HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Well, we've made it. We did what we set out to do. I am so proud of the kids. They did an awesome job. Yesterday was one of our best days yet-depsite a day of rain. One might think what do you do in an RV all day long with three kids??? Between school, art, reading, writing, showers, laundry and taking breaks when the rain stopped, the day flew by. The kids (and I) listened to Sound of Music and Christmas songs all day long. I was a big fan of the Sound of Music choice, no big surprise there. It was 10pm by the time we all went to bed.

Last night we had the storms of all storms. At 3am thunder and lightening lit up our sky. It felt like it was right overhead. Jack and I were upstairs and woke right up. When rain hits the RV, it sounds like little pebbles are falling on us. The lightening illuminated the entire campground. It was very exciting. I got down to cover up Lilly who had also awakened. She looked at me and said smiling, "when the dog bites, when the bee stings..." I thought that was pretty clever for 3am.

Mike (and the dogs) left San Diego early this morning and are headed our way. We'll have a memorable Thanksgiving in the RV. On Friday (Jana's birthday!), we'll caravan down to Phoenix where Mike, the kids and the dogs will camp for the night. Jackson has scouted out his last Cabela's and will go there tomorrow. I, on the otherhand, will go to the airport and pick up Heidi and Bertie who will spend a girls weekend with me back in Sedona!! I have a massage booked for Saturday. Boy, does my back need that. MIke and kids will get home Saturday, and Bertie and I will drive home in the MDX on Sunday night.

And that's the end. We are ending on Thanksgiving which is pretty fitting. I think it's safe to say that we are all very grateful for not only doing the trip, but also that we had a safe return. I also think we have a deeper appreciation for all that we have in our country, and we have an enormous amount of respect for those who died not only for our freedom but for theirs. We live in a pretty amazing place. It's a big sense of accomplishment, and if anything, I hope we've learned that YES, WE CAN.

Happy Thanksgiving to all-


Sammy
It's not the end for us three kids because my Mom is not doing it anymore, but my Dad and us three are going to still camp. I liked the trip in genereal because of the hooking up part. I think that may be kinda fun, how you hook up the RV. The trip also has made me think like we got to see a lot of sutff compared to other people. And they don't get to see Mt. Rushmore and the Grand Tetons and White Sands. I am happy we did this trip.

Lilly
I can't beleive we made it to the end, and about the trip, I really liked all of it except Hoover Dam. I really like seeing Mt. Rushmore, Grand Tetons and White Sands. I liked having mornings when we just listened to music and I got to lie in bed.
I think, "Wow, we made it."

Jackson
It was really nice to be able to be mellow in the morning, and not rush, and maybe just go out and play in the rain. It was just a really amazing trip. I am very glad we did this.

Winslow-Sedona

Standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona... we left the Wigwam this morning and drove *through* Winslow, AZ. I"m not sure if any of us would want to be stuck on that corner for long. But it was fun to see "the corner." The drive from Flagstaff to Sedona was amazing. Flagstaff is like Truckee, a little mountain feeling town, and it smelled just like Tahoe.

Sedona is fabulous. It's great timing that this really is our last stop before home, not counting Phoenix since we've been there. All of us love it here and it's top on the list of favorite places. I found myself consistently saying on this trip, "Wow, it's pretty here," and then the next stop saying the same thing. But Sedona really is spectacular. Our campground is covered with fall, leaves and the mountains shoot up behind us.

We're supposed to get heavy rain Wednesday and Thursday night, so tonight we're walking from our campground around the corner to some resort. There, they will light over 1 millions Christmas tree lights. Just looked at the time-have to run to the lights!

Back in Arizona

We crossed our last state line (Arizona) before getting home to California. We hit 19 states in all. Tonight we are staying in a wigwam! I thought the kids would get a kick out of staying in a tee-pee. It's pretty classic. Because the walls are slanted, you actually have to look UP into the bathroom mirror. Our "room" is about 15 feet in diameter. Tomorrow is Sedona where we'll be through Thanksgiving, the day Mike meets us. I'm having a hard time believing that this adventure is truly almost over. Anyone else find this hard to believe?

