Texas Road Trip, part II

Lydia and I are now in Brownwood, Texas, staying with some very dear friends of mine. We are on day 6 (!!) of our awesome road trip from Hayden, CO to Laredo, TX. :)  Today I am going to post pictures through Monday's adventures, which ended somewhere in New Mexico (I forget what city, but not far from Colorado!).

Arches!!! I had seen this awesome park on Dad's and my road trip from Eugene, OR to Hayden, CO, but Lydia had never seen it. :)

Tree or Fence Lizard. Nice to see a non Side-blotched Lizard for a change!

Arches NP is beautiful.

these formations are aptly named, "Windows".

"Garden of Eden" (that's the name of this area)

Biological soil crust! This area is really cool and fragile. I read or heard on the video we watched, that it can take 200 years to repair once damaged.

Delicate Arch.

it wasn't real birdy, but we went down to this "river" or former river, to see birds. No birds there, but cool scenery.

beautiful!

fall-blooming Indian Paintbrush!

AWESOME Tiger Beetle!!!!!!!

oh my.....we went to this RIDICULOUS place called Hole 'N The Rock. It had a crazy museum thing.

Kramer the camel!! They had a zoo there. I was kinda worried about how the animals were treated, what their living conditions were, etc. But they seemed totally and utterly fine, and all had a shady area to sleep in, etc. etc. :)

Lydia feeds Kramer!

The ostrich!

um yeah this was seconds before the llama SPIT and I got pieces of chewed-up carrot on me, etc......pretty gross-smelling. 0__o Still, I had never been spit on by a llama before, and although I would have been okay if I never did get spit on, it was kinda all part of the experience!!!!

slightly creepy Groucho Marx face, with lovely red rocks in background.

very very good to know. :)

So this couple lived in the "Hole 'N The Rock" for many years. We took a guided tour, but weren't allowed to take any pictures inside. It's pretty darn awesome though, and cool in temperature as well! It's carpeted, furnished, etc.

I found him!

beautiful cholla blossom.

And yes, that is a carving of the face of FD Roosevelt in the rock.....

we camped at Mesa Verde National Park that night!!!! Lydia helped me fiddle around with the manual settings on my camera to get a cool shot of the campfire and the moon. :D The moon was SO bright that we cast shadows. I love when that happens.

yum!

awesome night sky.

next morning we were able to see some cool parts of Mesa Verde.

lovely oaks.

We got to see the Spruce Tree House! It's not a treehouse at all, but one of the cliff dwellings where the people used to live many many years ago!!!!!

Here's a lizard we saw on our walk down. Just to break up the monotony and all.

me in front of the ruins!!!!

the beautiful light dappled over the bridge.

In this photo you can see oak, Douglas Fir (I think that's the coniferous tree in this pic; Doug Fir was indeed there; I know, because I saw a sign about it), and prickly pear. What a funny juxtaposition of plants!!!

the American flag flying high.

we had come in in the dark the previous night, so we got pics of us with the sign on the way out.

of course we had to go to four corners!!!!!

Lydia and I pose, good friends despite being each of us being states apart. :)

we stayed that night at a hotel in New Mexico, and I found this adorable little bat clinging to the top of the wall in an outdoor hallway outside our room. He was up at the top of the wall near the ceiling, hanging vertically. I was kind of worried about him because I took this picture around 11 pm, when I thought he should be out hunting. But maybe he had already filled his belly! What a cutie, at any rate.