Road Trip Day 1: The Drive

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After work Thursday I was busy. I rushed home after a full day at work. A new babysitter/nanny was on her way and I wanted to get dinner cooking and the last of the stuff packed. I cut up a ham and thawed some chicken breast then she showed up. She got to meet Pumpkin and we told her about us and Pumpkin and what a typical day would be like. She told us about herself and then we made plans to meet in a few weeks and set stuff up. She headed out and I fired up the grill and set the table and got some vegetables cooking. I got the laptops and baby gear packed. KK and Chiaki showed up and we ate. For throwing together the last of our stuff it was pretty good. Then we put their gear in the car and went ahead and added the bonus gear we had packed for if there was extra room.

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We all went to the bathroom and we took a start of the picture trip and left.

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Heath took the wheel and most of the state of Kansas. We drove to Witchita and kept right on going. Heath drove for 4+ hours and no one, not even Pumpkin was calm enough to sleep.

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We made a quick stop about 3 hrs in at McDonalds for Peanut to pee then stopped a bit after 10:30 to gas up and give Heath a break. KK took the wheel and got us out of Kansas and into Oklahoma and shortly later into Texas and then a little bit later into New Mexico. I got in 3 naps during his shift and I think they were all about an hour. At the end of his shift we loaded up on gas and hit the bathroom then I took the wheel. It was about 3:30 and everyone seemed to pass out immediately.
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It was tough going at first and I started out with a dark 2 lane highway and Adam Corola on the iPod. I listened to him for about an hour and a half then had a cherry coke and switched to the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’s. Then I opened a water and slowly sipped on it and when the album was over I queued up Johhny Cash. After a while the nothing or small towns off the highway turned into big rocks in the distance, then bigger rocks and plateaus and I started to see hints of light reflecting from the sun creeping up behind me. IMG_0020 The sun slowly rose and lit up the pink sky and showed me a land much different then when we left. KK got up and was asked where in the world we were. We both sat on the edges of our seat checking out the giant rocks and hills. Around the time the van clock said 7:30 most of the car was up and I pulled into a Denny’s for breakfast.

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We all hit the bathroom and stuffed our stomachs with a not great breakfast. Then we gassed up and started driving, everyone was checking out mountains and rocks and stuff in the distance. My eyes started trying to take little breaks after 15min or so and I pulled over. Heath took the wheel, I sat down and immediately fell asleep. IMG_0356 About 40 minutes later we exited the highway and I woke up. We pulled off into a little parking lot right in front of The Petrified Forest National Park.  IMG_0379

We traded our flip flops for shoes and got everyone some sunscreen and stretched a bit. After a picture we drove into the park and bought a year pass to all the National parks.

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