California Road Trip - Day 1

Before I get into details about our road trip, I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude for my wonderful family on this beautiful Easter day. My Hubby and my little women are everything I always wanted in life -A group of my own that is filled with love and kindness. They are my shelter, my heart and soul. I am honored to be mother to my beautiful girls who make me proud every single day. I have watched them grow up before my eyes and even though they are forging lives of their own now, I still see them as my little ones. I hear their little voices and I see their childhood expressions on their faces every day. How did I ever get to be so blessed? Memories are my treasures and I will always hold on tightly to every single one that my girls have given me. I love this little family of mine!  Happy Easter!


The Road Trip

I had worked until midnight the night before, but we were eager to get started on our road trip so I dragged myself out of bed to get dressed and finish packing. Honestly, I'd love to tell you details about the morning, but I was walking around in a fog.. and those memories are just gone. I do remember saying goodbye to Carley, Madi and Emily. Leaving my three oldest girls home made my heart hurt. Who would laugh at my intellectual jokes? Who would keep us laughing with blonde-isms? And who would kiss our noses?  Leaving those girls home alone was torture to me.. we would have some mighty fun shoes to fill.
I prepared my iPod with new music and three audio books that I thought might entertain us. I think we opted for singing along with music for the first part of the day. There was a storm blowing in and the winds were starting to pick up. I remember thinking how lucky it was that we were getting started early - before the brunt of the storm showed up.

Before we knew it, we were on the south side of the Great Salt Lake and the winds were fierce! I pointed out the old Saltair resort to the girls and told them a brief history of its former glory. It wasn't too long after that landmark that the scenery became nothing but blowing dirt and we settled in to our road trip groove. I was still groggy and the howling wind made me nervous, but I tried to relax and let the hum of the tires lull me into a calm place.

I had been telling my family for years about the strange sculpture tree out in the desert near Wendover. I remember people talking about it when I was a teenager. No one could figure out the motive for the sculpture, just that some rich artist wanted to create something huge and place it in the desert. Some people consider it atrocious, others find it curiously interesting. I saw it once when I was eighteen and I have been wondering if it was still there. I kept an eye on the desert for the "tree" so I could point it out to the girls. Just when I was beginning to think the strange sculpture was no longer standing, something very large appeared on the edge of my vision. I watched the shape grow larger and excitedly told everyone in the car that the sculpture was still standing.

The picture doesn't do it justice. This thing is HUGE! It also looks broken to me.. are those pieces on the ground part of the exhibit or did they fall from the sculpture? Your guess is as good as mine. One thing is for sure though.. I still have no idea what this sculpture is supposed to represent!

Our first official stop on our road trip was at the Bonneville Salt Flats.  I can't remember ever visiting that state park and I know it was a first for Hubby and the littles as well. My eyes weren't prepared for the blinding white glare from miles of salt stretched out before us. It seems to be quite the hot spot for taking photographs though.. we even saw a very bearded man dressed up in a woman's dress and high heels getting his... (her?) pictures done out on the salt flats. We ventured out into the howling wind for some photos of our own.

Huge chunks of salt were everywhere!

Our lovely Jeep

Linzie standing in salt crystals

Linzie and Abby at the Salt Flats... cute girls!

Abby found a giraffe puppet in a gas station to send a hello to Carley

Our next stop was in Wendover to gas up and grab some car snacks. We were already shocked over how much higher the gas was in Wendover. I could only imagine how much higher it would be once we reached California. Wendover wasn't as impressive as I remembered it being. It was also getting very dusty from the relentless wind. Needless to say, we didn't stay long before heading back to the road. We had 11 hours of driving to get through on day one and we hadn't even scratched the surface yet!

It wasn't long after we left Wendover that the questioning began. "How much longer until we're there?" My girls were not used to extremely long car rides.. we fly to our vacation destinations. I knew we were in for a long day as I patiently tried explaining the long day ahead to the littles.

The wind continued to batter us as we drove along the highway. Once we hit the Nevada desert, everything around us seemed to disappear into dusty nothingness. I was so grateful that the driving was in Hubby's capable hands. I watched the muscles in his arms bulge as he fought to keep the Jeep on a straight path.. more than once his knuckles turned white as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel. At that point I was not having much fun. I'm a nervous passenger anyway, and the wind nearly undid me.

Abby gives up and takes a nap

We listened to our audio books and looked at maps.. and when the littles couldn't take the monotony any more, they napped. We kept saying that day one was a day that we just had to get through so we could start enjoying the rest of the trip. Just. Get. Through. It! Everything changed when we reached Carson City, Nevada. The temperature dropped like a rock and that's when the snow started to fall...

A tunnel we went through before we reached Carson City

A tunnel we went through after Carson City! What a difference a few hours made! 

I'll be the first to admit that I was not expecting to see snow on this California trip. The morning we left, the weatherman said it was going to be the warmest day of the year, so I was wearing flip flops! I knew my footwear decision had been the wrong one when I saw all the cars pulled over to put their snow chains on.. those people were all decked out in ski gear. What was I thinking?!

We had seen it all during that day. Warm summer-like temperatures, howling winds, bright sunshine, dust storms that blocked out the sun.. and now we had also seen a foot of snow getting deeper by the second. What an adventure!

We made it to our hotel, checked in and unpacked our suitcases. After changing our shoes (stepping out of the Jeep into a foot of snow while wearing flip flops was not fun!) we headed back to a casino for dinner. We all agree that was the best dinner we had the entire trip! We enjoyed Filet Mignon, crab and shrimp, prime rib, mac and cheese for the littles, salads and every kind of dessert they could taste. Of course we could never eat it all, but we enjoyed sampling a bit of everything!

We had a brief scare when we left the casino parking lot. The Jeep was sliding sideways when Hubby was backing out of the parking stall. We came within an inch of slamming into the vehicle parked next to us. I still don't know how we made it out of that near disaster, but I am so thankful for the angels watching over us and for Hubby's driving skills that kept us, and the Jeep, safe!

Day one was over and we fell into bed.. completely exhausted and giggling over the fact that the snow was still falling. We had no idea what the next day would bring...

Day ONE!