we might go mammoth caves..?

We might go to the mammoth caves .It will be around 58 degrees and I am not very happy
because it was mostly rainy and cold. EVEN IN THE DESERT! Texes was the only one in the 100s.

Memphis last night, West Virginia today

We're making our way home now and it no longer feels like vacation.  Rich and I went to Beale Street last night and we'll probably drop by Graceland today.  Rich feels a strong need to pass through Lexington, KY so that's on the agenda.
On another note, I see Cecilia posted pics of Cadillac Ranch outside of Amarillo, TX. Fun place. Fortunately people had left spray paint cans around that we could use and leave our marks.  We are part of history.

Long haul from Albuquerque to Texas

Ugh. May I never have to drive that far in one trip again. Smelly, cattle feedlots. Dust storms. Sand tornadoes passed right behind our car; kids loved that. It seemed like there was no end. 5 movies, a couple games, kids slept at the end. I nodded off a few times but I was scared about Rich driving so long so late at night. We arrived at 4am.


And it’s hot. 93 degrees at midnight. That’s a good thing.

Monsoon Season

Did anyone know that the southwest has a monsoon season in summer?  We do, now. Ever since we left Nebraska, we’ve had cool , rainy weather.  Thunderstorms every day, gray skies, temps as low as 62 in the day! It’s really been tough because we get so little summer in CT, it feels as if I’ve given some of it up and jumped right in to fall.  Hopefully Texas will have some heat for us.

Capitol Reef, Grand Escalante, Red Canyon (FLASH FLOOD)

Pulled away from Goblin Valley, we needed to drive to our next campsite, 20 miles from the Arizona border, a good location for Zion, Bryce and then a good start for the North Rim. We did a power tour of Capitol Reef (petroglyphs – my favorite), Grand Escalante (enormous and barren), and several state parks (I don’t remember which ones but we stamped our passport).


We drove past Bryce Canyon knowing we’d go the next day and as we passed through a storm exploded on us. We entered Red Canyon as waterfalls of red mud and water were flowing across the road. The car in front of us drove through a stream and was covered with a wave of red. We had to go into the other lane to find a lowpoint. This was not just in one spot – it was for the whole of our trip through the Red Canyon. We passed a car that had blown all four tires going through one of the streams covering the road. The normally dry ditch on the side was a raging river, ready to overflow its banks with red goo. It was wild and, yes, I was scared. I thought we were either going to reach an impassable part and have to turn around or have a wall of mud slide onto my side of the car. Neither happened, the storm ended and we drove to our home for the next two days.

Goblin Valley State Park Utah

Info on the internet said that this was Utah’s favorite park. It’s in the middle of nowhere, I mean a nowhere that you can only know if you’ve been out west. And you think, how can this be a favorite? There’s no gas, no food, no visible houses for 60 miles. It looks like nothing from the main road but as you drive up to the visitor center, you realize you’ve landed on Mars.


Fortunately, we got one of only 12 campsites in this amazing place. Essentially, the whole park belongs to the lucky campers. It’s hard to describe these goblin-like hoodoo rock formations everywhere. Small (4 ft) mushroom-shaped rocks, tall troll castle-shaped rocks, maze-like paths between them. You can climb on everything and run between them and, best of all, camp right next to them so your campfire flickers on them.

The lonely ranger (formerly a trucker from PA) told us about several movies that had been filmed in the park (Galaxy Quest with Sigourney Weaver, for instance) and gave us a “state park passport” which made us stop at every state park we saw to get a stamp (it kept the trip moving and took us to places we would never have seen).

