Don’t Take Life, or Travel, Too Seriously

Life in general, and especially travel, can be overwhelming, stressful, and exhausting. There is a temptation to get caught up in the minutia of daily activities, the worry about missing out on something special, or just generally feeling like something might go wrong. It isn’t easy, but we all need to lighten up a little bit and let ourselves be childlike in our adventures. If we could all view our lives, our travels, the things that we do and the places that we go with the unabashed wonder of a child who has been let loose on a playground, we would all enjoy them better. How many times have you stood in a line, whether to get on a plane, get into an attraction, or waiting for a popular restaurant and found the people around you angry, pushy, and basically rude? Do they truly believe that if they try and make everyone around them as miserable as they are that somehow their experience will be better? There are times when we see people that are this intense that we want to just mess with them a little.  Tell them that they are in the wrong line, that they don’t have the proper reservation, anything to mess with their minds a little. Perhaps that wouldn’t be nice, but this week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge is Cheeky and maybe a little mischief would wake these people up and let them realize that life is to be enjoyed, not just rushed through. One of the things that we enjoy are seeing whimsical signs or different things that remind us to keep the child inside of us alive as we travel. Here are some photos of signs or other things that remind us to smile and enjoy life. How do you keep your inner-child alive?

Troll Statue Outside of a Store in Reykjavik, Iceland
Family Fun Restaurant in Cochabamba, Bolivia
Dona on a Merry-Go-Round in San Francisco
UFO Crossing Sign in Roswell, New Mexico
Whimsical Creations in the Chocolate Museum in Cologne, Germany

The following are a series of signs outside of restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Definitely Silly
Perhaps a Little Hokey
Truth in Advertising

 

Road Trips are an American Tradition

Most people who grew up in the United States have memories of strapping themselves into the backseat of the car and taking a road trip to someplace for vacation. Unlike Europe, there aren’t convenient transportation options, so the only affordable way to get anywhere is to drive. We certainly took our kids on many different road trips, whether to Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, Carlsbad Caverns, or Disneyland. We used to tease the kids that it was survival of the fittest, whoever survived the trip in the back of the car would get to enjoy the vacation, that we would leave with three and arrive with two. We used all sorts of tricks to keep them entertained on the long drives, like the license plate game, count the number of different animals that they could see, or handheld games (this was before the world of smart phones, DVD players, and true gaming systems). If we had the time, we would stop at some of the odd places that you find along the way, the aligator farms, bug museums, and other tourist traps that are just there to take your money, but provide a diversion on a long drive.

Driving South on I-25
New Mexico Rock Formation
Arizona Mountains

With that in mind, we decided to drive to Scottsdale, Arizona, this weekend to spend a week discovering what the city has to offer. Oddly enough, we have not been to Arizona, other than to drive through a portion of it, so we were looking forward to seeing something different. Unfortunately, it was a twelve hour drive without stops and we decided to power through and make it with limited breaks for food and bio-breaks. So, hop in the car with us and join us for a road trip from Colorado to Arizona through the American Southwest.

View from the Car
Driving Through New Mexico
Arizona Border

We drove south through southern Colorado, which was very scenic as most drives down along the front range are. There are parts of Colorado that are not particularly interesting to see, but driving down I-25 towards the New Mexico border is actually a fairly pretty drive, but there are few towns along the way. Once you reach Trinidad, you are almost out of Colorado and you are leaving the majority of the mountains behind you. At this point we have been on the road for about two hours and it is an hour to our first driver change.

Heading to Southern Colorado
Bear Crossing – Only in Colorado
Last of the Colorado Mountains

Once you enter New Mexico, you head down to lower elevations and the scenery becomes more stark in general. The drive takes you all the way from the northern border of New Mexico to the southern border, so you will get to see a wide variety of the natural beauty that the state has to offer. Instead of the large mountains of Colorado, there are colorful plateaus along side desert scenery. Instead of passenger trains, you will see freight trains carrying cargo, coal, and livestock across the country. Once you reach the southern border, you enter Arizona and we are now only four hours to our destination having driven an exhausting eight hours since getting on the road.

First View of New Mexico
Just Desert and Highway
Freight Train

The drive through Arizona is fairly boring as you leave New Mexico and there isn’t anything but prairie desert land until you get near Flagstaff. From there you have some mountains once again, although nothing like those that you find in Colorado and Utah. As we near the Phoenix area, the sky turns dark with a combination of smoke and clouds. There is a wildfire burning in the area and we spend part of the drive covered in smoke. Then the famous Saguaro cactus made their appearance, which are so big that it is hard to explain what they actually look like in-person versus just seeing photos of them. Finally, we reach Scottsdale after twelve and a half hours and we were definitely tired of sitting in the car. It certainly didn’t take us long to fall asleep once we reached our room.

Arizona Desert
Mountains, Clouds, and Smoke
Saguaro Cactus

Road trips might be a badge of honor, something to brag about having survived, but they can also be times for families to bond. Given our time in Europe, we prefer the ease of travel there and wish that we had the same conveniences here, but it is what it is. Since we don’t, in order to truly see this wonderful country, road trips will continue to be a necessity, whether you view them as a blessing or a curse.

New Mexico Plateaus
Smoke Rising Above the Desert

Do You Believe?

When we went to Roswell, New Mexico, many years ago, one of the fun things that we saw were the road signs for alien crossings. Obviously the town is making the most of its reputation of having had a UFO crash in the vicinity and the supposed cover-up by the government. Whether you believe in extraterrestrial beings or not, Roswell was actually a fun place to visit and we happened to be there during their UFO convention. For this Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week, signs, we decided to use a photo of one of the signs that we bought while were there.  You can read more about our trip to New Mexico here if you would like.

UFO Crossing Sign
UFO Warning Sign
The Full Sign