Petrified for New Year's Eve

Day dawned bright and beautiful in Albuquerque, NM this morning. An inch or two of snow had fallen overnight, and after breakfast we were dazzled by the crystal blue sky and snowy mountains as we headed out.

A photo from the car window at a traffic light will have to suffice as evidence for the beauty. We managed to leave my pillow at the hotel in Amarillo, so the sun and view did wonders to repair my bad humor after sleeping (or trying to sleep) the previous night with a hotel pillow. (I despise plump, fluffy hotel pillows; I've never found one that doesn't leave me headachy, tired, and with pain down my neck. I know, I'm a weird old grump.)

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Our first stop of the day was just 10 minutes away: the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. Much of the museum was given over to dinosaur exhibits, seeing as NM historically has been the site of many great paleontological finds. All four of us enjoyed it a lot, and since our Science Factory family pass from back home in Lancaster got us in for free (consortium exchange), Jesse and I didn't feel too bad about only having ~2 hours to spend there.

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We hit the road again around noon, eating our typical "lunch" of snacks and such in the car. (We've been trying to calorie-load every morning at the hotels' included hot breakfasts, then munch our way through bits and pieces in the car during the day—to save time and expense—and pay for a meal at some interesting spot at our destination city in the evening.)

A few hundred miles later we arrived at Petrified Forest National Park. Unfortunately, due to icy conditions on the road in, entrance was closed. We were disappointed, but we still managed to spend over an hour at the visitors' center, looking through the gift shop, watching the informational video, and seeing a few specimen in the courtyard. Very, very neat stuff. I bought myself some little polished petrified wood earrings, comprised of wood apparently 130,000,000 years old! The boys are totally impressed imagining that a dinosaur may have eaten leaves from the tree my earrings are made of.   :)

(We're sitting on petrified logs here. We were almost petrified with the cold!)

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We piled into the car once more and were on our way. The scenery is so unlike what we know at home.






Late afternoon, we saw a police car parked on a bridge above the highway, and Jesse and I noted that it took off as we were going underneath. Jesse was driving right at the speed limit, so we were dismayed when a few minutes later we were being pulled over. The boys were agog with curiosity and enthusiasm for this new experience...Jesse and I less so. Turns out one of our headlights had burnt out in the past 24 hours (we hadn't even detected it yet since we had just turned our lights on and it was still light out). We were given a "fix it" ticket and told to have it repaired ASAP lest the threatened fine be levied upon us.

We'd traversed endless miles of nothingness, but the cop said the next town up, just a mile or so along, had an auto parts store and advised we stop there. So we did. Bad idea. Shane and Mike, the two guys working there, were really great and helpful, but unfortunately our Toyota brand car needs special Toyota brand tools just to get into the stinkin' headlamp housing. An hour and a half later we left—the headlight still out, scratches to the paint under the hood, money out of pocket, and with two very tired, hungry, cranky, cold parents (the boys were probably in better shape than us!). We drove the final 100 miles to Williams, AZ where we are now, me plying the boys with our remaining granola bars and water because we felt it was just too late to stop for dinner at that point. They needed bed, we wanted to get off the roads (getting icy + New Year's Eve drivers), and we have a big day on tap.

(The boys ran around the auto parts store for a good 45 minutes of our stop. I was rather out of my element explaining how to use the various car supplies and tools.)

So here we are now, in Williams, Arizona. (William is pleased, by the way!)  The boys are sleeping, thankfully, and Jesse is out looking for a grocery store to get a few supplies for our breakfast since this is our one stop with nothing included in the morning. We have a great day planned for tomorrow so hopefully the kiddos sleep well and we've gotten our minor hassles out of the way. Since it is already past midnight back on the East coast, I think we're going to call it a night...and a year!

Amarillo and beyond

We went to a Nazarene church in Amarillo this morning. It was a good service, and although it went pretty long (2 hours) the boys did well in their respective classes. The people were wonderful and friendly. However, I regret to say that Amarillo is not making it onto our top 10 places to live in one day. The landscape there was just desolate, and although we all pointed and exclaimed at the sight of real tumbleweeds racing across the streets (such an iconic image!), a few hours in town was probably plenty. As one man at church said to Jesse, "Well, if you ever want to trade your trees for our...uh... blowing dirt...you know you're welcome here!" 

We were on our way westward once again after church. Racing by at 75 mph (the speed limit), we surveyed hundreds of miles of flat, rocky, scrubby land in every direction...magnificent wind farms...derelict buildings...tiny outcroppings of towns...  

En route, we stopped off in the small town of Santa Rosa, New Mexico for a quick rest stop and gasoline. On a whim, we followed some little signs for the "blue hole" on the outskirts of town. We didn't stay long, but it was really neat. Their natural spring pool is barely 60 feet across yet over 80 feet deep, and the water is so clear that we could see straight to the bottom. With a permit, people can scuba dive in it apparently. We kept William close to hand! 

 

Now we're in Albuquerque, NM, where snow is expected overnight. We'll see what the morning brings!

OKC

The day dawned cold but with bright sun and blue skies. We had a leisurely morning enjoying the hot hotel breakfast, swimming in the pool, and packing back up (again!). We headed into downtown Oklahoma City around 11 a.m. for a little drive around. It's a huge, beautiful city, but the silence was weird...it seemed totally devoid of people! Presumably it's bustling on weekdays. Nowhere we were interested in visiting was open, so we just headed to the capitol building to see the beautiful building, then picked up famous Route 66 heading west out of town. Several miles along we stopped at a "Route 66 Park," where the kids enjoyed snowball fights and playing on the playground for a little while.

