The Rest of The Trip

 

I'm sorry that I haven't updated since our first day of the trip, but long days of driving (and sharing a hotel room with three kids) haven't allowed for a lot of time blogging. Here's a rundown of the rest of the trip.

Day 2: Six Flags and Barbecue

We're season pass holders at Six Flags over Georgia, and those season passes include free admission to the rest of the Six Flags owned theme parks. So we decided to take a day off from driving and take the kids for some roller-coaster-themed recuperation. I was impressed with how compact the park felt, and the park wasn't very crowded. So we were able to ride anything we wanted with only a minimal wait. We had a lot of fun and planned to go back for a few hours the next day.

We ended up going to dinner at a barbecue placed named 225°. The food was excellent, and we all probably ate too much. We went back to the hotel fat and sassy and looking forward to our next day at the park.

Day 3: The Debacle

Our third day began early. Like 1 a.m. early. It began that early because one of our fat and sassy boys apparently didn't agree with his dinner about whether it should remain in his stomach. The dinner won that debate, and he got sick in the floor of our hotel room. We cleaned it all up as best as we could, but our room was suddenly a not to pleasant smelling place to be. I think we all struggled to sleep, and by the time we woke up in the morning, the whole crew was feeling a bit queasy.

With that in mind, we decided *not* to head back to Six Flags over Texas. Instead the plan was to drive on to Oklahoma City, get some rest in the hotel that night, and be primed and ready to go Frontier City (another Six Flags theme park) on Day 4. 

This was a wonderful plan until about 85 miles south of our destination when our van started to overheat. After a little triage on the side of the road, we ended up limping the van on to our OKC destination. "Limping" involved turning off the A/C, turning on the heat full blast (it was like 90 degrees outside), rolling down all the windows, and driving about 55 mph. 

By the time we arrived in OKC, we were all hot, tired, cranky, and still a bit nauseated. Much of the rest of the evening involved trying to figure out what was wrong with the van and strategizing on getting it fixed.

Day 4: The Fix is In

My day started early, getting up at 5:30 to limp the van over to a Firestone to see if they could fix it. After roughly five hours, they were eventually able determine that the problem was a faulty thermostat that another Firestone location had installed a few months back. Apparently when the manufacturer made the thermostat, it installed a spring upside down, which was causing the thermostat to intermittently stick. Firestone swapped it out as a warranty repair. So other than the inconvenience of it all, it didn't cost me anything.

Meanwhile, Brittany and the kids were partying it up over at Frontier City. I joined them after leaving Firestone. The park is small, and it was not crowded at all. Because of that, we were able to ride pretty much everything in about half a day. The boys all enjoyed the log ride, and Thomas really liked the Wildcat roller coaster. We headed out early to get a jump on our drive to Vega, Texas.000

Passing through Amarillo, we stopped at The Big Texas Steak Ranch. None of us did the 72 oz challenge, but we did all enjoy a steak. The food was very good, and the atmosphere was great! They had a couple of troubadours roaming through the dining room, and I think I heard them play George Strait about ten times. The boys also enjoyed meeting the giant rattlesnake that lives in an aquarium at the restaurant. All in all, BTSR was a good time, and I'd go back if I were ever in Amarillo again.

Day 5: Driving

Not every day can be exciting, and this was one of those days that wasn't. We got in the car. We drove a long way. We ultimately got to Valle, Arizona and checked into our hotel room about 20 minutes south of the Grand Canyon.

Day 6: Grand Canyon and Las Vegas

We started our last day of traveling with trip up to the Grand Canyon. Given our schedule (and our kids' ages), the more intense and lengthy hikes or boat trips were out. So we started at Mather's Point and hiked the rim trail over to Yavapai Point and the geology museum. We had lunch in the park, and then went back south to Tusayan to visit the IMAX.

The IMAX was a bust. It was kind of expensive and pretty boring.

As to Grand Canyon itself, I concede that my expectations were kind of low. I thought it would be neat for a few minutes and then quickly get kind of boring looking at rocks.

I could not have been more wrong.

I expected to be underwhelmed and instead was nearly overwhelmed. The sheer scale of Grand Canyon is impossible to convey in a picture and it's beyond my faculty to express in words. It was truly one a moment where all I could do was stand in awe at the grandeur and beauty of nature. The heights almost don't seem real, and the lack of any effective means to determine the scale of what you're looking at makes it seem almost infinite. To be honest, I'm still processing it. I want to go back.

After leaving Grand Canyon, we had a roughly four hour (thankfully uneventful) drive to Las Vegas. After checking into our AirBNB, I drove the boys down Las Vegas Boulevard so they could see the strip. Their favorites were Luxor, Excalibur, New York New York, and Paris. Michael had the line of the day when he said, "Boy! There sure are a lot of casinos here." We all cracked up at that one.

After taking Brittany and the boys back to the AirBNB, I ended up heading back over to Paris/Horseshoe to get things set up for the WSOP and to take advantage of a 10x tier credit multiplier Caesars Rewards was running. I ended up winning $800 playing slots, so we're off to a fine start.

I play my first event today, and it starts in a few hours. I start a new blog thread for that one.