Cross Country Move Road Trip Update #1

Day 1

We met with friends for a quick breakfast than we were off from Monterey, California to Barstow, California.

We stopped at Taco Bell where I saw a little drama. I am sure a few of you saw my post on Facebook about the drama – see below the Facebook post.

We scheduled a 5.5 hour trip which ended up taking up 7.5 hours with bathroom stops and lunch. For our hotel, we stayed at a Hampton Inn (part of Hilton) in Barstow which was just steps from the outlet. We decided to stay in so ordered a medium pizza and a half salad from Oggi’s pizza which was more than enough for the three of us.

Day 2

We woke up and ate breakfast at the complementary buffet at Hampton Inn (part of Hilton). We left the hotel by 9am. We drove from Barstow to Tusayan, Arizona. We took a little detour off the freeway check out some of the sites on Historic Route 66.

As we approached Tusayan, we turned off I-40 onto the SR-64 to get to our to the hotel which was just a couple miles outside the National Park entrance. As we got closer, we noticed the sky was getting darker and darker full of clouds. About 5 miles from the hotel it started to rain. After we checked into the hotel, we moved our luggage into the room then walked around to check out the amenities and lobby. Then, as we were walking around, we caught a glimpse outside and realized it was snowing (see video)!

The hotel we stayed at in Tusayan was a Best Western Premier Grand Canyon Squirrel Inn. The hotel had an outdoor pool, indoor pool, gym, bowling alley, fitness center, and several restaurants on property. These amenities worked out great with the snow storm that we were not expecting. We stayed in and ordered food near the bowling alley, played a game of bowling, then went to the indoor pool to let Avery blow off some energy.

We ended the night with everyone bathing; Avery loved that our room had a huge bathtub! This helped prepare to wake up early to get inside the Grand Canyon early. One big thing we realized was to always ask if your room has a bath tub. The first room we were assigned at the hotel had a shower only, so after a little extra time at the check-in desk we were good to go.

Day 3

We woke up and ate some light breakfast items we packed for the trip like little breads, bananas, and yogurt. To make sure we avoided any traffic at the front gate, we were out of our room by 740am. As we were driving, we saw a McDonalds and went through the drive through so we could have a later lunch.

We entered the Grand Canyon National Park at 8:05am – free admission for military members, otherwise it is $30 a day, per car. We drove towards the Desert View Watchtower and stopped at the many of the viewpoints along the way. There was so much fresh snow, it looked like a white winter land! The stops we stopped at were Pipe Creek Vista, Tusayan Museum and Ruin, Moran Point, Lipan Point (probably our favorite stop as it had a little trail, view of rapids, view of river and more), Desert View Watchtower and a few others that we don’t remember the names to.

On the way out the gate we began our drive towards Albuquerque, New Mexico at 11:30am. We forgot to factor the time change so instead of arriving at 6:30pm we arrived at 7:30pm to my mother in law’s house.

When we finally arrived I was feeling pretty sick – back hurting, stomach turning, etc. Pretty much felt like I had motion sickness which made for an interesting night.

Day 4

We had a lazy morning and did some laundry. Finally took off around 11am to go to Old Town in Albuquerque. My husband grew up an hour outside of Albuquerque, so we have been here several times to visit and play tourist. One of my favorite things to do in Old Town and Santa Fe (which we didn’t go to this trip) is to shop at the jewelry street vendors. I love all the stone and stainless silver jewelry. We ended up buying a few bracelets for Avery for around $5 – $6 each and turquoise earrings for $12. Seems like such a steal!

With the late start, it was lunch time before we know it so we headed to Little Anita’s for a “must-eat” in Albuquerque – Sopapillas (fried bread with honey). Also, another must-eat in New Mexico is Green and Red Chile. As I am 33 weeks I avoided all chile on this trip.

Next, we squeezed in nap time for an hour and headed to a local park to see my brother in law and his son.

So some random tips and info:

We have been eating lots of snacks from NatureBox like dried fruit, beef jerky, nuts and more! Get $20 off your first order of $25 + FREE Shipping = $5 shipped.
If traveling with a toddler the freebies at the lobby desk like shower caps, toothbrushes and more are great for kids to play with their baby dolls and barbies.
We have lost one toddler sippy cup, a stuffed Minnie Mouse, and a set of black barbie shoes. Not bad we are averaging one lost item a day.
Today the movers called and said they will be at our home a day early. We will be calling them tomorrow to see if we have to reconfigure our trip to receive our household goods.

To see more from our trip follow The Spenderella on Instagram, and The Spenderella on Facebook.