The journaling has severely suffered in the past couple of weeks. Just so much to say, and so much going on. Last week I was busily shopping for a car. Any project like that that I undertake is almost paralyzing to me. I am so easily overwhelmed. So everything else comes to a screeching halt while I alternate between working feverishly on the project and avoiding it, and all other projects, altogether. But ultimately I succeeded in buying a car. Which marks the end of an long and depressing era of transportation deficiencies for William and I.
This week, in celebration of a new car, we’re on the road. In fact, I’m blogging today from New Mexico. Here are some memories of the trip so far:
–Leaving before sunrise on Tuesday. I got up at 4 because, of course, I hadn’t packed yet. I made biscuits and mixed up pancake batter to take on the trip. We left about an hour later than we meant to, but we still left before the sun came up which was the ultimate goal.
–Being silly in the car. Taking pictures of everything, each other, road signs and nothing.
–Finding the fort at Fort Stockton. My peach exploded all over my shirt. We had a yummy lunch and explored the guard house before we found the sign that said there was an admission fee to be paid at the visitor center. We decided the fort wasn’t cool enough to pay for.
–The big road runner in Fort Stockton.
–The “presiding atlas”.
–Crystal reading a book about horses to us, and saying the baby horse bleated for its mom–”baaaa, wait, no, how would it sound?”
–Windmills or turbines. You decide.
–Singing Les Mis in the car with Crystal while Stacey closed her eyes and went to her happy place.
–Taking pictures at mile 666 and mile 1008 on the odometer. I dozed off and Crystal passed 1,000. Oh well. Just adds to the story.
–Stopping in Juncture, TX, in one of the cleanest gas stations I’ve ever seen. I impulsively took a picture of Crystal’s feet in the bathroom stall, and it became a road trip tradition. We have pictures of her feet in every significant bathroom on our trip.
–The poverty and beauty of west Texas and south New Mexico.
–Vistas that go on for miles and miles all around you, with that feeling of being under a bowl of blue.
–Using my new aux cord to listen to Crystal’s and Stacey’s iPods.
–White Sands. Wow. The boys were so excited. They wanted to get out right away, but Crystal made us wait until we got back in a ways where there was parking and so much white sand. The boys ran around and had a great time, and the girls took lots of pictures.
–The scenic drive through Lincoln National Forest. Amazing lighting as the sun was setting. So many animals–elk, jackrabbit, deer, fox–and just such unexpected, lush, green beauty after the desert we had just left. We went from acres of sand dunes to towering green trees in about 20 minutes.
–Taking motrin because I had such a head/ear/neck ache.
–Arriving late in Carlsbad to find no key or registration information waiting for us. I called the emergency number and the nice man came out and gave us a key for a cabin.
–Finding out that the reason they weren’t ready for us was we were a year early. I’d accidentally made the reservation for 2009 somehow?
–Getting upgraded to the brand-new, bathroom-included cabin for the same price.
–Eating waffles without plates.
–Flies, flies and more flies. Apparently all the flies vacation in New Mexico too.
–Carlsbad Caverns. Cool. Once again the boys were so excited. They really wanted to stop and look at everything and the flashlight was the accessory of choice. The bottomless pit was nothing like I remember as a kid. It was weird. If there hadn’t been a sign, I wouldn’t have recognized it.
–Driving down Dark Canyon Road (after finding it with the help of the construction worker) with thunderstorms all around us and signs every half-mile or so saying to watch for water, and cattle grazing free–no fences to keep them off the road.
–A rattlesnake in the road. A big one. We did a u-turn so everyone could see it, and Stacey and Crystal got out!! and took pictures. Which made the boys think they should get out. Uh…no. Crazy people.
–Sitting Bull Falls. So neat. But we didn’t get to spend much time there at all. Definitely something to come back to–and bring water shoes next time. The rocks under the water were so slippery. It was painstaking to move anywhere without falling. The water was so clear and cold and just lovely. Although it rained on us the entire drive over, it cleared off when we got there to swim. Our whole trip has been blessed in just such details as that.
–A fire! A real honest to goodness campfire, with hobo dinners cooked on it (yum!) even though it was raining. The fire outlasted the rain and we were able to eat outside and then make s’mores. I don’t actually like the way s’mores taste, but I like toasting things on the fire.
–Talking, looking at pictures, and watching YouTube videos by the fire on Stacey’s mac.
–Hearing the boys in the cabin laughing at Ratatouille, which was playing on my mac.
We’ve packed a lot of fun and adventure into just two days so far. And today is the going home day. I’m kind of sorry to see it end, but on the other hand, this trip has been so perfect, and this really feels like the perfect length as well.
My first, of hopefully many road trips, in my new, road-worthy car.
