Route 66

With Scott having flown home, we recruited Collin for our car and set off from Phoenix, bound for adventure.  I didn't have a route mapped out, or a plan.  I booked the Tuscany Inn and Casino in Vegas, based on Jeremy and Jenny's recommendation, and we left our cousins at 6:30 am.  Everybody cried.  I wish they all could have come with us!

Fist stop, Wickenburg, Arizona.  There were too many cute, junky shops.  We could have stayed all day. but managed to drag ourselves away after purchasing only two used stuffed animals, two Navajo blankets and breakfast at McDonald's.  Pretty good, right?

I wanted to drive a longer section of Route 66, but settled for intersecting with it in Kingman.  We got tickets that covered two museums and a tour of a pioneer home.  With 7 kids under my care, I didn't absorb too much detail.  In fact, I can't even remember what the museums were called, but the kids loved them.

In a "jail" at the museum, a scuffle broke out.

The action in this shot cracks me up.  The kids were like ants all over the museum train car.

Route 66 museum, we saw wooden shoes similar to the ones Ruby was probably perusing in tourist shops in Holland.

I thought Mr. D'z Diner was the most fun stop on our trip, and we had fun, so that's saying a lot.  It was so vintage and so cheery that I decided to splurge.  Turns, out, they had kids' meals and it was totally affordable, especially since the kids' meals came with root beer floats.  Our two waiters were fun and friendly.  They kept filling up the kids' enpty root beer glasses.  It's a wonder we ever made it to Vegas, with all the root beer those kids consumed!

The kids decided it was Grandpa's diner, and that Grandpa was "Mr. D."  A lengthy conversation ensued, about why Grandpa and Grandma never told us they owned a diner on Route 66.

Park with train, because three museums isn't enough.

The pioneer home was nice, and the kids were very attentive to the guide who showed us around.

And then...back on the road, to Vegas and the hotel pool.  But first...Hoover Dam.. You can't just drive right by it, right?