…something that takes 33 hours to finish and is almost 2000 miles long?? Well a vacation of course!! As is annual Rowe Thanksgiving tradition it was time to venture back to the homeland to visit all the family. The route traveled was much longer then it has ever been in the past. In hindsight I must say that it was well worth it.
The trip started on Thursday 11/16 @ 2:30 p.m. in Las Vegas. I was lucky enough to get off work a little early after working extra the beginning of the week. Fortunately I had been packing the car on and off throughout the week so there was little to pack. I did have to go to the house before getting Lexi in order to get some last minute items that I had forgotten to pack. After gathering the last minute items at the house I picked up Lexi and we were on the road by 3:00 p.m PST. 9 hours and nearly 600 miles later I arrived at my parents house in Tijeras, NM for the evening.
Next morning I departed for Hobbs, NM at 10:30 MST. 4 hours and nearly 300 miles later I arrived at Donella’s work and she was reunited with Lexi after not having seen her for what felt like several months yet had only been 4 weeks. The visit started with Donella finishing up some last minute paperwork for a case she was working on. This was followed by general introductions and hello’s to nearly everyone in the office. Afterwards we left and headed for dinner at one of the three restaurants that I had in my mind that I wanted to visit before leaving.
The remainder of the week in Hobbs went pretty fast. I must admit that I spent much of the time trying to balance visiting old friends with trying to relax. On Saturday(11/18) we went to a Teen Court training and had the opportunity to visit several of the kids that were still involved with the program. It was great to be able to see them all again. Saturday night was filled with UFC on pay-per-view. Sunday(11/19) was spent watching the NASCAR race with the wife followed by dinner with my ex-boss/friend and his wife. Monday(11/20) was lazy for the morning followed by heading in to downtown Hobbs to go to lunch at another one of the restaurants that I was looking forward to. Then back to the wife’s office to do more meet and greet with all her co-workers that we missed on Friday afternoon. Tuesday(11/21) was a lazy day only venturing outside the house to visit my old office/work to catch up with all the people that I used to work with before moving to Las Vegas. That night however we packed up the car again and left for my parents house in Tijeras again.
We arrived at my parents house at around 11:00 p.m. MST, if I remember correctly. We unloaded everything that we needed for the night and went to bed. The next morning we enjoyed the company of my folks while they got ready to meet us up in Farmington, NM later that day. We left the house and headed for my sisters in Albuquerque, NM. We hung out there for a hour and a half to two hours enjoying her kids and watching Lexi run and play with them.
From my sisters we left to go to my Grandparents house up in Farmington. I remember calling them from Bernalillo, NM at around 3:00. We arrived at their house nearly 3 hours later. We spent the remainder of the time(11/22 – 11/26) with them. It took Lexi all of maybe an hour to warm up to everyone and then she was just in her own element. It was great to see my Grandparents again I only wish that I had more time to get to see them then I did. We did have a great time though.
Thanksgiving dinner was a traditional turkey and stuffing dinner. It was great to have everyone around enjoying each others company. One notable event was my cousin Jeannine and her husband also happened to come down from Denver, CO. That brought the guest count to a total of 9 people. Dinner was great as it usually is when at my Grandparents place.
Friday(11/24) was of course the day used for recovery from all that Turkey. Donella, Lexi and I ventured out to the local mall for a short shopping trip. We weren’t really participating in the entire ‘Black Friday’ thing. Mostly wanting to get out of the house for a short period of time. I must say though having not been in the mall in Farmington in several years how things have changed. Looking at the stores that are located there now versus when I was in high school how things have changed. There are stores in there that I would have never thought would ever come to Farmington. It is amazing to see how much things have changed in only the past 10 years. I can’t even begin to image what that town is going to look like in the next 10 let alone 20 years. Friday evening Donella and I left Lexi with my Mom and Grandparents to watch while we went out on a ‘date’. We went to see ‘The Santa Claus 3’. I must say that it was a pretty nice movie. You don’t have to have had seen the first 2 but it does help.
Saturday came and most of the morning was spent visiting and talking with family. I printed up several pictures at the local Walgreens for the family. Also this was the day that Donella was to leave for Hobbs. Donella’s friend Erica was kind enough to drive all the way from Hobbs to Farmington in order to take her back. One good thing was that she arrived in Farmington in the middle afternoon. This allowed Lexi to spend almost as much time as possible with her mom without Donella and Erica having to drive to much in the dark. This is especially important considering how unsafe the roads in that part of the state are on the weekends and after dark.
The trip concluded on Sunday with the typical packing, love you’s and until next time’s. We loaded up and shipped out for the trip back to Las Vegas. The trip back was uneventful and just long. Lexi was great the entire drive though. Only thing was she kept on doing the, ‘Daddy’ this and ‘Daddy’ that from Gallup all the way home. I hate to say it but man was that getting on my nerves! She did do good though considering how long the trip was. She slept from just South of Shiprock, NM all the way through Gallup, NM. We stopped at the NM/AZ border rest area and stretched out legs. Next we drove from there all the way to Flagstaff, AZ in one fail swoop. We stopped in Flagstaff in order to refill all the gas tanks, both the cars and ours. We loaded up and made the long shot all the way into Vegas without having to stop!! She was so good I can’t believe that she wasn’t screaming and yelling at me.
Well that about sums up the entire trip. I am going to be posting some more pictures here in a moment I wanted to get all the gory details out of the way first so you can enjoy all the pictures.