Cross country drive number 3!

Or number 4 or more...depends on how you count! I'll try counting later. For now...hello from Santa Rosa, NM! We left Berkeley Saturday afternoon. We were sad, because it really feels like home, but excited to see Scott's family (4 nephews and all) for the holidays in Ohio (where we're headed) and settle down in Delaware in the new year.

We stopped in Barstow, CA Saturday night. We stayed at a Motel 6, partly for the price (a remarkable $40, including tax), and because Bear can stay for free. It was very clean, and even featured this colorful bedspread:


We drove through AZ and part of NM on Sunday--beautiful, snow in the desert and all.


We stopped to see Meteor Crater. As geologists, we felt it was our duty to stop...and it was a nice break. As a bonus, we saw cows crossing the road on our way to the crater (I wasn't quick enough to catch them on the road...with the camera, I mean).


A self portrait at the crater:


Me and a piece of the meteorite--it was cool to touch it!


A funny connection: one of my new labs in Delaware used to belong to a now emeritus professor Billy Glass. We found his name here (see the 2005 plate):


The crater was used as a training ground for NASA astronauts, because....um...it's like the moon? The old photos are pretty funny.



We are headed through the Texas panhandle (misnamed I believe...Florida has a panhandle, but Texas?) and Oklahoma and Missouri if the weather holds. We've been debating staying south a bit longer to avoid freezing rain. In any case, we should make it to Ohio by Christmas eve.