The Grand Canyon was insane. I've seen it from the air but I was absolutely breath taken at every stop. Also, the ravens that frequent the parking areas are hilarious. One was even imitating pig noises after a fairly hefty gentleman threw a rock at it. People are the worst.
Once we left the Park, we drove to Albuquerque, NM for the night. I had a great time, and plan to go back. The next morning we drove to Marfa, TX. My wife works in the art industry and went to a pretty prestigious art school, so the Marfa Prada store was on her bucket list. We stayed in a safari tent at El Cosmico, and despite the freezing temps overnight we were quite warm. Ok, the heated bed did the trick, but I would have happily brought out my sleeping bag. After this, I kinda just stopped taking pics as we were certainly back into pavement pounding mode.
Upon leaving Marfa, we went to Austin to see some friends for the night, and afterward we made a pit stop in Waco for the Magnolia Farms store (you know what this is if you watch HGTV's Fixer Upper) and in Dallas for the last In-n-Out of the trip. From Dallas we drove to my sister's house in Little Rock, AR. She and her husband live there (both USAF NCO's) until their next deployment to Germany. The next day we drove to Nashville, had some nice dry rub BBQ and drinks while checking out the live music scene, and we drove home the next day. Nashville to NYC was about 900 miles. It was a long one.
Thanks for reading and wasting your time on this. I had a blast, I'd do it 100 times over again. I can't wait to run into more people on trails in the future. Hopefully I'll see some of you at Vermont Overland Rally 2016. Happy trails y'all.
-John