Last day

On our last day at the Disneyland Resort, we checked out of the hotel and went to early entry at Disneyland. During early entry, the rides in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland are open an hour before the rest of the park. Once the rest of the park opened, we rode some of the things in Frontierland, Adventureland, and New Orleans Square that we hadn't done yet. It was another beautiful day, although Disneyland was fairly crowded for a weekday in February.

In the afternoon, we spent a lot of time talking to several members of the Dream Squad about how the "Year of a Million Dreams" giveaway worked, about stuff around the resort, and about life in general. They were all really nice. 

In the evening, we headed north toward home, stopping for the night at Kettleman City. The last day of our trip was spent driving. And driving. We left Kettleman City about 9 am, and drove for almost 11 hours straight. After getting stuck for almost an hour in a traffic in Sacramento, we decided not to stop for lunch, and arrived home in the evening. During our trip, we had visited 14 states, driven over 10,000 miles, and completed over 40 Junior Ranger programs. We’ve now been in 44 states. 

Around the Resort

We slept in too late Saturday morning to make it to early entry at Disneyland, so we hit California Adventure instead. It was a beautiful day in the park. We caught the High School Musical Pep Rally and watched Golden Dreams, and rode some rides. The kids also enjoyed an encounter with a talking, moving trash can. Then we took a break at the hotel for a bit before heading to a late lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. After that we headed back to the hotel for a scavenger hunt. We were named the "Grand Family" of the day, and were awarded a trip to the Concierge Lounge for free deserts, storytelling, and fireworks viewing. 

This morning we were at the Grand Californian Hotel gate into California Adventure before it opened, and a cast member let us be the first guests in the park. We rode Soaring over California all by ourselves. After that we walked over to Disneyland, and went on Small World and Roger Rabbit, and walked around Toontown. We then took the train to the front, and headed back to the hotel. We ate lunch at Storytellers Cafe and went on a tour of the hotel, learning about the arts and crafts influences in it. The kids went for a swim, and then we headed back into Disneyland for a few rides.

Montezuma Castle

Thursday morning we visited Montezuma Castle National Monument. The "castle" is a 5 story pueblo structure built in the 12th and 13th century by a tribe of native Americans called the Sinagua, but abandoned by the 15th century. It was named by Spanish explorers who named it after the famous Aztec king, even though he had no connection to it.

The site had a small visitor center with some displays about the Sinagua and how they built the structure. It took the kids about a half an hour to complete the Jr Ranger program by looking at the exhibits, and then we walked out to view the ruins, which took about 15 minutes. From there we continued south to Phoenix, then turned west and drove to Palm Springs to meet some friends for dinner. We stayed the night there.

After breakfast in Palm Springs, we finished our journey westward by driving to the Disneyland Resort, where we checked into the Grand Californian Hotel. We took the monorail into Disneyland, rode a couple of rides (mostly in Tomorrowland), and worked on VMK quests.

We also watched the parade. We headed back to the room fairly early, so we could get up the next morning for early entry.

Painted Desert

It had started snowing as we pulled into the campground in Grants, so on Wednesday morning we waited a few hours to let the snow melt before heading out on I40 over the continental divide. As they had in Oklahoma, many little stores along this stretch of the interstate had signs advertising that they had once been on Route 66. I found it funny that they put such emphasis on being on a road that people used primarily just to get through this area, rather than the fact that they were now just off a road that people now use just to get through the area. Originally, we had planned to stop at El Morro NM, and some of the NP sites around the Flagstaff, Arizona area. However, with forecasts of snow and below freezing temperatures in the Flagstaff area, we thought it best to forgo those and try to get down to lower ground south of Flagstaff for the night.

We did stop at the northern visitor center for the Petrified Forest National Park, where we watched a movie about the park and the kids earned Junior Ranger badges. The southern part of the park is where the petrified forests are located, while the northern section is noted for its views of the painted desert to the north.

We would have loved to travel the length of the park, but decided we needed to push on through Flagstaff, so we just drove out a few miles to the painted desert overlook. It was a good thing we didn't take the extra time, because as we approached Flagstaff around dinner time, snow began falling. We crawled along for almost an hour through a minor blizzard before we got down low enough and far enough south that the snow turned to rain. We stopped in Camp Verde for the night.

