Diary of a Road trip


May 18, 2006

I had my six week check up today. Every thing was great. I am down about 40 pounds from last September. Wearing some size 14s. Feeling pretty good about that. We leave today for the Grand Canyon. Williams, AZ is over 800 miles from home. Hope the kids do well.

We left about 2:30 pm and drove all day and into the night. Cayla did really well as did Zane. Amanda was just anxious to get there. She asked about a million times about stopping. Overall the kids did great in the car. We had to stop at a road side park once so I could feed Cayla and Zane could roam around. Then we had to stop on the side of the road in NM so I could feed Cayla and everyone could have a bathroom break. Amanda and I peed on our shoes--pretty funny. We stopped to eat around 10 pm and then kept driving. We got to Moriarity, just outside of Albuquerque. That was just over half way there. We were all excited to stop and sleep.

May 19, 2006
Day 2 of the journey. This is a sad day for me. My 5 year anniversary. I called and wished John a happy May 19th. We were supposed to be in Mexico this year, I guess New Mexico will have to do for me. Another day of driving and driving and driving. We stopped just over the Arizona line at a really cool rest area. Had a picnic lunch and then drove on. We reached Williams around 6 pm (4 pm their time). Amanda and Zane tried the "heated" pool. According to Amanda there was no heat. We met a nice family there who had also come for Thomas. They kept following us around--not really--we just kept running into them. We ate at the hotel restaurant and Zane played with the other family's little girl. Then we drove into town and ate ice cream at a route 66 diner. The other family came in right after us--too funny. After ice cream we went back to the hotel and tried to settle in for the night. Zane was pretty wild. Good in the car--bad out. But overall things are good. Cayla has been surprisingly good.

May 20, 2006

Ate breakfast a a diner advertised on the visitors channel. Guess who else ate there--that's right the family from the hotel. That was the last time we saw them, but it was fun to keep meeting up with them. Zane spilled hot chocolate all over his shirt so we had to change from a Thomas shirt to another train shirt. After breakfast we drove by the train depot and Zane caught his fist glimpse of Thomas. Up to that point he thought we were going to see a toy train. He had asked a million times to go see the new baby calf at home. But once he saw Thomas was a real train, he was ecstatic. He was just about bounicing out of his seat and wanted to see Thomas right then. It was worth the whole trip to hear him squeal. He cried when we turned the corner and he couldn't see Thomas anymore. We had a long time till our turn to ride, so I was glad when Thomas back out of the station and Zane calmed down. We went to a deer farm and the kids got to feed all sorts of animals. The deer would rush the feed bucket and tried to eat the kids too. Cayla and I stayed behind so she could nurse, but we did get to see the tail end of the adventure. The deer were something else. From there we went to the National Geographic visitors center just outside of the South rim of the Grand Canyon. They had an Imax theater showing the Grand Canyon film. It was awesome. Zane did not like the noise and Cayla had to nurse most of the time, but the rest of us enjoyed it. I even felt a little "air sick" as we went flying by. I was glad to get a glimpse of the canyon that way, because I knew we would never get to see it all on our own.

We made it back to the Thomas site in time for our ride. Zane thought it was so cool to go on a passenger car pulled by Thomas. He loved seeing Thomas in person. After the 20 minute ride, there were a lot of things to do around the area. Zane met Sir Tophamm Hatt and he and Amanda both participated in a magic show. There was a train made out of legos. It was incredible. I was so glad we went because Zane loved it so much. I hope the pictures turn out. I know we took a lot on the train, but hope Amanda got some of the train itself. That night we walked down town and ate pizza then went to bed. We were all tired.

May 21, 2006

We took a "regr" (Zane's word for regular) train excursion to the Grand Canyon. The train ride was a little boring. Not much to see on the way. But like all good things, the end was wonderful. The canyon is like nothing else in the world. There are no words to describe its awesome wonders. We walked from the depot to a look out spot and got sandwiches and ate at a "fountain" (really a cactus bed) and looked out over the canyon. Wow!!! As we sat down and started to eat, Amanda started saying "ahh, ahh, ahh." I looked down and there was squirrel between her and the back of the bench. He grabbed her packet of mayonaisse and ran away. It was so funny. I wish I had the camera ready for that, but we missed it. But we will remember it always. Zane's only recollection of the canyon is that stupid squirrel stealed sisters mayonaisse. Dad's hat blew off at a bus stop but a nice guy was able to retrieve it. Dad and I enjoyed taking the shuttle bus to 3 stops along the canyon and seeing different parts of it. I really wish we had more time there. I hope to go back someday. We had to get on the train too soon and journey back to Williams. On the way back, train robbers came, but the sherrif got them. Zane didn't like it much, but Amanda thought it was funny. We immediately got in the van and drove to Flagstaff after we returned. We wanted to drive further, but decided to stop there for the night. Cayla screamed in the restaurant and I had a lady come and tell me she needed to go to the emergency room. I was so upset. We were all just tired and ready to get some rest.

Stayed tuned for the journey home and all the exciting adventures.