The Vagabond

Ok, so where was I?

Oh yes...

When we arrived at the Roach Motel 6 that night, Hubby discovered this on our trailer. Thankfully we had a spare trailer tire, and thankfully Hubby remembered to bring it! A quick change and the problem was solved. Hubby and Kiddo also played in the pool for a little while that evening. The room we had was just off the pool, and unfortunately right next to another family with 2 small children who made their presence known by screaming and crying pretty much the whole time we were there.

The next morning we packed back up and headed out. Our goal for Thursday was Globe, AZ, again only a few hours away. We refueled at a gas station and I scored yet another wonderful cup of coffee. It's the little things, you know? ;)

We made it to Globe easily. Our original plan was to camp in Globe that night, but just before we left home we changed our minds about camping and decided to get another hotel room instead. And I am soooooo thankful we did.

When we arrived in Globe, we checked into the Motel 6 (well, they are the cheapest by far). We pulled around to the building our room was in and looked for our number on the doors. A woman was standing outside, smoking a cigarette and talking to a cleaning woman. She was tall and lean, dressed a bit too young for her age in short shorts and a tank top. Her hair was long, blond and straight; she might have been quite attractive once. I wondered why she was so friendly with the staff - unusual for a patron of a highway side motel. We didn't go to our room, instead we just unhooked the trailer at the hotel and took the CRV up the mountain we had originally planned to camp on. Both kids were asleep in the back and Kiddo started to wake up when we were about 3/4 of the way up. The views were amazing and the mountain road was so beautiful. Kiddo loved all the trees and the "desert highway" (rough, bumpy, unpaved road) we were on. We got to the top of the pass and stopped at the camp sites to look around. Kiddo and Hubby wondered around for a bit and I stayed in the car with sleeping Port. I snapped a few pictures of the big boys on the top of some huge boulders.
I was having a hard time getting the boys exposed properly without blowing out the background in the pics, but I still love how these turned out. For once, Kiddo actually looked at me with a pleasant expression!
On the way down, we stopped a couple of times for pictures. The century plants were in bloom, so the mountainside was peppered with beautiful shoots full of bright yellow flowers. Hubby couldn't resist the landscape shots. So, yet again I got a picture of his back! The next one is one Hubby took of me. You would think after years of modeling I would know how to stand when my picture was being taken. *sigh*

At that point it was time to pump, we were starving and Port was waking up so we headed back down the mountain. The road, I have to say, was not the best - bumpy, very twisty and it had tons of fast switchbacks. I was getting a bit sea sick coming down, mainly because I had to spend most of the ride turned around backwards tending to Port. Kiddo did great and again enjoyed the scenery he missed while asleep coming up. We got to the bottom and back on the main road. It was only a few miles back to the hotel, and Kiddo began to whine.

His tummy hurt.

Oh no.

Oh yes.

I grabbed the closest thing I could find, a gigantic blanket and tossed it into his lap. He didn't know, Hubby didn't know for sure (I think) but I knew.

He was going to hurl.

Kiddo has never, aside from one lone virus incident a couple of years ago and various times as a baby, thrown up.

Sure enough, he did. Poor guy, he was so scared. Thankfully his stomach was pretty empty so there wasn't much to deal with. And thank God for that blanket - it caught everything. Hubby dropped us off in the hotel parking lot so we could get Kiddo out of the car and I walked with him to our room. He was an emotional mess, but thankfully I think I explained pretty well that sometimes we get sick and it was ok and that he would be all better. We walked into the hotel room and I was shocked at what I saw.

It was beautiful!

Were we in the right place??

The room was more than twice the size of the one we had stayed in the night before. It had vaulted ceilings with gigantic wooden beams and a decent sized tub in the bathroom (the other only had a small stand up shower). The beds were pretty and clean (with kitchy little bedspreads that had cars and roads on them - it was on Route 66 after all) and the room looked great. Our only complaint was that the carpet was soooooo dirty! Just walking on it for a few minutes left our feet and socks almost black. Globe is a mining town, so we are guessing the carpet is collecting all the dust and grime from the mines. At least that's what we hope...

Thanking God we decided not to camp, I washed out the blanket and Kiddo's shirt in the sink. Then I thanked God again that the condo we were to stay at in Flagstaff had a washing machine. By then, Kiddo was feeling much better and requested to eat some apple slices and some juice. I made him go slowly at first, just to make sure we were past the queasy part and he did fine.

We decided a real restaurant was in order for dinner, so we looked on line for reviews and decided to go to a little Mexican food place, Guayo's on the Trail.

photo courtesy of Hubby

While I wasn't impressed with my shell-less taco salad, Hubby and Kiddo enjoyed their meals and Port had lots of fun smiling for the other patrons in the restaurant. The place was pretty cute and it was good that we got there early because by the time we left the place was packed.

We headed off to WalMart for some supplies. On the way, Hubby ran over a gigantic rattle snake slithering across the road! After that, we turned too early and missed the drive into WalMart so Hubby took the CRV "off road" down a little path that apparently a bunch of people made to get into the parking lot. Kiddo thought that was great; driving off road. *rolling my eyes* Boys!

In the checkout line at WalMart, we ended up behind an older woman. She was somewhat thin but muscular, with super bronzed skin, wrinkled from years in the sun. She wore fairly decent clothing, and her hair was long and bleach blond. Her shopping cart had 2 cloth bags in it that contained what one could only assume were her personal belongings. Her legs were scarred - severely. Something horrible had happened to her long ago. When she spoke to the cashier, it was apparent that she, as Hubby would say, wasn't playing with a whole deck, or maybe she just had a quirky personality. Regardless, she checked out in front of us and once she was gone Hubby asked me if I had noticed her. I said yes and he told me that he had seen her before, at least a year earlier. When we walked outside she was sitting on a bench with her cart and bags, eating a candy bar. I wondered what her life was like.

We got back to the hotel and when we arrived we saw a car pull up into a space a little ways down from our room. The woman I had seen talking to the cleaning staff earlier emerged from the car, in a different shorts and tank outfit, and a man was with her. He wore a suit shirt and slacks...

Hubby went for a walk and the kids and I settled into the room for a relaxing evening. I tried to take a bath with Port, but he was not having it. The boy really doesn't like baths much, and me being in the tub with him trying to hold his slippery self was just not working. I managed to get him clean though and he fell asleep peacefully afterwards.

The next morning we packed up, bid our unusual room adieu and headed to the gas station. Another great cup of coffee was in my grip and we were off.

Until,

D :)