to Ecuador. We have 4 months to spend touring South America.
• March 10th - Fly from Brasil to Italy. We're hoping to visit lots of friends and family across Europe in ~1.5 months.
• April 20th - Fly from Germany to South Africa. Our final ~2.5 months will be spent touring the countries of Southern Africa.
• July 11th - Our deadline to be back in Australia per Karen's visa (yay - Karen is a provisional permanent resident of Australia!!)
  

Hope to either see you en route or that you can tune in along the way - we'll try to keep it updated regularly and look forward to hearing any comments!

Take care - Karen and Ben

California - Death Valley, Yosemite, Sequoia

We've been having a wonderful time touring California and visiting with friends for the past two weeks or so. California seems to have something for everyone, with a full range of different environments (coastal, desert, mountain), vibrant city life, and a fair amount of natural fauna (from sea otters to slow motion road crossings of tarantulas)

From left: Ben, Ricky, Sophie's mum, Sophie, Joe, Karen



And...best of all (as Karen states) this is where Jelly Belly jelly beans are made! Paying homage to their mighty governator with one of their famous jelly bean mosaic pictures was only half the attraction! But this was a great free factory tour and we had a really fun time - they even let us keep the hats!



Between staying with friends and seeing the JB factory, we also managed to squeeze in a few national parks - here are the highlights:

Death Valley - The hottest and driest location in the US. However, we experienced the park after a huge rainstorm, which meant that many of the roads were flooded. Imagine that - flooded roads in the desert. This park wasn't as outright visually impressive as other parks (admittedly, our enthusiasm was somewhat deflated by the oppressive heat), but there are several gems tucked away in this massive desert landscape. Unfortunately, the unpaved roads in this park were the worst we've yet experienced, which limited the depth of our exploration, yet one of the highlights had to be hiking in Mosaic canyon - a slot canyon carved through great expanses of polished marble.




Yosemite -
We were shocked to find this park still crowded in the middle of the week at this time of the year. The scenery was beautiful, but somewhat lessened when it's you and 50 other people taking the same picture or walking the same trail. However, the glacier-carved faces of El Capitan and Half Dome never fail to impress. FYI - Yosemite Falls are not falling at this time of the year, though other park waterfalls still contain some water.



Kings Canyon / Sequoia -
Lured into Kings Canyon by the promise of seeing black bears (we've been in bear country for 2 months and haven't yet seen one....the closest we've come is bear scat.....at least we think it was bear scat), it turned out to be a very scenic trip into true wilderness. Very few people shared the park with us, which was a welcome change from Yosemite valley. We wandered alone through alpine forests, crossing pristine streams next to towering granite cliffs.....but still no bears.



Adjoining Kings Canyon to the south is Sequoia National Park. Sequoia trees are amazing - not only tall, they have a massive girth....they look like something out of a cartoon. These trees are beautiful to look at, with rounded tops and warm red bark (which can be up to 2 feet thick!). The General Sherman tree, which Ben stands in front of, is considered to be the largest living tree on the planet (by volume). Some stats: ~2200 years old, 275 ft (~84 m) tall, with a base diameter of 36.5 ft (11 m). Unbelievable.



Not that anyone ever reads this (you're allowed to make comments, you know), we're headed back east along interstate 10 towards friends in Texas. Then it's the long haul back to PA.

PS - if you know anyone interested in a 2001 red Chevy Blazer.... let us know!