2008 Odom Family Adventure - Additional pics

Here are some pics that didn't make the original blog and are either good or funny.This picture is for Pa. The trailer has two different locks on the tounge and is also chained to the parking garage. You really have to want this thing to steal it. Notice how Tate is still helping me unload.In Houston the kids go to summer track or basketball camp. In San Diego, you go to surf camp.Each of her brothers dote all over Abby; and she loves them just as much. Here's one of Dawson and her in San Diego right after we got into our hotel room.The boys and I after parking and about to head towards the Midway. This pirate was handing out flyers advertising the San Diego Maritime Museum, which we later visited. The kids were fascinated by his real sword. Tate did not like this pirate at all (he's on my back in the backpack hunkering down).Tate helping me unload the car in Anaheim. Why is he always the last one around? My little helper. Here's Braden sitting next to me on Space Mountain, our first ride at Disneyland, right before we took off. Anybody besides me see the similarity between he & Jennifer? I think it's the excitement about riding a rollercoaster.....Sign posted on the road towards the Hoover Dam. I didn't need this sign to tell me it was hot.

My Navigator & Apprentice Navigator hard at work figuring out the route.
Notice the price tag ($0.00). At the Disney parking garage on our last day at the park I jokingly asked the booth attendant if she had change for a $1,000 bill. After thinking for a second she realized I was joking and took my money. I then jokingly said "don't I get free parking for making a joke today?", to which she responded, "you know what, I am going to give you free parking". After insisting multiple times that I was joking, I finally took the $12 she was giving back to me. Out of the back seat I hear Dawson say "Gee Dad, you're good at getting stuff for free.". This is an ode to my dad, who would always negotiate for things and get "The Odom Discount". I even offered her a $5 tip, which she would not take.

Day 14 - Home

We are thankful to be safely home.

You are my God, and I will give You thanks; You are my God, and I will exhalt You. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. Psalm 118:28-29

Alas, all good things must come to an end. After a restful morning, we packed the car and trailer up one last time and went for a quick lunch at Cracker Barrel. The three hour journey back to Kingwood seemed like such a short jaunt relative to our previous 13 days of traveling around the US.
Our 14 year-old neighbor had watched the animals and taken care of a few things around the house, in return for which she received some spending money for her family's vacation in the northeast, which started the day ours ended. I was also glad we arranged to have the yard mowed twice while gone as I don't have to deal with that for another week now.
The house looked great and just as we had left it. While saddened about the end of our journey, it was nice to walk into a familiar place and sleep in our own beds last night. Jennifer woke up in the middle of the night and asked me where the kids were. I told her they were in their beds and she asked where their beds were, she couldn't see them in our room. Maybe we were gone too long!!
As promised, here are some factoids about our trip:

• Total days gone from home - 14
• Total miles driven - 3842 (all but about 35 by me)
• Total gallons of gas consumed - 240.23
• Least paid for gas - $3.89/gallon - in Kingwood
• Most paid for gas - $4.79/gallon - in San Diego
• Average gas mileage ~16 mpg - I figure the trailer decreased mileage by about 2-3 mpg; we were actually averaging close to 16.5 mpg until we left Las Cruces and then seemed to have a fierce head wind the remainder of our trip that really affected the efficiency
• 20 Questions Champion - Jennifer (I think she cheats though, and it is the kids version. Braden is probaby the best of the kids)
• # of Cheeseburgers consumed by James & Jennifer - That's a personal question - too many to count
• Best burger - In-N-Out Burger
• Best hotel - Embassy Suites in La Jolla, California
• Worst hotel - Springhill Suites in Las Cruces, NM (not really that bad, just not as good by comparison)
• Best meal - Bucca di Beppo - Anaheim, CA
• Worst meal - Wendy's in Grand Canyon Village
• Loads of laundry done on the trip - 10
• What I would do different next time - consolidate clothes into fewer larger bags so we have less to carry in at each stop
• James' favorite/least favorite thing about the trip - family time together on the road/every time I had to stop for gas
• Jennifer's favorite/least favorite -
• Dawson's favorite/least favorite - Disneyland - Toy Story/Hoover Dam
• Braden's favorite/least favorite - Disneyland - Matterhorn/Hoover Dam
• Tate's favorite/least favorite - Disneyland-Winnie the Pooh Rid/Characters at Disneyland
• Abby's favorite/least favorite - In mommy's arms/Pirates of the Carribbean when she was hungry

Dawson & Braden playing a competitive game of checkers at Cracker Barrel.

