A long and winding road through the Joshua Tree National Park on Monday, January 18, took us back to US 10, heading west to Palm Springs CA - just about an hour away. Palm Springs' main street, S. Palm Canyon Drive, has lovely shops, lots of sweet-smelling vines and flowers, and a picturesque mountain backdrop. But this MLK Day, the downtown was eerily quiet due to COVID restrictions and all of the restaurants were strictly take-out. We ordered a pizza to-go from Brickworks Bistro and found a park bench to sit at. Not our idea of fine dining. We stayed at probably the nicest Extended Stay America in the chain (we've sadly seen some awful ones and have sworn off them for good). It was one of the few hotels that didn't tack on a California Resort Fee of over $20. We settled down early, with plans to visit Painted Canyon in the morning - thanks to the recommendation of our good friend Laura.

Another early morning departure from Tucson on January 17 for a 6-hour drive to Twentynine Palms California - so-named because there were 29 Washingtonia Palm trees growing in an oasis when the place was first surveyed in 1855. The town is home to the north entrance of the Joshua Tree National Park. We arrived just in time to head into the park for a peek at the rugged desert landscape at sunset before settling in for the night. 

Friday, January 15, was the final day of our three-month stay in Austin TX. It was a day filled with packing the car and unloading what wouldn't fit at Goodwill. On our last evening with the Watsons we celebrated by introducing the boys to "Sundees" - ice-cream sundaes adapted with plant-based ice "cream", chocolate sauce, fresh berries, whipped "cream" made from coconut, and "magic sprinkles". "More whipped cream please?" kept the sundaes going for quite a while. After long tearful hugs, we walked back to our AirBnB and were in bed early enough that we were on the road by 4:00 AM. The downtown Austin lights slipped away and we were well past the Texas hill country as the sun rose behind us, Soon, dry brown scrub brush and cactus dotted the landscape and mesas rose up in the distance. Four hours in, we spotted small oil rigs bobbing in the fields and beyond them acres of mesa-top wind turbines spinning in the breeze. After more than nine hours on the road we finally reached Las Cruces, New Mexico, in the late afternoon.

During our three-month stay in Austin Texas we broke bread very often with Caroline, T, Wyatt, and Ellis. At least once a week we prepared an all-vegan dinner and brought it over piping hot to share with them, giving the two work-from-home parents a break they appreciated. Richard became a master of vegan cuisine, concocting new ways to use non-meat, non-dairy ingredients to make a vegetarian paella, black bean enchiladas, cactus paddle tostadas, and everyone's favorite, roasted eggplant and portobello mushroom farfalle pasta bake. Every so often Richard baked up a batch of toasted oatmeal coconut currant cookies that T and Caroline prized for their afternoon coffee breaks.

On October 5, 2020, we left New Mexico and drove across the vast and desolate west Texas landscape, dotted with bobbing oil wells. We stopped to spend the night in Sonora because there's just too much Texas to drive in one day. The second day's drive was in stark contrast - stone walls and small trees lined the road with rolling hills in the distance, and lush verdant fields, an ostrich farm, and vineyards and peach orchards in the foreground. We'd entered the Texas "Hill Country" - the geographic border between the American Southwest and Southeast. About an hour and a half before we would reach our target destination of Austin we passed through a charming oasis of a town - Fredericksburg. We just had to stop and check this place out. 

Around mid-day on October 2, 2020, we checked out of our Albuquerque hotel and headed south on Interstate 25 through the bumpy desert landscape, with gray-brown hills in the background in every direction. We were intrigued by the signs announcing our entry into a town called "Truth or Consequences" and couldn't resist a drive through the town center. In 1950 the town formerly known as "Hot Springs" took up the challenge offered by the popular radio game show to change its name in celebration of the show's 10th anniversary. The change was approved by a special election - ​1294 to 295 - and the show was broadcast from there on April 1, 1950. It was no April Fools' joke...the name persists today,

On September 30, after exploring the Petrified Forest in eastern Arizona, we set out for a 4-hour drive to Albuquerque New Mexico around mid day. We settled in at our hotel for a two-night stay and then discovered Rudy's Country Store & Bar-B-Q - a remarkably good chain that we'd come to favor as we moved into Texas later in our journeys. We got a kick out of their T-shirt slogan.

The skies were a bright blue as we headed south on our way to Tucson AZ the morning of September 28. The contrast between the vermillion cliffs of Sedona and the tree-studded hills and valleys along Interstate 17 was dramatic. We stopped for a hearty breakfast at Matt's Big Breakfast in Phoenix, once featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. 

Inspired by our friend Laura, we set out on scenic route 89A on the blustery morning of September 26: from Flagstaff AZ, through the Oak Creek Canyon, and into beautiful Sedona Arizona. The early morning sun lit up the cliffs that screamed "Welcome to Sedona".

"36 Hours in Sedona" from the NY Times recommended breakfast at The Coffee Pot. It was clearly a popular place, but the wait was reasonable and the food was just what we needed to fuel a vigorous hike along the Teapot Trail to see the namesake of the restaurant - the Coffee Pot Rock..