"What was your favorite part?"

This is the question we are asked the most when people hear about our summer cross country trip.

In short, my answer is “Goodland, Kansas.”

Yes, we saw the Grand Canyon and hiked in the Virgin River through Zion Canyon.   We saw painted deserts and climbed to hanging lake.  We visited long time friends and spent a few days with my sister and brother-in-law.  But yes, the night we spent in the sketchy motel in the middle of nowhere was my favorite part.

Rob and I had been planning this trip for years.   Having moved across the country twice while growing up, I wanted our girls to experience some of the things I did as we traveled from coast to coast. We discussed the logistics of our trip and whether or not we would schedule specific stops and make hotel reservations (the “Bob Chapman way”) or just drive until we were tired and needed to stop for the night (the “Max Helton way” - which always led to adventures).  Due to some logistics (and because I am a planner), we mapped out most of our days/ nights, but left one open in case we wanted to pull a “Max”.  This meant we may need to stop for the night somewhere between Denver, CO, and Kansas City, MO. 

As we ate dinner at Chili’s in Denver, we googled our route to see where would be a good place to stop for the night.  We discussed driving 3-4 more hourst, which would put us near the Colorado/ Kansas border.  Mentally, we wanted to get to the next state, so we decided to look for a place once we crossed into Kansas.  Goodland sounded like a decent place to stop, and we figured surely there would be a nice room available on a Wednesday night at one of the six hotels just off the Interstate. 

We couldn’t have been more wrong. 

First, we pulled in to the Motel 6 parking lot…and drove right out.  Sketchy place.  Next, we tried the Super 8.  One room left, and it had a king size bed. (Um, not for 5 people.  No thanks.) The Holiday Inn charged more than double the other places, and there was no room at the Comfort Inn. One hotel was a little off the beaten path, and not being impressed with Goodland so far, we weren’t sure we wanted to explore more of it at midnight.  We pulled into the last one – a local motel that seemed to attract anyone that was still awake at this hour.  The shady deals going on in that parking lot made the Motel 6 not look so sketchy now.  And seeing that it only had 4 rooms left, and 2 more parties walking inside, we figured this was our chance to snag a room for the night.  We only needed to sleep a few hours and get back on the road anyway.

To call this place sketch is a compliment.  Upon entering the room, we noticed the microwave set on a chair, with no obvious place for it to go. The two double beds barely had space between them, and both touched walls. The shower head was too short, even for me.  The girls crammed in one bed, and Rob and I took the one closest to the door; the sheets felt like sandpaper.  I laid next to the window, mere feet from our van in the parking lot.  With every random noise, Rob would make me peek out the window to make sure our van was still there and not being vandalized.

We all laid still and quiet, trying to summons sleep.  Suddenly, we all broke the silence and started laughing.  Belly-ache laughing.  We couldn’t help but laugh at the circumstance.  How Goodland, Kansas was anything but good.  How we were so tired but couldn’t sleep, and were in this sketchy motel, with the sole purpose of trying to get a few hours of sleep.  Finally, our laughs quieted down.  And the girls asked me to sing.  I sang lullabies. Rob sang “Golden Slumbers”.  The girls and I sang “Bright” and then we all sang “Oceans.” All of us.  And it sounded perfect to me. 

Yes, THIS is why Goodland is my favorite part.  This is what the trip was about.  Being together. Making the best out of a less than ideal circumstance. Making memories.  Because years from now, I will remember lying in a sketchy motel in the middle of nowhere, with my four favorite people on earth, and how we laughed and sang each other to sleep.  This is one of the stories that will be told and retold as we talk about our #griswolding adventures.  THIS is the good stuff.