Epilogue

While we were readjusting to life in Washington our motor home was still in storage in Alabama.  David and my dad flew back to the motor home in April right at the start of the epic tornado storms that leveled many southern towns.  They survived two tornado watches, but our home away from home was either struck by lightening or an electrical storm and lost most of its electrical appliances.  After a few on the road repairs it was off to the races.
Talladega Nights!

Following the races David flew home and my dad and the motor home took off on my dad's own

 "Bucket List" tour of our country until mid May. 

But that is a whole other story.......

No Place Like...

HOME!!!

We arrived home in the wee morning hours of  Kristen's 8th Birthday, March 28,2011..Five months after we left. 

Would we do it again?

ABSOLUTELY!!

The End

After leaving the beautiful sunshine and warmth of  Death Valley (and wearing shorts and sandals)  we were shocked to step into snow when we got out of the car at our hotel.  The next morning we headed north.  Our Plan- cut through Nevada/ drive over the pass from Tahoe and see my Aunt Leslie and family in Auburn.  Mother Nature's Plan- dump a bunch of snow on Central California/Sierra Nevadas closing roads.  We diverted south and then went back to good 'ol dependable I5 and turned North. 
Turned out to be the best way to end a trip to everywhere..go back to where we started ...Benicia, CA.  Thank goodness for good friends who dropped everything to entertain us, visit with us and let us crash on their couches. 


A stop to see old friends in Benicia.


After days of weather delays, including a hailstorm in Redding, we decided it was really time to leave.  To avoid the mountains all together we hugged the coast all the way back to the Pacific Northwest.



I don't know if the motorhome could have fit through...

Double Rainbow all the way across the Redwood Forest.



Wow! A really big tree!

Voodoo Donuts in Eugene is a must. Just keep your eye on them!

Vegas, baby!

As per my request, we stayed at Circus CirI know what you're thinking: why would an 18-year-old girl want to go to Vegas with her mom and siblings? Maybe it's because I was dying for some warmth during spring break? Something about Vegas was just awesome to me, even though I couldn't drink a yard of beer or play slots. We toured the entire strip in one evening, seeing the sights and the not so sightly. We watched the classic Treasure Island show, ate some wonderful food, saw things we might not have needed to see, and gawked at the amount of designer stores - all open until midnight of course.

The buffet in Treasure Island was unbelievable. Eating everything in sight was simply not an option, unfortunately. Andy found some cotton candy at the dessert buffet, which had more desserts than I even knew existed.

Nobody was left on the roof at Caesar's Palace on this trip.

Yes, there is enough M&M merchandise to fill a four-story store.

Back in New York!

But just because I couldn't gamble, doesn't mean I didn't get a chance to win! I won this on my first try! Circus Circus is kid friendly, thankfully, so we had the chance to play some games and go on an indoor roller coaster. 

Arizona

Ever wondered where the middle of nowhere is located? Welcome to Octave, Arizona. In it's golden years (pun intended), Octave was a minuscule gold mining town that even had a school and grocery store. Now, Octave is no more than a system of gravel roads leading to a few eerie mobile homes.

The nearest town is Stanton. I use the term "town" loosely. Even as a ghost town, it's barely sizable enough to be considered as such. It's basically an RV park that happens to have a couple of ghost town buildings in it. Stanton was only a town for thirty years, but there are still buildings preserved by the Lost Dutchman Mining Association.

Stanton was founded by Charles Stanton, a man as creepy as the ghost town itself. He often hired others to kill off people he knew, but eventually met his fate in his own store. 

Proof that I have been stuck in Olympia all winter while my siblings were touring the country.

On our way to our next stop, Las Vegas, we stopped by the Hoover Dam. Andy and I were impressed that they had restored all the damage caused by the Decepticons in Transformers. We hopped out of the car to take a view pics while Mom circled the dam. I couldn't even imagine her trying to do that with the motorhome. 

And to think... all of this was made to cover up the government's research on Transformers...

Little House in the Desert

After a  long drive and a fun baseball game we arrived at my parents house Friday night.  I knew we had spent too much time in the car when I asked the kids if they wanted to go back down to Phoenix the next morning to pick up their sister.
 "How many miles?" they asked.  Only 120 each way.
 "O, that's not too bad," they responded.  240 miles in the car..bring it on.  Just a short little jaunt down south.
When Karly flew to Philadelphia four months earlier we were four hours late picking her up.  Now after numerous delays Karly's flight was four hours late arriving.  Funny how if these too things had been simultaneous we would have been right in sync. 
Since we were already on our way and had some time to kill we decided to stop at a museum I had always wanted to visit..The Pioneer Living History Museum.

Just one more day of living history.  This time with my family.

Can't say you weren't warned.

Texas Forever, and Ever, and Ever

After we left San Antonio we had lost a bit of our lust for the open road.  We had one thing on our schedule..pick Karly up at the airport in Phoenix on Saturday the 19th. 
I had this idea that coming out of San Antonio we would follow the Mission Trail and soak up a bit of history.

At the first mission, Kristen got out with me to explore and pose for a picture.

At the second mission I got out alone and took a picture.

At the third mission we all just looked out the window as we drove by.

I think our sightseeing days are officially over.

During a lunch stop I realized if we made it to Phoenix on Friday we could catch a Mariners spring training game.  Since we were getting warn out on sightseeing it seemed like a better option to drive the long hours and get out of Texas.

New Mexico loomed just ahead.  We crossed the state line and were stopped for what we assumed was a state inspection station.  I was quite surprised to see the US customs signs and find ourselves being questioned by border patrol.  I am not sure it was such a great time to be touring in Southwestern Texas with my kids.  I was glad to get into New Mexico and one step closer to Arizona and my family.   

Death Valley

I wanted a warm spring break, so naturally Death Valley was a good place to stop. Can't get hotter and drier than a place that was once so hot that birds fell out of the sky and died. Death Valley is overwhelmingly beautiful, and the abundant sunshine certainly helped. It was tempting to spend the whole day hiking around on the rocks, but we wouldn't want to suffer the same fate as the pioneers!

Zabriskie Point

Nope, that's not water, it's salt. Andy remained convinced that it was water up until we noticed the crunch of salt under our feet.

We may or may not have tried licking it... it really is salt.

Surprisingly enough, U2's album cover for The Joshua Tree was not taken in the Joshua Tree National Park, but in the beginning of Death Valley. As soon as this bit of trivia was brought to our attention, we absolutely had to make a stop and attempt to recreate their album cover. While we were down one member and pointed slightly to the right of where they were, we still did a good job. To think that Bono himself was once standing slightly to the left of where we were...