Bye Bye Bikes

 Morning Snafu (such a fun word, right?) 

We are the kind of family that leaves in the middle of the night when we travel. It sounds crazy and hard, but we’ve come to find it works for us. We pack most of what we can the night before, we load the kids in their pjs in the car and my husband drives for a few hours while we sleep. We attempted that today leaving TX on our way to AZ. We got up at 3:45am and were on the road a little before 5am. There was a surreal moment this morning when all the adults were sitting around the kitchen table drinking coffee (tea for me) and chatting. We have some pretty gracious friends that would wake up to see us off that early. But anyways, back to the bikes. We said our goodbyes and were on our way. Just a few miles down the road Dave hit a huge dip in the road (it was really dark) and we heard the bike rack scrapping the pavement. We pulled into a church parking lot and called our dear friend Josh who came in his truck. The rack was broken and couldn’t lock into place. Josh and Dave loaded the rack and bikes onto Josh’s truck and Josh took them back to his house. Our trip will now end with a trip back through TX to get our bikes (and our dog Chewy who is also staying with our friends). Whew! So we’re continuing our travels with no mountain bikes. The boys are really disappointed, but thankfully the car is still working ok and everyone is safe. That’s what’s most important. 

Our first stop this morning was Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, TX. It’s slightly cheaper to buy gas on base which is really nice. And we found a Dunkin Donuts at the BX which made everyone happy. 

Our goal today was to drive 10-11 hours to spend the night in Albuquerque, NM and then drive to Flagstaff tomorrow. Our kids keep asking if we’re still in TX and the answer is of course YES! It is nothing but road and sky. 

We made it to Albuquerque! At a friend’s recommendation we ate green chili cheese burgers for dinner at the Owl Cafe which was delicious. We’re staying the night at a hotel and the kids loved swimming in the indoor pool. Tomorrow we head to Arizona!