Our daughter is married to a Marine, stationed at Twentynine Palms, California. When he deployed to Syria last fall, she didn't want to live there alone, so I flew to Vegas, where she picked me up, and we drove the 30 hours home. Her husband should be returning in the next 4-6 weeks, so it was time for her to go back and move into their new house. The wife and me took off last week to move her and her little mutt back to scenic 29 Palms.
We left Friday afternoon and drove the 6 hours to St Louis to see our son. Had dinner, some beers, and spent the night. Got up at 4AM to beat the forecasted chitty weather. Drove 18 hours across Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico before stopping for the night near the Petrified Forest in Arizona. If you ever make that drive, do it in the dark as much as possible, you won't miss a thing.
Sunday we took a slight detour to go up to the Grand Canyon. No way I was driving within 45 minutes of it and not stopping. We drove in the east entrance, which is much less touristy, and has about ZERO guardrails. My daughter's military spouse ID got us in for free, so I don't know what they charge, but I'm sure it's a pittance compared to what you get to see. No words can describe it and they haven't made a camera yet that does it any justice. Made me a little sad that my fellow American tourists were vastly outnumbered by the foreign ones. Not that the foreigners were bad, well, some were. I mean, damn, are all the Asian driver stereotypes true?
It's just a place I wish more Americans had the chance to see, or would just choose to see. It left me kicking myself for all the family vacations we took to Florida sitting on a crowded beach or forking over untold $$$ to that damn mouse.
We left there late in the afternoon and drove the rest of the way to the lovely Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms.
Spent Monday moving her junk from storage to the new house. Tuesday hanging stuff on the walls, moving furniture 37 times until the feng-shui was perfect. Wednesday-Friday, I did NOTHING, and it was all I hoped it'd be. Sat on the patio in the sun, drinkin beers, smoking cigars, and grillin on the son-in-laws Weber.
We did decide to head up to Key's View in Joshua Tree on Wednesday. It's an amazing view looking west and I thought it'd be a good spot to see the sunset. It was 67 and beautiful in 29, but I ditched my shorts and flip flops for long pants and a sweatshirt, knowing the 5000ft elevation at Key's View could be chilly. We made the drive, getting there about 5 minutes before sunset. I went to jump out and the wind almost blew the door shut on me. It was 40 degrees with a howling west wind. If it weren't for the railing on the path to the summit, the wind would have knocked us down. It was a beautiful sunset, but we only managed to stay a miserable 15 minutes.
Saturday my daughter drove us the 3 hours to Vegas to catch a flight back to boring, cold, flat Indiana.
It was a good trip. Got super lucky on missing some bad weather. And any week away from work is a good week.
Some pics...
Key's View Sunset...
Grand Canyon...
And for as much grief as I give my daughter about her worthless, yapping, 8 pound, $1000, mini golden-labra-irish-cocker-doodle mutt, I have now spent almost 60 hours in a car with that dog and can say without doubt, she's the best passenger I have EVER traveled with. Never whines, never asks, are we there yet? Doesn't need a bathroom break every 2 hours. Just sits in her dog bed on the center console and chills out.
And though I am TOTALLY, 100% ready to be empty nesters again, I'm gonna miss that damn dog.
We left Friday afternoon and drove the 6 hours to St Louis to see our son. Had dinner, some beers, and spent the night. Got up at 4AM to beat the forecasted chitty weather. Drove 18 hours across Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico before stopping for the night near the Petrified Forest in Arizona. If you ever make that drive, do it in the dark as much as possible, you won't miss a thing.
Sunday we took a slight detour to go up to the Grand Canyon. No way I was driving within 45 minutes of it and not stopping. We drove in the east entrance, which is much less touristy, and has about ZERO guardrails. My daughter's military spouse ID got us in for free, so I don't know what they charge, but I'm sure it's a pittance compared to what you get to see. No words can describe it and they haven't made a camera yet that does it any justice. Made me a little sad that my fellow American tourists were vastly outnumbered by the foreign ones. Not that the foreigners were bad, well, some were. I mean, damn, are all the Asian driver stereotypes true?
It's just a place I wish more Americans had the chance to see, or would just choose to see. It left me kicking myself for all the family vacations we took to Florida sitting on a crowded beach or forking over untold $$$ to that damn mouse. We left there late in the afternoon and drove the rest of the way to the lovely Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms.
Spent Monday moving her junk from storage to the new house. Tuesday hanging stuff on the walls, moving furniture 37 times until the feng-shui was perfect. Wednesday-Friday, I did NOTHING, and it was all I hoped it'd be. Sat on the patio in the sun, drinkin beers, smoking cigars, and grillin on the son-in-laws Weber.
We did decide to head up to Key's View in Joshua Tree on Wednesday. It's an amazing view looking west and I thought it'd be a good spot to see the sunset. It was 67 and beautiful in 29, but I ditched my shorts and flip flops for long pants and a sweatshirt, knowing the 5000ft elevation at Key's View could be chilly. We made the drive, getting there about 5 minutes before sunset. I went to jump out and the wind almost blew the door shut on me. It was 40 degrees with a howling west wind. If it weren't for the railing on the path to the summit, the wind would have knocked us down. It was a beautiful sunset, but we only managed to stay a miserable 15 minutes.
Saturday my daughter drove us the 3 hours to Vegas to catch a flight back to boring, cold, flat Indiana.
It was a good trip. Got super lucky on missing some bad weather. And any week away from work is a good week.
Some pics...
Key's View Sunset...
Grand Canyon...
And for as much grief as I give my daughter about her worthless, yapping, 8 pound, $1000, mini golden-labra-irish-cocker-doodle mutt, I have now spent almost 60 hours in a car with that dog and can say without doubt, she's the best passenger I have EVER traveled with. Never whines, never asks, are we there yet? Doesn't need a bathroom break every 2 hours. Just sits in her dog bed on the center console and chills out.
And though I am TOTALLY, 100% ready to be empty nesters again, I'm gonna miss that damn dog.
