Sunshine can lift the spirits. Arizona has lots of sunshine. We rose this morning to a beautiful morning in Winslow,  AZ to bright sun, blue, cloudless sky and a fairly short day of driving ahead of us.  I woke up early with hopes of seeing a few AZ birds in the brush behind our hotel, and had some luck as I found Black-throated sparrows, Ash-throated Flycatchers and Yellow-breasted Chats-all new birds for our trip list.

The night before, I told Darby that she could sleep in a bit this morning, since we didn’t need to leave until 9am. Things didn’t quite work out as I promised, since I forgot my room key, had to rush back to go to the bathroom, then knocked a bit loudly on the door to get back in-all before 7am. It didn’t help Darby’s promised morning of peaceful rest when Theresa and I were sipping coffee and talking a bit loud. When I mentioned her name, I heard a Darth Vader-like voice project out from under the sheet. “Yes, I’m awake, how could I not be!” Oops, sorry Darb-I’ll give you another try at a morning sleep-in another day!

It was 9:30 am when we rolled into the Meteor Crater, just east of Flagstaff, AZ. Many signs dot the 6-mile road back to the site warning drivers to slow down because of calves that were just born and may wander onto the road. I was pretty much ignoring the signs until I saw one of the cute little moo-moos moving very close to the road shoulder. A sudden flash came across me as I envisioned myself trying to explain to the rancher and AZ Highway Patrol how I ran over one of his prize beef calves after passing 76 warning signs, while visitors in RVs passed by me shaking their angry fists! I decided to slow down and heed the signs!

50,000 years ago a large meteor crashed into the Earth’s surface in this remote spot. It left a crater more than ¾ of a mile wide, and over 500 feet deep, which scientists are still investigating today. It’s an amazing natural landmark, and you feel very tiny as you stand on the rim looking down into this large hole! In addition, Theresa managed to give us some wildlife bonus while walking on the pathways, as she caught sight of a cool looking caterpillar, a couple small birds that we identified as Rock Wrens, and two different species of lizards. At one point, I was trying to get a little better look at the birds when I tripped on the edge of the path. Fortunately, there’s a railing and I caught myself before I plunged over the edge of the rocky wall of the 500-foot deep crater! OK, so, I might not have been right on the edge of the large hole where I could have fallen to my death. But if I had fallen, then rolled 50 feet up across several large boulders, then bounced over two more railings, it could have been very dangerous for me!

Our destination for the evening was Las Vegas, where we’ll be for the next two days. But, as we headed north we had to stop at the man-made marvel and unbelievable engineering feat of the Hoover Dam. Although we missed the last dam tour, we’ll have enough time to return so Theresa and Darby can experience the same thrill that Tyler and I did in February. It was great, and I really want to see if I can get the girls down in the dam before we head to CA.

We ended our day with a great meal in one of our hotel (Paris-Las Vegas) restaurants, then walked “The Strip” to catch some of the sights, sounds and lights of Vegas! Good Night from Sin City!

As we began our day 4 trek to the Four Corners Monument in northwest New Mexico, the landscape seemed very familiar to me. It should be, since I took this same route in February, 2014 with Tyler, on his way to CA to start his new position near San Francisco. The difference was today it was about 25 degrees warmer and there was no snow on the ground. It was a fresh look at some of the same landscapes we passed through 15 months ago. Although it’s a long way from anywhere, there’s nowhere else in the U.S. where you can stand in four different states at the same time. It’s well worth the drive!

When it was time to leave, I asked Darby if she would like to drive the 3 hours back down to the highway. With a little hesitation, she accepted the challenge, even though it was unfamiliar territory for her and we had wind gusts of 25+ mph. After 28 grueling miles, she decided she had enough. She pulled Big Blue over to the side of the road, looked at me and exclaimed, “Thanks, but no thanks. It’s all yours,” and once she turned the map right-side up, turned out to be a decent navigator.

