Family Trip

Day 1 - July 2, 1998

My mom and I spent the day getting everything ready for the trip while my dad was at work. After he got home, we started loading up the van and making sure we had everything. At approximantly 8pm, we left for the trip. We drove all night long towards New Mexico. My mom and dad took turns driving.

We arrived at Carlsbad Caverns around 7:30am. We walked around the small museum they had there until 8:30am, when they started selling tickets to go inside the caves. It was about a half hour wait in line to get our tickets.
After we got our tickets we went into the caves through the Natural Entrance. It was a 750 story hike down into the cavern. It took us approximantly an hour and a half to walk down.
Once we got to the bottom we were at the entrance into the "Big Room". It was about another hour to hour and half walking around the Big Room.
They had a small lunch room area just off the Big Room in the cavern. There was also a few tiny gift shops there too. We rested and had lunch there before going up the elevaters to the top.
At the top where they had the museum, we went into the gift shop and got a few things :) then continued on our trip.

We drove to Roswell, New Mexico. Roswell is a city in New Mexico that is a tourest trap city, but at the same time looks like an ordinary town. We drove through noticing all the things they have, then went back and walked through the UFO Museum and Research Center. It was interesting walking through the museum. it was like going back in time. It took us about 2 hours to walk through the museum. We didn't know you were allowed to take pictures in the museum with your own camera or we would have gotten some pictures with the alien statues they had inside. We then went through some of the other smaller museums and gift shops located through out the town.

Just before dinner time, we headed to Las Vegas, New Mexico. We had dinner there and stayed the night in a hotel.

We got up early in the morning and drove all morning to Colorado Springs, Colorado. Just before lunch time, we arrived at my grandparents' house. My mom and I visited with my grandparents while my dad rested and my sister played her Pocket Gameboy. We also had lunch there.
After lunch, we all got into the van and went to The Boardwalk, an arcade place in Colorado Springs. We spent about 2 hours there and having alot of fun. Between my sister, my dad, my grandpa, and me, we won about 3000 tickets (yes it is three thousand tickets). My sister and I each got onne big thing and she got lots and lots of little things with the tickets. My big thing was a nice scenic puzzle, 500 pieces. The big thing my sister, Sara, got was a walkman. It was a tape player only, no radio, but she still really liked it.

We went back to my grandparents' home and just rested and visited the rest of the day. That night, we sat on the front porch eating popcorn, talking, and watching the fireworks they were doing in the city. It almost felt like front row seats without the crowd. We stayed the night with my grandparents.

We had breakfast at my grandparent's home, then went on into Denver to visit my Great-Grandma and Grandpa Moomaw. We visited with them for a few hours, then at about 11am, we went on to Hyland Hills Water World. We spent around 4 hours at Water World. Most of that was spent at the Wave Pool and at Thunder Bay. My dad, my sister, and I also went on the River of the Lost Pharoas ride. Everyone got some sun before we left.

After we left Water World, we headed towards Heritage Square. At Heritage Square, we went down the Alpine Slides. I got to go down 4 times and everyone else in my family except my mom went 3 times. My mom went twice. She gave up her third turn for me to use. The reason was that some idiot decided to go down the fast lane very very slow. Infact she went slower than they do in the slow lane. I do not think that is right and neither did my parents. The fast lane is there for the experienced slider, not the beginner, which I feel this girl was. Anyway, we still had fun. After going down the slides, we went shopping and got a few things. We had dinner at Heritage Square before heading on our way to Yellowstone. We drove all night to Yellowstone.

Around 6am, we arrived at Yellowstone National Park. We ate breakfast in the park at one of their resturants inside. After breakfast, we went to look through the park. First we went to see the West Thumb Gyser Basin. We walked around the path they had, took about an hour to two hours. Next on our tour was the famous Old Faithful. After we watched Old Faithful erupt, my dad and little sister walked around the path they had around Old Faithful to see some gysers on the other side. My legs were literally killing me, so my mom and I went into the resturant they had by old faithful and sat and waited for them to return. I am glad I got a chance to do this, because they had a chipmunk living in the resturant. Actually it was living in a tree in the table area of the resturant. But it was still neat watching him go around begging for food, and people giving him little pieces of bread and some even gave him nuts.
After my dad and sister came back, Sara and I got some Ice Cream and then got into the van to go to Midway Gyser Basin. I stayed at the entrance to it and waited as everyone else walked around. Once they were down walking around Midway, we headed towards the Fountain Paint Pots. On the way to the Fountain Paint Pots, we saw a baffalo and had to get a pictureAgain I stayed behind because my legs were still hurting. I learned from this trip that I am really out of shape and need to start some sort of daily exercise. Once everyone returned from walking around the Fountain Paint Pots, we headed on our way to Rexburg, Idaho.

