Had planned a road trip months ago to visit 3 national parks for the kiddos spring break in April – Joshua Tree, Zion & Grand Canyon. It would drive over 4 states – Cali, Arizona, Nevada and Utah. Also, since we have a 4th grader we get to have 10 free passes to any national park. We had Rithvi do an online activity and printed out our free passes 🥳 a new thing for our family was to do this road trip with our electric car!

Day 1 – headed out as planned at 6:30 am and charged the car to 80%. Kiddos were pretty much in PJs and we hit the road. Our first stop was Bravos Farms in Kettleman City, CA, to get breakfast & charge the car. Uneventful drive and got there by ~10:00 am. Bravo Farms didn’t really have a breakfast place, got some coffee and a breakfast burrito. Was ok. Had fully charged the car and continued driving. Next stop for lunch was in Mohave, CA. Not much here either, other than supercharge the car and got some fast food type lunch. It was ok, burgers for kiddos & me. Sanjeev’s chicken turned out to be bad. From there it was another ~ 2.5 hr drive to Twentynine palms, CA, our stay for the next 2 days. Reached ~ 4:30 pm. Kiddos watched “avatar 2” over the drive, lol, that is a longgggg movie! Checked in, was a tiring drive. Sanjeev stepped out to super charge the car again, kiddos and me freshened up. Thought we will try to catch the sunset at some recommended spots. Didn’t quite pan out. By the time we drove to Indian cove, the sun had already set. The colors were quite beautiful though – orange purple sky! We then drove to a place for dinner and were surprised to hear it had a 1 hr wait. So we picked another Mexican place, decent food and family friendly place – enchados. We then tried to pick a spot for star gazing, didn’t quite pan out either, lot of light pollution in many places. Tanush rightly pointed out that we had better spots close to our house 😄. Finally hit the bed and had a good nights rest!

Day 2 – got up & ready by ~ 9:00 am. Based on our research, once we entered Joshua tree park, there was not going to be any place to get lunch in the park. So we decided to first get breakfast at Jelly’s donut. I highly recommend this place, super delicious cream filled donuts and decent coffee (New Orleans Cafe Du Monde!). To our surprise, this also had Vietnamese food for lunch, perfect, packed some dumplings, chicken & rice to take into the park. Went into the visitor center, where the front desk let us know that it would be crowded today and to park where available and look around the spot there, they really couldn’t make recommendations. That was a good heads up. As soon as we entered, we got lucky and found the parking spot at the first place we wanted to go i.e. split rock. we did a pretty decent hike at this spot, a couple hours. I lost Tanush for a bit 😅 classic “I didn’t see mommy so I went to find daddy”. Kids were getting cranky toward the end of it aka constant “I think we are lost!” 🙄 finally completed the loop, got a nice spot for a picnic lunch! It was perfect. During this trip, Rithvi kept making us giggle with her peppa pig – Dr. hamster accent, specifically the line “you have a very healthy fish, she’s lovely”. She does it really well 🤣 so we tripped up even more when a Brit family arrived at the spot looking amazed and R says “I can’t wait to hear them say it’s lovely” 😂 these family trips really help you catch up to how your kids are growing up! After lunch we didn’t find parking at the next couple points we wanted to, but that was ok. The hike had really helped. We did stop and take a few pics at skull rock, it was pretty cool. We did the all wheel drive self guided tour on the dirt road talking about the landscape. That was cool. Then we drove to “keys view”. Such microclimates, this point was completely covered in fog! We then decided to drive back & go south to “cholla cactus garden”. It was around 4/5 pm. It was beautiful, figured we’d stay here to watch sunset, even though it was a bit cloudy. Of course, R had to use the restroom which was a good 20 min drive away. Anyway, we had plenty of time for sunset. Sunset was ok, got to see the colors diffused behind the clouds. Started to head back and exit the park. This time we had a reservation the dinner place we couldn’t go to the previous day. I highly recommend this place “kitchen in the desert”, really nice food & music. We had a short wait, we were seated inside near the bar. They were definitely popular & packed! Food took a little long to come, but was yum! Can’t remember what I got, just that drinks and food were both good! Didn’t plan on any star gazing and hit the bed relatively early.

