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TRAVEL BLOG AND ITINERARY
a travel blog
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Wow - what a quick 5-1/2 months. Travelling in Asia for such a long period was a brilliant experience; we explored many parts of the Southeast Asia region as well as China, Taiwan and Mongolia. Our year of travelling is nearly halfway completed; this is not a pleasant thought with time moving way too quickly...
The next leg of our journey will find us in the United States for nearly three months. This will be a chance to catch up with friends that we both have living in the States, and also a chance for Kyle to spend some quality time at home in Arkansas with his family. We have a good idea as to where we are going now, and we will be getting in touch with friends and family soon to confirm our travel plans, and their availability of beds, sofas or soft floors for us to crash on!
Our initial base in the US will be the gloriously hot state of Arkansas so we can mooch free food and lodging from the Sparks, Doss and Huneycutt homes spread across the state. In addition, we will be visiting the following places between 15th June and 10th September:
-- Hot Springs, Little Rock, Fayetteville, Fort Smith and Eureka Springs (Arkansas)
-- New York City (New York)
-- Washington D.C.
-- Nashville (Tennessee)
-- Springfield, Kansas City and St. Louis (Missouri)
-- Norman and Oklahoma City (Oklahoma)
-- Austin, Dallas and Amarillo (Texas)
-- Southwest USA road trip (including New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah and Nevada)
-- Yosemite National Park, Death Valley, Mojave Desert, San Diego and Los Angeles (California)
We hope to see as many people as possible during our time in the US. If any of our farther-reaching friends' homes are not on the list of places (San Fran, Seattle and Chicago - we are SORRY!), we would love to try and meet up with you somewhere else in the States when we are there. Let's plan!
| Trip Itinerary (Travel Blog Entries) | |||
1 |
Little Rock | Jun 15 '07 | Arkansas, Little Rock: A Cheery Reunion
"We stopped off at the Clinton Presidential Library to look at one of the old railroad bridges spanning across the water" |
2 |
Hot Springs | Jun 17 '07 | Arkansas, Hot Springs: Sporty Family of Villainous Ve-hickles
"A stop at Taco Bell and Sonic was also in order so that we could get our first fast food fix" |
3 |
Fort Smith | Jun 23 '07 | Arkansas, Fort Smith: Chiggers Hanging Outside
"Who would have thought that the largest and creepiest spider we have seen this year would be in Arkansas" |
4 |
Hot Springs | Jun 26 '07 | Arkansas, Hot Springs: Magical Water Amusement and Some Fleas
"The ride had gotten stuck a week before and people hung upside down for almost an hour" |
5 |
Fort Smith | Jul 03 '07 | Arkansas, Fort Smith: 4th, Fireworks, Food, Films
"We rolled out of the place with burritos and chimichangas pouring out of our ears" |
6 |
Fayetteville | Jul 06 '07 | Arkansas, Fayetteville: Trampoline Games and Lazy Lake Lounging
"We started to get really scared because the bubbles seemed to be coming from a couple of really large creatures" |
7 |
Eureka Springs | Jul 08 '07 | Arkansas, Eureka Springs: Victorian Town Saves Big Cats
"The mirrors in the bathroom had fogged up and there was some evil writing on them" |
8 |
Springfield | Jul 09 '07 | Missouri, Springfield: Hey, Swings
"Not a minute after we sat down, the waiters and waitresses started throwing rolls at us" |
9 |
Kansas City | Jul 11 '07 | Missouri, Kansas City: Fountains in Barbecued Corn Fields
"Since Kansas City was the sister city to Seville, Spain, The Plaza area was designed with a Spanish style of architecture" |
10 |
St Louis | Jul 13 '07 | Missouri, St Louis: Gateway to Beer and Food