We had dinner and stayed the night in Rexburg.

We spent the morning walking around Craters of the Moon. It was interesting to look at all the craters and to think that this area was very active until about 2000 years ago. We walked up to a big cone and the to two small splatter cones. Sara found a big rock and picked it up. I had to get a picture of her holding this huge rock. It was about the size of her chest, and looked very heavy too. ;-)
After we saw what we wanted to see of the cones, we went to visit some lava tubes in the park. We walked into only two of them. First was the one called Boyscout Cave. My mom stayed at the entrance while my little sister, my dad, and I walked on in. We walked all the way to the back of the cave then went back to the entrance. The reason the lava tube is called a cave is because at spots it has caved in, forming caves. There was ice at the bottom of the cave, yes ice in the middle of July. If felt nice and cool in the cave after being in the hot sun. Anyway, as we were walking out, I stepped on some really slippery ice and almost fell. What is funny, in a weird way, is that my dad said "don't step where Kay stepped" to my sister, and she did step, in the exact same spot and she fell. It scared her since she had trouble getting up. She wasn't crying becuase it hurt, but because she got scared- she couldn't get up herself. We got out just fine anyway and she calmed down once we were back in the sun.
The next lava tube we went to was one called Beauty Cave. Don't ask me why it was called that. It had a nice smooth entrance, not man made. My mom came all the way to the back with us, and took a picture of us in the cave. It was neat walking into the lava tubes. We had to bring our own flash lights with us, since there are no lights inside the caves, and it got dark inside the caves, darked than a bathroom or closet with the lights off and the doors closed.
We didn't go into the other two lava tubes, Surprise Cave and Indian Tunnel. Just didn't have time or the energy.

Next after Craters of the Moon was the ShoShone Ice Cave. The Ice Cave was a guided tour only, so we paid and joined a group that was going in. It was fun walking into the Ice Cave and seeing the ice lake under the bridge we were walking on. This ice cave has an interesting story, but it doesn't do much good telling about it when you can't see what is being talked about. I suggest everyone to go see the ShoShone Ice Cave and take the tour in.

As we continued our vacation, we headed down to Salt Lake City. There we visited with my mom's sister. She also has a web site, and would like everyone to visit her web site: The Bagwells. We stayed there visiting until close to midnight.

We stayed the night in a hotel in Salt Lake City.

We left late in the morning and headed for the Grand Arches National Park. We spent most of the rest of the morning driving to the Arches. During the majority of this trip, my little sister was playing with her gameboy, and I decided to get a picture of her playing.
We arrived at the Arches just after lunch and spent all afternoon hiking around. We went to the North Window Arch. We hiked up to it, then over to the South Window Arch, which I didn't get a picture of. Next we hiked over to Turret Arch. My sister and dad ran ahead, while my mom and I took our time. For the rest of the park, we drove.

We stayed the night in a small town just south of Arches.

Left the Arches area early in the morning and drove to the Four Corners Area. We spent a couple hours at the four corners. We also a got pictures of Sara and me in four states at one time. We also spent some time looking around at the shops around the four corners.

When we left there, we went to the Petrified Forest. For most of the Petrified Forest, we drove, but we did spot to take a look at Painted Desert and at the Jasper Forest and at the Crystal Forest. I didn't get a picture of Jasper Forest because I was running out of film and my dad had told me that the next one we were going to see in the Petrified Forest was alot better. It was interesting seeing these rocks that looked like logs.

It was around late afternoon when we arrived at the Meteor Crater. We walked as far into the crater as we could, which is only about 20 feet down, and that isn't even 1/20 of the way down. We also got to see one of the first Space Ships that is on display at the Meteor Crater.

We stayed the night in Flagstaff, Arizona.

It was early in the morning when we left Flagstaff and headed north again to the Grand Canyon. We stayed at the Grand Canyon until lunch time. We stopped at three spots and took pictures. I also decided to get a picture(not up yet) of the parking area from a watch tower you can go up to view the Grand Canyon.

After the Grand Canyon, we headed over to some Indian Ruins at Wupatki Nation Monument. We walked around looking at the ancient ruins of what was once a great city. They said that at one time around 500 indians lived there. I had trouble seeing that with what we saw, but I figured everything else that was there at that time has either washed away or was carried away my robbers before it became a national monument.

We did spot very briefly at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. Not really long enough to get any pictures. There wasn't even a trail that led up to the volcano. All we really could do was look from a distance and visit the gift shop.

We drove all night heading back to Houston.

We drove all day and arrived back in Houston around 5pm. We spent the rest of the day and all day Sunday unpacking and getting wash done after the trip.

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