Day 3 – this was our drive to Zion national park, ~ 6.5 hrs drive. We loved jelly’s donut, so decided to pack donuts and coffee and hit the road. Drive was nice. What surprised was the dense patches of Joshua trees outside the park 😄 why do they have a park when there’s Joshua trees all over the place! 🤷‍♀️ pushed on the remaining charge and got to Las Vegas for lunch! It was a mall and we got lunch at a food court. Pretty decent Malaysian and Mexican food. Charged the car and then drove to Zion. Kiddos watched “damsel” on the way. It was interesting that (spoiler ahead) before the prince throws the damsel down the cave, Rithvi commented exactly that i.e. “I think he’s going to throw her down”. So when it happened Tanush was shocked and remarked “how did you know?!” 😂 I thought “I think my daughter is going to be ok” 😂

One thing we missed is that there were no superchargers in Springdale, UT, our stay for the next 2 days. So when we got there, we were low on charge and no superchargers nearby. We would have to drive back 30 mins to supercharge and we didn’t have enough charge to do that either 😥 we checked in at to our hotel, and Sanjeev drove around looking for regular EV charger, which was turning out to be harder than we thought. Kiddos & I rested &freshened up for dinner. We went to Cafe Meme’s, I highly recommend this place too. Regular American food but yummy! We luckily got a table quickly, and were figuring out our car charging strategy 😄. Couldn’t come up with anything ingenious and Sanjeev found a spot attached to a hotel and was sleeping in the car until 1:00 am. 🤦🏾‍♀️ lesson learned – don’t assume super chargers are ubiquitous and plan ahead! Needless to say neither Sanjeev or I slept very well, kiddos did fine.

Day 4 – lot of lessons learned on this day 😄 was good and not so good day! Kicked off the day with complimentary breakfast from our inn, nice place – attached to bumbleberry inn. Had a decent breakfast. We were informed that you can’t really drive your car inside, it will be with a shuttle bus. It was also one of the most crowded days. We took a short bus ride, 5 mins from our inn to visitor center. From there it took 2 hours to board the shuttle bus for the scenic drive!! Insane. This is probably where I must have picked up a bug, got a cold/cough and head ache that I managed for the rest of the trip 🤦🏾‍♀️ we entered the park ~ 12:30 pm 😢 it was standing room only on the shuttle bus, so not like we could enjoy the scenery on the bus drive. Took the bus to the last stop in the park. Did a short hike along the river. Zion is majestic! Massive mountains with a beautiful river flowing. Didn’t do “the narrows” where you can walk through the river. Sanjeev & Tanush want to come back for that! We then took the shuttle back to the only place that has lunch inside the park. Food was nothing remarkable, was quick enough and not too painful of a line. The eating spot had a large meadow with a view of the mountains, def a nice spot to enjoy lunch. We then did a relatively easy hike to another point. Unfortunately there were a few closures so we had to do a moderate level hike, that I usually avoid. This turned out pretty strenuous for me. Stunning views though! Lesson learned – pace yourself and skip if you can’t. The tiredness I got after this didn’t fully go away for the remainder of the trip. Another lesson learned – your kids have way more energy than you! 😅 I was still in the “surely R can’t do this!”;when she remarked “this is so easy, why are you so slow mommy!” After this hike, rested for a bit and took the shuttle to exit the park. I pretty much had a limp by this point. Sanjeev and the kiddos decided to walk back to the inn and I took the shuttle to nearest stop for our inn. Helped to rest for a bit. Kiddos discovered “sock fight” and entertained themselves. We then planned to charge our car at the park and do an easy hike to watch the sunset. This was nice, paved and easy hike. Lovely view of the sunset. After this, not a good decision – I said we walk to dinner place aka “spotted dog”. Further strain on my leg with that walk, wish i had picked something closer. Food and drinks were so-so at this place. Rithvi claims that family next to our table was Olivia Rodrigo and her family 🤦🏾‍♀️😂 . Thankfully Sanjeev offered to walk back and pick up the car and we drove back to the inn. We were all super tired and got good sleep.

Day 5 – by this day, I had body ache, cold, sore throat and headache. Everyone else was still ok. It was our drive to Grand Canyon. got a good complimentary breakfast again at our Inn and headed out. It was going to be 5.5 hrs drive. I didn’t drive, put a blanket and slept through the drive. We stopped at Page, AZ to pick up lunch – fried chicken. Nobody was hungry other than me. Kiddos ate a little over the drive. Reached Grand Canyon ~ 4 pm. Got to see a nice view, stood in line to get a tower view but abandoned it when the wait increased. Drove over to our lodge in the park. There was no supercharger here, but Tesla designated chargers near our room. So that was good and got the spot easily throughout our trip. 😅 checked in and rested. Drove over to Mather point for sunset view. Was beautiful. Easy parking and walk. Sanjeev and kiddos had the fried chicken I had packed for lunch for dinner instead. Portion sizes are so huge that they are usually good for 2 meals. We went to the tavern close to the lodge and I got an elk chili. Was ok, a bit sweetish. Rested for the night, no car charge anxiety this time.

