Day 1: Our first day as full-timers!

Look at what we have here. People sleeping in a Flying J *slash* Best Western parking lot for the night. Some would call them crazy. Some would call them lucky. Some would call them full-timers. I would say we are a little bit of all three.

Where are we, you ask? I’m sure it looks like Vegas with that appetizing buffet mesmerizing my sleepy husband. But we are actually in a little Arizona town just past the California border called Ehrenburg.

I’m not sure if this is a typical Flying J truck stop, but this one had a large market, a fast food joint and a restaurant too. We quickly decided on the restaurant and found our seats. Ummm, why is there a phone receiver at the table? Weird.

As soon as we walked into the restaurant, Ava saw something that stopped her in her tracks. A claw game. Like the one from her current most favorite movie in the whole wide world. Toy Story. So I gave her the okay to play the claw game… but only if she was a very good girl at breakfast. And she was.

Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. I am going to get toys. Let’s play!

Let me fill you in on a little secret. I suck at the claw game. It doesn’t bother me one bit that I suck. But it did bother someone else. My kid doesn’t throw fits in public. But today? Today there were screams and tears and snot and lots of stares from the people enjoying their delicious buffet. Sorry folks… but I SUCK at the claw game.

Since everyone at the Flying J was staring and pointing and laughing at us, we left. Fast. And good thing we did. Mila’s eyebrows were getting red. And you know what that means? That means it is nap time. And that is the real reason that we had to leave fast.

Both kids actually passed out in the car. YEAH! Mila slept for a good 2.5 hours. And look what she missed out on. A cloud created from a nuclear power plant. Oh my.

You know what sucks about Arizona? The entire state has fancy speed cameras. Ready to give you a ticket or two. But you know what is nice about Arizona? They warn you first!

I was expecting the camera to be bolted into the ground. But not these. These cameras were bolted into a SUV. Good idea, Arizona. Good idea.

Since the kids slept in the car, we kept driving and driving and driving. Because if we dared to stop, they would wake up and driving time would be over. So we made it to the first destination on our list with time to spare. An awesome pizza place in Mesa called Organ Stop Pizza. And yes, this dude played an organ while we ate. Separate post to follow.

After dinner, we settled into a nice spot at a Walmart in Tempe for the night. And ran our generator for a good portion of the night. Damn batteries. I think we need new ones.

the end,
marlene