Southwick: Our Forever Family: Another random road trip...

Jeff and I are off again! After Disneyland at the beginning of December, I literally didn't have any trips planned...but that didn't last. I started planning a Spring Break trip then we kind of invited ourselves to Atlanta for Amber's post-graduate graduation in May...and I'm toying with planning a trip to Iceland. Still, this current trip was definitely spontaneous. Jeff has wanted a new truck. The old F-150 is just that...old. One night, he started to do a nationwide search for a newer truck...and found one in Missouri! Within a week, we were on a plane headed to St. Louis. Can I just say that I love these trips with Jeff? I love road trips. I love being trapped in a car with my husband where we just get to reconnect while we drive through areas we've never seen. Road trips usually mean that we don't get to explore everything that certain cities or locations have to offer, but we still find something to see everywhere we go. This trip was more fast-paced than our normal road trips because we had a small window of time to get the truck and get back home before weekend sports events. We usually only try to drive 6 hours or less a day to allow ourselves more time to explore random places, but this trip we had to drive at least 8 hours each day to get back home when we needed too. However, we made the most of it. We saw some unique sites and ate some incredible food...and just enjoyed being together. We flew into St. Louis on Tuesday (1/30). A gentleman from the dealership (aka Santa Claus) picked us up from the airport and transported us the couple hours to the dealership. Once we finalized the sale of the truck, we climbed in an immediately headed south. Now, the logical route would have been to head west through Kansas and Colorado, but we had no desire to drive through Kansas (sorry Danny!); plus, we were unsure about the winter storms that would be passing through Colorado so we headed south before heading west. We stopped near the Lake of the Ozarks for dinner just as the sun was setting. Our dinner was incredible! I'm still salivating over our dessert platter. Moreover, the view was breathtaking as we got to watch the sun set. It had already been a long day, but after dinner, we pushed on another hour or so before finally arriving in Springfield...and at Bucc-ees! Yup...Jeff finally got the chance to be a part of the cool kid club that has been to Bucc-ees. He just shook his head when he saw the 100 gas pumps. Bucc-ees is definitely an experience! We wandered around the store for a few minutes so he could really soak it all in then drove the short 10 minutes to our hotel for the night.

We didn't rush out the next morning (Wednesday, 1/31). Instead, we headed toward the Fantastic Caverns for a tour of the only drive-thru cave in America. Missouri is known as the cave state so it only seemed fitting to do a cave tour before we left. It was the off season so we were the only ones on the tour. Prior to hopping in the little jeep, we wandered around the grounds. We found a cool trail that led to a small river. This part of the country is really beautiful. I loved our morning walk (although I was also anxious to get going). Our cave tour was about an hour. It is an incredible cave with many unique cave formations. One thing that was cool about being in a vehicle was that we saw higher which allowed us to more closely view some of the new "soda straw" formations on the ceiling. This cave was discovered after a hound dog, Juno, disappeared from his owner. The owner went after him and discovered the massive cavern; however, he kept it a secret because of the Civil War that was raging. He didn't want either side to commandeer the cave for weapons storage or shelter. After the war ended, he enlisted the help of some cave experts to map out the cave. Little did he know that those experts were 12 women! These women showed up and went to work. The even signed their names on the cave wall that is still visible today. Prior to the cave being open for public tours, it was also an illegal speak-easy for a period of time. Oh if those cave walls could talk! I'm glad we stuck around to do the tour, but as soon as it was over, we moved out.

For the rest of the day, we followed the old Mother Road. Yup...Route 66! Route 66 was developed in the late 1920s and lasted a few decades before President Eisenhower signed the Insterstate Highway Act in 1956 which allocated $25 billion for the construction of 41,000 miles of interstate highways. Over the next 29 years, section after section of Route 66 was methodically bypassed by multi-lane, high speed expressways enabling motorists to increase their speeds and avoid congestion. This was a time-saving advantage, but a distinct disadvantage to the businesses and communities along the route (think of the Disney movie, Cars). Where customers once thronged, they rarely showed up at all. So many diners, motels, and service stations were forced to shutter their doors and are now ghostly shells of what once was. We pulled on and off the main interstate to visit a few stops along the original Route as we drove from Missouri, through Oklahoma, and into Texas. We stopped at a renovated and rebuilt service station called Pops. They had gas services, a diner, and hundreds of different sodas. We picked out 6 different root beers to try with the family once we got home. We pushed on past Lucille's Place (and old service station) and stopped in Clinton to see the Route 66 museum. They did a good job at taking us through the history of the Mother Road from the 20's to present. We kept moving towards Texas and stopped in Shamrock (just over the border) at the old Conoco Service Station and Diner that inspired the Disney animators who designed Ramone's body shop in Cars. From there, we drove a little of the backroads of the original route. There were remnants of eras passed then open fields. We (or rather I insisted) had to stop to get a picture of the road as the sun was setting. We finally made it to Amarillo where we stopped for the night. Before we checked into the hotel, we decided to get dinner at the famous Big Texan Steakhouse. This was a remnant from the old route that had survived. The food was good...but BIG! They even had a plate with a 4.5 lb steak, a baked potato, salad, a roll, and some shrimp that if you can finish, you get it for free! There was one guy who attempted to do it while we were there but he just couldn't finish. (The record is actually held by a woman! This small 128lb woman actually ate THREE of those dinners in TWENTY minutes!) Once our bellies were sufficiently full, we headed to the hotel.

