Day 5

Hang tight for lots of pictures today.  How can there not be lots of pictures in the Grand Canyon.  Truly breathtaking!  I keep telling people that it looked like a painting standing on the South Rim.  You can't even grasp how large and vast this place is, even standing there!

There is something about waking up early while you are camping.  Maybe it is the early sunrise at 5 am or that we just go tons of sleep?  We got our day started early hiking part of the famous Angel Trail.  You can choose how far you go below the rim, but most inexperienced hikers do not go farther than 1 mile down and back.  It is no easy hike.  People have died on this trail.  Once you drop below the rim of the canyon, temps soar very quickly.  It could be a comfortable 75 degrees at the top and be over a 100 degrees a mile into the hike.  Hikers spend days hiking to the bottom, stay for a few days and than hike back up.  You can tell the people that know what they are doing.  We would have been called the casual hikers.  The people that hiked just to get some great pictures.  Boy, did we ever!  The kids were champions and never complained!

The paths at their largest points were about 8 feet wide.  No guardrails, no handrails, just a cliff. 

Can you see the trail?  There are people on that trail.  Amazing!

Another view from below the rim.

Looking back the the trail we hiked.  Can you see the people?

Don't back up to far!

Daring to climb out on a rock,.

We would hop on a shuttle bus after a lookout or a hike and they would drive along the rim to the next lookout or hike.  You could choose to get off or just keep going to the place of your choice.  A free service by Grand Canyon National Park.  Air conditioned bus+sleepy 5 year old=nap time!

From the top of the rim.

Colorado River cutting through.

 Carsyn took this.  She got quite good at taking pictures.  You will see lots from Aidan's camera (has the dates on the bottom) and Carsyn got a hold of my camera and took some as well.

 You may see this picture again...maybe Christmas!?!

Another shot from below the rim.

 Looking straight down to the path we hiked.  Yikes!

There is no question that this is one of the 7 National Wonders of the World!  After spending most the day traveling along the rim, we took a bus into town to get some pizza and ice cream.  By the time we got back to camp around 8pm, we were exhausted and off to bed. 

Day 4

When we had gotten up and around and had breakfast, we checked out of our hotel and drove into town to find some historic Route 66 signs.  Route 66 has been swallowed up mostly by huge interstate highways.  In some small towns, especially in the southwest, they have preserved some of the old Route 66 charm.  Gallup, New Mexico is one of those places.  Aidan was only 3 when the movie Cars came out and he has been in love with the soundtrack ever since.  If you know the song "Life is a Highway", then you know that it talks about the places that Route 66 crosses.  We were lucky to visit many of those places along our journey, but the one place he wanted to visit most was Gallup.  As a 3 year old boy riding along in our car, he would sing that song as loud as he could.  Driving down Route 66 we just couldn't resist playing that song.  As I looked in the backseat, Aidan (who claims he is "too cool" to sing along) was singing louder than anyone else in the car.  I just had to smile!  

When we travel we eat local as much as we can.  A favorite local New Mexico burger place.  Yummy!  To find the best places to eat, just ask the locals.  People always say that "southern" people are the friendliest people around.  I would have to say people in the southeast were

some of the friendliest people we have ever met.  (Not to mention we happen to have New York license plate on our rental car from Georgia.) 

We drove about 1 hour and arrived at the Petrified Forest National Park.  Sorry about the interesting picture.  That is what happens when you set your camera on a rock.  There is a 28 mile driving route you take with your own car.

One of the most interesting places I have been!  It looked like a different world.  Amazing and breathtaking.  I wouldn't call it beautiful, but so fascinating.  The rocks sometimes looked like snow.  In the distance you could see trains passing through the desert terrain.  Many years ago those trains carried people that would stop, get off and steal as much as the petrified wood as possible.  Some of the most valuable wood in the world.  Hot soaring summer temps made it so desolate and berran.  A must on my visit list!