"Blueberry Hill was located in The Loop district of St. Louis, a six block area with many places of entertainment, shops, restaurants and bars" |
11 |
Hot Springs | Jul 15 '07 | Arkansas, Hot Springs: We Saw Harry Potter
"The pizza was good and the place was really casual, with great service, but guess what?" |
12 |
New York City | Jul 17 '07 | New York, New York City: Fun in the Big Apple
"We got on the Subway about five minutes before the steam pipe exploded, killing one person and creating a huge crater in the street" |
13 |
Washington | Jul 22 '07 | Washington DC: The Jury's (Not) Out for Walks
"We went inside to gaze upon the tall, seated statue of Abraham Lincoln, one of America's most important Presidents from the past" |
14 |
Nashville | Jul 25 '07 | Tennessee, Nashville: Birthplace of Country Music and Tristan
"The bedrooms were used to treat wounded soldiers and there were bloodstains on the floor where the operating tables had been placed" |
15 |
Hot Springs | Jul 28 '07 | Arkansas, Hot Springs: We Missed Important Sunshine
"One hair-raising moment was when Jenny started singing a little loudly in the post office" |
16 |
Fayetteville | Jul 31 '07 | Arkansas, Fayetteville: Good Home Cooking
"The dessert was made with about 18 eggs and who knows how many sticks of butter" |
17 |
Whitaker Point | Aug 02 '07 | Arkansas, Whitaker Point: Hiking Way Above Buffalo River
"Upon Judy's closer inspection, she discovered another huge spiderweb an inch from her nose" |
18 |
Fort Smith | Aug 03 '07 | Arkansas, Fort Smith: Final Farewells in the Fort
"After visiting his grave and reflecting with his grandma for a short while, we took her home" |
19 |
Norman | Aug 04 '07 | Oklahoma, Norman: Cheerful Catching Up
"We jolted awake but then fell asleep again quite soon after the animals had left us alone" |
20 |
Amarillo | Aug 06 '07 | Texas, Amarillo: Big Dead Texan Cadillacs
"The Big Texan, a steakhouse and bar that served a 72 ounce steak that would be free of charge if someone ate the entire thing" |
21 |
Dallas | Aug 07 '07 | Texas, Dallas: Friends and Meals, Meals and Friends
"In addition to catching up with people, we managed to find a gem of a movie theatre called The Angelika" |
22 |
Austin | Aug 10 '07 | Texas, Austin: The Oasis of Texas
"Despite their extraordinarily high sodium content, they were pretty tasty and we subsequently bought more" |
23 |
Roswell | Aug 12 '07 | New Mexico, Roswell: The Truth Was Out There
"It would be fitting to follow in Mulder and Scully's footsteps and order a large pizza to be delivered to our motel" |
24 |
Lincoln | Aug 13 '07 | New Mexico, Lincoln: Billy the Kid Country
"The Torreon had been put in place so the townspeople would have a means of looking out for bad guys as they invaded" |
25 |
White Sands | Aug 13 '07 | New Mexico, White Sands: Gleaming White Natural Wonder
"At 275 square miles, the sand dunes were part of the largest gypsum dune field in the world" |
26 |
Gila National Forest | Aug 14 '07 | New Mexico, Gila National Forest: Ancient Cliff Dwellings in the Woods
"We saw many living rock squirrels, vultures, cottontail rabbits, roadrunners, golden eagles and white-tailed deer" |
27 |
Chloride | Aug 14 '07 | New Mexico, Chloride: Ghost Town with No Ghosts
"We continued our drive to what we thought would be a wild west ghost town with tumbleweeds drifting across the road" |
28 |
El Malpais and El Morro National Monuments | Aug 15 '07 | New Mexico, El Malpais and El Morro: Walking on Top of an Inscripted Mesa
"We followed a nearly white path in the stone as we walked around the rim of the canyon to the ancient pueblo ruins" |
29 |
Albuquerque | Aug 15 '07 | New Mexico, Albuquerque: Dirty Route 66 Hostel
