Eclectic Parent

Getting ready to leave the Irish Inn in Shamrock, TX. It’s a mandatory stop whenever daddy travels cross country. Just so happened to get there about 10 PM last night. Everyone is tired, stops are frequent (”I have to go potty”) and taking forever and we’re only managing about 7 - 8 hours drive in 12 hour days.

Almost home, almost home, almost home. Kids have ruled out Four Corners (nothing really there, but they’ve always wanted to see it), the Grand Canyon and the Petrified Forest. They are voting for straight home. We hope to make it to Gallup, New Mexico ( “Flagstaff Arizona…don’t forget Winona, Kingman….. Barstow… San Bernadino, Get your kicks on Route 66″). Well we won’t make it to any of those places on this trip, maybe next time. It is time to get out of the car and sleep in our own beds. We started out the day by not having breakfast and not giving the kids juice or lemonade. Since the kids only had water they didn’t chug their drinks so we didn’t have to stop as often. We broke for breakfast in Texas and ate as quickly as we could. The rest of the drive seemed to take too long. A mile a minute is just too slow, The kids would like to invent the tela-port so we could get home quicker. We had to stop just before Albuquerque Nm for gas, a late lunch and mandatory bathroom breaks. Almost there, another state and another big city. Gallup was a short drive from Albuquerque we filled up there again and decided not to stop for the night. The difference in the time zones and the sun staying up later, we thought we could press on. we thought we could make it a little further before we stopped. Holbroke, Az was our next destination, we had to change roads there to head home. We saw a rainbow as we drove out of Gallup to Holbroke. The kids asked that I take a picture with the iphone (the greatest phone yet). As we pulled off the exit in Holbroke the sun was finally setting and the storm clouds in the distance flashed red instead of blue. We had been driving all day and the lights from the on coming traffic made the night seem darker. We were too close the stop and the kids got more excited when I told them. We only had three hours left after a month on the road. The boys fell asleep on the last leg of the drive. B watched Ratatouille for that final drive. The van had had its trial by fire, a little worse for wear. As we pulled into the driveway, I was glad the drive was over. It was a very long day of driving and it was time for bed. Grandma would be there when we got up in the morning to play with the kids while we started to unload the van and u-haul. We are all glad to be home,