Iowa 1995: The Road Home

We left Davenport, Iowa on the morning of Sunday, July 2.

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We planned to make the return trip in 2 days, spending one night in Oklahoma City and sleeping in our own beds on Monday night.

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From Iowa we drove into Missouri. See the big tents in the background, set up to sell fireworks for Independence Day?

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I wouldn't let Mark stop to buy some. They are illegal in Arizona!

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(I can't believe we'll soon be in Missouri again, less than 5 weeks from now! Our vacation is coming up so fast!)

Once we'd passed through Missouri, we drove across Kansas, and finally we crossed the Oklahoma State Line.

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I was excited to be in Oklahoma. It's one of the states of my family history, and I'd never been there prior to this vacation.

As we entered Oklahoma City, I thought of my grandparents, Loyd Haley and Alta Beierschmitt, who grew up there, met and fell in love, married, and started a family. 3 of their 5 children were born in Oklahoma City.
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They moved their family to California in 1929, looking for work as itinerant laborers. Their 2 youngest, including my mom, were born there.

You can just see the skyline of downtown Oklahoma City, 4 miles from our motel, where a federal building had been bombed only 2 months before, on April 19, 1995.

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The motel employees told us that even from this distance, the windows on the front of the motel buckled from the tremendous concussion of the explosion.

We left Oklahoma City Monday morning. Just before we reached the Texas State Line, Mark noticed a small paper bag on the freeway and thought it would be fun to swerve and run over it.

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He paid for his stupidity!

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I don't know what was in the bag, but it caused a blow-out. I admit I chuckled a lot and mumbled things like, "We get what we ask for..."

The kids enjoyed a short break from the car. I made them sit way, way back from the road while we waited.

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Traveling with small children isn't so hard if you plan ahead. We kept a bag of cheap, small wrapped gifts in the front seat. When they became restless, we'd pass one back. They'd unwrap it and entertain themselves for an hour or two!

We made it across into Texas and through the entire northern half of the state without further catastrophe.
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Then we continued on into New Mexico. When we reached Albuquerque, we were only 5 hours from home, but I just couldn't take another moment of sitting in the car!

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We found a Howard Johnson motel and settled in for the night.

The next morning was the 4th of July!

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We had breakfast at the Owl Cafe. I love the facade of this building. The inside was fun, too, with a '50s theme and a tiny jukebox at each table.

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Then we got back on the road for the final leg of our journey.

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We didn't even drive straight to our house. Instead, we went to my parents' house in Show Low to celebrate Independence Day with family. My extended family were all there waiting for us, and we were soon surrounded by nieces and nephews to enjoy homemade ice cream and fireworks.

I can tell you that I was very happy to see this sign announcing our return to our adopted home state!

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It's fun to travel, but it's even nicer to come home at the end of the journey.