Full Circle

We headed out across New Mexico from Santa Fe, spending our first night in a beautiful campsite just south of Grants, NM, where we got to watch a great sunset as we adjusted to life back in Bones- we had gotten a little out of the rhythm of cooking and washing dishes and keeping warm during the time we'd gotten to spend out of the camper. We made it happily through the night with a bit more cribbage playing and curling up early in our sleeping bags.

The next day it was off to Canyon de Chelly in northeastern Arizona, where we had heard about the ruins in the canyon. We got there early enough in the afternoon to do the only publicly accessible hike in the canyon (it's on Navajo Reservation land), and see the cliff ruins at the canyon floor. We stopped on our way back to the campsite at a couple of the viewpoints to watch the sunlight disappear from the swirled sandstone canyon walls.
Looking down into Canyon de Chelly

The White House Ruins at the end of our hike into the Canyon

Sunset at Canyon De Chelly

Sunday we were off for a long drive to the Grand Canyon. We had decided to take a secondary highway through Arizona, and drove across the Navajo and Hopi reservations that stretch out through the northern part of the state. We arrived at the eastern entrance to Grand Canyon National Park late in the afternoon, and had just enough time to pick out a camp site before heading to the rim to see the sunset. We warmed up with a cocktail looking out over the dark canyon, and then headed back to the camper for a delicious crab mac and cheese dinner.

Walking along the Trail of Time

The last of the daylight shining out on the north rim of the canyon

On day two in the canyon we set out for a short hike, the weather was absolutely beautiful as we took the bus to the South Kaibab trailhead. Sadly for Kiska, she couldn't come down in the canyon so she got a bit of nap time in the camper. We hiked for a couple hours, which was plenty considering the 2000 feet of elevation we lost and gained in that time. We were humored at the restroom stop a mile and half down the trail which bared a large sign with the words, "CAUTION: UP IS MANDATORY." Which seems silly, but it is quite easy to see how one might hike merrily down the trail a ways, forgetting they had to climb back up the whole of the distance they had come. We enjoyed our earned reward of pizza and beer later that night, and warmed up for a long time in the pizza pub before returning to the chilly night awaiting outside.
Kelsey at Ooh Ahh Point

Looking down and across to where the trail lead

Even Kiska gets nervous when Nate travels to the edge of the rim

Tuesday morning Kelsey got Nathan out of bed extra early so they could make it out to the rim in time for the sunrise. The sunrise on a clear morning out over the canyon is just one of those things that should been seen in a lifetime. It was also in many ways the perfect ending to our trip. A sunrise on a new beginning and a new part of life, even though it marked the end of our adventure in Bones.

Tuesday afternoon we headed off towards Prescott, Arizona to visit a close friend of ours from Sisters. It was just a short day long detour, but was great to get to explore the area and spend some time with friends. We also enjoyed two very delicious dinners made by Kelly and Danny.

Leaving Prescott, we had planned about five to six days to drive home, but after waking up to snow and spending the first two hours of the drive in a white-out that packed the windshield (luckily this was the first and only time we had to drive in snowy conditions on the trip), we decided just to B-line for Sisters, and do the drive in three long days. Bones has no heater, so when it's cold outside and the suns not out, it gets a bit chilly while we drive... Not to mention our water (and Kiska's water bowl as well) were frozen in the mornings. The first night we stayed in the town of Beatty, Nevada, right next to Death Valley. Then it was off to Winnemucca, where Bones got egged while we were sitting inside it parked outside the restaurant where we'd had dinner. (Seriously? Who eggs a peaceful hippie van? Bad karma for them, is what I think. Nate says it is a balancing of justice for all the pranks he pulled as a high schooler)
It's safe to say that Bones is not a huge fan of the snow

The last day we headed north from there and crossed the Oregon border (!), and decided to take a small detour from the town of Feilds up to the Alvord Desert, a place where Nathan had many memories of camping with Dave, but Kelsey had never been. Almost the whole of the desert was covered in a thin layer of ice, just about an inch, so we skated out to the middle to take in the beautiful day and scenery around us. Just a little farther up the road was a great hot spring where we took the opportunity to thaw out before bundling back up for the drive home.
Kiska was so happy to be out of Bones for a while that she forgot the ice could be a bit slippery when she had to slow down and break from a sprint like this

The Steens provided a great background

The sun set as we drove across eastern Oregon, but in the brilliant orange light we could start to make out the tips of the Three Sisters mountains, a hundred miles in the distance. We have traveled and seen many beautiful places, but there is never anything like coming home and seeing the first glimpse of the mountains that we know so well. We made it home about 7 pm, to a welcoming house full of friends and a very heart warming fall squash lasagna. Nathan is settling back into a routine of bar studying, and Kelsey is on the search for jobs in between holiday baking and time to run and hike in the beautiful Central Oregon December weather.

