I really despise driving all night. It wasn't bad from 5-7, but boy am I tired. It doesn't help that it's so dry down here that my eyes feel like sandpaper. (Now I remember why I don't want to live here). We decided to take a slightly different route through northern Arizona to drive through Monument Valley. We had planned to pull in and pay to do the self-guided tour, but saw many formations from our drive on 163 and decided not to. It would've been nice to have the map beforehand to be able to identify the monuments, but it [View Full Entry]

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We've got a list. The clothes are in. We're going to forget something, because we always do. I feel bad leaving right after work because it leaves Jeff to do all the packing. Okay, maybe I don't feel so bad. The boys have been in Texas once. It was another spoke vacation, staying near Canyon Lake and taking day trips to Houston, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Austin. We also stopped in Dallas on the way down and back (so we could see the Packers play at Texas Stadium). Jeff and I drove through northern Texas on Route 66. We saw [View Full Entry]

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The boys have been lovely so far. Jeff tells me Cole was in a huge mood for most of the day, so why is it that he is an angel once we are on vacation. Is it actually not our boys and us who are the problem? The car is telling us we will get to Scottsdale tomorrow evening after 11. It is going to be a miserable day if that’s true. I even got out of work 45 minutes early, thanks to all my appointments coming early, bless their hearts. We’re going a different direction than originally planned, too, putting [View Full Entry]

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It's 42 and overcast right now, limiting my desire to do much. It's supposed to get to 98 in Scottsdale today and be 80s all week in southern New Mexico. Sigh. We will spend the majority of this trip in New Mexico, seeing most of the NPS sites we haven't gotten to yet. As I mentioned yesterday, we did some in 2004 while driving through on Route 66. Specifically, we visited Ft Union, Petroglyph, and Bandelier (where we first saw Abert's squirrels). We also spent a day in and around Santa Fe, disappointed that we couldn't tour the Los Alamos National [View Full Entry]

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When planning this trip, I thought working Monday and Tuesday made sense. Leaving as soon as possible after work and driving 24 hours made sense. What on earth was I thinking? (Jeff just helpfully suggested a different schedule would be nice.) It's not that I don't mostly enjoy what I do, but I want to be gone. Yesterday it was 70+ here and sunny. Today's good, too, but tomorrow it won't get above 50 and it's supposed to rain. We should be gone. But we're not. So instead, I'm exploring travelblog.org. Some of the posts are really interesting and people are [View Full Entry]

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