We left Ojo Caliente and headed into Albuquerque to do some laundry, Ambiana still not feeling well and Jakobi still throwing up, lots of barfy clothes and poopy pants to wash, who knew a 3 week roadtrip could be so fun! After getting everything clean we headed to Trader Joe’s to re-supply and Jakobi puked all over Colleen as we pulled into the parking lot. Ambiana didn’t want to go into the store so I stayed in the car with her. Colleen and Jakobi did the shopping and Colleen bought us some ice cream bon-bons for parent relief. Then it was off to…

El Morro National Monument- New Mexico

…to camp for the night and stay til we all recovered as it was Tuesday and the wedding is not till Saturday and Phoenix is a 5 hour drive away.

El Morro was beautiful, high alpine grass and trees with beautiful sandstone bluffs encircling us.

We set up camp and made dinner, Ambiana stayed in the car the whole time and even ate dinner in there. Afterwards we bundled her in the jogger stroller then took a walk around the campground so Jakobi could meet the dogs.

In the morning the kids felt a little better, we had discovered a flat jogger tire the night before on our walk so Colleen gave the kids a homeschool lesson in tire repair

We packed up our site because we decided to head to Phoenix a day earlier and add an extra night in the motel. We then headed up to the visitor center to hike the sandstone cliffs and see the petroglyphs and climb the mesa if Ambiana felt up to it.

Colleen points out something to Jakobi

Native American & Spanish carvings in the cliff face.

Ambiana felt up to it so we hiked up to the mesa top very slowly and resting often.

It was absolutely beautiful up there with multi-colored sandstone and a box canyon in the middle

Ambiana spent time filling out the Jr. Ranger booklet and earned her 2nd badge of the trip and Jakobi got one too for helping her out.

Tonto National Forest- Arizona

We headed halfway to Phoenix and camped at 7,700 feet in Tonto National Forest.

There were patches of snow on the ground and we bundled up and ate dinner and then since it was too windy to make a fire we huddled in the car. We have a MiFi connection from Verizon so I can work while on the trip and I did some work. Gaelen’s school play was tonight and we had been thinking about him all day so when I checked my email and found a message from Eden’s Dad John containing a link to a video he had made with his I-Phone of Gaelen’s performance we were overjoyed. We watched it 3 times before exiting the car and crawling into our tent and shipping off to dreamland bundled in our warmies and sleeping bags. Here it is for you all to enjoy.

Black Kettle National Grasslands

Looking for signs indicating OK-6 after pulling off I-40W I apparently weave back and forth between lanes and am pulled over. Jakobi is on Colleen’s lap, both car seats are in the front seat and the cop is fine with us because I’m not drunk. Apparently there is a bar near where he pulled me over and DWI’s common. He confirms that I am on OK-6 and that I should have brought my fishin’ pole because the fishin’s good up at Black Kettle. We arrive 30 minutes later and pull into the campsite. The wind has been blowing fierce all night but we are protected down here in the lee of a dam. There are several tents and rv’s in the campground which is free and in the morning we see a turkey hanging in a tree at one of the campsites.

Ambiana is feeling a little better, she eats her pancakes but once we pack up and get back in the car she is not feeling well anymore. We drive into Texas and head for Amarillo where we want a burrito and find a Science Center we can get into with our COSI pass.

The wind is ridiculously strong and buffets us as we get out, Ambiana we load in the jogger stroller and wheel her in like an invalid, she got my ‘I’m sick’ gene and wallows in it; whines, complains crys, has to be carried or rolled everywhere. But once inside, after salmon and cheese lunch she is up and off and all over the Science center. We get directions to a burrito place but when we finally find it it is closed asis every other one we manage to locate. Moch is grumpy now and we don’t want to cook outside in the gale so we end up at ‘Cheesies’ where Colleen has a margarita, splits fish and chips with Ambiana and I have the worst chicken fajita quesadilla ever. YUCK. They did have a giant fish tank with yellow and blue fish which Jakobi really liked. Then it is off to New Mexico.

As we ascended into New Mexico the temperature descended. We camped at 9,800′ above Santa Fe at a campground Colleen and I recalled as we winded up the mountain to it that we had stayed at back on our Southwest backtracking trip of 2004.

It was 28 degrees when we arrived at the campground. It was 88 degrees 2 days ago. When we awoke in the chilling dawe we noticed there was snow on the north side of the ridge we were camped on. We stayed long enough to pack up and then headed down the mountain and north to Ojo Caliente.

Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs

Anafeather recommended Ojo Caliente to us, hot springs and spa, definitely my idea to come here as Colleen found it too bourgeois. And it was…but so what the place was sweet, all adobe and up against a weathered sandstone cliff.

definitely not kid friendly though they are tolerated until 6pm and are reminded constantly that this is a ‘whisper zone’.
The big pool which is all they are allowed in is barely warm and after last night we were a bit bummed. but the other pools were hot and when we sought and were granted permission to take them into one of the warm pools both Jakobi & Ambiana declared it was too hot and were content to splash around in the cool pool.

We camped next to a sweet couple, Cassi and Alec from Gunnison Colorado, they had a 2 year old boy and and a 10 month old daughter and Jakobi was always over at their campsite. I took the gals for the afternoon so Colleen could enjoy the pools and she came back sunburnt on half her body as she fell asleep in a hammock. I got the nocturnal slot and thoroughly enjoyed my 2.5 hours in the sauna, steam room and hot pools, drinking cupfuls of the warm mineral enriched Lithia spring between soaks and sweats.

Ambiana seems to rally when there is something to do like swim but then sinks back into her wallow; her stomach hurts or her head and she wants daddy snuggles and then its into the car for another stretch of continent.