The leg of my journey I was running out of time on was meeting up with some friends at Ocean Shores campground, where we planned on caching all weekend. I thought I was running late, but my timing was actually perfect (for me) becasue I arrived at the campground last. Since I'd given my sleeping bag and pillow to Mike before this Road Trip, and he was borrowing a tent and air mattress for me, I arrived after he'd already set up my gear! Sweet, huh? The camping site was big enough for all of us to have our own space so no one had to listen to anyone else snore.

After dinner Mike, Let and I went out to the beach to find a couple close ones, and Jay stayed behind since he isn't a cacher.

    The sun was just setting.   

It was a good end to the day, we found the caches and I got some photos of the sunset, the beach, and Mike and Let playing tic-tac-toe.

 

You probably want to know who won. But to do that would be to admit that *someone* totally cheated and took two turns at once so he could win.

Before taking the stick and running away!

   

   

 When the sun went down, it got chilly, fast.

We headed back to camp and sat around the fire till I realized just how tired I was and headed for my tent. Totally forgetting to put my bag of Belly Flop Jelly Belly jelly beans away. I was awoken in the morning with that thought because I could hear creatures on the table.

Too late now.

I went back to sleep. But when I got up again, I had to laugh because there were muddy raccoon paw prints all over the table. It / They had ripped open the bag and wiggled one bean out which had been scooted across the table, dissolving in drool as it went. What a mess!

 Om nom nom! 

Part of the joys of camping, right?

Friday we spent caching, doing some kayaking and driving around Ocean Shores, tagging Jay once in a while at various places while he did his own thing. That night we roasted corn on the cob over the fire and chatted past dark till I was almost asleep in my chair again as the week caught up to me.

Saturday, Let and Jay headed off in one direction to cache their way home via a ferry, and Mike and I cached in another direction towards our homes via freeway. It was awkward since we both had our cars so we couldn't make decisions on the fly about where to go next unless we stopped to talk. Besides, not wanting to get home too late we didn't cache as much as possible, but we did find some good ones along the way.

Then, I pulled into my driveway and gave a sigh of relief to be home, and a sigh of sadness that my road trip was over.

Wonder when I can go on another one?

I hope you've enjoyed the blog version of my journey!

One of the stops I made was at Siletz Bay to pick up a cache and get some pictures of the row of little islands.

     

Then I rode into a town and spotted a somewhat familiar street. Many, many years ago I came here on my honeymoon so I pulled in and walked the path to the beach.

 Twin Rocks, OR.

They don't look like twins to me but whatever.

 I still think it's pretty! 

Off to the south, I watched this boat and helicopter do whatever boats and helicopters do just off shore.

After a while the 'copter flew off and the boat remained. They were too far away for me to be able to tell if there was someone being airlifted out of the boat or just what. I was hoping to see the boat get towed by the helicopter but I lack the luck.

Back to the view...

And then, back on the road, where I saw a sign for an eating establishment with a sense of humor.

 And some favorite colors.

Before driving on to a place with no vavhe, but a fantastic view.

 Look, no fog! Amazing!

 After crossing into Washington I stopped at this rest area, partly to use it, but partly to get a picture of the rather depressing sign. But then, speaking of signs! I was following this horrible narrow gravel road up a rather steep incline. I was still maybe .20 away from teh first of 3 caches on this road when I saw a spot just wide enough to turn the car around so I gave up becasue it was very much a road I wasn't comfortable on. As I was doing a 15-point turn around in the narrow space, I saw this sign.

  

Seriously? As the sign says, you might be able to get 4 people up here, as long as they call walk or come in the same vehicle. I think your chances of escaping a tsunami would be better just driving east rather than trying to get up here unless you are the only one that knows about it.

 Another stop,

Another cache.

Then I realized that I was running out of time (again! How does this happen!?) and needed to keep driving.

 

 

I didn't get much sleep that night but I got up early cause I was raring to go on the next leg of my journey. But it didn't work out that way casue my SIL told me I'd have an opportunity to see my brother a bit later in the morning. Wait, that would mean I'd see three of my four brothers, my mom and my dad in one week. Without anyone having died or getting married! Weird. Pretty sure this is some kind of record for my family.

So, of course I stayed around till my brother was avaliable for a few minutes then drove to meet him at his ship, which is behind us in this picture of us and his son. He was about to take off out to sea for a couple months.

