We made it to Oklahoma City late in the night, moved the kids from the car to the bed, relaxed then slept. We woke a few hours later and back on the road for a long day of sight seeing and driving to end up at the Grand Canyon.

I had so been looking forward to this day because a part of a childhood dream was coming true. I loved watching the Brady Bunch and the episodes where they traveled to the Grand Canyon are up there on my list of all time favorites. Those shows had me wanting to drive cross country, hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and camp.

So, this day, that was finally going to happen with some variations. Our plan, driving thru Texas, New Mexico and Arizona with stops along Route 66 then camping and hiking on the rim.

This day had a lot of expectations for me so what could possibly go wrong?

It was rough, I had anxiety because I knew it was going to be a long day in the car, a hand full of stops that could or could not be cool for the kids, as well as the normal things that come with being in the car. Gas stops, bathroom breaks, snacks, diaper changes, breakfast, lunch and dinner. All expected things but things that sometimes don’t always line up.

Somewhere in Texas, after being on the road for a while we had to stop at a gas station. This was a stop where gas was bought, bathroom breaks in shifts happened and snacks were picked out. We don’t usually restrict what kind of snack they get but we try to steer them towards things like chips or crackers. One of them picked Cheetos. Ok, fine, orange fingers and faces no problem. What I didn’t expect was the style in which the Cheetos were eaten that created a cloud of orange dust.

Oh boy, then the great Cheeto dust breakdown happened. The yelling that came from my gut was a bit unreal. I might have said that he wasn’t going to be allowed to ever eat again, I know I said no more Cheetos ever, and there was a lot of what were you thinking, and what the f’s being said in my head. He had Cheeto dust in his hair, on the floor mats, all over the back of the seat in front of him, on every blanket and pillow in the car, all over his car seat, not to mention the bright orange fingers and face. I mean what the what, for real, how the heck did that happen? It was a mess that a couple of wipes was not going to clean up. We were going to have to pull over, get out and move things. It was only day two and the hot mess that was our backseat pushed me to my limit.

We motored on, I simmered and crossed my fingers that I had my bad moment of the trip. Deep down, I knew there was more to come.

A weird Texas roadside attraction. All a gimmick that the owner of the tower did to get people to stop at his truck stop.