Day 13: Arizona Rays

We had a lovely time visiting Russ’s brother Dave, and his wife Susan.  The last time we visited them was when I was pregnant with Josh right before we moved to North Carolina, so it was kind of fitting that we visit them as we were leaving North Carolina.  (No pregnancy this time though!) 

Susan made yummy homemade wheat bread (it’s been way too long) and strawberry freezer jam for us, and the kids spent a long time swimming in their pool and wondering why I wouldn’t get all the way in.  (cold water wimp, remember?) 

Jared was funny—after he was out and all dried off Susan asked him to get all of the pool toys out and put them away.  He managed to get everything out without actually getting in—he was very creative.

Here we all are before we left, along with their darling grandson Brody. 

The rest of the day was a long drive from Arizona to San Diego.  The kids napped and I enjoyed watching the rugged mountains and all of the cactus.  We got to go through several more border patrol checkpoints and I did my best to be a normal person. 

The only other notable event of the drive was the wind.  I saw some wind advisory signs but really didn’t pay much attention—other than the day of rain in Texas, we’ve really had terrific weather this whole trip.  But I started paying attention pretty quickly.  It was after dark and I was already kind of tired, and I noticed that the van was harder to control than normal.  When I looked I could see that the plants along the side of the interstate were blowing like crazy.  I had to slow down quite a bit before I felt in control again.

We arrived at our little guesthouse in San Diego at about 10:30, tired but excited about the next day!

miles travelled: 391                                                                                    total miles: 3244

 

PS—Cindy Lynn points out that I may have handed down the inability to be serious in serious circumstances.  In February of 2002 we left the little kids with a babysitter and flew down to Orlando with the big kids.  Cindy Lynn had all of her breathing treatment equipment in her carryon, and when it went through the xray machine they stopped it.  (Remember, this was just a few months after 9/11.)  They asked what was in her bag and she said, 13 years old and quite sarcastic already, “It’s a bomb.”  And then they searched her very carefully, and Russ & I told her over and over again for weeks and years that if there’s one place you should never joke around, it’s airport security.

PPS—I must also point out that Russ and I had seriously neglected Cindy Lynn’s “appropriate airport attitude” lessons up to this point.  An omission that we seriously regretted and have spent years rectifying.

Day 12: in and out of time

 

When I went to bed Wednesday night my cousin asked me what time I thought I’d be getting up.  I’m sure she expected more of an answer than the befuddled look she got from me.  The truth was, I had no idea. 

We had been in and out of time zones enough that day that at one point even my cell phone (which I normally rely on to keep me straight) was confused.  I realized that I didn’t really have any idea what time it was in my cousin’s house, and I certainly had no clue what time it was in my body.  What time was I going to wake up?  Would my body wake up as if it was in North Carolina?  As if it was in Texas?  As if it was in New Mexico?  I literally had no clue. 

And then I realized I was almost as confused about the date.  The days on our trip have accordioned in an out in a manner most disorienting, as if we are almost travelling outside of time.  I usually have no idea which day of the week it is.  In some days the days have stretched out, widening past their normal boundaries, with none of the normal markers of the progression of a week.  In other moments they seem to all slam up against each other, smashing the entire week into a handful of memories.  It’s been so long since we left Durham and yet only a few minutes…

 

I had a great morning with Lori.  We left the kids at her house to read, play on the computer, and hang out with her dogs and cat. 

She and I went into an old town called Mesilla.  There we looked at old buildings, bought Mexican vanilla, (I’m sure I paid a much higher price than I would have in Mexico, but I didn’t have to worry about being shot while I bought it!) and ate a fabulous Mexican lunch.  Originally we weren’t going to eat lunch but she wanted to show me the restaurant because it is a famous building and very ornately decorated.  Once we were in it the smells overpowered me and I decided that we had better go ahead and eat.   Yum, yum, Russ would have loved it.

Once we were all packed up, leaving Lori’s house was an exercise in seeing how dirty we could get the van.  It had rained hard the night before and her dirt road had 2 big puddles, big enough that I was concerned that my van might get stuck in them.  As soon as I successfully cleared the 2nd puddle I realized that I had left the energy drink she had given me on her counter, so I turned around and headed back.  She was waiting with it in the driveway, we laughed and I headed back into the mud puddles for the 3rd time.  Just as we reached the end of the road she texted me saying that she had just found a pillow and a pillow pet behind one of the doors, and I turned around and drove back through the puddles (for the 4th time) to her driveway where she was waiting again.  I drove back down the road, through the mud puddles for the 5th time, and then we were off.