After I said my good byes to them I continued my journy up highway 101. As you can see it was a beautiful day and since I didn't have very far to go (a mere 238.75 miles) I was able to stop frequently for caches and photos.

 

 

 Hee hee, that's my shadow! 

There were still plenty of caches to get despite having come through here the previous week.

 

Out on the jut of land on the left of the left photo there is a lighthouse. With some zoom, you can see it.

 

I would have rathered been down on the beach than just taking pictures of it, but the photos had to suffice.

The journey continues, but I'm off to the Home Show with a friend so I'll stop this post now and finish it later!

 

I absolutely loved this part of my journey. I was anxious to get into Oregon where I had maps and was more comfortable venturing off the highway, knowing I could get back on easily, but knowing exactly which highway I should be on and which direction I should be on it really helped as I went from cache to cache.

I did keep an eye on the time, but I was really loving my trip and I didn't figure I'd be back any time soon so I wanted to take advantage of the time I had. Even if it was kinda borrowed.

 More of St. Geroge's Lighthouse.  

And the view from the lookout where I was getting information to qualify for the cache.

Look at all that pretty blue ocean!

Then, the sign I'd been waiting to see. There was a cache there, of course. I was surprised to discover it was pretty new and I was only the second person to have found it.

And just like that, I passed the sign and my GPS knew where I was and how to get where I wanted to go. I was thankful for the Nuvi and kept it on with the ETA for my night's stop displayed so I wouldn't arrive late. Yeah, go ahead and start laughing now. Of course I was late.

 Cause there were caches! And Views!  

 And caches with views! 

Not to mention sun, sea, and blue, blue sky. It's fun to drive through happiness.

Noticing how late I was going to be I decided to press on and bypass many of the caches. Most of the caches. I got to admire the views from the driver's seat but didn't stop.

Until.....

You knew there was going to be an "until" didn't you?

 Until I got to the Natural Arches.

I got the info I needed for a virtual cache and took a brief walk to the lookout and got some pictures.

   

  

Then a dash to the car and, oh, I'm running late, took off again.

Until.....

Ugh! I didn't want to keep going, there was still plenty of daylight, I wanted to stop and look and photograph and play!

But I allowed myself a few more quick stops.

 

And arrived at my SIL's house really, really late after driving for (dare I admit) another 16 hours.

Somewhere along this day I realized that not only was the Nuvi set to save fuel, but to AVOID TRAFFIC.

I have to say, the Nuvi is a fine unit. I avoided traffic, for sure. It did a spectacular job routing me as far away from traffic as possible, which was no mean feat through California. Not what I'd wanted, exactly, but it did what it was programmed to do, and did it well. User error, all the way.

I woke up my SIL, got in the house and asked to do a load of laundry, but went to bed instead and was out like a light.

My journey was going to continue the next morning, and I could hardly wait!

 

 

After all that fun at Shasta Historic Park and the brick ruins, it was time to move on, through bouts of construction, amazing views, and some good snackage. I stopped at this viewpoint for a photo.

And then one more.

Then it was just driving and more driving till I got to the coast, where I stopped to visit the (at one time) World's Largest Totem Pole.

 Which was rather large.

That excitement kept me going for a while, of course. I was back into caching and loving the excuses to stop. Then, it was time to stop to get gas, as I was running low.

Except there wasn't much out there in way of gas stations so I kept going. And going. Watched the light come on and wondered how far I can get past empty. I had been pretty frustrated with this trip, as I had budgeted for paying $3.50 per gallon, and for not taking the long windy curvy roads all the way, so I was driving further than I'd wanted and the cheap gas was $4.09, when I could find it. When I could find any gas station at all, I'd pay whatever they wanted cause I was beyond low. Finally in the far off distance I could see a Gas4Less sign. Yee ha! I couldn't read how much but who cared?

 I laughed so hard when I got up close.

I wonder how many years this station had been out of business? I risked not being able to start the engine again and shut it off to get a picture of the incredible prices before limping back onto the highway and hoping for a functioning station. On the way, I passed these golden grizzlies and a cache but didn't dare to stop for it.

 Till I got gas, then I came back. 

I picked up this cache, got a couple photos, and then found my way down memory lane.

