Day Two: It's a long one! Read it if you dare!

I have no idea how I am possibly going to post about EVERYTHING that happened today, but I'll give it a go!

Here's adorable CS asleep last night, ahhhhhhhhh:

We started off in overcast Prescott. By the way, I love love love overcast weather. One of the funny things Sweet But Sneaky said yesterday was that Arizona is nothing like he expected it to be, because he expected sandy desolate desert. So far it's been pretty green and hilly and foresty.

The hotel had "hot" breakfast. It was pretty good - precooked omlettes, "egg patties" and sausage, oatmeal, cereal, a really good variety of yogurt, etc, etc, etc. Except. That by 9:00 they were OUT of milk. How do you run out of MILK at breakfast????? Lame!! 

There was a kid at another table with a slide rule. That completely and totally cracked me up because I thought: Gosh, I'm amazed that The Rocket Scientist hasn't given one to Mr. Genius yet and if he did have one, he'd be playing with it like that, too! (At least I THINK it was a slide rule!)

We got the room packed and we were out of the hotel by my hoped for goal of 10 am!

As we started up 89A into the mountains, I was inspired to put together a little spiritual selection of music for a Sunday morning from my ipod. Even though I'm a married (not-celebate) woman who isn't called a 'Director of religious anything' I managed to do a rather decent job, if I do say so. Here's a list of our morning meditation:

Gather Us In (David Haas et al)

Sing Out Earth and Skies (David Haas et al)

Canticle of the Sun (David Haas et al)

and closing up with a little Ignatian spirituality: Take Lord, Receive.

(HA HA, the spell check can't verify Ignatian. Oh well!)

As soon as I started playing Gather Us In, I had my overly sentimental emotional moment of the day. (Well the first of two.) It was awesome. The middle two songs especially were appropriate to the setting of the mountain roads.

Our destination was Clarkdale, AZ, outside of Cottonwood and just north/east of Jerome off AZ 89A. 

Driving through Jerome was a total TRIP and a half. And like Prescott, it was not what I remembered, although I did recognize, I think, the buildings we visited. I recognized the scene of the town but I had NO memory of the town being stuck onto the side of the hills. And the roads! Ohmygoodness! The roads were SO narrow! Here we were on a state route and two cars side-by-side would have barely fit on the road. Daddy Doc commented that he would NOT want to have been driving a rent-a-RV down this road!

We saw a few abandoned mines along the way and pointed out the tailings to Mr.Genius, reminding him of the campsite in the High Sierras Gold Country that we enjoy.

As we came closer to our destination, we got lost. There was construction outside of Cottonwood/Clarkdale and the directions we had from Google became very confusing. Daddy Doc asked me what I would like him to do and I said: Find a hotel and pull over so I can ask for directions. We promptly found a Quality Inn and Kat at the front desk gave us perfect directions. I figured out where I got lost but that's ok, we found it.

SBS and I went in to check in and collect our tickets for the Verde Canyon Railroad. This was the reason we left early to be in town today. We went back to the parking lot to fetch DD, MG and Captain Stubborn. We had just under and hour before boarding, so we went back to get some lunch. We didn't need a lot of food but there would not be any real food on the train so we needed to pad the tummies with protein. Big boys had grilled cheese, CS wasn't hungry but we got him a milk. DaddyDoc and I split.... a Buffalo Burger.

I realize a buffalo burger isn't anything novel to a lot of people but we had never had one before. We split it because we needed something but not a lot. It was just a patty, pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, and red onion. No sauce (our choice.) And we really enjoyed it. Oh, it came with Miss Vicki's Salt and Vinegar potato chips, too, which are among my FAVORITE. They're really the best salt and vinegar chips if you ask me (and SBS!)

The boys went shopping for souvenirs to think about what they might want later. I was getting anxious. The last time we went on a train like that, you had to line up EARLY to get good seats. It was about 12:15. One of the hostesses (each car had one) told me she'd save me seats so we could get three benches, on opposite sides of the train together. I felt better but I was still anxious. I hate not being in control!

We looked at the museum and walked around but there wasn't too much to do. Oh, we took pictures of course!

When the time came, we were still among first on the train. We found our seats but we moved around a little because they weren't the best seats. (As it turned out, the boys spent most of the time on the observation train anyway!)

I just need to say that the Verde Canyon trip was AWESOME.

The scenery is amazing. It is just beautiful. Words cannot describe it. The camera cannot capture it. 

Mr. Genius truly appreciated the beauty of the landscape. At one point I pointed to some formations far in the distance and he stood up clapping saying "THAT IS AWESOME!"

