It’s time for another installment in The Great Road Trip of May 2009 Adventure Saga! It may have been in May, but it just seems like yesterday. We were gone for 12 wonderful days, and I love reliving our adventures!!
You can read about the route we took and our adventures up to this point:
After our stay at The Grand Canyon, we headed to the next destination on our map: California! I have wanted to visit California for as long as I can remember. My husband visited as a child and has had some business trips there, but I just have never had a chance to go. Now that one of my sisters lives there, and my husband had some time-off to burn, this was the perfect excuse to go!
The drive from the canyon was going smoothly, and we switched drivers after a while. It was my turn to drive. We joked that with Momma driving, we’d get there even faster! (But, for the record, I tried to keep things somewhat on the legal side of the speedometer.) 
Still, with every mile, we were getting closer to California, and we couldn’t wait!
Off in the distance, I could see a checkpoint of sorts.
“Is that Border Patrol?” I asked, excited to have reached the border…finally!
“Oh no. Our apples!” my hubby said under his breath.
“What? What about our apples?” I asked. “What does Border Patrol have to do with our apples?”
“I don’t think they’re labeled. Oh well. I forgot all about that,” he said.
“Forgot about what?” I asked, my interest piqued.
“You can’t bring unlabeled fruits or vegetables into California,” he said. “And, I think I bought the organic ones this time. There’s no way they’ll let them in…I totally forgot about that.”
“WHAT’S WRONG WITH OUR APPLES!?” Claire calls from the backseat.
“Nothing, Claire, but California has rules. We’ll just tell them about the apples, and they’ll decide what to do.”
“ARE THEY GONNA TAKE OUR APPLES!?” Claire asks, obviously concerned. She loves these apples. I love that she loves these apples.
“Probably, Claire,” Daddy says. “But, that’s okay. We’ll get more apples.”
It’s our turn, so I pull up, roll down the window and smile at the agent.
“Where are you coming from?” the agent asks politely.
“Originally, Colorado, but most recently, The Grand Canyon,” I answer.
“Do you have any fruits or vegetables in the car?”
“Actually, we do. We have some apples from Colorado in the cooler. Do you want me to pop the trunk?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“ARE THEY GONNA TAKE OUR APPLES!?” Claire yells. “HEY! ARE YOU GONNA TAKE OUR APPLES!?”
“It’s okay, Claire. Don’t yell. They’re just doing their jobs. Even if they take the apples, we’ll be fine. It’s no big deal.”
“Ooooh, five green apples. Scary!” I think to myself.
Sure enough, the five green apples had no stickers. They were promptly confiscated and thrown away. Or, maybe someone had them for lunch. I didn’t actually see them go in the trash.
We were sad to see our five little green rejected apples go, but at least the agents were nice about it. We didn’t cause a ruckus, so we were allowed to proceed to California, albeit sans apples.
As we continued into California, we turned on a highway that was stretched out through the desert, for as far as we could see. The road was undulating, curving up and down in waves and dips. It was wild to see and even crazier to drive on! You would see a car coming toward you, and it would disappear, and then reappear again, and then disappear as though swallowed by the earth. It would reappear again at the crest of another hill.
This road was like a roller coaster! Talk about a wild ride! Claire was entertained to no end, and we all had fun, as was evident by the whoas, whees, and ooooohhhhs that accompanied each dip and wave. To be honest, I was glad I was driving, because I’m not sure my stomach could have handled the ride as well from the passenger seat!
As we got closer and closer to the coast, we started to get a glimpse of the ocean. We saw our first palm tree. Our visions of what California was were turning into reality.
After a long day of driving, we made it to our hotel. More of our adventures in California were just moments away from beginning, and we couldn’t wait.
Stay tuned for the next installment! But, I’ll give you a hint: It was all we’d hoped it would be…and more!
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Band-Aid® Couture
I have a writing piece up and running at Mile High Mamas, the parenting blog of The Denver Post today!
Today marks the 2nd anniversary of a big event around here. The above photo has something to do with it, as does my latest writing piece at Mile High Mamas today.
I wonder what it could be?
Go check it out! The comments are closed here, but I’d love to hear what you have to say over there!