Gorging on Vacation

Monday was technically the *REAL* first day of my sabbatical. I would say it was strange not going to work, but it wasn’t. The phantom vibrations from my phone have almost subsided, and I am successfully detoxing from email. I still pull out my phone out of reflex and start putting in my passcode before I realize I have NOTHING TO DO ON MY PHONE.  I find the nearest bird or flower and take a picture so that I don’t look foolish. 

We woke up at 6am to get everyone ready to head down to the Royal Gorge Railroad. This has been the most beautiful part of our trip so far. The Royal Gorge, also called the Grand Canyon of Arkansas, is a canyon on the Arkansas River near Cañon City, Colorado. With a width of 50 feet at its base and a few hundred feet at its top, and a depth of 1,250 feet in places, the 10-mile-long canyon is a narrow, steep gorge through the granite of Fremont Peak. It is one of the deepest canyons in Colorado. Ok, so maybe my memory isn’t *THAT* great and maybe I got that from Wikipedia.

Anyway, there is some great history with the railroad and the Royal Gorge. In the late 1800s, there were two main railroad companies that were competing to put tracks in the Royal Gorge, which was so narrow in some points that it could only fit one set of tracks. The railroad companies actually hired gunmen to fight it out and win control of the Gorge. And our parents tell us that our generation is violent. Sheesh!  Eventually, lawyers got involved, as they are wont to do, and all the fun gun fighting and sabotaging ended with the Denver and Rio Grande in control of the Royal Gorge.

Haley, Emily, Connor (who doesn't smile in pictures...teenage boys are too cool for that), Kristin, Kayla, Ashley, and Sherri

Ashley (and her Train Conductor rubber ducky), Haley, and Emily. Good thing I'm not a sucker for souvenirs. 

This would be a great picture if someone's fat head wasn't in the way.

Very cool suspension bridge

Old dude panning for gold. I couldn't tell if this guy was real or if they put him here for ambiance. He sure looked real.

As you can see, the train ride was absolutely gorge-eous. And, I limited myself to 27 gorge jokes during the ride. The ride is set up to where you go out in the gorge about an hour, stop for a bit, and come back the same way.  After the halfway point, the girls disappeared from the open car and went back to our seats. I went to find them and they were playing on their phones.  I told them that they were missing all of nature’s beauty. They informed me that since we went out the same way, that they had already seen all of it. It was kind of hard to argue that.

When we got back to the train station, we found a nearby park to hang out in and eat the picnic lunch we had packed.

The girls found some geese that had obviously been fed by humans a few times.

That evening, Sherri’s cousins, Eric and Chris, Eric’s wife Amy, Chris’s wife Tia, and Chris & Tia’s kids Peyton and Brayden joined us for a barbeque (I don't know why they call this stuff Hamburger Helper....it does just fine by itself, huh?).  It was great to see them and to meet Tia for the first time. We also got to meet Zeus, Eric and Amy’s dog. That dog has more energy than the kids who were tearing around the house. We are really happy that we have been able to see so many of our friends and family on this trip.

Kayla, Emily, Haley, Ashley, Sherri, Eric (with Zeus!), me, Tia, Peyton, Brayden, Chris, Kristin, Connor (with Casey), Noah, Steven, Amy

Zeus!

We're setting our alarms for WHEN?!

Sunday morning was an early one. We roused the kids out of bed at about 5:30am (4:30am Phoenix time!). They were still tired from staying up so late the night before, but they were troopers. We grabbed breakfast at the hotel and hit the road at about 6:30.  We crossed our second state line at about 9am

We have made many stops for gas so far. As I pump twenty dollar bills into the tank, I marvel at myself for how brilliant I was by getting the cargo thing on the top. It’s like I said to myself, “Self, this vehicle is ginormous and the gas mileage is terrible. Is there something we could do to make it worse?” God I’m a genius.

We got into Castle Rock, Colorado at about 12:30pm. My sister-in-law, Kristin, her husband Noah, my niece Kayla, and my nephews Connor and Steven live there. It is great that we get spend some time with them.  After lunch, we headed out to Littleton, Colorado, which is about 30 minutes away from Castle Rock. Ron and JoAnn, the parents of my best man at my wedding, live there. They used to live right around the corner from my family when I lived in Albuquerque, and I have known them for about 35 years. I spent almost as much time at their house as I did my own. I probably owe them thousands of dollars for groceries...is there a statute of limitations for that kind of thing? Their daughter and her family were at the house, too. We spent a couple of hours there, and it was wonderful to catch up with them. We will be meeting up with their son Scott, my best man, when we pass through Portland.