SBS was asking me how cactus got planted. I tried to explain that not everything has to be planted... CS said out of the blue: "Mommy, God put seeds in the trees." How do they come up with this stuff? I smiled.

One somewhat disappointing aspect of the trip was that at the turnaround point, the engines move from the back of the train to the front of the train, and then, the train just goes back. We hadn't known what to expect. When we rode the Durango-Silverton train in Colorado about 18 years ago, the mid-point was an actual stop where we visited the town of Silverton. We'd hoped to get off the train and look around Perkinsville, but that wasn't to be. Oh well! It wasn't horrible.

Well, it was a bit scary. SBS had reported that the bathroom was broken. I had been "holding it" for over an hour figuring, "ok, we'll get off the train, I'll pee there, and all will be right with the world, again."

Uhm, now what?

DD went to investigate. 

Yeah, SBS was wrong. 

Remind me not to depend on the 7-year-old's report on the bathroom...

During the ride, there was a train-wide narration but each car also had a host on it. Our observation car hostess was Linda (who had saved our seats for me.) She was very friendly and it was really great to have someone who could point things out to us along the way. For most of the trip up, I just sat inside the train, nice and comfortable.

Here's Linda right before the end of the trip (i.e. out of order to the story.)

At the mid-point, DD showed me the pictures he had taken and I realized that he had not taken pictures of many of the amazing rocks that I had assumed he'd been taking on the way up!! On the way back, I spent most of my time in the observation car taking pictures. Unfortunately, it was overcast and even dripping rain at times, so I missed a lot of the best shots. The good news is that it was nice and cool.

I'm missing so many details. Riding on the outdoor car through a tunnel, the things we saw, etc. It was a great 4-hours.

I will say that the end just, well, it annoyed me.

Now, please don't think me un-American. Lee Greenwood has his place. I tear up when I hear that darn song, just about each and every time. (Overly sentimental moment of the day number two.)

BUT - today it just felt... SLIMEY. The narrator does a segment to promote riding the Verde Canyon Railroad during EVERY season. You have to come back because each season has different things to see! 

Then she talks about the man who owns the railroad. He's an entrepeneur, by the way. He lives in Wyoming now, although he lived in Utah when he bought the railroad, sight unseen, based on freight numbers. He has 6 kids, 19 grandkids, and 1 great. Blah blah blah, you can do anything you want to do, and he's PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN.

Lee Greenwood sings. I'm thinking: Ok, why does this feel so damn hokey to me.

And then I realized why. The song ends, and narrator comes back and spends a few minutes pimping railroad gift certificates, and souvenirs from the gift shop but especially cds and DVDs.

AAAAAAh, yeah, there's nothing quite so American as capitalism, is there? I guess Capitalism is patriotic, too...

The rain was getting harder as we deboarded. We went to get some things at the gift shop and then we got one more picture - we'd missed a shot with the engines before we left on the trip, so we stopped and grabbed one very quickly. By now, the rain was really falling. Lightning started as we headed towards Flagstaff.

SBS is related to his Auntie Doc. By does NOT like thunderstorms. He was NOT happy with all that rain. CS fell asleep (Mercifully! He has spent the past 24 hours complaining of an ear ache. Whenever we give him ibuprofen, he stops for several hours. Let's hope that continues...) As we neared Sedona, DD, MG and I were just in awe of the rock formations.

Now, some people take amazing pictures of scenery. My art form is taking pictures of scenery from Moving Vehicles be they cars or trains. I guess boats, too. 

At one point, DD pulled over so I could take a picture. I asked him to roll down his window and take it from his side of the car. He reminded me that it was raining. I said "What, you won't suffer for your art?" He snapped some pictures. When it was my turn, you betcha I rolled down the window. (I took a lot from behind the windshield, too.)

I suffered for the rock we thought looked like a submarine:

So meanwhile, DD, MG and I are loving the scenery, SBS is pouting. Pouting hard. And he said to us, (Yes, I wrote it down in my little book so I would remember it exactly,) "All you're doing is looking at mountains. What's the excitement in that?"

:cough:

Ok, so the 7-y/o isn't nearly as impressed. Duly Noted.

Also duly noted? There are a buttload of Thai restaurants in western Arizona. We have seen Thai restaurants in just about every decent sized down we've driven through. Kingman, Prescott, Cottonwood and Sedona. I even took a picture of the one in Kingman. We haven't even been "Through" these towns extensively but I've seen their Thai restaurants.

