Tourism by Detours - Capulin Volcano, NM

Now that I've managed to recover most of the vacation photos lost during the unfortunate home invasion and electronics theft, I'm able to pick back up with some of the "off the beaten path" stops along the cross country trip. There are a few things I'll need to dig up other people's photos for, since not everything was recovered, but there's enough to get started.

We're big fans of exploring. Simply going to someplace and back may be fine for some folks, but not this family. We like to scour maps and read the state guides picked up at welcome centers to find interesting stuff along the way. Sometimes, it takes just a roadside marker to pull us off course. When we headed out for the Summer 2009 Road Trip, we had a few specific destinations firmly set:

• The Gateway Arch in St. Louis
• Grandma's house in Alma, NE
• Grandpa's house, Garden of the Gods, and Pike's Peak in Colorado Springs, CO
• Capulin Volcano, NM

That last destination was a roadside marker which screamed interesting stuff during the last trip home from Colorado. We saw the marker for Capulin Volcano just before dusk on a very chilly evening in late December. There was no time to stop then, but it did go down on the mental checklist for our next trip.

This time, we planned for the Volcano and built an extra day or two into the drive home along a southern route (CO-NM-TX-LA-MS-AL-GA).

From Sangres.com:

Capulin Volcano is the cone of a volcano that was last active about 56,000 to 62,000 years ago. This volcano represents the last stage of a great period of volcanism that had begun about 7 million years earlier. Evidence of this activity can be seen in the scores of nearby volcanic hills and peaks. The largest of these is Sierra Grande, an extinct volcano rising some 2,200 feet above the surrounding plain, about 10 miles to the southeast. To the northwest of Capulin are a number of mesas that are capped with lava, the three largest of which are Barela, Raton and Johnson Mesas.

Lava erupted in four flows, each separated by long periods of inactivity. The last series of eruptions created Capulin Volcano, whose conical form rises more than 1,000 feet above its base to 8,182 feet above sea level. The mountain consists chiefly of loose cinders, ash and other rock debris. These materials were spewed out by successive eruptions and fell back on the vent, piling up to form the conical mound. The lava, though, flowed mostly from a boca (spanish for mouth) on the lower west side of the cinder cone.

Sounds pretty darn cool, especially if you have boys who like rocks and a girl who likes to carry a camera. Plus, in keeping with the current fun on a budget that is so important, $5 gets you a pass for the whole family. The pass is good for seven days, but even if you're only using it for one day, it's a heck of a deal for a family of five.

If you wonder whether a location on our official trip plan should really count as a detour, not only was this destination inspired by a roadside marker, we had to wait on two separate occasions along the two lane highway for cows to clear the road. Any travel that can be delayed by livestock automatically counts on my detour destination list. Now...

'Too windy, but really cool' is how the kids would describe it now, but the hike around the rim of the crater and into the center was actually filled with many exclamations of wonder.

• Swarming ladybugs
• Scrub trees that were completely engulfed in silk and blue caterpillars.
• Rounding the top of the crater rim to be smacked by the wind so hard you swayed on your feet.
• The bench with hole and scorch marks from lightning strikes at the top of the rim trail.
• Time Stains (Lichen) - discussion about this tied back into what we'd learned about which colors are edible on the trip up to Pike's Peak.
• The many lizards, too fast to be caught on camera, and
  
• Finding so much color & life, smack in the middle of an ancient volcano in the desert.

On the road

We're three - or is it four? - days into our cross country trek. The kids are doing great. The drive has been lovely, even when the weather hasn't been so great. Driving with the three of them by myself is not anywhere near as bad as I'd feared. The DVD player isn't going full-time, and there have been long stretches where there isn't a single video game in play. Audiobooks and a license plate spotting app on the iPhone (Spotters) have kept kids far more entertained than I'd imagined.

We're up to 32 states, including one of the two we never thought we'd see. When we were climbing out of the van at the Riverfront parking in Saint Louis the other morning, what should pull up in the opposite space but a suburban with Alaska plates. That was number 20, I think. We hit 25 states before crossing into Kansas, which meant it was time to stop at DQ for blizzards. Next milestone is 40 states, which we'll probably hit by the time we get into Denver.

I have no idea what's going on in the world, but I can discuss in detail the little details which make Artemis Fowl an amazingly fantastic and super cool evil kid genius, along with his progression to amazingly fantastic and super cool not-exactly-evil kid genius. We're listening our way through the first three books of the series, since they were bedtime reading a few years ago. Books four & five were more recent, so we'll be able to skip forward after this to the latest in the series, The Time Paradox.

There's a lot of photos stored on the cards of the two cameras the kids are using to document the trip. Shots from Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas - but I'm just not quite up to getting out all the cables and chargers tonight. These are a few of the shots from the iPhone. I'm on the Dell, so the photos are as-is...

Heading through Tennessee, somewhere north of Nashville. The kid who's a fan of big construction projects and anything to do with cars and motoring loved driving all the miles on roads cut through the rock.

Heading over to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. The kids had seen photos, and had heard about it when I read The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson jumps out of the Arch during a fiery battle with a monster from Greek mythology), but the size of the actual thing outdid the image they'd built in their heads. It's been about 30 years since the last time I'd been up in the arch, so it was fun to go as an adult.

Planning for a Summer roadtrip

We canceled our cross country trek over this past Christmas. Scheduling would have meant I'd have been driving alone with three kids and dog, with Dad flying in to join us for just a few days. Turned out that the cancellation was a good idea. The weather would have made the long snowy drive even longer, due to short driving days - not to mention the short fuse I'd have had from dealing with dangerous driving conditions during the latest round of "she took my gameboy - he's using my pillow - the dog won't stop breathing on me..."

