Into Arizona, on to Nevada

We couldn't leave New Mexico without venturing down to Roswell to see some aliens. So we did. On arrival it's exactly what one would expect; pictures of aliens everywhere, cafes named 'out of this world cafe', even their wal-mart was adorned with massive green men with big eyes-the same went for all of their street lamps. So the answer is yes, they are completely milking the fact that something may or may not have happened there in 1948 and now it's their biggest source of income through tourism. So we went to the museum and had a look around, but it has to be said-although things are a bit vague as to what actually happened, we mainly had to laugh at the whole thing. The area 51 phenomenon interested us a considerable amount more.

We came into Arizona and drove to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, named so because of the fallen trees from millions of years ago that were petrified by minerals and have been solidified. Thousands of these fallen barks cover the floor of the petrified forest and almost seem fake. I myself, no driving license and never having taken a professional driving lesson drove across the painted desert-a good chunk of the 30 miles it took to cross it, I had the others in a probable state of fear at my attempt to drive like a normal person.

After the driving incident we continued on to Holbrook-another side-of-the-road kind of old school town where we stayed in a wigwam in the wigwam motel-an excellent choice of boarding, complete with old cars from the 50s parked outside-just for the complete picture.

We drove along the open road to Flagstaff-the nearest city to the Grand Canyon. The elevation here brought us back into snowy territory, not something that any of us were jumping up and down about. Seen as not too much was going on in Flagstaff, minus a bar we went into at 3 in the afternoon full of salt of the earth old Americans, most of whom were already obliterated.

Of course we stopped off at the Grand Canyon, what a sight to behold. The scale of it is quite hard to comprehend and the widest of wide angle lenses could not fit it's entirety. Keep in mind the bit that most people see is less than 20% of the canyon, to see the whole thing properly I reckon a helicopter is the only option. Seen as our finances didn't cover such a luxury, it was back to the van for us.

Over the state line and into Nevada so we could 'do' Vegas. We drove in at night-passing by the hoover dam on the way-which was pretty amazing looking at night. Coming into Vegas was like an overload of neon and a massive hub for electrical waste. We stayed in the Hard Rock Hotel and from our moment of arrival, we never wanted to leave. Our first night was full of drinks, dancing and gambling-I being the only one of us who actually made money, but I'm sensible like that. The following days were another blur of overpriced casinos, roof top clubs and more roulette. I can see how Vegas sucks people in, I most definitely will be back.

Westbound on 66

On the road again, this time heading to Austin, TX. Their catchphrase being 'Keep Austin Weird', gives the visitor something unusual to expect. Not outright the weirdest place I've been-all the same, Austin had it's quirkiness and a different vibe that was a pleasant suprise in Texas-the apparent 'best place on earth' according to many of it's natives. We partied with an amazing group of wholesome vegans who showed us the fun to be had in party games. We went down to 6th street at night-famous for it's nightlife and closed off at night to make way for the heard of pedestrians that take over the road. The weather in Austin nearly killed us, reaching near 30 degrees each day. The van decided to pack in a couple of times too-maybe similarly affected by the sun. When we got it started again, we took no chances and hit the road once again.

From Austin we had a quick stopover in Dallas. Seen as there isn't a huge amount to do in Dallas we headed to the book depository, saw where Kennedy was shot and then took a trip down the road to look at George W. Bush's new digs. Unfortunately the road was closed. Dallas seemed to have much more of a Texan feel, and it's true, they do shout instead of talking. We failed to come across a saloon in the city, but there were an abundance of cowboy boots along the way to keep us happy.

Once we headed up to Amarillo we could easily join back up with route 66. The road is of course not what it used to be and many parts of it are undrivable. At such parts we'd have to come back onto the interstate on stretches. There are still attractions along the way all the same. One of which I've wanted to see for years-the Cadillac Ranch. We found it off the old road on a stretch of desert, 10 Cadillacs protruding from the ground open for artists and travellers alike to inscribe them with spraypaint or by other means.

Other attractions along the way included retro cafes, an uninhabited route 66 museum complete with a cowboy boot tree, motel after motel and the open road of course. We drove through one street towns, Indian reservations, old cowboy towns with no signs of the 21st century and stretches and stretches of nothing. The roads through New Mexico and into Arizona are dead mans land, there is nothing for 100 mile stretches and the bullet holes in the signs are a good indication of the boredom driving through. We drove throught the old Route 66 town of Tucumcari, New Mexico. Home of the Blue Swallow Motel-one complete with 60,000 dollars worth of neon lights, the skyline here is made up of big 50's signs and the old road looking pretty much like what it did back in the day.