We arrived in Flagstaff around 7:00 pm and found our hotel quickly.

Ok, so here's the real deal. Why do hotel clerks hate us?

Last night we had a view of... a wall. Yeah, a wall. Ok, no problem, we're here for one night.

Tonight?

Outside our window, we see... a Vent. We have the ONLY room in the entire hotel with an obstructed view. I took a picture of the whole hotel backside to prove it, even. And there's a vent in our way. I even joined their little preferred guest club and they gave us the room with the vent. Seriously. (The room's pretty tight, too. But - we have queen sized beds. Really, these aren't complaints, they're observations. If we can do a trip in a tight hotel room, this means more vacations in my future. Ok, the obstructed view is me bitching. I'll admit that.)

But the service at the hotel was offset by another great dinner.

Don't laugh, ok?

Promise?

Who am I kidding, you're going to laugh.

My first online experiences were a certain USENET group and a "ListServe" for pregnant women. People I met kept talking about Cracker Barrel. "Oh, you can get that at Cracker Barrel." "We went to Cracker Barrel." In 2004, when we went on another vacation, I found out there would be a Cracker Barrel in one of the towns we visited and I made arrangements to go there, just to check it out. It was silly but I really enjoyed it!

For this trip, I have a printout of every Cracker Barrel in the state of Arizona, with the locations that we'd be closest to, highlighted. My plan had been to eat dinner at the Flagstaff CB tonight. Imagine how TICKLED I was to find that our hotel is just SPITTING distance from the Flagstaff location!!!!

I'm sorry but you just aren't going to find a dinner for 7 bucks like a Cracker Barrel dinner. My grilled pork chop was as tasty as could be! And Daddy Doc ordered the Sunday Chicken Dinner called "Homesytle Chicken." That suckers got two breasts, dipped in buttermilk, breaded and deep fried. Oh.My.HECK! (Sorry for stealing it but she said she's not reading this anyway...) It was just delicious.

For our sides we ordered turnip greens, cole slaw, fried apples, and corn. (Sweet Potato Casserole with pecans wasn't available tonight.) The turnip greens were gross. Years ago, I worked with a man who would bring his wife's collard greens to potluck lunches. Ever since then I've been looking for greens that tasted as good as those did and I have yet to find any. But at least I tried. The manager had heard me tell the hostesses my story (yes, I told them the story about how I HAD to eat at Cracker Barrel. You're seriously not surprised are you??) He stopped by our table to ask how our meal was. I told him how awesome my pork chop was but that I didn't like the greens. He offered me an alternative! I had mashed potatoes with sawmill gravy. 

Now, I will say, the chicken and dumplings the boys had were not good. It was all dumplings and they were blech - mounds of wet flour. Blech. But DaddyDoc's dinner and mine were scrumptious. (I mentioned that they were only 7 and 8 bucks, right??) We split the chocolate cobbler with pecans a la mode for dessert...

Afterwards we shopped. The boys wanted to buy toys but we veto'd them. A couple of the toys were cute but they weren't unique to Arizona memories. They would be out 50% of their entire souvenir budget on Day Two if we'd said yes! We pulled parental whatchamacallit and said no. we did get some goodies - some robot stickers and some candy.

I did make an overly sentimental purchase.

Anyone else remember the Sunkist Fruit Gem candies? They're those patties covered in sugar crystals?

Whenever I see those, I think of my maternal grandfather. I have these strong memories of him having boxes of those things when I visited his home. 

So I bought a box, yeah, you betcha! 

Tonight, MG's in the sleeping bag because SBS had first choice and took the bed because the room is really too small to bother with the blow-up mattress. CS decided he wanted the bed, too. They were up pretty late writing in their travel journals. They really enjoyed the day!

Now I want to get some pictures uploaded so I can post this. I'm getting tired. I have not been sleeping well for the past two weeks (did I already tell you that?) I didn't even go to sleep well last night although I thought I did a decent job for being in a hotel room. SBS didn't sleep well last night. Tonight, he's out and the other two are still lying awake.

Ok, off to the SD card!!

(Funny note: We called downstairs an hour ago for more towels. They're still not here. I just called back and the guy who answered the phone was the (very) young man who checked me in. "You haven't received those yet, Mrs. PerkyMommy?? I'm so sorry about that!" And I could tell he was. I wanted to say: "Do you know about the Vent outside my window, John?")

(Another funny note: Very Young John just delivered the towels - himself! He couldn't stop apologizing to me. I thanked him very sincerely.)