Home Sweet Home~ My own bed, my own pillows, back to sleeping naked ahhhh! Sigh of relief!

Well, the trip to Arizona in a nutshell...

We, left here around 9:30 am, an hour and a half behind schedule by the time we stopped for gas and air in the tires and breakfast and some medicine for my son who had a runny nose and we drove... About an hour into it we see this accident that had just happened. It was one lane on an interchange from one freeway to another and they had these cement barriers up along the sides because they are doing construction there and there is this SUV poised carefully ON one of these barriers It's back passenger wheel was up on the barrier and the other back tire hanging in mid air and the front end on the ground... I have NO idea how a car would even get into that position unless you dropped it from the sky, but whatever. Everyone appeared to be fine as they all piled out looking in wonder at their car and probably wondering how they were gonna get it down again.

Then it pretty much goes like this... cactus, cactus, dirt, cactus, dirt, casino, cactus,... I think you can sense the pattern here. But I did see 2 bilboards as we were driving that were so funny that I actually wrote it down in my trusty notebook that I was using to write Chapter 18 since I was passengering, not driving. The first one said... Warm Hugs, Hot Slots! Obviously for a casino but it was funny and the other one said... Tall, outdoorsy type seeking relationship, call Lamar and a phone number... and Rich was like... Dude, is that a personal add?! It looked like it, but as we kept on driving we saw another one similiar and then he noticed that all the bilboards say Lamar on the bottom and I decided it was a clever advertisement for bilboard space, the bilboard of course being tall and outdoors...

So we get through there and pass through Palm Springs and 29 Palms and I waved at a friend as we drove through and then to the border where we stopped for lunch and Rich is grinning and I ask him what's up and he points to the hotel there and we stayed there which we did... Before we get back in the car Rich notices that they sell tapes there and so we go to look for one for the stretches of 'no radio stations' cause he doesn't really like the 3 I had in the car already and I found Bad Boy Ballads 2! And after I make him go buy it he says... this never leaves the car! Back in the car... and my son went back to sleep and slept most of the trip... we get to Bette's about 6.5 hours later and see my daughter for the first time in 10 days We visited for a little bit and then get back in the car and went to visit another friend in the area I knew and then after she fed us some GREAT tamales for dinner we get in the car and drive 3.5 hours further to the big town near Rich's aunt and uncles house. We got there at 11:30 pm and checked into our hotel for the night.

Next morning I am up at 6 and get everyone ready and packed up and we go find a Denny's for breakfast and then drive the 25 more miles to their house which ends up being about 25 mikes from the border of New Mexico. They live in this little house with a wood burning stove for a heater on 10 acres of nothingness and the town is 25 miles away!!! So we visit for about an hour and then head over to the church for the memorial service where Rich's uncle is the pastor. It was really great, his grandpa was in the Air Force in World War II so they did the whole flag presentation and the 21 gun salute and the bugler played Taps... needless to say there were tears! Then they asked if anyone had any memeories to share and after most of the 10 brothers and sisters his grandpa had spoke, Rich's cousin went up there and... MORE TEARS! I did realize though that he looks a lot like Val Kilmer...

Then they had a little luncheon there at the church and we all sat around and talked. There are these drawings in the church we were looking at and I laughed because the artists name was Milo! I got a text from Kevin Rich's other cousin, the one with the six kids that lives there on the same property as her parents is pregnant again! She has a 16, 13, 9, 6, 3, 2, and one on the way and she home schools them... The 16 year ols was telling me that she is learning algebra right now on video and I was like... I took it twice with a real teacher and I STILL don't get it! So we hang out and Rich took the kids for a walk down their property to an Indian Cave and then we had dinner altogether and we finally left there around 7pm to head back to Bette's for the night.

We get to Bette's around 11 pm and put my son to bed since he was asleep already, and then visit some more and then decide we are gonna go pass out too... woke up, got a text from my sweetie and we had breakfast and then packed and then we went downtown to old Scottsdale to the Indian shops there and looked around and got the kids some souveniers and some lunch and then we went back to Bette's for a little while and then got back in the car for the 6.5 hour drive home. Needless to say, we now are quite familiar with every rest stop from here to Phoenix since my son needed to use the bathroom every 5 minutes! Waved on my way back through 29 Palms again and we stopped in Blythe at a Del Taco for dinner where some teenage boy took a picture of my daughter with his cell phone and there were like 2o kids out there about 14 or 15 years old skateboarding in the parking lot... We got home at 10:45 last night and my sister even cleaned the house while I was gone

So I got 12 pages written, but I'm sure that typed it's only like 5 and I type sooooooooooooooo slowly anyway... but I worked on it, I promise...

SO glad to be home again! Yay!

Hugs,

Viv