Somewhere in the days we were there, Lindsay came up with the idea to bring Beth and Zack home with us. She wanted them to be able to spend some time at the lake for the 4th of July…which ofcourse I understand since those are my favorite childhood memories. I just wasn’t too keen on the idea of having 2 kids in the car for 5 days. We weren’t making a straight path home…. We still had things to explore. Carrie was a little apprehensive… not that she doesn’t trust us with her children (we are the girls’ godmothers after all) but just has a hard time letting go of her babies. Understandable. After much discussion (and Stewart’s all for it attitude) and coming up with a plan (surprise surprise Carrie is a planner too), we agreed that the kids could come with us. Zack decided that he didn’t really want to be gone that long and would also benefit from staying home alone without the annoyance of his sister but Beth was very gun-ho let’s go.
So when we woke up, and everyone got showered and packed, Beth was antsy to leave. Maybe she thought momma would have changed her mind. Either way, when I told her we were going to leave at 10 am, she would remind us of how much time we had left. Which perhaps was a good thing because we always have a hard time leaving. Lindsay had made room in the car for Boodle *I’m not entirely sure how but miracles happen lol* and we loaded it up along with some muffins and peanut butter cookie bars Carrie had sent with us. Drew wanted to come too. He kept coming up to me and saying “I come home with you”. We told him that he was too small but he kept insisting. It was ofcourse a tearful goodbye, although I had mentioned coming to AZ in Sept before the job starts, so Carrie will undoubtably hold me to that so I preferred a “see you later”. Little Drew snuggled on my lap for a bit and then he started to cry which about broke my heart into 3048 pieces and made me cry. He went to his mom and we all hugged goodbye and Sammi Jo gave us kisses. In the car, pulling out of the driveway, waving goodbye. Carrie’s crying. Zack looked like he was smiling a little (free from Beth for 2 weeks) and Lindsay’s shouting “STOP CRYING” as we’re driving down the road. *You metz girls are emotional basket cases…I will be sure to remember that statement when I have kids of my own thank you*
We cued up “On the Road Again” and taught Beth how we start everyday with this song. We played music and Beth sang along with us. We sang loudly and off key and she followed right along. * so funny B and I were both knee slapping it. That’s our girl . Suchy proud godmothers I tell ya.*Beth napped for a bit as we made our way to Tempe to meet up with Uncle Leonard and Aunt Stephanie for lunch. We met Leonard at ASU where he works and followed him on his motorcycle to Cousins’ where we found Stephanie. 105 degrees out, and Lenny is on his motorcycle in jeans, a dark blue shirt, and riding gloves. Sounds really hot to me. Leonard picked on Beth in typical Bucholz fashion but she took it pretty well, looks like she’ll be okay with Uncle Scary in a few days. * she’s an eyeroller that beth . she gets that from me my dad will totally have a ball with that* After our lunch and catching up, we hit the road again. We drove through Flagstaff, which was surprisingly foresty and had real trees. Who knew. I pointed out that this was where Nick and Ryan were going to college in the fall so Beth thought that was cool.
We set out for the Grand Canyon. I am pretty sure that half the reason that Carrie was apprehensive about us taking her kid is because of this stop. Now I’m sure when I have kids I will want them to avoid big big holes in the ground as well. But we kept Beth within a foot of us at all times, and when we got out to explore the first look out point, I made sure she was always holding my hand, and that I was always between her and the hole. That way if she slipped (which she didn’t), she would run into me and I would stop her from slipping anymore… granted it might push me into the hole, but I lived 22 great years… falling in the grand canyon would kind of be an epic way to go. It really is as Grand as they say. It’s hard to wrap your mind around…it just keeps going and going. We hiked down at our second stop and got some really good views. Lindsay is sort of afraid of heights so between her and making sure Beth was always safe, I was definitely lifeguard on duty. *of the 22 years I have been going to AZ and the probably 20 some odd times I have been there I have never seen the Grand Canyon. It was a way overdue visit. It was astounding…I mean I knew it would be big but not that big. I was thinking more deep than wide but it was both way more tremendous than I had imagined and I never would have got it unless I saw it in person. Awe inspring! If you haven’t seen it GO! GO NOW! J*
It was approaching dusk when we got to our last stop at Desert View, so we found the old Watchtower just in time to go up in it. We decided it be magical to watch the sunset over the canyon so we brought along some snacks and parked in on a rock facing the canyon. (Behind a fence, don’t worry Carrie). We watch the sun fade behind the canyon, filling the sky with all sorts of oranges and pinks. The show was over, and so there was a surge of people towards the parking lot.
We headed out of Grand Canyon National Park, all safe and out of harm’s way. We headed north, passing all sorts of plateaus. While the south entrance has been surrounded by civilization, this exit was literally just in the middle of the desert. We drove on and found a single gas station. Beth had to go to the bathroom and wasn’t quite feeling the peeing on the side of the road thing quite yet. While I pumped gas and went to the bathroom, Lindsay and Beth found dinner. Well, a package of pork chops…from a gas station. I mean it was sort of a market type gas station, but still, gas station pork chops. We were in the middle of the desert so we didn’t have many other options. Supposedly Beth wanted steak but they didn’t have it… and I thought I was a high maintenance camper. We kept driving but it was getting late and we were literally in the middle of nowhere. Since I was driving and our cell reception was not so good, I was unable to really navigate us to the nearest campground. After a while, Lindsay suggested we just pull off the side of the road and cook there so Beth would be fed and we could drive until we found civilization to camp or find a motel. So I found a large shoulder and we pulled off. Now we’re in the middle of the desert so its rather dark, which meant that the headlights were necessary and also that we could see every star in the sky. They were bright like lightbulbs too. Lindsay got out the Coleman stove, while I chopped up potatoes. Lacking marinade, Lindsay used a can of Orange Crush soda for flavoring and to keep the meat juicy. Beth was in charge of the flashlight, while I carried the bear/animal spray in my pocket. I personally was more afraid of creepers on the highway than animals, but Lindsay advised me to not turn on our blinkers as we didn’t want to attract any attention… plus we only saw like 5 cars on this highway anyway. Beth was quite the flashlight girl..spotting some sort of fox creeping a few hundred yards away* a fennec fox just chilling staring at us makin’ gas station street meat. I was creeping me out so I threw a rock at it to scare it away. Besides being thoroughly sketched out about this situation I have to say the stars were perdy! I mean I thought we saw good stars up north but holy smokes these were huge and bright and almost seemed to touch the ground. Spectacular*. Beth retreated into the car while Lindsay threw rocks at it, scaring it away. This definitely ranked as one of our strangest meals…. But Beth was quite the trooper. Carrie’s probably thinking “Why did I think sending my 7 year old daughter with those two was a good idea… they’re feeding her gas station pork chops that they cooked on the side of the road?” I promise you they were perfectly healthy. We even made green beans. We packed up the gear and got back on the road.
Lindsay took over the driving so I could find us some sort of lodging. I found a campground at Jacob Lake..about 35 miles from where we were. Beth fell asleep in the backseat while we drove to the campsite, through more windy, under construction roads. We found the campground and set up the tent. It was late so we didn’t want to wake our neighbors with the air pump so we just slept in the tent on top of our sleeping bags with the blanket over us since it was still pretty warm outside. Not the most comfortable of places… but we all fell asleep.
From the mouth of babes...Beth has a little contribution to our blog:
"So my godmothers made me eat on the side of the road. We were cooking on the side of the road to I was the look out and I saw a fox a Lindsay said that they of they could been eaten alive by the little thing. I hid in the car."
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