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.
flying j / best western parking lot

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.
flying j buffet

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.
phone at table?

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.
breakfast time

Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. I am going to get toys. Let’s play!
so excited for claw game

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.
crying about 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.
ready for a nap.

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.
nuclear power plant cloud

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!
photo warning. how nice.

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.
police car speed camera

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.
dude playing a big ass organ @ Organ Stop Pizza

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.
P1180118

the end,
marlene


2 Comments

Lani · February 6, 2010 at 7:38 pm

Flying Js and Walmarts – sounds like you are off to a true full-timing adventure! Looking forward to following along. Safe travels!

Mali Mish - An Airstream Travel Blog. » Blog Archive » Day 77: St. Augustine and our last night in Florida. · May 7, 2010 at 9:16 pm

[…] as we did last time at a Flying J, we had their breakfast buffet there before we left. Surprisingly, it is very fresh and delicious. […]

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