When Family Vacations and Adventure Meet

For some a family vacation means relaxed times, togetherness and memories being made. For us, it means adventure, nerve wracking situations, togetherness and lots of memories.

The thought was a grand one. Let’s have our first ever vacation with our married children and their spouses. We knew we had only a short window of opportunity since Seth & Jessica would be headed back to Canada. Life was quite busy with giving them an Arizona reception, then I was unwell and so we waited for the right time.

Lake Powell was the first destination of choice but the weather turned cold and we had to go with Option B which was to take a road trip to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.

My husband is a dreamer and he will go to great lengths to try and bring his dreams to fruition.  His brother owns a big motor home and so after talking with said generous brother we had our ride. We were all going to ride together in this big home on wheels – talking, laughing, playing games and having a grand time.

 

The grandchildren were ready to go bright and early.

 

It just so happened that Russell’s parents were headed to Mexico the same day we were going south, so they caught a ride with us while my son drove their van.

We knew it was going to be another adventure to put down in the books when my husband called my son to come  help him find the brakes as we were going down a long stretch of downhill interstate. What?! Fortunately it was the back-up brake (jake brake) that had to be located and not the common one. But… when there’s an SOS like that and the smell of burning brakes to accompany the message, it can cause one to experience some uneasiness!

By the time we had reached my sister-in-law’s our my nerves were stretched for a few reasons (but I won’t bore you with all the details lol) and several of us were feeling the effects of a swaying ride on our stomachs.

A lovely brunch was prepared for us at my sister-in-law’s house. Isn’t it just beautiful?

 

My giving sister-in-law and myself.

 

We reached our destination of El Paso, Texas after 13 1/2 hours of driving along with stops. It was only supposed to take 7 hours without the stops but what’s another 5 hours when you’re having fun?

We pull up to the Camino Real Hotel in our very large fancy coach but unbeknownst to the very proper doormen, within the home on wheels were just regular ol’ people who are not fancy at all.

We (all us passengers) wondered why we were staying downtown where parking garages are meant for regular vehicles and all the streets are narrow. The hotel didn’t have a place for us to park so guess where we got to put it?  Right at the front door! haha And from our room we were able to keep an eye over Seth & Jessica who were sleeping inside it.

Seth being the frugal man that he is didn’t want to run the generator all night, so instead they sweltered and listened to the music of the flag hitting against the flagpole all night.

 

While that was going on below us, we were in a large suite that had 1 bed. Yes, 1 bed for 6 people! I’m sure housekeeping thought it quite strange when they received a phone call for pillows and blankets and so the first knock on our door was to deliver a towering bundle of 5 pillows. After that they understood correctly and the next knock brought us another towering bundle of sheets and blankets.

I’d like to know why we get 1 bed for 6 people wherein 4 of them have to sleep on the floor because we asked for a suite? I’m still working that one out with my dear husband!

The next morning after quite a good breakfast at the hotel, we made our departure for Carlsbad Caverns. There was only one thing my hubby forgot when he was planning the trip and that was it was another 2 hours past El Paso to reach Carlsbad! A little more driving than even he had wanted or planned.

I saw that we had only 1/2 a tank of diesel left, so I inquired of Russell whether we have enough. I was assured most emphatically that, yes, we did.

We reached the Caverns and spent the afternoon enjoying this amazing place.

 

Descending down into the natural opening of the cave.

 

 

This is a part of the Big Room – a 1 mile walk just to go around the perimeter.

 

Carlsbad is such a great place to visit. I highly recommend it if you’ve never been.

 

Poor Audrey had started feeling ill earlier in the day, so she headed to the bedroom to sleep as we made our way down the mountain roads back to El Paso.

The bouncing ride did nothing for her stomach and… she didn’t quite make it to the bathroom and… you can guess the rest of the story… lots of cleaning and scrubbing… oh yes, and plenty of windows opened for fresh air.

But the games continued amidst it all.

 

My husbands idea of all being together in one place, traveling down the road having fun, playing games and interacting with each other and then the actual reality of it had set in. I teased him that we were glad he came along so he could drive us since he didn’t get to interact at all.

He had a wonderfully comfy high-backed chair (and if you have ridden with him, you would know that is one of his first complaints – if a seat doesn’t have enough cushion!) and we could just barely see the top of his head over the seat. He was isolated from the rest of us because he couldn’t hear. And did I mention that you had to pay complete attention to the road, especially with the winds being gusty for if you didn’t, you would be blown off the highway?… which we could all testify from firsthand experience that this does indeed occur.

So our adventure planner missed out on all the fun since he was our driver.

Poor guy.

 

Finally, boredom set in and my melodious daughter-in-law was called up front to entertain him with silly songs.  I love that she takes her ukulele along with her when she travels. Music is so much a part of her.

 

At another point, our funny guy Justus, plopped himself into the captains chair and nonchalantly uttered, “Sooo, dad. What color would you use to describe your emotions right now?” Oh my, that was a hoot!

And the gas situation that I mentioned earlier? I’m glad to say that had a happy ending. We were very very close to running out. Only 4 miles left before we would have been on the side of the road. Not good. Not good! But we made it and for that we were all very thankful. 🙂 An unwanted part of our trip that we narrowly averted.

 

The next and last morning of our stay in El Paso my hubby decided he did not want to eat in the dining room of the hotel. Too boring. He wanted to eat in the elegant dome room that was built in 1912. A room, that was at the moment, closed.

 

Regardless, the hotel staff was quite accommodating and rolled the cart filled with our breakfast meals to the dome room.

 

And there beneath the 80-year old Tiffany dome, with exclamations from my husband about the beautiful architecture,  we had our pancakes and eggs.

 

It was then time to get on the road and head home.

And while we all relaxed…

and had fun…

…guess what our adventure planner was doing?

Just another day in the life of a sacrificial father and husband. ♥

 

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