Picture of Abby riding in mom's lap on the way home. Where did those blue eyes come from?

We're home. Everything looks good.

Tag, our Golden Retriever, really missed us; we could hardly get him to sit still for this picture. I don't know if I've ever seen him so excited. Pool's not too green.

Day 13 - The Longest Day

No, the title to this blog is not a reference to Cornelius Ryan's 1950s era book and movie of the same title about the D-Day invasion of Normandy. But, if you're interested in WWII, they depict this day very accurately. Also, if you watch closely, you can see over 40 famous actors.

It is, however, a reference to our drive back to Texas on Friday. Texas is big! Our route back to Austin today seemed to take forever. More on this later.

The biggest decision of the morning was whether or not to go to Carlsbad Caverns. There were many reasons not to go: we were concerned about the cold 56 degree temperature as we had brought no warm clothing, someone told us we needed reservations (we later found out you do for the ranger guided tour but you can walk right up and do the self-guided tour with little or no wait), and mostly, we were concerned with the time. Anyway, I figured if we had come all the way to Carlsbad, we might as well go see the caverns.

To mitigate our concern about the temperature, we stopped by Wal-Mart to purchase some long-sleeve clothes for everyone. Needless to say, the pickings are pretty slim in Carlsbad, NM in the middle of summer for long sleeve clothes. The lady looked at me like I was nuts for asking. Nevertheless, she very helpfully walked me around to the various clearance racks to pick out a variety of items for each member of the family. The good news is, almost everything was on clearance and so the cost of these items was only around $3 apiece. We looked like a pretty motley crew though.

The caverns are about 30 miles south of Carlsbad seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We drove into the park and made way towards the visitor center, where you enter the caverns. If you've never been there, once you crest the hill coming into the parking area, you'll see a fantastic vista. You're elevated about 500 to 1,000 feet above a plain that stretches forever. I did not realize this is the edge of the mountainous region of New Mexico. It really is beautiful and I doubt my picture will do it justice.

There are two ways to enter the caverns, via the elevator or via the walk-in route. The walk-in route takes about 1 1/2 hours longer and follows a steeply descending treacherous trail. This sounded fun for me but with 40 pounds of Tate strapped to my back and our limited time until Abby would need to eat again, we opted for the elevator route which drops you right into the caverns, 750 feet down, in about 57 seconds.

The caverns are huge. I could not believe how large they are inside. I believe if you measure the floor area you'll come up with about 8.3 acres. The circular route we went on traversed over a mile, and I don't think we even touched the surface. I recall reading there are 37 miles of explored caves in this complex, and they discover more every year. It's worth seeing if you have never been. Some of the geological features are huge.

After leaving the caverns, you have to head back north and cut across county road 720, which is a bumpy 2-lane road, to get over to highway 285, which leads you back to Texas towards Fort Stockton. Believe it or not, for the first time on our trip, I actually heard "do you know where you're going?". Yes I did, even though I did have to make one small u-turn when the road forked and I took the wrong fork.

By this time it was 1PM and everyone was hungry. Unfortunately, the nearest town that promised any palatable food was Pecos, Texas, about 70 miles into our future. Even when we got there, it was difficult to find anything. Alas, you can be certain to find a Dairy Queen in every small Texas town and we munched on some of the best burgers there are (albeit after a long wait).

I mentioned our trip was long. I recall somebody telling me once it takes longer to traverse Texas north-to-south and east-to-west then to get from the extreme boundaries of the state to their respective boundaries in the US. I've driven to Louisiana many times for work and it always hits me when I cross the border back into Texas on I-10 and see the sign that says "El Paso 878 miles".

Even though we have enjoyed ourselves, we were ready to get back towards home. In front of us we had endless miles of mixed terrain consisting of rolling hills interspersed with the occasional mountains and some large flat stretches. Virtually one thing is constant though, there are oil pump-jacks everywhere. I'm used to seeing these and they are one of the lifebloods of economy in Texas. But, in the last 10 years, wind turbines have sprouted up all over west Texas. There was a wind energy conference in downtown Houston a couple of months ago and I read in the paper where Texas has more wind production than any other state, followed closely by California. I can believe it with all the wind turbines we saw and the huge turbine blades we saw going down the road for construction of more.

I knew we were close when we got into Fredericksburg. Central Texas will always be home to me. I love it here and will probably retire near here someday (don't hold me to that).