It's rescheduled for this summer. I'll still be doing the driving, but only by myself one way, with long days, warm weather for leg stretching at break time, and hotels with open pools for kids to exercise before eight hours of driving.

Our time in CO is fixed (more on that later), but we'll be able to spend a little over a week each way, exploring on our way to and from Colorado. We'll be seeing two sets of grandparents, as well as spending some time with the two great-grandparents. We'll take a southern route through Arkansas, Texas & New Mexico one way; Nebraska, Missouri, Southern Illinois and Tennessee the other. (Don't know which is which yet.)

I'm taking requests from everyone (kids & grownups) for things they'd like to see and do along the way, and working a few of them into the driving routes. So far, I have general requests for horseback riding, rafting, lots of hiking, and ice cream. For specific locations, I have:

St. Louis Gateway Arch. All three kids are interested in this stop. Not just because we've driven by it before, or because I told them about going to the top as a kid. We read The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan last year (read to 4th graders at school this year), and the Arch is the setting for a big battle with Echidna, the mother of all monsters, and the Chimera. Percy Jackson, the hero, is blasted from the arch and falls into the river. The children are dying to look from the top to see exactly how far the drop into the Mississippi River would be.

Capulin Volcano National Monument, in New Mexico. We passed it pretty late in the day on our way back from Colorado a few years ago. The boys kept the idea of a hiking down into a volcano crater tucked away, and brought it up as soon as they heard we'd be back through NM again this time.

And, thanks to blogger Slamdunks' Off the Beaten Path series, I'll be adding a second geologically-themed stop to our southern route. Last time we passed through Arkansas, we stopped once for breakfast and gas, and once at a rest area. This time, we'll be stopping either in Murfreesboro, at Coleman Mining (quartz), or at Crater of Diamonds State Park, in Hot Springs. Even though it's the boys who are into geology, the little girl in our group will be more than happy to climb around looking for rocks which might turn out to be sparkly.

I'm really looking forward to the trip. Heck, I'm even looking forward to the planning. I get to pull out state guidebooks, loads of maps, and work with the kids to build our very own little atlas for the trip.

For right now though, I need to get back to building an area map for a retail district.

Over the river...

...and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we won't go.

Every two or three years, we drive cross country for visits with the midwest and mountain grandparents. Other family members fly in or drive from California. A good time is had by all, and the kids get a chance to play in snow.

This year's big trip has been canceled. A few months ago, when it was just gas prices which were up, I wouldn't have dreamed of canceling. So what changed?

Other family members, especially the older ones who rely on investment income, have seen their net worth plummet. Less money and peace of mind meant adjusting travel plans to get the best prices on airfare. Shorter trips, and either before or after Christmas, to avoid the premium days. One other family member called off her whole trip.

This means the only way we'd be able to see [no longer] everyone, would be for us to be in Nebraska and Colorado for the entire winter break, with a couple of one day trips back and forth between the two.

• Over 3,500 miles of winter driving - alone, with three children and the dog.
• At least six nights of hotel stays during drive, with more needed if weather takes a bad turn.
• Six or more days of eating on the road. Even planning for snacks from grocery stores, this cost will be high.
• Airfare to get the oldest child back to his father's for New Years, since we'd be gone for the entire winter break. (Eek! This would mean the trip back would be the two younger children & dog, without my helpful teen.)
• Three weeks away from work. Planned for up to two weeks, but three weeks off for this freelancer/independent contractor is not an option.

Switching to air travel could help shave four or five days, by eliminating the bulk of the drive, but the costs would be higher overall. The airfare is a little higher as hotel and gas/auto costs. We'd still need to drive between Colorado and Nebraska, which means a rental vehicle. There would still be a need for a few hotel nights; and the dog would be boarding back here in Atlanta.

There's just no easy way around it. The trip's off this year.

We're far from being the only family making this call.

According to Market Watch, a recent survey found roughly a quarter of people who traveled in the previous few years have canceled all travel for 2008. Almost half of Americans who had been planning larger trips have scaled back to destinations "within driving distance." 53% say it's because of the economic downturn.

Other findings from the research include:

• Key reasons for cancelling holiday travel plans include "general economic uncertainty" (53 percent), "job concerns" (26 percent) and "expected pay cut/no bonus" (13 percent). Other reasons for not traveling this year include "reducing carbon footprint" (7 percent) and "parents will no longer pay for me" (3 percent)
• While travel budgets have dipped significantly, more than half (52 percent) of consumers plan to spend about the same amount of money as last year on gifts, so holiday retail sales may not be as flat as predicted

Our gift budget had been cut this year, to allow more money to go towards the trip. Even with the cancellation, I think the lower shopping budget will stay. A portion of the travel funds will be used for an intown family vacation. We'll stay at home, but spend a few days out and about, doing things together. A day downtown, visiting World of Coca-Cola and the Georgia Aquarium. An evening performance of A Christmas Carol at The Shakespeare Tavern. Ice Skating at Centennial Olympic Park.

Then there's the low cost pleasures of being near home. Taking in one of the Christmas concerts at a local church, where there's a donation basket, instead of tickets. Spending an afternoon seeing if we can string more popcorn on the tree than we can eat. A contest between the boys and girls, to see who can make the longest paper chain, with the winners getting the big mugs for hot cocoa, and first pick off the cookie plate.

The money not spent on the trip will be split between the emergency fund we hope we won't need, and a summer trip to visit the grandparents, when we have two months of flexibility in scheduling, and an extremely low chance of being stranded in Kansas by a blizzard on the way.