Whit and I Take a Winter Road Trip to St. George

Brandon's car died. With where he's living and the jobs that he has, a car is kind of a necessity. He can bike to one of his jobs, but not the other. And the bus system isn't easy for where he lives, and would be super time-consuming. So, he decided he needed to buy a new vehicle. We told him we'd co-sign on a loan for him. But then he mentioned that he was hoping to buy a van so he could take it camping. Hmmm... I happen to own a van. That's in really good shape. We discussed it and decided we would sell the van to B for a screaming deal and that I would drive it out to Utah to drop it off. We chose a weekend in Feb when there was an orientation at Dixie so that Whit could see what she thought of campus and whether or not it would be a good fit for her.

The pics are once again in reverse order. Boo. So, let's relive the trip. 

Starting at the end. :)

Since we were leaving the van with B,

we flew home from Vegas.

Flying is fun.

Whit and I don't fly very often.

And it was our lucky day because we got to fly over

the Grand Canyon! Bonus!

We flew home on a Sunday, so we didn't get to

spend any time playing in Vegas.

Darn.

But we got to drive by some of the fun casinos.

Saw a billboard for the Shin Lim show.

THAT would be fun to do sometime.

The strip is really cool to see when you're driving into Vegas.

In fact, I love all that desert scenery along the way.

So pretty!

And I loved having B to ourselves for a couple of hours in the car.

He's so fun to hang out with.

I found the perfect souvenir for Andrew 

while Whit and I were thrifting at DI. :)

The three of us did an escape room in St. George.

It was a haunted theme.

It was SO well done.

It was a good level of difficulty and had

some fun special effects.

We successfully escaped. Yay.

I made B take an official selling-you-the-van pic.

Oh, how I'm going to miss that van!

It was still in good shape and I didn't anticipate getting

rid of it anytime soon. So I'm having some withdrawals.

But I'm happy we could help out B and I hope it treats him well.

We'd seen pics of his shed-turned-apartment,

but had never been in it.

I like it!

It's a great little setup for him!

Moqui can peek in and say hello from the backyard.

Moqui is B's friend's dog.

Isn't it cute?

He had fun showing us his turntable.

We listened to some Ella songs together.

B is cute with Moqui.

On Friday night, Whit got to stay the night on campus

for an overnight orientation. She got this sweet

spine keychain.

While W was checking out the school B and Morgan 

took me climbing at Contact.

I didn't know that was the plan and didn't dress accordingly.

But I managed to climb in a sweater and jeans. Ha!

B belayed Morgan while she did a route or two.

And he also belayed for ME!

What?

I'm so not a climber.

But I'm always up for adventures.

B gave me a quick 10 minute lesson and then

I clipped in and started up the wall.

Can you see me WAY up there???

I finished the route!

And I really enjoyed it!

Many muscles were sore the next day,

but it was a lot of fun.

Morgan also belayed for B so he could climb.

It's fun to watch him climb.

He's so muscley.

I would get random pics from W throughout the evening.

She had a GREAT time on campus and has decided that's

where she wants to go. She made some friends and is looking

forward to starting school in St. George in the fall!

On Friday afternoon, before the orientation started,

we went to Fiesta Fun Center for some arcade games and

laser tag. It was fun to hang out with Morgan. I got to meet

her last summer, but hadn't hung out with her much.

She's nice and fun. And her and B are cute together.

Earlier that day, B gave us his own little tour of Dixie,

where Whit could hear the blunt details right 

from a student who has been here.

Oh, I love the desert.

What a gorgeous place to go to school!

When you're driving West and you drive all day long,

you get to watch cool sunsets along the way.

This one was somewhere in the northern AZ/

southern UT. So pretty.

I always pull over near Vermillion Cliffs

and take pics with the red rocks there.

It's my favorite.

I really love this one that reminds me of an ice cream cone. :)

Andrew and I took our first pic here when were engaged

and would drive between Provo and Winslow.

I thought this church on the reservation was pretty 

with that red rock backdrop.

We drove through Winslow! My favorite hometown!

Mark, Taylor, and Gabe met us for lunch at the Root Beer Stand.

I wish we could've stayed longer, but it was great to visit

them for a little while.

Gabe told me all about the Minecraft worlds that he and Marcos build.

Some things to notice in this pic:

1. Speed limits are higher out west. I usually drive 5 over and I'm going 80.

2. It was COLD. Thirty-one degrees!

3. The van got 30 miles per gallon on the freeway??? That's crazy.

My new little Mazda gets the same....

4. The van had under 150000 miles when I sold it to B. Hope he gets

many more miles out of it

We drove through Holbrook, so I had to get a quick

pic of the tee-pee hotel, which I believe the Cozy Cone

hotel in Cars is modeled after.

