Cross-Country Road Trip

 

In an unusual style for us, we decided at the minute to make a cross-country road trip.  We started out with a few target dates and areas, but beyond that, we lived day by day and mile by mile.  This was a beautiful adventure.  We often called it our "once in a lifetime" vacation.

Unfortunately, our oldest daughter still living at home, wasn't able to join us.  This was the hardest part of this journey and constantly weighed heavily on us with each new state line we crossed without her.  Thankfully, she was in good company with her older sisters.  They teamed together to keep our home and animals company while we were gone.  We decided in "Flat Stanley" style to take our "Flat" daughter along with us!

Since this was travel during this continued pandemic, we knew that flexibility was necessary and so was our health.  We prepared the best we could - lots of face masks, sanitizing laundry soaps and sprays, and washing our hands.   We learned early on that many fast food places would NOT let us use the restroom - even if we were buying food.   Walmarts, Targets, and Starbucks became our pit stops.  We cautiously checked into each hotel, by entering and spraying it down with Lysol, turning on the AC, then leaving to go get dinner to bring back to the room after letting the Lysol do its job.  I can now say that this method worked nicely as we remained healthy and avoided the dreaded virus.

We found a handful of little places, like this gas station in New Mexico with an old automobile and horse wagon sitting off to the side.

Pistachioland was one of the stops that the signs on the road lured us into.  And we have no regrets!  Those bags of pistachios were sooo good and we enjoyed them all across country and back again.

Not that we are into aliens and such, but Roswell was just one of those cities that if you are going to travel nearby, it was a place to see.

It was the town that we got stuck staying in, but didn't get to see much.  As we were walking around downtown, a thunderstorm was brewing.  When the thunder started roaring and the lightening flashed, we quickly decided to get a hotel and just let the storm pass.  It was a downpour!  Being from a drought ridden area, this was fun to watch out of a large hotel window.  When the rain let up a bit, we enjoyed some really good frozen yogurt.  Along our adventures, little H and I tried to find really good frozen yogurt places.