Are we there yet?

Well Google maps certainly made our day interesting turning a 5.5 hour drive into 7.5 on top of the 2 hours spent at outlet malls, restaurants and gas stations. After 9 hours on the road and the last two completely turned around thanks to Cal-trans building a new interchange and my poor Mistress who could find where we were on a map but not how to go anywhere, I pulled over at a Starbucks leaned over my hood and plotted out my course using the techniques that made me such a tracking stud in the infantry. This skill was always to the consternation of other units and leaders who couldn't find their way on a golf course with a caddy and map.

We finally got settled in around 9:30pm and I have scouted out some possible runs in the morning but its already midnight and I have been averaging little sleep and rest the last two days. I am sure the first day at Disneyland will be a walk fest anyway so we will see how I feel about running at five or six o'clock in the morning.

I will say this for our first day of vacation. We all got along and Mo did freaking awesome as a travel companion. He had us laughing and talking the whole way. I think on every vacation there needs to be a word or phrase that makes everyone laugh, these are usually completely useless outside of the the fishing trip or hiking trip or outside the group dynamic. Well Mo has been watching the first live action Scooby Doo movie a lot and there is a scene where Scooby and Shaggy have a burp and fart contest. One of the retorts from Scooby is, "Your mother eats cat poop."

Well lets just say I can not stop my 4 year old from saying 'poop' a 100 times today but Mistress certainly does not want any mother in this family being maligned that way so it is now, "You eat cat poop." Feel free to try that with your spouse or child next time you're having a conversation and see where it goes.

As we headed into the Morongo Casino area, Mo looked at all the rocks and mountains and asked if there were dinosaurs that lived out there. Of course Mistress says no and about a minute later I look off the freeway and see a huge T-Rex. So I pull over and sure enough there is a dinosaur park with four story dinosaurs. The Brontosaurus has a decent dinosaur store in its belly and the owner was very cool. He asked if I was military due to my studly physique and high & tight haircut that is unchanged in two decades and we conversed about each others exploits for a few moments. He opened the T-Rex for us and waiving the fee allowed the three of us to climb all the way up into the mouth.

Mo was agog as he always wanted to be eaten by a T-Rex. Almost shaking he was so excited. I snapped lots of photos but here are the two best so far.

Mo finally in the mouth of a T-Rex.

Mo couldn't believe how tall these guys were.
They look so small on Land Before Time DVD's

As I ran Mo to the bathroom, Mistress went back to the store to buy the dinosaur shoes we got for him, (heres a link) and the owner totally comped us with all sorts of DVD's and dinosaur trinkets thanks to Mo's utter politeness and sincerity about loving dinosaurs and as a thank you to me for my time in service. I was very moved by his generosity.

Tomorrow, ahem...Today we storm the Disney Castles.