Today was our trip to the Grand Canyon. WOW! It was impressive. Unfortunately, 3 of the 4 Mislanskys have some level of fear regarding heights or falling. We still made the most of the day. We spent a lot of time walking along the rim, taking photos and being amazed. Joe & I did a short hike down into the canyon, but eventually my fear of heights and falling got the best of me and we had to come up. We hiked about 2/3 a mile and descended about 600 feet into the canyon. It was a steep hike and I was huffing and puffing by the end of it. We also ate a couple good meals at the lodges. We didn’t have to do any driving because of the great bus system in the national park so it was nice to not be behind the wheel for a day. And we ended up by watching a sunset. Overall, it was another great day. Tomorrow we are off to Hoover Dam and Las Vegas.

Wow. Today was a really long day. With today being the off day for the runners, we were able to get out of our hotel 9:00 in Farmington, NM. I think that’s 11:00 back in Ohio. Once, on the road, we drove to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. It was about an hour drive. The entire drive, we tried to figure out which hike to do.

When we got to the welcome center, we still weren’t sure what to do. There was so much. We figured out that we would do the Cliff Palace tour. We bought our $4 tickets and jumped back into the car for a really cool drive up the mountains.

These views were beautiful. I think I was the only one not having a panic attack. It helps to not be afraid of heights. We were really high. About half way up the mountain, we stopped at the cafeteria. A cafeteria on the side of a mountain, imagine that. After eating there and browsing the gift shop, we got back in the car to finish the drive.

At this point it was 12:30 and we still have two hours until our guided tour so we went to the Spruce Tree House which had a bunch of cool cliff dwellings and even a Kiva — underground room — that we could go down into, built in the 1100’s Once it was 2:00 we went to our actual tour which they made seem really scary and treacherous, but it was really nothing. We saw some more cliff dwellings and kivas. Finally, we drove down the mountain with three of the four of us panic stricken.

At 5:00 we arrived at the Four Corners Monument which is really just an area owned by the Navajo’s that they close off to make money. For $5 a person, we got to stand in four states at once, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It was cool to walk around four different states in under a minute but I don’t think any of us have any reason to do it again.

Who ever told Arizona that it’s okay for them to not follow Daylight Savings wasn’t thinking. It screwed all of us up. I’m still not 100% sure what time it is now. It is supposed to be 10:41 but I think it is 9:41. We left four corners and drove for awhile. I hid away to watch a movie and soon enough it was dinner time. Along the side of the highway, we saw signs for a Burger King. But this Burger King was special. It had a Navajo Code Talkers museum exhibit inside of it.

We walked in and started looking at stuff. Little did we know, an actual 93 year old, former Code Talker, walks in with his family. He had the jacket on and everything. We got to talk to him, get a picture, and even sign my recently purchased book. That was really cool and he seemed really happy to have someone interested in what he did.

None of us liked that Burger King. We aren’t what you would call fast food people, so we kinda didn’t have dinner. But at least we met a cool person. As of now, 9:47 (12:47 at home) we have just gotten into the Grand Canyon National Park and will hopefully be arriving at our hotel soon.

Sorry for the long post, there was too much to say. Oh, I almost forgot. The girls are winning the license plate game. Well that’s it for today. Good night.

Got up early. Visiting Cliff Dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park, 4 Corners and arriving at the Grand Canyon – hopefully before dark.

After 2 days of driving the flat, pretty boring states of Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas, New Mexico was a beautiful sight to see. The buttes, mesas and plateaus are breath taking! What you say is the difference between the three? Glad you asked! Basically, buttes are little mesas and mesas are little plateaus. Yeah, Tim and the kids weren’t so interested in my geography lesson either. Having dinner at the Cowgirl BBQ in Santa Fe. Stopped this morning to spray graffiti at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, TX, and check out the Two Legs statue.

A few hours ago at 9:00 P. M. CST we spotted a few lightning strikes. Thirty minutes later we were in dark clouds, pouring rain, golf-ball sized hail and scary thunder and lightning! It was so bad we had to pull over and stop at a gas station. I guess maybe next time we shouldn’t make fun of Oklahoma…

We believe that Oklahoma is officially the most boring state in the entire universe. We have been in the state for about a long time and have about a little while left. We hope to get to our hotel in Amarillo before 10 CST.

One of the highlights of today was the fly. Oklahoma is so boring that a fly hitched a ride with us on our way to Texas so that it could get out. No matter what we did, that fly would not get out. It even followed us inside to dinner at the Rib Crib. A place that doesn’t seem to like your cups to not be full.

Even the government knows the state is boring. The speed limit in Oklahoma is 75 MPH, with a minimum of 50. They got many complaints about the state being boring that they had to raise it.

We got to see the the OKC Thunder Arena downtown. I’m not sure how they can have a team because the city doesn’t look like it can afford it.

In case anyone is wondering. The males have found 40 of the state license plates and the females have found 37. It seems obvious that we will find them before them.

Tomorrow we look forward to another day of driving and hopefully some eccentric roadside attractions. We are somehow still on all speaking terms but I’m not sure how long that will last. Wish us luck.

We decided to detour off the interstate for a roadside attraction. We got onto Route 66 and visited Galena, KS. We went to Cars on Route 66 where the inspiration for the Disney movie Cars came from. This is the original tow truck that inspired the producer for Tow Mater.

We’re working our way to Amarillo, TX tonight. We’ve done 2 hours of driving so far with 7 to go if we get back on the highway, but we will do a bit more of Route 66.

After 7 hours of driving (357 miles) of driving we arrived in St. Louis, Missouri and headed towards the St. Louis Arch. When we got there we got into an egg-shaped cart and flew 192 meters (4 minutes) into the air and saw the beautiful site below! Next we flew 3 minutes back down and went to Cardinal Nation for a scrumptious dinner where we saw the Cavs make an awesome #1 pick! Now we are heading to Springdale to sleep and wake up for an awesome second day!

At an official time of 10:10 EST, we left our home of Kirkwood to our first stop, St. Louis. We have a lot of stuff in our car as you can see in the pictures. Our Garmin, Aka Gina, has us there at 2:30 CST, or 3:30 EST. But that’s without lunch, some ice, and a stop at Great Clips.

We will be playing the License Plate game. Boys vs girls. The first person to find it, gets it for their team. If they’re lucky, the girls will get within ten plates of us.