We made our drive from Amarillo to St. George over two days, stopping in Albuquerque for the night. This was our first time driving this route and we found some fun stops along the way to break up the trip. Highlights included a 66 diner, the Explora science museum, the Navajo Nation Zoo, a field of dinosaur tracks and the bridge over Marble Canyon. The kids were troopers!!
A few notable memories:
- We checked the kids out of school early to begin our drive. In class, Sophie made a huge I Spy list for us to play along the way with random items like necklaces and rabbits and we surprisingly found both!
- Grandmari brought a giant box of jellybeans to meter out along the way for morale and we had to guess the flavor
- Coming out of the Kaibab forest was an experience. We were behind two old trucks towing a carts of logs down a windy, single lane highway. They were going incredibly slow, but it was so tricky finding a safe place to pass both the trucks and the other cars that were stuck and it felt so amazing when we finally broke free of the backup.
- At one point Davey needed to use the bathroom and gave me about a 10 second warning, while we were on a cliff, before it was too late.
- Speaking of bathrooms, they were almost impossible to find in Navajo Nation! At one stop it took us trying 4 gas stations to find one with working restrooms
- The really hero of the trip, besides Grandmari, was Bubble Guppies. I think Griffin watched it for the last 4 hours on repeat. We had the episodes almost memorized by the time we got there.
Grandmari visited for lunch at school the day before we left
A few fun activities at Explora Science Museum. They had so many hands on stations. Mask mandates were still in effect, but we cheated a little.
Dinner at a cute diner - they had a huge Pez dispenser collection all around the ceiling, hopscotch on the floor, and great milkshakes
Grandmari and Charlie had matching blue camo shirts
The kids and Grandmari toilet papered the hotel room for my birthday - happy 36 to me!
We had a great pit stop at the Navajo zoo - free entry! They had a nice collection of local wildlife like cougars, bears, and eagles as well as a fun playground and picnic tables for lunch.
Somewhere in Arizona we stopped to see possibly real, possibly fake dino tracks
If you look closely, you can see a bee in these photos by Griffin's head. He had a ham sandwich from Subway and that bee followed him all over while we were looking for the tracks.
Found some!!
Bridge over Marble Canyon - almost there, only 2.5 hours to go. Unfortunately the last chunk was done in the dark as the sun sets so early this time of year.
Thanks for making the trip easier for me!!
