The small towns make it all worth while

It's Tuesday morning and I am waiting for Ike to get out of bed. Shocking, I know.

But I wanted to blog about all the little cool towns we are passing thru.

We have been trying as hard as we can to stay off the interstates in favor of the smaller, windy more interesting side roads. We have seen so much more of the essence of a town/state when we take the smaller roads.

Somewhere in NM, while on this really cool windy road we came across this little town Lincoln. When I say small, I mean small. The entire town on the main street and it road was shorter than Pinehurst. The people were beyond friendly. I ended up talking to one of the shop keepers for almost an hour. She learned the art of spinning wool from an elderly gentleman and has taken over his shop for him as he is in his 80s and can no longer run the store. She had all sorts of stories to tell. And Lincoln is "famous" for the Lincoln County War. Back in the Billy the Kid days there were two wealthy families trying to control all the merchantiles that went in and out of Lincoln. These families eventually went to war and Billy the Kid was fighting for the one side. To hear all about these stories and the history of this little town really took you back in time.

That's the real beauty of this trip. It's finding the little towns and having conversations with the townspeople and really getting a flavor of what is out there. America is so vast it's incredible.

The number of climates alone are mind boggling. We went from 105 in the dessert to having to wear pants and jackets in 12 hours. Crazy.

We are off to northern CA today and then on to Oregon (which I think we are just driving through) and then onto to Seattle before we make the turn toward home later this week.

We are hoping to be able to spend a few nights in Yellowstone. There were more things we wanted to see in the south and west so hopefully the next leg of the trip will be a little more relaxing and we can spend a little more time camping. We have yet to have s'mores. :)