Help me, Obi-Mom Kenobi! You're my only hope!

Luke:         ”I’m endangering the mission. I shouldn’t have come.”
Han Solo: “It’s your imagination, kid. Come on. Let’s keep a little optimism here.”

Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

Padawan Learner threw his first snowball (more like a snow-lump) yesterday morning before the sun could melt the wee bit of white away. This morning brought more rain and a bone chilling cold that very clearly told us that winter will soon be here. We headed north not knowing if we would be able to stop for the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, IL. Fortunately, the rain slacked to a gentle mist so we were able to enjoy a stroll through the 4 block area and take the Lincoln home tour before watching one of the two visitor center movies. I would have liked to see the second one, but we had pushed PL’s lunch needs too long for that.

When a 14 year old boy is really hungry, he’s REALLY hungry. After a quick lunch at The Feed Store restaurant (adequate but, like all places catering to the tourist trade, over-priced) – which sits right across the street from the Old State Capital - where Lincoln gave his famous “A House Divided” speech. We took the tour inside the Old State House (which isn’t really old, but a reconstruction with only the exterior limestone being original to the 1800’s). The tour guides were informative, seemed pleased to have questions asked, and didn’t make the usual “So, no school today” comment which tends to lead to either a “super-genius” or “uber-fundy” expectation of PL – neither of which he tends to enjoy.

The National Surveyor’s Museum, also across the street from the Old State Capital, which was scheduled to open this spring appears to be on perpetual hold due to a lack of funding. Too bad, DW was looking forward to seeing it. DW and PL are continuing to watch WWII in HD (a multi-night program) and it is just breaking my heart to hear it. I frequently have tears in my eyes, but last night was worse. Perhaps I just know what to expect now, because the content is no less heart-breaking. I wonder if FireFly Mom’s family has been watching it as well. I know her son has a passion for WWII history.

Tonight is our last night on the road. We’re all a little sad to see our trip come to an end, something we looked forward to for so long. But we’re also glad to be getting back to our own beds, our cats, our friends, and our usual routine. Dad Windu is getting apprehensive about what awaits him next Monday, and I must admit that I am as well. He has been watching the schedule from the road (nothing like tech giving you the opportunity to fret while on vacation), and it isn’t encouraging.

I take it back. Tonight is just as horrible as last night. I can’t take listening to it anymore. I’m off to take a bath, with the fan running (loudly I hope) to drown out words that break my heart. I hate what we animals are capable of doing to ourselves and others in the name of power and greed. Safety and peace to you, my military friends and family. May our children, or at least our grandchildren, find a better way to a better world.

“This turn of events is unfortunate. We must accelerate our plans. Begin landing your troops.” – Darth Sidious, Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace

We had rain today. Rain! It took us a few moments to realize what it was when it first hit the windshield. It’s been so hot and dry the past two weeks that we’d kind of fallen into expecting desert weather for our entire trip. Alas, it was not so. As we neared the Oklahoma boarder, the tap, tap, tap of rain began. I guess it was letting us know that we’ve officially entered our third week of the trip, and our time is winding down.

We had planned to visit Dodge City and Fort Larned today, making a wide detouring curve from I-35 at Witchita to I-70 near Salina. With the pouring rain, however, we pressed on straight north toward Salina instead as all the things we wanted to do in both places are outdoor activities. We ended book 4 of the Percy Jackson series yesterday and started book 5. PL warned us that 5 was pretty much a non-stop battle; he wasn’t kidding. I feel slightly battered just listening to it.

We decided to stop in Salina, KS for lunch and to see the animated A Christmas Carol with Jim Carey. Unfortunately, the theater’s computer system crashed while playing it earlier in the day, so there would be no movie for us there. We did the only reasonable thing, we got back in the car and drove 102 miles further, to the next theater on our route, which was in Topeka. We’ll see A Christmas Carol after dinner.

Just to prove the nicest of random strangers, here’s a picture taken of us back at Bandelier that was emailed to me today.

 UPDATE:    A Christmas Carol far scarier than I was expecting (DW agrees) – please pre-watch if considering for young or sensitive children.

Luke:     “Vader’s on that ship.”
Han Solo: “Now don’t get jittery, Luke. There are a lot of command ships. Keep your distance, though, Chewie, but don’t look like you’re trying to keeping your distance.”   [Chewie barks a question]   ”I  don’t know. Fly casual.”

Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

What a strange day. We didn’t see a single amazingly cool thing. Frankly, I’d kind of gotten used to it.

Instead we drove from 10 am until 8:30 pm (552 miles), with a short stop at a rest area for lunch and an hour at a sit-down restaurant for dinner. I even drove for 12 miles today! I haven’t driven a mile (although I have offered) since we left home.

