The Journey to Flagstaff, Day One

Saying Goodbye to Daddy

I thought it best to start at the very beginning. As Julie Andrews would sing, "It's a very good place to start."  We took off a little later than we expected from California.  Dan took the morning off to finish the hitch on the van.  It was impressive to see how fast it went on the van, and instantly we have a hitch and lighting.  I say instantly, but that would be due to Dan, who spent that last few weeks researching how the hitch and the electrical work would need to be done so everything could be done easily.   We so appreciate it!

Dan Riding his Motorcycle in Front of us

Dan had installed this great new app on my phone which allowed us to track the location of the other while we were gone.  As we parted ways, we could see Dan heading south on the on ramp while we headed north.  Then, we watched on the face of my (mounted to my dashboard) phone as the two dots moved farther and farther apart.  

Usually, the parting for us is fraught with concern over how I am going to get the four kids and all their assorted entertainment bags through security.  Leaving from home to drive for the first time was much different and more tear-stained and not as rushed.  The kids assured me we could do this and we pushed on.  

For the last month or more, I have been agonizing over the itinerary.  It needed to have stops about every three hours for us to enjoy.  To that end, we decided to head to Oatman, AZ for our first stop.  For those of you who have seen Oatman, you know that exiting the highway, on the longest continuous stretch of Route 66 still in existence, seems a little foolhardy in the hot desert.  But, we were determined to see the wild burros of Oatman.  Along the 40 minute detour to Oatman, I attempted to explain to my children about the "largest ball of string" theory from my childhood.  It goes a little something like this, we frequently traveled across the country to visit my Grandfather in Missouri, to see a National Park, to move etc.  Along the way we always had our eyes open for the oddities, the little things that would now make a great post to roadsideamerica.com.  My parents would call it the biggest ball of string.  To their credit, my parents and my sister's family did find that ball of string.  In Nebraska

I do believe.  I told the kids this only in explaining (and you too, I suppose) that all of our stops would not be cool.  And that was part of the adventure.  I was really geared up for Oatman to be a disappointment to the kids.  We were set to arrive after it had closed and I was unsure of what to expect.  

I can only say, it was the perfect place for our kids.  Vinny called it Vinny-Ville.  Anna has spent the last five days asking to go back and pet the donkeys.  Frankie tells everyone about it and makes it clear that they can't just be called donkeys, but wild donkeys.  Gianni ran around finding all the cool photo booths and the mine museum.  Some names that we provided the burros of Oatman, Bent-Ear, White Nose, Big Guy and Little Colt.  The kids were tickled that the baby burro had a sticker stuck to his head  that asked tourists not to touch or feed.  We had a great time, for the most part enjoying the town street all by themselves.  

 There were a few small vignettes that included the mine museum, with a re-creation of an adventurer trapped in a cave in, to remind us not to play in abandoned mines.  Frankie was quite concerned it was  a real miner.  And a group of tourists, from Columbia that began feeding the burros potato chips and it quickly became a frenzy that ended with the big male burro, Bent Ears, eating the bag much to my children's, especially Vinny the zoologist's, chagrin.  And Frankie proving that he has the Lehman quality of getting carsick on windy roads.

After an hour of wandering around the town, we headed off to our destination.  The rest of the trip was rather uneventful, dinner in Kingman, AZ with little fanfare.  We got to our campground in Flagstaff at about 11:30pm.  We easily found a site near the restrooms but not other campers.  It was lovely and up in the trees near the fairgrounds.  We made a ton of noise getting set up, especially Anna who had fallen asleep on the way up to Flagstaff and then was awoken during set-up.  It was a challenge to get her to settle down and stop whacking her brothers on the head.  But ultimately it worked and we all collapsed, exhausted on the floor of the tent. All in all, it wasn't a disaster of a day.  The set-up was easy and the kids were amazingly helpful and were keen to listen to me.  Perhaps that lulled me into a sense of security and I lost my edge for what was to come the next day...