ADTE: Day 1

I realize that The One and Only Adams Family Double Transcontinental Extravaganza title was a bit long, so I came up with the acronym ADTE. I really liked the full title until I had to write it out a couple of times!

Today began our journey across the US. We headed out of the central coast of California a little after 2:00 a.m. as planned, in the dark, early morning. The kids almost immediately fell back asleep and so did I, while John soldiered on. He made sure to go to bed extra early for several days before so his clock was adjusted. I thought he was a little crazy… Until we hit the afternoon heat of the desert! and was grateful he drove a huge chunk of it in the cooler hours.

We woke up to a lightning storm that was amazing. The kids loved seeing the morning sky filled with flashing lights. We stopped in Vegas at about 8:30 to eat a ginormous breakfast buffet at The Orleans. Breakfast of champions I tell you! Everything from eggs Benedict to chocolate waffles were consumed.

After rolling out of of The Orleans and back on the road, it started to get a little warm… And the car was getting a little warm… And we were seeing lots of overheated cars on the side of the road… So this is where our trip went old school and we rolled down the windows, started chugging water, wearing ice water soaked bandanas, and rocked out to the radio. The kids took off their clothes and we drove our naked babies across the desert. Ha ha! I promised not to take any pictures of that, but I had to write it. I don’t want to forget how funny that moment was.

It was amazing to watch the landscape change as we crossed the desert. It progressed as follows below in the pictures. Mr. John and I have seen the first two many times and they were as gorgeous as ever, but once we got to the canyons and crazy rock formations further east in Utah we were astounded by the beauty! We were now in territory we had never seen and it was incredible! Salt washes and buttes with bands of red, orange, yellow, green, and even purple! Absolutely beautiful!

The kids were amazing travelers and we drove 900 miles today… NINE hundred! They only started getting cabin fever on the last 2 hours of the trek. We immediately pulled over to get them milkshakes. Putting on Parent Trap combined with milkshakes somehow worked magic to restore their good mood.

We reached Moab at about 6:30 p.m. And immediately put up our pop up tent, put on our swimsuits and went for a swim at the campground. We made a little dinner and popped some popcorn on the stove, the kids wrote in their travel journals, and now everyone is fast asleep. It was a big day with a lot of laughs, a couple of meltdowns, and some singing and dancing thrown in.

We are learning how to live in the trailer: putting it up, making sure everything is hooked up correctly and there’s a little learning curve to driving it as well.

 

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Glory

    OOH, I'm going to enjoy these posts so much! Can't wait to hear more as you travel on!

  2. katpilato

    Safe travels to the ADTE team!! What great adventures await you guys! You are sweating in the desert but might find it a little wet when you arrive in NYS! We will be watching your posts like little hawks!

  3. Rebecca

    We had one of these campers as a kid growing up in California. If you guys hit the Grand Canyon I'm going to have dizzying deja vu!

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