The next morning, we met up with Sidnee Oliver (Kevin and Catrina's daughter) who is currently serving her mission in Amarillo. We took her and her companion out to breakfast before we hit the road again. It was good to see her and hear about her mission. She is doing an awesome job! After we dropped them off, we kept heading west. We passed Cadillac Ranch (we'd already been there) and stopped in Adrian at the midpoint of Route 66. We'd already been there once, but since we'd drive so much of the road, I figured we should stop again. From there, we headed into New Mexico and finally left the Mother Road to head toward Santa Fe. Neither Jeff nor I have ever been to Santa Fe so we stopped and spent a couple hours roaming around the downtown area. I love these old, Spanish-influenced cities that have the plazas in the center of town with the old churches. There was so much history in this one little place from the native peoples that populate the area to the Spanish and eventually other European settlers. We even visited the San Miguel mission, which is the oldest church structure in the U.S. It was a beautiful little church. From there, we visited the state capitol (not quite as pretty as others) then stopped into the Loretta church as we were walking back towards the truck. In my quick research of what to do in the area, this church had not come up, but I'm so glad we stopped in! This little church was modeled after Sainte Chapelle in Paris. Unfortunately, the architect died before access to the choir loft was built. Given the height of the loft, and the small size of the chapel, a staircase would have taken up too much floor space. Legend states that seeking guidance and help, the Sister of Loretto (the 6 nuns sent to this mission) prayed a nine-day novena St. Joseph, the Patron Saint of Carpenters (a novena is a special prayer said for nine consecutive days). On the final day of the novena, a carpenter appeared with only a hammer and carpenter's square. He built what in now known the miraculous staircase with simple tools and wooden pegs. The rare wood is not native to the Southwest. When the staircase was complete, the carpenter disappeared without receiving thanks or payment. The staircase has two complete 360-degree turns with no center pole for support. The entire weight of the staircase rest on the bottom stair. The railings were added ten years later due to the difficulty of climbing the stairs with no support. The underside of the stairs were originally open, but was later filled in with a horse hair and lime mixture painted to look like wood. The stairs were breathtaking! Evidently, many engineers and craftsman have been to examine the staircase and are baffled at how it was made. I loved the stairs, but the story was even more beautiful! Once we finished our little tour of Santa Fe, we kept moving on to Farmington where we indulged in a scrumptious New Mexican feast before checking into our hotel.

Friday (2/2) was our final day of driving. As we looked at the map, we decided to add another 40 minutes to our drive by taking a road we'd never driven before. From Farmington, we headed into Arizona for about an hour to hit the Teec Nos Pos Trading Post on the Navajo Reservation. This trading post has been in existence since 1905. It is a general supply store for the Navajo people and also a place where they can sell their handmade goods. Jeff has been fascinated with the intricate wool rugs the Navajo women weave. He loves hearing the stories off how they shear the sheep, spin the wool, dye the wool, then weave the rug. Much of those traditions (other than weaving the rug) have faded over generations. It's simply cheaper to buy the yarn rather than make it (plus the colors don't fade as much); however, he loves to admire the real rugs when he gets the chance. At the trading post, there was an entire room dedicated to these rugs and other handmade items. There were even some rugs (of course the most expensive ones) that followed the original tradition. No...he didn't buy any, but he did buy a frame with the plants used to make the dyes and the yarn color that came from those plants. I am always amazed at these types of skills. I'm sad that these skills have faded with the invention of modern machinery and conveniences. I can't say that I'm sad that I get to benefit from those modern inventions, but I do wonder what would happen if disaster struck and all those "conveniences" became obsolete. Yikes! Once we made our purchases (I got a small dream catcher), we pushed on to home. This time we drove up to Blanding then over to Fry Canyon and Hanksville (this is where Butch Cassidy used to hide out; it was once called Robber's Roost) before meeting back up with the I-70 to Green River, north through Price, then dropping down into Spanish Fork Canyon. At this point, it was just a fast push home, but we did stop to see where the Colorado River dumped into Lake Powell. Most of that part of Utah is a bland desert landscape, but the part right around the river was pretty with vast canyons and more shrubbery.

We finally made it home in time to pick Jonas up from school and take him to taekwondo before we headed to UVU to watch Jacob wrestle. There have only been a couple times we've been able to see him wrestle (most of his matches are out-of-state) so we wanted to make the effort since it would be his last year. Dallin even got in the action with a little mid-match sack race. Unfortunately, his friend, Bryant, beat him at the last second. We had a fun evening reconnecting with our kids. I feel incredibly grateful and lucky to have been blessed with such an amazing family. We are definitely not perfect, but we love and show up for each other.