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Houston, TX

The thickness of a piece of paper is the depth that the Grand Canyon deepens per year. As a family, we came here 13 pieces of paper ago but I can’t say I recognised the difference unfortunately. The canyon can be seen from space. This is not surprising as it is 446km long and in parts, 29km wide. It’s 1600m down, two billion years old and to some it up, a hell of a lot of pieces of paper! Mum and Dad gave us (me) strict instruction not to climb down the steep canyon otherwise, I may be rescued by donkey like Mum was. Climbing down seemed like too much effort anyway, compared to the main viewing point by the car park. It’s actually very flat at the top but the neapolitan spectrum of deep reds, whites and browns can be seen for miles. This spectrum of colours is actually the sequence of rock layers that serve as a window in time.
The best part of that morning was the drive around the canyon edge and into the desert. The landscape changed dramatically over the 5hour drive. The drive was one of the most breathtaking drives we had ever done. From deep canyons to the flat desert, finishing with sandstone masterpieces towering at heights of 400 to 1,000 feet. These rock formations in Monument Valley are some of the most majestic and most photographed points on earth. Between you and me, I thought Monument Valley was where the forefathers heads had been carved into the rock (Mt Rushmore). The realisation that this wasn’t the same place, occurred when I saw the colour of the rock. Unlike those white granite statue heads of former presidents, this rock is brilliant red – and no heads to be seen. However, if you have seen Wild Wild West, Back to the Future 3 or any of the John Wayne westerns, then you’ll know what it’s like here. Or if you haven’t, like me, then this quote will have summed it up “these five square miles have defined what decades of moviegoers think of when they imagine the American West.” The reason it’s known for that was thanks to the former owners of our desert humble abode. Harry and his wife Leonie (known as “Mike”, because Harry couldn’t spell Leonie) Goulding opened a little trading shop in the 1920s for trading goods with the native Indian people, Navajo. One day during a recession, Harry needed money, so contacted the Hollywood Director, John Ford, to suggest he use this part of the world in films. As soon as John saw the place, he started filming the John Wayne films here. The Goulding’s lodge, formally Harry and Mike’s house and a film set, is where we stayed last night. We watched the sun set from our room’s balcony over looking the valley. The sun accented these graceful formations, providing scenery that was simply spellbinding.

If you haven’t guessed it by now, through the last 53 blogs, we aren’t castle or ‘old thing’ people. Not that we don’t appreciate them but they wouldn’t be the top ten things we’d go to see. The exception to that rule was the Mesa Verde National Park – maybe because we bought a National Park Pass so could get in for free. The park itself is rather boring compared to the others we have visited over the last week. What made this one so fascinating is the 1000 year old structures created by the Ancestral Pueblo people. Summing up a few thousand year old culture, these tribes built elaborate stone communities in the sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls. That’s about all I got on these folk.
10minutes later – 12:09pm – BORED! The novelty of a road trip across America is wearing off. 6-12 hours of driving through deserts and forests followed by more deserts, days at a time isn’t fun anymore. Dave is really enjoying driving these endless desert roads but I have an attention span of a 4 year old. It’s come time to trade in the desert for some civilisation. Although Durango in Colorado had $1 beers, it was a little too ‘Hicksville’ so we carried on to Santa Fe then to Albuquerque in New Mexico.

I read an article a few weeks ago about a remarkable young man and his story about defying odds. It’s not often that you meet someone after reading their story. With that, we drove to Albuquerque to hear Tim tell us his story.
Tim is the same age as me but was born with Down syndrome. In the last 27 years he has accomplished so much, from winning dozens of gold medals in the special Olympics, to homecoming king. I’d say this would be extremely important for any teenager, but particularly this one. Not only does Tim proudly live out of home, he owns his own restaurant. Prior to that huge step he acquired the necessary skills through experience and training.
Tim greeted us at the door to his own restaurant, I told him we had heard of his story all the way from Australia. He smiled and seated us. I asked him about hugs, he proudly showed me that his ‘hug-a-metre’ is up to 43,000 and that he had raised $14,000 for the local fire brigade through his restaurant fundraising schemes. The food at Tim’s Place comes with a Tim Hug and they claim to be the world’s friendliest restaurant. We ordered off a menu that had the best selection of ‘Julia food’. My meal consisted of Mac and Cheese, Salad and Fruit – random just like me. After Tim gave us a hug, he just sat down and chatted to us over the hour we ate lunch.
He obviously has Down syndrome but that isn’t what defines Tim. He loved chatting about olympic sports and that giving hugs were the best part of his day, claiming he’s “a lean, mean, hugging machine”. While tying all the condiments up with straw wrappers, he proudly informed us he was the only person with Down Syndrome who owns their own restaurant, a dream of his for many years. What struck us, was his positive attitude towards achieving anything, even with the simplest of goals. Tim also explained that he is now a public speaker to crowds of as many as 3,000. He is asked to speak to business owners and families who have a child with Down syndrome. I’ll say it again, it was his attitude that is making him achieve what most people our age will only ever dream about.
Before leaving, we spoke to Tim’s staff who were by far the best waiters we had ever come across. They said it is a fun place to work with a low staff turnover – because Tim is a great boss. Tim and his staff have nailed the title “world’s friendliest restaurant”. After 3 successful years, they have just opened for dinner. This place is succeeding and so is Tim. It’s down to attitude and determination. I read he once said: “I have a dream to inspire other people to reach for the stars. If I can do it, you can too.”

After leaving Albuquerque, we drove to Roswell. I’ve decided that if I was an alien, I wouldn’t be dropping by this one horse town. Apart from a god awful smell of cattle, there is an odd line up of buildings: Little Lamb’s Christian Preschool next to Discount Gun Shop then Church’s Chicken. The next town, Carlsbad Caverns, famous for bats, had no bats. Keep on driving, driving driving, driving. 1,040km of straight driving later, we arrived into the first texan town for the night. The following day, yes maaammmm, three Texan cities in one day: San Antonio, Austin and ending in Huston. Yeeha! I wouldn’t agree that everything is bigger (apart from the waistlines) and better in Texas but the people sure are different. Although lovely and welcoming, they sound a little slower but many fit the perfect picture: cowboy hats, jeans, flannel shirts and boots. We actually enjoyed Texas, particular San Antonio’s river walk and the Texan dinner in Houston. So, I’ve never ordered ribs before and I don’t think I should have started in Texas where the food IS in fact BIGGER. My good golly, I ordered a New York steak and ribs from the tummy of a cow and Dave ordered unlimited cow ribs and one drink to share. The cost of all this was less than half of what you would pay in Australia. How did we go eating like a Texan? let us say, we couldn’t even finish a large Texan size pink lemonade between the two of us. The waitress asked if we wanted to have take home bags, I told her we had become vegetarians who never want to sweat out meat again. Next time we come to Texas, we’ll be ordering kids meals ot
herwise it’ll be a miSteak!

Similar to inland Australia, in between sparse towns America has a whole lot of nothing. From state to state, desert to desert, each day was rolling into one. If you don’t believe there are such things as tumble weeds and sandstorms, drive through the desert states of New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Texas. After the 7th day of desert driving, my frustration and boredom began to show. Anyone who knows me will know how long that ‘actually’ took. Anyone who knows how awesome my husband is, will know how good he is at keeping me amused for as long as possible. Although Dave enjoyed playing the game of dodge the tumble weeds on the highways, he can make a game out of anything, we decided to fast track all Hicksville towns and find civilisation – in New Orleans.

The moral of today’s story: If you don’t like the situation fix it, or get your husband to fix it!

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