9 Jan 10
After a chilly night in a poorly heated motel room, We started our morning by running across the street to the American Flyer Coffee Co. where Kristen had her first real cappuccino since leaving New Jersey. After clearing the ice (!) from the windshield, we took a shortcut on I-40 over to Historic Route 66 which we took from Ash Fork to Kingman.
From Kingman, an industrious but ultimately depressing diesel-gray town, we took US 93 north through Arizona toward Neveda. Kristen describes this section of highway as “there used to be mining here.” We passed two or three historical markers which seem to be Arizona’s gravestone for ghost towns. We headed toward mountains in a typical Western straight line (an odd concept to us New Englanders) and wound our way through the hills and curves. When we came to a sign for Willow Beach it seemed like a nice time for a break so we drove down a valley and were treated to a view of Black Canyon and the perfectly clear waters of the post-Grand Canyon, post-Hoover Dam Colorado River.
After that, it was back up the road and river to US 93 and the Hoover Dam! I’ll be damned if it wasn’t a damned fine dam. We ate lunch overlooking Lake Mead and admired the bridge being built to relieve the increased Las Vegas-Phoenix traffic on the bridge, the Mike O’Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.
After a brief souvenir stop, it was time for Vegas, baby! Smog-covered, trafficky, touristy Vegas. We parked for free at the Bellagio and took in the fountain show.
From there we walked down The Strip to the MGM Grand where we ate dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s Bar and Grill (we had hoped for ‘wichcraft, but it closed 10 minutes before we arrived, curses). We had a chance to enjoy the full neon of Las Vegas as we headed back to the car and then out of town so we could arrive at Death Valley Junction (or as Garmina knows it, Highway 190 & Highway 127) and our hotel by our 9 PM check-in.
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Arizona
Nevada
California
no
Route 66
6 Jan 10
We stayed the night at Kristen’s grandparents in Mesa and enjoyed some quality time with them (and their cats). In fact, we had a stowaway in the morning who had to be shooed away before Mary took him home to Boston.
Well, Boston via the Grand Canyon, of course. What’s a trip across the country without seeing the Grand Canyon?! So we headed north out of Phoenix, jumping off I-17 (where we bought the most expensive gas of the trip - over $3/gal!) to drive through Sedona. Our atlas said it was a “scenic drive”, but we had no idea. I-17 outside of Phoenix began with rolling desert hills studded with Saguaro cacti, became steeper hills covered in brush as far as the eye could see, turned into a plateau, and took us down into a valley.
Then we turned on to NM 179 and… wow.
Turns out that Coconino National Forest contains an area called Red Rocks Country. Sedona is in the heart of these rock formations. It was amazing. We then wound our way back uphill on roads with 15 MPH curves (it made me think of the Kanc!) and out to Flagstaff.
From Flagstaff we drove north through more National Forest (Coconino and Kaibab) and the Navejo Indian Reservation, which was beautiful but man, did the US Government give them some barren land. After passing Little Colorado Canyon, an impressive crevasse, we arrived at Grand Canyon National Park.
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Arizona
National Park
5 Jan 10
After breakfast at our great hotel this morning (as pictured previously), we hit the road for Tucson. We made a couple of short stops en route, once to get coffee in Lordsburg, NM (at Buckabrew’s [next door to Mom and Pop’s Pyro Shop], which we highly recommend) and once at The Thing (which was worth about the buck we paid for it - there’s a gorgeous rest area about a mile further up the road that we wished we’d visited instead). We’d previously enjoyed our time on I-10 in west Texas, but southern New Mexico and Arizona just took it to a new level. Desert, mountains, plant life, rocks, sunlight… this had it all.
Arriving in Tucson, we met up with Kristen’s grandparents at the Sonora Desert Museum. We spent the afternoon wandering there, focusing mostly on the animals, to be honest. We both confessed a soft spot for zoos as we left, admiring the cacti but really loving the mountain lions and otter.
We left Tucson via Saguaro National Park on a beautiful, very bumpy dirt road that we weren’t certain would end.
