Chapter X - Our Trip out West
In August of 2000, Eddie and I took the boys on an eleven day trip out West. This is a trip I will cherish for the rest of my life because it was the only family vacation we ever took. The boys were ages thirteen, seven, and five. Anthony didn’t want to go because he hated traveling for one and the other reason was he was starting to like Carrie for more than a friend but he wouldn’t admit it because she was seeing Shocoby. Before we left, we gave each boy a couple of disposable cameras to take pictures so they could make memories of their own. Anthony also bought a prepaid phone card so he could call his friends while on the trip.
Anthony wanted the phone card with more minutes on it but it charged more per call. Eddie tried to get him to buy a different card because it would last longer. It had less minutes but charged less per call so overall the card would last longer. Anthony didn’t listen to Eddie’s advice so every time he would call someone he was losing minutes. No matter who he called, they weren’t home so he was using up his minutes without ever speaking to anyone. Every time Anthony would make a call, Eddie and I would just look at each other and shake our heads. We knew he was going to run out of minutes before he ever got anyone to answer the phone.
A couple of hours after being on the road we came across an A&W restaurant where Eddie wanted to eat because he loved that place. Neither the boys nor I had ever eaten there before and since Eddie loved it, we were game. When we placed our order Anthony got a frosty mug root beer and stood at the spigot to fill his glass up. While standing there he emptied his glass and filled it up again and again. Eddie and I were amazed at how much he loved this root beer. Neither of us said anything to him because root beer is caffeine free so we knew it wouldn’t make him hyper. He ended up drinking thirteen glasses of A&W root beer that day.
About an hour after leaving A&W we noticed Anthony was very wound up and neither Eddie nor I could understand why. As I mentioned before the root beer was caffeine free so there was no reason for him to be that wound up. Not long afterwards Mother called and I was telling her how many glasses of root beer Anthony had. She said, “Oh my goodness, he is going to be so wound up.” I said, “He shouldn’t be because root beer is caffeine free”. She said, “Not A&W root beer”. Well Anthony wasn’t the only one that drank a lot of root beer. Brett had his share as well. I knew then and there we were in for a long ride.
During this wound up time he was acting very silly. I don’t remember where we were but we were able to pick up Spanish speaking radio stations. Anthony thought this was the coolest thing so we left it on a Spanish station for a little while. Anthony had no idea how to speak Spanish but he loved the music. He really wanted to sing along and being as wound up as he was he was acting silly. When the singer would come to the end of the sentence and hold the word out, Anthony would repeat that word only and hold it as well, only longer. For example if the last word of the sentence was mas he would sing maaaaaaaaaas. It was hilarious. This was the only way he could sing the songs on the radio and it kept us entertained as well. I never heard Anthony actually sing but according to Uncle Don he was a very good singer.
One of the places we stopped along the way was a little convenience store. There was a group of men standing around a ditch looking at something so Anthony wandered over to see what it was. There lying in the ditch was a doe and she was just looking at everyone looking at her. He was so excited to see that doe because he’d never seen a live one up close. He ended up using a lot of his pictures in that one place. We explained to him he better save some of the pictures for Yellowstone and Las Vegas.
Remember I told you Anthony bought a phone card so he could call his friends? Well every time we would stop somewhere (bathroom, store, etc.) he would try to call Carrie and all he would get would be her answering machine. He knew not to leave a message because Sissy still wouldn’t allow Carrie to talk to him. He was getting more and more frustrated because he really wanted to share his excitement with her and he couldn’t get in touch with her. I felt so sorry for him. Eddie and I both reminded him he was paying for each phone call whether she answered or not. He just blew us off but Eddie and I knew he was running out of minutes.
After three days of driving we finally made it to Yellowstone. The boys loved it!!! The only thing they didn’t like was the smell. The first time we got out of the car Anthony said, “Mom did you fart?” Eddie and I just started laughing and explained to him it was the sulfur. Then all three boys started saying, “Man it stinks here” and covering their noses.
Now you know if you go to Yellowstone you must see Old Faithful. Old Faithful erupts every sixty-five minutes so we had to wait awhile before seeing this. While we were waiting, you guessed it, Anthony called Carrie yet again. Eddie and I knew he had very few minutes left by this time but you couldn’t tell him anything. Believe it or not, Carrie actually answered the phone this time. They spoke for less than five minutes and he ran out of minutes. Talk about mad, Anthony was so angry. Eddie and I just laughed because we tried to tell him. Maybe next time he’ll listen to someone.
After seeing Old Faithful we drove around the park some more just looking at nature. We came up to this line of cars at a dead stop in the middle of the road. The reason for this was because there was a herd of buffalo so the people were stopping to look at them. There was a mother buffalo and her baby walking towards our car but it was on Kevin’s side of the car. Anthony was sitting on the other side of the car but he wanted a picture so he leaned across Brett and leaned on Kevin to get his picture. All Eddie and I could hear was Kevin saying, “Get off me, I can’t breathe, you are smothering me, get off me!!!!!” Then you heard Anthony say, “One picture, I just want one picture!!” Then Kevin saying, “But I can’t breathe, get off me.” Eddie and I were laughing so hard. Anthony got his picture and got back on his side of the car but within five minutes the mother and her baby crossed the street ahead of us and walked right up to Anthony’s side of the car that was really funny.
During our trip we stopped at Bryce Canyon, The Bad Lands, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Red Rock Canyon, and Zion National Park just to name a few. At all of these places but Zion we would drag the boys out of the car and just look at the formations or we’d drive through and look at the formations so they were sick and tired of looking at the same thing over and over.