A couple of fun things I did see today were:

PL hanging from the rest stop over-hang

A Texas-shaped waffle maker at our hotel

Yoda: You must not go!
Luke: But Han and Leia will die if I don’t.
[Obi-Wan's ghost appears]
Obi-Wan: You don’t know that. Even Yoda cannot see their fate.
Luke: But I can help them! I feel the Force!
Obi-Wan: But you cannot control it. This is a dangerous time for you, when you will be tempted by the Dark Side of the Force.

Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back

Temped to stay there for.e.ver maybe. Carlsbad Caverns were so beautiful, we stayed for hours and hours. Toward the end, it was awesome overload. I’m running late this morning, so I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Be sure to click on the images to get the larger picture.

“I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth.” – Anakin, Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

As written by Dad Windu in his journal:

We stopped at the White Sands Missle Base to see the museum. But, since it was Veteran’s Day, the museum was closed. We were able to see the outdoor display of missles and rockets and such though. After this, we went to the nearby White Sands National Monument, which was one of the stops [Obi-Mom] wanted to make. The gypsum sand dunes were beautiful. We walked the dunhes in our bare feet and took lots of pictures. We saw animal tracks in the sand as well, but no actual animals.

Then we headed to Lincoln, NM, which is another old west town. The site of the Lincoln County War. As I sit here and write, we are staying at The Ellis House B&B. This house is the site where the first shot was taken during the 5 day war between the Tunstell faction and the Murphy/Dolan gang. It is surreal to think that this famous set of events happened right outside my window.

Click to see the pictures from Lincoln

“You have allowed this dark lord to twist your mind, until now, until now you’ve become the very thing you swore to destroy.” – Obi-Wan Kenobi to Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

For those of you don’t remember me talking about it before, Dad Windu is passionate about roads. Long, straight roads with minimal changes in elevation. Guard rails and wide, paved shoulders would not.be.optional  in his perfect world. Forty-four miles (travel time: 2 hours) of switchbacks up to the Cliff Dwellings of the Gila National Forest and another 65 miles (3 hours) of some of the worst switchbacks either of us has ever seen back out (we had to take a different route out for our next destination) had DW frequently exclaiming, “I hate this road!” Thankfully, we had book three of the Percy Jackson series to keep us company.

But even with all the traveling nastiness (I should admit that I spent my time knitting a slipper, so the drive didn’t bother me at all), PL – riding shotgun – and DW both admit that the cliff dwellings were too cool to pass up. I highly recommend that you all put them on your Must See list. Just bring along the Dramamine.

We met two homeschooling brothers that volunteer at the Cliff Dwellings and a very nice German couple that was absolutely ga-ga over meeting three homeschooling kids in one morning. They asked us about why we homeschool (the other boys live in a very remote area), how we homeschool, the benefits to being able to travel at will, and etc.

Obi-Mom Kenobi, secular homeschool ambassador.

“I have decided that we shall stay here.” – C-3PO, Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

Tonight we’re staying in the hotel that we stayed in last night. I know! For the first time in 8 days we didn’t pack up and get in the car first thing. Crazy. Our historic hotel is not exactly luxe, quiet, or even particularly quaint (despite being in the heart of Silver City’s Old Downtown area). But it has one special amenity – a private room for Padawan Learner. We’re all enjoying a little time apart at the present. PL is watching NCIS until his eyeballs glaze over and Dad Windu is “reading” (napping) – and neither is having to bend to the other’s wishes for a few moments. Now that’s luxury.

PL and I covered a few hours of lessons this morning at the corner coffee shop while DW walked around town and scoped out the old buildings. He met a curmudeony local bookseller that said, after hearing that he was looking for a book on local history, ”I can tell you all about Silver City’s history. They mined silver here and they treated the Chinese people very badly.” Well OK then. We all took a little stroll through downtown, with DW acting as tour-guide with his new found knowledge of the town courtesy of his new book, Built to Last: An Architectural History of Silver City, New Mexico.

After lunch we headed to the Fort Bayard National Monument this afternoon. What a disappointment. There’s a National Cemetery and a few plaques scattered roundabout covering the myriad uses of the Fort’s land over the years (protective fort for silver miners and settlers, training camp for one of the Buffalo Soldier units, Army TB hospital), but nothing is open. Even the windows are closed up and covered. Oh, well, our first strike out. Attached to the site is a trail for one of the many hiking areas in the Gila National Forest, so we spent a couple of hours there instead.

Another hiker said we had to follow the Big Tree path. “It’s a lovely trail and there’s just the most enormous tree at the end of it.” It was a nice trail – moderated difficult with varied terrain, enough hills to make you glad to find another downward slope, and the (empty) promise of a potential wolf sighting. After the two miles out, we saw this:

our not so gigantic tree at the end of the trail

Obi-Wan Kenobi:    It’s over Anakin, I have the high ground.
Anakin Skywalker: You underestimate my power!
Obi-Wan Kenobi:    Don’t try it.
        Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

High ground seems to be a recurring theme for this week. Despite the fact that I’m getting a bloody nose on a regular basis, I’m enjoying the treks up and into these high places.

