Miss B

Despite the wait at Chuy's being more than an hour long, B responded with her typical grace. ;)

How's Annie?

Annie is one of Stephen and Belinda's dogs. I believe Betsy and Annie have a certain wild symaptico that really shown through as the night progressed. ;)

B, Reflecting

We clambered up to the top floors and watched the Mariachi band from above. I would like to say Betsy was rapt by the band, but I think this may have been her bored face -- however, the distance in this 14mm shot allows me to project emotions I'd like onto the scene. ;)

Fun story about the capitol: As we entered it, we had to walk through a metal detector. Betsy stopped and said, "Oh, do I have to give up my knife?" when her (largest you can get) Swiss army knife set off the detector. "Nah", said the guard, "That's not nearly big enough!", as he made bowie-knife shaped motions to indicate the largest-sized weapon allowed inside.

Fortunately, unlike one of the towns in Utah we drove through, owning a weapon was not required, but I felt a little under-equipped the whole time I was there.

B Hooded

If Betsy seems a little browmpy here, it's not just from excess photography (a definite possibility even in the best of times), it's that we just saw the Georgia O'Keefe museum, which was a little underwhelming. I'm a big fan, and I was expecting rooms of Georgia O'Keefe -- what we got was one room, and then an exhibition of American painters and their use of photography. Which, given my monomania about photography, you'd think I would love. It was interesting, but.. I could see that sort of thing at SF Moma. I wanted more O'Keefe!

Later in the day, we complained to our concierge about this ("needed more O'Keefe!"), and she commiserated. "That's a frequent complaint from guests", she said.

The other reason Betsy was wearing her hoodie: It was actually cold in Santa Fe. Not only was it cold, we were actually briefly hailed on while there -- we had expected desert conditions, but apparently the weather was wonky everywhere we went.

Bye to Monument Valley

After a few hours in the valley, it was time to head on. We took a few shots from this vista, and changed drivers (we went from 'taciturn' to 'asked us if we had any ink, dude?'), and made our way back to the hotel and our car.

Next Stop: Santa Fe

B in Zion

Miles hiked by B in Zion: 17
Miles hiked by me: 3.2

B at the Grand Canyon

Well, Betsy *and* some tourists, but she felt like they added some verisimilitude to the scene.

The Lady and the Mcdonalds

Our path from Palm Springs to Vegas took us through Barstow, which after visiting, I now understand why Hunter S. Thompson had to have his drugs take hold here. ;)

The chief attraction is this McDonald's they have set up as a train station, surrounded by all the things you might never expect McDonald's to sit still for: "Thrifty Ice Cream Store", fortune telling machines, gas station, Panda Express (!). Somebody in charge of brand control for them probably has a heart attack every time they see pictures of the place -- definitely grandfathered in from an earlier era. Best part, you eat your meal in the train cars, which have been set up with normal McDonalds booths.

More disturbingly, the cellular network cut out about 30 miles south of Barstow. I figured it was just being out in the desert, but it wasn't working anywhere in town either. Curious, we stopped to get gas -- and found that the credit card machines weren't working. Went to this McDonald's station, and the card readers were out there too. When I asked the girl at the counter, she said, "Oh, it's because the cells are all down. It's because of the sonic booms."

What?

We went outside, trying to figure out if the girl was just pulling our leg, or some sort of sonic boom had knocked an antenna loose. Right as we were discussing it, boom -- sonic, that is! We both jumped about a foot in the air as we worried it was an earthquake.

Cell network was still off, too -- and it stayed off until we crossed the Nevada border.

Why would sonic booms be disrupting the cell network? All sorts of bad X-files episode plots ran through my head, and I was almost ready to Believe the military was doing some sort of testing out in the desert. Well, that or a fiber cut. But I like the idea of an experimental EMP test better, since that made the internet withdrawal easier to take.

Sunbathing

We both did what we do best when we got to the Coral Sands -- Betsy sunbathed and read out by the pool, and I took a nap. When I woke up, this is what I saw. :)

Cheers

A friend of ours was getting married in Novato this weekend, so we decided to start the road trip right after that. We drove over to Guerneville, and holed up in a little place called the West Sonoma Inn. One of the primary reasons for picking it was the hot tub out on the deck, which we immediately put to good use with some morning mimosas and champagne.

I noticed Betsy looked really good framed by champagne glasses, and I was a little daring and got the camera with us in the tub. Totally worth it. :)