Back to Albuquerque

From Lilly:
Today we went to see some petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are indian writings on rocks. It was a long hike. I took a lot of pictures. We also went on the longest tram in the world, 2.7 miles. It was a beautiful view. From the top to the bottom is about 15 minutes. After both activities, Jackson, Sammy and I washed the RV. That was fun because we kind of squirted each other with the hose. We played at the park at our campground. We ate dinner and then we had to drop off my grandparents at the airport. I said good-bye and then we left. Now I am going to leave my journal, good-bye.

Jackson
The elevation from the upper terminal is 10,378 feet. At the top it was 32 degrees, and at the bottom it warmed up to 72 degrees. The average number of people per year is 250,000. The distance btwn tower 2 and the summit is 7,720 ft or just over a mile. The petroglyph hike was about 3 miles. It felt good to run around. We had a lot of conversations on the way. It was hard to leave Nana and Poppy.

Sammy
Today we went to a drug store. We got scrunchies and clips from Nana. We had to use a cardboard box cutter to cut them (the packages) in half. I have for the clips red, yellow and green. My scrunchies colors are blue, purple, pink and green. I liked the tram a lot. I really liked the petroglyphs. I walked with Poppy most of the way. Then that's when we went to the drugstore. The tram was really, really fun. I liked it really good. Then we went to the carwash. My Mom and the kids kinda got sprayed. I sprayed my sister and my brother. The End.

More time in Sante Fe

It was art appreciation day. We toured the Georgia O'Keeffe museum. She was born in 1887 in Wisconsin and died in 1986 in Sante Fe. At the age of 12 she knew she wanted to be an artist. She studied in Chicago and New York but where she felt most at home was in New Mexico. There she painted her passion, nature. It was a great exhibit, and even the kids liked it.

We walked into town and had lunch at our new favorite restaurant. After lunch we took a bus tour around Sante Fe. It was awesome. Sante Fe is the highest state capital in elevation, sells the most art second to New York, and hosts a great number of galleries. In the summer, the temperature gets to 90 degrees, but it's a dry heat. I could handle that. We drove up Canyon Rd. which was basically gallery row. It was so cool.

In the afternoon the kids went in the hot tub, did school and hung out. Mom, Dad and I went back into town to see the luminaries on the plaza lit at night. It was very pretty.

Tomorrow we had back to Albuquerque, and we'll take Nana and Poppy to the airport. It's been so great having them here. We've had so much fun. What a way to round out our trip before being home. Thank you Mom and Dad!

PS-GO BEARS! We beat Stanfurd today in the Big Game!

Taos

Today we drove and hour and a half to Taos. It was a beautiful drive, along canyons and rivers. Our first stop was Taos Pueblo. The Pueblo is considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited community in the US. Native legend and history trace this indian community life back to the beginning of evolution. The native language is Tiwa and is unwritten (and unrecorded) and will remain so. The details of traditional values, life and language are passed down from generation to generation. Traditional houses are made of adobe brick and adobe ovens are still used to bake bread, cakes, pies and cookies. We tried the bread and it was delicious. If you wanted to take pictues of the native people, you must first ask for permission as the belief is taking pictures takes away from that person's soul.

The church was built in 1850 and is a registered historical landmark. Catholism was introduced to this community by the early Spanish missionaries. Today about 3/4 of the population share in some of the Catholic rituals, while the natives still practice 100% in tradtional tribal rituals. Between 50-100 people currently live in the Pueblo.

After walking the Pueblo, we drove into Taos and had lunch. The town was small, but the surrounding mountains and plains were beautiful. We arrived back into Sante Fe in time for a hot tub, homework and left-over turkey dinner.

