Day 29 – Flagstaff

Miles traveled: 170
Hours on Road: 3
States covered: 1 – Arizona

We left our camp by 10:30. Despite the filth and the cost of the showers, I took one anyway. I had to wash the filth of the outhouses off me.

Last night while I relaxed outside the tent (between my nap and bedtime), the boys were very bored. I didn’t have the energy to search for their baseball so they could play catch, so they threw stones to each other. That progressed to batting, played with stones and books. Parker was up and was using Cal’s (or should I say Carmine’s) book, and he swung as hard as he could. The stone went flying and so did the book. It went way out into the horse pasture that was right next to our site. Hey, whatever keeps them from bugging me.

Last night when I got up to use the outhouse, I noticed just how big, beautiful, and bright the sky was. There are no polluting lights shining up into the sky to hinder the brightness of the stars. I read that the people out here put the effort into making sure their lights are directed downward so they do not pollute the night sky. I told the boys to get up and look at the sky, but the best they could do was unzip the tent windows and look out. They said they could tell it was bright.

Our drive today was pretty simple: just get to Flagstaff. We had reservations in a Hostel, so of course the jokes were flying. The whole drive was beautiful, outlined with red striped cliffs. At one point there was a pull-off that was called “Cliff Dweller.” It had giant boulders under which people made dwellings. There were Native Americans selling wares under several of the boulders. Parker wants me to let everyone know that mom let the following slip: “That rock dwelling is f*@^ing cool!” Ooops.

It rained and lightninged on us again, which caused Parker to ask how you’re supposed to say that. You say, “It’s thundering out,” but do you say, “It’s lightninging out”?

I feel the need to mention another bad habit of my boys. If they ask me a question, such as, “How much does that rock weigh,” and I answer, “I don’t know,” they then start to quantify it. “3000 pounds?” “I don’t know.” “10,000 pounds?” “I still don’t know. You can continue to change the number, but I will still not know the answer.” They do this for everything. They demand an answer!!

We found our Hostel, and it’s really very quaint. We registered, checked out our room, and then headed out for Chick Fillet (I don’t know if that’s how you spell it). I love that fast food, and we don’t have it up north. I turned down the street next to our hostel, and then Lee said to turn left again. I put on my turn signal and began to make the turn when, crash, a red truck side-swiped me. I couldn’t believe it. It looked like he’d tried to pass me as I turned. I pulled to the side of the street that I was turning down and got out and said to him, “I clearly had my blinker on.” That’s when he said, “It’s a one-way street. You cut right into me.” Shit. I did. He called the cops and Officer James S. Stalnaker showed up. It was almost like a sitcom, he was so nice. He spoke first with the guy I hit, who told the story, of course making himself out to be a saint; but who was I to object? It was, after all, my fault. When Officer Stalnaker got to me, I just said, “It’s just like he said.” All the formalities were handled pretty quickly. We ascertained that his birthday is exactly one week after mine. He gave me a ticket for an unsafe lane change (he was sorry about having to do it). He told me he and his wife have three boys and a girl. He said that traffic to the mall where the Chick Fillet was located would be awful at this time of day, and another guy who came along to chat with the officer (he’d known the officer since the officer was little) told us that the Chick Fillet at the mall was no longer open. Officer Stalnaker called headquarters and found out that there’s another Chick Fillet in one of the Arizona State University buildings right down the road. The other guy added that the Arizona Cardinals were in town practicing at the university. It wound up being a productive traffic violation. We never did find a Chick Fillet, but we drove past the field where the Cardinals would be practicing, and we ended up eating at Wendy’s. Not a bad day, all things considered.

We’ve spent the entire afternoon and evening in the common room of the hostel where I have been able to catch up on my blog and get laundry done and the boys (Carmine and Trey) have made a couple of friends with whom they’ve been playing pool. Parker has been on the computer the whole time, first here in the common room and then back in our hostel room. I’ve been chatting with the mother of the boys my boys have been hanging with, so it’s been a very pleasant evening.

Tomorrow we head for Albuquerque.

For corresponding photos, go to:
http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1924912027/a=2740108027_2740108027/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/