Wow, it sure has taken me a while to sit down and finally blog about our trip last week. Because I have so many pictures to share and stories to tell, I'm piecing the trip out in three parts. So, let's begin!
Friday, March 14th, I was able to leave work early, snag the kids and be on the road by 3:30 rather then 5, which put us in Las Vegas at a much more reasonable time of 10:30 pm versus 12 or 1 in the morning. And yes, that does seem like a longer drive than the actual 6 hour time frame, but with two little ones by yourself, two breaks with getting everyone out of the car is definitely needed. Besides, it never fails that 20 minutes prior to the time and place you plan on stopping, Big Boy declares he needs to go to the bathroom. Considering he's four and does pretty good about not having accidents, you can't really fairly make the poor kid wait another 20 minutes.
After getting myself absurdly lost, 5 minutes from my sister's house in Vegas we arrived to unload, unwind and get some rest before the much longer drive the next day. And before you ask how I managed to get lost seeing that I had the use of my work's GPS system, I must inform you that my sister's house is just a bit newer than the GPS software so it could get me to North Las Vegas but not directly to her home. The GPS by the way - we loved! For the most part it worked great, letting us know if there were hotels/food/gas in the next town and the expected time frame to get to our arrival destination. It even recalculated the time after our pit stops for gas or bathroom breaks. We did incidentally name her "Madge" figuring that sounded like a proper British name since we changed the voice to be British wanting to add a bit of culture to our trek. For a brief moment we contemplated putting her in a French or German voice but since we actually wanted to know when to turn and where we were we decided against it. Could have certainly added to the adventure though! Who knows we could have ended up in Alaska instead of Arkansas, they're close enough, right? HaHa!
Meet "Madge", trusty leader of our grand adventure!
Big Boy and Boopy, buckled in and ready to go!
Me, all set to act as co-pilot and in car flight attendant to the two backseat passengers.
Our beautiful pilot, sister Anne, better known as Guya!
For the most part, our drive started out pretty uneventful. That is until an hour later when we were driving over the Hoover Dam to head into Arizona. For those of you not familiar with the area, as I was, the best way out of Vegas was to drive over the Hoover Dam which is unfortunately a major tourist area. This wouldn't be so bad, except that pedestrians rule the road and mindlessly wander about. It would have to be at this point, in the middle of stop and go traffic, with no where to pull off the highway and no bathrooms insight, that Big Boy announces that he needs to go potty. And this is ultimately how we start our trip.... I have the fun of sharing that Big Boy thought Mama was a bit off her rocker, but cooperated nonetheless, when I had him unbuckle, stand up and pee in my empty McDonald's orange juice cup. I think Guya was about to die from the realization that there was pee sitting right next to her in the cup holder adjacent to her coffee. And before you gasp about Big Boy's safety, we were in stopped traffic and literally no where to get out and desolate empty desert looming ahead of us. It was either pee in a cup or have a nice puddle in the backseat.
Hoover Dam - location of Big Boy's first time to pee in a cup!
Figuring nothing could top the fun of peeing in a cup, I think we were set to sit back enjoy the barren desert, watch Disney DVD's and enjoy each other's company. We were wrong! We ventured into Arizona easy prey! It's a good thing, Guya can put the pedal to the metal before these guys could catch us!
Things did settle back down after the great dinosaur chase with not much to report other than a crappy dinner in New Mexico. The kids rode along wonderfully, reading, playing and watching movies. We opted to stay the night in Albuquerque, New Mexico since we were tired and there didn't seem to be much in the way of towns just ahead. In fact Sunday morning we were really glad we didn't push it to Tucumcari, New Mexico. When we stopped there for an early drive-thru lunch we realized that there wasn't much to the town at all and not meaning to sound snobbish, but everything off the highway seemed to be a bit of a dump.
Booby had fun reading a Thomas the Train book. Don't you think she rather talented that she can read upside down?
Boopy also enjoyed copying Mama with her play camera. I bet she got some really great imaginary photos!
Big Boy, the quieter of the two, was very content watching movies and playing with anything truck related.
Later in the evening on our 2nd day, we found ourselves in north eastern Oklahoma. Hungry, we started looking for somewhere to eat in between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Normally, one wouldn't think this should be an issue, but since we found ourselves on a toll road, massive trees and now restaurant signs in sight, it became an issue. We did find an exit ahead that showed food symbols and took the risk to see what our choices were. After paying our exit toll, we found ourselves venturing 5 miles along a windy road into the small town of Chandler, OK and stopping at a Taco Mayo for mexican food. Thankfully this worked for everyone, since there was no other choice but the convenience store at the neighboring gas station. "Madge" did her job and got us back to the interstate after our meal.
A bit later after the DVD battery died and it was dark the kids were forced to entertain themselves. Boopy decided to try her abilities at a Houdini trick and proceeded to try to take her shirt off while buckled in her car seat. Why she insists (frequently) being half naked is beyond me, or perhaps it's just something I don't want think about much for fear that this pastime will transcend into adulthood. Regardless, she insisted "NO SHIRT" and ended up requiring a bit of help from the co-pilot, Me, to remove her shirt. It looked like so much fun that Big Boy decided to join her. The real fun came when Boopy tried to put her shirt back on (see picture below)!
Although we didn't quite make it to my Grandma's town the 2nd day, we did make it about 2 1/2 hours away, in Siloam Springs, just across the Arkansas border. Not too bad considering we started the day in New Mexico. We actually could have pushed it but Big Boy had one of the few meltdowns of the trip and woke up crying that he wanted to go to sleep in a bed. Really, who could blame the poor kid!
After a good night sleep we loaded back up and drove the rest of the way into Mountain Home, Arkansas for our visit to see Grandma Carol.
Pretty views on the drive in to Mountain Home, Arkansas.
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