Our journey West is one family dream that came true this year! We’ve dreamed of this opportunity for numerous years, and the time was right in 2024.

A Trip in the Making

Over the winter, we discussed potential stopping points and travel ideas.

After our trip to MIAMI in 2022, we settled on San Diego Zoo as a MUST see. While at the Miami Zoo, we heard that the Platypus was in CA. We had been on a behind-the-scenes tour to meet the Komodo Dragons, many rare iguanas, and the amazing Kiwi Bird in the hatchery.

The Platypus is my son’s favorite mammal and second favorite animal to the Komodo Dragon. The Kiwi Bird ranks number three as a favorite, and someday he would like to travel to New Zealand to study these amazing creatures.

After our incredible experience in Miami, we knew San Diego would be another family vacation.

The Grand Canyon also made the list, along with Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, a fishing trip, and a college visit to GCU along the way. Over discussions with friends and play with google maps, the visit to Yellowstone became too difficult to fit in.

At one point, we considered staying an entire month in Arizona. Many original rough drafts included heading NW in a loop around to finish through Kansas, Texas, and Missouri.

Final Plans of our Adventure WEST

After much trial and error, we settled on a plan of three road trips:

• A 4-day road trip to Arizona for a one-week stay,
• A trip to California for another week-long stay, and
• A 5-day road trip home traveling Northeast to see a few more destinations along the way.

The First Trip of our Great Adventure

Trip One took us SW, looping down and through Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. We stayed in Saint James, MO, Oklahoma City, OK, and Albuquerque, NM as we travelled to Rimrock in Lake Montezuma, AZ. This quaint, hilly town was located just 30 minutes south of Sedona, with easy travel north to the Grand Canyon and south to Phoenix.

I’ll write more about Trips 2 and 3 in future blogposts. First, more pictures from our third day!

The Road Map

In total, our adventure would take 24 hours to Arizona, and 34 hours from Cali to home.

The Trip Log

Day	Start Point	End Point	Time	Miles
1	Illinois	Missouri	5-6 hours	320 mi.
2	Missouri	Oklahoma	6 hours	400 mi.
3	Oklahoma	New Mexico	8 hours	550 mi.
4-9	New Mexico	Arizona	5-6 hours	375 mi.
10-15	Arizona	California	6-7 hours	450 mi.
16-17	California	Colorado	12 hours	850 mi.
18	Colorado	Keystone, SD	9 hours	560 mi.
19	Keystone, SD	Sioux Falls, SD	5 hours	360 mi.
20	South Dakota	Illinois	8-9 hours	575 mi.

Travel Packets for the Kids

For fun, I created both a Travel Packet and a special Travel Journal for each of my kids. The Travel packet was filled with various books and stickers that I had collected from the weeks before; free from local libraries and some from the Dollar Tree.

The Travel Journal was a 3-ring Notebook filled with free printables of travel games, historical print-outs, National Park information pages, and various other games. Their favorite sheet was the License Plate Game. They used this over our entire road trip. I’ll share more in a future post.

Day 3: Traveling through Texas and New Mexico

The Flat Plains of Texas

Both Oklahoma and Texas were flat and long on this road trip. I was excited to spot a Long Horned Steer for just a moment to the South. Besides that one steer, we saw herds and herds of cattle grazing the plains.

The Beautiful Hills of New Mexico

New Mexico was more beautiful than I imagined it would be. This state surprised me with it’s quiet charm and stretched landscape.

By the time we reached Albuquerque, we were ready for a rest and recharge. Our hotel room was spacious and overlooked the beautiful mountains. The pool was extra refreshing!

We felt like we were driving through Pixar’s Cars while in New Mexico. We were excited to read that the creators were inspired by the landscape and roads of New Mexico as well as many other sights along Route 66. How cool!

One Hiccup Early in the Adventure

Thankfully, our only automobile problem involved a piece of tire tread and our van’s plastic engine-guard. While making our way the last few miles to Albuquerque, we straddled and ran over a truck’s tire tread. As we got off the interstate, we could hear the plastic dragging along the road under the front of our hood. Uh-oh!

After our arrival to the hotel, Tim was able to take the van down the street a few miles to a mechanic. They removed the piece, and sent him on his way at no charge. What a blessing!

So Much to Look Forward To…..

Day 3 was a great day of travel. This was our longest stretch so far, but the anticipation of getting closer to Arizona made the time go by very fast.

We had so much yet to look forward to. Knowing this would be a special trip, I tried to take in each day as it came. Only three days in, and seventeen to go.

Seventeen! That felt really good!

So many more days to be together. Together on an adventure that would last a life-time.

As we lounged in the pool at Albuquerque, we didn’t realize the treasures of the next two days ahead! Stay tuned for the amazing Petrified Forest of Day 4 and the Grand Canyon on Day 5.

No matter what you face the next two days in your life story, I encourage you to keep walking. Steady and strong. One foot in front of the other.

Thank you for reading, and keep walking, friend!

Christina