After a full day yesterday, our plans were to hit the road to get us to
Flagstaff for the night.  And in spite of our plans for this day to be
uneventful...well, let's just say today went from a vacation to an adventure...

This rabbit was just outside our hotel window in Las Cruces, NM before
we checked out.  We took the kids to the window and told them this was
the second half of our zoo trip.


Gas lines at Sam's Club...we found them consistently cheaper.  At one
Sam's it was over 20 cents a gallon cheaper than the station next door...
and I mean right next door...even their parking lots touched. 


Tabby trying to get a closer view at 65 mph...


This is our stop at the Arizona Welcome Center Rest Area. 
Here we ate lunch and spent about 45 minutes relaxing. 
When the boys were climbing this tree, Luke warned them
to watch out for the "bird helpings" that were on the
branches...when we laughed, he realized he should have
said "droppings."  Call them what you want, Luke said
they still taste the same...


Before we left, we saw some scorpions and poisonous
snakes putting up a similar sign that said, "Nine crazy
kids are inhabiting this area."


These next three pictures let me know that the
kids must have needed some space.  I took these
all within about 2 minutes of each other and about
5 minutes after we pulled in to this rest area...
Here's Daniel...and then Michal...and then Thomas...




A train going right by our rest stop...we tried to get Nana
on it but it was moving too fast...


Tabby-Doozer eating her lunch...Gracie and Jacob
were feeling sick during this part of the trip.


The A/C went out right after we left this rest stop...
we drove about an hour and a half through the
Arizona desert to get to Tuscon...windows down,
drinking lots of water. Here, Jeff at Aamco put on
a new condensor for us...


After a four hour unexpected stop in Tuscon...we
headed back on the road.  While the van was
being worked on, I dropped Lori, Nana and the
kids off at a mall about 3 miles away.  They just
wanted air conditioning.  I found out later that
when I left them, the mall was closed so they
went next door to Target and then went to a
Chic-Fil-A for a couple of hours.  The management
at Chic-Fil-A was extremely helpful and hospitable
by letting them stay until I could come back.  They
took an interest in our family, and were very friendly
and understanding.  We were grateful for their kindness. 
This picture below was from a rest stop that was filled
with creatures.  There were birds and roaches and ants
all around the vending machines.  It was scary.  Also,
around the sidewalks there were about 3 or 4 mice
that jumped around...they were actually kind of cute. 
So we woke up all the kids and told them the zoo
reopened and they should come see the mice...



I get the feeling that Daddy isn't funny at rest stops at 11:45 pm...


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