MP: Scenes from the last day

Chicago!

 Managed the El, the bus and the trolley

 Future trader(s)?

 Navy Pier and Lake _ichigan

 Cooling off after a lot of walking

A fitting end

We arrived home at about 4 minutes to midnight! 3 weeks exactly.

Kids: glimpse of the truck life

Exclusive: Inside the cabin

This is what SJ does when she is bored: the alphabet made from pretzels

 This what Hummingbird looks like when she gets the front seat; at least for a few seconds before she moves again

Sometimes MP gives up the front seat and gets to cuddle with the middle/middle passenger.  Only on flat stretches.

Strangely,  the captain has not taken MP up on offers to drive very much. This would be perfectly fine except for the rubber-necking-induced-swerves.

This technically taken from inside the truck, so it counts: GPS just had to touch the cactus at the McDonald's parking lot.

MP: ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seatbelts

One day, 3 states.  Tuesday morning we were packed and gone from our mountain house by 7 am. We knew we had to get moving, because we had an important meeting.

After loving northern colorado and the high rolling hills framed by the rockies, we traveled through Wyoming (above). Wide open spaces! Beautiful green grasses! Incredible forever blue sky! Why shouldn't we move there?!? Hmmm...strange that nearly every mile of the interstate was lined with snow fence. Like, serious snow fence. And when we stopped for a gas station break, the door into the store had a big sign saying "due to wind, please hold door when entering". Ahem.

Once we crossed the border into south dakota (beautiful forests and green mountains...lakes every 20 miles...I did not know) we started playing the cell phone signal game as we made final plan to meet our dear friends who are starting their own road trip. Little did we know that they were calling/ texting from a hike they won't forget.  Amazingly,  we did find each other at horsetheif lake (above) near mt Rushmore and then headed to the famous mountain.

We ended up in Deadwood at the koa together.  Friends, road trips, camping,  mountains, summer, and of course, fire. What more could you want?!?

MP: it's so hard to say goodbye

After some great food, sun, scenery,  family,  trees, and ocean, we have left Hotel California. Cara, Mark, Kyle and Joey sent us off with a yummy meal at their beautiful home, and now we're On the Road Again.

We made it to Elko, NV last night, but not before stopping to eat at Chihuahua ' s in Winnemucca -  a town that gets us one step closer to I've Been Everywhere.  Great meal!!

Now we've hit Utah and plan to Get Out the Map, since we've got some choices to make today,  and Every Day is a Winding Road.

Captain's Log: Day 8: The Price of Beauty

Captain's Log: Trip Day 8. Beautiful drive today. Mojave Desert to central valley area around Bakersfield where the irrigation starts. Still looks like a desert everywhere else.

Then the grape country

Then another coastal mountain range

Then the ocean 

 

 

Then highway one ...

Then a bad decision:

C: Hey kids we are going to go on a beautiful drive up famous highway 1!
Kids: Will take long?
C and MP: A while but worth it
C: Look kids look over the cliffs!
MP: Beautiful!
Kids: Wow
C: Look how far down!
Kids: wow
C: Another turn
Kids:
C: Look at the waves crashing in down there!
Kids:
MP:
C: Hey look at ...
MP: (distributes Dramamine tabs)
Kids: Sleeping except Flip Flop
MP: Soundly sleeping
C: Increases speed to test heavily loaded Suburban
C: White knuckling the steering wheel trying to stay ahead of Camaro behind
C: Is anyone awake?
Flip Flop: Awake but says nothing
C: Many turns. Wishes there was a way out.
Flip Flop: I'm hungry
C: I'm a little busy. Eat some almonds
Flip Flop: I don't want almonds
.....
hour later
.....
Later
Still twisting turning
Kids: begin to wake up
C: Tired of this road
SJ: (waking and stretching) How much longer til we get to the house?
FF: An hour and a half
SJ: That must be wrong. It was close to that when I went to sleep.
FF: Here you go, puddin' pop. Yep. Hour and a half, isn't it?!?
SJ: sad silence
MP: wakes up and realizes we are still twisting around cliff edges
FF: We're hungry
MP: (rethinking cook at the house plan) We'll find something quick to grab as soon as we see some kind of civilization.
.....
GPS: Hey, there's a cow!
FF: Let's cut him up and eat him.
.....
arrival time still near an hour away
.....
FF: (noticing houses up on the mountain) These people are obviously alive and have to find sustenance somewhere. Let's find out where they get their food.

