Day 5- May 28- Aztec Ruins and Mesa Verde

We started off at Aztec Ruins.  The grounds were absolutely beautiful and we loved entering the kiva.  A kiva is used for ceremonies and religious purposes.  They are all round in nature and have pillars around them.  

Several of the remains are still intact including some of the T-shaped door frames and the original kivas.  

It is always so impressive to us as to how simple the ancient Puebloan people used to live.  The rooms were small and they lived in large quantities of people.

I love this picture of the boys with the ruins in the background.  The boys love to climb through the runis and discover all kinds of old rocks and artifacts.  

As we left there, we headed to Mesa Verde National park, but not before stopping in Durango.  David and I could both live in the mountains somewhere.  These La Sal Mountains were absolutely beautiful in southern Colorado.  

While in Durango, we walked to an ice cream shop (which should not surprise you if you know me), but in downtown Durango, they were having all kinds of bike races which was very interesting to the kids.  David was not able to get out of the truck because there was no really good place to park the camper.  We took some salted butterscotch ice cream back to him.

We arrived at Morefield Campground in Mesa Verde National Park.  The campground was first come, first serve in terms of getting a site.  We did not love this approach because even though we had reservations, there were often people that were tent camping that took up the larger sites.  This makes you really nervous when you are towing a 35 foot camper.  The mesas surrounding our campsite were absolutely gorgeous.

Once set up, the boys were dying to get their bikes down to ride around.  My kids are happiest when they are free to roam-  like the buffalo.  The campground had around 400 sites, and we had #389.  We liked this because it was close to the bathroom and one of the end loops.

Kerri had gotten the boys Kan Jam for Christmas and this was the first time that we were able to play it.  It is a really fun game where you throw the frisbees towards the bin and your partner can deflect it in the bin for more points.

We played lots of different teams, but you have to be careful not to bruise your hand :)

Day 4- May 27- New Mexico

This is the sunset from yesterday as we drove the rest of the way to Capulin Volcano National Monument.  This was not on the original itinerary, but we decided to add it because we had some extra time.  Oh my goodness, is this drive beautiful.  

The view above is from the campground looking up to the volcano.  We headed up to the park around 8:00 AM.  It was very cold here this morning and we had to add sweatshirts to our attire once we got to the top of the volcano.

As we were hiking up the mountain, the boys took that moment to do bench hops for football speed and agility.  They did between 5 and 10 hops on every bench we encountered.  There may not be a more beautiful place for speed and agility drills. 

As we hiked up the volcano (we were the first ones up for the morning), we enjoyed our time of isolation and quiet.  The hills of New Mexico were visible in the distance and it was a stunning view from the top.

Panoramic view from the top of the volcano.

As we were driving through New Mexico, we saw hundreds of pronghorn roaming the free grass.  My boys love to see wild animals that they do not normally see.

From Capulin, we headed to Fort Union which was a stop along the Santa Fe Trail.

Many of the original remains were still there today.

When we left Fort Union, we headed to Pecos, where David took a little nap in the car while the boys and I explored.  I am so grateful for someone who is willing to do all of the driving, particularly with the camper.  It is not easy work and I never have to do any of it.

We also stopped at Bandalier National Monument, but the shuttle driver gave us bad information when he dropped us off.  Therefore, we did a fantastic 3 mile hike - even though we were not planning on it.  Unfortunately, we did not get to see very much of the ruins and that was a little bit disappointing.  There were two visitor centers here and we did not realize that he was stopping at the trailhead and the other visitor center, so we got off at the trailhead because he said he was going back to the visitor center and we could get to the ruins from here.  What we didn't realize was that we had to get back to the visitor center with enough time to get back to our car.  At the first visitor center, they had a campground that was basically a parking lot with electric hookups.  It was very strange.  

Day 3 –May 26- Oklahoma and Texas

We spent the night at Bar H Bar Campground near Seminole, OK last night.  The campground was right off of I40 which was very nice for traveling purposes.  As soon as they woke up this morning, they grabbed a football and headed outside.  I will say that it gets bright here very early- like 5 AM.  

Once we packed up, we headed across the state of Oklahoma and traveled with some pretty serious cross winds and David was very tired by the time we stopped at Washita Battlefield.  There were many of these windmills across both Oklahoma and Texas.

 General Custer was one who led the attacks on the Indians.  We did a short walk here as well with some signs that told the story.  The boys came across this windmill on the walk and loved that it also had fish in the barrel.  

