Trip East - Home to Houston, Day 2

May 21st, 2009
Tucson, AZ to El Paso, TX
Miles: Approx 370
Time from departure to Hotel arrival: Approx 7 1/2 Hours

We spent the night at the Hampton Inn, Tucson North. We've stayed there once before. The price was a little high for what you get. The common areas are nice, and the room is decent. But the A/C is an old-style hotel wall unit and very loud. Overall, decent accommodations, but if you find yourself in Tucson and looking for a moderate priced stay, go with the Hampton Inn, Tucson Airport instead. Beyond those two, over the past few years in Tucson we've also stayed at the Hampton Inn Tucson Mall, Windmill Inn, and Best Western Las Brisas - Airport.

We all got up before 7AM and got rolling with breakfast downstairs. Both boys were really good and ate well. Some folks at a neighboring table complimented us on our children's behavior, which was nice. The kids are usually more rambunctious at breakfast though.

After breakfast, the kids did their schoolwork.



While they did so, I went outside to get the car ready. To my surprise, it was a wet and rainy day in Tucson!



I loaded up the cart with our stuff and we got going. How about that for a load?



We got started around 9:15, and not long after my work really got busy. I had three customers with time-sensitive things going on today. So lots of phone calls, and emails from my PDA kept me busy.

Right around 11:30, we crossed into New Mexico.



For most of the drive up until lunch, it was raining. By the time we pulled off to gas up the car and make our sandwiches, it was raining hard. Then a customer called, so there I stood at a truck stop in the rain walking a customer through some paperwork. That kind of thing makes my job really fun for me -- not a joke.

New Mexico is very diverse in topography and weather. This part of Southern NM is barren and rocky without the striking red rocks and soil of other areas. The areas off I-10 are quite desolate with only two towns of any noticeable size between the border and Las Cruces.

By the time we neared Las Cruces, my work heated up again and so we spend an hour at a Starbucks so I could get some urgent issues handled. We were only an hour away from our Hotel, but this couldn't wait.

The kids' behavior was exemplary all day until this point, but they got stir-crazy in Starbucks after all that time in the van. So our ride from Las Cruces to El Paso was a bit nutty.

Here is the border into Texas. See the big star?




As you draw near to El Paso, the 10 runs right alongside the Rio Grande and thus next to the Mexican border. Immediately across the border there are some poorly built and maintained homes. The sign on the factory (US Side) is "Jesus Lives."



The town across from El Paso is Juarez, which has been a major site of strife in Mexico. A great number of murders have been committed by criminal organizations, and the Mexican government even sent military troops there to try to keep control of the city. The US State Department advised that from January 2008 to early 2009 there were an estimated 1,800 people killed in Juarez - can you fathom that number of murders? This is in a city with around 1.3M residents. That is 4+ deaths PER DAY in a city with 1/8th the population of L.A. county.

Just across our border is a dynamic story mostly unreported by a shrinking newsmedia that often repackages PR-fed stories about a politician's new dog or the behavior of a starlet. Perhaps consider a prayer for the people of Juarez tonight.

---------------------

We checked into our room at the Embassy Suites, unloaded the car, and headed out for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. This is roughly similar to the Chili's chain, except they claim better ingredients. The kids were clamoring for this food as they enjoy the rolls with cinnamon butter. Denise and I both had small steaks for a good price and we all got out of there under $40 before tip. Our one mistake was ordering a small version of that fried onion thing some places call an "awesome blossom." Not enjoyable at all. It was cooked like they planned, but who wants to eat a wad of batter with imperceptible onions? Onion rings are delicious, but I have yet to have any restaurant "blossom" or "fried onion petals" that is edible.




We entered the Mountain Time Zone today, so we lost an hour. Cade couldn't adapt and was in bed for an hour before he fell asleep. Matt went to sleep fine. I'm headed there myself in a few. Good night.

