*NC to AZ*

I was so worried having to drive across country with two little ones (2 and a half & 4 months), i had only ever driven to the beach with the boys, which is a 4 hour drive, not a 33 hour drive!!  And the 4 hour drive was always turned into a 5 or 6 hour drive with all the stopping to feed the baby and change diapers!  Yes, it was frustrating at times....I just wanted to get to the beach!  This time, a 33 hour drive...done over 5 days~ Anyway, I asked a few friends if they had any advice for me to help pass the time for the 2.5 yr old! I had some awesome suggestions! Are you ready for this??!?

#1) This is a super cool travel mat which lays across the child's lap and snaps around a childs car seat. It is strong enough for a child to eat on, as well as play on! It's only $20, and i highly recommend this if you are going on any length of a trip!!

#2) Have a box of stuff to hand back to the little one when he gets antsy!  This was a life savor!!  I was actually OVER prepared!  Better over prepared than under prepared!  I had zip-lock baggies with snacks in them, zip-lock baggies with a couple pieces of paper and crayons, cars, army men, legos, I had books and bags of chips!  Every time the boy was getting antsy or when the iPad died, I would reach into my box of stuff and pass something back to him!   


Well, as we embarked on our new adventure and drove away from our little lovely house on Saturday September 1st, many tears were shed!  Such a sad day.  To make our trip a little bit more fun, we named our Penske Truck "Big Bird". 

It was super sad because the city we left was the city i was born and raised in for 33 years!!!  I really had no clue there really was more out there... So, here we go...

The first day we drove 417 from Charlotte, NC to Nashville, Tenn.  My Aunt and Uncle were so kind to allow us to crash their house! We arrived that evening around 8pm or so, and we were so exhausted, we literally went straight to bed.  Sunday morning, my aunt got up and had a WONDERFUL breakfast for us! Bacon, eggs, bagels, yogart, cereal, fruit, and who knows what else she had available! So awesome! So thankful for them allowing us to crash for the night! 

On Sunday, day 2, we drove 429 miles out to Piney Bay, Arkansas. We camped at a pretty cool place. We all slept in the tent, however, i barely slept that night.  I grew up camping, but not really "car" camping... which is what we did since we were driving across country~ I wouldn't suggest camping after a day of driving 400+ miles!

I say it was pretty awesome place, but not when you are driving across the country and you are completely exhausted! Otherwise, it is a spot i'd love to visit and camp again!










Monday, day 3, was our most eventful day for the whole trip!  We drove 431 miles!  We drove all the way through Oklahoma! This was a very pretty state!  Flat, yes, but it was very pretty!  We drove through OK City, which was really cool~ I didn't take any pictures, because I had to concentrate on driving (it was a crazy place!), it looked as if they had just redone I-40 all the way through OKC~ it wasn't even on my GPS.... and all the different directions you could go were wack!  I would have got lost if i wasn't paying super close attention.


However, the drive through OK was the most eventful of our whole trip.... The trailer being pulled by the Big Bird, which had my car on it, got a flat tire!  Not a HUGE deal, but the crappy thing about this, was when we called Penske, they said since Monday was a Holiday the closest guy working was about an  hour away!! 

Therefore, Brent ended up a total of 3 hours behind us!   Which was no fun!  I was so used to him catching up with us when we stopped to change diapers or to feed Turner. 

We finally made it to Texas!  We stayed in a little town called Shamrock.  When we arrived at the hotel, it was a little too early to stop for dinner, but a little to late to have a little snack.  So we decided to go swimming at the Hotel.  Once we were done and we were walking way back to our room, i stopped to ask the guy at the front desk about ordering a pizza~ I figured since Brent was 3 hours behind us, just ordering something in would be perfect!  He looked at me a little weird, and said, there was only 1 pizza place in town, a few blocks over, but they were closed on Sundays & Mondays.  Then he said, there might be another pizza place, but since it was a holiday, nothing was open!  I called Brent, and at this point he was only about an hour from the hotel; so he stopped in the little town he was driving through and picked up a pizza!  Yes, it was cold by the time it got to me!  But, let me tell ya.... it was yummy!  FINALLY.... Our little family was back together again....

