These were all taken at Two Guns, an abandoned wild west theme park just east of Flagstaff, AZ
This was a Trading Post just off the highway that claimed to have the world's larges map of Route 66.
Ashlyn thought it would be a funny picture, because it looked like she was holding up the building.
It also feature this old road sign that appeared to be along the original Route 66 highway.
In Winslow, AZ, there is a landmark called Standin' on the Corner, which features a corner shop with Route 66 memorabilia and souvenirs. It also features a huge Route 66 Arizona sign painted on the street, right at the corner. We stopped, took a couple pictures and purchased a couple t-shirts.
One of the last stops we made was in Holbrook, AZ...where there were many old motels that were on the original Route 66 highway, including the popular WigWam motel that featured rooms in real teepees and another wall mural of the highway route.
We took our time taking pictures and reading about each little site. It was really pretty interesting. Well, at least for Chris and I. The girls had more fun creating a tent in the backseat of the car!
We made it into Albequerque early enough to get settled into our hotel, eat a nice dinner, check out where the Balloon Fiesta launch site was and visit the hotel pool before going to bed early as we had an early start planned for the next day.
On Thursday, we got up about 5:30 am so we could get to the launch site before all the balloons started taking flight. We made it there just as the first balloons were beginning to be filled with hot air.
It was so exciting to be right there, walking along all the balloons as they were growing and growing, filling with enough air to lift off the ground. This morning was a special morning as many of the balloons were special shapes. It was gorgeous!
It was so exciting to be right there, walking along all the balloons as they were growing and growing, filling with enough air to lift off the ground. This morning was a special morning as many of the balloons were special shapes. It was gorgeous!
It took about two hours for all the balloons that were planning to launch to get in the air. I would guess that over 200 balloons were launched that morning in those two hours. So, more than one balloon was launching every minute! It was amazing!
Many of the shape balloons didn't even leave the ground! Apparently the shapes are harder to pilot so lots of the balloons were blown up so everyone could see them, but then deflated after the launch was over. It was so awesome and I'm so glad I was able to see it in person!
After the launch, we spent the rest of the morning checking out the booths, sampling the food and visiting the Hot Air Balloon Museum.
Did you know that you can fit 22 full size elephants inside of a filled hot air balloon? Isn't it amazing how big they get?
The rest of the day we goofed off, even deciding to go to a local laundromat and wash all of our dirty clothes. This was actually one of the most brilliant ideas we had on the trip! It was such a time saver to come home and put the majority of our clothes right back in our closets rather than filling up the laundry room with loads and loads of laundry to do.
On Friday, our plan was to go back to the Fiesta that evening to see the balloons launch at night and the firework show afterwards, but the weather turned bad and the event was cancelled due to wind and rain. We were so bummed (especially me), but we took advantage of it by leaving early and breaking up the long drive home that we had planned for the next day.
We were able to take over 4 hours off of our drive by making it to the panhandle of Texas and getting hotel room in Dalhart, TX. That was such a lifesaver and made for a much nicer drive on Saturday. Were were even able to stop at the pumpkin patch in Turon, KS for a little playtime and stretching of our legs. Grandma and Grandpa Mahoney even drove over to meet us there.
After driving over 2700 miles in eight states over 10 days, we finally made it back home Saturday evening...at an early 7 pm (which was much nicer than the originally planned 11 pm)!
It was a long trip...but we enjoyed every minute of it!
To sum it up... it was an AWESOME first family road trip for the Johnsons!