We arrived at Jennifer's parents house around 10PM and got the kids settled in bed. Finally, no hotel to check into.

We'll head home to Kingwood today and get everything unloaded. Our friends David & Sheri Walling went by yesterday to turn our air-conditioner back to normal from the "vacation setting" I had it on so we'll come home to the frigid house we are accustomed to. I'll write one more post tomorrow for this trip and include some fun statistics about our journey (How many gallons of gas did we consume? Who is the ultimate 20-questions champion?) . Also, I'll post a few "out-take" photographs that didn't make the original blog.

Tate asleep on the Aero bed yesterday morning. One of Dawson's chores for the trip was to set this up and put it away at each hotel stop. Despite all his work, he never got to sleep on it as it seemed to work out best for Tate to use it. Notice Jennifer's slipper-covered feet. Her bare feet never touch the hotel room floor, ever.

The entrance to the park.

Jennifer, Dawson, Braden, & Abby as we walk into the visitor center. Notice the shirts Jennfer & Braden are wearing. Jenn's shirt came off the men's clearance rack and is a bright red work out shirt. Dawson, who will wear shorts & t-shirts even when it is below 30 degrees, is holding his shirt and never put it on. It really was not as cold as we thought it would be.

The boys & I by one of the formations. There are hundreds and many are very large. I think the tallest was over 80 feet tall.

The vista from the parking lot at the visitor's center.

Finally, back to Texas.

Day 12 - "Sleddin in the Rain"

I forgot to put the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door so we were awakened early by the housekeeping staff trying to clean our room. Nothing like waking up abruptly to the sound of somebody trying to get in your hotel room!

After packing and preparing everyone for departure, I took a look out the window and to my horror, discovered it was pouring down rain. Obviously, this did not appear compatible with our plans to visit White Sands National Monument. Ever the diehards, we forged ahead anyway. It's about an hours drive from Las Cruces to the park. I stopped at the park's gift shop and purchased (later to be returned for partial credit as is the custom) two flying saucer type sleds complete with wax to make the bottom slicker. I asked the lady in the office if the rain would adversely affect our sledding and she said on the contrary, the rain actually packs the sand down and makes it faster. I got back in the car and instructed the boys to "wax up their sleds, we're going in". I drove to the far end of the park, about eight miles in, and the boys donned their swim trunks as it was still pouring down rain.

As we are Houstonians, we are unaccustomed to sledding and it took a while for the boys to figure it out. But, being the ever-resourceful boys they are, they soon conquered the hill and discovered how best to make the sleds work. Then, again being creative, they figured out ways to make the sleds go faster, jump higher, spin, and in general, anything that would make mom's heart skip a beat as they came screaming down the hill. They got going so fast they didn't stop at the bottom of the hill and went 15 or 20 feet into the flooded packed-sand parking area at the base. After about 30 minutes of sledding, the rain stopped and it cooled off into the 60s, a very nice break from the heat I was expecting.

Once it cleared up, mom, Tate, & even Abby made their way out of the car to climb the dunes and Tate even went down the hill a few times.

After a quick stop by the gift shop to return our sleds and pick up some t-shirts for the kids, we made way for Carlsbad. It was a beautiful drive through Alamogordo and Cloudcroft up over the mountains. I think we achieved our highest elevation of the trip today at around 8,600 feet.

We're saddened by the realization that our trip is coming to an end. Even with all the hotel rooms, moving around, and long drives, we have had a fantastic time and wish it could last longer. We're already talking about where we want to go next. Suggestions are welcome on the comments page.....

Enjoy the pics!

I was so glad to finally pay less than $4/gallon for gas I had to take this picture. We're getting closer to Texas.

Jennifer and the kids at the Visitor's Center. Jennifer's parents have almost this identical picture from their visit to White Sands roughly 25 years ago.

Braden heading down the hill.

Dawson about to embark.

Of course, no event would be complete unless they turned it into a competition.

The boys and I on top of the dunes. White Sands encompasses approximately 285 square miles, or around 185,000 acres. The view was magnificent from the back of the park with the cloud covered mountains in the distance. The sand is so white I almost needed sunglasses, even on an overcast day.

Abby & I made it up the dune as well.

It did not take the boys long to figure out if you pile up sand in the middle of the run you can "catch air" on the way down. You should have seen some of the wipe-outs they had.

