You wouldn't believe it if it wasn't documented

BUZZZZZZZ!

We wake up early without a problem for the first time since this trip started. Peanut and I head to a breakfast buffet downstairs. This is what he literally ate, two bites of scrambled eggs, 4 home fries, and 2 cut up chunks of pineapple, then looks and me laughing and says he's full. He gets up walks around and contemplates his lack of appetite, sits down and gets a piece of bread and one chili pepper which he just plays with. He is now officially the sissy.

Onto the Canyon!!!! We were a little disappointed the other day when crossing from Texas into New Mexico because nothing changed. I think we had figured we would cross the border and there would be a line in the landscape dividing the two, that was not the case. Today though, we felt like we were in New Mexico; sand dunes, red rock, 1000ft raised rock formations, and Navajo Indian reservations. What we weren't expecting was snow...yes, snow on top of a particular mountain that had elevation over 11,000ft, which I guess makes sense, but it is still not something we expected and also the extreme poverty of these people. It made us reflect on what we have at home and how privileged/lucky we are to be brought up the way we have.

But first we stop at the Petrified Forest National Park. We buy a one year pass for $80 to all National Parks since we will be hitting a few more of them. We get out of the car at the first scenic view and it is really windy, windy enough to lean into the wind. We see a fence and my explorer intuition tells me to jump over it and head down the ravine into what looks like the planet Mars. Sand dunes of red and white. Unbelievable. Peanut and Adam follow and we film each other running up 200ft sand hills. Elevation 6000ft +. This does not go over so well for Peanut, he actually requests a 45% o2 non-rebreather mask which in the nursing world is something you give to a patient who is severely lacking oxygen. After this I actually think he has a pulmonary embolism, lol he's struggling to breath and has a weird dry cough that won't seem to disappear. We leave, its windy, and we still have a couple hours driving to get to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon.

That's when it all started...we see this ominous sign that says "Highway Closed due to Dust Storm", we joke about it and plan to buzz right through it. Well, that didn't go as planned because the highway was blocked off by highway patrol and we can see why because on the horizon it looks like the high priest Imhotep from the movie the Mummy has just created a dust storm ready to swallow up our Mini Van. We find a way around the road block and head into the middle of the desert to bypass the highway. We drove right into the belly of the storm, I'm talking 30miles thick. It was unbelievable and quite frankly one of the coolest things I have done ever!

The Grand Canyon, wow there really is not much more to say. Please visit here before you kick the can. That shit is really Grand. No joke. We were mostly speechless and smiles ear to ear. But that didn't last for too long because there were fences to go around and goating to do. We also have to convert from wearing sneakers, shorts, and t-shirts to boots, pants, and sweatshirts because it was 41 degrees outside and very windy. AND then it SNOWED. It flurried for about 30 minutes with us on the canyon's edge. Unbelievable. We stop at multiple look outs and see how close we can get to the edge without loosing continence. We watch what was left of the sunset and hit the road.

It was dark, we had just ate, I was tired, and my turn to drive so broke down and took literally 2 sips of a "5 Hour Energy" drink, which wasn't so bad if anyone is wondering. This makes me feel like I am on PCP. I have the mini van cruise control on 90mph and listen to old school techno and contend with the strictly 18 wheeler traffic (Unbelievable. I saw 3 regular cars in 2hrs of driving). Peanut then proceeds to tell us that he drank 2 of these when we got in the car. He is literally up in front with Adam and I talking 100 words a second, laying across the front seats, pokes out both lenses of his sunglasses and wears them around in the mini van getting real close to our faces and then turns on the lights, and does a few mini van suicide sprints. Absolutely ridiculous right...30 minutes later...scknaaaa scknaaaa scknaaaa, this kid is lying on his back across all the luggage snoring. WTF???? Adam and I laugh about how crazy he is. We wake him up at the hotel and he tells us he never drank the 5 Hour Energy Drinks. Hahahahaha. What the heck, so that whole time he was just acting like a 7 year old without Ritalin for the fun of it. This ladies and gentleman is Peanut, in a peanut shell.

What we've learned:
1. Fences are meant to go around.
2. When we get a wiff of peaches Adam is dipping.
3. Peanut is deathly afraid of heights, or as he calls it "allergic". I'll vouch for this, he turns red, shakes, and just looks really uncomfortable. It was awesome to watch this.
4. Adam gets silently cranky when he's hungry.
5. I get cranky.
6. No one can tell when Peanut is lying or being serious.
7. 28 cent stamps cost 50 cents.

We lost our virginity to the following items today:
1. almost hitting a tumble weed.
2. seeing snow in a desert.
3. 3000k in a car. Go figure, I hate being in the car. Only 6000miles left to go.

We made it as far as Kingsman, AZ about 30 miles east of California. Tomorrow we head south to San Diego to meet up with Baldwin. Should be an interesting few days.