I Would Rather Be Forced to Move to Antartica Than New Mexico

Well, it's true. And you know how I detest cold weather from the depths of my soul. We are somewhere between Albuquerque and Flagstaff, which is to say we are nowhere.

On the bright side, both kids are actually sleeping...probably because they were awake and dressed by 5:40 a.m. with Road Trip Excitement (before their bubbles were burst and they learned that "Road Trip" means we are NOT going by plane.)

However, I am pretty sure we are on the movie set where "Cars" was filmed. We just drove through Radiator Springs and passed by Mack. And the kids are missing this!

I shouldn't make fun of the landscape here because we were just commenting that it looks just like the lush, Metro Denver landscape no more than one mile south of our house. Which is to say there is nothing here but tumbleweed.

In high school, both Brad and I ventured to this neck of the world several times and we both remember the landscape being so Unreal! So Different! So Amazing! But after living in Colorado for the bulk of our adult lives, the rocks, weeds, and small mountain combos don't really stand out.

Another issue we've had is locating restaurants along the route. I inhaled and exhaled deeply and while we blew through Albuquerque. There was NOTHING except the lavish Flying J truck stop outside of town. Attached was the Magic Dragon Chinese restaurant AND (oh yes, there's more) Pepperoni's Pizza and a Country Kitchen.

First of all...after literally tens of thousands of miles of road trip experience early in our marriage(including July of 2000 where we DROVE over 10,000 miles), Brad and I added to our very solemn vows:

"I promise that we will never ever, even upon threat of starvation, eat at a restaurant attached to a gas station."

I will not give gory details, but we would not include it in our vows unless we were serious.

So onward we search...the GPS tells us that Subway and DQ are coming up soon.

If I am forced to settle for a peanut butter cup blizzard with chocolate ice cream and hot fudge sauce, so be it.