Last December Sarah and I and the kids drove from Kansas City through Kansas, the tips of Oklahoma and Texas, all through New Mexico and Arizona, Disneyland then down the Pacific coast of Mexico to Puerto Vallarta then on to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. I would have to get out our itinerary, but we remember strongly these places:

Canyon de Chelly, Chinle Arizona (Best Western motel is nice); Santa Fe, New Mexico (everyone loves this town for good reason) -- there are 7 pueblos close by, including Taos Pueblo; there are very good restaurants including Maria's; the International Folk Art Musuem is great; we stayed at the El Rey Inn, which we loved; Los Alamos -- great science museum, including an exhibit showing the birth of the nuclear age; there is also a great national park nearby, where you can do short and longer hikes and see the remains of Indian life (I don't remember the name, but it is only 5 miles from Los Alamos); If you are interested in astronomy, we enjoyed stopping at VLA (Very Large Array of radio telescopes, just like in the movie Contact); Albuquerque -- we did not love this town, but the natural History musuem is very good; Roswell -- no matter what you think about the possibility of extraterrestrial life, the musuem here is interesting; Flagstaff -- a nice town and good jumping off point for the Grand Canyon and the nearby national parks; There are several solar telescope facilities throughout Arizona; I will get out my notes, since there is one facility that is near a beautiful town up in the mountains in southern Arizona; you would probably stay in cabins near the woods; Painted Desert -- we loved this Petrified Forest -- naively, we expected more, but it was a nice walk and the fallen trees are interesting; it was also interesting to read about the thousands of people who came here to cut up the petrified wood and cart it off to sell before the government made it into a park;

There are a few Ziners in Kansas City, but if you want we can give you some ideas about places to see and things to do. One place never mentioned when people tlk about KC is a restaurant named Stephenson's. It is connected with an apple orchard.

Ed and Sarah in San Miguel de Allende