post·script

The end of our trip brought a lot of reflection.  (as only sitting three hours in an airport can provide) The last two weeks have been incredible and we were incredibly fortunate.  There are a lot of things that can go wrong during a trip across the country and relatively speaking, compared to some of the things that could have happened, we were very lucky.  We never really hit horrible traffic, we never experienced mechanical failure and everyone remained on speaking terms the entire ride!  The trip was not without incident - we had swimmers ear that required a phone call to the doctor and drops properly administered. We got lost - if only for a few miles - in a not so nice section of St. Louis. The kids had their moments (as kids do) and parents got frustrated (as parents do).  There were moments but that is all that they were.  We planned as much as we could and we went into this adventure with our eyes wide open... well some of us did anyway...

On a whole and in summary the trip was exactly what we hoped it would be - a memorable family vacation that none of us will ever forget.

Death Valley CA

If the day ever comes that i need to dismember a body and bury it in the middle of no where, I now know where that spot would be.  Death Valley California is a magnificent place that can be as hot and unforgiving as it is beautiful.  One cannot help but notice the white board in the visitor center that keeps track of the heat related deaths during the current calendar year.  The crooked black "2" on the board is a warning to those that enter to pay the park fee - don't be number "3".  Helping to take our mind off of the harshness of the landscape was the oasis accommodations we experienced at the Furnace Creek Inn.  Built in the 1920's the Inn is incredibly charming with large rooms, gorgeous views and a spring fed swimming pool that required no chemicals due to the constant inflow and outflow of the spring. Amazing!  The inn garden, which is in bloom during the spring months, was watched over by a coyote that on our final day decided to get a little closer to pop-pop than perhaps he was comfortable with.

During the day we explored places like Devils Golf Course, Golden Canyon and Badwater Basin which is over 200 feet below sea level.  In the evening we looked at the stars and drank prickly pear margaritas made fresh by Gary, the soft spoken bartender whose useful knowledge and conversation could only come from a guy that has been tending bar in Death Valley for 26 years.

The pool was a refreshing 96 degrees (which is only refreshing because the air temperature was 111 degrees). When we showered, you only had to turn on the cold water, because in Furnace Creek, even the cold water is pretty warm.

The two nights we spent in Death Valley were a wonderful end to our trip.  On Saturday, Jen, the kids and I flew home out of Las Vegas and mom-mom and pop-pop (those with unlimited vacation time) continued the drive home.

Disneyland & California Adventure

We have spent the last three days running wild in Disneyland and California Adventure.  We had a great time on the rides in Disneyland and enjoyed trying new thing we normally would not get to try in Disney World.  The differences between the two parks are interesting to experience and while we have been to Disney World more times than is healthy to admit, the experience in Disneyland was unique enough to be truly original.  On this trip, Mia tried Space Mountain for the very first time and Mom-mom and Jen were brave in attempting this new version of Space Mountain as well. Coralie and Mia both thought Space Mountain was the best ride in Disneyland. Cameron found enjoyment at Star Tours.  The five randomly rotated Star Wars experiences was something he really wanted to experience.... all of them... several times.

For us, California Adventure was completely underrated.  We knew the new Cars Land was supposed to be impressive be we did not appreciate how impressive it was until we got there and then even more so at night when the neon comes out. If you have a child that is a fan of the movie, Cars Land has a lot to offer.  The Radiator Springs Racer ride is the main attraction and it is a lot of fun.  It is so popular that the line to get a fast pass for the ride can often be an hour long and fast passes are gone by midmorning.  The rest of the park has plenty to do for kids young and old, from kid rides in Bugs Land to rides like California Screamin, a extremely long and fast roller coster with a loop right in the middle.  Coralie thought this was the best ride in the park!  While California Adventure has Disney classics like Soarin and Tower of Terror, it also has new experiences like Grizzly River Rapids to make the experience seem fresh and new.

We were impressed with not only the rides in California Adventure but also the concessions (lots of food to enjoy) and the end of the night show, World of Color.  The 27 minute show is extremely well done with water features and fire set to music in an incredibly creative way.


