Day 2, part 2--Amarillo, Texas--Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument

A little further down the road is the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument. They only take 2 tours to the actual quarries twice a day during the summer (only once a day during the other times) and the tour is 2 hours long and since we had a slow morning, we skipped the tour. But the kids could still earn their badges by watching the video and filling out their booklet so we explored the visitors center. We found some fun things that had nothing to do with the quarries.

We saw 2 of these huge grasshoppers. They were about the same size as Izzy's hand. She tried to catch them, but they were far and fast jumpers. Plus I wasn't sure if they'd bite.

Texas has so many cool bugs. Fun black haired spider.

This looked like such a cool bug and stayed in the same spot for most of our stay, but then I found out it was a wasp. I guess it's still pretty.

Check out that fun long lizard. We're going to miss Texas' cool creatures.

The quarries are on the other side somewhere out there. We watched a video and there were flint samples inside the visitors center with lots of colors. My favorite part was watching the video and seeing the ranger make an arrowhead. They make it look so easy. But I guess that's what the warriors of the past did.

Day 2, part 1--Amarillo, Texas--Cadillac Ranch

Mornings were always slow but relaxing (mostly due to the not so fun morning sickness stage going on right now. It's supposed to stop at 3 months not start in full swing. But as long as breakfast came quickly ...) The kids loved enjoying those morning cartoons.

Day 2 of our trip we HAD to stop by the Cadillac Ranch. Isn't there a country song that mentions it? It's just this random work of art displayed on the side of the highway. 10 Cadillacs are dug into the ground and graffitied for the world to enjoy. Very random but fun to see and experience.

You can climb, (but do it carefully around these semi-rusted contraptions), spray paint (there was spray paint off to the side that we let the kids spray just to say that they did.), whatever you want to do. I wonder if the rest of the cadillac really is underground. I don't know why it wouldn't be, but there was nothing to say anything about it.

We even discovered that if you turn one wheel, the other wheel turns but in the opposite direction. My dad says that happens on all cars. Did anyone else know that?

And Izzy discovered that if you turn this joint it'll turn both tires, still in opposite directions.=)

We enjoyed this artistic playground. Now 45 mins. down the road is the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument. Off to get our first Junior Ranger badge of the trip.

Road trip to Washington--First stop--Frontier Texas in Abilene Texas

This longhorn has horns longer than my 2 girls.

The military gave us 6 days to make the cross country trip but we took it slow and made it in 9.=) We mapped out our route fitting in as many National Parks with Junior Ranger programs as we could so the kids could get their Junior Ranger badges and patches from each stop. The first few days were just extra fun stops.

Our first stop was a fun museum in Abilene, Texas called Frontier Texas (not a National Park). It has holographic people telling the story of how the cowboys evolved over the years. Lots of lifesize displays made this fun for the kids too.

This is Calvin checking out the rattlesnake hole. It made a rattler noise every so often.

Check him out up close.

Teepees are always fun.

This is one of the holographic people telling her story.

Anyone else need a ride?

Now, 4 more hours of driving to find another hotel.