THE END of the American Adventure.

As I sit here in the heat and humidity that is Auckland's summer, I recall the Great American Trip as the best adventure I have ever taken.

We returned from our trip 3 months ago now and still, the memory of everyday is pristinely clear in my mind. It was one of those times, when you are so stimulated, overwhelmed and excited that your brain switches into super, photographic memory mode; preserving the wonder of it all. One of my favorite parts about the trip was seeing the landscape gradually change, and seeing the many ecosystems.

When Julian and I left Washington and headed out into the expanse of America, we had a very narrow perception of America, one that came from years of living in a small town, in the corner of the country. We came to see America for the massive, diverse, conglomeration of people that it is. For all of it's faults, I truly have a new perspective and appreciation for the states. But... not enough to stay.

To make this trip possible, Julian and I bought, sold and remodeled a house, cared for the elderly, cleaned windows, drove limousines, all while earning our bachelors degrees. I can not think of any better way to spend our hard earned money than the adventure of a lifetime. The sort that inevitably changes one forever.

I would not have had this experience had it not been for my best mate, and the love of my life- Julian.

This was one of the happiest times of my life, thank you

Leaving Las Vegas

Arriving in Las Vegas traffic at night, we had gone from the tranquil solace of Utah into the plastic, neon world of America's premier tourist destination.

Not much to say here, huge casinos, massive hotels the size of small cities, cigarette smoke and screaming children.

During the daylight hours we gambled a bit, enough to realize it wasn't for us, stared at the overweight, buffet-eating, East Coast visitors. We saw how this hot and dry environment was so appealing to the East Coast crowd; it has all the convenience and safety of the familiar East Coast franchises and gambling fun, without the consequences following them home.

For a place famous for being fun, no one seemed happy, no one was smiling; neither were we, it was time to retreat home.

Utah image special.

Utah

Home of the Salt Lake City, Mormons and 3.5% beer!

We had seen pictures of the red rock arches and Bryce Canyon's rocky spires, but what we didn't realize is between every scenic spot are more scenic spots; Utah should be one giant park!

The constant freezing weather, thawing suns rays, and powerful winds have eroded the red rock into fragile arches, spires and balancing rocky piles; a photographers paradise!

Not only was it sunny and calm but the cold weather had chased away any tourists, giving us most parks to ourselves and the normal sprinkling of Germans.

The Arches park was truly impressive, a land so harsh even the rocks looked liked they had given into the heat, melting like wax over the ages.

At night we froze in the wagon, the sun would set around 4:30 pm and the mercury would drop to -12F, making cooking, dressing or going to the bathroom a race against the cold.

We had all the blankets on the bed and we still had to sleep fully dressed wearing beanies; the inside of the car frosted like a morning lawn.

As we crossed moon scape like plains, into rocky crevasses our jaws dropped and dropped again; simply the most spectacular scenery we had seen in America!

Once we picked our jaws back up, we were in Zion National park, but this most famous of parks is just a piece of the amazing landscape, no more or less amazing than any other scenery we had seen; its all awesome!

The days were getting too short to enjoy, the sun always seemed to be setting, casting cold shadows on our road-side camping.

We took over 1400 photos in four days, everything was dramatic, epic and generally awe inspiring.

Capital Reef was an amazing slice of sculpture, some of the crazy hills and spicky rocks reminded us exactly of Baja California.

After a particularly cold day we met a vegan man who was biking from Maine to San Francisco.

So after the East Coast he was living off baby food and chips, we saw him chewing on a tomato, it had frozen in his bike bag.

It was finally time to go home, too cold, not practical any more. But we owed my NZ mate Tim one more destination he had lusted after, Las Vegas, or sin city.

Colorado

Climbing in altitude as we entered Colorado, the air was dry and thin, chapping our lips and straining our lungs. Heading thru the mountains we climbed into a snow storm as we hoped from 10,000 ft pass to 10,00ft pass, {3,300M for those metric foreigners} sliding on icy winding roads with nerve twisting drop-offs.

Johnathan had suggested we follow a old scenic pass into Glenwood Springs where he lives and works; but we had chosen poor weather for such a road and the four hour crossing took nine.

The scenery was stunning, fog shrouded trees covered with ice in one valley, crystal clear skies and snowy cliffs in the next.

We followed the trail of old rich mining settlements in the mountains down to the modern, richer skiing towns in the valleys below. Johnathan showed us around his favorite spots, took us to the naturally heated Glenwood springs pools, and into uber fancy Aspen; it was a nice change in pace to see a friend so far from home and to be shown around by a local.