Some tidbits of nature in our travels today (below) included Western Kingbirds, blooming Prickly Pear cactus and skinks (lizards) that darted in and out of the rocks

Our last stop of the day was the Petrified Forest National Park and Painted Desert. This was an awesome visit that actually combines several natural and cultural resources into one incredible location. At one viewpoint your gazing at buttes and mesas that seemed to change colors right in front of your eyes (as the sun hits them), and then you shoot up to another vista to see the scattered remains of 200 million year old trees that have turned to stone, that include beautiful crystals. And, if that wasn’t enough, you can experience, fossils, petroglyphs and ruins of ancient Pueblo villages. It truly has something for everyone.

Everyone likes snapping pictures. They post them on Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat. They email them to friends and families, even though many of the friends and families may get tired of seeing them and simply delete them. But, does it really matter? No, not really. You see, you’re not taking photos for them, you’re taking photos for yourself-for your own memories, for your own stories to be told later. Sure, you may enjoy sharing your adventure, experience or event with others, but unless it’s a fancy remote control camera or one of the new types of motion-activated trail cams, the one thing that is needed to take a photo is that you have to be there to snap it, looking directly at the subject. I think sometimes (including yours truly) we just want to race out, capture the photo, and move on to the next “photo opp.” We simply ignore taking a few minutes to sit and enjoy what you’re looking at, or what you came to see in the first place. Today was one of those days. We snapped a lot of pics, but also tried just to stand for a few minutes and look. We had to. The sights that we were fortunate to see were better than any photo that we could have taken. It was pretty cool, and I highly recommend it! Stay tuned!

Today was a dash. A dash across Tornado Alley, with eyes to the sky. We left Oklahoma City early this morning with hopes of getting out in front of the approaching storms. Just yesterday they had experienced wicked thunderstorms, flash flooding and a couple near misses with tornados-and even more severe weather was predicted for today. If you’re not familiar with where Tornado Alley is located, just watch the Weather Channel or any of the cable news stations. They’re having one of the largest, and most destructive spells of severe weather in a long time. Oklahoma, with I-40 running across most of the state, is right smack dab in the middle. Our travels yesterday and today had us driving on I-40, running across most of the state of Oklahoma, and continuing over into northern Texas.

If anyone knows my lovely wife, you’ll know she’s very good at being prepared for just about anything. In the past 24 hours she also began explaining instructions she found on the internet, (as well as the Weather Channel) to Darby and I about what we would have to do if we should encounter a funnel cloud while driving. Notice that I said, what “we would HAVE to do,” not should do, or possibly do. The plan, as explained to us in detail, was that we would pull the truck over to the side of the road, abandon MY truck, and lie down flat in a low ditch. Now, if you know me, I’m not sure that would be very effective for yours truly. Sure, Darby and Theresa might be spared by their low profile, but unless I found a large Prairie Dog hole to scurry down, I’m not sure I could get very low in the ditch to make a difference. As a matter of fact, I might even cause a secondary problem by damming up any storm water runoff that was running down the ditch, causing a mini flash flood on the same roadway we needed to escape on! At one particular point this morning we were driving right toward some very dangerous looking clouds when Theresa turned to Darby and told her to get her sneakers on. I looked at Darby in the rearview mirror with a puzzled look and we both kinda just chuckled. Did she know something we didn’t know? About 20 minutes later, Darby summed up the entire morning. Some of the sky showed signs of clearing and I wanted to snap a good photo showing the vast grasslands of western Oklahoma before we left. I found a perfect spot to stop and had to to quickly slow down before I drove past it. Without missing a beat, Darby looked up from her phone and calmly asked, “Are we getting ready to run?” We all broke out in laughter, and although a bit stressful morning due to the weather conditions, it was a perfectly-timed question!

