Tuba City, AZ to HOME

Today we head home and today is Aaron's 9the birthday. We went to Denny's to celebrate. Denny's being the only breakfast place in town. Due to the lack of drive and competition on the Hopi Res, service was crazy slow. We had time for silly pics. Owen reminded me that we had not documented the loss of his tooth. He lost is the night before while we were staying at Cool Pined RV in Pasoga Springs. I think he couldn't sleep so he kept working on it. Mike and I were sound asleep when he jumped out of bed and declared he had lost his tooth!!

Somehow the tooth fairy found him. The tooth fairy is truly magic.

Next stop the Grand Canyon. It was sprinkling when we got there. Before we git to the Vista point it was pouring.  We looked a few seconds and ran for the car. 

The rain slowed down by the next stop. Aaron was tired of being rushed and told to stop his card game to look out the window. After all it was his birthday. 

At the stop after the canyon I got him a carved bear slingshot and an amithyst keychain. All better. 

We hoped to get hot chocolate, but there was only a McDs on the way out and a small was $4. We decided the heater and snacks in the car was a better deal.

The landscape was so pretty. We saw many trains along the way.

Mike had me drive for a bit. He was SO tired. He did most of the driving. He doesn't sleep well while I drive. And the kids don't help.

Our last stop was Oatman, AZ an old mining ghost town on Old Route 66. It was the weirdest place ever. And the road there was super crazy too.

When we got there, just as the websites said, there were wild burros wandering the streets. All sorts of shops and non sense. We didn't get there at the gunfight show time, but they do those too. Mike was a good sport about this stop. So tired and ready to be home, but he still drove us a bit out of the way to see it.

We got back on I-40 at Topock, CA right at the Colorado River. 

I will have to do a couple follow up posts:

Tips for planning an Epic Road Trip

How to choose a camp spot

Keeping kids happy on Road trips

and maybe a rating on each place we slept. 

This was for sure one of the most amazing life experiences I have ever had. Such a blessing to spend this time seeing our great country with my dear family. 

Pagosa Springs, CO to Tuba City, AZ

On our way out of town we saw hot air balloons. I think it was a first for a few of the kids.

We talked all about the physics of them. Luke wondered how you steer them. When we explained it, he said, "Wow, those need an upgrade." 

Next we saw Chimney Rock. So many cool rocks in the south west.

Our big stop of the day was Mesa Verde. 

The National parks are so well done. Cool statues our front the visitor's center.

We climbed up and up to the top of the plateau. It was a grand view.

We visited the Spruce Tree Dwellings. This was a basement house we climbed down a ladder into. The room was round and had a fireplace with a chimney.  It probably kept them pretty warm down there.

Next we went on a hike to see petroglyphs.

It was about 3-4 miles. It had a few ups and downs and took us along the cliffs of the plateau. 

They found their own cave dwelling. 

This was one of the vistas we came upon. A nice family just ahead of us took the picture for us.

On the way out we saw wild horses and these wild turkeys right on the road. 

These next two pictures are out of order. I can't figure out how to move them around with my blogger app on my phone.  We did RMCF in Durango between Pagosa Springs and Mesa Verde.

Our last stop of the day was Four Corners. The kids has looked at it on the map in our hall for months and then the map decal on the car window for weeks. It was cool to finally be at the spot they had identified for so long. 

We stayed at the RV park behind the Quality Inn in Tuba City. It wasn't the prettiest or nicest stop along our path, but I appreciated being near the bathroom and showers, ice and stores just next door, water and electicity hook ups. Also no biting bugs. 

Scott City, KS to Pagosa Springs, CO

We had a great stay at Lake Scott. We left recharged and happy. It was then back to the boring drive of flat Kansas. We kept seeing these bikers. It was so random. Just biking a two lane highway all alone in the middle of no where. 

It was so flat! And nothing for as far as you could see.

We came upon some random road construction. They were widening the road. Why? We had no idea. Mike started in on the insanity of the whole idea. I was laughing until I cried. 

We looked up the nearest Redbox because our movies were getting old for the kids. The closest one was 2 hours away. Finally we got to the "Loaf and Jug" that had one. 

Next stop was lunch. I loved the huge old brick or block buildings in the old towns. They were always so well made, such character. They seemed to last the test of time so well.

We climbed up to 10,000 ft. and drove through La Manga Pass. It was so beautiful. No pictures I took did it justice. About the same place we crossed the Continental Divide. We saw the Rio Grand National Forrest and San Juan National Forrest. We went from pancake flat to mountain majesties in minutes. 

We stayed at Cool Pines RV park. Everyone there was summering from Texas. All old people.  It was a tight squeeze for the trailer, but Mike it getting good at the trailer. 

After we set up camp we down into town and found the hot springs. 

The water from the springs was crazy hot, so they funneled spring water down ton the river and had nice little pools made of rock. Or you could pay $20 a person and go into the spas and resorts.

