Sunset in Sedona

Location: Page, AZ

Duration: 3,300 mi, 1:11 AM MST  

Week one of the journey is officially in the books as I sit here in a dark room in a motel 6 just about two miles south of the Utah border.  The last couple of days I have seen some of the most beautiful and breathtaking places in the world and it is still absolutely unbelievable to me that we drove to every single one of them.  

No Internet in the motel 6 we stayed at last night but if the millions and millions of fans are interested, you can read the blog right below this one, which I wrote last night.  

We started off today in the town of Willcox, AZ, about 100 miles outside of Tucson and spent the morning driving to and then through Seguro National Park - 9 miles of real Arizona cactus standing amongst the backdrop of the Rincon mountains.  Matt posted some excellent pics of the place on the photo blog so I suggest you check those out as they say a lot more then I ever could about how cool a place it was.  

One funny thing that happened their - as we were leaving we asked the guy who worked there what the best way to get back to the highway was and without missing a beat he responded "by helicopter" before giving us directions.  It amused me.  

Next up on the map was Phoenix which featured construction on every single road we were driving on and a nice afternoon temperature of 108 degrees.  It was obvious the locals are smart enough to stay inside during the day as there were very few people walking the streets.  Still, I had a lot of fun in the city as we hit Chase Field and the team stores of the Diamondbacks and the Suns.  For lunch we went to Phoenix's hard rock cafe where we talked to a waiter from Brooklyn and a girl from Michigan about our trip.  They both seemed to dig it.  

As we left Phoenix (now 111 degrees according to the billboards) we made our way to Flagstaff via Sedona and the 28 mile stretch of road that makes up the Red Rock state park.  We made it to park at the perfect time, just as the sun began setting - projecting an angelic glow on the mountains (again see pics).  There is really no way for me to describe it - it's just an overwhelming thing to see.   

It was late when we finally reached Flagstaff but in a stroke of genius on our parts we decided to try and get as close to the Grand Canyon as we could before finding a place to crash.  Of course there is nothing but mountains for a majority of the 100 mile stretch between Flagstaff and Page so we ended up driving all the way out here before finally turning in for the night.  We did stop at one point in a tiny town called Cameron but ended up not staying after a guy bought the last room while we were thinking about it.  Honestly, though I think it worked out as we cut out over an hour of driving tomorrow and got a much better deal.  Plus we have Internet....yay.  

Tomorrow we get to see the true dichotomy of America as we (hopefully) spend the early afternoon at the Grand Canyon and then role in to the city of sin at night.  Having never been to the Grand Canyon and being all about these crazy natural phenomenon so far I can't wait to see it.  I'm also excited about getting back to Las Vegas after the awesome time I had there last summer.  Plus I am on a role at casinos (+ $3.29) in my last two trips. It's just crazy to think that we are going to be in two such different places in one day.  

That's it for me for tonight.  I have no idea what the sleeping situation is going to be like over the next few days so there is definitely a possibility I won't have a blog tomorrow. I'll try though.  Until the next time...      

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Location: Willcox, AZ  10:27 PM PST 

Duration: 2900 mi 

This motel 6 in Willcox, AZ is the first of the cheap hotels to not have wireless so who knows when this is actually going to be posted.  

One of the weirdest things in life is genuinely not knowing what time it is.  As we travel through the different time zones we have been totally off and I’ve learned quickly that I have no idea how the time zones are divided out here.  I know Phoenix is Mountain time, yet somehow in this small town three hours south east of it we’re in Pacific time.  Who knew?  

Note: I found out today that parts of AZ don't do daylight savings so in places like Willcox and Phoenix Mountain Time=Pacific Time 

So day six of our epic journey was another day filled with a lot of driving but probably my favorite stop so far.  We left Ozona early and drove straight through West Texas until we got to a town called Van Horn, about 100 miles outside of El Paso.  We ate at a little Mexican place that John Madden apparently frequents and then continued to the city.  We drove around El Paso briefly, snapping a couple of pics of Mexico before jumping back on the highway and finally getting the hell out of Texas.  Even from the car, El Paso was a culture shock as it is more or less a Mexican city in the United States.  It is also a city built in a desert and after driving through 100’s of miles of nothingness seems extremely out of place. 

About twenty miles later we finally hit New Mexico and our thirteenth state on the trip.  We jumped off  I-10 and took a detour to the White Sands National Monument  which is one of the single coolest places I have ever been to.  Once you get out into the actual site  you are surrounded by white hills and with just a little walking in any direction it is easy to find a spot where you feel like you are the only person on earth.  

I decided a couple things while I was there.  First of all I absolutely have to go back as it is now one of my life’s goals to lie in that sand, completely separated from the outside world and watch the sun set over the hills.  Going along with that - sort of - I decided that if  we all have to die somewhere, that would be a pretty awesome place to go.  I know that is a little morbid but I don’t mean it to be.  It’s just an absolutely beautiful place that made me acutely aware of everything that really matters in our lives.  

After leaving the dunes we drove pretty much straight through to this awful Motel 6 in Willcox, AZ.   The beds are really small, there is no breakfast and no wireless in this piece.  I know it sounds almost pathetic that I miss the internet so much but I like to let people know that I’m thinking about them and what not.  Oh well, I think I can probably survive for one night.  

Tomorrow we see the Arizona cities of Tucson, Phoenix & Flagstaff.  This is all totally new for me at this point so I’m excited to check out these places.  By the time anybody reads this we will probably be en route to the Grand Canyon but I’ll definitely post about my AZ experience as well.  After six days this trip has already been fantastic.  Now, it’s sleepy time.