Day 19 - Great American Family Vacation - Back to Arizona!

If you've been following this travelogue for the last 19 days, thank you.  It's been an awesome odyssey, the best family vacation ever!

Our last day began in a rush to get out of Santa Fe.  We loved our long vacation, but we are all ready to get home.  Our one stop was the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest near Holbrook, Arizona.  (Please consider this the weekly "All About Arizona" because I am writing on a Saturday even if you won't see it until Sunday.)

Places all over the West are breathtaking, but Arizona will not be outdone in beauty.

At the Petrified Forest (where giant trees have turned into gorgeous quartz), we had our last hike of the trip.  Based on a deal the kids had with Kent, they have each now earned a Camelback water bottle.

After the Painted Desert, we headed downstate through the White Mountains and its gorgeous thick pines.  Weekend RV camping is sounding better and better to this family, who would never have considered staying outside of a hotel.  A typical summer monsoon thunderstorm chased us down the mountains, but it was still oh so beautiful, maybe more so because we are on the way home.

At about 6:00 p.m. we drove up to our home in the Sonoran Desert, smelly and exhausted, but happy to be home.  Tomorrow we will clean out the RV so it can be returned on Monday, Kent will go to work at church and I will get back to my job at the City of Phoenix on Monday morning.

Whew, what a trip!

cindy