Texas & New Mexico

This morning we continued driving across northern Texas, stopping at the headquarters of the Lake Meredith National Recreation Area in Fritch, Texas. Most of the towns we drove through looked like they had seen better days; my guess was that they were oil towns that had expanded in the early 80's and declined in the 90's when the price of oil fell. We were hoping to visit the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, but weren't able to, as it is an archeological site, and there were no tours scheduled for the day. There is a visitor center, but it's closed in the off-season. However, we were able to to pick up a Jr Ranger program for both the Lake Meredith NRA and the Alibates Flint Quarries NM at the headquarters.

Once the kids earned their badges, we drove out to the lake, but there wasn't much to see. The lake was formed when a dam was built on the Canadian River back in the 60's, and it's surroundings are sparsely vegetated.

We left Texas and entered New Mexico, reaching Albuquerque after lunch. We had seen patches of snow on the ground in Oklahoma and Northern Texas, but as we approached Albuquerque, the fields were covered. Petroglyph National Monument is located on the western edge of Albuquerque, and contains the largest concentration of Indian Petroglyphs in the US. Basically it's a bunch of rocky hills that Indians carved symbols on. The visitor center was pretty small, with very few exhibits and no movie, and the Jr Ranger program mostly consisted of word searches and scrambles, that could be completed anywhere.  

After completing the booklets, we drove up to one of the canyons, and took a short hike to see some of the petroglyphs. We then drove to Grants, where we stopped for the night.

Oklahoma City & Washita Battlefield

We continued west this morning, stopping in Oklahoma City to visit the National Memorial there. In the winter, eastern Oklahoma is marked by brown scrubby trees on rolling hills of brown grass, with occasional spots of bare red soil. The Oklahoma City memorial is different than a most National Park sites, as the memorial itself is owned by the park service, but the visitor center and museum are run by a private foundation.

We walked around the memorial and talked to the Rangers onsite. The Junior Ranger program was pretty easy. We were at the memorial for about an hour, then we continued west. While it had been a little cold in Hot Springs, we really noticed it in Oklahoma City. 

We left Oklahoma City and continued to western Oklahoma, stopping to see the Washita Battlefield National Historic Site. It's a pretty small site, commemorating something that wasn't much of a battle. In 1864, the 7th calvary, under the leadership of George Custer, wiped out a Cheyenne village. It was notable mainly because it was the first time US troops had attacked the Cheyenne during the winter. The tragedy of the incident was the chief who was killed was a moderate trying to work out the difference between the Cheyenne and the US.

A visitor center for the site is under construction, so we stopped at the headquarters for the site, which is located in the town of Cheyenne. They had a short movie about the battle that they played on a big screen tv, but there was only room for four chairs around it, and there were no exhibits. The kids completed the Jr Ranger program, and then we drove out to the battlefield site and briefly looked around. After that we drove to a campground in Pampa, Texas.

Hot Springs & Fort Smith

This morning we headed west to Hot Springs, Arkansas, boyhood home of President William Clinton. Hot Springs National Park is an interesting park, as it is intertwined with the city of Hot Springs. The visitor center is in an old bathhouse, in downtown Hot Springs, in the former bath house row. In the late 1800's and early 1900's, people came to the city to relax and sit in the waters of the area's hot springs, and magnificent bath houses were built. Only a few of them operate now.

Through the Jr Ranger program, the kids learned about the history of Hot Springs and the bath process. Bryan really wanted to take a hot bath, but the bath house by the visitor center was closed on Sunday, and the others were located in local hotels. We headed out of Hot Springs just before noon.

We the drove west over the Ouachita Mountains, and through the Ouachita Forest, and then turned north to rejoin I-40 at Fort Smith, Arkansas. As we approached Fort Smith, the trees turned from green to brown. Fort Smith started out an outpost to prevent conflicts between Native American tribes, then became a major staging area for westward expansion, and later an outpost for justice as the main courthouse for the west.

The visitor center had a lot of interesting exhibits about the different eras of the fort, and the people who were there, and a well done Junior Ranger program. It took us about two hours to complete it. We then drove west to Henryetta, Oklahoma, where we stopped for the night.