642 miles today.
Crossed 2 state lines.
Girls earned two Jr. Ranger badges at Fort Smith Historic Site in Arkansas.
Ordered five plates of barbecue for dinner in Memphis.
Watched more movies than I’d like to admit.
Loving this trip and cherishing the time with my family.
Written by Emily
While we were in Amarillo, Texas we stopped and ate at the Big Texan Steak Ranch for lunch. This restaurant was crazy- bright yellow on the outside and a massive dining room inside. All of the waiters were even dressed like cowboys and cowgirls! The restaurant offered a challenge, one person could to try to eat a 72 ounce steak, three shrimp prawns, a roll, salad, and a baked potato in an hour. If they successfully ate all of this food they got the whole meal free, but if they failed, they had to pay the 72 dollar fee for the meal. It is a crazy challenge, would you ever try it?
Our travels took us to Rt. 66 today between Albuquerque and Oklahoma City. We didn’t drive it the whole time, but jumped onto this historic route for a few key stops.
Tucumcari, NM
From there, into Texas
Adrian, TX
Pie at the Midpoint Cafe. Halfway between Chicago and LA. There was also an old Studebaker truck out front for everyone to sign. The girls got a kick out of digging out our paint pens to sign the truck.
Amarillo, TX
See Emily’s post coming next…
Since I shared about the prep and organization I did before leaving, I thought an update after living in the car for a week would be good. We’ve traveled over 2,600 miles and here’s how things are working:
Overall, things are going smoothly, kids have been happy and patient, and we’re loving our adventure. We should pass the 3,000 mile mark today!
On the road again! Today we left Moab and began the trek to get on Route 66. We headed out of Utah into Colorado and made a stop at Mesa Verde National Park. We weren’t sure if we were going to tackle this park since it’s somewhat out of the way. In the end, we’re so happy we did. Learning about the ancestral Puebloan culture, exploring their incredible cliff dwellings, and imagining life in arid mesas over 800 years ago is an experience we won’t soon forget.
I think what fascinates me most is that these structures- some of them 2-3 stories high are built inside coves on the side of cliffs. Nothing about the location is easy to access. In fact, the Pueblo people carved hand and footholds into the cliff walls to get up to the top of the mesas or down the cliff to the water source. All of this work to build and live in these ancestral cities involved great danger and yet it was a brilliant place to stay shielded from the harsh weather of this part of the country.
These girls have earned 7 Jr Ranger badges in 7 days!
From Mesa Verde, we headed south to Albuquerque, NM and much to the girls delight, we found a Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. Tomorrow we head east!
It’s not very common that one drives 400 miles in a day and still walks over 5 miles as well. It’s also not very common to visit two national parks in one day. That said, we did both. We headed out early from Bryce Canyon and began the windy, but gorgeous drive to Capitol Reef national park. Capitol Reef is interesting because it combines some crazy geologic features with historical elements. The girls enjoyed learning about the area’s history, rock formations, viewing the petroglyphs, and completing another Jr. Ranger book. We took the scenic drive, enjoyed the historical sites, and picked apples in a very old orchard. Apples were all you could eat in the orchard or $1 per pound if you took them out of the orchard. From there, we managed to get to the Arches visitor center before they closed and decided we’d take advantage of the cooler evening temps to explore. We drove the entire length of the park stopping for short hikes and arch viewing. The only bummer was that there were storms in the area and cloud cover made for dimly lit photos. Still, it was a spectacular day and I’m so proud of the girls’ stamina and cheerful attitudes. Day 5 was a hit!
Written by Addie
On day 3 of our trip we got to experience nature’s Disneyland! (Or Zion National Park) From the beautiful red rock towers to the amazing animals Zion was simply incredible!! We got to see mule deer including a baby deer that sill had it’s spots!!!! Not only that we saw lizards, amazing red rock, and weeping rocks that water had traveled through to create waterfalls. With the hot hot temperatures the only thing that could make Zion better would be a Mickey ice cream sandwich!
Written by Emily
At every national park my sisters and I try to complete the junior ranger program. The junior ranger program is where kids get a packet to complete while they are at the national park. If they complete the packet they get a badge and are sworn into the park as a junior ranger. While we were at Zion National Park we were trying to complete our packets. As part of the packet we had to attend a ranger led program, but none of the offered classes fit into our schedule. As we were on our way back from one of our hikes we met a very nice ranger named Janice. She explained to us how the canyons were formed and how erosion played a big part in the shaping of the rock. She told us the story of a huge boulder named Bob and how he had come down onto the trail after a mudslide. After Janice had finished, she told us that our chat about erosion and rock formation had counted as a ranger led program. Because of her we earned our Zion badge!
If I’m being honest, I was tempted to suggest we skip Bryce Canyon. I’m SO thankful we came. Bryce Canyon is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It was like stepping foot on a foreign planet. We’ll definitely have more to post, but we’re on limited signal and using the WiFi at the pizza place within the park. I’m hoping we can post all the stories the kids have written and the incredible photos once we get to Moab tomorrow.
Happy 19th Anniversary to my amazing and wonderful husband. I’m so thankful to be on this journey with you. We certainly enjoyed God’s creation and celebrated with some sweat in the 107 degree heat.
SEA 2 Shore 