After a long pause in blogging, I am finally finishing the series of our cross country move. After leaving Sunny, Southern California and good friends, we headed toward the dessert. We actually passed through three kinds of dessert in a short period of time by going through Joshua Tree National Park. These are Joshua Trees. It was our first trip into the dessert, not including stays in Phoenix, which we flew into and out of four years before. The scenes are truly amazing and like nothing else I have ever seen. I especially liked this one.
We saw many other kinds of cacti and made a nice friend. My husband saw a tarantula hawk, which is a very large wasp with one of the most painful stings of all stinging bugs. He back away. We had a little adventure of almost running out of gas and having to leave the park via the northeast gate rather than the southeast. It was good that I turned that way because there were no gas stations out the southeast gate, so had we made it to the gate we would have still been in trouble! But we lived and continued to drive all the way to Phoenix, to see Aunt Lucy and Uncle Jonny! Also, Hans and Tivo.
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| This is Milli looking at Hans. She loves puppies! |
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| Milli was a little water baby! She was completely unafraid. |
Besides swimming, we also hung out with our favorite southwestern family members and ate some really good food! This is Pappadeaux's- Cajan seafood. So good. It's both these boys' favorite. Milli really liked the baskets hanging from the ceiling.
Jonny and Lucy always treat guests like they are running a resort- wonderful rooms, a workout room that is open 24 hours, a pool and spa, great food, relaxing atmosphere, good conversation, and some entertainment.
Milli showed off her mad walking skills a little reluctantly. She was a big hit with the aunt and uncle, who are about to become grandparents, so they needed the practice! The dogs were a big hit with Milli. She giggled and squealed ever time one came into the room. They are giant dogs but so gentle with her.
Notice that Milli is moving in both these pictures. She is at that stage now.
Edward had some downtime with a video game. Now that is a vacation!
The last time Edward and I were in Phoenix was the year before we got married. That was also the last time I saw my aunt and uncle. It didn't seem like three years had past, but so much has changed. We have texted a bit and talked on the phone on holidays, but there was so much more to say and catch up on. Lucy and I were almost always talking and Jonny tried to get a few words in, too. Ed was happy to be alone or with the dogs, although he told me later that he really felt closer to my uncle this trip. Maybe because the first time he was the boyfriend being judged!
Lucy turned 50 while we were there, so we got to celebrate with her. There was a pre-present of flowers and a devotional but the real gift was under the box: a family Bible with Lucy's name embossed on the front! It was opened to this page, which is just my uncle's sense of humor. There was also a lovely book stand for it to sit on. Lucy was pretty excited about it. It was the one she has asked for. We spent the evening with her brother and sister celebrating the wonder that is Lucy! We also went out for some Italian food, of course.
After five days with our beloved family, we continued our journey East. We drove through the Guadeloupe Mountains and stopped at the national park office there. We have really collected some national park visits over the past 2 years. I should have bought one of their passports- it could be 1/3 full by now. Oh well.
Our next destination was Carlsbad Caverns. We had to swing into Texas for a night first and heard our first "Ya'll." But more on Texas later.
Above is the opening to the caverns. What is really amazing is that they were discovered by a 16 year old boy in 1898. He went into them, built ladders and lit torches to see. He explored the caves for years before anyone believe they existed. It made me wonder what his parents thought when they discovered where he had been going and what he had been doing! If Milli tries anything that crazy on her own, I think we will have to have words- and some grounding! As it was, Milli was not having much fun in the caverns. And they echo. But there were lots of teenagers there that day, so she was not the noisiest.
It took me awhile to figure out how to get good pictures in the caverns. If you remember, we bought our camera on day one of our trip, so I didn't know how to use all of its settings yet. Also, I have never been in caverns like this before. Some of the pictures came out pretty good. And some of them showed colors you couldn't see with the naked eye.
We spent all afternoon in the caverns, watched several hawks circle outside and then headed back to Texas, due East this time.
We stopped to eat in Odessa, Texas. It wasn't originally on our route, but we weren't far away and I couldn't resist going there if only to say, "Save the cheerleader, save the world!" We really went there because the internet told us there was a Red Lobster in town and nowhere else within a hundred miles. Unfortunately, they were without power, so we settled for this place because it had the fullest parking lot. Good choice! After filling up, we headed to Colorado City, to spend the night. That was really the last of our trip. The next day we arrived in Longview around 3pm. It was a long two weeks full of fun and friends. Hopefully, we will be staying put for a while.
