So most of you know Riley and I caught a flight last Friday morning on the way to Los Angeles headed to pick up his truck and other belongings from Lancaster where he had been playing ball. We grabbed a rental car and made the hour and 1/2 trip.
I was a little bit excited to see the stadium he had been playing at even though I would have much rather been there for a different reason.
After returning the rental car and grabbing a bite to eat at Rubios we hit the road hoping to make it 4-5 hours.
I was super excited to see these trees everywhere even though I had zero clue they were Joshua trees. I seriously never knew a Joshua tree was a real thing…to me it was just the title of a U2 album!
It was really a beautiful day and it was fun seeing the landscape across the Mojave dessert area.
I thought this picture of the train was pretty fun and gives the perspective as to just how big the mountains are.
We stopped in Kingman, Arizona for the night and the Springhill Suites we stopped out was so nice. They made a few suggestions for dinner and we settled on Dambar.
After a long day this hit the spot. See those little biscuit? Oh my goodness they were so amazing!
We headed out Saturday morning with a little different landscape.
If you read my Friday post on
Roadtrip Fun you will remember one of the options was regional food games. Basically at every stop the challenge is to find the best regional snack. So while Riley was grabbing gas I was grabbing these little Arizona nuggets! Score!
He was in the store forever and came out proud with this S’morezilla…which was made in…..UTAH!! #loser
We decided to stop in Flagstaff for breakfast at Brandy’s which has been featured on Diners, Drive Ins and Drives. The coffee was excellent!
And the food did not disappoint! I am not a huge pancake fan but these were probably the very best pancakes I had ever had. Eggs benedict of just about every variety were tops too!
We ventured on down the road to Winslow, Arizona and stopped to see this meteor site from 50,000 years ago. This is what an impact of 26,000 miles per hour will do.
So it’s really hard to tell how big this hole really is from this picture. The white area down in the middle had a fence around it with a 6 foot tall American flag that is not even able to be seen with the naked eye.
And this rock right here…yeah…it’s the size of a HOUSE!
Next stop and I scored again with this Arizona beef jerky!
New Mexico was next and honestly at this point the drive had not been that bad. Arizona and New Mexico really have so much beautiful scenery.
We stopped in Albuquerque (until this trip I put the r in the wrong place!) and ate some authentic mexican food at Mary & Tito’s. Riley was totally unimpressed.
This honestly doesn’t look all that appetizing but it was delicious. They slow roast pork strips and then fry in a soppapilla and cover in a red chili sauce. It was delicious!
This picture cannot capture the moon the way I viewed it but y’all….when the moon began coming up it was the biggest moon I had ever seen! I guess there haven’t been too many times I’ve seen the moon rise on the horizon. So this was in front of me.
And this amazing sunset was behind me! We ended up chasing a really crazy thunderstorm with lots of cloud to ground lightning but thankfully didn’t run through any heavy rain. We made it to Amarillo for the night.
We slept in and then stopped by Cadillac ranch. I mean I don’t know how many times I’ll actually make it to Amarillo so it was a must!
Oh how I love this kid right here! He was such a great travel buddy and entertained me.
Obviously we both have similar feelings about starting the day off right and we headed for Ye Olde Pancake Station for breakfast.
It was good but our breakfast on Saturday definitely trumped it. Coffee was perfect though!
THIS…is the shot Riley took for his Snapchats every time I was taking a food picture! He’s a nut!
Best part is my good parenting was reinforced by his choice of music. It was anywhere from Johnny Cash to Def Leopard to Randy Travis to Pearl Jam to Wade Bowen to Nirvana to AC/DC. I love it!
Last little trek was about 5 hours and it was the most boring part. The panhandle is just flat and not much to see aside from windmill farms which I am obsessed with!
Riley dropped me off at DFW and about 10 miles down the road the A/C went out in my car. Nevermind that it was 87 degrees out but I had 103000 miles on my car….so my warranty just expired last month..boo! I decided a perfect cream cheese kolache warmed just perfectly was just what I needed to make it the rest of the way home!
This trip was so much fun. Even though we didn’t do that much the time I spent with Riley just talking and shooting the shiz was the best!
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We headed out Saturday morning with a little different landscape.
It must have been so nice to have some one on one time with Riley! I love the photos!
Loved seeing all your snaps last weekend! You better get that AC fixed pronto or I see a very HAWT summer in store for you!
Your pictures were awesome!!! You'll definitely have to give me pointers – my car photos never turn out!
It really was a beautiful drive. And suprisingly most were through the car windown.
Girl…it will be fixed today and no shopping in my forseeable future….so sad. I really would have been less upset had my warranty not just expired.
It really was Stacie! He is a trip.
This really looks amazing! New Mexico is on my list!
What an awesome time with your boy. It looks like the two of you had a blast and made some great memories, I love it. You took some great photos along the way too.
hahaha! I love that he took Snaps of you taking food pics, that's hilarious. I love a good road trip and yours definitely makes me want to plan one now! 🙂
Ha! Yes, there's such a thing as Joshua trees. Sounds like you were driving right near Joshua National Park actually. So cool that you guys did the cadillac ranch photos and is it just me or does the southwest have an endless array of amazingly delicious super cheap breakfast spots? Looks like a great road trip
Breakfast definitely seemed to be the easiest to find Jasmine!! Plus…can you really mess it up?!! The cadillac ranch was fun to see…..but literally….just cars in the ground in the middle of a field. Crazy!
Riley is definitely one of a kind Emily! I don't think I really want to know how many times I turn up on his Snap and what the heck his caption might be
We had so much fun Beth! That is a long drive but it really didn't seem bad at all.
New Mexico has so much beauty to see Dara!