Aspen is wedged between two nature reserves, forcing the village to concentrate into a wedge of huge houses and massive wealth; Gucci rubbing against Prada, old money tolerating new money and Johnathan hiding amongst Hollywood's A-list.

Following the valleys West, progressive little towns filled with educated modernists begin to thin out, soon only gas stations and Indian Reservations doted the highway leading us into Utah.

New Mexico

In the dry empty expanses of Southern New Mexico, any thing not desert becomes a major attraction on the map. Flocks of retirees driving south for the winter fill the parking lots in their bus sized RV's complete with little yapping dogs and shiny Harley Davidson's for weekend cruzing. Just across the Texan border lies the Carlsbad caverns, a large system of limestone caves formed from and ancient coral reef now buried inland.

The caves were huge and filled with towering rock formations, but the most amazing feature was the elevator shaft cut into the limestone hills, shuttling tourists forty stories down from the visitors center above like a subterranean skyscraper.

With the A/C on high, we drove North through Santa Fe, a small but fancy town, with brown stucco buildings modeled after the traditional adobe mud buildings of the Pueblo Indians. We were

going North to meet my step brother, Johnathan, {Frederic's son} in Colorado so we quickly checked out the upmarket jewelry and craft stores of Santa Fe before heading up to Taos.

It was winter now and in the high alpine desert we had to layer on the blankets and cover our heads at night as the temperatures dropped well below freezing.

During the day the sun roasted the car and we stripped of the layers to tee shirts and shorts; this extreme environment had kept away the soft and only new-age hippies and outdoorsman types had populated the small desert towns.

Charming little Taos was still unspoilt by the elitist stores and hotels filling Santa Fe; it still had a local friendly community who had managed to keep separate from the seasonal outsiders and their RV's.

Before climbing out of the desert plains into the snowy Colorado mountains, we had to stop and check out the Earth Ship homes Eric had admired and spoken of so often; energy efficient, off grid, sustainable homes made from used materials sunk into the ground, harvesting the sun, water and air without the interference of public utilities.

We really enjoyed the tour, making careful notes of our impressions of the design and flaws of the Dr Seuss like structures. It was really impressive, if not entirely perfect for every man, but living in a desert of extremes in relative comfort with out grid power or water is still an amazing accomplishment.

Leaving the deadlocked hippies of NM for the dry alpine air of the Colorado rockies, we felt the cold air of reality breaking us out of our 10 week road trip daydream; it was getting just too cold to sleep in our car!

Texas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What can you say about Texas, its big, so are its people and their opinions of Texas are even bigger.

I was surprised at how pretty the country was, rolling hills and scrubby woods, green river gorges and well placed rocky outcroppings with sprinklings of deer and big horn sheep.

Living in the oil fed state, I can see how Texans can doubt pollution, environmental conservation and even social issues; when your surrounded by clean new houses, ample game hunting, big roads that led to truck filled church parking lots of cheerful folks, the worlds issues seem exaggerated and distant.

Austin is the state capital and its capital building is a replica of the D.C. original, only bigger!

Being the right-wing, gun shooting capital of America, it was a surprise to find out the Capital was liberal, democratic, educated and even a little bit hipster.

The University of Texas was impressive, with an annual budget of over 1 billion! The busy campus is placed on a hill above the government buildings, looking downtown, to the river where a large bat colony live under a bridge.

Every evening the bats come streaming out from under the bridge, trailing off like wisps of smoke into the night, strangely pretty. Another highlight was the Alamo theater, that serves locally brewed beer and meals during a movie; its a great addition to the movie experience, hopefully it will catch on elsewhere.

As we moseyed on West, we passed thru some small pioneer towns where the hard working Mexicans dominate, how strange all this over the top Texan stuff must be for them if it felt strange to us.

Louisiana pt2

We decided to visit one more plantation villa before we left, we turned North towards Rosedown plantation's beautiful grounds to take a tour of it's restored home and grounds.

Ami was lured by the romantic buildings and amazing gardens to the point we splurged on another night in southern luxury. We found a half price deal just down the river at Nottoway plantation, a massive home turned hotel/museum straight out of Gone with the wind.

We got the historic tour during the afternoon then as the visitors cleared out we had the museum to ourselves, left inside a trapped piece of history, with our own massive room complete with four post bed, a refreshing mint julep and view of the Mississippi.

Ami got dressed-up and we walked the empty grounds at night; a white stallion could have majestically galloped through the live oak trees and swept her away and I wouldn't have been surprised in the slightest. We felt like two high society characters straight out of the 1800s cotton boom, the charm of the south had finally reached our cores.