Road Trip Day One

Left the house at 8:45, drove past dry hills and green fields, spotted black-white cows, and miles of flowering bushes as the center divide.  Down the state along highway 99.  Smooth driving, really.  We had planned well.  We broke the Vegas drive into two stages, stopping here at the six hour mark in Bakersfield.  Perfect as Ian was starting to melt down depiste the gummy bear and tic tac bribes. I'm in Bakersfield, now.  We swam and Ian insisted that he belonged in the deep end of the pool, so a little water aerobics for me as I kept herding him back to where I could touch bottom.  He holds his breath for a quick dunk, but he has no idea how to swim.  He's 22 months, after all.  Willful and oblivious to danger.  Quite a combination.

One adventure ruined our best planning.  My early birthday present, a Gorman GPS, had a complete meltdown a few hours into the trip.  The screen went into a 'boot loop' as Gio called it, flashing the Gorman logo over and over.  We tried manual resets and hard resets and nothing.  Luckily we had the Driod phones to help us navigate our way to the hotel.  Looks like we have to send it back to Amazon and get another one.  Bummer since this trip was the big motivation for getting the GPS in the first place.

The best laid plans can, and will, take wrong turns.  Life lesson.  Creativity and flexibility.  Are needed on any road trip.

Yummy food at a Maui Pho restautrant.  Now Ian wants to cuddle.

Tomorrow, we're Vegas, baby!!  I may even have a picture or two.

Oh, I love vacation!  Sore and tired from busy packing, but it's worth all of the trouble.  Change of scene.  I'm even excited to see the desert tomorrow.  Heat and all.  I only went to Vegas once in the late 1990s for a weekend.  Exploring it again will be a blast.

I'll keep the stories coming to you!  For now, rest :)