Wagons Westward

After trying out our new wheels and methods on our 3,000-mile New England road trip, we decided to explore a new section of this great country - the Southwest!  Our latest North American transect took us through Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona. We watched the landscape morph from the Atlantic coast to the Appalachians, to the expansive Midwest and high plains, to the buttes, mesas and mountains of the desert.

Here's a glimpse at the evolution of the great American landscape from east to west:

 Climbing Monk's Mound at the Cahokia Mounds in Illinois, the ruins of the largest and most complex pre-Columbian city north of Mexico.

Crossing under the Jefferson Expansion Memorial Arch in St. Louis, Missouri - our official entrance into the West!

Crossing the flat (and windy!) plains of Oklahoma

 As we entered New Mexico, the landscape changed rapidly to reveal rough rock bulging through the dry ground...

...evolving into beautiful mountain chains like the Sandias.

Stay tuned for more dispatches from the American Southwest!