You’ve seen this place before. It’s been in many movies, photos, games, and advertisements. It lends its name to a popular puzzle game. Wile E. Coyote chased the Road Runner many miles through here. But to be in this place is to enter something totally unfamiliar.

We're here on a tip. Back in Mayhill, NM we met a full-time tent camper who had stayed all over the American West. We asked about her favorite places and immediately she named Kanab, UT. Said she could have stayed there a long time, weather permitting. Well! We figured she would know.

It's hard to know just what to expect when heading to a place like this. You've seen pictures of Grand Canyon, we all have. It's real big on the map. Will Rogers quipped that Carlsbad Caverns was like "the Grand Canyon with a roof on it," and those are incredible. Palo Duro canyon is the second largest canyon in the US, but it's a distant second - Grand Canyon is 5 times deeper. I think I can imagine that.

Sedona is incredibly beautiful, but extremely rich-tourist. Maybe the Vail of the desert. We went swimming in the river there on Friday, which necessitated driving through town, and it was absolutely packed. Every store, every parking spot, just full. We were lucky to get parking at the swimming hole, and that we didn't need to be anywhere else in town.

The drive from Holbrook to Prescott was supposed to be easy. About 3 hours down I-40, through Flagstaff on I-17 down the pass and up the highway into little Prescott. Easy. Well, the navigating was. Other parts less so.

The big show out here is Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert, which, while not the largest or most glamorous NP, truly surprised us with the depth of history, color, and stories in this landscape.

Our second week in Santa Fe was a treat, because I got to take time off. I was due for some vacation time and this area was so delightful that it seemed like a great opportunity.

After our trip across southern New Mexico through Las Cruces, Alamogordo, and Carlsbad, we had pretty low expectations for our return to the state. We knew little about Santa Fe itself, but it seemed like an appealing city - mountainous, smaller than Albuquerque, history of notable art. But all of it exceeded our expectations.

The hiking is very good in the canyon, but the mountain biking is even better. So on Wednesday we loaded the bikes in the truck and picked the easiest trail we could find to try some biking. This was excellent, except for poor Kristin, whose lovely new bike was absolutely not a mountain bike.

You know how looking over a steep cliff can give you vertigo? Imagine looking over a steep cliff when you're already inside a cave and that cliff is a hole into total blackness. If you experience fear around any of the following: heights, small spaces, large spaces, the dark, falling, or solitude, you might be uncomfortable in Carlsbad Caverns.

Extreme temperatures tend to test any weak spots in your setup, sometimes with big consequences. Ours turned up soon enough.

We came diagonally across the basin into Alamogordo, a funny little place that's about tourism, missiles, and essentials for the airmen at nearby Holloman AFB. Tourism in Alamogordo reached its fullness in the 1950s and 60s after the nearby White Sands monument had been built out and the town became the unofficial center of pilot safety research in the burgeoning Americana space program. The best-looking bits of the city evoke that space age spirit, though I must say I think they're underselling it and could really go all-in on the space age decor and attractions.

Amazing! we thought. It's like a snow day! Play instead of travel! Let's make pancakes!

Well, halfway through the pancakes they came knocking again.

Ah, Tucson. Long have we waited for this stop. We had much to look forward to here.

When you say out loud what we were doing on this leg, it sounds a little silly. I found this guy on Instagram that does solar installs (or says he does!). I talked to him on the phone, and he offered to do it for much less than the other guys, and sounded very knowledgeable. I put in a down payment on parts, then meet him out in the middle of the desert and let him into our rig. Sure, that sounds legit?!

The appeal of Joshua Tree is considerably more subtle than the Redwoods. Maybe that sounds obvious if you write it out, but it took a while to sink in.

Lone Pine is growing on me. It's beautiful in any weather and easy to find quiet. The locals have been unfailingly nice and welcoming. I've not spent much time in desert places like this, preferring the damp Northwest and its bottomless green, but I think I get it.

This was to be a long drive, in which we cross 250 miles of the central valley through Modesto, Merced, and Fresno to Bakersfield, where we'll spend the next week. Having been to the area a few times in the summer, I expected a long, straight, flat drive through hot farmland.

Thanksgiving break was excellent and sorely needed, but it wasn't the lounging about on the beach that would have been really restorative for K and me. We have to remind each other that we've only been "really" on the road for a week and a half, those first three and a half weeks of moving and cat panic don't count.