Our Epic Road Trip - The 505

 Our final destination of import on our epic road trip was to New Mexico. I spent the five years of middle school and high school in Rio Rancho, and it's still where I consider myself "from". But I haven't been back in thirteen years! Shortly after I moved to Provo to attend BYU, my Mom moved her and my siblings to Utah as well. I went back and lived in Albuquerque for about seven months, but left after a failed (but very dramatic!) engagement. I called off my wedding on the wedding day, moved the day after, and haven't been back since. The worst part of the deal is that my best friend of 18 years has stayed in the town we grew up in, and I've missed her terribly! We needed a stop on our drive and Rio Rancho was the perfect point for a rest. I was so excited to see Amanda and her family, her home, and especially to show my kids where I grew up.

But New Mexico was a long way away from Florida! We got on the road Tuesday morning and made the trek to Ft. Worth, Texas. We'd spend the night there before driving the rest of the way to New Mexico. After our fantastic beach day, wonderful Panera dinner, and a good night's rest we were ready to start making our way home!

We would be driving through the rest of Florida, and then through Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana before landing in Texas. It was quite the moment when we crossed the Mississippi River for the last time! The bridges we crossed each time were just incredible to me. Our rivers in the West are, well, puny compared to the Mighty Mississippi!

It was a long day in the car, but the kids did awesome...again! Still no fights or freak outs! Well, no freak outs from the kids at least. I had some freak outs when I had to drive through that torrential rain all through Louisiana!! At one point I hit standing water during a downpour and I thought for sure we were all dead. But gratefully, we survived. :) From that point forward, any storm clouds on the horizon made me a little stressed.

We finally made it into the Fort Wroth area after 724 miles and just about 11 hours in the car. Sophie was still feeling miserable, and we were all feeling a little, well, off. Meloncholy, maybe? Most of the highlights of our trip were behind us, we were tired of living in the stinky car, Sophie was sick, and we were sick of eating out...but we were more sick of sandwiches from the cooler! We decided to eat at a place called Genghis Grill, thinking it would be similar to our beloved Mongolian BBQ at home. Well, it wasn't. Not even a little bit. It was super disgusting! Mine was legit burned, and Johnny's was nigh inedible. But we were too tired and hungry to complain, so we ate what we could and headed back to the hotel. We got a sufficient night's rest, and then got back in the car for another day of driving.

We were inside of New Mexico's state borders I believe when we finally hit the 4000 mile mark. We had driven 4000 miles with our little kids, and they were making it seem easy! Danny and I talked for a while about what we were doing right with the kids, because we could never have dreamed in our wildest dreams that the trip would have gone so smoothly. It was bewildering though, because we know us. We're not THAT great of parents! And we know our kids...and while they are awesome, NOBODY'S kids are that good!! But we must all be more amazing than we thought, because so far we hadn't even had to threaten to move their clips from the visor, and Joey hadn't cried for more than a few minutes at a time. We were killing this epic road trip thing!

We logged 669 miles and 10 hours in the car when we finally made it into Albuquerque. Because we've never driven that stretch of interstate before, we assumed we would be able to stop somewhere for dinner before getting into ABQ, but we were wrong! We were starving and everyone had to go to the bathroom, so even though we were only 15 minutes from Amanda's house, we had to stop. On Amanda's recommendation, we stopped at Twister's where I had the breakfast burrito I have waited 13 years to have! Danny had some awesome green and red chile burritos, and the kids had burgers and nuggets. But oh, that burrito was as good as I remembered them being! I have definitely missed the food in The 505!

Amanda's current neighborhood isn't that far from the neighborhood I grew up in. In fact, we were literally a block from my old house when we were supposed to turn at a particular intersection, so I diverted us one more time to drive by my old house. It was definitely a trip down memory lane! The front of the house is exactly how it used to be, but someone added onto the back and made the house bigger. I have so many memories in that house. Some are really hard, like my parents' divorce. And some are really good, like the fun times I had there with my boyfriend (who lived across the street) and my best friend. It was an interesting nostalgia for me.

We got to Amanda's house at about 8:00 pm, and it was such a fun reunion! She's come to visit us a couple of times, so the kids were quick to reunite. And the thing about Amanda and me is that it doesn't matter how long we're apart, we can just pick up like no time has passed at all. We're definitely bosom friends!

We only had one day in Rio Rancho, so we had to make the most of our time there. We decided to take a walk in the bosque in the morning before it got too hot. My Spanish-speaking girls thought it was so weird that the names were so plain in New Mexico. The Rio Grande is "big river"...and it wasn't even that big! And "the bosque" might sound exotic, but the girls knew it just meant "the woods". They were honestly a little perplexed! It was kind of funny for me, since they were just the places I grew up in. I had never really given it much thought.