The boys!Jennifer, the boys, & I. Abby is taking the picture. Just kidding, she fell asleep in the car. We met a fellow longhorn on a 10-day father/son road trip who took the picture.Tate heading down the hill. Contrary to the tentative look on his face, he had a blast. I thought I made a fatal parenting error when he hit Dawson's hill and flew about 2 feet into the air. But, he was hanging on tight and landed right side up and continued down the hill. He had to go down several more times after this. Apparently, his light weight contributed to his ability to get higher off the jumps.Jenn & Abby after she woke up.

Heading out of Cloudcroft we ran smack dab into a monster thunderstorm. This was the rainbow we saw as we approached the bad weather.

It's hard to read, but this is a picture of the trip odometer on the car. We hit 3,000 miles today. We'll have around 3,700 by the time we get back to Kingwood.

Day 11 - "The Thing"

Today was relatively uneventful. Since we came into Flagstaff at dark last night we did not get to see it. As we left this morning, we realized it really is a nice town. There are lots of tall pine trees and the terrain is steeply rolling hills with mountains surrounding it. The elevation is around 8,000 feet so it was relatively cool. All in all, I can see us making a return trip to Flagstaff for further exploration.

Our biggest decision of the morning was whether to take the potentially scenic and shorter mileage route, albeit mostly on non-interstate roads, or the slightly longer but probably faster interstate route. We opted for the latter with the mindset of making tracks as quickly as possible. This put is on a southbound heading on I-17 through Phoenix and Tucson and then back on I-10 towards Las Cruces backtracking the way we came a week and a half ago.

We had a competitive game of 20 Questions this morning. Believe it or not, Braden won this round. There were two questions he answered after only one clue, which gives you the most amount of points for each round. He really is a smart kid. When he's around us he is very talkative and interactive. However, when he is by himself or in school, he is extremely quiet. I remember one time picking him up from Sunday School and he said something to me. The teacher said "wow, I don't think I have ever heard him talk". Since we're around him all the time, I don't think we realized for a while just how shy he is. So, when he's in school, he always has his ears listening and absorbing information. As a result, his mind is full of trivia answers. Thus, I guess we shouldn't be surprised he won the game.

We searched in vain for another In-N-Out Burger but never could find one that was convenient so we settled for Arby's. If you haven't tried one, you should try either the Club or Turkey Club sandwiches there. They're really very good.

In the afternoon we got in a groove driving along I-10 heading east. Once you leave Tucson, it is extremely boring. Even though today was not our longest mileage day, it sure seemed like the longest day. I suspect it is because we were tired.

As you drive along I-10 eastbound from Tucson or westbound from El Paso, you start to see billboards asking the question "What is The Thing?". I've seen these all my life during our travels to California and never paid attention to them. Truthfully, I never paid any attention to them today. About midway between Tucson and Las Cruces, I decided to fill up with gas and stretch a bit so pulled off at the first gas station I found. I filled up while Jennifer took the boys inside for a potty break. When she came back out, she asked if I'd noticed the big sign on top of the gas station advertising "The Thing". I had been so busy pumping gas, cleaning out trash, and getting all the mileage stuff reset on the vehicle computer that I had not even noticed we stopped at the milepost 322 gas station where "The Thing" is. I went inside to investigate and saw the sign offering admittance for $1/adult and $0.75/child 6-and-0ver. You're never going to believe that we plopped down the $3.50 admission fee and went to see "The Thing". Once you pay the admission fee, you go through a heavy steel door and follow some yellow painted footprints on the ground as you go through three buildings. Each building has something different. There is no theme in each building and the exhibits are relatively random. The first building has a couple of old tractors, a 1937 Rolls Royce they claim was once owned by Hitler, and believe it or not, an old jail cell with wood-carved figures inside depicting ancient techniques for torture. The second building has two rows of "cubbies" with glass fronts and signs indicating the contents of each box. I saw some old guns, typewriters, an ancient White House cookbook, along with a litany of other things. Finally, you get to the third building where "The Thing" is. Beside "it" are a whole bunch of other things: some old handmade saddles, a carriage they claim was used in Lincoln's inaugural parade, a set of horns from a Texas Longhorn, and a whole bunch of other stuff. So, you're probably wondering what "The Thing" is, and I could tell you what it is. But, I'm not going to. I think if you really want to know, you're going to have to make the trip to Dragoon, Arizona and see it for yourself. You can cheat and look it up on Google (it has its own Wikepedia entry, including a picture), but I think that takes all the excitement out of it. The people in the store are extremely friendly and proud of their "Thing". By the time it was all said and done, our quick stop for gas lasted over an hour including the tour, some small talk with one of the store employees, and a visit to the adjacent Dairy Queen for some milkshakes. Tomorrow, we're going to see if we can find the world's largest ball of string........ha, ha, ha, ha......

