Back to Arkansas

In my mind, when people talked about the Grand Canyon, they were hyping it up and over-exaggerating. It's a big hole in the ground, I thought. It can't be all that.

Apparently, my expectations were so low that when I actually saw it in person, I was blown away. It was bigger and more beautiful than I could have ever imagined.

Looking back through my photos, I feel mildly let down at how poorly my camera captured this amazing place. You'll have to go see it for yourself.

Nevada

If you are offended by Michael's poker hobby, think that poker is of the devil, or worry that Michael is going to develop a gambling addiction and bankrupt us, you should not read this post (Mom). Because poker is the sum and total reason we stopped in Vegas on the way to Utah, and Michael competed in not one, not two, but three poker tournaments. (And made us proud.)

Meanwhile, the boys and I walked at least five miles in flipflops at tourist pace over the two days we stayed in Vegas, and when we left, my ankles were so angry, they took a full 24 hours to recover. Also, I took a lot of phone photos.


Coke around the world: Why, Italy, why?!!

Statue of Twizzlers
Cole and Eli look like they're practicing for a career in modeling

California

We spent the halfway point of our trip at Josh's house in San Diego. This was my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean, and if I had to compare La Jolla Beach to Wilmington, the main thing I'd mention is seaweed. Lots and lots of seaweed. Also seals. (Sea lions?)


Driving into California, I managed to ruin my car, so I had to spend our first day in San Diego at a Toyota dealership getting it repaired. In my defense...the roads out there in the Southwest are so straight, it's easy to forget to pay attention to your driving. All you have to do is hold the steering wheel straight, put on the cruise control, and you're good to go for a hundred miles.

So there I was, admiring the scenery and chatting with Cole, when I heard a strange noise. I glanced in the rearview mirror and didn't see anything behind me, so I kept on. But the car continued to periodically make a strange noise. When we stopped for dinner, I checked out the front of the car and didn't see anything, so again we continued on. I assumed that the strange noise was something weird about California's roads, and I made a mental note to ask Josh about it.

And then we were stopped at a border patrol checkpoint. "Do you know that the front of your car is hanging off?" the border patrolman asked.

Um, no. I did not. As soon as we got through the checkpoint, I pulled over, and this time, I got down on my hands and knees to inspect the front of the car. Sure enough, the underside of the car (what I now know is called the splash guard) was bashed in and hanging loose. Thankfully, it was a relatively inexpensive repair, and I was lucky it wasn't a popped tire.

I'm still not quite sure what I hit, though I assume it was one of those loose pieces of tire you always see on the interstate.

We spent the second day in San Diego at the beach, and then Michael flew in on Friday night, bringing the rain with him. On Saturday, the rain let up long enough for us to go to the Mormon Battalion museum in Old Town, where Tessa made my favorite comment of the trip. Describing the sister missionary who led our tour, Tessa said, "She was a little weird, but that's her job." Which describes all sister missionaries everywhere.

We finished up San Diego with more rain on Sunday, and then packed up the car with one extra passenger on Monday morning to head to Las Vegas.

A couple final photos that make me laugh...

Eli about to plow me over

George splashing me (and my camera)

New Mexico, Arizona

Our campground in Guadalupe Mountain National Park near Carlsbad Caverns may be the most beautiful campground I've ever stayed at.


It was also terrifying. I have lived nearly 30 years on the eastern side of the Mississippi, and I have been camping there many, many times. I know which types of plants to avoid, which types of snakes and spiders I need to worry about, and how likely it is that I will encounter a dangerous wild animal - on the eastern side of the Mississippi. Put me in the desert, and I am completely useless.

Are there rattlesnakes here? Scorpions? Other poisonous small creatures? Poisonous plants?....Coyotes?

As we crawled into our sleeping bags for the night, I said, "I think we should bring our shoes inside the tent tonight. In case there are coyotes."

Which freaked out Cole, who spent the next hour insisting, "There's something out there, Mom. I hear footsteps. Something is bumping into my head. What's out there, Mom?"

But he also said, looking up through the tent at the night sky, "I have never seen so many constellations in my life."


Carlsbad Cavern was just another cave (I grew up in Kentucky; I have seen a lot of caves), but one cool thing is their Bat Flight program. According to Ranger Jeff, approximately 350,000 bats live in the cave, and they all fly out of the cave like a swarm of giant mosquitoes around sunset every night.


We spent a second night in New Mexico in a tiny town called Cloudcroft, the highest point in Lincoln National Forest. First of all, it's weird that there is a beautiful, pine-covered forest in the middle of the New Mexico desert. Second of all, I chose that campground because I was worried we would be too hot camping in New Mexico in July, and the Internets promised that Cloudcroft would be cool. But the plan backfired as the nighttime temps dropped to the low 60s, and Eli, who doesn't have a sleeping bag, froze.


