Grapes, Bigger Mountains and Hotel Fail

About 15 minutes into California, we came upon our first Inspection Station. I've heard stories about these. We made sure all the kids had their seatbelts on correctly and that no one was goofing off as we neared the station.

They asked us where we were coming from (Alabama) and where we were going. He then asked us if we had any fresh fruit in our vehicle. Well, wouldn't you know that I had the grand idea to take fruit on our trip, trying to be healthy and all! So Daniel had to get out to show him our apples and grapes. Our apples were fine but he took our grapes and told Daniel that they were from Mexico and were quarantined. He asked us where we got them. Uhhh...Costco in Huntsville. So we had to leave our precious 4 LB Box of grapes with the nice man at the Inspection Station. I would have taken his picture taking our grapes, but I like my camera a lot and wanted to keep it!

More road and more mountains. But they kept getting bigger and bigger.

And even had snow on top of them!

Here we are entering into San Diego County. Beautiful mountains. We were all so amazed at how we went from desert into such beautiful mountains and terrain.

After a few more restroom stops and a birthday dinner at McDonald's for Alex, we finally arrived to our destination! We got into San Diego around 10 PM, found our hotel and got checked in. But sadly, I have committed Hotel Fail! It looked nice on the internet. Unfortunately, they should have had a disclaimer on their website that said "Objects (and rooms) in photos are smaller than they appear." Tiny. We will be hunting for a new hotel in the morning!

Good night!

Dirt, Desert and Delays

Shortly after we left the Canyon and got back onto Int 40, there was apparently a wreck that had traffic backed up for at least 6 miles. It was slow going. We spent an hour and a half in that bit of traffic.

This was one of the big rigs that we were behind for a while. Do you know what that big thing is? It is ONE of the blades that go on those big windmills we have seen so many of. They are HUGE!

And while sitting in traffic, you have to find ways to entertain the children.

Or let them find their own ways.

Finally, we were moving again. And thankfully not far from an exit where we found us a restroom!

From there on, we saw so much desert, sand, mountains and road! That's just about all you saw!!

Finally, as we neared the California state line, we crossed over the Colorado River. Felt good to see some blue again!

And so we entered California at 3 PM.