If you're reading this, I really hope you'll go see "The Thing" some day. It's "things" (pardon the pun) like this that make road trips fun. Everyone flies everywhere these days because they want to avoid driving and get to their destination fast, and a lot of times it is cheaper to fly. To us, part of the vacation is the drive. We have enjoyed some of our road days almost as much as a day at Disneyland (maybe not quite that much).

After "The Thing" it took quite a while to get into Las Cruces. We're staying at the same hotel we visited on the way out. It's acceptable but nothing like the Embassy Suites in La Jolla; boy was that nice!

We'll get up in the morning and head for White Sands (too late by the time we got in tonight) and then on to Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow afternoon.

Keep the comments coming. My friend Tim O'Dea suggested taking the blog and turning it into something permanent to memorialize the trip. We had already thought about doing that. Tim, just so you know, after Jennifer saw your comment, she immediately went to Blurb.com on the Blackberry to check it out. I'm sure she'll be doing something like this when we get home.

Some of the scenery south of Las Cruces. This is coming into Sedona, Az.

I couldn't resist taking this picture. North of Phoenix for quite a stretch there is a large diameter pipeline under construction parallel to I-17. I guess I can't leave work completely at home. I had my eyes trained right for quite a ways looking at all the equipment and materials, seeing how they were coming along, and just generally telling the kids about pipeline construction (I think they were extremely bored by this). If anyone knows who is building this pipeline, it's worth a Dr. Pepper to you. I never could figure it out. This is what our car would look like if we couldn't borrow Pa's trailer. Thanks Pa, the trailer is much easier to load and unload. Plus, our luggage would be really wet today from all the rain we drove through.
I'm thinking about putting a lift kit on the suburban and getting some tires like this. Wonder if that will affect my gas mileage any???

These are the billboards you see all along I-10. According to the store, there are around 200 of them along the interstate.

It's "The Thing". Jennifer and the kids are standing below the big sign I missed. "The Thing" has been on display since 1950 and in this same location since 1965. It shows its age, too. We felt like we were stepping back in time or we had entered the Twilight Zone or something to that effect.

Day 10 - Can it get any hotter????

Yesterday I mentioned it was hot in Las Vegas. At 8AM this morning it was already over 100 degrees. Really, I don't know how people live in heat like that. I can handle it for a while, but today was really hot. There are times late in the summer in Texas when you get in the car at the end of the day and it hurts to touch the steering wheel, or put your arm on the center console, or touch the buckle on the seat belt; to the point where you can literally get a burn if you touch something with exposed skin. That's the way it felt in the car at 8AM this morning. I think it was around 108 when we pulled out.

I had a conversation last night with the night manager at our hotel that was rather depressing. It seems Vegas has been hit pretty hard by the downturn in the economy. The housing market is horrible and not many leisure travelers making the trip there. Looking around our hotel I would say it was only 15-20% occupied. He said it's been this way for a while and is really hurting the city. His tone of voice made it sound like he was really concerned they may even close the hotel.

We loaded the car anxious the get Vegas in our rear-view mirror and head towards Hoover Dam. Thankfully, because of the aforementioned drop in tourism, traffic at the dam was very light; at least in comparison to what I was told to expect this time of year on the internet. We got to the dam with the intention of walking around for a bit and seeing the visitor center. Unfortunately, it was so intensely hot, we made it just across the dam and had to turn around for the car to cool off. Everyone was hot. It really was unbearable. See the picture below of the temperature display in our car.

Once we left there was a long climb out of the Colorado River valley into what's called the high desert. Eventually, it got less barren and more green as we approached the Grand Canyon. and thankfully, the temperature began to drop. After a while, you're in the pine trees as you get right up to the park. Jennifer & I both visited the Grand Canyon as children. We both have vague recollections of it. It really is "grand" to see it again in person. It's hard to tell if the kids really appreciate the grandeur of it. I know I did not as a child. It's fantastic to see one of God's truly amazing creations up close and personal. As parents, we were nervous wrecks though. At several of the points we hiked around to, there was no guard railing and several signs indicating "danger" and the fact that many people of have died at this location from falling over the edge. The older boys were generally ok but Tate tends to explore a bit and can disappear very quickly. We had a firm grip on his hand the entire time we were near the edge, which he did not like at all. One false step and any one of us would have gone right over and dropped off over 1,000 feet.

