It’s been a while since I have written any updates.  Now’s the perfect time as any, right?  Not much has changed we still live in our camper, well when we are in town that is, ha!  But none the less we are still LOVING it! So, we have been extremely busy since the beginning of November.  If you have been following our social media, then you already know this.  The beginning of November we left to head out west, to New Mexico for the I4WDTA TFC. We were lucky enough to borrow a small camping trailer from our friends Eric and Meg which we appreciate all so much.  It came in super handy.  We were able to store everything in that little camper trailer.  The camping trailer allowed us to have two rooftop tents with us on this journey.  

We hit the road on November 4 for what turned into a 17-day trip to New Mexico and back.  On the way out we stayed the nights at rest areas all sleeping in one rooftop tent so that we were all together being in a strange place. It took us 3 days to get to New Mexico, that night we decided to get a hotel room before we continued to our destination in New Mexico. Boy did it feel nice to sleep in a regular bed and get a nice long hot shower! Oh, and to do laundry let’s not forget about that!!!!  We got up the next morning and completed our drive to the part of New Mexico where we would park our truck and set up the two rooftop tents for 8 nights.  It was my first time being in the desert and boy does it get cold fast once the sun goes down!  The sunset was absolutely amazing out there, especially if there were some clouds in the sky. We enjoyed our 8 nights in one place by the fire every night, hanging out with old/new friends and being able to see some of the desert. Saturday came around and we loaded up and went to White Sands National Park.  Of course, we bought sleds so that we could sled down the white sand.  That was a blast and hard all in itself.  The sand is definitely not snow; it was much harder to sled on but fun none the less. After that we took the boys to higher elevation.  For a spit second, I felt like I was back in NC. The trees were huge up there.  It was refreshing to see actual trees after only seeing the desert for a week.  The boys were amazed as well.  We stopped at a local BBQ place for supper, and it was AMAZING!!!!  We all loved it.  I would drive back just to eat there again…..ok maybe that is a stretch, but if I am ever in that area again, I want to go back there!!! 

We got up Monday morning and decided we were going to head a little more west before we headed back to NC. We started our journey to Silver City, New Mexico.  Mike had the brilliant idea that we should stay in a hotel.  Don’t get me wrong I love camping but man was he right.  I had reached my point where I needed an actual bed and a nice long hot shower!! (for the record we were able to shower while we were parked for a week, but still it wasn’t the same as a nice looooong shower) Tuesday morning we headed to Gila National Forest to see the Gila Cliff Dwellings.  They were amazing!!!  It was so cool to see how the people lived a long time ago.  From there we started our trek back to NC. 

We decided to take the long way and go through the middle of Texas.  This gave us the opportunity to drive through El Paso right beside the Mexico border.  That was a first for the whole family! None of us have ever been to Mexico.  Not that we went on this trip, but we were able to see it which was neat!  While passing through El Paso we decided we needed to eat Mexican food since we were so close to the border.  Mike found a place that had a high rating, so we decided to go.  We walked in to find out that the menu was all in Spanish and the lady only spoke Spanish. Thankfully, there was a very kind sweet lady eating in there that knew the owners well and spoke English.  The owner asked her to come translate for us. The sweet lady was able to translate our whole order and even recommended something for us to try.  I was a little nervous waiting for our food because I wasn’t sure what it was going to be exactly or taste like.  Well, our food came, and it was DELICIOUS!!! It was hands down the BEST Mexican food I have ever eaten to this day! (Side note: we just had Mexican food for the first time since that day two days ago!) After El Paso, we hit the road driving back to NC.  We just found campgrounds along the way to stay at.  Nothing fancy we were just all ready to get back to NC.

So, that concludes our 17-day trip out West and back. We had a great time together as a family and made some special memories.

~Sarah