Zion, however, was different. We got to actually climb up the side of the mountain so the boys were all for this. It was scary to me because I wasn’t skinny by any means and Eddie was afraid of heights. The walk way was only 3-4’ wide and there was a huge drop off on the other side. Kevin and Brett were continuously jumping off of the rocks and scaring the daylights out of me.
There was a bridge made out of 2 2x4’s wide and 2 2x4’s long that we had to cross. This bridge had nothing underneath it so if you fell or the boards broke you were a goner. The boys and I crossed with no problem but Eddie had a hard time because of his fear of heights. He made it across and I was so thankful.
There was also a point where you had to literally hug the side of a huge rock to get around. You had to lean backwards because the rock was protruding over the path you had to take. If you lost your balance or let go of the rock you fell a long ways down. I wasn’t wild about this at all but I did it. The boys thought it was the coolest thing in the world, they would.
On the way back to the car, Anthony was playing around and Eddie and I kept explaining to him how dangerous it was up there. If you fell there was nothing to save you and the fall was a very long way down. As usual he didn’t listen and sure enough his foot slipped and he slid under the rope that was there. I just stood there frozen because I could just see him falling and knew I was going to watch my son fall to his death. Miraculously he managed to catch himself and pulled himself back up on the trail. Neither Eddie nor I scolded him because the fear in his eyes told us that he’d learned his lesson and sure enough he settled down after that.
We stayed in Yellowstone for three days and then headed for Las Vegas. We’d driven all night long and about midnight we looked up and all you could see for miles across the desert were the neon lights of Vegas. Anthony woke up just as we reached this point and before we could say another word he was yelling, “Boys wake up!!! Boys wake up!!! You have got to see these lights!!!”
When we arrived in Vegas we checked into the Venetian and they upgraded us to a bigger and better room like they always do. This room was 1,400 sq. ft. and our house was only 1,200 sq. ft. so this room was bigger than our house. Anthony was so excited he took pictures of every room in the hotel without his flash on and us telling him they wouldn’t turn out. Needless to say, he used up the rest of his pictures here. He refused to listen to us and sure enough when they were developed they were too dark to see.
After we got unpacked Eddie and I took the boys walking around Vegas because we wanted them to see the sights. The first thing we did was stop at McDonalds to get a bite to eat. While we were in the restaurant Anthony walked up to the drink machine to get a refill, he came back, sat down and said, “Did you see that?” I said, “See what?” He said, “While I was standing at the drink machine that guy over there came up to me and started hitting on me. He was telling me how handsome I was and I was like man, you better go on.” I just started rolling because I thought that was the funniest thing ever, however, it wasn’t funny at all to Anthony.
After we finished eating we walked the streets, along the way we ran into a show girl and Anthony just had to have his picture made with her. He was just in awe at all the ladies walking around with saloon clothes on. He was so proud of that picture and couldn’t wait to show his friends. Sad to say the picture didn’t come back and he was very disappointed.
As we continued walking down the street Anthony noticed playing cards were on the sidewalk and the shrubs. As he picked one of them up he noticed there was a naked lady on the card. The cards we were seeing were the prostitute’s way of advertising. The next thing I knew Anthony was gathering up every card he could find. He had close to 100 cards by the time we got back to the hotel, he was in Heaven. Once we got back home he called his friends and told them about the cards but they didn’t believe him until they saw the cards for themselves.
While we were walking around Anthony decided he was about to pop to use the restroom and the only place we could find was a club. Anthony headed for the door and Eddie and I told him he had to be twenty-one in order to get in there. He was determined he looked twenty-one and they would let him in. So Eddie, knowing he wouldn’t get past the bouncer standing in the doorway, took him to the club and as soon as they walked through the door, the bouncer grabbed Anthony by the shirt and told him he wasn’t old enough to go in there. Anthony told him he was about to pee in his pants and to please let him use the restroom but the bouncer told him no. Anthony was so mad and Eddie and I thought it was funny because we tried to tell him.
About six that morning we went back to the hotel room and went to bed. It was a suite so Anthony and the boys shared a room while Eddie and I shared the other. We had all just lain down and Eddie and I were talking when we heard Anthony snoring very loudly. We both looked at each other in disbelief because we literally had just lain down. I said, “Anthony wake up you are snoring” and Anthony said, “I’m not snoring because I am staring at the ceiling.” A few minutes later he started snoring again and I again said, “Anthony stop snoring” and again Anthony said, “I am not snoring, I am looking at the ceiling and my eyes are wide open.” After that I fell asleep so I have no idea if he snored any more or not.
The next day we started our journey home but on the way home one of the places we stopped was Capitol Reef National Park. When we started to get out of the car I noticed all three boys were still sitting in the back seat. Anthony said, “Is it more rocks and dirt?” I just looked at him and started laughing and said, “Yes it is more rocks and dirt.” He said, “Then we are staying in the car because we are tired of seeing rocks and dirt.” From then on every time we would stop to look at something he would ask if it was more rocks and dirt and if the answer was yes they stayed in the car.
Our trip had finally come to an end and we had one day’s drive ahead of us. It was about two in the morning and Eddie and I were so tired. We were only about three hours from home so we were trying to decide whether or not to try and make it home or stop at a hotel for the night. Anthony overheard us talking and woke up. He made the decision for us and told us he’d keep us awake if we’d just go on home. Sure enough he did and we got home around 5:00 that morning. We were all so very tired and really needed a day to recuperate. This was the best trip of my life because my entire family spent it together and the memories we share are priceless.