We finally got to Monterey Peninsula and grabbed some gas-station food, which helped everyone tolerate a quick grocery stop at Walmart by MP. Finally arrived at the house about 8:30 p.m. Pacific time. This is our view this morning:

MP: scenes from CA

Just into CA. About 100 degrees

Largest wind farm in the world; tehachapi

Took a longer route to get to the ocean sooner; hit it near Cambria

Drove up hwy 1 past beautiful ocean on one side and cliffs on the other; had more twists and turns than we had bargained for! Saw the Hearst Castle on a hill and passed through the Big Sur forest

Their first time seeing the Pacific Ocean;  68 degrees

Flip Flop: driving day

Bonding with my brother in the back seat. 

MP: Observations from a driving day

1. When giving daily instructions to the crew, do not ever say "today is a driving day, so..." etc. The wise mother would say something like "We are going to see amazing things today in 2 states!" and then they might not decide to be bored as quickly.

2. The Count of Monte Cristo better move the plot along soon, or I'm going to lose them. Their mimicking French accents from the back seat are possibly already wearing thin. A little.

3. Hwy 380 from Roswell to San Antonio, NM. How many of you will move out with us???

4. Our first KOA experience tonight has been perfect so far. We are sleeping, as the camp info says, "directly on the side of a volcano".

5. Leah has started saying "are we there yet" in pig latin. On day 5.

6. We finally hit 100 degrees in AZ this afternoon!

7. Living by the Rio Grande reminds me of the stories of living in the Nile Delta. Brown everywhere, with one long stretch of deep green along the river.

8. My husband is a patient, patient man.

I've been to CA before. I've been to CO. And Texas.  But the part of the country we drove into today was a first for me and did not disappoint.  West Texas and SW New Mexico are fascinating and so unique. Granted, we experienced unusually nice weather in both places (although I really did want to feel the 108 degree to say I did), but we had a great day.

We had talked about Carlsbad caverns for so long that it had become just a spot on the trip map. When we actually saw the mountains and then the cave we realized it was well worth the spot. We chose to walk in the natural entrance even though that was an hour hike going down very steeply.  Very glad we did.

Quote of the day: "Be careful not to cross into the houses!" - Evan, as we were leaving his driveway.

Pictures I didn't take

At home it's June 7, but here in western Arkansas we still have some minutes left in Day 1. The kids are just about all asleep. We had a wonderful visit with my aunt and uncle and cousin's family. I'd love to show you a picture of the foundation and logs of the log cabin my uncle and cousins are building - by hand. You would be impressed.

Or maybe I could show you the barges on the Mississippi at the base of the St. Louis arch. That we saw at the picnic we had by the river.

In the "morbid curiosity" file, I could display the crown which fell off of Eric's tooth about 6 hours into our drive that led to an educational lesson on tooth cement. No? A moment of gratitude that I was driving instead of taking pictures at that time.

Sadly, I am not showing these pictures.  Primarily because I took none of them. As I prepare for my sleep shift as we head for Texas,  I declare that tomorrow I will do better. Because we will see my nephew. And he is cute. And his mother is a photographer.

MP

I leave you with the one pic I did get in...These kids (and Mark!!) are cute too!

Let the Music Move You

There are times when I think we are taking this road trip just to make a playlist (ok, that may just be me).

We started it in February, on one of those really cold snowy days when we felt that June would never come. California Dreamin' by The Mamas and the Papas got us through.

All seven have to agree for the song to go on the official Road Trip playlist, even if Levi keeps trying to sneak songs on it. We'll make a "loud" playlist too, and some that are for "calmer" times. But this one is the songs to remember as we make the memories. So the bar is high.

Here's what we have So Far:
- We Will All be Changed
- In the Summertime
- Caaalifornia
- California Dreamin'
- Life is a Highway
- Brighter than the Sun
- Say Hey (I Love you)
- I've been Everywhere
- Happy
- Walkin' on Sunshine
- (Your Love keeps Lifting me) Higher
- Million Pieces

Can you help us out?!? What song is a MUST?