Day 6 – Sanjeev and Tanush enthusiastically got up before sunrise to catch it at Mather point. I enjoyed looking at the pic later 😂 Tanush got back and slept for a couple more hours, Sanjeev did his morning run. We got a meh breakfast at the cafe nearby. Got parking easily at the visitor center. Did a flat paved 2 mile hike from Mather point along the west rim to el Tovar hotel. Was long & tiring for me, walked slowly. I enjoyed the self guided tour and the yavapai geology museum! The tour has been done very well and the info points with geological timeline is done really well. Develop a deep appreciation for our planet! We got lucky for lunch and got a table at El Tovar hotel. 5 mins later folks were getting turned away. Food was pretty good here! I had a Navajo taco, basically the base is fry bread! Yum 😅 after lunch we walked around Hopi House, reminds you of the houses in rural India ❤️ took the shuttle back to our car. Since the lodge stop was earlier, me and the kiddos got off earlier and Sanjeev continued to the visitor center to pick up the car. I walked to the grocery nearby to pick up some items while kiddos continued to our room. I was happy to find Vicks! After Sanjeev got back we decided to drive to few more scenic points. I was not happy when I learned we have to park our car and take a shuttle. Oh well! Tanush complained of headache & queasiness around this time but we continued. He unfortunately fell very sick at the first scenic point and pretty much had a really rough time for the remainder of that evening. We took the shuttle back, he got to have a good 2 hr sleep. Unfortunately we had pizza for dinner, that made his stomach worse and he threw up multiple times that night. It was horrible. Sanjeev headed out at 11 pm to find medicine but everything was closed around us. The front desk was helpful and gave us some medicines and the vending machines also had Gatorade. We got lucky. Multiple lessons learned – careful what you eat, especially when sick and check with your hotel first. The three of us barely slept that night, R thankfully slept through most of it. Needless to say we were pretty nervous about our drive the next day.

Day 7 – Tanush woke up pretty tired and not himself. It was checkout day and our drive to Las Vegas. We had bagels and cream cheese that i had picked from the grocery. Headed out ~ 9:30 am. Tanush skipped eating anything heavy for the majority of the day. He sat in the front seat of the car and managed his nausea with rolling the windows down. Poor kiddo. Have no idea what caused his stomach bug. Thankfully he didn’t have any more throw up episodes on our drive. Stopped for lunch at a super charger and had subway sandwiches. Tanush stuck to 1 banana. Around ~ 3 pm we were close to Hoover dam. Made an impromptu stop here. Walked the bridge and I was surprised Tanush agreed to do the tour. Rithvi was having none of it, so I (gladly) sat back in the car with her. Looks like the tiredness caught up with her too. Sanjeev and Tanush did the tour where they get to see the internals and they got coffee on the way back. It was ok. Reached Las Vegas ~5:30 pm and kiddos were happy to just chill with Netflix 😄 we had 8:15 dinner reservations at Chica in Venetian. we headed out of the hotel ~7:15 with Uber and got dropped at Bellagio. R was a bit cranky and was not sure why we didn’t get dropped at our dinner place. She wasn’t impressed with any of the lights and also remarked that she wasn’t happy when some random lady put her hand on daddy’s shoulder and asked if he wanted a pic with her 😂😂😂 Tanush was feeling a lot better by now and he too was meh with all the lights and glitz. He remarked “it’s all very bright”. R perked up a bit once we were inside the Venetian. She loved a bath by place that had them in the shape of ice creams and donuts 😂 we got to our dinner place just in time. I absolutely loved the food here! Soooo good! There was also a dance around the dining area where the dancers interact with the guests. One of the dancers asked if R would like to join but she declined 😝 Tanush did pretty ok, he was careful about his portions but tried a few safe items like hummus and guacamole. Took another Uber back to our hotel, so glad we took Uber. It is so confusing driving around the strip. Got a good night rest, no incidents this time! 😅

Day 8 – we had a complimentary breakfast but hardly an appetite for it. That said, we had a hearty breakfast, R did pretty good. Tanush was still cautious and staying on the low portion size and had a toast. It was drive back home day!! Largely uneventful. Stopped at the super charger place that had a grocery store. Picked up chicken wings and concha’s for lunch. Ate during the drive. Thankfully I was feeling a little better to help with the driving and did one leg of it. Stopped once more for charging at the Tesla Lounge in kettleman city. Finished our drive with picking up South Indian food – idlis and dosas for dinner close to home!! Reached home sweet home at 9 pm! Phew! We made it.

So many lessons learned but such a precious family time. Grateful for what we have! Kudos to both the kiddos, they were troopers and of course hubby for doing the bulk of the driving 😅

Peace, love and liberation for all. Palestine and Sudan were not far from my mind 💔 and a reminder of how fleeting everything can be 💔😢 I try to be mindful of my privilege when there are live stream genocides happening and little children being starved.