Grand Canyon and such

Driving from Utah to the Grand Canyon took a surprisingly little amount of time (compared to what we've been doing recently. Seriously- I don't think there's a way that we will ever complain about a car ride being too long after this trip!)during the drive, I used this cool thing with the library where you can download books onto your computer and read them without internet (helpful when you'ere in the middle of nowhere!)so I wasn't looking out the window much... Anyways, I glanced up every once and a while (book a total page turner...or, well, scroll down-er)and saw the landscape changing from rock formations and canyons to desert to forest. Sadly, though, the forest was mostly burned down, blackened dead trees lining the road instead of live green ones. It was pretty depressing... like the dead trees all over Colorado from beetles (except there, there were libe trees dotted through- here there was only dead ones in a huge clump and live ones later. Oh well. So we got to the Grand Canyon and walked along this little rim trial to eat lunch (fried chicken...still have some left :P)and almost froze to death. Seriously- 58 degrees in July in Arizona?! No fair, especially b/c it was supposedly 100 down inside the canyon! We hurried and finished when *FLASH BOOM BOOM BOOM* a lightning storm started creeping towards us.Looking over the rim of the canyon, we could see a wall of rain coming towards us and ligh ting forking out and hitting the rim of the canyon right out across from us! We ran to the canyon lodge & attached gift shop and took shelter from the storm. Afterwards, there were few people in the drizzle, so we asked if there was room to camp there... and yes! We were camping IN the grand canyon! (well, in Grand Canyon national park, not in the canyon itself) We drove around and hiked a bit and took in the views (what really got me was how ENORMOUS the canyon was!) We cooked a nice meal of pasta and a salad and buttered rolls (homey), and saw the end of the sunset (and alex nearly stepped on this 7 foot snake..yes! I wanted to see at least one snake on the trip- check :) ) In the morning, we got up, packed up, and left to Albuquerque NM, arriving at night and eating in this 60's style route 66 diner with delicous pie. The we stayed at a -get this- a HOTEL!!! Like, with a bed that doesn't deflate, and a bathroom/shower that isn't public, and a pool, and- after so many days camping, it was absolute LUXURY!!! In the morning we swam in the pool for a while, took showers, and then, at 11, got out to explore the old section of Albuquerque. Oh My God, there is soooo much shopping there! And the stuff is so reasonable, I just want to buy it ALL! I could have spent several days (and hundred bucks...) there if we had time, but no. We had a 12 hour drive ahead of us... :( bleh. So we shopped around a bit, ate a delicious breakfast/lunch/dinner (our one meal of the day unless you count the whole bag of chips shared by the kids- 11 servings for 4 people...) at a french restaurant, and left.. at 2 :P On the drive, we watched 4 movies, passed through several ghost towns, stopped at 3 gas stations and 1 public restroom. I read a book, listened to music, we played a car game, and spraypainted a smiley face on the third car in at Cadillac Ranch :) .. I even managed to sleep for a little bit at the end of the long ride, arriving at 4am. Its been weird staying in the same spot for a couple days, but our trip is almost over, so I better get used to it (be home in 2-3 days). today we're off to Memphis as soon as Dad vacuums all the ants out of the car. Well... see you guys soon!

~Cecilia

Colorado

Colorado was really the beginning.  Once we left Denver and entered the Rockies, everyone was in sight-seeing mode.  We took this crazy, wild, scary drive up MT. Evans in the middle of a rain storm.  14 thousand plus feet high, we all experienced a bit of altitude sickness at the top.  Even though the view was non-existent when we reached the top (T was crying because she was so scared of the road), we all wanted to get out.  As Rich, Tamsin and Alex opened the doors, the wind was so fierce, it was like a vacuum sucking them and the contents of the car out the door.  I have a clear image of them being blown about, their cheap plastic rain ponchos whipping around them and doing nothing to block the rain.  By the time we were ready to leave, though, the skies began to clear and the views were amazing.

We had been searching for a North Carolina license plate and a man pulled up next us at a scenic view.  When I told him that he was the first person from NC we had seen, he told us that we need to go to Rocky Mtn Nat Park, explaining all the spots where we could see wild beasts.  Who could resist? Seeing a moose had always been my grail after spending hours in mosquito swarms at Moosehead Lake in Maine for nothing, not even a whiff of moose. And, indeed, we saw elk, marmot, long-horned sheep and MOOSE.  A snafu with camping equipment had us in a motel that night which was fine because it was another experience for the kids (and because the sounds of wild animals at night in the park had me a little freaked out).

It was just beautiful.  The weather was like fall and we were all happy.  Alex couldn't say enough about how much he liked it.

We stood on the Continental Divide, we stood on snow and then we sat

Out of the wilds

It's felt like we've been living off-grid for ages.  We hit the Rockies and every contact with the modern world ended.

It's almost impossible to explain all we've seen and done these past few days.  Without reservations, we've allowed ourselves to take advice from locals and have seen some excellent places.  We left the interstate right outside of Colorado and didn't get back on it until yesterday in Flagstaff to make our run to meet grandma in Texas.  Our last hotel was in Denver and it felt great to sleep in a bed last night here in Albuquerque.

We've talked with a lot of people because of the writing all over our car.  We were in a diner on Route 66 last night and a guy came up to our table to see if we were that family from CT (he took our picture and promised to email it).  We met another family on a similar road trip and saw them at a gas station in a tiny town, Zion, Bryce, a small food store in Kanab, UT, and finally in the Grand Canyon.  Funny world.  We wondered if they were stalking us and I'm sure they wondered the same thing.

We have only a few more minutes before we get on the road for the 12 hour trip to Tyler, TX.  I should be able to get more computer time there while the kids are at the water park. Always an optimist.

Utah!