"We felt slightly bad when we interrupted Weird Guy sweeping the stairs, so that we could load our things into our rental SUV" |
30 |
Acoma Pueblo | Aug 16 '07 | New Mexico, Acoma Pueblo: Pueblo in the Sky
"Wood beams in the ceiling of the church were sourced from trees on Mount Taylor in the San Mateo Mountains and carried by hand over 45 miles" |
31 |
Santa Fe | Aug 17 '07 | New Mexico, Santa Fe: One Day We'll Return
"Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi was an impressive stone structure, the first of many amazing buildings we encountered" |
32 |
Taos | Aug 18 '07 | New Mexico, Taos: Multi-level Adobes and Wild Dogs
"Sanctuary was sought inside the church by men, women and children of the pueblo, only to result in total destruction" |
33 |
Durango | Aug 18 '07 | Colorado, Durango: Mexican Food in the San Juans
"The railroad depot we saw there still looked the same as it had after it was constructed in 1882" |
34 |
Silverton | Aug 19 '07 | Colorado, Silverton: Gold Mines, Ghost Towns, Elk Jerky and Buffalo Burgers
"The miner's colleagues would play a joke on him by pushing the toilet cart towards the exit of the mine whilst the miner was using it" |
35 |
Ouray | Aug 19 '07 | Colorado, Ouray: Switzerland of America
"After taking the photo, they zoomed off on their Harleys and were gone before we even had a chance to look down the mountainside" |
36 |
Telluride | Aug 19 '07 | Colorado, Telluride: Ski Town in a Mountain Corner
"Butch Cassidy and his gang, The Wild Bunch, robbed the San Miguel Valley Bank, his first major recorded crime" |
37 |
Mesa Verde National Park | Aug 20 '07 | Colorado, Mesa Verde: Magnificent, Mysterious Historical Pueblos
"We were woken early by the footsteps of a white-tailed deer on the gravel outside the entrance to our tent" |
38 |
Four Corners Area, Colorado | Aug 21 '07 | Colorado, Four Corners: Where Four States Meet
"The states we were planning on standing on all at once were Colorado, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico" |
39 |
Canyon de Chelly | Aug 22 '07 | Arizona, Canyon de Chelly: Beautiful Navajo Sandstone
"The majority of the rock inside the canyon was Navajo sandstone that had been weathered over millions of years to provide a unique appearance to visitors" |
40 |
Petrified Forest and Painted Desert | Aug 22 '07 | Arizona, Petrified Forest: Seriously Old Trees in Multicoloured Desert
"The colourful mesas, buttes and badlands we saw formed a natural work of art - the Painted Desert" |
41 |
Phoenix | Aug 23 '07 | Arizona, Phoenix: Haircuts in the South Mountain Hood
"It was no surprise to us when they just opened up a drawer full of items and picked up the first ones they touched" |
42 |
Sedona | Aug 24 '07 | Arizona, Sedona: Jerome First, Red Rock Second
"Sedona's main street, lined with many souvenir shops, restaurants, cafes, mystical fortune tellers and palm readers, surrounded by beautiful multi-coloured mountains" |
43 |
Flagstaff | Aug 25 '07 | Arizona, Flagstaff: A Break from Sightseeing
"They offered us a lemon-roasted chicken - the entire thing! - which they did not get to eat during their camping trip" |
44 |
Grand Canyon National Park | Aug 26 '07 | Arizona, Grand Canyon: Big Gap in the American West
"The canyon, with such a dazzling variety of rock layers, was Mother Nature's multicoloured easel" |
45 |
Monument Valley | Aug 27 '07 | Arizona, Monument Valley: Driving through a Moody Storm
"Far enough away for us to be safe, but close enough to make the journey really frightening and tense" |
46 |
Canyonlands National Park | Aug 27 '07 | Utah, Canyonlands: No Kangaroo Rats in Potholes
"Mother Nature controlled her erosion capabilities in such a way that she created what looked like a really long paper doll chain" |
47 |
Moab | Aug 28 '07 | Utah, Moab: Bed Bug Attack!
