and so it begins...days 1-3

I spent a few days in Monticello with my grandma, Ayden, and Kimberly for the most part.  I got my disaster zone room cleaned and my clothes down to one space bag with "winter clothes," a backpack with about a week's worth of clothes, and one suitcase.  The time to leave arrived much quicker than I was prepared for.

My pretty lil frand :D

I got to watch Ayden "play" soccer.

Food, my bags, mom's bag, etc...

We decided to leave Saturday night after Mom got off work.  We drove to Van Buren, AR, and stayed the night.  Our first place to eat was....WAFFLE HOUSE!  I don't care, I love it...and I love the memories I associate with the place as well (Rachel, Leslie, Chris, Nathan, Amanda, Zach!).  We stayed the night in a Motel 6.

Sunday (September 11) we drove to Oklahoma City, OK, and visited the OKC Memorial.  That place was heavy...my heart was saddened and that's pretty much all I can really say.  The memorial was really nice.  On one side there is a black wall that has 9:01 and across the way is another black wall that has 9:02 with a reflection pool in between.

There are chairs representing the victims as well.  A tree some how survived the blast and is still there.  We went in the museum and followed the timeline.  The first room showed facts about the Alfred P Murrah Federal building, then you go in a room that plays a cassette tape recorded in a hearing from a building near by...they're just going about their day as usual, talking business when all of a sudden you hear an explosion followed by screams.  From there on you see all the damage that was caused.  They had a video playing of survivors telling their stories, I was nearly in tears the whole time.

We left there and headed on towards Amarillo, TX.  It was dark by the time we got there, but we didn't let that stop us from going out to the Cadillac Ranch.  It was off the interstate and kinda far back.  There was no one around, pitch black, and eerie.

After that we drove to Tucumcari, NM, and stayed at the Americana Motel.  It was $32 (after taxes)...decent room:  one bed (probably already slept in haha), clean looking bathroom, free wi-fi/breakfast/HBO.  Good deal!  I was so excited we got an extra hour.  Instead of going to bed pretty much immediately, I stayed up watching footage recorded by witnesses in NYC of the Twin Towers.  I watched it like it had just happened even though it's been 10 years.  Crazy.

Today (Monday) we went to Pecos National Park in New Mexico.  Did anybody I know that I really love NM??  It's so beautiful!  I didn't really take many pictures...I was taking it all in and I didn't think pictures would do what I was seeing any justice.

We went down into the kiva...

Inside the Mission Pueblo Ruins. 

We headed to Santa Fe where we walked around the Plaza.  It was cute and if you're into art then this is just for you.  Galleries everywhere.  We stopped by the Santa Fe visitor's center and the Capitol.  There's art all over there as well.

This was really interesting...made of film, spoons, newspaper, and other random things.

I had planned for us to stop in Albuquerque, but we continued on to  Gallup which is where we are right now.  I'm so tired!  We were "scheduled" to go to the Four Corners and Valley of the Gods, UT, but I think we'll sleep in a little and skip ahead to "Day 4" plans (places in AZ).

I'll try to be better at taking more pictures since they speak in "louder" volumes than words.  But for now...it's bed time!  Good night.