Tampa-2-Mexico

We last left off after arriving to Tampa, FL after our road trip from Middle of Nowhere, TX.

We spent a few wonderful weeks in Tampa shuttling between Joy’s Mom’s House and visits with all our family and friends scattered around the area. John’s parents visited for a few days and really enjoyed meeting their new grandson and we had a great party at Joy’s Mom Linda’s House with dozens of family and friends in attendance.

The little dude also got to meet his great-grandmother and dozens of aunts and uncles (Some by blood relation and others great friends). While in Tampa, Jan attended his first orchestral performance,

and saw some beautiful sunsets.

He even got to take in his first baseball game

seeing the Devil Rays defeat the Indians in extra innings with his uncles Ben and Maciej.

It was amazing to catch up with our friends and family. John and Joy celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary. Can you believe it?! The seven weeks in Tampa provided a really great opportunity to catch up and reconnect. But at the end of those seven weeks the time once again arrived for us to pack up again and hit the road. Imagine that?!?!? Us on the road…

Our road trip began with a drive through the night starting after work Friday evening. Joy and John shared duties to drive the 10 hours non-stop until we arrived to Joy’s Dad Jan’s house in Alabama. It was well worth the grueling drive because bright and early Saturday morning we were able to see Joy’s younger sister Chloe graduate from high school! It was so-so nice to be there to support her. John had to head back to Tampa for another week so his visit was pretty short. Meanwhile Joy had the week to visit Jessica, her friend from high school, in Nashville, as well as her sister Kimberly and her husband Keith as well as their daughter and Joy’s and niece (but really more like a sister) Crystal and her husband Tyson in Birmingham.

At the end of the week Joy and Jan Braxton packed into Big Jan’s minivan with her stepmom Lisa and two younger sisters (Chloe and Adeline). While they drove South toward Pensacola, FL John drove north from Tampa. We all met in downtown Pensacola for a great lunch with Joy’s sister Yvonne and her son Garren. After lunch we said our good byes to Yvonne and Garren and the road trip commenced.

So there we were; two vehicles, two teenagers, four adults, and one infant staring ahead at over 3,000 miles of roadway between us and our final destination in Hermosillo, Mexico. Seemed like lots of opportunity for something to go wrong….especially since the first 10 minutes of the road trip started out with a few wrong turns and John speeding across 3 lanes of highway for a desperately needed potty break!

Our first stop was New Orleans, LA and we checked into our hotel. The hotel mixed up our rooms so we had to haul of our stuff to different rooms. It was only a one-night stay so we decided to ride the streetcar to Bourbon Street so we could experience authentic New Orleans. Joy already had a place in mind for dinner. As we all exited the streetcar it started to rain. When we final arrived to the restaurant it occurred to Joy that the restaurant only had patio seating. All she could do was laugh! However, the band made room for us under their tent and we had the best seats in the house. Up close and personal AND dry!! We enjoyed some po-boys malted adult beverages while enjoying authentic Dixieland style jazz played by the Steamboat Willie Jazz Band. The rain falling around us in the outdoor venue did nothing to dampen the mood and only enhanced the experience. After enjoying a bit of their show we wandered around Bourbon Street and surely traumatized all the young ones in our group in the process. Baby Jan got a set of beads tossed his way bit we’ll refrain from those details in this venue on how he scored those beads.

The next morning we headed West on a short drive into the heart of Louisiana. We spent the next night at an old Plantation named Oak Alley Plantation (http://www.oakalleyplantation.com/). It was a gorgeous place and we spent a super relaxing evening in one of their cottages. The plantation was awesome. It felt like we owned the place, after all the tourists left and we walked the grounds. It reminded us of Florida, sitting under all the oak trees.

The next day was a pretty long drive so we got started early. We drove West and then mistakenly back East circling back toward New Orleans. We got back on track with an even longer trip than with which we had started. But we ultimately made it to our next destination which was Austin, TX; one of our favorite Texas towns, Austin treated us well from the start as we headed out for dinner just in time to pass under the Congress Avenue Bridge during the nightly Bat migration (http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10852). We were able to relax a bit in Austin since we had two nights planned. While there we enjoyed a relaxing self-guided tour of the University of Texas Campus and enjoyed a delicious BBQ lunch at Stubbs BBQ (You’ve seen their BBQ Sauce in the Supermarkets) despite the pretty intense heat. We considered it good training for the heat to come since we were heading to the desert.

Departing Austin the next morning we turned south for a night in San Antonio. This was Adeline’s favorite stop; especially the Riverwalk in San Antonio, which is always a great treat. We all received our obligatory history lesson of our long trip at the Alamo and then enjoyed a nice dinner on the River, followed by a riverboat cruise of the downtown area. That night Joy’s Dad and Mimi (Lisa name for Jan Braxton) got to enjoy the Jim Cullum Jazz Band (A Riverwalk Icon and National Public Radio Saturday night staple).