Thanks for following along on our Adventure, and for all the support! We had such a great time, look forward to doing something similar again someday, and encourage everyone to find the time for adventuring to some of the great places that surround us! We'll keep you all updated on our future plans!

Thanksgiving in New Mexico

We left Colorado a week ago Friday, got everything all packed back up in the camper and hit the road. We drove all the way to Santa Fe, NM that afternoon, the longest drive we've made so far in Bones. I'm pretty sure it was uphill the whole way, and Bones struggled to go much above 50 on the freeway. We rolled into town about 6:30, just a few minutes before Kelsey's family came up from Albuquerque. We hadn't seen the Newports since leaving Sisters, so we were all so excited that we had actually made it to the Thanksgiving meetup in New Mexico. We headed out for a round of margaritas and New Mexican food (fry bread taco, yum) to celebrate at the Blue Corn Cafe.

Saturday morning we first headed to the farmers market in the rail yard district, and then went out to do some exploring. We drove up to the ski area where there was already lots of snow, and then went for a short hike. Then we went back for an amazing dinner at the Coyote Cafe.


Kelsey with her parents!

Sunday morning we met up with some friends of friends who live in Santa Fe for a breakfast of huevos rancheros and blue corn pancakes, and talked about some hiking and exploring ideas for the week. Rich, who grew up close to Santa Fe and has been back for a number of years, offered to give us a couple tours around. That afternoon we went to an area where several hundred petroglyphs lined a rock wall, and then went out to an old pueblo site where we pick up shards of painted pots from a few hundred years ago when the natives lived there.


Rich showing Kelsey's mom the petroglyphs


Headed out to look for pottery shards at the old pueblo

Monday was set aside to do some shopping, and late that evening our friends Tom and Peggy arrived from Colorado. Tuesday we were all set to meet up with Rich for another day of exploring, but first we had to take Kiska off to be boarded, since we had gotten caught with her in our car, and she was not supposed to be on the hotel property. We were very sad to make her spend thanksgiving away, but knew we would get back to exploring with her soon.

We drove out north and towards Abiquiu, making several stops along the way to see where the first Spanish churches were set up and the adobe houses of the native villages that were slowly melting back to the earth. We explored in some beautiful white, red and yellow rock canyons, and then went up to Ghost Ranch where Georgia O'Keefe lived and painted many of the hills surrounding it.


Nathan in the white rocks


Rock hunting





In the sunset on the red rock

Wednesday morning Kelsey, Debbie and Peggy went to the Santa Fe School of Cooking to take a tamale making class. We made four different kinds of tamales, pork, chicken, veggie and a pineapple dessert tamale with a peanut chili sauce. They were all so delicious, and the boys all benefited from our taking the class. Then we did some consignment shopping in the afternoon, (where Kelsey scored a pair of amazing Frye boots!!) and went to the jewelry market at the palace of the governors, where local native artisans sell their wares. That night we had a wonderful dinner at Cafe Pasquals, a really good local foodie place, kind of the Chez Panisse of New Mexico.



Thanksgiving day we set out early to hike in Bandelier National Monument, where there are cliff dwellings and adobe pueblo remnants. We hiked along the trail and got to climb into some of the dwellings that have been part of the community.


Ruins of the big community center of the village in Bandelier


Climbing into one of the dwellings, many of them were fairly spacious


The whole gang!

We then joined Rich and his wife at their house for a marvelous thanksgiving dinner, and beautiful sunset over Santa Fe, and a rock contest to end the night, where we each submitted the favorite rock that we had found over the week.


Sunset from their house


Story time, with a art piece made from a combination of several of our rocks

Friday morning we got up and headed out west on the highway for the first time since the beginning of our trip. We're going out through Arizona, then up north and back to Oregon. We probably won't be out too much longer, the nights are getting long and cold and while the weather is holding now we don't want to push it too much into December.

Passing time in Colorado

The last two weeks that we've been here in Colorado have flown by, and we can't believe it's time to head out again already. We've slowly been working up the motivation to get back in the camper after getting so settled in to a warm house and daily showers. Luckily, we only have a short drive to meet up with Kelsey's parents in Santa Fe for Thanksgiving, so we don't have to adjust back to the camper life just yet.

For having been here a while, it's hard to think back on what exactly we've been doing. Kelsey has passed a lot more time knitting, making a pair of fingerless gloves for Nate and Heather. And baking, -thanks to Caitlin's facebook post found a recipe for the best vanilla latte cookies ever!!


Nathans gloves


Cookies!!! Make these they're amazing: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1gNzDr/sugarcrafter.net/2011/11/03/vanilla-latte-cookies/

Kiska has been napping on the floor and playing frisbee in the grassy lawn on the Colorado College campus, as well as going on lots of runs and walks. And Nathan has been getting to spend a lot of time with his bother Noah, as well as helping his mom out with her new blog and website for her book. We also joined Noah with some of his friends for poker two weekends in a row, in which we placed in the top three both times, Nathan winning the second game. Then we've been having great meals with Nathan's family and playing games, like cribbage and scrabble.