Hey! Writing from a laundromat near Bryce canyon after a day of hiking among the hoodoos (i think thats what they're called...) Its absolutely amazing here- breathtaking. We've seen canyons (Bryce, Zyon, Red), arches (Arches :P), windows (like arches but with rock on the bottom) (Arches, Bryce, driving past), petroglyphs (Capitol Reef), sand dunes (coral pink sand dunes state park where we're camping last and tonight), and we've explored these awesome rock structures that looked sorta like mushroom goblin things (Goblins state park where we camped two nights ago)The reds, whites, yellows, and orangey pinks of the different sands and stones are so amazing, and its so cool the different things water did/does/can do to the beautiful landscape. I wish I could hike around more, though, instead of driving and just getting out to see some things. I wish we had time to walk and hike all these places like we did Bryce, it weould be so great... but would be at least one whole day a place and you know how it is... so much to see, so little time (and Alex was such a complainer about the hiking thing...ugh) Agh. This stupid site wont let me upload simple pictures, let alone vidoes anymore ):( I hope its just malfunctioning now... I'll try again next chance I get.

Coral Sand Dunes State Park

We pulled in to our campsite for the night, again in the middle of nowhere.  7 miles of reddish sand dunes to run on and be crazy in.  The park is used mostly by people  with ATVs but there are quiet hours for hikers.  We were the only ones climbing to the top and rolling down.  Pretty but remote.  Talked to Ed, a former trucker from PA.  He’s the park host during the summer and moves to a nearby town for the winter.

So Far...

Once out of Indiana, we went to Chicago Illinois and stayed the night there. We ordered deep dish pizza that night (after being let into the restaurant after around 7 minutes of waiting -- haha crowd who was and is still waiting :P) and whoops! They messed up our order, and now we have two mediums and a small instead of the other way around. Not so bad (seeing as they charged us for what we'd ordered) except that these things are HUGE!!! The girls of the family each had half a slice (while Dad piled in 3) and now we have pizza to last forever (as in the next two weeks :P) The next morning, we got up, went swimming, and toured chicago for two hours (in other words,walked to the waterfront, along the waterfront, to the cool pier with rides aand stuff, and then left...without even going on one!)I wish I'd had more time there, but oh well. Onto Iowa... Wow. Iowa is beautiful. Rolling hills of corn as far as the eye could see... with houses so few and far between, i couldn't imagine living there. Soooo different than connecticut. After several hours of that, we got to Nebraska. In the morning, when we went to explore Omaha, we were struck with the pure emptiness of the place. Seriously, in the first half hour I saw 2 bikers and 4 cars. In the city! On a holiday!! I stood in the middle of the wide streets just to take pictures of the emptiness... it was totally setting for a zombie movie... :O. After wandering around and stopping in the visitors center, we made our way to the Old Market, where the streets were brick, and the shops had little walkways with flowers and vines and it was nice... Unfortunately, only two shops were open (a metal shop wehre we got a lizard named Nebra (or as I say 'Nebby'), a pottery shop, and then this bakery/restaurant nearby was open. I'll say more later, gotta go...

Day two video:

Feel like we're here

Even though we haven't made it to Utah yet, I feel like we've made it.  Wow, Nebraska is long. That's about all I can say about it.  Other than the pens of cattle (cows? beef?) standing on mounds of manure, tightly packed in pens and never-ending fields of corn and soybeans, there's not much there. It was straight out of Michael Pollan.
Omaha was a very pleasant town but pretty deserted on the 4th.  It felt very post-apocalyptic walking down their deserted streets...empty benches..empty parking garages... I wouldn't mind going back; in fact, I could imagine renting a place out in the fields and staying for a month...
We have a new mascot, a metal horned-lizard riding on our dashboard.  I wanted a large one to strap to the roofrack but it was too much money 8^(
Pulled in to Denver around 8 and saw spectacular fireworks; it's so flat you could see several displays at once.
Everyone was amazed and re-energized seeing the Rockies; snow-capped peaks when it's 97 degrees seem so refreshing.  We've decided to spend a night camping in the mountains before heading to Moab; should be fun: our sleeping bags are rated to 40 and last night it was 47....

People sending pics

Our writing on the car has been working (a bit).  We've had 5 people send pictures and comments to our email. It's a lot of fun to sign in every evening and see if there are any responses.  One person is on her way to a Mrs America contest in Dallas! Good luck to her.

Iowa

Iowa was such a surprise.  What a beautiful place!  I'd really like to go back and get off the main highway at some point. We were East Coast snobs and laughed at the "cities" but everyone admired the landscape.  Kind of reminiscent of France except everything was corn instead of grapevines.
We've decided to run an experiment when we get out west: in honor of all those who have told us about their family trips, we're going to turn off all electronica, turn off the a/c, open the windows and maybe sing a song or two and see how long we can last without killing each other. I'll let you know how that goes.
Great barbecue last night in Omaha.  Way too much food but we thought we were starving. This looks like a pleasant place, too.  I'm eager to see the old market area. The Missouri is definitely over its banks; there were highway closure signs and we passed a restaurant whose back deck was under water but whose front deck still had people dining (must be a good spot!).