By the time we left our next destination, White Sands National Monument, we were exhausted and covered in sand. None of the campgrounds we'd been staying at had showers, so to avoid one more dirty, sleepless night, we decided to get a hotel room in Tucson. Our last night before reaching Josh's house in San Diego, ending our coast to coast drive.

Arkansas, Texas

We left my parents house on Thursday morning, expecting a long 8-hour day in the car but ending up with an extra long, miserable, 10-hour day in the car including two hours of stand-still traffic. My phone kept giving me friendly updates like, "This route has a four-hour delay" and "Give up now. You are never going to reach your destination, and even if you do, you will want to kill yourself and the small people in the car with you." Thanks, Galaxy!

Despite the long drive, Hot Springs, Arkansas was wonderful. I would love to go back and camp there longer. Heading in to Arkansas from Kentucky, the terrain was reminiscent of Kansas but gradually turned into low, wooded mountains and lakes. Who knew Arkansas could be so beautiful!

From our campground at Gulpha Gorge, it was a 1.5 mile hike to the bathhouses in Hot Springs. We toured the visitor's center, earned Junior Ranger badges (all three boys), and plunged hands into the 110 degree water (Eli).

From Arkansas, we drove to Dallas/Fort Worth to spend a couple days at my cousin's house. Originally, I'd planned to go to the Dallas zoo, but since the forecast was 98 degrees, we opted to spend the day in their neighborhood pool instead.



As the lone driver on this epic journey, I have spent a lot of time thinking about plants and landscapes and hills and horizons, and one definite conclusion that I came to was that I would go crazy living in Texas (or at least the parts of the state I drove through). The land is too flat and the trees are too short (when there are trees at all). The horizon is so far away and the sky is too huge. It's creepy. But I do like the windmills.

Also, Texas, let's talk about your gas station situation. Before we left, my dad told me about a time when he drove through west Texas and nearly ran out of gas because the distance between gas stations is so long. I thought, "Well, I have a hybrid. I can go 550 miles on a tank of gas. I'll be fine." Mid-afternoon on the day we drove through Texas, we stopped at a gas station to take a potty break and get a snack, and since my tank was still half full, I thought, "I'll wait to the next station to refill."

Big mistake! When we pulled into our campground in New Mexico, my odometer estimated that I could only drive 65 miles before I'd run out of gas, and Google maps said the nearest gas station was still 35 more miles away. In all, we drove 135 miles without seeing a gas station. I have never been quite so stressed out in my entire life!

First Stop on the U.S. Domination Tour!

The boys and I are on an epic journey to dominate the contiguous United States. Wahahaha!!!!

First stop, Kentucky to see my parents, Kellie, Alex, and Robbie. We got here on Friday afternoon and immediately kicked off the festivities on Saturday by heading to Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. It was my boys' first time on a roller coaster - my first time in at least 10 years. I remembered that I am not a big fan of roller coasters, especially the rickety wooden kind when you're seated near the back. Rylan swore off roller coasters for life. Cole and Eli rode one more before deciding they'd had enough. So not a big roller coaster family.

On the other hand, I have always really loved the scrambler and was excited to share that love with Cole and Eli. We laughed harder than at any other point of the day.

Rylan's favorite ride was probably the old timey cars because he got to drive. The rest of us wish we had not spent an hour in that line for such a pathetic two-minute loop.

We spent the morning at the amusement park, had lunch courtesy of Alex's employer Harmon, and then spent a few hours at the waterpark. If we go back, I would definitely spend more time at the waterpark. 

Today, we went to Bowling Green to check out the splash fountain because Robbie looooooves the splash fountain. This is Cole giving me the "I'm too old for this, Mom" look:

And this is a few minutes later.

And now a photo dump...

Psych

At my dad's suggestion, Michael and I recently watched all 8 seasons of the show Psych. In one of the last episodes, the two main characters open up a food truck where they serve mash-up foods - things that don't seem to go together but that they serve together anyway. Like Fruit Loop quesadillas.

As we watched, I was like, "Fruit Loop quesadillas? Intriguing?"

So the next day, the boys and I tried them out. Except that we had to use Fruity Pebbles instead of Fruit Loops because we couldn't find generic Fruit Loops at Food Lion, and I won't pay more than $2 for a box of cereal.

So Fruity Pebble Quesadillas.


The verdict was...neutral. They weren't nasty-I-can't-eat-this, but they also weren't this-is-the-greatest!!! They were just okay. We all ate them; we wouldn't make them again.

I know you were all going to try this tonight. Sorry to disappoint...