We also took a trip up to Boulder for a night, went on a nice afternoon hike just outside of town in Chataqua park, and then met up with Patrick, a friend of Kelsey's from Occidental, for beers and dinner. Unfortunately, taking pictures got forgotten, so we have no visual record of that trip to share :(

We have continued to be fortunate with the weather as snow only showed up for a couple hours one day, and didn't stick around. We even went on a nice bike ride up to Garden of the Gods with Heather and Dave, enjoying another wonderful sunny afternoon here.



For our last night here, Dave is making his famous curry which we have been looking forward to since, well, the trip started and we knew we were going to make it here. Then it's off to more adventures in New Mexico tomorrow!

Bones in the driveway, us in the house

We have been here in Colorado Springs with Dave and Heather for over a week now, and it has been so wonderful! A nice break from the road, we have enjoyed the daily showers, warm bed, and full sized kitchen to cook in. We have been running through the park, going to yoga, and just spending lazy days lounging around.

Before arriving here, we left Montrose and explored the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. We had a beautiful day to see the gorgeous canyon walls, and got our first little bit of snow!


The Black Canyon


Hiking along the canyon rim


Little snowman, which Kiska did not fully appreciate and promptly trampled...


The "painted wall," largest sheer cliff in Colorado

We then stopped in Gunnison to see where Kels's dad was born, which was actually a pretty cool little college town. We had planned on stopping for just a few minutes then making more progress towards the Springs, but could not get the car started up again (no turnover). We hadn't had this issue yet, but we know it wasn't the battery because the lights and radio still worked. Luckily, Gunnison is one of the friendliest towns, and several people stopped to ask if they could help. We kept saying we were fine, but finally a retired cop and home mechanic with a souped-up jeep insisted that he would push us a few blocks down the road with his car while we tried to start the car. To our surprise, it worked! But we stayed in the city to avoid any night time car trouble, and saved the driving for the morning. We found a park to take Kiska, which had by far the best playground we've seen on the trip, so both the dog and Kelsey were fully entertained for the evening.


Bones in front of the Brewery in Gunnison, before we knew he wasn't going to start back up...

We awoke in the morning to a chilly 24 degrees inside the camper, and ice inside the windshield where the fog usually is. Dave had sent us encouragement the night before in the form of a text saying that he once tried to get over the 11,000 foot pass we were headed for in his Westfalia camper, but didn't make it and had to turn around and find a different route. So not only were we freezing, but clearly had another big driving challenge ahead. We dropped all the weight we could from Bones, stopped for cofhead and headed out hoping for the best, especially since there really aren't any passes on the Rockies that are much under 11,000 ft.


The ice on the inside of the windshield


The downhill

We safely made it over the pass with not too much trouble at all, and were very thankful for the beautiful day for traveling and no snow on the road. With the pass behind us it was just a short couple hours before we made it to the house. When we got to the city, we stopped to give Kis a bath, which she did not exactly enjoy, but she was so fresh and clean and soft for our arrival to see Nate's parents! We pulled into the driveway around 2 in the afternoon, and got to show off all of our improvements to Bones, which was once Dave's. We then enjoyed nice hot showers and a wonderful homemade lasagna by Heather.

Sunday was another beautiful day, and we went for a nice hike up in the side canyons near the city.


Nathan with his mom, Heather, and Dave


On the hike, with the plains of the city just barely in view in the background

Monday was Halloween, and Heather had planned a party for friends to come over for dinner and candy distribution. We had been looking at the box of candy sitting in the entryway for the previous two days, and been a little skeptical that we were really going to go through twelve Costo sized bags of candy. We spent the day helping cook and get ready for the party, and then took post at the door starting at about 5. Kelsey, having grown up out in the woods, had never really experienced trick-or-treaters like this. The sidewalk in both directions along the block was crowded all evening, and we had a line of costume decked kids coming to the door for over two hours.


Halloween feast, Kelsey made so many wonderful things! Heather was happy to show off her future daughter-in-law


In position in the yard for costume spectating, with Edmund their dog dressed up in his hotdog costume


Kelsey getting to hand out candy


The line of trick or treaters outside the house and on the sidewalk


We got Kis a halloween toy since she didn't have her squirrel costume this year, and she was quite content to tear it apart and pull out all the stuffing.

The rest of the week Kelsey has kept busy knitting, baking, and planning the wedding decorations :), and Nathan has enjoyed getting to spend some time playing video games and watching sports with his brother Noah. We've been walking the dog around the block, taking advantage of the time to spend with family, and just enjoying the simplicity of things.


Mittens to keep Kelsey's fingers warm


Maple Buttermilk pie from 101cookbooks, so good!


Walking around in Garden of the Gods, Nate's bro Noah on the left

We will be here for another week or so before meeting Kelsey's family in Santa Fe for Thanksgiving!