Vagabender

Thanks for posting all this kool stuff guys.. I hope to do a cross country trip some day and your dialogues have given me great inspiration. Have fun in the Deep South and be sure to get some southern comfort..

hey!

hope you're having a big damn blast in the southwest. i myself just rolled in to albuquerque today from monument valley, utah. if i'd a been paying better attnetion to your itinerary maybe i could have conviced my adventure buddy to drive up to moab to meet you guys. we talked a lot about the vagabender and the awesome nature of the idea - including but not limited to the brilliance of the website journal with mailing list and access to people all over the country as resources.

we hung out in the park and slept under the stars. i played harmonica and we pretended we were cowboys. it was rad. we took a horseback riding tour, whose kitchyness and tourista factor was way outweighed by its total righteousness. with us was this american indian guy who was born in florence and lives in florida. he was one of the most gorgeous human beings on the planet.

i'm glad to see you're finding that vanishing america. i don't know how much time you've spent in the southwest, but it's not so vanishing sometimes down here. for a genuine look into what the old and glamorized west (route 66 style) must have been like then i can recommend nothing better than a trip through the rez. it's worth going out of your way to bomb through the giant navajo and hopi reservations in northwestern arizona (dry, btw). just get off the interstates. bang. it looks from your travel plan like you might be able to run down past canyon de'chelley before popping onto the big interstate again. after having just been through two days ago, i'll you that canyon de'chelley is one of the most gorgeous places in the southwest, as far as i'm concerned. and i been all over the southwest.

most quotable piece of our monument valley / canyon de'chelley trip

Summer: should we keep going?
Sam: yeah. let's head to mexican hat, babe.

it was only later that we realized that we were in a cowboy movie in that scene.

i also recommend a jaunt through northern new mexico. as opposed to southern new mexico. you've got a place to crash in albuquerque (home of the greatest food known to man), but it looks like the travel plan might not hold it. carlsbad caverns are pretty righteous. the roswell alien museum is a blast to check out. so.... unique, and pathetic, and... captivating. like much of roswell. like nowhere else. everything is alien: alien french fries, alien blowjobs, alien jewelry... some of the people from around the country might still be there: i think this weekend is the annual gigantic fesival of alien something or other. but don't quote me on that. my advice from having lived through many a new mexican summer with no AC is to use the new mexican swamp cooler: windows down, and every hundred miles or so, pour water on your shirt. way more gas efficient than ac, and surprisingly effective, even in hot hot weather. just so long as you don't mind the shaggy and scooby look it encourages.