Coast to Coast 2012: All The Other Stuff

1) On our way to California, we stopped for a night in Deming, New Mexico.  You know what's in Deming?  Two hotels, a McDonald's, and not much else.  The hotel we stayed at, howevs, happened to have a BAR!  It was like it was made for us!  (It's also 90% of the reason we selected that particular hotel).  Anyhow, that night after the men and children were tucked in their beds with visions of Mickey Mouse dancing in their heads, Kira and I headed down to the bar.  And found that it's where a lot of Deming locals hang out!  We had a good time, got some free drinks, and even encouraged a local to call the Hogs.  Woo Pig!

Cheers!
Oh, and please don't judge how we look TOO much - we'd been on the road for 12 hours with five kids and two husbands.

2) Our second night in California, we discovered a restaurant called Acapulco.  I ate there two more times on the trip.  It's a chain and the odds are good that we only thought it was SO DELICIOUS because we live in Tennessee.  But, ya'll, it was pretty damn good!  Not only that, but the margaritas were cheap!  I really wish I could find carnitas and green chli like that in Memphis.  Stupid BBQ city.

3) On Thursday night - our next to last night in Cali - we had a Girl's Night Out.  Our hotel had a complimentary happy hour so we started there for some free drinks.  Then made our way over to Acapulco (I told ya'll we liked that place!)

4) If you've ever been to Disney then you already know they have photographers everywhere taking 384308282 pictures of you that they sell at exorbant prices because they KNOW you will spend it because you HAVE to have a professional picture of your kid with Goofy.  Here are our photo pass pics, if you're so inclined to want to look.

5) We drove through some icky weather and pouring down rain in Arizona on our way home.  But when we got into New Mexico we saw this:

The next day we saw another rainbow on the Oklahoma/ Arkansas line.  Cool stuff!  The kids loved it.

6) I had been to southern California prior to this trip but I'd flown.  Driving was such an experience -- and it meant I got to see a lot of the country I had never seen.  I had never been to Arizona before at all.  My only experience with New Mexico and far west Texas involved a ski trip to Colorado a lifetime ago.  The landscape was so beautiful -- and so different from where I live.  I felt like I was living my boyfriend's song Fly Over States.  Also, I kind of have a crush on the state of Arizona. 

7) Speaking of Arizona . . . let's talk about heat.  I live in the mid-south and it's not uncommon to hear southerners play the "we have it worse than you" game with our friends who reside in the desert.  Our favorite phrase to use is, "but over there it's a dry heat.  We have HUMIDITY."    "Humidity" is like a bad word in this part of the country.  It's icky and it's evil and it's gross and it can make a 93 degree summer day feel like a 123 degree summer day.  But you know what?  FORGET THE DRY HEAT.  We stopped on the Arizona/ California line for a potty break and I'm convinced that is  THE HOTTEST PLACE ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH.  It was 113 when we were in Vegas and I'm pretty sure my flip flop half melted on the pavement.  I go every summer so, obviously, I know just how hot it is in that part of the country.  I just felt the need to get passionate - right here, right now - about the whole dry heat vs. OH THE HUMIDITY thing. Hot is just hot.  That's it.

8) On our trip to Savannah last summer, the "song" we heard over and over and over again was Moves Like Jagger.  (Interestingly, it was also the "song" for the New Orleans road trip several months later).  Well, Maroon 5 did it AGAIN because we heard, "I'm at a payPHONE tryin' to call . . . " approxomately 32849238942 times.  Now every time I hear that song I think about our trip.  And I also wonder where Adam Levine found a payphone in 2012.