Natcez Trace Parkway, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee

B. Hippo overlooks the mighty Mississippi River in Natchez, Mississippi, start of the Natchez Trace

B. Hippo at the gravesite of Merriwether Lewis, explorer (leader of the Corps of Discovery) and governor of the Louisiana Territory. Lewis died alongside the Trace, just south of Nashville, Tennessee.

The Natchez Trace is an old, old road, from near Natchez, MS to just south of Nashville, TN. It was originally a Native American trading route, and later a footpath for Kaintucks (farmers from the Ohio River Valley who floated their harvest south on wooden barges to sell, then travelled home overland). It is now preserved by the National Parks Service and is one of the finest drives in the USA. At least B. Hippo thinks so... beautiful smooth road, lush forest, no trucks, and clear Mississippi sky.

Texas, USA

B. Hippo looks out over the plains of West Texas. There sure is a lot of nothing out here!

Everything is bigger in Texas. The state capitol in Austin is the largest in the country, larger even than the US Capitol in Washington DC!

Wow, there sure is a lot of Texas out there. On the way to Carlsbad, we drove through the flat and empty part of West Texas on US-180 and drove by the Guadalupe Mountains. After re-entering Texas on US-285 we drove through Pecos and met up with Interstate 10 in a town called Fort Stockton for a long drive through a lot of wind turbines and cattle. Upon reaching Austin, we visited the state capitol, and later visited friends in College Station and Houston. If there's anything to take from such a whirlwind tour of the state, it's that its BIG. Really really big. And diverse. There's a big difference between regions, and outlooks, within this state. Austin and College Station may as well be in different countries. Then again, for a state that was once it's own country, this seems somehow appropriate.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico

Though his travelling companion K dislikes caves, B. Hippo managed to make a visit to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico

Outside the natural entrance to the cave. We later saw a flight of some 250,000 bats leave this entrance at dusk, though no photography is allowed lest it harm the bats

The walk from the natural entrance reveals a number of gigantic and amazing cave formations, and we had an opportunity to learn about some exciting research on extremophiles going on at the secret and nearby Lechuguilla cave system. The bat flight was also quite outstanding, despite the reduced number of winged mammals in residence this year. Oddly enough, the cave has an elevator for those less inclined to walk in, and there is also a gift shop and cafeteria inside the cavern. As an older National Park, the ecological precautions now in place were somewhat different at the time of it's founding.

Phoenix, Arizona

B. Hippo with a Saguaro cactus and a Palo Verde tree outside the Arizona state capitol in Phoenix. Both of these plants are typical of the Sonoran Desert landscape in that part of the state. The emblem to the left of the cactus shows the Arizona state flag

Outside Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Taliesin West in nearby Scottsdale, Arizona

Though it is pushing a little later into the year, it's still quite hot here in the desert. We wandered the grounds of the Arizona State Capitol and visited some friends in Phoenix, then went the next morning to see the site of Frank Lloyd Wright's famed architecture school, Taliesin West, in Scottsdale. Interestingly, the buildings at Taliesin were all built out of local materials, so interesting as it is this structure fit into its surroundings far better than the stucco-and-plywood suburban mansions that encroach on its grounds.