mother's day road trip

We decided to take a road trip over Mother's Day weekend to Farmington, NM, to meet my mom and brother for a reunion at the school where she used to teach. The trip was exhausting for us, and I'm not sure we would have chosen to make the trip, except that it was Mother's Day weekend.

I had forgotten how huge the US is, having not undertaken a road trip recently. The land is tremendous and all the larger when there is a two-year-old in the car with you. After trying various arrangements, we discovered that it was most successful for me to ride in back with Iris and let Evan do all the driving. I also admit to letting Iris play on her computer for far too long.

Trying to stave off boredom in the car

I'm glad we had the excuse to travel this way through Colorado and New Mexico, though, because I can't imagine when else we would have decided to make a trip in this direction. Having a child with special medical needs has really cramped our traveling style. We brought her oxygen concentrator with us and she had to wear oxygen over the really high passes. Luckily, she didn't need it during the day anywhere we went. Or, perhaps better said, none of us could tolerate the idea of her being leashed with her oxygen cord for just the whiff she would need.

In any case, I can't adequately describe how incredible the land is. We drove through the most incredible mountain scenes over and over again and then found our way to the New Mexico plains. All breathtaking.

We had snow on the drive back north. 

Mesas by Farmington

For all the road trips I've taken, I don't think I've ever felt anxiety about being out in the middle of nowhere. I had a strange sensation of worry about what would happen if we had some medical emergency.

We met Mom and Mike in Farmington, and Iris got a chance to ride on Uncle Mike's skateboard, which was probably the highlight of the trip for her.

Sally remembers 1968

Moms and kids

By the end of the weekend we were exhausted and ready to be home. We also decided to wait to attempt another road trip for a while. The good news is that we think Iris doesn't need oxygen on planes anymore, so we can fly relatively easily.