Week 16 -- Go for a Drive and Try to Get Lost

By the time I make Albuquerque,
she'll be workin'
She'll probably stop at lunch
and give me a call.

By the time I make Oklahoma,
she'll be sleepin'

    I thought of this old Glen Campbell song last week as I drove from and to Albuquerque with Patrick, Rowen and Redick during their trip to Charleston. Once again, Cheryl and I are deviating slightly from one of the "retirement adventure" cards presented to us by our three children. In this instance, Patrick and I were trying not to get lost, or fall asleep, during the drive. It was 18 hours from Albuquerque, NM, to Charleston. Add eight hours from Fredonia, AZ, to Albuquerque and Patrick faced a 26-hour drive with 2-year-old Redick and not-quite-5 year-old Rowen.
    I left Charleston about 5 p.m. on Nov. 3 and drove to St. Louis so I could catch a 6 a.m. flight for Albuquerque by way of Dallas. While at the Quality Inn that night, I left my room door open to run down the hall to ask the desk clerk something. When I returned to my room, I was surprised to see extra luggage had been brought to my room and the TV was on??!!?


Rowen takes a ride with Chuck E. Cheese

     Oops!! Wrong room, The door to Room 119 was open, which is where I wandered in. My room, however, was 129. Fortunately, whoever occupied the room was in the bathroom so I turned around and hurried to Room 129. It was vacant so I went in and locked the door for the night!
   My Friday morning flights were fine. Patrick and the boys met me about 10:30 a.m. Mountain Time and off we drove through Eastern New Mexico, stopping once for about an hour so the boys could play at a park. But around 5 p.m. we hit Amarillo, Texas, and saw a Chuck E. Cheese. We stopped and let the boys play lots of games, winning hundreds of tickets so they could cash them in and get two miniature Slinkies!! But we relaxed there for 1 1/2 hours so the boys could burn off some energy. One of their favorite games was a water gun target shoot. It reminded all of us of the fun we had with squirt gun battles at our family Florida vacation. Incidentally, Amarillo means "yellow" in Spanish and we discovered why the Texas city has that name. The vegetation (you can't call it grass) is yellow, not green.


The boys are excited to start the 8:30 p.m. return to Ariz. trip.

    The drive to Charleston went well until about 3 a.m. when Redick couldn't sleep. He woke Rowen, who had been sleeping, and Patrick thought the boys had been in car seats long enough. He made a bed for them in the back of the van and climbed in with them, I had been sleeping so I took over the driving while Patrick and the boys slept. Oklahoma was pretty "skunky." There must have been a skunk convention or it was skunk hunting season because I smelled skunk through almost all of the state. We rolled into Charleston at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5, exhausted but happy to be home. We had a wonderful time with Patrick and the boys. The week went too fast!



Redick also cruised with Chuck E. Cheese.

 Patrick and I spent some time trying to figure out when to leave so I could be in Albuquerque by 2 p.m. Nov. 12 for my return flight to St. Louis. Most options meant a similar drive with a couple hours sleep for each of us and then him driving 8 more hours home and me taking two flights and drving back to Charleston at midnight.
    We decided to leave at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 10, and drive straight through to Albuquerque, spend Friday night there and take our time getting to the airport Saturday.
    I started driving. This time Missourii was the "skunky" state. Someone hit a deer shortly before I got to the same spot on the road and I heard a crunch when I drove over what probably was the head -- gross!! In Oklahoma, we passed through the hometowns of Garth Brooks, Army Gen. Tommy Franks and Roger Miller, the old "King of the Road" himself. The boys slept through the night Thursday and played at a Burger King Playland in Amarillo Friday morning. Patrick and I were exhausted by the time we reached Albuquerque but the hotel had an indoor pool and hot tub, which all four of us enjoyed. Redick managed to lock the bathroom door in our room so no one could get in.  Patrick had to break in using a piece of an ink pen.
    That night Redick slept with Patrick and I slept with Rowen. The boys move around quite a bit in bed but it was much better than catching what sleep we could in the van. We got to the airport early the next day. Patrick and the boys got home about 5 p.m. I was able to get an earlier flight and made it home about 8 p.m. to finish an exhausting, but fun trip.
    Much of our trip on interstates followed the old US Route 66, which is probably what inspired Jimmy Webb when he wrote "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." If you want to make a similar trip, my only advice would be " Don't drive through Missouri or Oklahoma at night or you will have hours and hours of skunk smell in your vehicle!