Here we are on the home stretch to Bellevue, WA We have approximately 684 miles to go, and we are definitely looking forward to being off the road. A lot has happened since our last post, so I will just jump into it…

We made it into Las Vegas after leaving Winslow, Arizona on Wednesday. On the route we got the opportunity to cross into Nevada over the Hoover Dam. The History Channel, movies, etc.. do not do the size and overall awe of the dam any justice. It was incredible.

 We also saw the new bridge they are building to eventually bypass the dam crossing, and the bridge is equally impressive. It looked like it was all concrete but had the same shape as many steel river crossing bridges like New River Bridge in West Virginia.

We then made our way into Vegas. It had been particularly windy so our day light view was somewhat obscured by all of the haze.

We met Chris and Angie my cousins, and had a nice relaxing evening. It was definitely not a side of Vegas that you would expect to see based on how it is often portrayed in movies. It was a lot of fun to take it easy and just catch up with Chris and Angie. We went to dinner, then visited a “locals” casino that wasn’t lacking any of the splendor that you see on the strip.

We prepared to leave Vegas on Thursday morning, making our way to Lake Tahoe, which is definitely a little slice of heaven on earth. Instead of making a bee-line for Tahoe, we decided to detour via Death Valley, and this was not a wasted trip. Death Valley was an incredible mix of landscapes and color. The one thing we realized is that you can have the biggest HD TV in the world, and still doesn’t compare to seeing the amazing rock formations and desert in person. One thing TV truly lacks is scale, because these mountains and shear drops on the side of the road are BIG.

After leaving Death Valley, we took the scenic route US 395 in California to Lake Tahoe. We had been on this road before, when we went to Yosemite National Park in 2008. We drove by Mono Lake again, a really cool alkali lake. Yosemite for all intents and purposes was closed. All of the roads into the park were closed due to snow.

Around 5:30pm, we made it to Incline Village on Lake Tahoe, where we took our vows in 2008. We stayed at the Inn at Incline, where a number of our guests stayed during the wedding. Also, Austin’s was open! Austin’s is a restaurant in Incline Village that we really like. We wanted to have the rehearsal dinner for the wedding there, but it wasn’t big enough to support our guest list. It was spectacular, as always, and despite our best efforts, we put a big hurt on ourselves with the amount of food we ate. If you are ever there, you have to order the Austin’s cheese fries. You won’t be disappointed.

The next morning we were greeted by a flat tire on the Altima. Thankfully we had planned to stay two nights anyway and could take our time getting it repaired. With the tire patched and aired up again, we headed to a favorite state park of ours, Spooner Lake. We finally got the opportunity to ride our bikes around this lake, which is just north east of Lake Tahoe on HWY 28. It was fun, despite most of the trails being closed due to snow. We still made our way around Spooner, and we found as a general rule, mountain bikes do not do real well on snow. We both took pretty good spills trying to live out any XGames dreams we had. It was blast despite the snow.

We left Spooner Lake a little wet and muddy, and headed to Sand Harbor to catch the lake up close. There we waited for Johannah and Vince, some friends from Houston who had moved to Davis, CA.

Together we took a nice driving tour around the entire lake and found dinner back at Austin’s.

Now we’re on the home stretch in to Bellevue. We originally had planned on dinner and a stay over in Portland, Or with some friends from Rice (Rebecca Sherman, Jeremy Gibson). However, the smell of our new home is in our noses and we might not be able to resist.

Here we are on the road to Flagstaff watching the terrain change yet again crossing Arizona. We left off with an update on our stop in El Paso and a plan to make our way to the Petrified Forests of northeastern Arizona. We were then supposed to head on to Meteor Crater in the same day. Unfortunately, we had to continue a time honored Beard tradition that involves winding and narrow switchbacks through mountains at 10 MPH adding miles and hours to our trips just for fun.

Our detour took us through the Apache Sitegreaves National Forest with some amazing views and steep grades along what used to be US 666 (but was mislabeled on our original map). We had a casualty along this leg of our trip, and for those of you faint of heart, we won’t be posting a picture of a critter that got caught in our grille.

We passed through several small towns along the way that were founded in the late 1800’s seemingly to support mining copper in the Pinaleno Mountains.

 This unintentional detour also taught us that Arizona had a much different landscape than just plain desert and saw several expanses of trees, brush, and wildlife that were reminiscent of more Alpine climes.

Once we finally made it to the Petrified Forest, we were a little road weary and really wanted to see some spectacular stuff. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t realize this forest wasn’t standing any more. But we saw some cool rocks.

After a brief bike ride along the national park road just to say we did it, we headed further west. Along the way in Holbrook, Az, we happened upon the town that had to have been the inspiration for the Disney movie Cars.

 As we thought more about it, the interstate definitely had its impact on Arizona. There were many towns we passed along that looked like they could have used more traffic.

For the night we planned to stay in Winslow, Az. That’s right THE Winslow, Az. Never heard of it? We were standing on a corner in Winslow, Az and stayed at the historic La Posada Hotel along Route 66.

This was a great hotel that had a genuine southwestern flair in art, furniture and great service. The hotel staff were all very nice and helpful and the hotel restaurant, the Turquoise Room had very tasty southwestern dishes. As we had to save Meteor Crater for the next morning, we settled in to La Posada for the night.

Hoping to find a local spot for breakfast before we hit the road, Sean and I walked around Route 66 close to the hotel. Unfortunately, besides the hotel and rail stop that was the inspiration for the hotel, the rest of the Winslow was virtually dead. The only commerce and activity was closer to I-40.

We headed west again to fulfill a childhood dream of Sean’s: see Meteor Crater in Happy Jack, Az. It was pretty impressive at nearly a mile wide and over 500 feet deep. We took a brief walking tour along the rim and learned a little about what dangers meteors hold for humankind (I’m waxing science fictitious here, I’m sure there is nothing to worry about :o)

One thing we learned about Arizona is that the state is low on funds and consequently has been closing state parks, rest areas and reducing public services. This didn’t impact us directly on our trip but was a grave reminder of the impact of the current state of the economy in the US and how it reaches far and wide.

From here we head to Las Vegas to visit Sean’s cousins Chris and Angie. And to visit the Sin City for the first time together. We’re looking forward to it as we both have stories that would raise some eyebrows from our times here independent of each other…

 

For the two weeks leading up to the arrival of the moving van, the house was full of boxes to get ready.

 

… and then they were gone…

 

And then we watched a prime example of how men were able to build pyramids without the help of aliens. If you look closely, you can see our dresser on the back on 1, that’s ONE man, coming from the third floor of our house.

Yippee! New saga in the Beard household, we’re moving to Washington. That’s old news now, but we have a new place to live in Bellevue and it’s official.

Check out some pictures of the new house here.