After another 2 1/2 hour drive we stopped in Flag Staff, Arizona.  We at at the is fantastic pizza place called Oregeno's on the campus of Northern Arizona University.  Temps in the low 70's with the mountains on top of us, a small quaint town, we absolutely fell in love with this place and the people. 

1 more hour and we arrived at our final destination for the day, Grand Canyon National Park.

Driving in and turning the corner to our camp ground at the South Rim, we saw this guy.  Hanging out just to say hi.  They were everywhere.  Everytime we ventured out, they were grazing around the woods.  Spooked us at first, but after a while we got use to them. 

Our camp for the next couple days.  Would totally recommend Mather Campground at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park.  Clean sites, clean bathrooms, laundry facilities, stores right nearby.

Day 3

A warm, but comfortable night we had last night in our tent.  An early sunrise this morning woke us all up quite early.  It was so beautiful outside we really didn't mind!  Brad and Aidan went running this morning while I starting packing all our stuff up.  Jack rabbits ran around camp while the girls and I packed up.  Right outside the camp was an open range where these guys were greeting us as we drove down the road. 

We drove about 45 minutes south of where we were camping to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.  We purchased a National Park Pass ahead of time. (This was the best idea.  It saved us so much money.) 

We had an 11 am Kings Palace tour planned.  It was about 1 1/2 long and went over 800 ft down into the ground.  To say this plan was amazing would be an understatement.  I have been in caves before, but this did not compare to anything I have ever seen.    

The kids, Brad and I in the end walked over 3 miles.  With the temps around 56 degrees, it was much more comfortable than the 90 plus temps outside.  The kids did awesome. 

The kids were able to finish the Jr. Ranger Program as well. 

We left and headed north to Roswell, New Mexico.  Brad had to stop and submit a paper for his Ed.S program.  So the kids were able to play around the playground.  We then finished our drive (a total of around 8 hours) to our hotel in historic Gallup, New Mexico.  On our way we saw another beautiful sunset. 

Day 2

Forget sleeping in, the kids were up when the sun came up.  We were out the door by 9 am, but not until Patty and Bryan made a delicious breakfast.  Driving what we would consider back roads from a 2 lane to a 4 lane road and back, speed limits stayed pretty consistent with 65-75 mph.  The road were not flat if that's what you are wondering.  With a large median, we thought we were on the German autobahn.  Our VW felt at home.  HA!  Check that sign out below...

Our next stop was in Lubbock, TX.  Unfortunately, we knew my good friend Cassie was not going to be home.  She did refer us to a great local barbecue joint.  Yumm-O!  We had to stop on Texas Tech campus to see the stadium and get some apparel.  Below are the kids and Brad in front of the stadium. 

We left after lunch to our next hike to Brantley Lake State Park, New Mexico.  The roads all the way in Texas were so fast, but the second we hit New Mexico we got so worried.  Two lane, small road, pothole filled and 50 mph.  What?  No major interstates since before Dallas and not another one until late tomorrow.  We stuck it out and it did get better.  Fortunately, our gps has calculated the speed limits into the time, so it is really accurate.  We wanted to make sure to get there before dark and check it out.  While driving through West Texas and New Mexico, for over 100 plus miles all that covered the land was oil pumps and then a huge refinery.  We got to Brantley Lake State Park and dusk.  IT sat on a plateau overlooking the lake which was created with a dam was made.  It was simple, but clean state park.  A large camping site with a covered picnic table.  A beautiful sunset, gorgeous temps getting into the 60's at night.  It was so peaceful!  Many pictures are Aidan's as well...

Brad and the kids pitching the tent with the sunsetting.

Sunrise the next morning.

MOOOO..along the road to the state park.

Brantley Dam

Cactus

We are off-Day 1

Preparing for a trip with this undertaking was quite a challenge.  Traveling around the United States (21 days-19 states 7, 622 miles to be exact)!  We have been planning for this vacation for the last 2 years.  Some people are calling us crazy for what we are preparing to do, we are just excited.  Crazy or not, this is something we will never forget.  If you know our family, you know how busy we are and our schedules are just getting busier as the kids get older.  We have to do this now, or we may never go!  Here are some of the ways that we prepared for this trip.

