It was pitch black when we arrived last night, so getting to see the view from our house this morning was a real treat. We had coffee in our outdoor living room with the view of a volcano. Nick noticed that there is so little wind and we are so far from anything that it sounded silent.

It was interrupted a bit when Millie had her iPad on full volume FaceTiming with my mom, but that was nice in its own way. She held up the iPad so they could see our view from their own coffee in bed. Technology is amazing.

We had a lazy morning while trying to gauge how we were all doing with the altitude. This is the highest place I’ve ever slept (I think). We felt a tiny bit off but overall completely fine, certainly no altitude sickness.

We set off at about Noon. Nick planned a few stops for us at this altitude. We have been advised to save the higher ones for a day or two from now to ensure we’ve adjusted. We drove about 20 minutes to Tulor Archaelogical Site. If you’ve been following along, you know that this man loves any and all archaeological sites. This one was classic Nick: in the middle of nowhere and visited by no one else.

We started at the tiny museum that explained who lived here and when. It is the oldest existing evidence of people living in this valley, clocking in at 3000 years ago. They had mini recreations of the dwellings and way of life, which Millie was into.

We walked the desolate trail to the site itself.

At the end they had a full sized recreation of a hut, and the site itself. I was amazed that it’s still here after all these years, uncovered and made of mud. Anywhere else and the rain would have washed it away within a decade.

We walked back to the car and loaded in to head to our next stop, 20 minutes away. As soon as we started driving we got a “ding ding” warning about tire pressure.

A big section of our Airbnb host’s hourlong welcome talk yesterday was about the importance of driving very slow on the rocky desert roads because of the high risk of flat tires. Despite this, I still blamed the warning on the altitude and the crazy day-to-night temperature swings in the desert. I’m an optimist.

When we arrived at our second stop it was undeniable, the front passenger wheel was almost entirely flat.

We didn’t have service so we drove verrrry slowly to the edge of town and messaged our helpful Airbnb host asking for a recommendation for a tire shop. We didn’t even want to mess with the spare since it would be a disaster on these rocky roads. We spent another 30 minutes or so calling various numbers on our rental paperwork and confirming that our insurance would not be void if we get it fixed, and that they would cover the cost. About an hour later we carefully pulled into a rustic tire repair shed.

We waited for another 30 minutes or so while he took off the wheel, found the hole, and patched it.

He got the tire back on and we were good to go. The whole ordeal took about 2 hours, and, though frustrating, had two very good aspects. First, the labor and patch cost us $10. All that confusion with asking if the rental company would pay for it for nothing.

And second, Millie was SO GOOD. When we first noticed it was flat we were understandably frustrated and stressed, which can set her off, but we all took some deep breathes and just dealt with it. We pulled over to the side of the road to make our phone calls and she sat calmly and quietly in the backseat while we worked it out. At the tire shop she watched how he worked and asked questions, and then joked around while we waited. I’m not sure if it’s that the trip has toughened her up, if it’s her age, or if we just caught her on a really good day. Probably all three. Whatever it was, we were so proud of her.

We decided to call it a day and stopped at a small grocery store in town for some ingredients for dinner.

Millie played outside with her little people while I started dinner.

When it was ready she cleaned everything up and set the table. She was so proud of her work and brought us both outside as if she was a restaurant hostess.

We ate outside, mostly admiring the view as the sun started to set.

When it got too cold, we came in and Millie and Nick spent the rest of the night watching old SNL skits and laughing their butts off. It was a really good day that could just have likely been a really bad day.