colorado trip-October 2012-day two

Friday morning we had rain as we left the motel and drove towards the A-frame where Anne and Eric live.  The high desert plains still had their own mysterious beauty in the gray morning, almost more other-worldly without the mountain views.  We dashed in the house, unaccustomed to the cold wind, to say our first hellos.My sister Anne and their amazing tomato plants. 

After surveying all the interesting lofts, and corners, and artifacts in the A-frame, the kids were ready to go back and brave more outdoor exploration. The rain was still falling so the insect life that they had enjoyed in summer 2010 had retreated.  Eric promised that the weather man had predicted sun by ten o'clock, and miraculously, it appeared right on schedule. The wind blew the clouds away quickly,

and this beautiful double rainbow appeared.

This is the view of Mount Blanca that Anne and Eric enjoy everyday.

Sun in eyes face.Soon we gathered back in the van and Anne joined us on a trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

This was the view from the visitors' center, where along with enjoying the scenery and exhibits, we discovered that the van door had some mysterious issue preventing it from closing, and confirmed, with symptoms, at least one case of the stomach flu, thankfully the cleaning supply closet appeared to be open to the public, so I took advantage. 

But we couldn't let that stop us for as far as we had travelled. Those who were well enough and less concerned about the van door ran ahead to the sand dunes while I stayed back to bundle up the sick with the blanket that Grandma Martha wisely sent with us, and to fashion a door lock with Sam's belt. 

 Then Sophie, Anne, Granddad, Caitlin and I ran to catch up with the others who had already started to ascend the mountains of sand, or so we hoped, as all we could see were moving dots on the landscape ahead of us.  They seemed so far away and the sand so tremendous in comparison, I prayed that the stiff wind wouldn't cause the sand to envelope them.

 Sand in eyes face.

We would have liked to have spent more time on the dunes, but the sand was too painful when the wind whipped it into our faces.  There should also be wonderful hiking in the mountains surrounding the dunes.

We drove back to town, where it was decided that Anne and Granddad would go to the Chevy dealer to investigate the van door, as holding it for the entire ride home to Utah seemed like a comical, yet implausible solution.  As we were driving the rain returned, quite heavily this time. I stayed with the kids back at the motel, where the sick could rest, and the well could bounce off the walls and drive me crazy, while I tried to coerce them into watching another half hour of Disney channel. Meanwhile the big boys enjoyed the quiet of their own room and the movie channel that was featuring a month of horror movies, much to their pleasure.

Anne and Granddad returned with Sprite, soda crackers, and the good news that the Chevy dealer had fixed the jammed lock easily and at no cost.  We drove Anne back to her house and we went, as promised when  the rain started to fall, to the movie theatre.  Granddad and the big boys saw Taken Two. The girls and Grant saw Hotel Transylvania, which they had been anticipating for some time, and William and Sophie and I saw a combination of that, the theatre lobby, and with the manager's approval-- Franken Weenie, which I thought was very engaging for the half hour that William allowed us to remain.

After dinner we drove back out to Anne and Eric's home where Eric was preparing a delicious lasagna.  The kids enjoyed communing with the pets and we gathered in front of their television to indoctrinate my boys, who already considered themselves Bill Murray fans, but had never seen What About Bob.

It was a happy, memorable evening. I was grateful to be able to spend time with Anne and Eric in their beautiful and unique home.

colorado trip October 2012- day one

I'm sure I've already conveyed my Willy Nelson-like enthusiasm for being on the road. So I was surprised at myself when I realized that it had been so long since we have taken a trip as a family, that Sophie, who just turned two, had never been out of the state of Utah.  That seemed unfathomable to the older children, some of whom had been on as many as three continents before their second birthdays.

  I also realized that on previous road trips I was lacking something that I am now not..teenagers.  

So the whimsical, enthusiastic, easy going travelers of my memory, I realized, had perhaps grown past that stage and progressed on to the it's a holiday, can't we stay home and sleep phase. Nonetheless, Thursday October 11, Granddad and the kids and I loaded up the van and were gone by eight o'clock, only slightly behind schedule.  We were headed to visit Anne and Eric in Alamosa, Colorado.  

As I said before, when I travelled that way in April, I love that drive.  I am so taken in by the beautiful streams all throughout the state.  They make me wish I owned a tackle box and boots.

The first day of driving was the most challenging day of the trip...getting re accustomed to hours and hours in a small space with siblings breathing and doing other objectionable things.  Between the inter familial tension, and the stress of really not being sure if there would be any desk clerk crazy enough to allow our family to stay in their motel, and if so would it result in my financial ruin, somewhere at about ten thousand feet elevation I really started to question what strange notion had inspired the weekend's endeavor.

