Hiee from my old haunt in Farmersville! 

We flew in yesterday. Flights went smoothly, except for the fact that on the long flight they played "Lucky You". Blegh, it's like a sports coming of age movie about the most boring activity widely promoted as a sport, Baseball Texas Hold'em. It's a self-gratifying look at the practice. Plus the main character goes from an impulsive compulsive gambler to a calculating compulsive gambler, and that is to tug my heart strings? Bah...

This day has been weird. For the past six months, well, for the past four years, there has been forward motion. I know where I wanted to do, and did what I needed to prepare for it. Of course, the pace has sped up over the past few weeks, culminating in the packing and the flying and the everything. And now, everything I can do has been done. Sure, it's just for a day, but still. It's a completely empty day, not only of activities, but also of the constant heading towards the goal. It's just a weird lull, an extra day. 

I should probably just sleep through it...

More news tomorrow...Woo, that's gonna be fun.

Hello from "beautiful" Johnstown, Colorado! Sorry no post last night, my techopathy weakens at high altitude.

So, we left the hotel in Colorado Springs to go get breakfast. My dad received a free breakfast at a diner for being retired military, so we went there. My stomach felt like it was either hungry or nauseous, turned out it was the former, thank the Lord. After a nice Irish egg benedict, we left for Johnstown. We hit Denver after some nice but forgettable scenery. It's a very nice, new, modern city, lots of shopping malls and other urban sprawl, but y'know, what do you expect. At least it was pretty urban sprawl. We were throwing a surprise party for my aunt, so we called her and told her we were in a traffic jam while we arrived at my cousin's house. I got to see my cousin's wife and kids. I haven't seen them in a year and a half, so their six-month-old who was learning how to crawl last time I saw her now was talking! We also saw their newborn, who was born August 1st. He was schedukled for the 10th for a C-section, but he decided to be contrary. He was a nice, quiet baby. After wrapping some gifts, we left for our aunt's condo (The next subdivision over, Johnstown is pretty much a hick town surrounded by brand-new subdivisons.) We got here, and I find out that the surprise party is for my dad as well. We wrapped gifts for him too and we left for "pizza at my cousin's". We got there and my aunt saw the gifts and said, "smart-alecks". We had mediocre hick town pizza and I played with my little second cousin. We played "grass-walk" where we would walk along the same stretch of rock in their backyard and when we encountered a weed, we would jump over it. The ones that were too big for her I picked her up and placed her over it. It was a little repetitive but it was fun. I spent some more time with her and then we had cake and presents. My dad got a bunch of B&N giftcards and my aunt got some glass stuff and old pictures from us. Then, since my dad had never seen it, we watched an episode of Dora the Explorer. Previously, my dad asked what it was, and I, having seen a couple episodes, explained it to him. It creeped out my cousin's wife (first cousin, once removed?). Oh well. Late that night, we left and finally got to bed. 

The next day, today, we woke up early to get to church in Boulder with one of my Mom's friends from elementary school. We got there way early and met them. It was a traditional service and the preacher had this affected style of speech, a mix between a victorian schoolmarm and an Bostonian fish-monger, that made it really hard to follow along with his message. Afterwards, we had coffee and goodies and got stuck in the bible study, which wasn't horrible, seeing as the pastor used his regular voice with that. We went with my mom's friend and her husband to an old Chitaqua park to have brunch. It was a buffet, so they have every way you can make eggs, bread goods, including "biscuits" that were really either extremely dry biscuits or scones. Same Difference. My mom and her friend waxed nostalgic about the old times for a couple hours, which was interesting, because a lot of the stories involved crying children. I dropped a knife off the ten-foot high patio we were eating on by accident. After brunch, we went to their house, in Superior. We got a lot of pictures of signs like, "Superior Marketplace," "Superior Liquor Store," etc. They had a cat and tarts and more stories. We finally got on a subject I could chime in on, alternative energy, and then they had to leave. We went the wrong way home, stopped at a starbucks to sooth that embarrasment and my dad accidentally went down to a bus depot. We got back in one piece some how and here we are. I am watching stupid movies with my sister, a nice break from constant travel. 

Talk to you tomorrow!

Itinerary

-          Day 1, Wednesday, August 1st (San Luis Obispo-Flagstaff, AZ)

0830: Leave House

1330: Stop in Barstow, CA for gas and lunch.

