On the road

Yup, we decided to be brave and hit the road, and we are now officially on it, staying the night in a motel in Mesquite, Nevada, just across the Arizona border. It's a little overwhelming and periodically throughout the day I wonder what I'm doing, but it's fun too. Trying to take things one day at a time, the way the boos do -- although several times a day they talk about how they're looking forward to seeing their Aunt Baba, which isn't going to happen for over a week. Also, they ask me to recite the trip, where are we going next, where after that, etc. And when I get to Baba, Kid B adds "And Nonny too," with great satisfaction. So I guess they do think more than one day ahead, but most of the time they live in the moment.

The first day, Tuesday, was a bit challenging. We discovered, almost 40 miles from home, that I'd left my cell phone charger at home. I didn't want to turn around and drive 40 miles back, and then 40 miles back again, especially when we'd gotten such a late start. "Maybe it's time to get a smart phone," Rocket Boy suggested. "But I have $220 on this phone!" I wailed. (I don't use my phone much, and the minutes slowly build up over the months.) Finally we decided that we would email our cat-sitter and ask him to overnight it to my niece's house in LA, where we will be on Saturday.

Although we were only driving to Grand Junction that first night (about 250 miles from Boulder), the twins asked me when we would get there about 500 times. We set up our GPS with the hotel address, even though all we were doing was driving I-70, and it counted down the miles and the minutes, so I could give the twins an answer (all 500 times). I-70 across Colorado is so beautiful, and I kept noticing that I had a silly grin on my face. I love road trips, despite all their challenges.

Finally we arrived at the hotel, went swimming, got some dinner, emailed our cat-sitter, and  passed out. Actually, the truth is that we couldn't get the twins to go to sleep. FINALLY we calmed them down by deciding we would each sleep with one twin (instead of having them "sleep" together and fight). We all went to bed around 10:30 and I woke up at 6:30, quite refreshed. Leaving the others to sleep, I went to the lobby and had breakfast. Here they are, still asleep:

We got on the road again about 9 am -- later than I wanted, but still, not bad. I love the drive between Grand Junction and Mesquite. I-70 across eastern Utah is so amazing, though we couldn't get the twins to pay attention to the scenery. Growing up in Colorado and the Eastern Sierra they think magnificent mountains and rock formations are the norm, not something worthy of comment. Here we are at a rest stop:

It's a long long drive though -- we drove 432 miles today. With about 90 miles to go, we stopped in Cedar City, Utah, got some snacks and coffee at a bakery, and went to a great park that just happened to be across the street. Here are the twins on a neat bit of play equipment:

We finally got to the hotel in Mesquite around 6pm, had a makeshift dinner at the diner next door, and then went in the swimming pool for an hour. And now I am so tired I can hardly see straight. The twins are in pjs, watching Disney Junior, Rocket Boy is almost asleep, and I need to take a shower and hit the sack too.

Tomorrow we venture into the true desert. I feel funny about that -- I'd like to write about it more, but I'm too tired to find the words. Maybe tomorrow night, or more likely the night after, I'll write a bit more. So strange to be returning to the place we escaped last year, but it feels important and necessary too. I know, too, that I need to go back now. In five or seven years it won't matter as much -- we won't remember as much, people won't remember us -- but right now it matters.