After 4 nights and 3 days in Anaheim CA we are ready for the final leg of our trip.  Tomorrow we drive to Death Valley to experience one of the hottest - driest places on earth.  After Disneyland? who came up with that idea??

California

We did it! NJ to California.

Today we drove from Williams AZ to Anaheim CA for a 4 night stay at Disneyland.  Shortly after leaving Williams we drove through the sleepy little town of Seligman Arizona which inspired a lot of the scenery in the animation done for the movie Cars.  It was Sunday morning and many of the businesses were closed but just to drive down old Route 66 in the center of town was like stepping back in time.

We also drove through some of the most desolate areas of the entire trip.  We literally drove 150 miles through the Mojave Desert that was unbelievably harsh looking - and yet there were towns that would seemingly pop-up out of no where ... in the middle of no where.  Towns like Twentynine Palms CA.

Tonight the kids got their first taste of Disneyland - tomorrow is our first full day and the beginning of our final week on this journey.

Grand Canyon

On Saturday we took the trail to the Grand Canyon and it was well worth the trip! The canyon itself is beyond words, you cannot help be look out over the vast landscape and just be in awe.  While we were visiting Grand Canyon National Park we walked the rim and took in some of the attractions along the canyon like Kolb Cabin and the Hopi House.  We were treated to a special, up close appearance of some endangered California Condors

A few of us also hiked down a very small section of the Bright Angel Trail and saw some of the bad decision making (teens climbing out onto a ledge for a photo) that has lead to over 30 deaths at the canyon so far this year.

The train ride to the canyon was a great way to travel.  It takes about 2 hours each way, but the entertainment on board makes the time go by pretty quickly and traveling through the Ponderosa Pines gives you the opportunity to see some wildlife - like Elk.

Williams AZ

We said good bye to New Mexico this morning and headed to Williams AZ to catch the train to the Grand Canyon on Saturday.  On the way to Williams we stopped at the Painted Desert and the Petrified National Forest. They are about 130 miles east of Flagstaff AZ and the 28 mile auto tour through the park is some of the most breathtaking scenery we have seen on the trip.

When we left the National Park we found ourselves on an old original part of Route 66 and we got a chance to see one of its most treasured businesses - still in operation today. The Wigwam Motel was used as a model for the Cozy Cone Motel in the original Cars movie, just seeing the TeePee's and the classic cars almost makes you want to re-live the days of one way highways, window unit air conditioning and poor gas milage... almost.

New Mexico II

Today was a day of leisure.  We ate a great breakfast at the Santa Anna restaurant and we lounged by the pool when not going down the water slide about 100 times.

At 5:00PM we took a ride to the Tamaya Stables to do out hour and a half trail ride.  It was awesome.  We each had our own horse and the ride stretched from the stables across the base of the Sandia mountains, down to the Rio Grande river and back to the stables.  Matt (and his horse, Spot) saw a 4 foot rattle snake moving along the trail under hoof. Luckily, Spot was less spooked than Matt. The entire family did great on the trail ride, Coralie, Mia and Cameron did a great job handling their horses.  MomMom and PopPop looked like a couple of old pros on horse back!

The night was complete with a family outing to the pool/hot tub.

New Mexico

We left our camp site in Amarillo and headed west on I-40 into New Mexico.  Along the way we stopped at the very eclectic Cadillac Ranch, a series of 10 Cadillacs buried half in the ground and spray painted with colorful designs and messages. For decades people have been showing up with cans of spray paint and adding to the "art" with their own designs or messages. Coralie was proud to proclaim this was her "first graffiti".

Since we made such good time driving over the last three days we decided to detour on our way to the hotel and see the cliff dwellings at Bandelier National Monument.  The dwellings date back to the late 1400's and give a great sense of what life was like for the pueblo indians at that time.  Cameron really enjoyed the hike and climbing up into the ruins, Mia on the other hand had to be bribed with ice cream.  We followed the main loop which was a nice overview of the monument but longer trails exist that would make this monument worthy of at least a full day when we come back this way.  (If you hate heights... the shuttle bus ride to the visitor center is about as harrowing as they come.) We arrived at the Hyatt Tamaya Resort at about 5:30PM and after we unpacked we ate a nice dinner and took the kids to the pool.  It was a great day of adventure and culture topped off with some smores by the fire for the kids and a gorgeous mountain view.

