On the Mother Road :: Part 6

Good morning, Tucumcari!

Can you spot the little lizard?

Outside of Tucumcari we stopped at an old swimming pool.

Broken down.

Wilkerson’s.

Church in Cuervo, NM.

Old 66. What a view!

The road REALLY deteriorated. The Yaris is pretty much an ATV.

We were way out in the middle of nowhere. We didn’t pass one car. At one point we stopped and turned the car off. You could literally just hear the wind. Nothing else. Those kinds of experiences make you love life and the ability to travel!

We had beautiful weather while on this road.

Trust someone, Little Robot.

About an hour after exiting that gravel 66 road we encountered some hail!

There were some incredible downpours throughout the day in this part of New Mexico. Look at that water!

Pecos National Historic Park…and some rather threatening clouds.

You could actually use the ladder and step down into the kiva.

Inside! It was so cool underground.

Ruins.

There was some construction going on around the ruins. I think they were (hopefully) trying to restore more parts of the ruins.

Note the Sangre de Cristo mountains in the background.

Blooms.

I was on snake patrol. But I only saw some red ants.

Lovely colors!

We also visited Glorietta Pass Battlefield which is close to the Pecos ruins.

St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe!

Santa Fe is littered with beautiful buildings.

I really wanted to buy one of these cute little bunnies! They were $80 a piece though, so I just settled for a photograph.

We hiked La Bajada in New Mexico. This is a famous Route 66 road.

Morning on La Bajada.

Madonna of the Trail in Albuquerque, NM!

The Desert Sands Motor Hotel.

Gorgeous!

We were in Albuquerque on July 4th. Fei’s Cafe is a vegan cafe that was sadly closed for the Fourth.

But Mint Tulip was open! This was our first time visiting Mint Tulip. We had lunch and then ice cream. And then we went back later for milkshakes. Oh my! Vegan goodness galore!

Albuquerque had a big fireworks display that we stayed for. We also had some fries and corn on the cob.

You could see storms rolling in as night approached. Check out the lightning!

Happy 4th!

It started to rain right before the fireworks display started. People started to scream and run. I guess people in Albuquerque aren’t used to the rain.

Eric and I crawled under a picnic table to watch the fireworks while not getting wet!

In the morning I spotted that nasty little critter when we packed up the tent. OMG gross. Go away little guy!

It’s a Birthday!

Today is Eric’s Birthday! We woke up, had some gift giving AND ate a chocolate peanut butter silk pie that I made! Today was also the Mother of all Yard Sales in Everett. I bought some pink lemonade from a little girl selling it along the sidewalk. She even had lemon slices in the cup! She was selling pink lemonade, limeade and regular lemonade. We opted for the pink lemonade since she said it was her favorite.

Eric wanted to go to Bamboo Garden in Seattle for lunch and I’m not one to say no to some Bamboo Garden. I had some wonton udon noodle soup. So good!

Bamboo Garden serves sizzling plates that Eric has been lusting after for a long time. They’re a little pricey but since it was his Birthday I was able to talk him into finally having one. He approves.

These were my finds for the day! I’ve heard good things about Stiff so I picked it up at my favorite used book store in Fremont. The (racist?) Canadian Mounted Policeman was a yard sale find. I have a thing for Mounties so I had to add him to my collection! Also I’m apparently starting to wear nail polish. In the past week I’ve purchased three bottles of the stuff! I’m almost girly.

And this face was waiting for us at home! Cute little girl.

Annnnnd we’re back!

After a month of travel across the US we’re back on the west coast!

I wish I were still on the road, but I’m happy to be reunited with my little cat, Juniper.  She stayed at the house while we were away and we had a good friend come over every day to take care of her and to hang out with her.  She was so so happy to see us, but it kind of made me feel bad because she must have missed us so much from the way she’s been acting.  She was glued to me the first few days back at home.

So what we’re we doing traveling for a month?