Our drive to Amarillo was only around 4 hours; we got here by dinnertime. We ate at a tiny little spot called Cowboy Gelato. According to their advertising, they "bring the American cowboy together with gourmet Italian ice cream." With that sort of wacky pairing, how could we resist? Ha! We enjoyed our burgers, fries...and, indeed, relatively good gelato.

Now the boys (all 3 of 'em) are up in our hotel room now trying to get to sleep while I'm finishing a load of laundry. All of the rain, snow, and slush has meant a lot of muddy little boy clothing! Hmmm...I'm thinking we should stop somewhere to buy these kiddos some cowboy boots to tuck their jeans into. :)

 

Swimming at the hotel pool in the morning. 

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This statue in front of the Oklahoma state capitol building probably wasn't for climbing, but since the place was utterly deserted, we went for it. :)  It was high; the base the boys are sitting on is at least 7.5 feet off the ground. 

One of Oklahoma's claims to fame (?) is having the only capitol building with a working oil pump on its grounds. 

On the point of oil drilling, we were really struck by how pumps are simply everywhere. 

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We didn't realize we would be driving right by SNU until we actually were! We had no idea that the road we happened to take out of town brought us right by the front gates. 

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Here at the Route 66 park, just west of Oklahoma City, we decided to get an up-close peek at an oil pump next to the playground (after being a little weirded out that there IS an oil pump next to a playground). 

The park had a really interesting depiction of Route 66, the "Main Street of America," set into the concrete ground. It showed all of the main cities along the route, from Illinois to California. We had fun finding several of the cities we're stopping in.

 

Really, though, at the park the boys just wanted to throw snowballs at Daddy!

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Finally, a few hundred miles later, we all were hungry for our late dinner at Cowboy Gelato. 

Memphis

We left Nashville on Thursday afternoon and arrived in Memphis by 6 p.m. Despite the cold and damp (and the tender ages of our children), we ventured downtown to see the famous Beale Street. We decided to eat at Pig on Beale, which—judging by the number of enormous trophies in the window—served up some seriously good pork BBQ. The assumption was correct! All four of us were stuffed by the time we left. Josiah declared his meal "more than thumbs up" but on the other hand was unimpressed by the somewhat shabby state of repair that the place was in. "They need to invest some money in this bathroom" reportedly was his comment to Jesse in the restroom! We tried to explain the concepts of authenticity, ambiance, and original charm to no avail. He also saw a poster with Ray Charles on it and recognized him as the "guy who sings 'Hit the Road, Jack.'" Josiah wondered whether he worked there.  :)

We poked around A. Schwab's historic dry goods store after dinner, just a few doors up from Pig on Beale. It's been around for over 100 years and sells a little of everything! In particular, they're known for having the largest selection of men's and women's hats in the state.



In the morning, we had hoped to take a quick, free trolly ride in downtown and get a closer look at the Mississippi River in daylight. Unfortunately, it was only barely above freezing and raining (i.e., utterly miserable) so we drove around a little bit and saw a few sights through the gloom and rain from the car windows. We then drove all day, clear through Arkansas and well into Oklahoma (much of it in poor weather), and now are safely in Oklahoma City for the night.

Next stop: Amarillo TX by tomorrow evening!

Unusually cold...

Alas, it appears our week of travel is going to be a cold one. We had hoped for normal winter temperatures in the cities where we're headed (40s and 50s) to make our sightseeing reasonably pleasant. We'd wondered whether we even might luck out and get an unseasonably warm week! But although Monday in Nashville hit a gorgeous 65 degrees, by Wednesday Nashville had flurries—apparently pretty rare—and it seems most of the country is hunkering down for a cold spell not due to break until right about the time we make it to the west coast. Oh well! Good thing it's not cooling our enthusiasm too much. :)

These pics are from Wednesday afternoon, when Josiah, William, and Anna wanted to play basketball in the snow.

Jesse showing Josiah and Anna who's boss:

Tennessee Christmas

Our stay in Nashville, TN has been great! Highlights below:

On Sunday afternoon, after church and a big family dinner, we went to the Opryland Hotel to see the acres of indoors Christmas lights, flowers, and water features plus their multi-story high Christmas tree. It was a magical place (despite being mobbed)!

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On Monday morning, we visited with Brad, Heather, Ella, and Alistair Daugherty; Brad and Heather are good friends from back in Quincy, MA days. It was so wonderful to see them! Josiah and Ella (7) hit it off instantly, sufficiently so that they tied themselves together with a jumprope for a good portion of the morning! Alistair is a decent bit younger than William, but being normal in size and development (not peanut proportioned nor late blooming like Will), they were very much on par with one another. The pic above is a hug, not a tackle, by the way!

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The kids decorated little graham cracker houses (gingerbread style) on Monday afternoon. The weather was so beautiful that we set it up outdoors on the back deck to keep clean-up easy. Fun!

William loved digging into his for dessert later on! (This is more of his hands-free eating.)

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Once night fell, Auntie Erin—such a great hostess!—helped the kids make "reindeer food" (ground oats for a healthy snack plus some glittery magic flying dust mixed in to help the reindeer stay in tip-top flying shape). They flung it out on the front yard so the deer could nibble it while waiting for Santa to fill the stockings inside in the night!

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Christmas morning! Lots of presents, lots of food, lots of Legos, lots of smiles, lots of blessings.