 I tuned in to the music playing over the van speakers. We had arrived at Billy Joel, neutral territory, finally something agreeable to preteen girls and their teenage brothers. There is a moment in New York State of Mind, 

  It comes down to reality, And it's fine with me 'cause I let it slide

Don't care if it's Chinatown or on Riverside...

that makes me feel that it is impossible that I was not a New Yorker in another life. Suddenly it was easier to let of the ridiculous expectation that my children would actually want to be in a van together for eight hours, without trying to kill each other.  My New Yorker fantasy is one of my cerebral alternatives to giving in to the temptation to become... beyond discouraged. 

 And so when I returned to the muted sage and red-brown earth and beautiful explosions of golden leaves, I felt a renewed sense of we can do this.

Granddad and I decided that we would investigate at the smaller, local motels to see if they would allow our large group to rent two rooms for three nights.  We found the Valley Motel in Alamosa.  The owners, a family from India, were very hospitable. They allowed us to see the rooms before.  We rented two suits, which included a full-sized kitchen that were very large and only sixty-five dollars per night. We were so relieved! The facility is aging and rustic, but the staff is friendly as were the other visitors. It reminded me of  family trips of my childhood.  We often stayed in locally operated places along Route 66, or on the way up to Maine, sometimes in Canada.

This was a welcomed relief as well.

After dinner, the big boys camped out in Granddad's room and I had the rest in mine.  We slept three or four to a bed, with some spilled out on to the floor, but everyone was happy because there was Disney Channel.  As I squeezed into an open spot at the foot of one of the beds, the little ones engaged in that favorite motel pastime, jump from one bed to the other.  The resulting vibrations took me back to 1980-something again, when I would beg my parents for a dime to put in those little boxes by motel bedsides.  If you were lucky, and the box was working, the bed would shake for a good five minutes or so, at which point you were just as happy to have it stop. I wonder who invented those, and what else they came up with.

This was Friday morning. The Valley Motel has a great, family friendly continental breakfast.

thelma and louise plus ten?

...or the lonely pregnant wives club heads west. No driving with the top down or barroom fights involved... but I do plan to let the kids wear the same clothes the whole week.

Monday morning... began our trip to California. Off by eight o'clock, not too bad. First stop: Provo... this could take a while. My fault, I couldn't find the cookie aisle in my favorite Smith's.

Next stop: just down the road Ben reports we've got a stinky in the van. Good thing cousin Zoe's so cute.
But look how Nephi's grown. So much to see already.

By Beaver we had another stop requested. I took a picture of this diner because it reminded me of route 66 road trips with my family when I was a child. I would eat at places like this now, if I thought we could afford that many orders of chicken fried steak.  Imagine how we'd trash the place.

The corner of Arizona.

We arrived at our scheduled destination, Primm, Nevada, at about 4:30....slow by my college days standards, but we all felt triumphant upon arrival...still time to swim. Why Primm? It's on the border of California It's dirt cheap. Easy on easy off, that sort of thing. We stayed at Whiskey Pete's when we moved from Utah to Riverside, California nine years ago. The boys remembered it. Grant was excited that it looked like a castle. Sam wanted to stay at Buffalo Bill's across the freeway, but I wasn't sure it would be as inexpensive.

You have to go see Al Capone's car with the bullet holes.  I had the kids wait by the get away car with Courtney while I checked in...didn't want to overwhelm the reception desk.

A very kind man from India told me that I could stay there for ninety-nine dollars that night, or across the street for twenty dollars. The management  wanted to encourage people to stay at Buffalo Bill's this weekend.  Interesting.  Sam was thrilled.  See the roller coaster?

So what about this place?  Twenty dollars a night each for two adjoining rooms with two queen size beds, leaky of sink, runny of toilet, creepy characters, cockroach in the elevator...(I think.) I didn't want to look too closely....but the room was surprisingly pleasant, and the pool was large enough for the many occupants (lots of families), though cold due to that big shadowy building, I assume.

Sam was on the verge of an anxiety attack about getting to the roller coaster.  I hate taking the kids through the casino...creepy characters and all...but we had to wander through the slot machines, pulling Grant away from them, of course, to find the family section, which is actually quite large.  What a relief to find this enclosed kids' arcade where I could play with the little ones while Sam took his only willing companion, Bethany, on the roller coaster.  We were happy to see that rides were free the month of June, otherwise eight dollars each...highway robbery...

There were more takers for the log ride. Olivia said it was boring because the drop was dumb.

By the time I satisfied Sam's need for speed it was almost ten o'clock Utah time, safe to have dinner. I was grateful to see a McDonald's there in the family area. There was a long line, the kids were wired, and we were more of a spectacle than Siegfried and Roy. I was grateful for my China training.
This was a beautiful sight.