When I was 6 years old, my parents took my brother and I to Southern California for a vacation, and on the way there/way back (it was a long time ago, and does it really matter? No) we stopped at the Trees of Mystery. I have no recollection of the trees, but I remember looking up in awe at Paul Bunyan and hearing him talk to me. Yes, I mean, really talk to me. I think he said "Hi, there, little girl in the pigtails!" Being the only little girl around, pigtails or not, I was shocked to my skinned knees that he was talking to ME. He then described what I was wearing to prove he was talking to me and me alone and maybe there was more to the time there but that's what I remember. And what I'll probably never forget. 

 He said hi to me again today. 

I wasn't a little girl in pigtails, but I was a traveler he welcomed when I arrived.

 And said goodbye to when I left. 

It was a pretty special moment!

I didn't want to leave but had no reason to stay and it was time to keep moving.

 I found the fog again!   

Still, I think the ocean is beautiful and I enjoyed watching the waves rolling in to shore. It was warm and dry out with blue sky behind me despite the fog on the water.

  I was reluctant to leave.

But there are more sights to see, right?

 Like the Redwood Forest!

Massive amounts of construction going on, which made stopping for pictures rather tricky, but I did manage to dash between some barriers to a pull-out so I could grab a cache and some pictures. That made me happy. Then, I hit ocean again, with less fog, and more importantly to me, more blue.

 

I stopped for a cache at this thing. 

You probably already know that it's a tetrapod, but I had to stop and learn that there are 1,630 of these on the ocean side of the Crescent City breakwater. There are 1900 tetrapods 768 steel reinforced dolos on the newer leg of the jetty. This thing weighs 25-tons. It was on display on a pedestal, but the tsunami in 1964 moved it about 3 feet. The purpose of these things is to protect the harbors from damaging currents, by dissipating the waves as they come crashing in. Who knew? Not me.

 A visit to St. George Lighthouse, 

a couple plaques read to qualify as finding a cache, a bathroom stop in a park, a few more pictures, and the journey continued.

 

 

 

 

 

After a fantastic breakfast, and having made sure the Nuvi wasn't on "save fuel" mode (and how does adding 4 hours by taking back roads really save gas?), I hit the road bright and early Wednesday morning. I got excited when I was on I5, which I was fairly certain would take me straight to Redding, where I'd turn left to get to 101. Cause, yeah, I could take I5 all the way to my house, except for the last 3 miles. But in this case, I wanted to go a different route while I was here. So when the Nuvi had me exiting off I5 soon after I got on, I went with it. Taking the long way, I did get to Redding and took my left west.

And found myself, eventually, here.

  

Where I spent some time wandering the ruins and wishing one of them had a bathroom.

   I found it to be beautiful.  

   

 I wanted to make puzzles 

out of every picture I took. The red ruins and green trees and blue sky made me happy to have stopped and to have had my camera with me.

   

 It was fascinating to see how the bricks were laid. 

 

The hollows in the walls were interesting to see, and I took some time to imagine how the stores and businesses were originally designed.

  And how they couldn't stand upright anymore.  

  Along the wooden sidewalk, I saw a single leaf that looked like a heart, and a ramp of bricks that seemed to have no purpose whatsoever.

 

 I also had a brief visit with this guy.

  Amazing ruins, arne't they?   

   

Enough already. After my failed quest to find a bathroom among the ruins, I walked across the street and headed to the rest rooms I saw near some picnic tables and shelters. I barely made it in time....only to find them closed and locked. Next trip, I think I need to bring my own portapotty. Found a store down the street willing to let me use their facilities and I was, well, relieved.

Took a few more minutes in Shasta Historical Part to get another picture or two, then it was time to head west some more. 

 

I saw the first sign of people in a long time,in the form of a town. I didn't actually see any people, mind you, but I did see a sign for Burger King that got my mouth watering. I managed to get through the town and across the river and see a Welcome To California sign before I realized that A) I found the border, B) I didn't find Burger King. Well. No biggie, after all, I was no in California, right? I should be Abel to find food easily enough, and maybe something better than Burger King! I drove on.

And on.

And on, finally hitting the border crossing. Living close to the Canadian border as I do, and frequently caching in Canada, I'm used to border crossings and was expecting a lot easier time of it, with a quick couple of questions and maybe a peek into the trunk. Kinda. There was nothing to be seen but dust, lots of flat, dust and this "station" where two guards were hanging out, talking to each other. I pulled up (not another car to be seen as far as the eye can see) and the guys barely glanced at me before saying, "Have a good trip."

