Over the Mountains....

Over the mountains and through the desert to California we go!!!

I woke up this morning, packed the car, woke the children, and then retrieved the paper to peruse while the kids readied themselves for departure. On the front page of the paper was a sticky note  with Wyndham letterhead, that had a quote on it. In all the times we have stayed with Wyndham and received the newspaper-- never before has it had a quote on it. This was no ordinary quote-- I felt upon reading it that it was a sign from something greater. Now keep in mind-- this was no ordinary day either-- this was the scheduled California arrival day-- So the quote read " Find what makes you happy and go there". I couldn't believe my eyes!!! Talk about coincidence-- or a greater force reinforcing the draw I feel to California!! So I folded it up and put it in my wallet for safe keeping, and off we went.

We made such good time and in our route took us right along the Mexico border. We actually had to go through U.S. border patrol stops 3 times. The first time I panicked, I thought I made a wrong turn. The agent asked what we were doing so far from home, and all that could come out of mouth was " are we entering Mexico?" He said No and then I calmed down and told him about the road trip. He asked if we had any fruits or vegetables??? The kids were confused-- I said we just had a zucchini and some  strawberries, and he told us to have a good vacation. Weird!!

One of the stop points.

 The kids thought seeing the desert was so cool, like in the movies! You could see for miles and miles.

 Look at that price-- no your eyes are not deceiving you! We really paid only $3.29 a gallon for gas in AZ . Needless to say-- we filled the tank!!

The temperature on our travels today reached an amazing 113 degrees!

We saw a ton of this along our journey on the road that seemed to lead to nowhere for most of the day until....

We came upon this sign! I was so happy to see it I almost cried. I thought for sure there would 

be a welcome center to pose in front of a pretty sign, but no such luck. I guess we did just

enter the state through the dessert!

I was really worried that driving here would be tough , that it would be a severely congested area, but thank goodness, it was surprisingly easy. Plus the people turned out to be extra nice. We were moved to a more spacious room as well, the kids got along all day -- without turning on the stupid TV, so life is good!!