Big Cross-Country Trip, Day 1

May 20th, 2009
Eastvale (Corona), CA to Tucson, AZ
Miles: Approx 470
Time from departure to Hotel arrival: Approx 9 1/2 Hours

Our big cross-country trip is finally here. We are driving from the Los Angeles area to Florida, with a long stop in Houston. So I'm writing a daily summary here for posterity and for the fun of it. By the time this trip is done, we'll have been on almost every mile of Interstate 10.

For those of you who read this and don't know why we're taking this trip, the quick answer is that my son's main doctors are in Houston, TX at MD Anderson Cancer Center, so this will be our fifth...or sixth...or??? trip there. We are continuing onto Florida for his Make a Wish trip to Disney World.

A quick summary of part of that story is here: http://www.christandcancer.org/about

My son's medical journey is detailed here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/matthewrager

My medical journey is detailed here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ericrager

---

Our day really started before today. It takes days of preparation for these trips to prepare the house, get our dog Rocky taken care of , wash and pack the right clothes, and clean out perishables. Last night was the bulk of our packing and this morning we loaded the car and attended to various last minute needs. But the trip actually started a little before 11AM today.

We all got in the car and got it started to cool it off. As soon as Cade got in the car, he noticed something amiss. The kids have video players that we hang in each seat for our long trips. But Cade noticed that I'd moved the one he's used to over in front of Matthew's seat. This is the one that controls what both systems view when they're linked together. Cade likes the control. But unfortunately his poor motor control has caused him to kick the cord enough that it is causing functional problems. So for this trip I'd swapped them -- and he noticed immediately -- and he didn't react well.

So I captured a pic of him bawling before we even started out the driveway.




After he reasonably settled down, we said a prayer for our trip and got on our way.

Our first stop was only about an hour from our house, to the outlet mall. Cade and I need new sneakers for the walking at Disney World, so we stopped in the Skechers Outlet.

Here's Cade after he got his new pair of shoes:


And here's Miracle Matthew running around the outlet mall. God has been so gracious to our family and has abundantly blessed Matthew. His health is in such a miraculous state today.




By the time we got back to the minivan, it was lunchtime. So we made sandwiches and hit the road. My work started getting quite busy, so we pulled off at the Starbucks in Blythe for a rest stop and some coffee. Cade had a Chocolate Milk, and Matt guzzled a Vanilla Milk.




From here, Denise took over driving and I worked for the three hours from there to dinner in Chandler, AZ - a suburb of Phoenix. We ate at Chino Bandido, a creative place we'd been to several times. They mix Mexican, Chinese, and Caribbean food styles. You have to get the explanation from the owners about how it sort of works.

What you see below is, clockwise starting at the 12 O'Clock position:
-Chicken covered in a bright and flavorful green-herb medley. This is sort of a chinese dish.
-Refried beans
-White rice topped with half of a chile relleno (split with wifey)
-Half of a Chinese BBQ Chicken Quesadilla





Here on my wife's plate, also starting at the 12 O'Clock position:
-Machaca beef -- this is a fabulous version of machaca, moist and flavorful with garlic. Not the sometimes-bland and watery stuff you'll see served.
-Refried beans
-Jamaican Jerk Chicken Fried Rice, topped by her half of the chile relleno. The relleno was a really nice version with a crunch exterior, almost like fried chicken. The pepper texture had some toothsome crunch and the filling was good cheese.





Here is Matthew making a face while waiting for our food.




Cade and I are enjoying ourselves too:



After dinner we had snickerdoodles and got on our way for the remaining 90 miles to Tucson.

We pulled into the Hampton Inn in Tucson around 8PM and got in our room for our nightly Bible-time. Here is Cade in his jammies with his Bible. He got this one as a gift from Grandpa and Nana Rager and loves toting it around and trying to read along.



The kids are asleep now. And after catching up some with work and getting all our batteries charging, I'm headed to bed as well. Tomorrow we'll make it to Texas, God willing.