trip

Birds, Ghosts, Saints and Sunsets. How’s that for variety?

Little Cowboy Boots

It never fails. Whenever we start a road trip, we can never get the inside temperature just right while we are sleeping. It takes us about three days to finally settle on a temperature that is neither too hot nor too cold, but just right. We sound like the Three Little Bears every morning. Once we all agreed that 65 degrees was just right, Yoda began being a bit happier. A bit like her old self. She even started bird watching outside of our bedroom window. She can now officially add the Gila Woodpecker to her Bird Life List. Whaaat? I’m not the bird dork. Yoda is!
Birdwatching Yoda

Our first stop of the day was the historic Hotel Congress in downtown Tucson. The hotel is famous for its authentic 1920s beauty and for the fire which led to the capture of one of the country’s most notorious criminals — John Dillinger.
Hotel Congress

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By marlene, ago

A day in Tucson.

Hallway

Our mornings start around 7am when Ava the Alarm Clock calls out for me as she awakens from her 11 hour slumber. Mama? Mama? Milk! We spend the first hour of our day together in bed, trying to keep as quiet as possible as to let Carrie and Dan catch a few more winks. Not an easy task… especially since toddlers have vocal chords. Surprise, surprise. After head butting her Dada and screaming for Carrie from our bed, the rest of the crew awakens and we are ready to start our days together.

Before we can hit the ground running, we need showers. Badly. The facilities at Catalina State Park are surprisingly clean and roomy. And the showers were pretty warm but the water shot out of the shower head like blast of needles. Having needles blast onto you while holding a squirming toddler who is screaming ‘No Mama No‘ at the top of her lungs is not a great way to start off your morning. Trust me. I would like to officially apologize to the lady that was “lucky” enough to be in the shower stall next to us. I’m sorry. Stupid, stupid, needles.

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By marlene, ago

Road trip. Round Two. Ding ding ding.

Arizona Shadows

Writing a post from the road is a lot harder than it looks.

State parks have yet to hear of a little invention called wi-fi. Dan just put on The Life Aquatic and is blasting the sound through the speaker above my right ear and it hurts a bit. The Two Buck Chuck is flowing. Our friend Carrie just got Dan to admit that he had an actual moment when he knew I was ‘the one’. What the hell. Why hasn’t he shared this info with me before? What the hell. Oh ,and Ava is finally asleep in a toddler tent on top of our bed after singing the ABCs for a good ten minutes… and I don’t think she’ll roll off of the bed… but it’s the back of my head and it’s slowing me down too.

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By marlene, ago

Our first mini-road trip to Lake Isabella.

Just after taking Ava trick-or-treating for her first time around the neighborhood, we packed ourselves in the van and headed out of town for our VERY FIRST ROAD TRIP in the Airstream. Yeah! We decided to break up the drive into two parts, in order to make the drive more enjoyable for Ava, and therefore… for everyone.

Just around midnight, we arrived at a Walmart that sits on the outskirts of Bakersfield. It’s not the “ideal” place for our very first night in the Airstream, not even close, but it was the most logically place to stop prior to heading up the winding road to Lake Isabella. Walmart is known for letting RVers spend the night in their parking lots. It’s a win-win situation for everyone. RVers get to boondock for free and Walmart usually gets their business… because who doesn’t forget to pack a thing or two for a trip. Not us. We weren’t really sure where we should park when we arrived. A helpful security guard was on the scene and gladly guided us to a private corner of the parking lot. We decided to park just shy of the dirt patch designed for RVs due to the impending storm that was headed our way.

At 6am, we were awoken by a light drizzle. The sound of the rain on the Airstream made waking up just perfect. There’s nothing like sleeping in a warm cozy bed when it is raining outside your window. After a few minutes of drizzle, it started to pour outside. And on the inside? Well, on the inside it sounded like we were being bombarded by machine guns. Rata-tat-tat-tat!

P1120746

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By marlene, ago