1-20-97
[click on photos for full-size and caption]
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We stayed at Brian and Doug's (a couple recent migrants from Pittsburgh) place in Albuquerque for two nights. On the first morning, we just laid around watching movies, recuperating from driving and the heavy sessions in Colorado. In the afternooon we checked out "old town," the touristy area with lots of indian jewelry and artwork for sale. I bought some souvenirs and said some prayers in an old clay church, St. Phelipe's or something like that. Lambert and I went to Evolve skatepark in the evening. It's probably the best mini-ramp park I've ever skated, really good use of space. There's a half bowl about 4' deep with two hips coming out of it, a vert wall with a doorway to ride over, and a funny escalator wall with a kicker sticking out of the middle. Lambert and I tore the place apart after skating mostly vert and cement pools in the previous week. It was the first time I showed up at a foreign park and the locals were like "damn, where are you guys from?" "Pennsyl-fuckin-vania" we told 'em. The riders there were super chill and friendly. One of them promised to come by Brian and Doug's for some beers and burritos and to give us directions to the nude bowl but he never showed.
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The moral of this story: if someone ever says he can give you directions to the nude bowl, get out the pen and paper right then and there.
So that was last night. We're driving accross New Mexico right now, heading for the Grand Canyon. The landscape is gnarly: plateaus, mountains, volcanoes, red rocks, gold rocks, and long stretches of flat with scrubby vegetation. Our East coast spatial perception is useless out here.
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On the 22nd we drove accross New Mexico and Arizona passing through the petrified national forest in the latter. The landscape was rad, lots of pointy little hills made of soft red dirt which were referred to as 'teepees' and more boulders and plateaus. The big attraction of the park is the petrified wood which I can only describe as multi-colored marble-like rocks in the shape of tree stumps. There's no camping in the national park and they're real sketchy about people trying to steal rocks and stuff.
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We arrived in Flagstaff just as the sun was setting so it was too late to see the Grand Canyon that day. We used our AAA discount at a Day's Inn and soaked our sore muscles in the jacuzzi (like pimps heh heh). It was much colder and snowier in Flagstaff than I expected, there was no way we could camp out. The next morning, the 23rd, we got some weak-ass coffee and complimentary donuts at the hotel and headed for the Grand Canyon. The drive there was intense, I was more impressed with the Colorado Canyon than the big cheese but that's probably because the sky clouded over after a couple quick glimpses. The 'lady' at the booth confiscated my roommate's Golden Eagle pass since we didn't have id to go with it. It costs $20 per person to get into the park (expensive compared to the other NPs) and the cheapest postcard I saw there was 75 cents. I was kinda bummed on the Grand Canyon to say the least. I felt a lot better after a decent cup of coffee and the beautiful drive accross the rest of Arizona and down through the California desert. We went right past Needles, CA - damn that guy in Albuquerque. |
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