This is the first in a series of posts about our big road trip to California. I’m not really sure how these blog posts will turn out. (It’s taking me a long time just to write this one.) I guess I’ll just have to see what develops! Some of this will be for my own benefit of recording some of our memories. Hopefully you will find it interesting, too! 😉 You can get the Reader’s Digest condensed version checking out the photos posted on Facebook here. You can also check my Twitter feed here and scroll through to see all the fun details. (It was my entertainment with Dad’s phone and hours and hours and hours of time in the van! Our vacation in 140 characters or less. ha ha!)
We decided California would be our destination a while back, and we initially thought we would fly sometime in July before Paige turned 2 and we had to pay for a seat for her. 🙂 After checking prices, we realized the airfare alone would deeply dent our vacation budget and leave us with little money to spend doing anything fun. So, we put on our adventure packs and decided for a big road trip, determined to make it fun and memorable!
Iowa & Missouri
We departed home much later than we had hoped due to rain delays at Dad’s softball tournament (he’s in charge and usually wired after the tournament, so we thought leaving when it was over to get a few hours in would be a great choice.) We journeyed in the dark for about five hours through Iowa and Missouri along Interstate 35.
The kids were determined to stay awake the whole time, but they started nodding off before we got out of Iowa. They tried to convince us that they were indeed awake, but the sound of kids sucking their fingers (when should they kick that habit?!?) proved that they were asleep!
I also was going to try to get a photo of the “Welcome” sign of each state. I tried to take the Missouri one, and it didn’t work because it was too dark. We didn’t see much of Iowa or Missouri in the dark. We’ve had plenty of time to see them in the past.
Kansas
We also didn’t get a photo of the Kansas sign. I was driving and Ben was nodding off here and there, so we missed it. We arrived at our hotel in Emporia at 3:30 a.m. Paige asked if we were going to go “imming” (swimming.) She saw me pack her swimming suit and swim diapers and seemed to think that all we were doing was driving somewhere to go swimming.
We slept in a little and then hit the road. Hello Kansas Turnpike!
Oklahoma
I’m not sure if there was an official Oklahoma welcome sign, but we saw the sign above at a rest stop that appeared to be near the border.
We made a stop in Oklahoma City and visited the memorial site for the Oklahoma City bombing. It was very sad to see the site, yet it was so beautifully designed. It was obvious that a lot of time and thought went into making the memorial. There is a chair for each person who was killed in the bombing.
It looked as though there were several places to stop in OKC, but it was 100 degrees and we needed to keep moving, so we headed out to hit the road again.
Texas
I guess we didn’t get a Welcome to Texas sign photo, either. You can Google it if you want to see it. 😉 It says to “Drive friendly — the Texas way!”
We drove by a leaning water tower near Groom.
We also stopped at the second largest cross in the Western Hemisphere, or so they say. It was huge!
It turned out to be a really neat stop. We all enjoyed getting out of the car for a while, and the site had the Stations of the Cross and other statues to look at.
Can you see Andrew? He wanted his photo taken with Jesus on the cross. The kids were also very interested in the statue of Jesus’ body being taken down from the cross. They kept going back to that one and looking at his body that was covered with wounds.
We left the cross and finished our drive for the day to Amarillo, all excited to finally go “imming.” Unfortunately, we all got in our swimming suits and headed to the pool, only to discover that the pool was closed and “out of order.” Paige went to bed saying, “Pool broken.” Poor thing! They all really handled the disappointment really well.
The next morning we continued our journey west along Interstate 40.
New Mexico
I finally got a welcome sign when we got to New Mexico!
Welcome to New Mexico, Land of Enchantment and, as you can see, Land of Road Construction! This was our first state with the 75 mph speed limit, but we could rarely drive that fast because we seemed to always be traveling on stretches of road reduced to one lane.
It was in New Mexico that the scenery started changing from the plains of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas to plateaus, mountains and other geographical things I’m sure I once knew the names for. Photos taken from a car are never the greatest, but I couldn’t resist. 🙂
Arizona
Our next state was Arizona!
We were welcomed by the Grand Canyon State and some random people hanging out by the sign.
We stopped for the night in Williams. We parked in the quaint, touristy downtown next to a vehicle from Polk County, Iowa. The lone Iowa license plate we noticed on our trip west. We got some pizza for supper and then found our hotel and were delighted to find out the pool was operational! We finally got to “im!” Paige was jumping around in front of a full-length mirror in our hotel room singing, “imming! imming! imming!”
The next morning we visited the Grand Canyon. (It is worthy of it’s own post, so stay tuned!) We made a little stop for a late lunch at the Roadkill Cafe in Seligman, where the kids were arrested and we chose from the menu of items like The Chicken that Almost Crossed the Road, No Luck Buck, Fender Tenders, and the like. No worries, it was all to be funny. The food was really quite good!
The area outside the restaurant was made to look like an old west town, I guess. We were going to check out the outhouse, but it appeared as if someone was sitting in it. We didn’t want to find out what that was all about! 😉
There was also this monument:
It was hard to read but said something like, “On this site in 1861 nothing happened.” We felt so honored to visit such a meaningful place!
California
We finally made it to California, but we had quite a ways left to go. It was one of those days where the end was in sight, but was still so far off. It seemed like we might never make it!
I’m sure there was some sign to welcome us to California, but I really don’t remember. I was driving and noticing how we had gone from temperatures in the mid 80s in the higher elevation of Arizona to 110 degrees in the desert of California! We did get welcomed by the border inspection station and thankfully they just wondered where we were coming from and if we had any fruit.
We got through the desert and into more desert, but at least it’s eventually more populated. We had a supper stop at a fast food play place and continued on our journey to Oceanside!
We are almost there and Mom is blinding us with the light from the flash!
After 2,024 miles we arrived at my aunt and uncle’s condo in Oceanside! It is a nice place, and the kids were impressed it wasn’t just a hotel room. “Look!” said Morgan. “A kitchen!” 🙂
Drost Digest 