As we left Oklahoma and northeast Texas, we were fortunate to leave behind the dangerous weather as well. We decided to take a break and stop by a well-known attraction in Amarillo-the Cadillac Ranch. Actually, it’s more like a Cadillac art display. In the middle of a farm field ten old, Cadillacs stand in a row, all with their front ends buried, as if they all crash landed in a perfect line. The owner invites anyone to stop by and legally graffiti your name, message, etc. in spray paint on any of the cars. Darby decided she would like to give it go, so, after both her and Theresa removed their shoes and walked the 200-yard walk barefoot, through 3” of mud and large puddles from recent rains, Darby left her autograph in metallic gold paint, as Theresa, myself and several other, not so brave visitors, watched on. It was pretty cool.

We ended our travel day in beautiful Albuquerque, surrounded by rugged mountains of rocks that look like they could tumble down at any time, and capped our nervous-traveling, fun, weird day with a fantastic southwestern meal (and great service) at the Range Café in Bernalillo, NM.

I’ve said it before, weather happens, whether you want it to, or not………btw, as we look ahead to our travels next week that will bring us to Wyoming and South Dakota, we can’t help to chuckle just a bit after hearing that 1’-2’ of snow has just fallen in the areas we’re planning on exploring! Let the fun begin!

Day 2, and we started a bit later today, than we did yesterday. We all got some much needed rest and were ready to continue west! As we crossed the Mighty Mississippi, we made a brief stop in St. Louis so Theresa and Darby could visit the Gateway Arch, including a trip to the top. I skipped the pod ride this time, having experienced the Star Trek-like journey two years ago with Tyler. I had no desire to repeat the outing! They both enjoyed the elevated view of the city and the Mississippi River from 630’ up in the air! They even snapped a photo of me laying down below them in the grass, until I realized I had stretched out in a nest of ants, and jumped up and ran off the large lawn area, hopping up and down like a crazed maniac. I’m surprised one of the National Park Service Park Rangers didn’t call in a SWAT team to take me down!

Leaving St. Louis is was time to hit the road again and make our way across Missouri, and down into Oklahoma. We were quite aware of the weather we were about to face!

 As we came into the city of Springfield, we had one quick detour we had to take-weather, or no weather. Hidden in the back of an office complex, behind of one of the buildings, stands the World’s Biggest Fork, at 35 feet tall! It was very cool, and if you could actually lift it, you could probably stab the World’s Biggest green bean, french fry or other food items you’re supposed to use a fork for!

A large part of taking long distance trips, of any kind, is to experience the local culture. These experiences may not necessarily end up with a beautiful or captivating photograph, or purchasing a delicious meal, or hand-made craft from a local artist, but they are just as interesting in their own right. Many times the funniest stories are from these encounters. We had a small “cultural experience” today when we decided to stop for a late lunch at Hood’s Truck Stop in south central Missouri. We were seated by a group of 10 people, who, by over hearing their loud bellows, decided all to come over to Hoods for lunch. We presumed they were all pretty much related and conversed in topics ranging from staying in a local motel where they had bed bugs and had to turn the mattresses over, to swimming naked in a cold pond, to pointing out the fact that the local Wal-Mart did not have everything on sale that was on the flyer they received in the mail the day before! The last topic (Wal-Mart) had everyone at the table in several heated discussions and sent them in to a mini feeding frenzy! Thank goodness the three of us had finished our sandwiches first, and quickly headed for the door!

 Our day ended in Oklahoma City, OK, as we arrived to pounding thunderstorms with heavy rain and wind, but thankfully, no tornados. Even as I finish typing this, the weather continues to hammer the hotel we’re staying in (and all of the OKC metro area), and more tornados and flash flood watches have been issued. Tomorrow (Sat) may bring the worst of it, yet. We’ll be up early and headed west across northern Texas and into New Mexico, as quickly, and safely, as possible. Weather is part of the “great” outdoors, and unfortunately, sometimes Mother Nature reminds us of the sheer power that she can unleash!