Amarillo TX

There are desolate places.  Places with not a whole lot going on. Places with one traffic light and miles and miles of open space...  and then there is Amarillo Texas, that makes those places look like Center City Philadelphia.  Or so we thought.  When we got to the KOA in Amarillo i don't think any of us had high exceptions.  The pool is brand new..  the comfort stations are actually pretty nice.. and the sight itself is wedged between Amarillo Airport, which has the occasional Southwest Airline flight coming and going?!  and a rail yard with freight trains miles long rolling through. The guy that showed us to our sight was an interesting story, he and his wife live out of their RV and they roam from KOA to KOA taking jobs for three months to make money and get a free slot to park. Very nomadic.  Tomorrow the trip to New Mexico ends. We are going to see some cliff dwellings before we reach our first hotel of the trip.  Today was another easy day of travel through much of Oklahoma which was oddly scenic.  We had dinner inside the RV tonight because the setting sun made eating outside a bit difficult.. as the sun went down the breeze was so nice that it almost seemed a bit chilly out.

Missouri

Travel today was amazingly easy again! We made such good time between Ohio and Missouri! The amount of open space in this country is far more than i would have expected. Vast corn or soy bean fields that go on for miles and miles.  The kids played card games and Beanbozzled a jelly bean game that at one point saw me eating a jelly bean that tasted like skunk spray.  eeewwww. We hit our first stretch of actual Route 66 today and we stopped at a Steak and Shake that was original from 1953.  The camp sight in Springfield is nice and the weather has been extremely mild.  Tomorrow we enter the "duest bowl" which should be interesting..

Ohio

We made really good time today and ended up about 20 miles from the Indiana boarder.  We got to the camp site in time to let the kids go swimming before we enjoyed some turkey burgers with sliced tomato and avocado Jen put together for us earlier this week.  We also had corn on the cob from ShopRite at home - which seems silly now since we passed about 1000 corn fields on the way here.  Kids are watching movies and enjoying themselves... Cam is watching TV outside.  Lets hope this keeps up for a few more days! When we get to New Mexico the pace will slow down but for now we are pushing hard.  As we get ready for bed, Mia has selected her sleeping spot above the cab.

Bad Luck Out Of The Way !

We got on the road a little after 5:00AM. Mom mom got stung by a bee this morning before picking us up... We saw a guy driving down Route 676 the wrong way (conjuring up memories of Planes Trains and Automobiles).  So we are hoping those two incidents were our glitches for this trip.  We are making good time. Kids are being good... 100 miles till Ohio.

The Load Out

Where do you put spinach strawberry salad with balsamic dressing in an RV?  

Anyplace you can fit it.

The goal for packing was to consider that we really only need an immediate three days worth of stuff and anything beyond that can be stowed underneath the RV... but not really.  The amount of perishables have to be considered carefully because too many of them means too many of them sitting in a hot RV while we bask in spa and frolic in the pools of the New Mexico Hyatt Resort we will call home after three grueling (don't tell the kids) days on the road.   So really it is a giant game of Tetris.

What can go where and how much of it do we really need?

Relatively speaking i think packing went pretty smooth.  Jen did an amazing amount of work over the last week to prepare and organize a lot of it and mom-mom and Jen did the vast majority of the organizing in the RV itself.  So now we are packed.

The kids are excited.

We are no longer counting down days, we are mere hours away.

What were we thinking?

Here it is.  Here is what we planned.  Here is what we signed up for.  Willingly.  In five days we embark on a cross country tour of this country via Route 66.  Hard to believe it is finally here.  Hard to believe that not one of us... the four adults... the three kids... had the common sense to put a stop to it.

I was in an RV once. I was a kid and it was great! We drove that thing all the way to Disney World.

This is going to be just like that... right?

This blog should help friends and family track our journey, stay up to date on our daily adventures and perhaps understand our state of mind when we return home - and how many days we might need to recover.

I have included a map of the route. (In the event you have to send a search party)



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