Summer 2013 Day 37: The Trip Begins

Day One has arrived.  We have officially started the Bigger Than Texas Road Trip.  Our day was filled with a long (I mean LLLLOOOOONNNNNGGGGG) drive just to get out of Texas - almost 9 hours to get to Carlsbad, NM y'all.  But that include multiple potty stops (my family couldn't seem to coordinate it) and a fun hour exploring Fort Stockton.

 Had to make our first potty stop in my favorite Texas German town, Fredericksburg.

And then we enjoyed lunch at a great little rest stop outside of Junction.

It was a gorgeous drive.  Some may look at the West Texas landscape and think blah - I think gorgeous.  I didn't mind this view at all:

Here are the kid's POV for our first day:

Morganne
Our first day of the Bigger Than Texas Road Trip, we drove until we came upon Fort Stockton. We mainly hung around the old-timely part of town. We saw the once “Biggest Roadrunner in the World” and learned many interesting things about Fort Stockton like when the settlers’ moved into town, a group of Indians were forced out to look for a new home. After a couple of geocaches, where we learned where a famous sheriff was buried (A. J. Royal), we got back on the road.

Ian fell asleep and I was about to, until Mom made Jack and I get out of the car because we had to take a picture with the “Welcome to New Mexico!”  Sign.

Half an hour later we reached Carlsbad, New Mexico. We went to the hotel (Fairfield Inn and Suites Marriot), got our room, set our stuff down, and went to find dinner. We ended up eating at Danny’s Place.  We ate here because ALL the non-chain resurants were closed. I mean what town has every good resurant closed on Sunday’s?!  Danny’s wasn’t that good, but it was the only place that was not fast food. After doing some really fast and fun geocaches, we were pooped! We all took showers climbed in bed, and went out like lights. That night I learned a very valuable lesson. NEVER SLEEP WITH LITTLE BROTHERS OR SISTERS. Ian slept side-ways and used my head as a pillow!

Jack

Yesterday we started our 3 week road trip. The first thing that we did was see the  worlds 2’nd  largest roadrunner. We also did a Fort Stockton geocache. When we were done we hit the road again.

When I caught my first glimpse of the desert I was amazed. The hills curved upwards and had a flat top. They also had windmills with blades that measured over the length of an 18 wheeler! We were in the middle of nowhere!