• We drove to Pennsylvania.
• We got married complete with a 100% vegan wedding and 100 cupcakes made by me!
• We drove to Chicago and honeymooned all the way to Los Angeles on old Route 66.
• We drove up California State Route 1 along the Pacific Ocean.
• We also saw some friends along the way and stopped at many many roadside attractions, oddities and museums.

Over the next few months I’m planning on posting photos from the trip and wedding.  I want to do a post for each of the main attractions we saw along with photos from all over Route 66.  I’m kind of excited to get back to blogging!  I felt burned out by it a few months before the trip, but I think maybe I just needed a break from it.

Wedding Day!

Our friend, D.J., performed the wedding ceremony.  The night before the wedding Eric and I went to a local amusement park in PA call Knoebels.  Eight friends who were in town for the wedding went to Knoebels with us and we had such a fun night!  My best friend Aaron and I went on a ride call the Tilt-A-Whirl with D.J.  The ride tilts and whirls you around and around in a circle on an incline.  As we were tilting and whirling around in the dark with bright lights flashing I declared that this was the best bachelorette party ever!  Girls night!…three girls and seven guys.

Grill it!

Most of the food at the wedding was homemade aside from the veggie burgers.  Eric and I took control of the grill and served our wedding guests.  Now we want to buy a grill for our house!  All I can think about are grilled veggie burgers, roasted corn and kabobs with pineapple on them!

I’m doing something beautiful!

This is such an awesome video!

A boy questions his mom about eating animals and then tells us why we shouldn’t eat them!

My favorite quotes from the video are…

“Fish are animals…octopus are animals…chicken are animals…cows are animals…pigs are animals.”

 

“I don’t like that they die…I like that they stay standing up.”

 

“These animals…you gotta take care of them..and not eat them!”

 

Son- “Why are you crying?”

Mom- “I’m not crying…I’m just touched by you.”

Son- “I’m doing something beautiful.”

 

OMG!  You are doing something beautiful!  And I like that they stay standing up too.

Cranky-pants-cookie-maker.

Today wasn’t a horrible day, but it wasn’t a good day.  I was mega-tired and cranky.  Also I realized halfway through my workday that my underwear was inside out.  Eric so kindly pointed out that my panties were literally in a bunch.  True story.  And just for the record, I don’t even like the word “panties.”

A few things managed to brighten my day though.  I elliptical-led (how do you use that word?!) 4.25 miles after work.  Sweet sweet sweat to make the cranky go away.

I’ve been hesitant to list to St. Vincent and David Byrne but I finally did it today!  I love David Byrne, but I was skeptical.  This is fabulous!  David Byrne is 61 and is as dreamy as ever!  Shake it boy.

I also made chocolate chip cookies after dinner tonight.  Suck that one bad day!

Beans and ugly shoes.

I made a whole mess of rice yesterday! I like to throw all sorts of goodies in my rice. This time I used kidney beans, sweet corn, broccoli, red bell pepper and pineapple!

I went for my first run in very very very long time yesterday. I ran 1.5 miles away from the house and then almost cried when I realized I had to somehow make it home. Boo! It really wasn’t THAT bad…the sun was shining, I was sweaty and after one day in the sun my freckles are coming back! And don’t run on the petal on the sidewalk. Slippery like whoa!

Bits and pieces.

Currently reading:

• VegNews: The Music Issue
• Sunset: Best Places to Camp
• Tough Sh*t by Kevin Smith

Reads!

Shameless Self-Promotion:

• Our Kickstarter project is still up and running!  Head on over and check it out!  
• A few weeks ago I started a blog with my friend Alexis!  I live on the west coast of the United States and she lives on the east coast of Canada.  Follow Sound to Shore for a look into the life of two gals living on opposite sides of a continent and opposite sides of a border!

One of the Best Things I’ve EVER consumed:

The Cubano from South in Leavenworth, Washington.  Holiday rice, black beans, fried banana, avocado slices and lettuce in a flour tortilla served with cabbage salad, corn chips and a salsa bar!  Tasty goodness for my mouth!

