Greetings from Arizona!

We are almost all the way across the country. But not quite.

We made three stops in Texas. First was Houston to visit Amie's cousin Dan, his wife Brooke, and their Beagle-mix, Jorgia (not named after the state). After a yummy home-cooked meal (a rarity on the road-trip), the Middlebrooks drove us around the city. Houston is home of Tara Lipinski (as the sign at the rink in the mall informed us), residences to a few Georges (Strait and Bush, Sr.), location of the Enron offices (the big 'E' has been sold on E-Bay) and future home of this year's SuperBowl (in a few weeks). It also houses quite a few arenas/stadiums, new and old; we drove by all of them on our tour, stopped at the waterfall monument (see picture) and watched a team of workers training on the new light rail, working out bugs for the upcoming large event.

Next was a stop in Austin to visit a high-school friend of Amie's. Jake lives with friends who own quite a large puppy (the one year-old Great Dane was almost 5-feet tall to the top of her head, and full of energy). Alex played well with the large dog, as well as the small beagle in Houston. After a Tex-Mex meal, Jake took us to watch his roommate's jazz group play downtown. Jake also plays sax, and recorded backup on an album that has been nominated for a Latin Grammy (see the picture of his Grammy Nomination Medal).

After leaving Austin at 5:30 a.m., we hit downtown Dallas in the mid-morning, so we stopped at the brand-new American Airlines Center. Event Coordinator Bill was nice enough to give us a tour while they loaded dirt in for a Motor Cross event. The rest of Texas was mostly highway; we finally got to Santa Fe, New Mexico in time for a late dinner with Niles' brother Michael and his friend, Elsa.

Michael and Elsa took us to a day at a natural hot springs spa, just outside of Santa Fe (altitude 7,000 ft). The mud tub was closed but we soaked in several tubs, each full of different minerals and soothing warm water. The next day we toured the countryside (including Los Almos, where the National Laboratory is) and downtown Santa Fe. We met Michael at a bar to watch the UNC-UCONN game but it wasn't on. We did get to see the last 10 seconds after it ended. And that was the best part. A few Santa-Fe Cuisine meals (AKA Mexican) and a lot of time spent with Niles' brother completed the visit. The doggie update for Santa Fe is that Pete's (Michael's roommate) dog, Amigo, was very sweet and got along with Alex but didn't really like to play. But his neighborhood friends did. Natasha, the black lab and Jake (we don't know his name but he looked like our friend Anne's dog, Jake, so we called him that; he responded) played with Alex a few times at the arroyo (dry river).

We are in Phoenix now, glad to be back in the warmer weather. Off to California next?  We will write again then!

Don't forget to check out the latest pictures here - there are lots of new ones!

Niles, Amie and Alex