Petra and Michelle's Southwest Extraveganza!

My best friend from high school, Petra, flies in tomorrow evening to see the desert for the first time in her life. Oh, and to see me too. My sister Sara, who moved out to Cali six months ago and is a little lonely now that her boyfriend is gone, invited me to come stay out there for a couple weeks or months while I figure out what's going on with my life. So to combine these two things, Petra and I are taking a road trip all around New Mexico, then to the Grand Canyon and on to L.A.! Here's a picture of Petra and me from last year:

This is our list of things we plan to see: Las Cruces, Agurirre Springs, White Sands, Alamogordo, Cloudcroft, Carlsbad Caverns, Roswell, Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Bandelier National Monument, Albuquerque, Petrified National Forest, Grand Canyon, and then Disneyland and Magic Mountain in LA. Unless we change our minds along the way.

We will be driving my parents' mini-van so we can get practice for being future soccer-moms. Not really, although I can see both of us in that role later in life. If we take the Chevy Lumina then I can bring my grandfather's desk back to New Mexico. The desk was brought to LA by my Uncle Bob after Grandpa passed away two years ago and has been stuck there until now. Also, this way I'll have my own set of wheels while I'm in Cali, which is highly desirable.

Now, what I'm really supposed to be doing is packing...