Anyway...the bosque was beautiful in an entirely different way from Georgia. And again, it was good to walk for a couple of miles after two days in the car. Another big plus to all this hiking was that Joey was always happy to be in his pack...which meant Danny and I didn't have to chase him down or entertain him. He was quite the handful when he was set loose in these not-Joey-proof houses!

Danny had class (I know...school during vacation?!) from 12-3, so during that time Amanda and I let the kids play while we visited. Her mom came over, and it was so nice to see her again. I spent so much time at Amanda's house during high school that I just called her parents "Mom and Dad". I wish I had been able to see her dad as well, but it didn't work out this trip. Joey had a blast playing with Lotus, and I think Lotus had at least as much fun playing with Joey! Johnny played with Micheal and Silas (Amanda's nephew), and I don't think I saw him all day. He was loving actually having boys to play with! My girls spent the day on their kindles and reading, as they didn't really have counterparts to play with. It was good for them to have a down day.

There was really only one option for dinner. Dion's! I have suffered, and I mean SUFFERED, through five pregnancies worth of Dion's cravings I couldn't satisfy. This was mine and Amanda's (and basically everyone's) favorite place to eat. Pizza, salads, and subs...and you can get green chile on everything! The pizza is the best, the salads are the freshest, yummiest salads ever, and the subs are amazing. At least, that's how I remembered it. I have told Danny for over a decade how delicious the food is there...and it was as we were walking into the restaurant that I started to panic a bit. What if my memory betrayed me? What if it really wasn't as good as I remembered?! We ordered a pizza with all the fixings, including green chile, and a chef salad. When it came out I was so nervous! I took my first bite of salad, and it was exactly as I remembered!! And the pizza? The best pizza I have ever had. Even Danny agreed. The only bad part is now I really know what I'm missing when I'm over 500 miles away from a Dion's!

After feeding 10 crazy kids at Dion's, we did some souvenir shopping in Bernalillo and then went back to Amanda's house. Danny and I starting getting packed up and organized for the drive home the next day. Well, I mostly talked with Amanda while Danny got us ready to go. :) No matter how much I wanted to delay it, morning eventually came and it was time to say goodbye and head home. I was ready to be home again, but I was sad to leave my friend. One day just wasn't enough! I'm so grateful for Amanda's friendship. I've never found another friend like her...we really are the best of friends. I would be so lonely in my little world of raising kids and cleaning house if I didn't have her to text all day long, every day. It's crazy how much has changed, and all that hasn't, in the 18 years that we've been best friends. Also, these babies of ours and their big brown eyes!!  :)

We drove for another 610 miles, making it home in 11 hours. It was probably the longest-feeling drive of the trip. We had definitely had our fill of being in the car! But believe it or not, those clips of the kids' still hadn't moved. In fact, as much as we were all ready to be out of the car we weren't ready to go back to real life. When we got into the Layton area, I told Danny we should just keep going until we got to the cabin. Island Park was only another four hours of driving, and we had everything we needed in the car! I think I almost convinced him. :) 

When we got to Kaysville, I had a little revelation. I was still marveling at how well the trip had gone, specifically the time in the car. And then it struck me. It wasn't our parenting per se, or how awesome our children are. It was a "bishop blessing"! A legitimate miracle...a tender mercy of the Lord for our family. When we left on vacation, our coffers were empty. We needed time as a family, making good memories and enjoying our time together. And if the time in the car had been awful, it would have ruined the whole trip. We sacrifice a lot of time together so that Danny can serve in his calling, and the Spirit bore witness to me that this was one of the ways our family was blessed for that sacrifice. 

When we finally pulled into our driveway, we were greeted by a whole lot of Utah Utes signs on our garage and front door! Danny was so conflicted. He felt the love...and the nausea. ;) It was good to be home and it felt good to have been missed by our neighbors and ward family.

All in all, we spent 15 days on the road driving 4685.6 miles and spending more than 75 hours in the car. We ended up getting 42 out of 50 state license plates, which we were pretty excited about! I think the high point of that game was when I spotted an Alaska plate in the parking lot of a Chick-fil-a in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. That was pretty cool. :) It was also cool to fill out our map in its entirety and see just how much of the country we drove through and around!

 I can't say enough how amazing this trip was. Everyone thought we were crazy. Heck, WE thought we were crazy! But I'd do it again in a heartbeat. In fact, we decided we need to head towards Ohio and Palmyra next summer. This was a trip we will all remember for the rest of our lives, well, except for Joseph. :) I'm so grateful for the means we have in money and time-off to have taken a trip like this. I'm grateful for family and friends that housed us. I'm so grateful for a patient husband who actually wanted to go on a grand adventure with his little kids. And I'm so grateful for my children, who are really quite incredible and so so much fun to be with. There were so many times on this trip, often when Danny was sleeping and I was driving, where I felt a lightness and happiness to my heart that I haven't felt in a very, very long time. We missed Luke, but I know we will share our memories of this trip someday. More on that later. :) 

Best. Epic. Road. Trip. Ever!