One Thing Every Day - Week 2

This is the worst follow up week to a great 1st week with my One Thing Every Day goal. This will basically highlight our trip to Los Angeles. Enjoy!


Monday - Thursday
I started off this week with my 13 year anniversary, so Monday was devoted to my lovely wife. And yes, our anniversary is on April 1st. No foolin'! We celebrated with a date night where we shopped for new swimsuits for her. She lost over 55 pounds so it was time to get a reward.

The rest of the week was a compacted work week so I could get ready for a long working vacation in Los Angeles.

Friday April 5th
We left our house early in the morning and headed west. This day's drive was roughly 8 hours long, not including stops.

Texas has some really cool rest stops with fun playgrounds, and amazing restrooms that double as storm shelters, so while I stood there at the urinal I felt so safe. Then I remembered my kids were outside playing, so I ran out shouting for them to get to the shelter like Bill Paxton did in the movie Twister.

Can you believe this is a restroom at a rest stop?!!

Walking in, a peace set over me knowing I'd be relieving myself in safety.

Once my wife convinced me that there weren't any storms around, I soon discovered another threat.

No Pets!!!

Oh by the way there are snakes everywhere.

This wasn't nearly as scary to me though, because I'm sure the snakes would read the sign that says there isn't any food or drink inside the playground, lose interest, and leave. So we let the kids play in a vain attempt to drain their infinite supply of energy.

We ended the drive in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, and stayed at a nice Holiday Inn Express.

Notice the large bug I just smashed on my windshield on the left.

Saturday April 6th
We left the hotel before 7am with Arizona in our sights. Today's drive would be slightly over 8 hours, not including stops.

We spontaneously decided to add a detour to our trip to see the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The most petrified wood I saw was in the gift shop, and at pretty hefty prices. Also, you are not allowed to take any souvenir petrified wood pieces from the actual park. So I left behind a souvenir for them!

So if the sudden 1,000 foot drop doesn't keep you at a safe distance

this rotting fence and sign will surely do the trick.

No sweetie don't go that way, cuz you will fall to a tragic and horribly painful death.

We were making great time, but then we got stuck behind this slowpoke that hogged the road.

He was swerving all over the road... I think he was drunk.

We diverted through the Tonto National Forest and the view was fantastic.

We ended the drive in Pheonix, Arizona, and stayed at a musty Super 8 motel. I can't believe Leslie and I decided to stay there, but we will never make that mistake again.


Sunday April 7th
We got up bright and early and headed for California around 7am. This was the shortest leg of the journey clocking in at roughly 4.5 hours without stops.

Almost there!

Finally we made it to our destination in Riverside, California. We decided to stay here because I still had to teach classes, and this was the closest we could get to Los Angeles with a confirmed hard-wired internet connection. Unfortunately, the connection was horrible which left us stuck an hour away from everything. On the bright side, the room was quite large and in the end, we loved the community.

 Can you find Wreck-it-Ralph?

I still have two more weeks to catch up with this, but they will be pointing out how badly I kept to my goal during this working vacation. But, you'll get to see some cool pictures!