The Trip Home...

A decision was made not to stop in Wichita but to instead drive straight through to Seattle. (We arrived home just over 29 hours later.)

We left Lawton, Oklahoma at 7:00 PM Central Time and began the drive home.

We watched the sunset somewhere in northern Oklahoma.
We watched the sunrise just outside of Denver the next Morning, and we watched it set again Saturday evening in Eastern Washington.


(Photos and details of this trip will updated after I get them off of all of the cameras.)

Dan's Graduation Day at Ft. Sill - Lawton, Oklahoma

On Friday June 26th we went to McMahon Auditorium for Daniel's 10:00 AM graduation. Afterwards we spent the day with him having lunch at a Mexican restaurant and going to see the new Terminator movie.










Daniel was in the 3rd platoon. This platoon won the most streamers and graduated as the honor platoon.




After graduation Daniel showed us their platoon's workout shirts. Members of Daniel' s platoon were called the Crusaders... The names of the other three platoons are printed on the toilet paper. ;-)







Daniel also modelled his ARMY issued ballistics glasses for us.


We had Rachel try them on as well. The soldiers refer to them as BCGs (Birth Control Glasses)



After a nice day visiting with Dan we had one final photo to take before dropping him back off on base and beginning our long trip home.

Family day at Fort Sill

Rachel and I went to the morning demonstration alone today, Don was back at the hotel sick (Geez...3 down, 1 to go). Fortunately, Rachel who had been sick half the night "soldiered-up" and went with me so I didn't have to try to find the place alone. Thank god for the GPS because neither of us knew the lay of the land.



Once there, we watched examples of what the pre-graduates have learned. It was pretty fun to watch, but the show was in an open field where we sat on solar-shades covered bleachers. It was so bloody hot that even the people next to us, who were from Georgia, were complaining. I felt like melting under the seats!!!



The soldiers in their wool uniforms must have been too hot to imagine!






After the demonstration we picked up Dan for family day and got a tour of his barracks. No privacy here!!!

We headed back to the hotel to check on Don and Pasha (and drop off Rachel to sleep) before Daniel and I went out to lunch.

The one thing Daniel wanted was a Wendy's chicken sandwich, so we programmed the GPS and soon we were enjoying a mom and son catch-up lunch at the local Wendy's.

After lunch we drove around a bit and figured out where McMahon Auditorium is for Tomorrow's graduation. We will need to pack the car in the morning and checkout before going to the graduation so knowing where we are going will mean we can get up a bit later.

Once we got the lay of the land, and explored a bit, we came back to my room and visited with Rachel for a while before getting Don and Pasha up for a swim in the hotel pool. After the swim we watched an episode of Scrubs because Dan was missing TV and then had a nice dinner at Outback Steak House.

Once Don was deposited back at the hotel, we deposited Daniel back on base, and Rachel (and Pasha) finally got the manicure/pedicure spa visit they wanted at the local mall. Rachel was hoping, the whole way down, to get a manicure by a southern girl like in the movie Legally Blond... but just like up north they were all Asian. I spent this time calling home and catching up on email. Once back at the Hotel they hit the pool (with Don) one more time while I sat relaxing in the hotel, watching Burn Notice and updating this blog.




Well because I know a lot of you want to see photos of Dan in his uniform... he is very handsome in his dress uniform. :-)

I will take more photos Tomorrow but today was about relaxing and catching up.

Daniel has to be back by 8:00 PM Tomorrow so that he can fly to San Antonio, TX. (Ft. Sam Houston) at 1:00 AM Saturday morning. Once he is back on base we will drive to Wichita Kansas and begin our drive home.

Hurray we are in OK!!!

Wednesday we left that horrible hotel in Amarillo and made our way to Lawton, Oklahoma.



Unfortunately, on the way to Oklahoma Rachel developed the same stomach bug I had and ended up puking behind the welcome to Oklahoma sign. Needless to say we drove as quickly as we could to get to the hotel so she could relax in an air conditioned room. It was during this drive that we saw our first 100+ degree weather just before crossing into Oklahoma.


There really wasn't much to look at on the road between Amarillo and Lawton, it was flat desert (just like New Mexico, and Arizona, and Utah, and...)




We did capture a photo of the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere (as we sped by it) before leaving Texas...I guess everything really is bigger in Texas.


