Denver, or pretend Las Vegas.

So, when we originally started planning this trip, we decided to go to Las Vegas. Neither of us had been, and we both wanted a true Vegas experience.  After all the jack knifing and breaking down, we couldn't afford it. So, Albequerque and Denver was our Vegas. Denver really came through for us.
We decided to go all out and get a hotel room, get jazzy and clean and get out on the town.

This will be an abbreviated post, since all we did was drink too much. We had a goooooood time though.

I don't wanna hear no sass! You'll get my 80s Jordache pose if I do.

Great Sand Dunes

Colorado! The further North we go, the better the states get. We left Taos in the afternoon, and pulled into Alamosa in the early evening. We passed through the San Luis Valley, where they have some of the highest UFO sightings in the world. The Native Americans say the valley is the mouth of the Earth, where the Earth speaks to the rest of the universe (I may have just made that up). Anyways, BOY, was it cold. 24 degrees to be exact. Our summer dresses and shorts are definitly not doing us anything, except make us look dumb. We did our best to stay warm and get some sleep for the next big day.

So the Great Sand Dune National Park didn't exactly get us at hello. We wouldn't have even gone unless we needed to stop and break up the trip through Colorado.  When we asked the guy at the RV camp we stayed at about it, his response was "Well, it's just a lot of sand, man." We had pretty low expectations.
Turns out the Great Sand Dune National Park is pretty cool. Once you get past that it's just a lot of sand, it was really pretty. The park is in a valley, up against the snow capped mountains. So turn your head one way and you are in the mountains, turn it the other way and you are in the desert. WEIRD.

The highest of the dunes is a little over 750 ft, and most people were walking up to the top. So of course Lin and I weren't going to be out-fitnessed by a bunch of old Germans, we're going to the top darnit. We walked and walked up and down and flat. You know that feeling when you are walking out on to the beach for the first time, and you are tired but you don't care because you are so excited about the ocean? It was kind of like that but with no climax. No ocean. Just more uphill sand dune walking. We made it about 150-200 ft up and the Germans with the walkers were passing us. Not really, but I feel like the Germans as a nation are exceptionally fit. Keep in mind we've been sitting in a car for four weeks. We called it a day.

We headed back to the car, shook out our boots and continued North.



the high road to taos

To get to Taos you can either take some really lame freeway, or you can take the high road. Who would ever pick the freeway, camper or no camper? Someone lame, that's who. We rolled into town kinda late, got a cup of coffee, made some friends, and headed towards the Wal-Mart. Since Taos is a ski town we assumed it would be too expensive to stay for long. We got to the Wal-Mart and were immediately skeezed out by the three El Caminos following us around like we were the last women on Earth. Like we've said earlier, Wal-Marts aren't bad. But there are times to follow your gut and go shell out 30 bucks for a camp site. El Caminos never mean anything good.

Taos is b-e-a-utiful. We really wanted to get out and get some fitness, but the weather was nice one minute, and cold and snowy the next. So we did what we could, and saw a big ol' bridge:

Notice my killer bear sweater.

After the Rio Grande bridge, we hit up the local pueblo. At first we were a little put off by all the tourism in the reservation, but we soon were pleasantly surprised by the town and its locals. Now, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. In fact, it was mostly snowy and slushy and cold. When we first got to the pueblo and were paying the admittance fee, several rich bitchy women were behind us complaining that they would have to walk outside in the elements, and it just wasn't worth it. Ugh! We will never be those women...hopefully.

Anyways, the pueblo was really interesting. We met some fun characters too, like this little boy:



His name is Dylan, and that's his gun.

Taos was also our first taste of the cold. We didn't realize how cold it would get at night, and are really thankful Billyray through in a heater when we bought the camper.

After the pueblo, we packed up and headed North, a new state awaits!