Day 5 - Alamosa CO, total miles: 1881

Hello All!

I am writing from a small town in south western Colorado called Alamosa. We just spent about 3 days in Great Sand Dunes National Park and are on our way to Rio Grande National Forest to do some hiking and backpacking.

Here are some highlights from the trip so far:

Ridiculous lightning storm: We decided to drive straight from Cincinnati to Colorado. While driving through the night in Kansas we were entertained by the most intense lightning storm either of us had ever seen. One strike was just a few hundred yards in front of the car!

Getting lost: in Colorado Springs...pretty city, confusing roads (at least it managed to confuse the GPS)

Hiking in Great Sand Dunes national park: The scenery there was so bizarre it hardly seemed real. We got a campsite by the skin of our teeth that overlooked 13,000 foot and higher mountains on one side and 750 foot high sand dunes on the other side. We did some hiking in the mountains the first day but had to call it quits after a couple miles because we hadn't adjusted to the altitude (between 8,000 and 9,000 feet). The next day we hiked to the top of high dune. The dune is about 650 feet higher than the parking lot and about a mile hike through smaller (just barely) dunes. The wind was about 25 mph, which made for interesting travel through the sand. It took about an hour to reach the top, and we got fantastic views of the mountains and 30 sq. miles of sand dunes.




That's all we've got for now!

Carrie and Chris

Day 1 - Cincinnati, total miles - 299

Hey guys!

We're writing from the lovely Megan Rost's apartment in Cincinnati. She was nice enough to put us up for the night and show us around town. We're finally out of Michigan, but it hardly feels as through we have such a huge trip ahead. Today we start our drive to Great Sand Dunes National Park, a full 21 hours away with no plans to camp for the night. We are trying to get there before the Memorial Day crowds (who already forced us to rearrange our plans for the first week). We will spend two days there and then move on to Rio Grande National Forest in south western Colorado for a few days before arriving at our first farm in Utah.

I think I'll keep this post short for now, because we will inevitably get bored along the way and find a spot to update again!

Until next time,

Carrie and Chris

Graduation!

Greetings all,

Chris and I have officially graduated from MSU! Our trip is approaching quickly, and graduation has put us one step closer to our departure. We had my family over for a wonderful lunch after the ceremony, and were very grateful to everyone who came to congratulate us. Here are a few quick pictures from yesterday and today. We will keep you updated on our planning as we count down to our first farm, Hell's Backbone Grill in southern Utah. As of today, we are leaving May 24--only 15 more days!

Moving Out

Today has been filled with lots of packing, organizing, and cleaning. Although, it sure feels good to have the place shined up and ready to take in guests for a Saturday graduation party. We'll be having lots of good food, including a salad fresh from our new friends Adam, Dru, and Lydia over at Ten Hens Farm in Bath.

We still have nearly three weeks before our departure, but the process of moving out is well underway--the subleasers will be in on Monday. Erin, a friend of mine from the dorms, will be taking over Carrie's room. She's coming back to State for a Master's degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and is working on an awesome project called Urban Agriculture Initiatives of Detroit. If you have any ideas for her, I'm sure she'd welcome them!

These next few weeks will likely fly by. Carrie and I are going to be passing the time with work (her in Sterling Heights with her mom, and me in East Lansing in the greenhouses), packing the car as full as it will go, picking up durable food, and making last minute decisions on the wheres and whens of our trip.

For those of you unaware of what we're doing this summer, we'll be WWOOFing in Utah, California, Oregon, and Washington. We'll try to tell tales of encounters with chickens, goats, and the occasional odd farmer, as well as post pictures of our beautiful country and the awesome people and places that it holds.

We welcome any suggestions of places to go or things to do out west. And if you're going to be on the west coast and would like to meet up, tell us! We'd enjoy the company of friends in a beautiful land. We'll be posting our schedule and route in the near future.

Take care,

Chris and Carrie