We took a few house pictures as we left.  The kids were so intrigued by the southwestern architecture—it’s so different from anything they’ve ever been around. 

This was also the first day we got to go through a border patrol check.

I wished Alisyn was there with me to remind me to be serious.  I have such a hard time not joking in these kind of situations, and border patrol people really don’t want to be joked with.  This time they just asked me if all of the people in my car were citizens, and fortunately I didn’t make any sarcastic jokes about my own aliens.

As we crossed into Arizona I had to wonder…am I the only person who thinks the Arizona flag would be suitable for a superhero??

We decided that Tuscon has the best overpass decorations that we’ve ever seen.  (Please ignore the splotches from dead bugs on the windshield.)

Jared and Rachel were wild and crazy for a lot of this day of driving, playing in the middle row like two little puppies. 

We arrived at Russ’s brother’s house just in time for a yummy bean burrito dinner and a night-time dip in the pool.  (Just the kids, not me.  I need seriously warm water for night swimming!)  When we pulled into the driveway Dave & his wife Susan came out to meet us.  The kids, who don’t know them very well, were all surprised to see that Dave looked so familiar.  They couldn’t figure out who he looked like, until I pointed out that he looks a lot like his baby brother, Russ.  I had a good laugh over that one…

miles travelled: 366                                                                              total: 2853

Day 11: In a cavern

 

Our night in Carlsbad was not very good.  When I arrived I was thinking it was going to be a good night.  The hotel was really nice,  I was super tired from the long, long drive, the kids were tired too. 

But no.

First, I’m sure as a result of all the caffeinated beverages I’d had throughout the day, I couldn’t get to sleep.  It was so frustrating because I was just exhausted, but kind of wired at the same time.  Finally I gave up and took a sleeping pill and put in ear plugs.

At 3AM Rachel woke me up in tears.  She was almost frantic with frustration, saying that the radio in the next room had been playing for an hour and she couldn’t get back to sleep.  I groggily called the front desk and they took care of the problem.  Then Jenna told me that she’d been awake from 12-1 with an upset stomach, and Jared said that he’d been awake for the last hour with an upset stomach.  It took a long time to get everyone settled back down and asleep again, and in the morning I had a hard time waking up. 

We were going to go to Carlsbad Caverns that day, and then to drive to my cousin’s in New Mexico to spend the night.  Because we had moved up the day of our visit my cousin was going to be gone all afternoon and evening so we were in no hurry to start our day.  I took the kids over to the hotel pool to swim and then tried to take a short nap before we packed up and left. 

Then we drove to Carlsbad Caverns.  I had no idea what to expect, and really enjoyed our afternoon there. 

First of all I was surprised by the number of flowering cactus plants (cacti???) there were on the drive.  We learned on the tour that this is one of the wettest deserts in the world.

The caverns were bigger than anything I’d EVER imagined.  First there was the descent.  The trail into the caverns was 1 1/4 miles and 79 stories down!!!  It was so steep that almost the whole way I felt like I was walking on my toes.  It took at least an hour to walk down, and I cannot imagine trying to walk up.

It was only after we were done walking down that we saw the most amazing part, which was the Big Room.  The Big Room is the size of 14 football fields—except that instead of plain green astroturf, it’s a landscape of strange and wonderful formations.  It is so big it’s like being in a very dark cathedral that never seems to end.  Jared was really not feeling well by this point and he was a real trouper.

When we were all done we took the elevator back up 75 stories and had a great time exploring the gift shop where we found a Christmas ornament that showed stalactites, stalagmites, and bats too. 

After we ate we started for my cousin’s house.  It was an interesting drive.  First we drove from mountain time (the caverns) back into Texas and central time.  We drove through El Paso & saw the turnoff to Juarez, which Russ forbade me to take.  (Don’t worry—the current level of violence in Mexico makes that a no-brainer for me.)  Then we drove back into New Mexico and into mountain time again….

We stopped at the first rest area in New Mexico to get a map to add to Jared’s growing collection.  This lovely sign greeted us when we pulled up.  We were very cuidado.

A couple of miles before we reached my cousin’s house we drove for miles past beautiful trees.  I finally figured out that they must be some kind of nut, and sure enough, this area is filled with pecan trees. 

