Day 50

I woke up at 3 quite cold so I sneaked a little bit of Brayden's quilt and was able to go back to sleep. The girls were stretched out and looked perfectly warm. About an hour later I woke up with Ryan glued next to me so I slid a little more covers from Brayden and covered her up too. I was just happy he was not mad about sharing or maybe he didn't know yet!

The time change is taking some adjustment. I'm used to waking up around 5am and getting a few things done before the kids wake up. This morning I didn't wake up until 7am and the kids slept in until 8:30! I reminded them that was 10:30 in California and they all said 10:30 should be the new normal.  I'm not sure they could fit school in with getting up that late!

While they were snoring away a momma and her young one came through the campground. They walked right in front of our tent. Laney was going to be mad she slept through it!

Since the kids slept in I took some time to catch up on editing pictures and writing. Since we were down in the canyon the air stayed cool and the sun didn't reach the tent until the kids were waking up.
They were excited this morning because it was a breakfast they had been looking forward to since the beginning of the trip. When it's hot and I don't want to cook on the stove or over the fire I let them each buy a box of cereal for us to eat for breakfast. We don't usually eat cereal at home so these sugary boxes are coveted for all the days they are filled.

Our next stop was Cadillac Ranch. This is an art installation that is a tribute to the old cadillacs with fins in the back. They are often painted specific colors for commercials or special days but otherwise they want the public to have fun adding their own touches. I wanted to surprise the kids with this stop that Dave would have loved but Laney spotted it the day before. You have to walk up close to really appreciate it though!

Someone handed the kids their spray paint so they started marking up the cars with innocent smiley faces and "Hi".  After our Carhenge visit a few years ago I learned to have a Sharpie with you for signing too!

It was hot but there was a very strong breeze that helped us not to sweat like crazy. We pointed the car east and continued on through Texas. After about 30 minutes we stopped at the Slug Bug Ranch - a nod to Cadillac Ranch. I made sure to get a few "punch buggy" slugs in before my kids could! 

We listened to a few podcasts for the next few hours while we made our way east to Eisenhower State Park. It was 104 degrees and we were all looking forward to a little relief in the water. I reserved a site right next to the swimming beach so we could have easy access and enjoy the afternoon cooling off. As we checked in I noticed a sign that the swimming beach was closed. Apparently they were doing construction on the path down to the beach so they had closed it for today only. The ranger said if the "Keep Out" signs were gone we were welcome to go down and swim.

Our fingers were crossed as we drove toward the day use area but it didn't help. The signs were up in front of the path and we all sighed thinking of the hot afternoon and night we had ahead of us. We decided to get the tent set up and play some games before cooking dinner. The view reminded me of Oregon!

We heard people down at the swimming area and as we looked down over the cliff sure enough there were people in the water. I went back and forth in my head trying to decide if we should follow them and get some relief. We were all dripping and pretty miserable. I really really wanted to swim but decided instead to be the person I want the kids to grow up to be and pay attention to the sign. Either they will grow up and think I was just lame or perhaps they will take this lesson to heart.


I decided to cook the taco dinner Brayden wanted along with the much anticipated dutch oven dump cake. It was boiling hot and I was seriously dripping now - I had to watch out for sweat dripping in the food!! We had a delicious dinner and dessert to end the night. As we were eating I asked the kids if they were up for a long drive the next day. Brayden knew we only had a 5 hour drive to our next spot so his face lit up knowing I was asking if they just wanted to go home the next day. It would be a minimum 12 hour day in the car but they didn't bat an eye. They answered before I could even finish asking. This is the first year Dave hasn't driven all the way home with us so I think that was part of it but we also have our house waiting as well as all their friends.

Attitudes shifted considerably with the decision to drive home the next day. Ryan mentioned she was thinking about taking a cold shower before bed and Laney and I joined her. Brayden wasn't up for the challenge so he just changed into travel clothes for the next day. When the girls and I walked into the bathroom there were two scorpions waiting on us. I'd never seen one before outside of a zoo so I froze for a minute to decide what to do.

One of them ran (they were SO fast!) to the side which gave us enough room to slip by to the showers so we did a shower inspection for more before developing our plan. We posted one person outside the showers to keep an eye on these guys while the others showered. If you can call it that. Laney and I could only stand it for about 15 seconds and Ryan just washed her hair. We all felt much better though! It wasn't long before they ran toward the showers and we were going to have to spend the night in the shower!  The fast guy ran to the wall so we shuffled to our next obstacle to figure out how to get around him. I put down our shower bag between us and him and we slid by before grabbing the bag and running out. I knew one thing - we wouldn't be visiting this bathroom in the middle of the night!

By the time we got back to the campsite we were all getting hot again but knowing we only had a few more hours we were all just resolved to trying our best to sleep at least a little bit. I scrolled through Facebook to get my eyes tired and ended up finally falling asleep after 11.