Day 30, November 7, 2008

We left Williams, Arizona and headed west towards the Hoover Dam and Las Vegas. Leighton was found to be a great peace maker, so we moved him to the middle row. He entertained Kent and Mallory through the long day. We took Hwy 40 to Kingman then got on Hwy 93 north. We saw a sign that if we went to Hoover Dam with a trailer it would have to be inspected. So we stopped at a visitor center to make sure we could go that way. It was a hundred year old building with a train set that was running throughout the ceiling. It was neat. We decided to go to Hoover Dam. It was so neat to see the dam and the new bridge project they were still building. They are building that to re-route traffic away from the dam and keep it safe. We all enjoyed the tour of Hoover Dam and all the history they had of it. The kids took a lot of pictures. We then went through Las Vegas. Wow! It has grown since the last time we went through there on a trip about 18 years ago. Saw many cranes and new buildings going up. We then headed to Lovelock. WE MADE IT HOME!! We drove 625 miles today. We arrived in Lovelock about 10:30 pm. We came into the house all tired and wore out, then something caught our eyes.....there were banners welcoming us home, fresh homemade peanut butter cookies on the table, a pot of flowers next to them, a cleaned and vacuumed house, and when we looked outside the front door, a "Welcome Home Knisleys" taped to the front window of the house. It was so special to come home to all the love that was shown here. Maria Ward and Grandma Gunn had come over earlier in the week to pick up the house, decorate our front porch with fall decorations and hang the signs on the windows. One sign was made by the Ward family and each of them signed it. It is so special to be loved with God's love and His people's thoughtfulness. We would like to say that we all enjoyed the trip tremendously and thank everyone for their continued prayers, calls and emails on this trip of a lifetime.

Miles: 625

Total Miles on the trip: 8,156

Day 29, November 6 2008

Woke up and left Moriarity, New Mexico heading east on Hwy 40. Saw many different desert stones, from red to grey. Really pretty. Alot of desert as far as you can see. Saw some oil refineries, lots of long trains, and old indian rock houses with flat roofs. It seemed almost every other exit for a while had indian jewerly and rug selling places. We arrived at Williams, Arizona went north on Hwy 64 to see the Grand Canyon, the south rim. Spectacular views!! The kids were amazed at the size of it. We had binoculars and saw people walking down in the canyons and even saw some buildings in the bottom that you couldn't see with your eyes alone. The park look outs and information stations were very nice. There were surprisingly more people there than we thought would have been. We stayed in Williams. We saw the Polar Express last night with families in their pajamas aboard. It looked like they were going to have a fun time.. Trying to get home tonight.

Miles: 481

Day 28, November 5, 2008

We woke up in Enid, OK and the motel didn't have a continential breakfast, they had one but you had to pay$8/person, so we went to an IHOP. There waiting for our food Leighton saw something very rare...A John Deere gater at the McDonald's drive thru!! What chuckles that brought to our table. We then headed west from Enid on Hwy 60 all the way through Texas to Amarillo. The western side of OK was rolling hills with some kind of scrub brush. There was a large area of OK that had 11" of rain which flooded towns and farms. Due to the flood thousands of gophers moved up into peoples yards, businesses and driveways. We saw cattle and goats, some oil wells. Getting in to Pampa, Texas we saw several oil wells, refineries and oil train cars. We saw some cotton and milo farming. We then headed west on Hwy 40 into New Mexico. Leighton drove quite awhile. We went from grassland to open sagebrush country the rest of the day. We stopped at Moriarty, New Mexico. Just outside of Albuquerque. Long day of driving. Thankful the Lord has really been with us. We looked at the news and saw many snow storms are just behind us. We have had great travel weather.

Miles: 478