The rooms at the Best Western are nice here with a decent mini-fridge, comfortable beds, plus microwave (with popcorn included). OK so it doesn't take much to please me.

Since Rachel was sick, it was a "chicken soup in the room" night for the two of us, but Don and Pasha were able to go out and explore a bit of Lawton.

Don and Pasha got LUCKY and got a free upgrade to a Jacuzzi suite when they checked in because they checked right after I took the last king size room even though I had reserved 2 rooms for us.... Dogs! ;-)

Don also ended up sick last night and we aren't sure if it is the heat, food poisening, or the flu that has gotten the three of us... It is hot as hell here 104 degrees and 27% humidity. God I miss Seattle.

Tuesday on to Amarillo Texas.

OMG this was a LOOOOOOONG day in the car! We cruised across New Mexico with limited stops...









and arrived at the Travel lodge in Amarillo Texas at about 11PM Central time.

The rooms were cheap so we got two rooms YEAH...and the games began.

1st - The key to our room didn't work... Don went to get us another one.


2nd - We got another key, opened the door and the room was not ready. There was towels and linen laying on the floor, the bed had no linen and had a nasty stain on the mattress...EEEEEWWWWW!!!


3rd - I called the desk and had to walk back down to get a key to another room.

4th - The new key didn't work. So I had to walk back to the office and they gave me another key. They sent a desk clerk with me who told me that if the new key didn't work, he could let me in with his master key, but the door could not be fixed until the morning. Which would mean that if we left the room they would have to let us back in. Fortunately the key worked and the room was clean... I hope the mattress is!

UPDATE - 5th (which I found out about the next morning)- Don and Pasha had two unwelcome visitors in their room during the night... a huge black ant and a giant spindly spider. If I had found out about this that night I would have slept in the car!

It is Midnight so off to bed we go. Tomorrow we will get into Oklahoma.

Monday's Trip to the Grand Canyon (Updated)

We left Page Arizona and spent most of the day in the car



with a quick couple of stops in the Grand Canyon National Park. Rachel wasn't feeling well and it was hot so we didn't stay long.


Even after much arguing the gnome refused to get out of the car.

Getting from the Grand Canyon to Flagstaff was a long hot day, and kind of a GPS challenge, because it kept trying to take us on unnamed forestry service dirt roads. Once we got to the hotel everyone else took a dip in the pool and ordered pizza (I had peanut butter crackers because my stomach was VERY unhappy... Rachel isn't 100% either - Getting sick on vacation sucks) I booted up the computer, realized I was not going to work on it, shut it off, and went to bed.


While I was sleeping our gnome played with the local wildlife...


made friends with some travelling bikers...

and even took a dip in the pool.

Tomorrow we head across New Mexico for our next stop over in Amarillo Texas...

Page Boy Motel

When we first pulled up to the room it was kind of scary... It had no windows and the entrance was on an alley...

But the room was spotlessly clean, the bathroom less creepy and the remote had batteries - YEAH.




It even had a nice little patio.





The sun lovers even managed to get a morning swim before we left.
They have free breakfast but we will soon be seeking the Diet Coke and Starbucks fix before heading off to the Grand Canyon.

I see we have several follower Hello everyone! Being popular totally ROCKS (just kidding). We even have one we aren't sure we know...welcome aboard to the wolf Richard Lopez.

Sunday night we crossed into Arizona at sunset...

We ended up at the Page Boy Motel in Page Arizona just outside of Lake Page National Park. We had dinner at the Denny's in town and the waitress was beyond slow... every one here is slow. It must be the heat. (Note: These guys would NEVER survive in Seattle Traffic... it was my day to drive and they drove me crazy).



One cool thing though was we saw a cool little lizard as we were leaving the Denny's.



At 10:30 PM (we are back in the same time zone as Seattle) it was 82 degrees outside! Don and Pasha took a dip in the pool which is right outside the back door and froze because the water was so much colder than the air. The pool here never closes... probably because it is hotter that the devil here during the day.

There was also a funky little museum just outside Bryce Canyon

It had many displays of dead animals that were pretty cool. It also had a deer petting zoo with brand new babies.

Bryce Canyon Utah

We took way too many photos to post here. So here are just a few of them...