There were several beautiful wildflowers around on the hike.

From there, we headed to Texas and the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument.  This was a little bit out of the way so David didn't really want to go, but he did and we are so glad he did.  This was very beautiful in a unique ecosystem kind of way.  There are many rolling hills with huge, multi colored rocks scattered throughout.  The rocks were beautiful.  Lake Meredith used to come all the way down to the Flint Quarries, but the Lake Levels must be very low.  We drove down to the boat dock, but there was no water for any amount of distance.

Below is the panoramic view from the boat dock-  where you will note there is no water! 

Somebody was able to play today!

At the visitor center where the boys earned their junior ranger badges- they were given some flint to scrape together.  These two boys love rocks that you can climb or rocks that you can throw.  

We are headed into New Mexico.  Now, our fun will really begin!  Driving each day will drastically decrease, but oh, how we were meant to wander.  

Day 2- May 25- Arkansas

I spent last night at the home of my friends Jeff and Michelle Serelis. This morning, I rode into work with Jeff, so he could drop me off at the Marta station and I could ride down to the airport.

Weeks ago, I had bought tickets to fly out to meet David and the boys in Little Rock because I thought I was going to have to go into work on Thursday.  Once I found out I was not going to be going in, I decided to fly standby and try to get on an earlier flight so that our journey could begin. I got to the airport around 730 and was able to make it on the 8:22 AM flight!

I arrived in Little Rock before David and the boys and they picked me up at the Bill and Hillary Clinton airport.  It was a small airport which is a nice change from the one in Atlanta.  We headed over to Central High School of Little Rock which is where the Little Rock 9 stood up against segregation.  This national historic site was such a treat and the grounds were absolutely beautiful.  

This gas station is directly across the street from the visitor center and the high school.  During the 1950s, it was the closest place with a pay phone, so reporters would get their story and then head over here to call it back to their home town newspapers.  It is now part of the national park service area as well.

The high school was absolutely beautiful.  Logan said "This school has a pool in front of it".  There were 9 benches around and each one had the name of one of the brave students.  This was really interesting this year because Hunter studied many historical figures that played a role in desegregation.  

The school still hosts 2500 students who were taking final exams, so we were unable to go inside.  The local school board is still the source of funds and the owner, but they do run all external changes by the NPS in order to guarantee that the original architectural style remains the same.

After that stop, we headed to Hot Springs Arkansas where I got David in yet another parking predicament with the camper.  This is one of those things that we came, we saw, and we do not need to return.

The boys did love all of the fountains and were impressed with the hot water that was in all of them.  In the ground, the water is 140 degrees, but when it hits the surface, it is about 130 degrees.  The bath houses were originally for the very rich and were believed to heal people.  There were about 72 rooms in the fanciest of the bath houses and all of the rooms had a different purpose.  They were very ornate and unique.  

As we left, my little ones took a much needed nap!  They think that keeping up with momma is hard work.

After about a two and a half hour ride, we landed at Fort Smith which is on the Oklahoma/Arkansas border.  We had to rush to see this because they were closing about 15 minutes after we arrived.  The jail was very neat because there was one giant room in the basement which had about 25 'beds'- also known as pads on the ground.  They had to insulate the floor above it with extra hay in order to keep the stench of the prisoners from leaking up into the courtroom. 

This was the gallows and there were MANY people executed here.

We really thought Fort Smith was beautiful and unique. We headed out from there and drove to the middle of Oklahoma.

Day 1- May 24- Driving Out

David and the kids headed out around noon. I had to work on Thursday and Friday, but also go to graduation on Wednesday night.

Once David got to the other side of Birmingham, he realize that the underbelly of the camper was dragging on the ground. He was able to pull over and temporarily fix the problem after a couple of hours and a lot of duct tape.

Once he repaired the camper and bribe the kids with ice cream – he continued on his journey. He found the roads in Memphis to be frustrating and confusing – but continued through until he stayed at Village Creek State Park on the west side of Memphis in Arkansas.

New Trip coming up!

Hello all-

I have not posted since our last 49 day journey around the country.  It is with great excitement that I say we are planning another trip.  We will leave here at the end of May and will return in July.  We are so fortunate that both of our work schedules allow us this time in the summers to travel as a family and see our beautiful country.  This trip will involve the following states;  Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee- not to mention over a week in Canada.
We are so excited and hope you will join us for the journey!

License Plates

Here are the ones from the United States!

And now... the ones we saw from Canada...