Tuesday, Day 4, was a HUGE day!!  On this day we drove the longest!  We drove 523 miles!!  From Shamrock, TX to Gallup, NM!  We started this day out VERY rested, and I had it in my head, I would stop every hundred miles or so to feed Turner~ Started off great... stopped about 100 miles into our trip, then again about 190 miles into our trip to eat lunch... then something happened~ I guess I waited too long since I fed Turner and ate lunch, but about 15 minutes after we got back on the road again from eating; Turner was loosing his mind!!  So, I finally found an exit with some sort of gas station~ Newkirk, NM ~ well, i exited at another 'run down' exit; but it was going to have to work this time since he had been screaming for about 30 minutes~ the ONLY thing at this exit was this little church and this little gas station! (I goggled Newkirk, and found a ton of pictures, you should look at these, wish I spent more time looking around)

The gas station had about 4 pumps just like this one, and all were still in working order~ also, attached to the gas station was a post office~ I now wish I had taken a picture of this gas station, but I found a picture on line, take a look at it here! I didn't get a chance to go inside the gas station (i regret this now)~ but I did see these two guys with bicycles (they looked professional), so I got out of the car and asked them what their story was.  I am so glad I did!!  They said they were riding their bikes from New York to California on Route 66!!  And they were just camping along the way! CRAZY but COOL!!  I asked if I could take a picture of them... and I stuck Sy in the picture just so it wouldn't be so random~ They wanted the picture so I Emailed it to them and they sent me an Email back~ They have a blog... but it's in German; I'm going to have to get my buddy back home to translate it for me! :)
 

Hey Arial
I got your Mail thank you very much! hope 

everything is going well with moving. i think 

moving with a Family is more exausting then riding 

thru the US!
good luck on the new place

Harco and Simon
PS: the blog will be better in a few weeks.

 

I just thought it was really cool!  They were really nice too~ they had bought several postcards and were mailing them out there... super cool; I can't wait to see their blog once it's done a lot better! 

Anyway... back on the road; about 30 miles from our destination for the night, we came across the Continental Divide!  I decided I had to stop even though we had been on the road LONG ENOUGH that day!  Such a cool thing to say you've seen/been to!  I have seen the Continental Divide when I was in Colorado in High School, but this was just super cool!  I took more pictures, but here are a ton I found on-line.  Most of mine look exactly the same, I am just too lazy to up load them right now...Sorry!

 

That was all my excitement for the day of over 500 miles of driving!!  We finally arrived in Gallup, NM! In another hotel bed...

 I guess Sy needed a workout from riding in a car for over 500 miles... he told me he was doing some push ups!

Finally, Wednesday, Day 5 of driving~ we only had 313 miles of driving this day... finally we made it to Arizona!!  We started this day off only 16 miles from the Arizona boarder, so we hadn't had time to get all antsy in the car yet!  I had to drive a bit further before I stopped to feed Turner, so I decided to stop at the Petrified Forest National Park.  We didn't drive through the forest because it was about 27 miles long, and we were all ready to get to our destination in Arizona.  However we did go into the visitors center there, only because I REALLY wanted to see it!  It wasn't too much to write home about, but it was pretty interesting! 

We got back on the road and continued down into Flagstaff, AZ.  We stopped and ate lunch at a Cracker Barrel.  My most favorite place to eat breakfast back home and the closest place to my house was Cracker Barrel.  It was only fitting we stop there to eat since my last meal in NC was there, so I had to make it my first meal in my new state!  Good food, and good service, always!

After lunch, the boys fell asleep, and I got to drive almost the rest of the way to our destination without stopping!  We arrived in Anthem, AZ mid afternoon!  Thank goodness!  We ALL were beat from the trip and ready for some much needed down time!

We made it to our destination in Arizona alive.... and we still love each other!  As sad as I was to leave the place I will always call home, I am so excited to start a new adventure with this man!!  I love him so very much and can't wait to see what this chapter has in store for us!