We started yesterday morning off, at Dad Windu’s request, with a trip to the Rattlesnake Museum in Albuquerque. For such a nondiscript little hole in the wall, we all had quite a good time seeing about 30 different types of snakes – plus reptiles and spiders. I was a little leery about going in, not being a fan of snakes, but apparently a thin pane of glass is all it takes to reduce my “willy” factor. There was one particularly beautiful snake, an albino, showcased on black rock that followed Padawan Learner back and forth. It was… mesmerizing.

We tried to get PL some trampoline time at a local gym, but they had birthday parties scheduled for the entire afternoon and night so – No gym for you! He was definitely bummed, but we’ll look for another place in Las Cruces. At J. Kubenka’s suggestion, we roamed through the Aquarium and Botanical Gardens in town. They have some gigantic sting rays (my favorite) and a couple of nasty looking sharks (PL’s). Although the flowers in the garden were long past their prime, it was a really relaxing walk. Our friend, C-3PO, would have loved the Botanical Garden: it had several G-scale trains running through it.

And now we get into the high ground part: the Petroglyphs National Monument was hiking and climbing galore. The park has 3 different locations for viewing the petroglyphs and we went to them all. We even had an unexpected little “extra” journey after taking a wrong “path” on the last location. Doh! Oh well, PL certainly didn’t seem mind that he had to blaze a path down the side of a mountain. After that, we headed down to Socorro for the night. It was an all around pleasant day, and a perfect day for driving.

Today we headed out to the Very Large Array and it was beautiful in its simplicity. You can see it from miles away. The three arms are each 13 miles in length, in a Y formation. They even cross two roads. I thought we’d be there maybe 20 minutes, tops, but we were there for an hour or so instead – and PL and DW aren’t even astronomy geeks like me.

We had a beautiful drive through the  mountains to Silver City, NM, but we may have found PL’s mountain-driving limit. He started to get a little car-sick about 3 hours in, so I got to try out the backseat for the first time this trip. I know where I’ll be sitting when we finally head up to the cliff dwellings in Gila!

“Remember, concentrate on the moment. Feel, don’t think. Trust your instincts.” – Qui-Gon Jinn, Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace

How the days get away from me, and how tired I am at the end of them!  It’s a good tired though. We’re seeing so many interesting things and going to such remarkable places. It’s been a full week now, as I sit here in the laundry mat, since we’ve been on vacation. It’s going faster than I thought it would. Normally we’d be heading back home after a week; I’m so thankful to be here with Dad Windu and Padawan Learner.

One change coming up on Monday, is the fact that PL and I are going to attempt to do some lessons over the next two weeks while we’re in the car. As it’s not uncommon for us to drive a couple of hours each day, we should be able to do that without too much problem. But if it becomes a burden or makes either of us miserable, we’ll probably chuck it until we get back. Time will tell.

We had quite a full day yesterday. We continue to run on, off and across Route 66, without even trying. At first we would call it out each time we say a sign for it – “Look, Route 66!” – but we’ve gotten used to it now. I still think it’s cool, but I’m not surprised by it any more.

We stopped at the Pecos National Historic Park, since one of Padawan Learner’s requests from the trip was a chance to see some pueblos. He was hoping for intact pueblos, but he enjoyed going down into a reconstructed Kiva and seeing the layout of the old Mission church (especially the small doors) nonetheless. Dad Windu had been looking forward to seeing some rattlesnakes, as there were signs warning visitors to watch out for them, but we didn’t see any. I was OK with that.

On our way into Santa Fe, we stopped at the Santa Fe Camera Shop and bought a new camera for DW to use on the trip. It’s just a little Canon Elph, not quite the mega camera that DW is used to, but it’s better than nothing and it’ll be mine after we get back home. To make sure of that, I picked out a pink one.  J PL is going to get my current camera, so he’s pretty happy about that. Our only concern is that the new camera started making some pretty strange noises today when DW was trying to take a picture – almost like it’s constantly trying to focus and re-focus. It’s taking decent pictures though, so we’re choosing not to fret.

Bandelier National Monument was an event to get to, miles of mountainous switch back roads that always make me get a nose bleed, but it was worth it for sure. The cliff dwellings were another request by PL and I’m glad he asked to see them. It’s amazing to think that the former residents of these cave homes were so resourseful in such an often inhospitable place. We were able to climb up into them to see the scorch marks from generations of fires, which has got to be one of the highlights of our trip to date. I was intrigued by petroglyphs adorning the walls. Decoration? Storytelling? Good luck omens? Sometimes I really, really want a time-machine so that I could go back in time and ask these types of questions as they roll around in my brain.