Nature's jacuzzi right there.

I don't really like this picture of me, but it shows the mosquito bite under my eye and on my cheek a little. They are healing slowly. My eyelid is much better.

We picked up milkshakes, chocolate malt, banana split and black raspberry. We saved them in the cooler for after dinner which was soup. It was a cool 70 degrees so soup sounded kind of good. Chicken wild rice with added black beans and corn. The black raspberry shake was crazy good. We were all sad I only bought 3 to share.

Independence, MO to Scott City, KS

We had originally planned to stay two nights in Independence, but our sleep there was terrible, it was forcasted to keep raining, and we had seen all the church sites we came to see. So we packed up and left. 

But not before a few rides at Worlds of Fun.

So Kansas is beautiful. But I can't say it's very interesting. 

It looks just like this for hours on end. Reminded me of Nebraska but with fewer stops and cities. We had no idea what our camp ground would be like, but we expected a few trees in the middle of a field.

Boy were we wrong. Lake Scott is down in the bottom of a large ravine. You would completely miss it unless you came right up on it. It was like a prairie oasis. Simply stunning and surprising. 

We set up camp. Luke cranked up the tent top and noticed it wasn't cranking right. He called Mike over who finished cranking it all the way up. But then we had problems with the door. The roof was too high. I went over to check the tention in the wire that gauges when to stop cranking the roof up. It was really tight.

Mike came over to see. He tried to crank it down, but as he turned nothing happened in either direction. This was bad. Our tent was stuck. You can't drive a tent trailer on the interstate with the tent up. And we were in the middle of no where. I walked back to some nice people I had noticed as I payed our fees. I borrowed a screw driver for Mike to use. He had wrenches, but no screw driver. 

The kids were anxious to play and making Mike nuts. So I walked them to the playground and swim area. We stopped for a minute and I told them what was going on with the trailer. They were sincerely concerned. Luke offered a prayer. 

We finished our walk over and the kids played. They had so much fun. 

It's too bad they don't put more of these in at parks.

After the playground, then a swim. 

As I watched them play I couldn't help but worry about the trailer. If Mike couldn't fix it, we were seriouslying stuck for a while. 

I envied the kids ability to understand the situation, but they knew there was nothing they could do about it. They didn't worry, they played and completely trusted that things would work out and they would be taken care of. And in the mean time they enjoyed their time together, making the most of every minute. 

I learned from them.

When we returned Mike was finishing up. With the screw driver he was able to remove a panel and see that our air pump had fallen back into the gears. He was able to cut all the wires loose and pull them out. 

I helped him test the roof going up and down. It worked! Whew! We were so relieved and so grateful.  

We slept so well. It was cool enough we slept with no a/c and the windows unzipped. It was delightful. We woke up to geese honking. 

Mike went for a run and saw buffalo, wild turkeys, badger, tons of deer, raccoon and a crane. It took him a while to get back. The lake was bigger than he thought.  He got in quite a run.

Nauvoo, IL to Independence, MO

We packed up wet clothes and towels and headed towards the church history sites in Missouri. The mosquitoes in Nauvoo are very aggressive.  I put several coats of cutter on, but I was still bitten--eye lid and crease of my elbow. I can see why so many died of milaria there. There is no escape.

I hope we would see some Amish at some point and we did. 

First stop was Adam-ohdi-ahman. It was beautiful. And especially beautiful from the air conditioned car. It was so hot, the air was so thick it was hard to breathe. I immediately felt nauseous.  It was 100 degrees and crazy humid.

They had great maps there. They came in handy because some roads were out from flooding. 

This was Spring Hill. Everything there was so well maintained and manicured. Surrounding areas were very run down. 

Next stop was Far West. This was a really cool place. The cornerstones were there and in glass cases. There was a beautiful monument.  Despite there being no temple, it still felt like temple grounds. 

Next up was Liberty Jail. (Such an oximoron title) I loved hearing the history of the jail and the construction. Being there made all the stories more meaningful and real.

I loved the Kansas City Temple. Beautiful grounds. Clean architecture. I wish each temple had a pamphlet about the history and design of that particular temple. We were so lucky to tour the Indianapolis Temple and learn all about why certain features were used and chosen. 

Last stop was the Independence Visitor's Center. Such cool stuff there. They gave a great history of the area and the early saints who lived there.

The kids were very worn and wild by this time. The sisters asked them several times to settle down. We had to leave. Which I guess was very appropriate considering the history of the location. Haha

It began to rain of coarse. But it was still so hot. The kids had cold spegettios and canned peaches from the cooler. Mike left to grab us peach shakes from Chick-fil-A. We went to bed. It was a rough night of sleep. We stayed at Campus RV park. Its right next door to the visitor's center and also the train tracks. Thunder, lighting, train whistles and Scarlett was up with a fever. Poor girl. So worn out. Hoping she will rest well in the car tomorrow.