1430: Leave Barstow

1930: Arrive in Flagstaff, AZ

2000: Eat Dinner in Downtown Flagstaff

2130: Arrive at Hotel

-          Day 2, Thursday, August 2nd (Flagstaff, AZ-Albuquerque, NM)

0800: Leave for Petrified Forest Nat’l Park (PFNP)

1000: Arrive at PFNP Visitor Center, Museum

1100: See Painted Desert

1145: Drive down to see Petrified forest

1300: Leave PFNP

1545: Arrive in Albuquerque

1600: Visit the National Atomic Museum (Closes at 1700)

1700: Explore Old Town Albuquerque

1900: Dinner in Old Town Albuquerque

2030: Leave for Hotel

-          Day 3, Friday, August 3^rd (Albuquerque, NM-Johnstown, CO)

0900: Leave for Santa Fe

1015: Visit Georgia O’Keefe Museum

1230: Find Lunch around Downtown Santa Fe

1330: Visit Museum of New Mexico

1600: Leave for Johnstown

2000: Get Gas and have dinner around Colorado Springs

2300: Arrive in Johnstown

-          Day 4, Saturday, August 4^th (Johnstown, CO)

Visit with Aunt, Cousin and Cousin's Wife and Kid and newborn!

Aunt’s Birthday Party

-          Day 5, Sunday, August 5^th (Johnstown, CO)

Church at Colleen’s

Visit with Colleen

-          Day 6, Monday, August 6^th (Johnstown, CO)

Spend time with family
 

-          Day 7, Tuesday, August 7^th (Johnstown, CO-Salt Lake City, UT)

1000: Leave Johnstown

1130: Arrive in Laramie

1400: Leave Laramie

1700: Stop in Rock Springs for gas and dinner

1830: Leave Rock Springs

2130: Arrive at Hotel at Salt Lake City

-          Day 8, Wednesday, August 8^th (Salt Lake City, UT)

0930: Leave hotel

1100: Arrive at Antelope Island

1330: Leave Antelope Island

1500: Come back to the hotel for showers

1700: Head out to Downtown

1800: Explore Downtown and eat dinner

2000: Head back to hotel

-          Day 9, Thursday, August 9^th (Salt Lake City, UT-Kanab, UT)

0900: Leave Hotel

1200: Stop for Lunch in Cove Fort

1300: Get back on Road

1500: Arrive at Bryce Canyon Nat’l Park Visitor Center

1900: Leave Bryce Canyon

2030: Arrive in Kanab, UT and check into hotel

-          Day 10, Friday, August 10^th (Grand Canyon)

During the Day: Go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

Night: Celebrate Dad’s Birthday in Kanab

-          Day 11, Saturday, August 11^th (Zion Nat’l Park-St. George, UT)

1000: Leave Hotel

1100: Arrive at Zion NP

1730: Leave Zion NP

1900: Arrive at St. George

2000: Have dinner and explore St. George

-          Day 12, Sunday, August 12^th (St. George, UT-Las Vegas, NV)

Go to Church in St. George

1400: Leave St. George

1600: Arrive in Las Vegas

-          Day 13, Monday, August 13^th (Las Vegas, NV)

1000: Leave Hotel

1130: See Hoover Dam

1400: Come back to Las Vegas

-          Day 14, Tuesday, August 14^th (Las Vegas, NV-San Luis Obispo, CA)    

Hello from Flagstaff, Arizona! Today was the first day of my family's big road trip! It was a very successful day and very interesting. 

We started out at 9:30, an hour late from my intinerary, due to packing procrastination. We drove up to Paso Robles and dropped off our doggie at my grandparent's, staying to talk for a half an hour. So, we were an hour and a half late. I was a little worried. We drove out 46 past Shandon all the way to Wasco. Which was 80% almond trees and desert. Very monotonous. Even so, there were a lot of oil dinosaurs near Wasco and there was some nice scenery (A little at least). My dad, who was driving, was really tired, so I switched with him. I drove through Barfersfield and reached the mountains by Tehachapi. Those were really cool. Lots of oak trees and windy roads, very fun. Then we hit the giant windmill farm near Tehachapi. There were so many! Very cool. You could really tell when you hit the leeward side of the mountians, the oaks replaced by Joshua Trees and the brown grass turned into sand. The Mojave desert was nice, lots of cool landforms and fauna. We even past Boron! We stopped in Barstow, ate at a Starbuck's. After a while, we came to Needles, which is named for the Needle Mountian, a really cool feature. Also, I went over the Colorado river for the first time! Yay! We stopped at a rest stop near Yucca, Arizona. One of the coolest place along the way(Interstate 40) was just before Kingman, there were a plethora of buttes and mesas, it was really cool. We drove through the Kiebab National Forest, while my sister and I tried to sing 99 bottles of beer on the wall (We were pretty brain-dead at the time, so it was slightly hilarious). We stopped in Williams, Arizona, a little mountian town, for gas and saw some interesting signs. We drove to our hotel in Flagstaff, with lightning in the distance. It was a really cool day. 

Sorry for the weird language, I'm really tired at the moment. I'll post the intinerary so y'all know where I will be.

Also, pray for the people in St. Paul. It's a horrible thing that happened. 

Talk to you tomorrow