We've made it

Thank you to everyone for your comments on my last post. I really loved reading all of them. 

We have arrived in Arizona and cousins are busy catching up. Our trip was pretty uneventful, though we drove through a lot of rain over the past three days. I thought I'd share some pictures from the trip. 

This is a little picnic area we pulled off at to have some lunch somewhere in Oklahoma. When you take the southern route from Chicago to Phoenix, you end up following old Route 66 for much of the way. It turns out our little picnic area was a holdover from Route 66 and the old route ran right by it.


Off a bit in the distance was some sort of abandoned building, so P. and TM went to check it out.


G. and L.

The little girls wanted to wander down to the old building, too, so I went with them. It turns out it was an old rest stop.


Right next door, was an obviously inhabited house. There was an older man sitting outside so, I waved hello. He called to me and asked if we had seen the castle. I looked more closely and discovered he did indeed have a small castle in his front yard. Isn't it charming?


It was built by the previous owner who was a stone mason. Each of those little blocks is cut stone. You can't really tell from the photo, but each window is arched.

We also made a quick stop in Amarillo, TX, where we were dropping something off to friends. We had no idea they had a new puppy. Can you tell which dog is the puppy in this picture. No, it's not the Lab, it's the 9 month old Irish Wolfhound who is over 100 pounds and still growing. Can you tell that K. loved him? (I actually loved him, too. I love big dogs.)


After what if becoming a family tradition of not being able to find food in New Mexico, we crossed the border into Arizona. The stop was necessitated because I had neglected to give Dramamine to the children who needed it. After a brief stop, we were able to move on.


Once the rain cleared, the day turned glorious. J. found a little place to pull off the road before we hit the Phoenix area so we could have a snack. It was about this time that Y. kept asking if we were really going to Grammy's house. We had been driving for days, and still hadn't stopped in any habited area. Now, we get to this place and tell her we are almost there. We could tell she was looking around and thinking we had lost our minds.




The desert is quite green from all the rain and there are a lot of plants in bloom.



Prickly pear

Having a break from the van and having some snacks.

TM practicing his Parkour skills

P., D., K., and G.

Everyone back in the van for the last 45 minutes of the trip.

Tomorrow morning is my Dad's memorial service. It is weird being here without him around. I can't quite shake the feeling that he must be in the next room. 

I'm looking forward to Sunday, though. All through my grade school years, my mother was the leader of my Camp Fire Girls group. A friend of mine, whom I've known since first grade, has organized a reunion and has managed to locate quite a few of our old friends. I'm so excited to see these people again. It will be a nice antidote for tomorrow.

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