Day Two

day two, and roughly 11 hours of driving, is over. And I am officially amazed at how long I can sit and do nothing without going insane (or at least I think I'm still sane...?) I dont know, but to me, I feel like I shouldn't be watching a movie at 1 when its nice and sunny out, so I plugged in my earbuds to my computer and listened to cds (until my battery died and then i used my ipod)and looked out the window at the scenery going by. I watched as the forest-y hills got smaller and ended up nearly flat farmland growing corn, wheat, and idk what else. What I found funny was that most farms had random clumps of forest in them, just all flat but one little blob of trees... Oh well :P It was pretty disorienting how the weather changed as we drove by. We experineced: perfect blue clear skies, partially cloudy skies, fully cloudy skies, light rain, and thunderstorms (and not in that order either!) It was also weird when we switched to central time... Oh look, its 6---again. The couple times we stopped I felt the utmost dread at entering the car again. NOOOOO not AGAIN, not for a nother 8 HOURS!!! But really, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Actually, one of the things that bothered me the lack of getting things done. I literally wasted the entire day doing absolutely nothing and getting nothing done. There's not much to get done in a car for 11 hours... Well, looking forward to hanging out a bit in chicago today before the 7 hour ride to nebraska, see you later ~cc

Note from Anna

This road trip is making me so tired. We get to the hotel at around midnight, I fall asleep between 12:30 and 1, and then I am awakened by eight.  Just to add to the schedule everyone (aka Alex) keeps yelling at me to get up, even though I've been awake for longer than he has. In his mind, getting up means not only being fully awake, but out of bed and dressed for the day. Also, if there are any more days like last night, it will take over an hour to arrive at our hotel, which I thought was going to be a mere 5-10 minutes. Fun!

Chicago

Is it the long plane trips we've taken that have made the kids such good travellers? Yesterday was a long drive (PA, OH, IN, IL) but it was pretty uneventful.  Three movies (thanks, Donna), some travel games (thanks, Lisa), Wii (thanks, Rich) and DS helpes pass the time.  Rich actually let me drive a little bit so don't believe him if he says he drove the whole way...it's not like I haven't been offerring.
We're going to hang around Chicago today for a bit before heading off to Omaha.  Me, I could skip the city but I'm really looking forward to driving through Iowa and Nebraska. Is it possible for the midwest to seem exotic?
Cecilia keeps shaking her head and laughingly saying, "I still can't believe we're actually doing this!"
Oh, we've also decorated our car.  It says (among other things) Have you seen us? Snap our pic and send it to lrcaat@gmail .com. CT to Grand Canyon  Two people have responded but several more have slowly driven by, taking our picture and waving.

To those who seeus on the road...

If you have trouble posting a picture, please comment when and where you saw us. We're trying to work out the settings right now. At our next stop (Chicago!) we'll set up a facebook page for pictures. Thanks for your time and patience :) ~the buenos Update: send your pictures to LRCAAT@gmail.com and we'll post them once we get to Chicago!

first pictures

One day done, 16 left to go. The 6 hours didn't seem too long... a lot shorter than expected, but I'm totally not looking forward to the 9 hours to chicago today. Oh well. The hotel breakfast was great-- they had a 'make your own waffle machine!!! I didn't like waking up at 7 (after falling asleep at 1) by mom, dad, and tamsin "whispering", but oh well. Thus is the family road trip...

Heres the first pictures. they're not done, but i have to leave, like, NOW... so here they are:

One more note

Must get out of hotel room fast.  Kids are incapable of behaving in one room for long periods of time.

First stop: State College, PA

Yay! We actually got out of our house and started our journey! We didn't get going until 5 pm because, well, you know all those last minute things that need to be done (plant potatoes, pick up the yard...)
We've informally decided a couple of eating rules: focus is on diners and, once the diner has been chosen by name from Rich's gps, there's no backing out once we see it. We ate at Milford Diner in Milford, PA (almost backed out of decision but persevered).  Only one thing of note: a big round of applause goes out to Rich who kept his cool even when Alex spilled his glass of ice water on him. We all held our breath but Rich was very gracious.  Go Rich!
Best Western, room for 6.  No more to be said about hotel.
After a swim and breakfast (and maybe a stop at the Penn State Creamery), we'll be on our way to Chicago: 9 more hours. (not fun - Tamsin)