Gretchen's Blog

Our first road trip, I hope I survive. Nothing like a little last minute planning. I added a couple of hotels to our plans. I sure hope I make all the commitments.

Tentative Itinerary:
Sunday Bako (Bakersfield) to Laughlin, Nevada, my choice, the theory here is that it’s a cheap hotel :). Monday morning we head to the Hualapai Indian reservation for the recently opened skywalk glass bridge. I hope I don’t throw up. After a day of hanging out, literally, we travel to Flagstaff and arrive in the evening. I’m not sure what we’ll exactly do the next day but I am looking at Wupatki National Monument and Sunset Crater Volcano as possibilities.
Tuesday night we travel to Williams, AZ and travel by train the next day to Grand Canyon National Park. We stay a couple of days at the Thunderbird lodge and then take the train back to Williams. Saturday morning we start out early and head to Bako to be home for Easter.
This being our first road trip, I hope we don’t kill each other. Stay tuned.

OK, so the cabins were not so great. They were basically sheds with bunk beds built for young Boy Scouts. One of the other moms commented that they wouldn’t let their daughter sleep on the top bunk; fearful they would fall out and break their neck. That made my stay that much more enjoyable, every time Annaliese moved in the bunk above I almost jumped out of my bunk to catch her. We shared the “cabin” with another mom and her daughter and they were nice, frankly a little too nice because I felt pressure to be nice too. Not one of my stronger suits.

A loved the outdoor stuff. They had a fort that she loved to play in, stargazing in which she asked Ranger Dan tons of questions and he appeared to love answering. Her most favorite thing, canoeing, was NOT the most fun thing for me. She wanted to keep canoeing and I wanted to head for the dock. She was in front for “power” and I was in back to lead and steer. For those that remember, this had remnants of the infamous Platt River excursion years ago (wink, wink, nudge, nudge.) Thank god it was a small pond with limited time and resources.



Happy Trails!

Woo Hoo,
Gretchen and A are going camping, Girl Scout camping that is. Our troop was invited to the "Leader/Daughter" campout. That means.....tent cabins, real bathrooms and no blow up mattresses. Yes.... Score. It also means "badge earning" older scouts do all the cooking. Another score.
Making a list and checking it twice, flashlight... check, sleeping bags.... check, clothes.... check, snacks..... double check. Stay tuned, we'll see how the camping goes. I'm more accustomed to "Camp Holiday Inn."

Cheers!

1. You are allowed to make "catch up" contributions to your 401K.
2. You get invited to join AARP.
3. You're happy about joining AARP.