There Are No Saguaros in Texas or New Mexico

Or in Nevada for that matter. Our third day on the road was in New Mexico and Arizona. One of our first stops at a gas station we noticed a fleet of Chevy Corvettes! It was so cool!!!

 David standing in a sea of sports cars

David being true to his Idaho Falls roots

Me pretending to touch one

Then one of the owners came out and asked if I wanted to sit in it. And my answer of course was YES!

Ooo Lah-la. They all had cool little stickers on them that said something along the lines of "Journey across America 2011"

Smile David

As usual it takes two :) Funny story about the first try is I used it as his laptop background and he was like "eeew gross I don't want to look at that," haha to which I replied "neither do I." I might be starting to get a point across! Cross your fingers for me!

The road warrior

and me

On to continue the Saguaro cactus conversation. I thought I would see them in Texas, and in New Mexico and when I didn't I started looking them up online. Turns out they only grow in Arizona, an EXTREMELY small part of southern California and in Mexico. Who'd have thought? I can honestly say  that I was really shocked. The Saguaro has been unrealistically used as a symbol of the South West for years. I like these trips I feel like I always learn something.

Look how BIG!

Being a cactus

You can't even tell the difference between the two of us

Getting some love

Ooops.... which actually lead to this

Ouch!

Us

David being a Saguaro

Did you know they can grow to be 50 ft tall and live up to 200 years old? And that they are about 75 years old before they even begin to grow their first arm!

Oh, I'm going to touch the buttt (finding Nemo)

I freaking love you!!!

There was just miles and miles of them. I just looked out the window all the sudden I saw some. 

They stopped and started to suddenly it was crazy! I was so sad when they faded out too! They were so cool to look at and they were all so unique! I don't want to use the word complain, but I did complain a little when they stopped I was hoping I would get to observe them more then I did. I even mentioned it two days later when we were driving in Utah and David laughed at me, he was surprised I was still thinking about them. 

Our friend the Saguaro 

Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico

Our hotel stay in Arkansas was on our very own road. These pictures were the beginning of day number 2.

WOW!!

Look its me on a road sign!

Look its David on a road sign!

Our second day was not so pretty. Ok most of it wasn't. Arkansas wasn't really that bad it wasn't as pretty as Tennessee but it wasn't so bad. One thing that was fun about Arkansas was we got to see armadillo road-kill, haha that was actually quite fun to look for. Half of Oklahoma looked like Arkansas and the other half looked like the top (North) part of Texas.

Oklahoma

Texas was the worst part of the drive by far it was literally MILES and MILES of flat short burned/ dried yellow scrub grass. Northern Texas was what we drove through and it was DISGUSTING, SOOOOOOO windy and gross hot.

This is a picture to prove how hot is was in Texas. Also the clock was two hours behind. It got all the way up to 104 before it started dropping

I don't have anything against Texas but I now know why David said he would never live in West Texas, I now agree. East Texas, one of these days I will have to see you for myself.

And just to prove I don't hold a grudge I took two license plate pics

Tah-Dah Texas!!

Another thing that definitely added to my dislike of my drive in Texas was these, lots of them...

 passing each other REALLY slowly, all day, like this!!!!!

(Thank you Jessica for your inspiration although I didn't have to act to copy your idea)

Which made me be like this. Now if I was really following Jessica's idea I would show a picture of a cute baby in the back seat laughing at me, but alas I have none. Instead you guys will just have to imagine David laughing at me and my impatience.

Viva New Mexico! Day number two is almost over!!!!

I was really excited at this point because we only had 2 hours to our hotel after these pictures.

5:40 am Eastern Time

That is when we started our trip. At first when we mapped out our path the time was 1 day 8 hours and I would add Oklahoma, New Mexico and possibly Kansas to my list of states. But I wanted to add more states than that, so we did a re-do and I managed to add Tennessee, Mississippi, AND Arkansas for only 3 hours extra. It added 3 hours to our whole trip and even though it was more mileage and gas it cut out all of our toll roads. Based on the few toll roads we have been on so far I'm sure missing them made up for the extra mileage. My personal opinion of toll roads thus far is as follows- EXPENSIVE and NOT at all worth the money.

The only difference in our actual path is we went to Phoenix first then Flagstaff.

First new state license plate of the trip. Tennessee and Kentucky both are BEAUTIFUL states, ah the trees were just gorgeous, it was sad to go to Arkansas after haha. 

Our 20 min detour to Miss's sip

Initially we were a little worried we might actually be stopped by the Mississippi but we made it all the way through the Southern states with no issues.

Last new state of the first day on our journey.

David drove about 2/3 of the first day. I kept saying I would drive whenever he was ready to have a break but he just kept driving. What a great hubby, he definitely takes great care of me!

Toledo Zoo

The Thursday right before David and I started our brave across country pioneer trek we went with some friends to the zoo! It was the first time we had gone since we moved to Toledo. We couldn't have asked for a better day either! The weather was just slightly overcast with a light breeze, enough to prevent sunburn or over heating, but enough to keep us warm and it didn't rain until we were on our way back. Thank you weather for your full corporation. 

This is our friends little boy, he is in nursery with David, and I am in Young Women's with his Mom.

 Seals!

 David and I

 Right when we took this picture we realized he kinda matched me. We were watching the Polar bears fight and rough house (the WHOLE time we were there it was awesome!). He wanted a better look and he actually let me pick him up. You see he isn't particularly fond of nursery and that is what David and I typically represent, haha so he tends to avoid us.

 This is when he realized "WHOA, I just let the nursery lady pick me up... Mommy!"

 David with an octopus on his head

Fish eating my head take one, too happy.

Take two! Now my face is stressed enough.

 Our friends! They all had to go in order to help David and I get in for free, how nice! Thanks!

This is a better picture. Fun day, it made David and I sad to leave the on Saturday. We also went with some of our other friends on our last night and I didn't get any pictures, LAME I know. It was kinda fun because not only was is our last day it was Colin's birthday! Happy Birthday to my little guy, he's 2! Crazy!!!

Had to share this picture, darn he is so cute! Haha, I just love this little goofy face :)