The Cubano.

See you soon!

-Sarah

 

Food, finds and some PA DIY!

I managed to snap a few shots of some of the food I ate while in PA.  In central PA, where I was staying, there aren’t many options for vegans/vegetarians if you want to go out to eat.  Luckily there’s the college town of Lewisburg that has a cafe with two vegan lunch options.  Cherry Alley Cafe used to have some amazing burritos!  Vegan and all!  I was really disappointed to find that they did away with awesome-burrito.  They did have some vegan cookies though.  I used to always get their iced chai tea with soy milk too.  The barista there was actually kind enough to tell me that the chai mix isn’t vegan.  Boo!!  I’m assuming there’s dry milk in it.  Make your own chai mix, Cherry Alley!  Some spices and some grinding and BAM!…chai tea.

My mom did take me to a grocery store to stock up on some avocados, tofu and refried beans though!  I usually live on bean burritos when I travel!

Travel food. Beans, avocado and hot sauce.

Root beer Italian ice! Rita’s is an east coast thing. I miss it!

Cherry Alley does have fun tables. I made that same face when I found out the chai tea mix isn’t vegan.

Tofu wrap!

And a grilled vegetable panini. The so kindly put cheese on this even though I asked for no cheese. They made me another one, but Cherry Alley kind of let me down! The birch beer in the background did not though!

More Italian ice! This time it was lemonade.

My aunt usually makes me something vegan when I’m in Pennsylvania visiting. This time she made me chocolate chip blondies and a chocolate cake with chocolate icing! I DID NOT eat all of that by myself. Although I could have.

After Eric picked me up from the airport we went to Bamboo Garden. We always go to Bamboo Garden after he picks me up or we pick someone up from the airport. It’s a nice little tradition.

Bamboo Garden!

There’s an antique mall/flea market that I love in Lewisburg, PA called, The Street of Shops. I squealed inside when I saw these lamps there! You might remember that I found a similar turtle lamp in a thrift store a few months ago. I wanted to take all of them home, but I knew I couldn’t. I snagged that little dinosaur lamp in the back. I didn’t have room to take him on the plane with me so I packaged him up as well as I could and my sister shipped him back to me. The package should arrive early this week and I’m hoping his little glass back didn’t break!

Remember my turtle lamp?

My dad and I had some time to work on a project for the wedding! I wanted to make some glass Ball jar cups so the wedding guests can take them home with them. I found bright yellow and white straws to put in these guys.

Dad punched a hole in the lid.

And I drilled the hole out! We then fished rubber grommets through the hole that the straws will later be placed in.

We made 36 Ball jar cups in about 45 minutes! Fun PA DIY!

Good things on Wednesday.

This week at work has been evil and busy. More evil than busy. Chocolate was needed after dinner so Eric and I went to the co-op for the goods. They were giving away free daffodils too! Apparently someone bought 200 daffodils for their birthday today and they gave them to the co-op to hand out. Kind of sweet and odd all in one. I took one though. I’m going to take it to work to brighten up my little inky corner of the print shop.

But for this evening it can stay on my makeshift altar with John Taylor.

Some cute mail arrived for me today too. These little things really do brighten my day! Friends in Ithaca, NY sent this drawing and a pressed penny. Cute! I kind of want to frame this one. I hope you had a great Wednesday as well!

(((Happy 800th blog post!)))

There was a guy named Joel, not too different from you or me.

Last night we went out stepping! Joel, from Mystery Science Theater 3000, was in town giving a talk about how he got his start in television.  I’ve seen him fours times now.  I do love that man!  His eyes are my favorite…mostly because they’re so sleepy.
We met up with some lovely new friends and had dinner at Bamboo Garden before the show.  Eric and I haven’t been to an event with friends in quite a long time so it felt great to socialize!

Servo is the keeper of the ticket. He’s huge.