1.  We decided a while back what main places we wanted to visit.

2.  Play connect the dots.

3.  Add in those extra places...ie any extended family you don't get to see often, local restaurants and hotspots.  I made a binder with our calender, all the places we were stopping, reservation confirmations, and back up gps directions in case the gps goes down and the old fashion map isn't helping. 

4.  Decide how you are going to travel and what is best economically for your family.  We originally wanted to take an RV, but that was going to cost what our total budget was.  (I am going to tell you what we spent and on what so you can hopefully plan something like this for your family.)  To rent an RV to fit a family of 5 was going to cost about $5,000 and that is without gas.  To rent a nice van (we happened to get a VW Rutan) with unlimited miles was about $1,400.  This meant we were going to have to camp and stay in hotels.  Work out where you can camp and where you can get hotels for a good price.  We budgeted $73.00 a day for eating and gifts.  Some days we will be way under, other days over.  Then we take the average $ of gas and how many miles we are driving.  We have these two envelopes with the cash in them.  (We have been setting cash aside for a while)  Everything else was pre-booked, hotels, car rental, camping sites and any tours we knew we wanted to take.  

5.  Start to stock.  I already stock quite a bit, but everytime I bought something, for example, paper towel or fruit snacks, I would buy a roll or box to bring.  Because we are camping half the time and staying in hotels the other half, we had to plan accordingly.  I was not about to cook while camping.  This adds a whole other bit of planning.  I made a bunch of bread so we could make PB and J, snacks, breakfast foods such as granola, bagels and dry cereal.  We also have 2-31 coolers with apples, cheese sticks, drinks, carrot sticks, etc.  I put ice in ziploc bags and filled with ice when I can.  Most places that you stop will have ice.  

6.  Start to pack.  I packed 6 "summer" outfits, 6 pairs of socks, underwear, swim suits, 6 summer jammies and put everything in outfits in ziploc bags.  Girls included bows for hair.  I had already researched where laundry places were and I knew we didn't have enough room to carry 21 plus outfits for each person so we were restricted as to how much we packed.  Also, I knew many of the places were were camping got quite cool during the night and average temps during the day were cool, ie San Fransisco, so I packed 2 pairs of jeans, 2 longs sleeve shirts, 2 sweatshirts, 1 sweater and 4 pairs of winter jammies.  The bags work great for pulling out of the suitcase quickly and this way when we go do laundry, I can just throw them back into the bags.  See below...     

I packed all of our supplies and food in medium sized containers.  Separated them into categories, cleaning/paper products, snacks, breakfast foods/car foods, cd's, dvd's. 

Each of the kiddos got a container with pens, pencils, colored pencils, journal and paper.  This is also great for a table for them to draw on.

Found this idea on Pinterest and thanks to my mom and her sewing skills and all her extra fabric, she was able to make these fabulous car pillows.  Each person had a different color with fleece on one side and cotton on the other.  The seem down the middle is for folding around the seat belt in the car.  When you camp, fold in half and sleep on.  This way, you are not taking any bulky pillows.  Works awesome!

I have my 35mm and cell phone, but the kids want to take pictures too.  Grab some disposables.  (We actually found an old digital camera and gave it to Aidan to use.)

We left early around 4:45 am.  Normally we drive through the night, but decided to take the chance and travel through the day.  It worked this time.  Kids were just so excited to start this trip.  The van is packed to the max and ready to go.  We drove 20 across the rest of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and finally Texas.  We were heading to Van Alystyne, TX, just north of Dallas.  It took us about 14 hours including the hour that we gained.  We stayed at Brad's cousin, Patty and her husband Bryan's house.  Their daughter Brianna is just a little younger than Aidan.  We ate a wonderful dinner and the kids swam and played till dark.  It had been nearly 12 years since we saw them and had a wonderful visit!  So glad we decided to make this stop!