Stephen's Story
Day 1
Today we drove for 2.5h to Flagstaff, it was pretty interesting because there are a lot of forest fires that are putting a lot of heavy smoke in the air. After we arrived we did a little bit of shopping at the local Walmart and had a nice lunch at a Mexican food restaurant. Everyone enjoyed their meal and dad got some very spicy tacos. After we got back we decided to take our new mountain bikes for a ride. We found some trails and had fun on some downhills. After we did the loop as a family, Kyle and I decided to go on another longer ride that took us deeper into the woods, and there some pretty interesting spots. At one point we were almost to the turnaround and the trail became non-existent so we had to ride through a valley and cross a dried-up tiny-skinny river that got our bikes all muddied. We did find the trail with the help of google maps. After we hit the turn around it put us on a straight dirt road so that we could finally carry some speed. At the end of the .8 mile straight there were some left and rights and then we got on the road back to camp. It was a pretty fun day. The driving in the truck was not as bad as it seemed. The back pain didn’t hit till the end. The only problem is following dad up really steep inclines and going 45 mph on a 75mph highway. Then we went to a restaurant to eat 7.5/10 food and watch the Suns play in the western conference final against the Clippers. We left a little after halftime but they had double the points. Now it is just time to chill and enjoy the weather. Then get up early to do the adventure park at 8 am. I think it will take us about 4 hours and it is supposed to be pretty difficult. After, I plan on going for a run since the weather is always nice.
Amber's Story
June 26, 2021 – First Day of Vacation
On Friday afternoon we said our goodbyes to Levi and dropped him off at Mike’s parent’s house. He loves going there since he gets lots of pets and more treats than one dog needs. We packed almost everything into the motorhome on Friday but what little bit was left, I packed up on Saturday morning. My crazy body has been waking me up at 4:00 every morning so I enjoyed the cool temperatures and loaded coolers while the rest of the world was still sleeping. By 7:00 am the rest of the family was awake so they loaded the RZR on the trailer and we set off on our next adventure. Covid-19 derailed our plans last summer for a long family vacation so we were happy to be heading out for some family fun.
Stephen is 15 now and will be getting his drivers license in September. He’s been driving a lot lately but Mike thought it would be great experience for him to drive us all the way to Colorado. I’m always on edge in the car so this should be interesting. SHOCKINGLY, the first leg of the trip to Flagstaff was great. Stephen did an awesome job and only cut off one car so I can’t complain. I never felt like I was going to die. It was so sad to see all the smoke billowing across the freeway on the way up the mountain. We had hazy conditions for a large part of the drive and the fire near Cottonwood was so close to the I-17 that the smoke smell was intense.
All the forests in Arizona are now closed due to extreme wildfire danger so our plans to spend the day riding at the Cinders was derailed. Instead, we checked into Black Barts RV Park and got set up. I saw on Facebook the day before that a friend who lives in Flagstaff went to Salsa Brava and others were commenting on her page how yummy the food was so we had to try it. Mike got the lunch special of Carne Adovado. The waitress told him it was very spicy. He laughed it off and ordered it. He loved the taste but he could only eat two of the three tacos. He tried to pay Kyle $5 to take a bite of the last taco and Kyle who will usually do anything for a dollar wouldn’t take the bet. I think he saw how much his dad was sweating and how many beers he had to drink to get the first two tacos down. The boys and I loved our enchiladas, fajitas, and breakfast burrito. It’s a great place if you ever get to Flagstaff.
We made our way back to the motorhome and hopped on our mountain bikes. We rode around in the forest behind Little America (private property for all you that are questioning why we’re riding in a closed forest…we weren’t)! There were several trails to have fun on. After 30 minutes Mike and I were dying. We broke off, sat on a bench and enjoyed the cool weather and calm of the forest before riding back to the motorhome for a well-deserved cocktail. The boys rode for another hour or so and eventually found their way back to the motorhome. They told us they took a long trail, ended up under the freeway in an industrial area before navigating back. Even after all the riding they did, they still had lots of energy. Kyle proceeded to do what seemed like 5,000 wheelies on his mountain bike and Stephen entertained us by riding the unicycle around camp.
The Suns are playing tonight so we didn’t want to miss the game. After chilling for a while we went to Dirty Birdies Sports Bar down the road for dinner and to catch the game. We sat in the off-track betting section and unsuccessfully tried our hand at betting on the horses while we ate. Epic failure! It was fun watching the game and the horses though. Even Kyle who bores easily was entertained. We went back to the RV Park, the boys rode their bikes around some more and we asked Siri to give us updates on the end of the Suns game. We were all happy they got the win! After a busy day and an early wake up time for Flagstaff Extreme in the morning, we crashed out early.
Favorites: Kyle said riding his mountain bike on the trails with Stephen was his favorite. Stephen enjoyed driving up to Flagstaff and going to watch the Suns game was his favorite. Mike enjoyed mountain biking with the boys. My favorite part of the day was watching the boys do their tricks on the mountain bike and unicycle.