Trip Report: The Perfect Family Trip!
EDIT: I wanted to add this link here at the beginning. Ragusa's Summer 2014 Trailer Hello friends! We have been home for two months, but I am just now feeling like getting to the trip repo...
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Part 2: Petrified Forest, Homolovi, Winslow
The drive west was uneventful. Mechanically, all was working as it should, except for one interesting morning. We hadn't adjusted to the time zone yet, so during a real toad strangler, I woke up at 4am ready to rock and roll. The parking lot had several inches of water standing, and it was coming down in buckets. I got my cordless drill and starting going around the trailer raising jacks. One jack fell completely apart as I tried to raise it. Seems the cotter pin that held it all together had come off somehow. Fortunately, I was at a Walmart and was able to get it all back together fairly quick. The longest of it was going back inside and changing out of my drenched clothes.
This was also our first time traveling with a smart phone. Having the internet available was a godsend.
We had planned for Petrified Forest to be a few hour stopover. However, we left feeling like we should have spent 2 days their. I assumed there was only some chunks of rock to look at. There is far more. We intended to do some moderate hiking on this trip, and there were 2 hikes at this park that we wished we could have fit in.
An old piece of Route66 along with a memorial.
The critters were looking a bit different too!
This was one of the hikes that we would have enjoyed. But we only did the first 10 minutes of it.
We underestimated how much fun the kids would have with the Junior Ranger program. It was an outstanding program that we highly recommend to anyone with young kids. In all, my boys each collected 15-20 badges and learned a tremendous amount about the parks. You can see their workbooks in this photo. They never left their sides.
We spent a total of about 6 hours at the park and then stumbled into nearby Homolovi State Park. The park was a nice quiet park with only a few other campers that night. There was nothing special about it aside from being amazed at how much "nothing" could be special. :) That's us in the distance. We hiked some of the ruins that were at the park.
This was around June 10th. It was a little warm in the day, but the nights were still beautiful. You can see here that I needed a blanket for my morning coffee!
Before leaving the area, we stopped by to see the "Corner in Winslow, Arizona". As a huge fan, we really enjoyed this quick stop. There is a store right across the street dedicated to the park, it plays Eagles music loud for all to hear!
The drive west was uneventful. Mechanically, all was working as it should, except for one interesting morning. We hadn't adjusted to the time zone yet, so during a real toad strangler, I woke up at 4am ready to rock and roll. The parking lot had several inches of water standing, and it was coming down in buckets. I got my cordless drill and starting going around the trailer raising jacks. One jack fell completely apart as I tried to raise it. Seems the cotter pin that held it all together had come off somehow. Fortunately, I was at a Walmart and was able to get it all back together fairly quick. The longest of it was going back inside and changing out of my drenched clothes.
This was also our first time traveling with a smart phone. Having the internet available was a godsend.
We had planned for Petrified Forest to be a few hour stopover. However, we left feeling like we should have spent 2 days their. I assumed there was only some chunks of rock to look at. There is far more. We intended to do some moderate hiking on this trip, and there were 2 hikes at this park that we wished we could have fit in.
An old piece of Route66 along with a memorial.
The critters were looking a bit different too!
This was one of the hikes that we would have enjoyed. But we only did the first 10 minutes of it.
We underestimated how much fun the kids would have with the Junior Ranger program. It was an outstanding program that we highly recommend to anyone with young kids. In all, my boys each collected 15-20 badges and learned a tremendous amount about the parks. You can see their workbooks in this photo. They never left their sides.
We spent a total of about 6 hours at the park and then stumbled into nearby Homolovi State Park. The park was a nice quiet park with only a few other campers that night. There was nothing special about it aside from being amazed at how much "nothing" could be special. :) That's us in the distance. We hiked some of the ruins that were at the park.
This was around June 10th. It was a little warm in the day, but the nights were still beautiful. You can see here that I needed a blanket for my morning coffee!
Before leaving the area, we stopped by to see the "Corner in Winslow, Arizona". As a huge fan, we really enjoyed this quick stop. There is a store right across the street dedicated to the park, it plays Eagles music loud for all to hear!