We ate dinner at Miner’s Camp near Phoenix after a bladder-testing ride that passed Casa Grande (at a distance). We saw the most amazing sunset to our west, but couldn’t stop to admire it in anything but the rearview mirror. Then we drove to Mesa to do visit cats, do laundry, and have a quiet evening before tomorrow’s drive to the Grand Canyon.
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no, let me sum up
Arizona
New Mexico
national park
Checked out of our motel and hit the road to San Antonio this morning, reaching the Alamo before lunchtime. We’d heard it was underwhelming; we thought it was pretty but very crowded. It seems Michigan State and Texas Tech are playing a bowl game in San Antonio? Fans from both school were there with colors flying. It was also a special “First Saturday”, so there were re-enactors there to demonstrate weapons and other things.
We were about to head out of town to eat our lunch at a rest area, but remembered the San Antonio Missions as we made our way back to I-10. We let Garmina (the GPS when she is not being bossy) guide us to the San José Mission with the intention of merely eating lunch on the grounds, but found ourselves charmed by the Mission itself.
The grounds are beautifully maintained and the mission in general amazingly well preserved. They were also expansive, and lent themselves well to photography. Mary enjoyed playing with the model at the entrance.
And Kristen found some hidden desert gems in her explorations.
We managed to steal a couple of dried out pomegranates on our way out as well. Neither of us had seen a pomegranate tree before!
After lunch, we hit the road again and also started the longest straight-without-road-change leg of our trip to date, with 312 miles of I-10 between San Antonio and Fort Stockton before we headed north on US-285 towards Carlsbad Caverns. When we get to I-5 outside of LA we’ll see if Texas or California gets the longest stretch of the trip.
We were both pleasantly surprised by how beautiful this stretch of Texas was. We’d feared that it would be a particularly monotonous part of the trip, but instead found some of the prettiest roads to date. Kristen especially enjoyed being able to really enjoy the scenery while driving: the open skies meant that simultaneously seeing the sites and watching the road was easy!
After turning onto US-285, we drove carefully to avoid the many suicidal deer in the area. We also contemplated speed limits of 75mph on two-lane roads (NOT a split highway). Our last stop in Texas was tiny, deserted Orla, TX, where we enjoyed views of the near-full moon over the abandoned café.
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New Mexico
Texas
national park
day 5
2 Jan 10
We celebrated the new year by sleeping in a bit and Mary was treated to some of Jean’s excellent tea. We also got to pick some kumquats from Jean and Jeremy’s yard (note: The oblong ones have the sour taste I’m used to, but the rounder fruit from the shorter tree are sweet and amazing).
We took US 90 south out of New Orleans and drove through Acadiana, the bayous near the Intracoastal Waterway. We stopped early and bought sweet, delicious local pecans. The skies cleared through the morning and by the time we were driving past shipyards and riverboat casinos the temperature was approaching 60F.
We passed antebellum homes, pelicans and egrets, live oaks draped in spanish moss, sugar plantations. We were stuck behind more than one bagasse truck. There are some beautiful steel bridges and concrete ramps in southern Louisiana.
The Welcome Center for Texas coming from LA was the best we’ve seen. It was situated on a swampy piece of land and we (along with many other travelers) saw a raccoon, a feral kitty (awww), and an egret in our ten minute stop. Mary made the heart-warming discovery that Texas has Market Basket!
Our goal for the fourth day on the road had been to get to San Antonio, TX, but about a third of the way between Houston and San Antonio we decided it was time to sleep. Despite failures earlier in the day (large failures involving back roads and small towns full of bail bondsmen), Garmina the GPS (sometimes called this, sometimes addressed as Bossy Betty) pointed us our first motel of the trip, just off I-10. I can hear the interstate in the background, but it’s white noise. There is a friendly motel cat and the room is clean and quiet.
- Mary
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no, let me sum up
Louisiana
Texas
day 4
Good morning from Columbus, TX! Yesterday’s voyage took us from the heart of New Orleans into the Bayou en route to Lafayette and onward into Texas, where we were greeted by the first rest areas with wifi since New Jersey!