After one short night in San Antonio we continued west; this time destined for the small West Texas town of Marfa. Marfa, TX is the epitome of a one horse town most famous for the role it played as the setting for James Dean’s last film Giant in which he co-starred with Liz Taylor, Rock Hudson, and a young Dennis Hopper. While in Marfa we made a side trip to Fort Davis, TX home to the MacDonald Observatory, the Chuck Wagon BBQ Restaurant, and The Caboose Ice Cream shop. We mention these three spots because that’s how we filled our time. We ate BBQ at the Chuck Wagon and then drove up the mountain to check out the observatory and capped the visit with some delicious Blue Bell ice cream served up at The Caboose. We took our desserts on the road back to Marfa and arrived just in time to witness the mysterious Marfa Lights. A phenomenon best explained by somebody else (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfa_lights). It was as mysterious as it sounds. We initially thought we saw them only to discover that a wildfire beyond the horizon had us fooled. (However, Joy is still convinced that they were also the lights) But the real Marfa lights die eventually appear and were witnessed by all….although some remain skeptical.

Another long day on the road got us out of bed early en route to Albuquerque, NM. We stopped along the way to enjoy the incredible White Sands National Park and capture a family photo. Our late arrival to Albuquerque led us to decide on Pizza in our hotel room for the night’s dinner. While it wasn’t the most exciting night it was one of our more relaxing. We enjoyed pizza, beer, and a Philadelphia Flyers Playoff Game Victory (We think it was the last of their failed, but nonetheless exciting, Stanley Cup Run.

The next day we drove north to Santa Fe, NM. Santa Fe is one of our favorite towns and it once again treated us with the utmost in hospitality. We should mention here this is when something, or better said someone, went wrong. While most of the crew was enjoying the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, Joy and John set out to purchase a Fedora for John that they had seen on a previous trip through Santa Fe. After making the purchase John decided to leave his wallet sitting on the counter. It was during the drive back to Albuquerque while about to board the Cable Car

when John realized his mistake. Amazingly the wallet was found and caught up to John about 3 weeks later in Mexico (Thanks to our pal Manny from the Monticristi Custom Hat Works (http://www.montecristihats.com/) for sending the wallet to us.

The lack of John’s wallet didn’t slow us down and the next day we headed West again; this time destined for Flagstaff. Along the waywe passed through the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forrest National Parks and got to enjoy some glorious landscapes. We had a delicious dinner in Flagstaff, where we celebrated Joy’s 32nd B-Day. Happy Birthday to Joy!!!

From Flagstaff we day-tripped North the next morning to view The Grand Canyon which no matter how many times you see it is always impressive. We even got to interact with some of the wildlife in the park.

From the canyon we directed ourselves south bound for Phoenix. We capped our last night on the road at the incredibly luxurious Arizona Biltmore. It’s a sprawling complex that has hosted every President (and even future Presidential Prospect Jan Braxton) since Woodrow Wilson. It was an incredible way to cap off our road trip and relax prior to our descent the next day toward the border.

We crossed the border on 8 July making Jan Braxton an official international traveler. Everyone got to appreciate how different life is in the States. While this is an older picture this is a great time to highlight one of those many differences…safety regulations, standards, and enforcement. Does that motorcycle have an age appropriate car seat.

We spent our time in Mexico relaxing since John had to work the very next day. The most exciting moment came on our first evening when we decided to take the family to one of favorite restaurants here in Hermosillo, Sonora Steak. We’ve found it’s one of the best locations to sample the famous cuts of meat found here in cattle country. The restaurant is collocated to one of the nicer sections in town. What wasn’t clear to all parties is that sometimes the well-2-do local citizens often hire their own security details. So, amid all the reporting of narco-related violence we stepped out of our car to the sight of three armed men. Two had machine guns and glared in our direction while determining we posed no threat. Those men had no idea that our party thought they were the threat! Mimi’s maternal instincts kicked into high gear and she ensured we all stayed clear and safe of the armed men. It was a pretty non-descript incident but we sure had some good laughs about the incident during our remaining time together. The next weekend we all went south to the Mexican resort town of San Carlos. We enjoyed some great World Cup games and relaxed by the pool while enjoying cold beer and locally made tacos. The sunset on our last evening together in Mexico was quite possibly the highlight of it all.

The next morning we packed up our things and made the long trip north to the U.S. border. We said our goodbyes after enjoying some Italian Subs on Tuna Bread (Inside joke con la amiga ratita de Juancito!) and parted ways. Joy, John, and Jan Braxton headed back south and Big Jan, Lisa, Chloe, and Adeline went north continuing their cross country summer vacation road trip. Upon finally arriving back to our home in Mexico Jan expressed his extreme relief by enjoying his new digs!

Thanks to Daddy G, Mimi, Chloe and Addy for making the trip! You made the trip really special and we miss you all tons! Until our next adventure- We love you!!