Last summer, my family and I took a road trip from a tiny town near Houston, Texas to the Grand Canyon and back. Of course, we stopped nearly a million places in between. We saw some breathtaking sights, met wonderful people, stayed in a cramped pop-up camper, and grew closer together as a family. We don't make trips like that one very often because of money issues, but I would give anything to experience that week all over again.
The last week of July, my two brothers, my parents, and I packed up into our tiny Chevrolet HHR and took off. The first night, we stayed at Pedernales Falls, a state park near Johnson City. We saw deer, squirrels, fish, a beautiful body of water, and tons of mosquitoes. The next day, we went to Sea World in San Antonio. Shamu and her underwater amigos were glad to see us and provided not only great entertainment, but also a great educational experience. Then we made our way to New Mexico, staying at KOA camps of all kinds along the way. We stopped in at the UFO museum in Roswell and, even though I'm still not convinced that ET exists, I was amazed at all of the memorobilia and scientific research they had on display. Eventually, our family made it to Arizona, where we toured the Painted Desert, along with the nearby indian ruins and petrified forest, both of which were stupifyingly beautiful.
Toward the end of the week, we reached the Grand Canyon. There can never be any debate about it's grandness unless they discover something even more grand. The thing stretched on for miles and miles, or so it seemed. Then we began to make our way back home. By a relative's suggestion, we stopped in at the ice caves and inactive volacno in New Mexico, two more of nature's wonders. Our last official stop in the way home was at the town of Fredericksburg. We only spent a few hours walking in and out of the shops of all kinds that lined the streets, but I could have spent at least another week there. When we finally returned home, we were absolutely exhausted, but we were happy to have made such great memories.
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