Sante Fe

I could live here. It's awesome. After breakfast with Mom and Dad, we all took a shuttle into downtown, to the Plaza. We strolled around town, did some shopping and had a great, authentic, southwestern lunch, complete with margaritas for Dad and me. It was cold, so we took the shuttle back and spent the afternoon doing school and cooking an early turkey. I had a nap, a real nap, did laundry and went to the gym. The funny part was that the kids came and found me in the gym and stayed to do all the machines etc. I was laughing, and thankfully no one else was there. We ate our Thanksgiving dinner with Nana and Poppy and watched Planet Earth. If you haven't seen this DVD collection, you should. It's fascinating. Tomorrow we'll drive about an hour north to Taos. I can't wait-it's a ski town, so I'm sure we'll all love it. And it feels like it could snow-tonight's temperature is 29 degrees!

this is a test for Poppy

New passengers

Well, Rhody and Charlotte left yesterday, and Nana and Poppy arrived today! We left our scanky campground early (even Lilly said the Chevron bathroom was cleaner than the campground bathroom--now that's bad). Once in Albuquerquue, we found Trader Joe's! I was almost giddy doing the shopping. In the same parking lot, there was a bike repair shop. Sammy's bike has needed repairs since ??? Wyoming maybe?? We sat in this parking lot, outside of Bed Bath and Beyond, adjacent to Trader joe's, for four hours. We ate lunch, did school and used the store's bathroom. Lilly and Jack rode bikes in the parking lot. What does this make us? Does one have squatter's rights in a parking lot?

At 2pm, we loaded up and went to the airport to get my parents. Sam's bike wasn't finished yet, so on the way back from the airport we picked that up and continued onto Sante Fe.

Mom and Dad got us our own suite, complete with two bedrooms. Not only do I get my own bed but also my own room. how great is that.

More Dunes pictures

Had to put a few more pictures up--it was such a cool day.

Eleven Weeks Out!

WHAT A DAY!! We left our great military base stayover after breakfast, and (with Rhody and Charlotte in tow) we drove to White Sands Nat'l Monument. It was absolutely incredible. The dunes are gypsum. The gypsum that forms the white sand was deposited at the bottom of a shallow sea covering this area 250 million years ago. The water evaporated over time, leaving these gypsum-bearing marine deposits. The deposits were lifted up into a giant dome about 70 million years ago (when the Rocky Mountains were formed). Then, about ten million years ago, the center of the dome started to collapse, and it created this baisn. When the wind blows, the sand is carried downwind and creates what is called ripples, just like ripples on a lake. Eventually the sand blows high enough, creating the dune. The sand acutally feels like Snickerdoodle cookie dough. It wasn't sticky, and the kids LOVED IT. They ran up and down, all over the place. Tonight, they still have sand in their hair.

We parted ways with Rhody and Charlottel at the Dunes. They headed south to El Paso, and we drove NW, towards Albuquerque. Our drive across the middle portion of the state was beautiful but very barren. Again, I'm much happier doing those drives in the daytime. I was aiming for a crane wildlife refuge about 80 miles south of Albuquerque. We made it at the perfect time, about an hour before sunset. There were thousands of birds, and the lighting was every photographer's dream. We missed all the bats, but we got birds! We spent an hour driving around the refuge, taking pictures. It very much reminded us of the movie, "Fly Away Home."

We got back on the road to find a place to stay for the night. It was just getting dark, so we had to hurry. It was great having Rhody and Charlotte--thanks so much for coming!

Tomorrow we'll meet my parents, Nana and Poppy, in Albuquerque. We are very lucky to have back-to-back visits with grandparents!

At the end of this trip, I'm going to a spa. It's necessary, as I have aged like a president during his term. Gray hair, more defined "smile lines," and bad skin. I'm hoping the spa people can greatly reverse the damages. I look like hell, but it's been fun.

