Travel Day 1: Home to Durango, CO

The anticipation of our month-long National Parks road trip is finally here! Thankfully, we were able to pick up our rental car yesterday to figure out the best way to pack it. We got on the road at 8:50am and arrived in Durango, Co at 7:15pm which made for about a 10-hour day because of the time zone change.

With 3 kids and a month long road trip I needed a way to help the girls know each day where we were heading and encourage good behavior. I ended up using waypoint cards in the car with the girls earning tickets for passing each way point and maintaining good behavior. I’ll post more on that later.

After getting on the road a little later than we had hoped, we decided we would eat lunch in the car after passing through Flagstaff. I had prepped food the night before. I planned a surprise stop in Kayenta, AZ for ice cream at McDonald’s. We had a nice stop there to stretch our legs and the girls played on the indoor playground. We loaded back up and headed to Four Corners. We had fun taking pictures and looking around the area before getting back in the car for the last 1 1/2 to 2 hour drive to Durango. We stayed at the Best Western there which worked out perfectly for sleeping and being close to food. After checking in, we drove about 5 minutes to downtown Durango to eat at Grassburger. The weather and food was great as well as the downtown area. Day 1 of driving done, and we are ready for day 2!