My gradmother leaves for work at 5:30am, so I had her wake us up to say goodbye and give us an early start for our departure. Even then, while I targeted an 8am departure, I secretly hoped to get out of there at 7am instead. That didn't happen. Eight it was.
A few days earlier, I decided to forego the quicker southern route home (via I-10/I-25/I-40 -- ~1000 miles) in favor of the longer northern route (via I-10/I-17/I-40 -- ~1170 miles) so that I could take the girls to Petrified Forest National Park. The trouble was timing. As our journey was coninually delayed by things like 9:30am Phoenix traffic (didn't think about that), and a longer than expected lunch break in Flagstaff (Shelby was being slower than usual eating), I was losing hope in being able to make our window.
On the fly I decided to take the kids to see Meteor Crater instead. It was closer and I didn't feel it would adversely impact the trip schedule as much as the PF would have. I think it was a good decision, as the girls could understand "big rock fall from sky, make big hole" better than my poor explaination of what petrified wood was and how it got that way. Plus there was a nifty museum filled with interesting info and some interactive exhibits for the kiddos. We'll have to hit the PF next time around.
Our timing was so off that I had to cancel the hotel reservation I had made for Amarillo, as it would have been after 4am before we arrived, leaving not so much sleep time before check-out. Via my travel service (who were kind enough to not charge me for the cancellation post-deadline) I had a reservation set for Tucumcari, New Mexico instead. It's only just over two hours closer, but those will become much needed sleeping hours.
The bad news? After all this freakin' time I still have six hours to drive before we're home. Ugh.
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