Ashley, Haley, Rita (Scott's sister,), Eric (Rita's husband), Katie (Eric&Rita's daughter), Ron (Scott's dad), Keith (Eric&Rita's son), me, JoAnn (Scott's mom), Sherri, Emily

After we got back, we had some yummy lasagna that Kristin made for us. When that settled, Haley, Kayla, and I decided to go on a run. Connor rode his bike alongside us. I haven’t been running in quite a while, but the fear of getting dusted by a 12 and 15 year old (and subsequently heckled by my 13 year old nephew) got me moving.  The weather was beautiful, and I spent some time not missing the Phoenix heat. We ran three miles and I managed to keep up with them. I spent most of the time running right next to Haley, and we had some great quality time together. I feel so blessed to be getting this time with my family.  

Are we there yet?

Saturday morning was a bit surreal. Typically, I wake up and blearily look at my phone to see if there are any urgent issues at work.  Zero emails.  I had turned off my work email the night before at 12:08am after tying up all the loose ends. My sabbatical had officially started.

For the past year or so (and daily over the past three months), I would tell the girls, “Uh oh….bad news….they cancelled our sabbatical.”  It got to the point where I would say, “Uh oh….bad news…” and they would groan and say, “we know….they cancelled sabbatical.” Aren’t my kids lucky?  As we were packing the car, I came outside to a huge banner they made:

If you could see the detail in this banner….the canoes, the sun with the goatee, the different state landmarks, the kids fishing, the campfire, and tons more…you would agree that it was worth all the groans. These kids are so creative and I really appreciate all the work they put into this. And of course, I appreciate their ringleader, my wife.

We didn’t push off until about 9am. Sherri was kind enough to let me sleep in a little bit, and then we spent a good amount of time packing the family truckster. Earlier this week, we took a look at the cavernous inside of our Excursion, which could probably fit a Hyundai inside of it, and thought that we could use another 20 cubic feet. So we went to Sears and got a cargo container to strap on the top. 

Have you ever had to pack for a four week trip? Neither have we. I hope we didn’t forget anything. But if we did, I have no idea where we would have put it anyway.

We were on the road for a very, very long time (about 35 miles or so) when Emily asked, “How long have we been driving?”  Half an hour, Emily, half an hour. We stopped at mile 97 for a bathroom break and it was, “Are we there??” 193 miles in: “Are we there yet?”  The good news is that we only have about eleventy billion more miles to drive.

We crossed our first state line at about 2pm:

We arrived in Albuquerque at about 5:00pm and met my family for dinner. It was great to see everyone, and the kids got to see their cousins, Alexa and Alyssa, who are growing like weeds. Alexa plays golf, drives a car now (watch out!) and works at a golf course. She is going to be a Junior in high school next year and is already looking at colleges. Alyssa is going into the 7^th grade (same age as Haley) and also plays golf. It was also great to see my parents and sisters, and I wish we would have been able to see my oldest sister’s kids.

(Tandi (my older sister), Cindy (my mom), Roger (my dad), Alexa (my niece), Traci (my oldest sister), Alyssa (my niece), Emily, Haley, me, Ashley, Sherri)

After dinner, we went to my old neighborhood. It was a lot of fun, but everything looked so small. This was my world when I was a kid, and it seemed so much bigger when I was a little punk riding my bike around the block.  Also, a bit of trivia for my PayPal peeps….James B and I were talking one time and I found out that he lived in Albuquerque for a few years, went to the same elementary school I did (at the same time) and lived right around the corner from me. Small world. 

This is the house I grew up in. I lived here for almost 18 years. It used to have an incredibly well-manicured lawn that my dad did an awesome job taking care of. As you can see from this picture, I am almost as tall as the house now.

Me showing the girls where I used to climb up on the chimney to get on the roof. Do as I say girls, not as I do.

Initials I put in the cement on the sidewalk over 30 years ago

After reminiscing, we checked into our hotel.  We were planning on going to the pool and hanging out with my sister and nieces, but the pool situation wasn't the best, so we decided to pass.  Instead, we took the girls to see Monsters University. We got back to the hotel and crashed at about 11pm. It was a great, full first day of our trip.

Holiday Road

One of the great benefits that my company gives to employees is a month-long sabbatical every five years. I decided to add a couple weeks of vacation and take the family on a road trip across the western US in the family truckster.  One of my buddies (who works at a company that gives a three month sabbatical...THREE MONTHS!!) has been blogging his family's European Vacation, and since I haven't had an original idea in my entire life, I figured I'd copy him. After all, Charles Caleb Colton said, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."  See, I copied that, too.

We are planning on going to New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Oregon, and California. If I missed a state in there, I blame my high school geography teacher. In fact, I just found out that Wyoming is not next to Rhode Island. Who knew?  After that, we're flying to Hawaii to take a vacation from our vacation. 

So, we head out tomorrow. And, I plan on doing the impossible on Saturday morning .... turning off the email on my phone. I'm sure that the shakes will subside within the first three hours or so. I've been burning the midnight oil to get work stuff wrapped up. I have no idea what Sherri has been up to, though. These road trips are just a matter of her rousing the three (she'd say four) kids out of bed, hopping in the car, and taking off.....