Finally...Page, Arizona

                          

  

Yesterday was a long day of traveling. It was longer than either of us anticipated after a 3 hour stop in Grand Junction, Colorado. We had stopped in this town to get a bite to eat and to let the kids out of the truck for a bit. However, Roger noticed that the rear axle on the truck was leaking a bit of oil. Because of the heat, the oil was leaking a little more than he was comfortable with seeing. So, he dropped myself and the kids off at a park while he found an auto care place. The park in Grand Junction was an awesome park so at least we had something to do while we waited! 

Back in the truck again, and down the road we traveled. About an hour or so past Grand Junction is where we switch to the back interstate roads to travel to Page. Here the roads are much narrow so traffic is a bit slower. However, the scenery is amazing! We traveled through Moab, Utah, and stopped at a scenic pull off to get out for a bit. The boys wanted to do some hiking even though it was 103 degrees! I knew that it would bar a short hike! :) Emma wanted to walk on her own, but once the sand was in her shoe, she started pulling on her shoes. She was proclaiming, "yucky" over and over again! Oh dear! (Everything in this southern part is sand!) Chandler spotted his first cactus plant, and he and Garett wanted to chop it open to see if water was inside. They told Wyatt to pick it up, and he did! Or at least he tried before he was unhappy that the plant bit him! 

A bit father down the road, Chandler spotted a convenience store. The sign stated C-Store. Chandler promptly asked if he could visit the candy store. Roger and I were both confused until we realized that he thought the convenience store was a candy store! :) 

A bit farther down the road, Travis asked when we would be there. I said we still had about four hours to which he replied, "why? I feel like I already went around the world!" I'm sure to the mind of a four year old it probably does feel that way! 

Since we had a longer stop than planned at our first stop, we were behind all day. It was after 9:30 when we pulled into Page, Arizona. The road to Page reminded me a lot of the road to Manley, Alaska. Although we passed seventeen cars on the 63 miles stretch to Page, it was similar to Manley in the fact that only cars that were going either to or from Page are on that stretch of road. 

Arriving in the dark after a long day was not the ideal way to see our new home, but it's the way it worked out. The kids were all sleeping  when we arrived, so I had my first tour on my own. Umm...it was about 100 degrees in there! Apparently, the swamp cooler is having issues so it was like an oven. I wasn't sure how any of us were going to get any sleep! We opened the windows and tried to blow out the hot air since it was much cooler outside. The evening temperature yesterday was about 78 degrees, so it was very comfortable. Roger announced that he was going to turn on the swamp cooler and then proceed to set out buckets under the air conditioning vents. I was completely confused until water started  pouring out of the vents into the buckets! It did cool the trailer down, but it was like a rain shower on the inside! You might want to pray that we can get than fixed! :) For now we just announce that we are turning on the swamp cooler and everyone moves out of the way of the vents. :) 

Did you know that Arizona does not do daylight savings time? That was something I learned yesterday on the way here. We are two hours behind Wisconsin time, but when the daylight savings time occurs, we will only be one hour behind them. 

So, that was our final day of traveling. I'll post more about our new home in a few days, but we have lots to do and plenty to unpack! Roger is back to work today.