It was 3:00 am and we’re all set to go! The truck was packed and we all had our electronic gadgets charged and ready to send and receive messages, photos, etc. Snacks and drinks were in their proper locations. We were off on our Big West Trip! Well, sort of. We traveled approximately 4.6 feet when Darby quietly said, I can’t find my seat belt clip. The Big West Trip paused for a minute while I got out, lifted the seat and found the seat belt clip. OK, no worries, minor delay, it was still only 3:03 am. Now, it was time to hit the long open highways west! But, just then, Darby tapped me on the shoulder and exclaimed, “This isn’t the right clip.” I threw Big Blue into Park, jumped out, lifted the seat again, and finally wrestled the correct (hidden) seat belt clip back to its original safety position. The time was 3:06 am and we had travelled a total distance of 10 feet on our trip so far and hadn’t made it out of the driveway-we still had about 850 miles to go today!

In the darkness of early morning we began our 16-day Big West trip. Our furthest goal would be California to visit Tyler and Amelia. But, we have many small oddities to check out along the way, as well as visiting some of our country’s most famous National Parks.

With the road construction season upon us, we slowly made our way out of Pennsylvania, through West Virginia and across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, coming to rest on day one just outside St. Louis, MO-850 miles and 17 hours later! I decided I would drive this first leg, knowing it would be a long one. As I type this, I’m having a hard time seeing the keys, and concentrating on the words. If you read anything that looks like thisssss,kskdk, it’s probably because I fell asleep with my fingers stuck on the keyboard, as a little drool drips from my gaping mouth! Very tired indeed!

Although today’s destination might have been a bit far, we still managed to find some interesting sights. We took an hour side trip and drove north to the Longaberger Basket headquarters. Our first stop was the Longaberger Homestead to check out the World’s Largest Apple Basket, decorated nicely with a pile of polished apples. The Homestead was a bit weird. We weren’t sure what was going on there, because there were many buildings and shops, but no people, except for a small tour group, of which we don’t know where they were touring. It looked like the entire complex had simply been abandoned! In fact, if you remember the scene in the last Indiana Jones movie where they had set-up a complete fake town in the Nevada desert for nuclear testing, that’s what the Longaberger Homestead looked like. We were hoping we wouldn’t hear a loud siren, and start looking for a large fridge to hide in!

After exiting “Longaberger Land,” we hit the road once again. After several hours of driving, a small sign along I-70 caught my eye. It said, “World’s Largest Wind Chime” in Casey, IL. I recognized this familiar sign, and this roadside attraction from two years ago, when Tyler and I spotted the same sign, and visited this same tourist spot on a very cold February afternoon, on his journey west. So, once again, I yanked on the steering wheel, left the highway, and Theresa, Darby and I were headed back into downtown Casey for another wind chime visit. When we arrived we had to park along a side street as one of the local’s goats was “parked” in the only vacant parking spot. As I strolled up to introduce myself to the four-legged farm animal, I heard his owner call out to me from the deck of the wind chime visitor center, “I wouldn’t get much closer to him, he’s not very friendly, even to me!” I stubbornly took his advice, gave the goat my best stink eye, and walked away. The wind chime was still very impressive, and  as an added bonus across the street, they’re preparing to build the World’s Largest Rocking Chair!  Although, they haven’t made much progress since Tyler and were there two years ago!

Our last stop of the day was a quick visit to the “Cross at the Crossroads,” in Effingham, IL. It’s the World’s Largest cross standing 198’ tall and 113’ wide. It’s forged from over 180 tons of steel. It’s huge, and I mean huge. It can be seen right from I-70, as it stands along the highway.

We ended our very long day just outside St. Louis, MO, exhausted, but very excited about the adventures that await us, and many more stories/photos we can share. We are currently watching the weather very carefully as we head into Oklahoma City tomorrow, and through tornado alley-especially with a few days of nasty weather forecasted. We will certainly proceed with caution, and adjust our trip as necessary. Thanks to everyone for their concerns-stay tuned!