Day 4 wasn't going to be nearly as long as the previous day. We had about 7 hours on tap for today, so we knew that at least it would be shorter than yesterday. We were all up early again thanks to the marvel of time changes, so we hit the road to Bakersfield at about 6:30. The funny thing about Flagstaff that a lot of people don't realize is that it's about 6000 ft in elevation. It's surrounded by mountains and let me tell you, even in May, it gets DAMN cold in the morning. Luckily we had some hoodies in the car because we needed them. It was 29 degrees out. It was the first time in about 2 months that we'd had to crank the heater on the car. I *heart* seat warmers. Whoever invented them was a genius.
As we chugged along, the girl slept for almost two and a half hours. Poor thing. All of the traveling was finally catching up to her. It was pretty cool when we finally crossed the Arizona/California state border. However, it was rather anti-climactic. Every state that we had entered into thus far had pretty snazzy "Welcome to *Enter State Here*" signs. California's was very sad. It was just a small green freeway sign that said, "Welcome to California". Really? This is the glitzy and glam state!! Where is the blinged out welcome sign?? Even Louisiana's state sign is more exciting. Then again, we did come in via San Bernardino County. Maybe that explains it. Once we crossed into California, it there was really nothing until Barstow.
We decided to stop and support McDonald's yet again for lunch. At this point in time, I'm convinced that we've pretty much kept them in business this week. We stopped at one that had a REALLY big Play Place. We order the grub and head back to the kiddie area. As we are finishing up our burgers and fries, a rather large family comes in. When I say large, it may be a bit of an understatement. There is a plethora of kids and only 3 adults watching over them...the adults are looking a bit frazzled, which is most likely the reason why they've chosen this place for lunch. Rather than order separate chicken nugget Happy Meals, they order 20 piece boxes. In this instance, I don't blame them. Probably much easier to keep track of and divvy up. There were two boys that kept picking on each other. The husband and I looked at each other just knowing that this couldn't end well. After all, bickering kids + boxes of chicken nuggets + ginormous play structure = pure entertainment for us. They did not disappoint.
One of the boys was on top of the slide with a box of nuggets. Mind you, when you play on these things, shoes are taken off, feet smell nasty and the floors aren't exactly the cleanest. The other little boy comes up to torment the one on the slide. They start tussling, we start giggling. The box of nuggets comes dangerously close to being in peril. The boy with the nuggets pulls one out and directs it toward his mouth. The other one smacks his hand and the nugget goes flying. The nugget lands on the floor. As a mom, I chastise my kids for eating off the floor. Of course my kids aren't perfect and a random M&M will somehow wind up in their mouths. But not a nugget. The husband leans over and whispers to me, "20 bucks says he eats it." I look at him and say, "Oh man...I hope he doesn't." We end up having a whisper war: "Do it, do it, do it!", whispers my husband. "No, no, NO!", I whisper yell back. Sure enough, like a doughnut to a police officer, the dirty nugget found itself in the boy's stomach. It was at that point that I motioned to the munchkins that it was time to hit the road.
We ended Day 4 in Bakersfield. Day 5 was very uneventful, as we were pretty anxious to just get there. We made it into Dixon around noon on Day 5, ever so grateful to be there and with many stories under our belt.
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