After a night in a funky little bed-and-breakfast in the town of Taos, New Mexico we visited the Taos Pueblo. Just outside the town of Taos are Indians living more or less (less actually) as they have for hundreds of years The century old pueblos are lived in an maintained with as few modern additions as possible. They, of course open their houses to sell jewelery and trinkets to the tourists.

From New Mexico, we drove across the south end of the rockies traveled through Colorado before making it to Texas. What better indication of Texas-ness than Cadallic Ranch outside Amarillo. From Amarillo, we drove through the traffic jams of Dallas and southward into the heat and humidity of Houston.

We just happened to be at the Johnson Space Center when the space shuttle Discovery launched. On the plus side we watched the launch on the IMAX screen with commentary from one of the astronaut team. On the minus side, the mission control tour was unavailable because they were busy. This place wasn't what I expected at all. There was the science side of the space program (the tram tour) but, when you walk into the building you are confronted with this gigantic jungle gym type of thing. We're talking kids climbing and bouncing all over a brightly colored structure that doesn't seem to have anything to do with space flight. The only connection I can see is it relates to astronaut training. Back in the back are some displays of space suits and a full sized mock up of the nose of the space shuttle.

We spent the night in Sulfur, Louisiana (it smelled of sulfer that night too -- I blame the oil refinery close by) and the next day drove across the state to the city of New Orleans. We took a walk through the French Quarter of that city and ate some Cajun food. The boys were unimpressed with the shops and bars. They thought that, since it was set up as a party town, you need your buddies and a buzz to enjoy the place. Can't argue with that. What did get their attention were the beignets from Cafe du Monde -- warm donut-like pastries smothered in powered sugar was worth a thumbs up.

Tonight we are in Pensacola, Florida before diving into the central area of that state and finally to Walt Disney World.

There are some more pictures up: Taos Pueblo, Cadillac Ranch, Houston Space Center and New Orleans .

We've gone over 4000 miles so far and we're about to start our third week. We'll need to get a move on if we're going to make it back in our alloted time.