"A couple guys from England, one more so than the other, were brutally attacked in the night by heaps and heaps of the dirty, nasty, repulsive, filthy atrocities" |
48 |
Dead Horse Point, Utah | Aug 29 '07 | Utah, Dead Horse Point: 6000 Foot High Mustang Prison
"We thought this was a very sad tale and we took time to reflect for the poor horses when we walked around" |
49 |
Arches National Park | Aug 29 '07 | Utah, Arches: And You Thought McD's Arches Were Impressive
"Some of today's catalogued arches will become non-existent over time, as erosion and weathering of the rock continues, causing arches to collapse" |
50 |
Wendover | Aug 30 '07 | Utah, Wendover: Flat Salty Desert
"We were in the middle of the desert, in total darkness, with no proper roads, street signs or lights off in the distance" |
51 |
Salt Lake City | Aug 31 '07 | Utah, Salt Lake City: Mormon Capital of the World
"We were surprised to hear British accents amongst the volunteers working inside Temple Square" |
52 |
Bryce Canyon | Sep 01 '07 | Utah, Bryce Canyon: Hoodoos for You to View
"Each of the overlooks gave us a different view of the amphitheatre and stunning views out across Paria Valley" |
53 |
Zion National Park | Sep 02 '07 | Utah, Zion: National Park of Beautiful Hikes
"The age of the water seeping out of the rock was thousands of years old" |
54 |
Las Vegas | Sep 03 '07 | Nevada, Las Vegas: Brightly Lit Metropolis in the Desert
"We spent many hours in various casinos, taking in the atmosphere - the flashing lights, continuously ringing bells and huge variety of people playing games" |
55 |
Death Valley National Park | Sep 06 '07 | California, Death Valley: Hot, Desolate and Salty with a Golf Course
"Badwater Pool was filled year-round with ancient water that began as Ice Age snow and rain hundreds of miles away in the mountains of central Nevada" |
56 |
Mojave National Preserve | Sep 07 '07 | California, Mojave Desert: Quick Drive Through Deserted Preserve
"We also passed the enormous Amboy Crater as we drove along historic Route 66 after exiting the nature preserve" |
57 |
Los Angeles | Sep 08 '07 | California, Los Angeles: Multiple Drive-by Shootings
"Evidence of the drive-bys can be seen when you click through and look at many different Hollywood landmarks spread throughout the photo album" |
58 |
Fayetteville | Nov 21 '07 | Arkansas, Fayetteville: Birthday Cookies and Mexican Food
"Kelli drove Kyle back to their house where he was greeted warmly by Clay and Samantha" |
59 |
Fort Smith | Nov 22 '07 | Arkansas, Fort Smith: Fires Won't Stop Family Togetherness
"By the time everything was prepared and set out on a couple of tables inside the restaurant, people's appetites had grown massively" |
60 |
Russellville | Nov 23 '07 | Arkansas, Russellville: Excellent Seafood Meal for Thanksgiving
"Rick cooked most of the lunch, a fancy seafood linguine with mussels and prawns, and platters of raw and cooked oysters" |
61 |
Hot Springs | Nov 24 '07 | Arkansas, Hot Springs: Weekend of Unexpected and Beautiful Surprises
"She was so full of joy and kept skittering amongst all of the guests, chatting away and having a ball with an immense smile on her face" |
Comments or Questions for the Author
Kyle & Dan says:
Hi Mum - hope that you enjoyed the stories, too. Sorry about a couple of the photos, but there was a good story behind each one, so we had to include them. :-) Love, Kyle
Posted 7/25/2007 6:07:16 AM ( permalink )
bbtanya says:
Kyle, will you go to California? I am planning to come to USA in October to Core Consultant School and i am looking for places to travel in the USA. Currently i am thinking about the California (red trees, death vally and so on). Would you please help me with some useful internet links where i can read about travelling to California?
Posted 8/15/2007 9:32:48 AM ( permalink )
Kyle & Dan says:
Tatiana, you could try this website, search for California blogs. Also, Lonely Planet has a California guide that would be helpful. If you drive, you could hire a car and drive up scenic highway 101 from San Francisco to Eugene, Oregon or Portland, Oregon. The Oregon coastline is beautiful and you would drive through the redwoods - very nice!
Posted 8/15/2007 7:07:02 PM ( permalink )
Kyle & Dan says:
Also, we will be flying out of Los Angeles on 10th September and will try to see a little of California before then but we may run out of time, as we are driving across southwest USA now and we are only in New Mexico...
Posted 8/15/2007 7:08:35 PM ( permalink )
J and M says:
Pictures were enjoyable as usual although there were a couple of them I would have liked to eliminate as well as the way certain words were pronounciated! Oh well-a body can't be "perfect" all of the time, huh???? Keep the writings going!