For the first time on this trip I had problems with my google maps directions.  The directions told me  that “after crossing the river” I should “turn onto the levee road.”  I crossed the river (the Rio Grand—is it this low everywhere??)

and this is what I saw next.

You know I’m a pretty good traveller, and it just did not seem like the right place for me to be.  Apparently there used to be a way to get from that road to my cousin’s house, but now there’s a barbed wire fence in the way.  So it’s a good thing that I called Russ and got him to give me alternate directions instead…

miles travelled: 223                                                                                               total: 2486

 

(I just made an executive decision and decided that as anal as I am about chronology, it’s bugging me to put my maps at the top of my page if I do my driving at the end of the day!  So now the maps are going to go in the post where they belong time-wise.  And the way I travel most days, that’s likely to be at the bottom.)

Day 10: Rain is falling all around…

 

miles driven: 477                                                                                                total: 2246

As we drove back to the apartment Monday night from downtown we enjoyed watching the lightning and hearing the thunder.  But we never expected that the next day we would wake to a torrential downpour.  All morning as we got packed and ready to leave it rained and rained and rained.  The kids finally started running bags out to the car in the rain, since it never showed signs of stopping.  By the time the car was loaded they were soaked.

As we drove away from San Antonio (still raining) it occurred to me that it would not have been a propitious day to spend with Shamu, and perhaps we were better off with our new trip plans.  (My cousin later told me that some parts of Texas had 8” of rain on Tuesday. I’m just as glad that we mostly experienced it from the inside of the car…)

I enjoyed our rainy drive through the last part of Texas.  Even though sometimes Texas made promises it could not keep.

In Texas I got to drive faster than I’ve ever legally driven.  I don’t think I’ve been anywhere else that the speed limit is 80.  I told Russ that the reason that the speed limit is 80 in Texas is that the state is so long that they’re afraid that if you don’t go that fast you’ll never get out. 

It was in Texas that we had our first brush with these guys, but not our last. 

It was a long, long day of driving, probably the longest one that I’ll do alone on this trip.  I drank tons of coke/dr. pepper and paid for it that night when I couldn’t ever get to sleep.  But it did keep me awake while I was driving.  We had hoped to arrive in Carlsbad early enough to see the bats leave the caverns, but the drive took too long.  We were happy to get to the hotel and crash.

Day 9: recalculating…recalculating…recalculating…

Do you know how a gps sounds when you take a wrong turn, or keep driving past the point when you should have turn?  It tells you that now it needs to figure out a new way to get to your destination.  And it does by announcing that it is

recalculating…recalculating…recalculating…

So. 

Day 9 found us in San Antonio, ready for the highlight of our trip.  Three days at Sea World. 

Now you must understand that I love Sea World.  Of all the amusement parks I’ve ever been to, I love Sea World more.  In fact I’ll go one more than that and say that of all the dolphin interactions I’ve ever experienced (and there have been quite a few), I love Sea World more.

I love Sea World.

Over the last four months I have motivated myself over and over again by thinking of just how awesome it was going to be to go to Sea World for not just one, not just two, but three whole days.  It has been a powerful incentive.

So on Monday morning we got up, packed our bag with water bottles and snacks, made sure we had enough cash to buy fish to feed the dolphins, and started driving.  I was talking to my sister on the phone as we approached Sea World.  I’m sure I sounded like this:

How exciting!  We can see Sea World!  We are close enough to the roller coaster to touch it!!  How strange, Sea World is right across the street from a jr. high school.  That’s funny, there isn’t an entrance here, we must be on the wrong side…no, now we’ve driven all down the other side and there’s no entrance there either…ok, I’m going to have to call Russ now so that he can tell me where I should be going.

When I got Russ on the phone and he looked up the information he told me to go back to the area where I had been, just past the school.  I drove back and forth, finally realizing that the entrance was indeed just past the roller coaster, but that it was gated shut.  When I got closer I saw that there was a calendar on the gate…

and when I got closer still I could see that the calendar had different colored days on it, and that the color of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were the color of “Sea World is closed today.”

I was stunned.  In all of my dreaming of these days, it had never occurred to me that Sea World might not even be open when we were in San Antonio.  We had already rented an apartment for 4 nights.  It was a done deal, and now there was no Sea World to go to.