Carlsbad Caverns

New Mexico is so beautful. Jack is in 7th heaven being back in the desert climate. Yesterday, in camp, we had a really nice, mellow day. We spent the morning doing school and then the kids worked on our book illustrations (they're writing a little book about the trip and doing all the illustratons). Sammy was working on Hannibal, MO, and decided to be Mark Twain. See picture below. There's also some pictures from the LIving Desert Museum we went to on Saturday.

We were very excited to have Rhody and Charlotte fly into El Paso yesterday and meet us at out KOA yesterday afternoon. The kids jumped for joy when they saw their car pull into the lot. We all ate dinner in the RV, and then Lilly and Sam went back with R and C to their hotel in Carlsbad. Jack was my solo roommate last night. We listened to Harry Potter book on tape. Excellent.

This morning we all drove out to the caves. It was absolutely awesome. I liked it way more than I thought I would. It took about an hour to walk down a narrow, steep (dark) path. Your voice could carry 1/4 of a mile, so you had to whisper. Like the bats in Austin, the Mexcian bats had already migrated. Missed that again! Note to self, bats migrate in October.

We surfaced from 750 below to have lunch in the RV before driving to Alamogoro, NM, about 3 1/2 hours west. The drive was absolutely beautiful. The White Sands Nat'l park is just six miles from where we are staying tonight. Since Rhody is retired military, we are able to stay on the base in a family unit, complete with a small kitchen and sitting room. Dinner was beer, brownies and pizza. Not in that order, but close.

Tomorrow we'll see White Sands, Rhody and Charlotte will drive south to El Paso, and we'll head north towards Albuquerque. It's so fun to have two adults with me. I even had a map reader for part of the drive. And the reader wasn't nine years old.

New Mexico-TLC for the RV

We are now on central mountain time. When we crossed the state line, we changed, and we are now only one hour ahead of San Diego.

It's beautiful here-desert climate and very cold. We left Ft. Stockton and arrived in Carlsbad in time to wash the RV (got the first of many layers of dirt and dead bugs off), an oil change and vacuumed the RV. We did all that and then had time to visit the Living Desert Museum. It was nice to let the kids run around as Lilly was a complete spaz case. I told her that she could walk ahead of me or behind me but not NEAR me, as I might push her into a cactus.

Our campground is huge and beautiful. It's very cold. Funny to think that 3 nights ago it was near 80 degrees and we were night swimming. I think it will be in the 30s tonight. Great for star gazing.

The intenet is not great here, so I'll probaly check back in once we get to Albuquerque--Tues or Wed. And I can't post pictures either. Maybe next time! We'll visit Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow and/or Monday.

On the road again

One thing about Texas, it's big enough to be its own country. We drove six hours and we're still in the middle of no where. Thankfully there's this campground adjacent to I-10 in Ft. Stockton. Tomorrow we'll drive to Carlsbad Caverns. Another thing, we have seen so much road kill on this trip, I half regret not keeping a tally, as sick as that sounds. Our connection here isn't strong, so no pictures of this expansive land (or road kill).

Bigger than us

More interesting than our day of school, camplife and ride downtown is the following link. My sister sent it to me, and it's more important than our trip. Please view.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27652443#27652443

San Antonio, day 3

Another great day for the roadscholarz. We had PE this morning which meant swimming until lunch. It's the first campground pool that has been open on our trip since Moab. We did school much of the afternoon, and then I really had to muscle up for a Wal-Mart run. We were pretty much out of groceries, and I ate our last tuna pack. On our way to Wal-Mart, we passed a Costco! In we went, and the kids said, "This is sooo fun!" Seeing all the familiar foods was a BIG deal to them. I"ve stopped reading food labels on this trip, since I've had to let a lot of cooking preferences go along the wayside. But Costco was IT. We made it over to Wal-Mart too, with the walkie talkies, and then the topper was dinner at Chipotle!

