The Roadtrip

Hello from Gallup, New Mexico!  

     Bright and early Monday morning, 4am to be exact, Caleb awoke with a start worried about the 18 wheeler parking on Austin St and went out to block off the street.  Sure enough, sometime between 1 and 4 someone had parked directly in front of our house.   We had talked to the driver on Sunday about how busy the street gets, so he said he planned on being there by 6:30 to beat the rush.   Starting at 6 Caleb began guarding the street in front of the neighbors house, our last vestige of hope that the truck could park somewhere.  If any of you have seen Austin St you know an 18 wheeler was gonna have trouble no matter how many parking spots we blocked off.   Anyhoo, around 8:30 they showed up, there was no way they were fitting anywhere, so Ray just parked in the middle of the street.  You could still squeeze around him on one side if you had a tiny car, but it wasn't great.  Ray was probably 70ish, long white beard, and a beer belly.  Tim and Tony were the heavy lifters.  All 3 guys were super nice, sweet to the kids, and had our whole house packed and ready to go in 3 hours.  I joked to Tim that it had taken me 3 years to get everything just where I wanted it, and 3 hours for them to completely take it apart.  Amazingly, our entire house fit into the very front of the truck where there's that little raised loft portion.  Ray was heading to Houston to pack up a house and then driving to California, making stops in Bakersfield and LA, putting him to Santa Clara no earlier than the 4th.  I was told they wouldn't deliver on the holiday, so let's call that the 5th.  Putting us in California 6 days before our belongings.  Sweet.

     We were loaded up and pulling out of the driveway about 30 minutes after the truck.  Joe looked like this about 10 minutes down the road...

     You know when kids fall asleep in the car and their neck falls over and they look super uncomfortable?  Well, we bought these pillows to help combat that, but Joe's pushes his head too far forward if you put it behind his neck, so after he falls asleep we've been putting it on this way so that it resembles a demented monkey neck brace.  Also, it gives him amazing pouty lips.
     We headed South (I know that's the wrong direction, let me get there) to Carrollton to sign papers on selling Caleb's truck and buying a Jetta that they are shipping to California for us which somehow saves on sales tax, or something.  I start hearing buzzing sounds when Caleb brings up a percentage of any kind, so the basic thing I heard was that we saved money that way.
     We headed back up 35 to our starting point and then headed west to Amarillo.  Yesterday's drive was more about getting there than anything else and we made it to our destination around 8, took baths, and fell asleep.
     Today we woke up, had some breakfast, made a Target stop so I could buy The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and hit the road!

     We made it to Santa Rosa, New Mexico around noon grabbed some lunch at a Route 66 Diner (that was the name of it, but Caleb said he had eaten at another one in Vegas hence the use of the word "a" instead of "the") and then headed over to the Blue Hole.

     It's a spring fed sink hole just sitting in the middle of nowhere, so we stopped to play for a bit.  I will tell you that is not Caleb screaming in this video.  Someone highjacked the video which I think is hilarious.

   The overflow goes in this little creek part that was more kid friendly.  Daddy splashing the babies was not super kid friendly.

     Our last random stop of the day was at the Continental Divide.  Caleb complained that I hadn't been in a picture all day, but this is the exact reason I don't let him take pictures.  He gets you when you are talking to him and your hair is in your face so you look ridiculous.  Neither one of us knew what the Continental Divide actually was so when we read the sign we both made that, "Huh." sound.  You can't read that sign very well, but it says, "Rainfall divides at this point.  To the west it drains into the Pacific Ocean, to the east, into the Atlantic."  Huh.

   We finished out the drive to Gallup, grabbed some dinner, hit the pool and now we're watching American Ninja Warrior.  Aren't I being good about updating the blog?!?!?