Since, in spite of fears, our road trip to Memphis a couple of years ago turned out to be a fun time, we thought we’d do it again. And while the current family members are all seasoned road trippers, we’re expecting a baby this fall who might need a few years to build up its sitting-for-long-stretches-of-time muscles, so this summer seemed like a good time to go.
Over the course of 13 days, we drove 3,746 miles, visited nine states1, stopped for gas fourteen times2, slept in six different motels, read two books3, watched six movies4, and had absolutely no throw-ups. Part of the success is that our children are apparently easily entertained. Two eggs of silly putty entertained them off and on for a couple of days, until Ethan discovered that pants pockets aren’t a great place for silly putty storage.
We had a great time visiting with our Fearnley relatives, who are all in Memphis now since Grandma and Grandpa moved back there from Texarkana. We also had some fun activities in Memphis and points in between here and there.
The fishing would have been better if we had realized sooner that the hook and bait had fallen off the line.
July 30, 2005
Our first adventure was a raft trip on the Rio Grande near Taos, New Mexico. It seems like pregnant women are discouraged from participating in any activity that could conceivably carry risk, like roller coasters, hot air balloons, and possibly standing on one foot, so we chose the calmer section of river to float down. Our guide, Julia, nearly became a casualty when Gerrit dropped his paddle into the river. She was able to grab his paddle, but dropped her own in the process. I guess she felt like she couldn’t very well be a guide without a paddle, so she jumped into the river to retrieve it. Unfortunately, the river was only about about two feet deep at this point, which isn’t very accommodating for jumping in. She skinned up a knee and probably got a few bruises. She was pretty cool about it, but she kept a close watch on the boys after that to be sure they kept both hands on their paddles.
A little excursion out of the raft.
July 25, 2005
Shannon got the MacGyver award for the raft trip. We had a big five gallon bucket tied to the raft to be able to catch more of the river current. This was to counteract the head wind, which at certain places on the river would have otherwise kept us nearly motionless, therefore requiring a lot of paddling. Unfortunately the handle broke off the bucket, and we would have lost it if Shannon hadn’t spotted it. Then Shannon suggested a way to rig the straps on the bucket so we could use it without the handle. Julia was impressed with her sharp eyes and good ideas.
In Dallas, we went to dinner at a theme restaurant called Medieval Times [warning: Flash music]. There, we were able to eat an entire meal without silverware while wearing paper crowns. Hey, wait a minute… I could have done the same thing at Burger King for a lot less money! OK, they did have entertainment better than play land. We got to watch knights participate in horsemanship games, jousting and hand-to-hand combat. Some of the feats were fairly real, such as threading lances through rings (though lightweight lances make that a little easier), while others were staged as part of a story line (all the jousting and fighting). Of course, we’re all experienced joust-goers, since the Young Living Farms in Mona, Utah sometimes put on real jousts (no balsa-wood lances there). The food was just fair, and I’m sure in keeping with longstanding medieval feast tradition, the only choice offered in regards to the meal was the amount of caffeine in your drink. Overall, it was a pretty fun evening out with the kids.
Shannon on the way to the joust.
July 27, 2005
Another fun day was spent at Libertyland, which is an amusement park in Memphis. Ethan has crossed the magical 48″ barrier, which means he was able to ride on pretty much anything he had the courage to get on. We discovered that he has an affinity for spinning rides, while those put the “no throw-ups” triumph in jeopardy for me. Ethan had a favorite spinning ride that he wanted me to go on with him, which I used (along with a one dollar bribe) as leverage to get him to go on the roller coaster (the Revolution — just like the one at Magic Mountain in California) with me. I think Gerrit would have been more daring than Ethan about going on rides, but he’s still too short. As a bit of trivia, Elvis’ last public appearance before his death in 1977 was going to Libertyland with some friends.
Jay, Ethan & Gerrit wolf down the cotton candy at a Memphis Redbirds baseball game.
July 30, 2005
I’m proud to say that I’ve now played golf a total of three times. Thomas and Jay were kind enough to take me and the boys over to the country club to play on the par three golf course. This is where the kids and teenagers play before advancing to the real golf course, and it was about as much as I could handle. I had exactly two shots that I considered good. The first was a drive that actually landed on the edge of the green. I still wasn’t able to make par on that hole, though, which was frustrating because getting par on some hole was kind of a goal. On the last hole, my drive went into the rough. My next shot also landed in the rough, sort of in a dip by a power pole. I was maybe thirty feet from the hole at that point, so it seemed like my goal was going to go unmet, but I chipped it up onto the green and it rolled right into the hole. There were a couple of twelve year olds walking by that were really impressed. Good thing they hadn’t seen me dribble a ball into the pond a little earlier.
Gerrit gets some tips on his swing from Thomas.
August 2, 2005
Ethan and Gerrit were sort of ambivalent about golf. They used an effective combination of hitting their ball with a club and picking it up and throwing it toward the green. They also had a chance to learn some finer points of golf etiquette, like that it is generally bad form to dig holes in the green with your putter.
Eric after visiting Elvis at Graceland
August 1, 2005
The road home brought back some memories of our 2003 trip. For example, we stopped for lunch at Burger King in Colby, Wyoming (darn, no paper crowns available!). As we were pulling in, it occurred to me that this was the very same Burger King where I had spent a really unpleasant time cleaning up a certain little boy’s accident in his pants. No problems this time, though. So a whole vacation without throw-ups or poopy pants! What more could you ask for in a vacation?
Notes
- Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming.
- The highest price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $2.489 in Abiquiu, New Mexico. The lowest was $2.099 in both Sulphur Springs, Texas and Evanston, Wyoming.
- An audio book version of Where the Red Fern Grows, and Whales on Stilts read aloud by Shannon.
- The Power Rangers Movie (twice), Pirates of theCaribbean, The Incredibles, The Man from Snowy River, The Karate Kid, and Back to the Future.