One thing the kids have been doing in camp is the Tour de KOA. They take their bikes around this one loop and race eachother. It's pretty classic. No wipe-outs, yet.

Now they are swimming under the full moon, and I'm about to jump in the hot tub. It has a sign on it, very prominently displayed, Adults Only. Rest assured, the pool is 4 feet away, so the umbilical cord can still reach.

Remember the Alamo!

What a great day. After taking the BUS into town, we went right to the Alamo. As luck would have it, we were there just as a touching Veteran's Day ceremony was starting. It was an honor to be there as the men and women who served our country stepped forward to be recognized. Rhody, the kids all thought of you too.

We began our audio tour and Jack could not get enough. The girls pooped out, claiming that hunger was overwhelming them. I left Jack at Alamo, and the girls and I went for sandwiches. After lunch all of us rejoined and watched a short History Channel movie on the Alamo. Charlotte, it was not the gory one! There was so much to see and learn, we may have to do another day there. It was the site of one of the bloodiest battles for Texas' independence from Mexico. Davey Crockett was there and is one of Jack's idols. In March of 1836, the Alamo fell under the leadership of Santa Ana. All the men fighting for Texas were killed, except for a few slaves.

From Jack:
The Alamo is problbaby going to tie in first for favs for me. It was a sanctuary, shrine, museum, memorial and a sign of Texas independece all at one place. I was looking forward to this for the entire trip. This spot made me happy and very sad. At times I wondered what would happen if I were there, knowing that Santa Ana would attack that morning of March 6, 1836. I was suprised that there are many mysteries and very few remainders of the missions. I loved it. I cannot express how much I loved it. I can't believe I am where I am now. This spot is the earliest spot I know that I have wanted to go to. It was so cool!

GB:
From the Alamo we strolled along the Riverwalk and into the Rivercenter Mall. We decided to catch a movie (not something educational which I have been fairly focused on). We saw Madagascar. I *wish* I had been tired enough to sleep. The kids loved it.

After the movie we walked back down to the Riverwalk and had an early dinner. The bus ride home was exciting as by then it was dark, and I had no idea where we were. Thankfully the bus driver took pity on us and announced our KOA stop.

Tonight is journaling, math and reading. Happy Veteran's Day. Today is our 10th week out. I'm so proud of the kids and how well they are traveling. They're ready to go home, but they don't want to go yet--they're still excited about what's left to do. It's all good.

San Antonio, day 1

We left Austin this morning but didn't get past the city limits before stopping at Cabela's. Jack was sooo happy. It was a great time to stop as our drive today was only an hour, and we were on no specific schedule. We went in, with walkie-talkies, and the kids roamed the wild indoors of Cabela's.

Once we arrived in San Antonio, we checked into our KOA for the next 3-4 nights. It's 80 degrees, the pool is open, and there's a *bus* that will take us downtown for a dollar each! I'm so happy not to try and drive through another downtown. We stayed in camp and caught up on laundry and school.

Tonight we made a fort and are having a movie night, courtesy of my book club gals. Don't let the smiling faces in the fort picture fool you too much.... true confessions, 2 of them were in tears prior to the fort building. I am not perfect, nor are they, and we've had a lot of togetherness. I'm sure I could of handled the fighting situation a little better than I did. There's a good chance the fort is a by-product of a mother's guilt.

We'll spend all day tomorrow at The Alamo and the Riverwalk, via the bus!

Pictures from Austin

Here are few shots from Austin. We walked across Congress Bridge and down along the river. We drove around the capitol and found our way to ice cream. We were hoping to see the famous bats that live under Congress Bridge. At dusk, hundreds fly out for their night of hunting. But since they are Mexican bats, they've already migrated south for the winter, so no luck. Our planned BBQ dinner didn't quite work out either, but we found a great place just down the street from our campsite. The restaurant was The Shady Grove, and we were able to eat outside and enjoy the music and lights. Tomorrow we'll drive to San Antonio. Remember the Alamo!