THE GRAND CANYON!!

YAY! We made it!! It is awesome! AND HUGE! and we are little itty bitty people. For some reason I thought it was going to look way different. I thought it was basically two big walls with a river flowing down the middle and apparently it has lots and lots of mountains in it. On the way here we went from desert, to red rocks, to snow. Sedona was really awesome and really pretty (that's the place with the red rocks.) Tomorrow we are hiking to the bottom of the grand canyon, and staying in a lodge, then hiking 8 hours back up the next day. I'm pretty stoked. Other highs of our grand canyon experience are: Elk, cayote, deer, ring tailed cat, snow on the ground, free hot water, and hiking. Lows are: 17 degree nights, paying for showers, freezing sunsets, and expensive groceries. More pictures will come later when we have better internet.

Ow! That cactus poked me in the butt!

Last night we arrived late in Tuscon, Arizona. We stayed with my friend, Beth, and her husband, Jeff. I met Beth the summer after my freshman year when we lived in Mexico together. We stayed up late talking and slept in the next day (Actually, Bert slept in and I checked email). Beth and Jeff had class at 10, and we stayed and lounged in their condo (which is the coolest condo I've ever been in). I enjoyed the last shower I will probably have until we reach Colorado. We had lunch at Lily's Cocina and then discovered the fondness that Beth had towards Arizona's favorite plant, the Saguaro (suh-war-oh) Cactus. This cactus, very ugly to my untrained eye, is apparently a highly valued plant and is even stolen from the deserts and sold on the black market (or so I hear.) It is protected by the state and grows only 1 foot in 15 years. The best of these cactii have arms. Arms take like 75 years to grow. So to explain the title, while we were posing for pictures with the precious cactii, I got poked in the butt! The spikeys actually stuck in my butt just like all the cartoons!! We had to pick out 6 little spikeys. I can't believe that cactus poked me in the butt! So after the cactus fiasco, we parted from our friends and headed north. We are on our way to the grand canyon!!

Carlsbad Caverns

Today we awoke, after spending the night at a truck stop, in the back of the truck to discover that the dew had frozen and it was quite cold and windy. We then drove through Pecos, Texas and to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. The Caverns were pretty astonishing initially and remained that way until we exited via av770 foot super fast elevator. Kalin's favorite part of the caverns were the various "soda straws" that hung from the ceiling that looked like icicles. My favorite part was going from one immensely large room to another.


Some interesting road features of the West Texas, New Mexico Area- 80 mph speed limits, cattle crossing grates, Oil rigs, night speed limits, lots of creek crossings with no water in the creeks, flat desert landscapes, and a large dried salt lake.

And now we are trying to drive to Tuscon before it gets too late.

Peace

Bert

Houston and San Antonio, Texas "Houston, we have a problem" "Remember the Alamo"

We arrived in stressful Houston traffic Sunday night at Gina Nuccio's fancy apartment. We went to a popular Texan restaraunt called Pappasitos. We all shared some delicious fajitas with all the fresh tortillas we wanted. The next day we went to Nasa Space Center's Rocket Park. We saw a huge rocket that took up a whole building! We also found a house from the 80's that had been decorated completely using beer cans, from the fence with beer top links, to the floor with concrete slabs and beer can depressions. It was quite interesting. The wind blew and the beer can chimes almost sounded kind of pretty. Then we said our goodbyes to the lovely Gina and headed west to find The Alamo. The Alamo is located in San Antonio, Texas. We walked around the Alamo museum and watched a 15 minute history channel movie. All the buildings were really old and cool. We also went on a river walk, which was pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen in a big city. It was lined with concrete but had lots of cool bridges and restaraunts along it.

Blog 2 New Orleans: The City of Upside Down Boats

Kalin and I arrived in New Orleans (N.O.) on Saturday Evening and met up Meghan Knowles and her roommate, Liz Kuester. We decided to go eat in the French Quarter and an Italian Joint called Angeli. It was very good. It was too cold to explore much more of the town so we got a driving tour and returned to St Benards Parish and the house of the girls. After that Kalin stayed up talking with Meghan and I passed out. The next morning Kalin and I toured N.O. we saw the ECO houses funded by Brad Pitt in the Lower ninth ward, the State Museum, and got some swell breakfast at a cafe. We drove every road of the French Quarter looking for parking space and still managed to get a parking ticket. The oddest thing about the town is all the foundations of missing houses everywhere -especially in St Bernards and the Ninth Ward, it gave me a sense of being in future.

Kalin's highs- jogging by the river(canal), catching up with Meghan, and the Ham and Brie Croissant.

Now to Houston

Peace

-Bert

First Blog: The End of One Journey, The Beginning of Another

First Blog: The End of One Journey, The Beginning of Another

In September 2007, we began our application to the Peace Corps. One month later we interviewed with them in Atlanta. Now, a year, 3 months, and 1 night in jail later we are exactly one month away from beginning our training in Santa Lucia, Honduras. We have said farewell to our loved ones in Clemson and are heading west. Destination: The Grand Canyon. This blog's purpose is to keep those of you who have some form of interest in our lives informed of our journeys. The first part of our lives that I will share with you is highlights from our Going Away/ Birthday Party. On my first night of being 23, we celebrated at Eric and Marie's house. The best parts: yummy Johson turkey barbecue, way fun friends, and AWESOME games. The highlight of the family name game was when Kit Johnson OWNED Michael Sawyer in a viscious duel. The highlight of silent telephone was the progression of Marie's phrase, "That's what she said." to "There's no way I can hammer with just one eye" to "Very unhappy men hit themselves in the head with axes" to "I'm sad when I hit myself in the head with a pot". (You had to be there) The guests who traveled the farthest to come to our party were my ROCKIN brother and sister, Derrick and Kendra (and of course Lindsay and the Bath Matt) and J-money Jarvis. We were definitely awake until about 4ish in the morning. Thanks Eric and Marie for letting us trash your trash your house and have a great time. Next stop: New Orleans.

Kalin