3,000 and change

That's a big peach!

And so another adventure begins. I guess you can call it that. Trip numero cinco across the U.S. of A. So, here's a collection of pictures, mostly taken out the window of the car. It may have been in motion at the time but I can't divulge that sort of possibly incriminating information.
Man, took me long enough to get these pictures up. You might be thinking that I just made it to California. No. In fact I'm just a bum and have been here for a good week, not even doing that much (other than being a bum). But, here at last. If only the pictures were more impressive. I'll have to work on that over the next few months. Better things to come I'm sure.

I don't know what the deal is with this one...Are donuts on the downhill?

and this is about all Leland has going for it...could be worse though. You can't go wrong with Kermit.

Texas in a nutshell. Or, perhaps a slightly crooked picture, if you want to get technical. You'd think I'd have a few more pictures of Texas since it takes FOREVER to drive through and I stopped for a few days in Lubbock but I have to say, in the winter, it is just not that appealing. Very brown and for the most part flat with a plethora of skunk and the occasional armadillo roadkill. That and tumbleweeds in the parking lot. Awesome.

Oh wait, the train was in Texas too. Woo! Now that's a tricky one. Taking a picture of a train that is moving one direction while you are going the other and getting the camera to realize you want it to focus on the moving object.

Rainbow...wah, wah, wah...

I went for a little detour through Arizona. Highways are fun and all, but frankly they can get a little old. I must say I don't usually associate snow with Arizona. That whole desert theme is what usually comes to mind but as it turns out the White Mountains are fairly appropriately named as is the town of Snow Flake. Show Low is where things started to get a little dicey, what with it actively snowing and all. Lucky for me I was headed west and not south or east because the weather seemed worse that way. Naturally, I don't bother to ever look in to the weather conditions in advance. I just drive into them. Keeps you on your toes. Kind of like my knack for ending up in the wrong parts of town, any town, I'm not particular. Some people are just special like that.
Anyway, there are a bunch of snow pictures driving through various National forests. In places I couldn't stop to take pictures even if I wanted to because there was simply no where to pull off the road. Too much of the white stuff. It was lovely though when I wasn't worried about my car getting stuck. Nothing like being prepared for bad weather...or not...

So, for future notice, when you see something like this in the distance it doesn't bode well as far as driving conditions are concerned. First of all, I spent the night in Barstow, which, in case you were curious is not the nicest of towns. At any rate, the next day I proceeded on my merry way towards Bakersfield with the misguided intention of crossing the mountains in Tehachapi. Nope! Wrong! Do not pass go. And certainly don't cross the mountains here. Bam. Of course why they can't share this information in, say, Barstow where all the highways intersect and alternate routes are readily available is beyond me. Instead, they wait and let you know at the last minute. Great. Lovely welcome to California. Thanks a lot!

Ok, the detour wasn't all that bad. It was insanely windy in Mojave (where the whole detour issue came up) so I was alright with leaving. I was pretty sure my bike would fly of the back of the car at any minute. We're talking 30-40mph winds. No joke and it wasn't exactly toasty out either (if the snow didn't give that away). Apparently it must be windy like that a lot down there because (and I'm bummed I don't have a picture) all trees that are planted around the houses are growing at an angle, all slanty like. It's pretty crazy looking, trust me. I'm not entirely sure why you'd live somewhere that was windy enough to make the trees grow funky like that but maybe they get some good kite flying out of it.

After dealing with a few more flurries, it was into the valley and out of the snow. So green.

And that big bridge. You may have heard of it before. It's kind of famous and what not.

The port-a-potty is camouflage!! How great is that?

Yay for little owls that live underground! So ridiculously cute.

And that's a wrap, at least for the time being, until I get inspired to A) take more pictures and B) post them.