We're in Flagstaff, Arizona tonight and intend to head towards Las Cruces, NM tomorrow with the hopes of making it out to White Sands for the 7PM guided nature walk with a park ranger.

I'll have pictures below from yesterday and today.

I snapped this picture last night just to prove we were actually there.

Our dinner location. This is inside The Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace Hotel. On the right side of the picture is a very large aquarium. There are some really spectacular vistas of Lake Mead as you drive towards the Hoover Dam. Little did we know what torture we were about to endure.

The boys & I on top of Hoover Dam. I have no idea how we were smiling. Perhaps I threatened to throw them over the edge if they did not smile. I really don't remember as I suspect I was suffering from heat stroke. We each had a water bottle and there were three more in the backpack behind Tate. However, right out of the cold ice chest, they got warm in a matter of 15 minutes. I tried to push ahead and make it to the Visitor's Center, but it was just too darn hot.

No, this is not the speedometer as we sped away from Las Vegas. It's the temperature at Hoover Dam. Before I took this picture, it was actually reading 135 degrees. I suspect it was not quite this hot as the car had been sitting for just a minute. However, I think it was legitimately around 115 degrees.

We discovered a new burger joint. I vaguely remember my dad taking me to an In-N-Out burger in San Diego when I was a kid (we would sneak out from grandma's house and grab a burger because we got tired of eating at the house). It had been quite a while since going and Jennifer spotted this one off the freeway in Arizona. I cut off three other cars across two lanes of the interstate to make the exit but we managed to get our burgers. The meat is fresh and never frozen. I actually watched one of the workers cutting the potatoes in the restaurant as we were in the drive through. Everything was so fresh and tasted really good. I wish now we would have tried one of their milk shakes. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.We got behind a loaded cattle truck in some traffic on the interstate. I don't think it had been cleaned out in about a week and stunk quite a bit. Out of the back seat we hear from Braden "Dawson, you smell like the poop of a goat". Jennifer & I both about wet our pants laughing so hard. I just had to take a picture of the truck.Jennifer and the kids at the Grand Canyon. No really, that is the canyon behind them and not a backdrop. It was fantastic. Somehow, I managed to get everyone smiling in this picture.

My lovely bride snapped this shot. We thought it was really pretty. Besides riding roller-coasters, Jennifer also loves to take pictures. I imagine once the kids get older, she'll actually take some classes. She's even mentioned trying to do it professionally.

Day 9 - On the road again

We left Anaheim around noon to head towards Las Vegas. As we climbed out of the "bowl" surrounding LA and over the mountains, the temperature began to increase significantly. When we left Anaheim, it was around 75 degrees. As we reached the Nevada state line, the temperature hit about 113 degrees. We reached Vegas and it was still just as hot. It feels like you are stepping into an oven when it's this hot outside. Jennifer & I are both native Texans and thus used to hot weather, but this is a whole new enchilada. Even at 11PM, it's still around 100 degrees outside.

I don't mean to go on-and-on about the weather but considering our impression of Las Vegas, this is about the most exciting thing we can talk about. Vegas is big. It's oppulent. There are lights, shows, huge hotels, and glitz and glam everywhere. The strip is just not a kid-friendly place. Not that it was ever advertised as such, but we really noticed it right away as we drove around. Perhaps we are suffering from post-Disney let-down syndrome. Nevertheless......

We drove down the strip and looked at all the big hotels. The amount of money put into these places is impressive. All the lights, fountains, statues, and architecture. Wow, it's something to see (once).

We tried to find a kid-friendly place to eat and ended up settling on the Cheesecake Factory in the Caesar's Palace Hotel. The food was good. We were going to walk to the Bellagio and see the dancing fountains but with the heat, we headed to the car. Fortunately, we pulled up in front of the Bellagio on the way out and the show had just started. All traffic along the fountain side of Las Vegas Blvd stopped so we rolled down the windows and watched the show from the air-conditioned car. We probably didn't get the full effect but it was still impressive; even Abby seemed to enjoy it.

No pictures to add today. We were afraid the camera would melt so did not expose it to the sun very much :)

Did I mention it's hot!!

Off to Hoover Dam & the Grand Canyon tomorrow. I bet it's really hot there too.

Keep the comments coming. It's really enjoyable knowing people are reading about our crazy trip across the SW United States.