Meet Me In Outer Space

*It's Charmander - we saw some cool shit this week, take a look-see <3 - also Stellar by Incubus*

Day 151 (Monday, January 30^th)

We dropped the car off at the mechanic in the morning and it was close enough to Val's that we walked back. It was a beautiful day, and we hung out until Val got off work and then went to have crawfish for the first time! Oh yes but not before putting on temporary tattoos. We also had crabs and fried shrimp and other things, it was quite a delicious feast. And to top it off we then had Sub Zero ice cream.

Where we got the car fixed, they were really friendly which made me feel slightly better about spending 5 months budget on the car : ( 

Gorgeous tree on the walk back

Our golden temporary tattoos 

SEAFOOOOOODDDDDD

They use some science shit to make the cream into ice cream ask Karol about it

Ice creamz

Day 152 (Tuesday, January 31^st)

Took Val to work, just in case the Buick was ready today and then we could go get it. There is an adorable porch with hanging chairs that we hung out in for the day until we went to Tesla where Val works to have Chipotle with her for dinner on her lunch break. It was pretty slow so then we hung at Tesla with Val for a while. After about an hour we went to the Starbucks for Karol to blog. Then we went back home and got a little tipsy.

Some dead guy in the closet...

Karol looking happy as a clam in the trunk of a Tesla hahahaha

Outside Tesla on the way to the Starbucks we chilled at

Vallewy and Bewwa hehehehe 

Miss Lady

Charwette and Bewwa

Day 153 (Wednesday, February 1^st)

Got some donuts and took Val to work again, since the mechanic needed the car another day. We had Zaxby's for lunch, and then did finally get the car back. We had actually planned to leave today but we stayed an extra day since the car needed some extra TLC. Val worked the evening shift so we got some BBQ with Madelaine for dinner, and then picked up Val from work at 9ish.

Shipley Do-Nuts

Karol like-a the Zaxby's

Bathroom pic @ Zaxby's (with my weak thumbs =k)

The awesome BBQ Madelaine took us for! So good, thanks again <3

This was how the night ended... we were sad we had to leave the next morning- I am putting on my fake happy face, Val is...hahahahhaha I don't even know it's so good though

Day 154 (Thursday, February 2^nd)

It was a sad morning, leaving Val for what feels like the millionth time. She was headed for The Walking Dead Cruise to the Bahamas which should be amazing and we left for Carlsbad Caverns. There was a park nearby the Walmart we were going to stay at in Carlsbad for the night so we took a nice stroll and got some gorgeous pictures. We went to sleep excited to see the caverns the following day.

NEW MEXICO IS COOL LOOKING

...rest stop bathroom photo?

So much open space here

Pretty park in Carlsbad, NM

More park

Love this pic, Karol (:DDD =k)

Yeah, more park, we really liked it

Day 154 (Thursday, February 2^nd)

So we did the self guided tour of Carlsbad Caverns and holy shit was it AMAZING. It was a little less than 3 miles total I think, and it felt like a different world. Just look at pictures although it really doesn't do it justice, like at all. We cooked some lo mein noodles (thanks mom! =k) at the picnic area before we drove to right outside White Sands to a Walmart in Alamogordo to sleep.

ARRIVAL (also a good ass movie)

Bathroom pic Carlsbad Caverns

Cavern entrance

Creeeeeeeepy

Felt like another planet 

The pictures really do it justice, but hopefully it inspires you to go check it out!

Whale's Mouth

Almost like a cemetary 

Can't emphasize enough how beautiful this place was

You should go there right now

Alamogordo is in a valley small enough to see the mountains completely surrounding you in every direction. I absolutely loved this, being encircled by mountains. This Walmart had by far the best view. We tried Blake's Lotaburger for dinner which our stomachs were not happy about afterward.

Our view for the night

Day 156 (Saturday, February 4^th)

We drove the short distance to White Sands National Monument and got a permit to backcountry camp. First we had lunch and then where the park ranger told us the best hills were so we could sled on the dunes. This was sooooo fun and better than snow because not as freaking cold. Then we walked the Interdune Boardwalk before we had some more soup and got our packs (way too full of shit we weren't gonna use, we're bad at backpacking... =k) on to hike the 1 mile to our campsite. It was really cool navigating the dunes (with the help of trail posts of course) to get to the campsites. Being surrounded by white was a pretty surreal feeling.  

Almost there

There it is : ) we were so excited for this place...it did not disappoint

You can see the sand line

Getting sandier

Where we had lunch...

Caesar salad, parmesan crisps, bananas, cookies, leftover lemonade hahaha

Here are some more pictures from our meandering around the dunes...

White planet

Sand patterns

DUNES

Little pebbles

Man... so good

We set up camp, played some frisbee on top of a sand dune (as the sun set <3), and then made some pasta for dinner. It was quite an awesome birthday : )

From atop the nearest big dune, looking down on our campsite

Karol and sunset

 

We were frisbeeing on a sand dune, what is life

CATCH ITTT 

I threw it down from the tall ass sand dune

This place was amazing, I think it's currently both of our favorite National Parks (despite being really apparently unprepared for the night, we both slept less than half the time we spent in the tent overnight =k).

Day 157 (Sunday, February 5^th)

We left the campsite and headed to Albuquerque where hopefully Karol will be getting a tattoo. The nice lady at the car repair shop in Houston used to live here (typing this at a McDonald's in Albuquerque right now) and recommended a Mexican restaurant called Frontier and we had that for dinner. Now we are at a McDonald's so I can do this post and then we sleep in the car again. I don't think I mentioned how cold it was at White Sands...we basically didn't sleep so that was a bummer.

On the way to Albuquerque (so weird how the road appears to disappear... =k)

 More of the captivating New Mexico

And now for the tentative news. The cold is ruining plans but whatever. So I don't really want to WWOOF anymore, but Karol was excited about the particular farm in New Mexico, so I figured I would drop him there and then I can do some solo hiking and maybe go back to Houston to spend some sister time - just the two of us. This is still the plan, but it is really cold and if I couldn't sleep with another person next to me I highly doubt it will be a good time alone in the tent. So...yeah, not sure what to do. Going to the farm tomorrow and then I guess I'll see what happens. I wanted to hike for 3 days in the Gila National Forest but I think it will be even colder than White Sands was. I'm having a hard time deciding what to do now, and then also for the future. It won't be long before we settle (and maybe even sooner cause two months of straight hiking and camping might be too much, I don't even know if I'd want to deal with that much =k) and thinking about getting a job already is frustrating. In fact I'm getting meh now just thinking about so I will sign off. Thanks for reading, see ya next time.

Also not sure when next blog post will  be due to possible lack of internets. We'll be back at some point. Love y'all.