I think this is the dirtiest the van has ever been!

Kind of a unique church building in St. Johns, AZ.

Y'all. It was COLD!!! 

This is why you road trip in the SUMMER!

It was NO FUN to deal with snow storms messing 

up my travel plans. We changed our route three

different times to avoid the snow, but it still managed

to find us!

Snow is pretty to look at.

But super stressful to drive in!

We found some good packing snow at the side of the road.

We had two days of snowy driving.

This one was leaving NM on the way to AZ.

We stayed in an interesting hotel in Silver City, NM.

It was advertised as retro-chic and had good reviews.

I wasn't impressed. It had a few cute touches, but

was mostly just retro.

When we drive through southern NM, we love to visit

with Marlena and Trevor if we can. Luckily, they were

up for a spontaneous visit. We met for yummy Mexican

food for dinner. So good.

And so fun to catch up.

We had to drive through a sandstorm in NM.

It was nasty.

They closed the freeway right after we made it through!

We made a quick stop at White Sands,

one of my favorite places in the world!

So gorgeous!

And it was nice to be there when we weren't burning up.

We didn't stay long, but it was a great little stop.

And SUPER windy. Ha!

Love it when Andrew and Andrea are right

next to each other in gift shops.

I also love driving over these mountains in southern NM.

Do you like that wind???

There's a super cute touristy-looking small town

around here called Cloudcroft. I want to come back

with Andrew and have a little getaway here sometime.

We were so happy when the roads cleared.

Look at those open skies!

Um... it was FREEZING while we drove.

NINETEEN degrees.

These Carolina girls are NOT used to this!!

The morning that we were supposed to drive from

TX to NM, we woke up to these snowy roads.

No! Dang it! I didn't want to miss Whit's orientation,

so we took our chances. We had to drive SLOW

for quite a while, but we were safe.

We got to spend a few days in TX with my parents

and Grandma Cuca. Hooray!

Now that we've started playing Wingspan, I notice birds everywhere!

My parents have a stuffed roadrunner in the guest room.

One morning we went to downtown Abilene and

visited the Grace Museum.

It was a great little art museum that we enjoyed.

More birds!

Common Yellow-Throated Warbler

I LOVED this art display by Kate Breakey!

Played some rummy with Grandma Cuca.

 We've stopped keeping track of the rules with her.

Grandma can do whatever she wants. :)

Went through some of Grandma's old photos.

Look at how much snow we would get in Montana!!!

I've gotten wimpy in my old age.

I could never handle that now.

The cute Gerber kids.

And this is an amazing picture of me in third grade.

The mullet.

The Halley's comet pin.

The sweater vest.

Just lovely.

I was excited to take Whit to the prairie dog park.

There were LOTS of birds there.

Mostly common grackles.

We saw some cute prairie dogs.

They let Whitney get super close!

And we also saw some sickly-looking ones.

The big bummer of the trip was that our suitcase was stolen

out of the back of our van while we were in Abilene. So, so lame.

My SLR camera was the only expensive thing in there.

I'm heart broken that it's gone.

We also lost all of our extra shoes and the souvenirs that

we had purchased. :( :( :(

Destiny and Bubba drove up from Midland to spend a morning with us!

They're so sweet to drive 4 hours round trip for a quick visit!

Bubba is so cute.

I got some Grandma Cuca tortillas.

Whit hadn't seen her Grandma's and Grandpa since

before COVID. So happy we could spend time with them.

Another beautiful sunset!

Stopped for church in Vicksburg, MS.

It was a great service and we were spiritually fed.

And yet another gorgeous sunset.

We got to stop at BUCEES!!! Hooray!

Whit had never been and she sees why C and I love it SO MUCH.

This one in Leeds, AL was newly opened and even had

a real-life Bucee walking around!

We had the best fun stop in Atlanta!

It was a little maker market at The Works.

We ate lunch at their super cute food court.

We found elotes, one of our favorite foods!

Look at this cute florist display.

Another cute display.

Show some love!

Look at the adorable booths that were set up.

We found some cute stickers and earrings to buy.

And a cute little origami stars.

But they all ended up in the suitcase that was stolen.

Booooooo!

They had a cool parking garage, too.

It was a fun, urban vibe. Perfect fun stop.

We saw another cool bird on the way there.

Atlanta!

I don't like driving in big cities.

Whit drives to school every day and to work a few times a week.

But she avoids freeways.

She decided she needed some practice on them before she

moved out of the house.

It was fun having some driving help!

Other than the suitcase fiasco, it was a fabulous trip. I loved getting a bonus trip to see B-train in the middle of the school year. It is weird to be car-less. And I'm taking my time finding a new one. Andrew doesn't drive much, so we're sharing a car for now.