Right. I was, thanks, and didn't you want to make sure I had eaten every last blueberry? Excuse me? He had already turned back to his conversation but then turned back to me when I hadn't pulled away instantly. He slowly said, "Have. A. Nice. Trip."

Ok! So I drove on.

And on.

And well past the 12 hours my trip was to take I finally saw something I recognized, besides the one sign I'd seen for LA. The windmill farm!

I have seen this before and was just as awe struck as before. Those things are BIG. And there's a lot of them!

Soon after, I saw another fun sight, my car turning over 150,000 miles (which, yes, I felt like I'd done all in one day, thankyouverymuch). I couldn't pull over right away but I did catch it in the next, oh, I'd say about 10 miles, once I'd gotten my camera out and aimed it at the dash. It took me two tries, but here's proof I can multitask at 70mph.

I would never try this at home. At home, we have what's called traffic, which is massive amounts of other people on the road. Here? Not so much.

I continued driving, wondering where the Nuvi was taking me. So far it had been a much longer trip that I'd anticipated and still wasn't really sure where I was or how long it would take me to get to where I was going. I'd been driving about 14 hours and still had a many miles to cover. Then it started to get dark.

I was happy to find a real rest area to empty one tank, and then later, a gas station to fill up another. Then I called my brother to let him know there was no way I'd make it by the "between 8 or 9" arrival time I'd given. He said good night and see me tomorrow, cause he was on his way to bed for an early day at work the next day, but that his wife was going to stay up and wait for me.

The most interesting part of the day I think might have happened somewhere in the middle of California, it was dark, and I don't like driving in the dark, which is a great time to follow a semi truck and just go. Mile after mile I set my pace so I was 4 or 5 car-lengths behind his pretty red taillights as I watched the darkness get darker and darker.

Then, a flash of light, and a sound that practically stopped my heart.

KA-BOOM!

Suddenly I was showered with chunks of rubber as pieces of the truck's tire pelted my shiny new car. Wow. You hear of such things and see evidence of tires exploding, but I'd never been this close to one. I was able to swerve around the biggest chunks and get into the next lane over as the truck ground to a halt and pulled over.

16 hours after I got my late start in Prescott Valley, Arizona, I pulled into my brother's neighborhood in Roseville, California and stopped with a huge sigh of relief in front of their house. Heather was there waiting for me and while I'm pretty sure she was being polite and chatty and asking if I wanted her to fix me something to eat, it was almost midnight and I'd been driving for 16 hours and wanted nothing more than massive amounts of sleep. I might have been hungry, it was hard to tell. Or care. Seeing 8 pounds of Belly Flops (Jelly Belly jelly beans that didn't make the cut) on my bed that Heather had gotten for me made me smile, but I just shoved them to the floor and got into bed and was asleep in moments.

The next morning I slept in well past when they went to work. I showered, dressed, ate breakfast and went caching.

 I love me some California sky. 

However, with no routing on my GPS it wasn't as fun as it might have been and I only got a handful before I was lured into WalMart to check out their tea selection and get something yummy and perishable. Fresh fruit and ice cream bars. Went back to their house and made a meal of that while watching TV. Then I set to work making a couple batches of almond roca, cause I was a good houseguest! Don't all good houseguests show up around midnight and then make roca? No? Oh well.

My brother came home and we chatted and caught up, then our brother came by. He moved to California a year or so ago and lives about an hour and a half away, so I had suggested (strongly) that he come over for the evening. Funny thing is, he misunderstood my message and had come last Tuesday! My family never gets together so often as to actually see each twice in one year, let alone twice in one week, but he came over again to see me. Then Heather got off work and we all went out to dinner. It was a great place and we enjoyed the good food and each other's company.

After that, it was home, more talking, then good bye's, good night's and off to bed.

This time, I got up early and since they both had late starts to their Wednesday work day, they got up, too, and Mel (did I mention my brother is a gourmet chef?) cooked up some French Toast for me before I left. I ate like a pig cause I was going to be in the car all day again and wanted to start it off right! That was my excuse, anyway. Acutally, I just love French Toast and eat it like a pig, regardless of where I am or what I'll be doing later. It's just how I am. 

I was very excited about this day since I was aiming for the California Coast and was planning on driving up 101. How fun is that? You can find out next time I post. For now, I wanted to share with you (pictorially) Quin's birthday cake. He just turned 9 this week and naturally, wanted a cake to beat all cakes. Since he turned 6, he's been asking for special cakes.

