Day 1: We left Memphis after stopping at Starbucks around 7:30am on Monday morning. We drove through West Memphis, AR where we had to stop for an emergency WalMart run for a cassette adapter for my IPOD since my old one was broken and we left the Itrip in William's truck that had already been shipped to CA. We could not drive all the way across the country without our IPODs of course! Then of course we had to stop for a bathroom break only a few miles down the road because of the Starbucks! However, after that we were on our way! We drove all the way across Arkansas and Oklahoma and halfway across Texas all in one day. The ride was pretty much unadventurous. It rained through the entire state of Oklahoma and at one point we had to pull over for a quick power nap. We stayed in Amarillo, TX for the night at the Holiday Inn. We got into Amarillo at about 8:30 pm, making it a 13 hour day of driving! We had to make one more WalMart run in Amarillo because we couldn't find Molly's cookies that she just has to have before bed! After enjoying the hot tub, we went to bed to rest for another long day of driving.
Windmills in Oklahoma
The Largest Cross in TX, or something like that.
Day 2: We left Amarillo at about 9:45am on Tuesday to head for Arizona. We drove through the last half of Texas, New Mexico and halfway through Arizona. Other than a few rounds of the alphabet game and seeing billboards promising a super fun adventure ahead at the next truck stop, the trip was pretty uneventful until we decided to go through the petrified forest. We drove through the Petrified Forest National Park and stopped to see the Painted Desert and to see many of the petrified trees along the way. It was a fun experience even though I was disappointed in what the actual Petrified Forest was. I was picturing an actual forest that had been turned to stone, like in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe where the White Witch turns all the creatures to stone. I wanted it to be like that, not fallen trees that had turned to stone. So even though I was let down because of my very high expectations, the park was pretty incredible. We arrived in Flagstaff at about 7:30pm (after going into a new time zone) which made it an 11 hour day of driving. We had dinner at Chili's where William almost ran me over with the car because he forgot to put the parking break on as we were getting out..quite funny! We stayed at the Ramada Inn that night.
Us at the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest:
Day 3: We drove up to the Grand Canyon because William had never been there before and we were only about an hour away. We made it to the park and headed for the Rim Trail with Molly Bear. We just enjoyed being outside (out of the car) for several hours walking around and looking at "the big ditch." We got lunch on the way out and headed for Kingman, AZ. We got to Kingman around 4 in the afternoon. We checked into our Days Inn Motel and decided to relax for a little while. Well if you don't know, I become a huge germ-a-phobe when it comes to staying in hotels, especially older hotels. This Days Inn was no exception. It smelled gross, the blanket under the gross comforter on the bed was gross, the tub was like falling apart but don't worry it was covered with a bath mat, and I was just completely uncomfortable. We decided to find a place to eat dinner and it did not take long to realize how skanky the town of Kingman is. We drove around the Historic Route 66 downtown area that was like a ghosttown. The only restaurant that was open was the Route 66 Diner and no one was there...not a good sign. So we drove back toward our hotel in hopes of finding something better to eat. We came across the DamBar Restaurant/Steakhouse and decided to go in. After ordering the damburger I had just about had enough of Kingman. I had a complete breakdown at the dinner table and told William that I just wanted to go back to our house in Starkville. I am not really cut out for life on the road, even though it had only been 3 days. We ate our damfood and went back to the damhotel for bed in the armpit of America, Kingman, AZ. I barely slept a wink because I was so uncomfortable in that hotel. I didn't even get undressed (less contact with the bed in doing so). I was ready to go at about 4:30 in the morning, but decided I'd let William sleep so that he could drive and I could sleep in the car.
Us at the Grand Canyon:
Proof I was not making it up!:
Day 4: We finally got up at 7:30am (which if you know me, saying "finally" about anytime before 10am, you know it's been a rough night) and headed for Simi Valley.
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