Day 13: Austin-Houston, Day 14: Houston

Day 13: Austin-Houston
Miles: 165
Time Driven: 3 hours 13 minutes
Texas is big. We've been driving across Texas for a long time. Our total driving time in Texas will add up to almost 14 hours.
Day 14
Jennifer met another friend, while I visited Rice University. It's a surprisingly quiet and somewhat secluded campus, given its location in the middle of Houston. It's too hot here in the summer though. We walked around in heat Around the upper 90s. Bleh. Tomorrow, we'll reach New Orleans!

(I haven't found anything that worthwhile to take a picture of in Texas the past few days.)

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Day 11: San Angelo-Austin, Day 12: Austin

Day 11
Miles: 205
Time driven: 3 hours 39 minutes
States: Still Texas..
No pictures today, since Texas is quite boring to drive through.

Day 12
While Jennifer visited her high school friend, we went to the natural history museum and saw lots of fossils. We also ate at an Indian restaurant, which had a wait time of around an hour. I don't really like Indian food, but it was good.









Sea Turtle Fossil






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Day 10: Carlsbad Caverns-San Angelo

Miles: 320
Time Driven: 6 hours 35 minutes
States Crossed: New Mexico, Texas
The first part of the day was spent touring the very impressive cave. More than 80 stories deep, either an elevator or a hiking trail descends into the cave. We hiked down,but took the elevator up. We had planned on staying another night in Carlsbad, but we decided to drive instead and cut down the next day's drive. There was some bad weather and a lack of hotels (Western Texas is very isolated, the mileage between exits can be around 30 miles), so the driving time was longer.






























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Day 9: White Sands-Carlsbad Caverns

Miles: 223
Time Driven: 4 hours 3 minutes
States Crossed: New Mexico
We started off the day by sledding at White Sands National Monument. The sand was rather cool in the hot sun, and was actually pleasant enough. We carved a path down the hill to slide down. Wax helped keep sand off the sled. We then drove to Carlsbad Caverns where we saw the nightly bat flight. Each night at dusk, thousands of bats leave the cave for food. Unfortunately pictures weren't allowed and the flight wasn't as impressive as pictures online, due to the lightning.

Click video to play







Waiting for bats

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Day 8: Albuquerque-Alamogordo (White Sands Area)

Miles: 282
Time Driven: 4 hours 43 minutes
Today mostly involved sightseeing at White Sands Missile Range and White Sands National Monument. To get into the missile range required a security check. There was also another 'border' check on a highway. We saw a huge dust storm and encountered howling winds at White Sands, but the bright color of the gypsum sand against the gray skies looked cool. The sand is blazing white, extremely refined, and surprisingly cool (in temperature) amidst the hot desert surroundings. It is the remains of ancient oceans.



Dust Storm









































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Day 7: Grand Canyon-Albuquerque

Miles: 407
Time Driven: 6 hours 54 minutes
States Crossed: Arizona, New Mexico
Today, we encountered some inclement weather, including heavy rain and thunderstorms. The drive was fine though, and we stopped at Petrified Forest National Park, fossilized wood and petroglyphs. Today was our first night at a hotel after three consecutive nights of camping.

Elk at campsite



Petroglyphs




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Day 6: Grand Canyon National Park

We spent today touring around the park. We did a hike/shuttle combination over 5 miles. Then, we went to the visitors center and geology museum. Grand Canyon is impressive for its combination of width and depth, but it lacks the variety of other parks such as Arches.










Colorado River










Trails into the canyon



















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