This year, he wanted a cake decorated like a "9 dollar bill" with a picture of Quin for the face. I can bake but have no decorating skills, especially to that extent. Then I found a recipe for a S'Mores Ice Cream Cake which he decided was going to be it.

The graham cracker crust, layer of fudge, heaps of cookies and cream ice cream topped with more grahams and toasted marshmallows wasn't quite enough, so we drizzled chocolate and added more grahams, and then with green sprinkles made the number 9. He was happy.

He'd also picked the relighting candles for it so he had fun "making as many wishes as I want!"

The table was crowded so he just blew out the candles in the kitchen with some family gathered around. Then he blew them out again and again till there almost weren't any sprinkles left.

He was so excited, he managed to eat one bite of his cake before letting the rest melt all over his plate. Me having made it was enough for him. Now, where are those presents??

Back to the road trip next time!

 

 

I planned to leave early. I planned on driving pretty much straight through without stopping for caches. I planned on driving about 12 hours to my brother's place in California.

Instead.....

I realized I hadn't gotten any pictures of Mom and Dad's place, or of me with them, or of them. So I bustled around doing that.

 Their front yard.

 Their barrel cactus. Their paddle cactus.  

And their other cactus.

Then, the neighbor's blooming cactus.

 Which looked really cool.

Along with some succulent kind of plant that would make a fantastic jigsaw puzzle.

Then with a tour of the back yard, which we'd somehow missed doing earlier, I got a picture of me with my Mom. Isn't she adorable?

I took off, just a little later than planned, and immediately got lost. I know, me, lost. The GPS unit was looking at me like it couldn't see the maps on it's face, and no idea how to get out of the neighborhood, let alone the state. Well, that's awkward. I rely so heavily on my unit that I figured this was going to be an adventure if I just have to make my own way west. Right, west? I think I was going west. I don't know, I was waiting for directions from GeePS but it was a no-go. I said, fine, just point me in the direction of Roseville, CA. Ros-What? Seriously? My Global Positioning System didn't know where Roseville was? Yikes. Sacramento? No idea. Great. I made my way back to my folk's house and asked them to print off Yahoo maps cause my GPS didn't know how to get there. Dad decided it would make more sense to have me borrow his Nuvi so I got that all set up and finally, with a line to follow, I was able to leave.

What I didn't know what the the Nuvi was set to save on fuel so I saw back roads like you wouldn't believe. So much for rest stops every 90 miles. So much for civilisation. I was following the line cause I didn't know what else to do.

 Granted, it was beautiful.

I had assumed in the few moments I spared for planning details of this trip that I would be driving through city after city and wouldn't want to stop for caches where there were massive amounts of traffic and people. So I hadn't included any in my unit to keep me guided somewhat. I was off on my own. Just don't ask me where I was. I have no idea.

Back roads, baby, all the way.

Where I saw cactus.

 And more cactus.

And then lots more.

    

And even some more blooming cactus.

 This one looks as if it's crossing it's fingers for luck.

Cactus, scenery to die for, and .... well, and not much else. McDonalds? Rest Areas? Other cars, people? Not for hundreds of miles. We're talking roads with sand on them.

We're talking....Nowhereville.

 But intensely beautiful nowhere.  

 I was frustrated that my camera couldn't  

 do justice to the hugeness around me. I had to pull over several times just to stare at the view.

Wished I had caches loaded for this area cause I needed to stop and stretch my legs but didn't have any reason to other than to take pictures. So at one stop I took a picture of my new car.

 

It has a CD player so I was listening to a book on CD that I'd borrowed from the library.

It kept me entertained. As I took back roads. To/from nowhere.

I really hoped I was going the right way. I had no idea. By the time I zoomed out on my map far enough, I couldn't tell where I was supposed to be going so I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. And my snacks. Thank goodness I'd packed plenty of snacks and drinks or I could have starved to death out there.

Yeah, drinks. About that. Have I mentioned that I was out in the desert somewhere, with nothing but rocks and tumbleweeds? And while I say there was no other cars and people, I don't mean that literally as there were, occasionally, other vehicles on the road, perhaps as lost as I was.

 But not many. Until, of course, I had to pee.

Visibility of 20 miles and not a single place to pee in private.

