road trip

Last week Greg was off work for his vacation. Originally, we had planned to go on a trip. Then we bought a car and decided the trip wasn't the smartest idea. We were all really happy to be at home and just do as we please for the whole week. 

Tuesday rolled around and this strange blue cloud of funk descended on our household. Greg and I decided something needed to be done about it, so we planned a day trip for Wednesday. 

And we didn't go galavanting to a place where you might expect us to go. Nope. We went to a ghost town. We decided this would be a good way to:

• get out of town
  
• spend time together
  
• let Greg practice photography
  
• teach the kids about times gone by
  
• do something different
  
• eat lunch somewhere different
  

Turns out, we were right.

There was one mishap of the day, however. We were on the road for about 40 minutes when Greg stopped to take a picture of a cactus along the side of the road. It was then that he realized the battery for his camera was at home, still plugged into the wall. Thankful for the impulse to stop along the way, we headed back home for the battery. So we added a little more time to the day. Big deal. 

We were not allowed inside most of the buildings in the ghost town for safety reasons, but we did get to go in some of them. We probably weren't even allowed in these! The kids practiced their photography skills as well.

As we looked at all of the old buildings and ruins, I was amazed that this particular town used to have a population of 10,000 people at its height in about 1905. By 1910 there were very few people living here and it quickly became a ghost town. From the looks of it now, you'd never know that many people lived there. Apparently lots of houses were wood houses and the owners disassembled them to take the wood to wherever it was they were moving to next. 

It seems like a strange place to take two young girls, but they really had a good time. They asked lots of questions, made some speculations, and took it all in. 

We even went shopping! Huh? In a town nearby I convinced Greg to stop at an antique store. The shop was gross! There was more junk than antiques and the people smoked inside the shop. Ew! Oh, and the shop lady sitting behind the counter watching t.v. yelled at us as we were walking in because we almost accidentally let out her two dogs who were clamoring to scare the crap out of the kids. This was not helpful in getting Greg to stop at more antique shops in the future. Apparently I chose the store hastily because as we were on our way out of that little town I saw the place I should have picked to go in. Even the outside was kinda cute and it was also a flower shop. How did I know there would be two antique shops? Darn!

So next time you're looking for a way to get out of town for the day, but still spend very little money. Try a ghost town.