We left Ojo Caliente and headed into Albuquerque to do some laundry, Ambiana still not feeling well and Jakobi still throwing up, lots of barfy clothes and poopy pants to wash, who knew a 3 week roadtrip could be so fun! After getting everything clean we headed to Trader Joe’s to re-supply and Jakobi puked all over Colleen as we pulled into the parking lot. Ambiana didn’t want to go into the store so I stayed in the car with her. Colleen and Jakobi did the shopping and Colleen bought us some ice cream bon-bons for parent relief. Then it was off to…
El Morro National Monument- New Mexico
…to camp for the night and stay til we all recovered as it was Tuesday and the wedding is not till Saturday and Phoenix is a 5 hour drive away.
El Morro was beautiful, high alpine grass and trees with beautiful sandstone bluffs encircling us.
We set up camp and made dinner, Ambiana stayed in the car the whole time and even ate dinner in there. Afterwards we bundled her in the jogger stroller then took a walk around the campground so Jakobi could meet the dogs.
In the morning the kids felt a little better, we had discovered a flat jogger tire the night before on our walk so Colleen gave the kids a homeschool lesson in tire repair
We packed up our site because we decided to head to Phoenix a day earlier and add an extra night in the motel. We then headed up to the visitor center to hike the sandstone cliffs and see the petroglyphs and climb the mesa if Ambiana felt up to it.
Colleen points out something to Jakobi
Native American & Spanish carvings in the cliff face.
Ambiana felt up to it so we hiked up to the mesa top very slowly and resting often.
It was absolutely beautiful up there with multi-colored sandstone and a box canyon in the middle
Ambiana spent time filling out the Jr. Ranger booklet and earned her 2nd badge of the trip and Jakobi got one too for helping her out.
Tonto National Forest- Arizona
We headed halfway to Phoenix and camped at 7,700 feet in Tonto National Forest.
There were patches of snow on the ground and we bundled up and ate dinner and then since it was too windy to make a fire we huddled in the car. We have a MiFi connection from Verizon so I can work while on the trip and I did some work. Gaelen’s school play was tonight and we had been thinking about him all day so when I checked my email and found a message from Eden’s Dad John containing a link to a video he had made with his I-Phone of Gaelen’s performance we were overjoyed. We watched it 3 times before exiting the car and crawling into our tent and shipping off to dreamland bundled in our warmies and sleeping bags. Here it is for you all to enjoy.