And one car coming or going in one direction or the other every 2 or 3 minutes. Figures.

This time, salvation came in the form of a washed out stream bed that was in a depression next to the road, by a tree. Yes! A real tree. I was so excited, but I was about to wet my pants anyway so it didn't help much till the car passed and I ducked (almost) out of sight and did what I needed to, before the next car came along. I popped back onto the road looking like just another tourist. Cause I was smart. I took my camera with me. Besides, it was a Moment of my trip I'll not soon forget.

 Endless views! 

Where was the border, anyway? I'd been eating blueberries like mad to make sure they were all gone before I got to California but I couldn't even find California. Oh well, just keep driving, just keep driving.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dad and I had a really nice drive to Jerome, AZ on the day I spent there before heading to California. Him and my Mom had been there before and thought I'd be interested in seeing it and the views along the way. Of course they were right.

The roadside attractions...rocks.

  

Layers and layers of different types. Quite fascinating, really.

Other roadside attractions included cactus. I had Dad pull over so I could pluck (no mean feat) a few spikes to take home to the kids.

 

I really loved the views. Would have preferred blue skies to the familiar clouds, but visiting during the monsoon season does that to the skies. Still, breathtakingly beautiful!

The red rock, the green vegetation and peeks of blue sky with white clouds made me and my camera happy.

 

I loved these V-views.

 

When we got to Jerome, we stopped at a copper shop. This shop had pretty much every type and style and shape of copper. And a few other things as well. I liked this unicorn "shield", but not the price tag so it remains in the shop along with everything else that caught my eye.

These are splats of copper that were really cool. 

 Some of them were huge, others small. 

All were expensive.

Out the back door, on a little balcony, we saw the town of Jerome laid out on the side of the hill.

 Jerome is built with rough roads.

I just had to stop and get a picture of the "Rough Road" sign. As if you haven't figured it out by the time you got close enough to read it, you should be warned. Who knows, maybe it got even worse further up, but that's hard to imagine. Jerome is quaint and steep, with narrow (rough) roads and tourist shops lined along each switchback.

After we'd toured the town (which included driving down it and back up) we headed back to Prescott Valley. Along the way we saw a rainstorm.

 Complete with thunder! 

We did a little caching, just so I could get AZ on my map of states cached in, swam in their pool again, and had a big turkey dinner. Then I "shopped" in their pantry and loaded my new car with stuff to take home, stuff to eat along the way and made sure I had everything I needed for the next leg of my road trip.

Then, to bed. I wanted an early start in the morning.

 

 

Things worked out well and fell into place (this came as a great surprise to me) so that I could fly to Arizona and drive back home in my parents old car. When the idea first came to be, I didn't see how it would be possible between having the kids and not much money. Then Jeff decided to take the kids on a week long vacation and I looked at plane tickets and factored in the cost of gas and food and decided that getting a car that runs well, a week long vacation, visiting family and having time to myself was far cheaper than fixing the Jimmy.

I looked at flights and I found a Saturday ticket for $174, but the next time I looked, it was $269. I found another ticket for Friday that would really mess up my plans, but it was $174 so I went and made arrangements for those complications and went to buy the ticket, which had gone up in price. Frustrated, I looked a bit harder and found a ticket for Saturday with a different airline and it was $163. I bought it right on the spot.

Unfortunately it left at 6:40 AM. I have to get there early, of course, and it takes about an hour to get to the airport. Um, I'm not driving myself and cant ask anyone to take me so I looked into the shuttle service. I went into a bit of a panic because the first company I looked into charged $206. Whined to a friend who pointed me to another company that charged $24. Ah, that's better. They can get me to the airport with plenty of time to spare since they leave from the next town over at 3:00 AM. I got up at 2:00 and got ready and drove to the meeting spot, and I wasn't sure the truck was going to make it, but it did, and I got to the right place on time. The shuttle was full and most people slept except for some chatty women in the back. When we got close to the airport, the driver made an announcement that sounded a lot like the adults in a Peanuts cartoon. I was sitting right behind him so I said that maybe, if he'd said something important, he could repeat it? I didn't want to miss anything important, like where I was supposed to disembark.

At the airport, I had time to kill so I got through security without feeling pressured and rushed and then settled down to wait. And wait. And wait. I went to the bathroom and decided it was very important to take a picture since no one else was in there and I thought it was funny to do so. It was the biggest bathroom I'd ever seen, it went on for ...well, it went on to infinity.