I drove unhappily back to the apartment, trying to figure out what I was going to do.  I was so upset that my brain just felt scrambled.  When we got back to the apartment I pulled up my computer and started searching out the different options.

recalculating…recalculating…recalculating…

The short version of my long story is that I decided that it wouldn’t work with the rest of my travel plans to hang around San Antonio waiting for Sea World to open again at the end of the week.  I decided instead to move everything up and go to San Diego at the end of the week so that we could go to Sea World there.  The truth is that I felt kind of silly making this decision.  I felt like a grownup would just shrug it off, say oh well better luck next time, and just deal with Sea World being closed.  But that wasn’t how I felt, that wasn’t what I wanted to do, and happily for me Russ was supportive of me handling it however I wanted.

A tremendous blessing in the whole thing was that I hadn’t already paid for the tickets online, though I had planned to the day before at Jeremy’s house.  Another blessing was that the apartment manager that I had rented from for the 4 days in San Antonio was willing to refund half of my money when I only stayed 2 days. 

I also decided that as part of our recalculating we could afford to buy a last minute one way plane ticket for Cindy Lynn to come join us in San Diego on Monday morning, and that that way she could help me drive back to Utah next Wednesday.  She was in favor of that plan too. 

Once I had the new travel plans figured out I told the kids we could do whatever fun thing they wanted to do.  They decided that we should go see the movie the Avengers, and it was lots of fun.  We all loved it.  Then we drove to downtown San Antonio to go and see the famed River Walk.  It was just as beautiful as I’d always heard, and once again I thought that I really needed Russ there with me so that we could walk around and enjoy it together.  My eleven year old travel companions tried valiantly to be good sports but they didn’t want to have to walk that far and they really just weren’t that interested.  We had a yummy mexican dinner on the River Walk which was very fun and then we slowly made our way back to the car.

 

When I realized that the Alamo was very near the River Walk I decided that we’d just go and drive around it before heading back to our apartment.  I hadn’t heard great things about the tour and decided that a drive by would be sufficient. 

On our way back to the apartment it started to storm…first just thunder and lightning, and then by the time we went to bed, driving pounding rain…

(to be cont.)

Day 8: Sunday Thoughts

Miles traveled: 203                                                                                 Total miles: 1597

 

We had a nice relaxing Sunday with Jeremy & Maria.  We slept in a little, went to sacrament meeting, came home and played games and then I had a nap.  After a wonderful dinner we played another new game called 7 Wonders that was also very fun.  All the while Jeremy tried to persuade me that we should stay and play games with them longer.  He was very tempting, and if our place in San Antonio hadn’t already been paid for we might have.  If we’d been able to see into the future we might have stayed…how’s that for some serious foreshadowing??

While I was at Jeremy’s I printed out the next set of maps & info for my trip.  It occurred to me that this was evidence of how much I am flying by the seat of my pants on this trip compared to normal.  The normal me loves to plan trips, and usually has all of the details figured out weeks, if not months, in advance.  This me, the really busy-working on the house all the time-moving me, was doing good to have enough info together to get to Jeremy’s house in Texas where I could print more. 

More proof of my lack of preparedness. Our church clothes. The girls didn’t think to keep out church shoes (and I didn’t remind them) so they got packed by the movers. Somehow the tshirt Jenna gave me to go with her jumper never made it into the travel clothes. And I packed a black skirt and navy shoes for myself. Were my eyes even open, I’m wondering??

Still more proof.  I am travelling without earrings.  I almost never go anywhere without earrings!

A couple of random things about Sunday.  Jeremy & Maria’s darling 3 year old daughter Addy took a liking to Jared.  During church she decided that she wanted to sit on his lap.  I wish I had a picture of the panicked expression on Jared’s face.  She also wanted him to play hide-n-seek and build block castles with her later.  At some point during the afternoon I got a text from him (from his itouch) that said something like

Mom, did I want to play all of the time like this when I was little?  If so I am sorry!

Rachel and Jenna were good sports and played a lot of hide-n-seek with Addy too.  I spent most of my time holding chubby cheeked Barrett, who reminds me totally of Jeremy when he was a baby. 

Here we are all together before we left.  True and terrible story:  I was in a hurry to leave; we’d already stayed longer to play the new game and I knew we had about 3.5 hours of driving in front of us.  We’d taken one picture and Addy had climbed up on the back of the couch and tumbled right off and was pinned between the wall and the couch.  She had also scraped her back on the window sill on the way down.  But we needed to leave so we just took the picture with her still crying…I hope I can make that up to her some day!