Heading Home

Our side trip to Tucson added about two hours to our drive home today. I'm glad we were able to make it down here to see the signature saguaro of the desert and visit our friends. But in hindsight, I probably would have tried to rearrange our itinerary. Alternatively, we could have visited Casa Grande Ruins NM, Saguaro NP, and Tucson in one loop, coming back to Phoenix on Thursday so that we wouldn't have had such a huge chunk of driving on our last day. Even still, we've covered 500+ miles in a day a couple of times before, so we know it's totally do-able.

Our goal was to get on the road early because we really didn't want to hit LA traffic at the height of Friday rush hour. But comfortable beds made it super hard for sleepy kids and tired parents to carry out those plans! After our cooked-to-order hot breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we loaded up and were on the road by 9AM. We reached Phoenix before 11AM and stopped for lunch and gas (50-cents/gallon cheaper than CA!) in Quartzsite, AZ.

As we made our way back west on I-10, we took a quick detour to Joshua Tree NP. We last visited here in 2009, but M didn't get his big binder version of the passport book until the following year, so he didn't have the Joshua Tree stamp in this one. (Yes, he's my son!)

February 2009

Thankfully, the rest of our way home was completely clear! Somehow only the traffic going in the other direction of the freeway was jammed. And we even made it home in time for J to make it to his 6:00PM basketball practice. Guess he was ready to run around after sitting in the car for almost 9 hours! 

What a great spring break! Now's it's back to reality and mounds of laundry (and planning the next trip!)