Finally, my flight was announced and I was herded into the plane where seating was a free-for-all. Thankfully I was able to find the exact seat I wanted (behind the right wing, window seat). There was a guy on the aisle seat and I thought it would be nice if no one sat between us, but the attendant announced the the flight was full, with a waiting list so I knew it would be filled and soon it was. We were now, officially, sardines.

The flight had a lot of babies on board. Unhappy, cranky, crying babies. The attendant sang a lullaby over the PA but that didn't help much and the babies continued to cry. For the whole 2 hours and 40 minutes. Can I distract myself with (babies crying) the view out the window?

 

Fog.

Just my luck! Nothing but fog out there for an hour!

Then, it started to break up.

Oh, that was kind of exciting. The guy next to me craned his neck to look out my window (my window, I tell you, MINE!) and would ask me what we were (crying babies fore and aft!)seeing, where were we?

Above a mountain. Of course. Which (babies are crying) mountain? A big one, with snow. Beyond that, no idea.

After that we had beautiful, intensely blue skies and endless (babies crying loudly) views of land. Wherever we were by then.

 Canyons, fields, and finally, Phoneix.

It's a really big place, our world, from up here. I liked when the plane turned (babies crying so hard they cough) and the world tilted and I pretended the pilot was cruising around turning this way and that because he knew the airport (let's get these babies down) was around here, somewhere. Or maybe he just liked the view as much as I did. I'm easy.

The ramps on the freeways in Phoenix are all (babies are crying) decorated in designs with different colored rocks. I took a picture of what I later discovered was the most boring one, as many of them were of (babies screaming) snakes, Gila monsters, mosaics and elaborate Indian motifs.

A perfect touch down. The babies continuted to cry. The parents contiuned to hush them, which was almost as annoying. People everywhere on the plane looked exhausted. The pilot announced that it had been a quiet flight and we had arrived 10 minutes early. I made the assumption the pilot could not hear the babies crying for him to make such an erroneous statement.

I had arrived early, but not early enough to catch the shuttle before the one I had reservations for. I sat and waited an hour, then longer. My shuttle was late but it did arrive and I was the only passenger, which gave the driver license, apparently, to talk my ear off the whole time, about an hour and a half. It was a really long drive. I should work on being a bit less polite. Maybe not give in to the urge to scream "SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!" But to say, "Ya know, I've had very little to eat in the 10 hours since I got out of bed and I'm really tired and I don't want to talk or listen, thank you." Still, some of what he said was interesting and I learned (and have since forgotten) many things about Arizona, the driver, the driver's family, the driver's church, the driver's history and about a recent wreck on the highway involving a gas tanker. I'll leave it to you to figure out which parts I found interesting.

We finally pulled in to the drop off area and I saw my folks there waiting for me. Yea!

Hi, hi, hi! Feed me!!!

We went directly to the hospital and I saw where they worked, then we blessedly went through the cafeteria line and got some food, which we ate outside in the sun. I'd been in A/C all day and was chilled to the bone so the sun felt great and I was finally able to stop looking like a total idiot and take off my fleece jacket. Who wears fleece when it's in the 80's outside? Um, I guess I do.

We went home soon after that and swam in the pool and visited a bit. Dinnertime, we went to some friends of theirs and had a lovely dinner of pizza and salad. I had a good time but by then could hardly keep my eyes open so declined dessert and games. I know, that's pretty tired for me cause I love dessert and games.

Think I mananged to get to bed that night, but the details are a bit fuzzy.

The next day we did some tourist things and did some shopping for shorts, snacks, whatnot. They took me to this place with big rocks. Apparently they are special rocks that are only found in this one area.

 They are rather fantastic, as far as rocks go. 

There is a neighborhood being built up around the rocks. Literally, since the rocks are kinda like endangered so they could only build if they didn't move the rocks so the houses are kinda crammed in wherever they could fit. What's the view out this window? Rocks. That window? Yeah, rocks. Cool, huh?

  

Later in the day Dad took me for a drive to where the hang gliders launch. We'd hoped to watch some take off, but the wind was dead. This guy was packing up as we arrived.

 It was hazy out, but the views? 

Fantastic!!

     

  

I stood on the launch pad and drank in the sights for a long time, then got one last shot of the launch with the endless sky.

Then it was time to visit the old copper mining town of Jerome.