We enjoyed seeing the Bayou in Louisianna and the neon and plains in Texas, but had a few misadventures as well. Especially finding lunch - we were between New Orleans and Lafayette on route 90 west when hunger drove us to search for food pre-Lafayette using the wonders of Garmin. Mary found two restaurants near each other a few miles off, and sent us to find them. That’s when we found ourselves driving the backroads of Lousianna, surrounded by a lot of nothing (mixed in with the sugar plantations). After following this unlikely route for a while, we finally stumbled upon the “historic” town of St. Martinsville. Which, although founded very early and possessing an unusual local history (it was basically a Church fiefdom for a while) had no open restaurants! Actually, it didn’t really have anything open.
Dispirited, we headed back to 90 west (luckily Garmin could direct us there), where we finally found food at a McDonald’s in a Walmart. Mary then banned further restaurant selection on her part. A few miles later, while passing one of the many delightfully kitschy Cajun restaurant billboards, Kristen decided to follow billboard or other roadside recommendations rather than Garmin while choosing dinner restaurants. When a perusal of horoscopes a little later revealed that she ought to follow through with flash ideas, the plan was set.
That led us to a much more successful dinner at Saltgrass, a fantastic (and even more fantastically decorated) Steakhouse just outside Houston. In addition to the neon and intentionally run-down, down-home appearance, the place was packed with stuffed game. Or non-game, like chickens. Really. Stuffed chickens. Three of them. They were joined by 2 goats, 2 boar, 7 deer, 1 ox, 2 caribou, 1 moose, 2 pheasant, 1 lynx, 1 elk, 1 coyote, 4 skulls (mostly deer), 7 pairs of antlers, 1 pair of ox horns and 8 individual horns hanging from a chandelier.
- Kristen
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no, let me sum up
Louisiana
Texas
day 4
1 Jan 10
Today’s drive was remarkably smooth - we woke up early and left Atlanta by 9:30 AM (fortunately, Mary realized she had left her phone behind while we were still pulling out of the driveway). It was raining as we started driving, but it soon let up into drizzle, then fog, then gray skies. By the time we were eating lunch on the steps of Kirkwood Mansion in Eutaw, Alabama, the sun was coming out and the temperature was nearing 60 F.
There was practically no traffic as we crossed into Mississippi and Louisiana. We were lucky enough to cross Lake Pontchartrain on I-10 just as the sun was going down. We entered the city just after sunset, got dressed for dinner at Jean’s, then headed into dinner in the French Quarter with Jeremy. After a short, unintentional car tour we wandered about a little, had Creole food, and picked up beignets to bring to Jean and her fellow doctors on call. The new year was spent updating, uploading, and checking up on possible routes for tomorrow.
Happy 2010, all, and to all a good night.
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Alabama
Georgia
Louisiana
Mississippi
day 3
30 Dec 09
Greetings from a Panera in Charlotte, North Carolina, home to the friendliest service we’ve had so far. Granted its competition is rest areas and a Wendy’s in South Hill, VA. Here in the South, it has reached balmy 40 F. That’s above freezing! Suck it, Northeast!
We’re logging another long day. At least 3 more hours before Alpharetta. But we left Fairfax late and stopped for a bit at the Petersburg Battlefield, where we learned about the bizarre fiasco of The Crater. On the way out of the National Battlefield, Mary had a very brief lesson on Driving Standard - she got to shift from first to second! And stall twice! Perhaps we’ll continue on a day with less ground to cover.
The rest of Virginia was very boring driving. Especially on I-85, which has so many pine trees planted next to the interstate that you can’t see anything but the highway, the trees, and a wedge of sky. Crossing the border into North Carolina was a welcome change, though it brought more traffic.
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north carolina
on the road
south carolina
virginia
day 2
We finally got in to Fairfax county, Virginia, at about 9:30 PM tonight - Kristen left Jericho at 6:45 AM, we left Mary’s house at about 7:30 AM. We stopped twice for lunch in New York, once for gas in New Jersey, and once for caffeine in Maryland. All those stops still probably only added up to two hours, which means we were on the road for about 12 hours today. By contrast, Google Maps had predicted a 9 hour, 32 minute drive (“up to 10 hours, 38 minutes with traffic”). Most of the delay was due to snow in Vermont and upstate New York, but we were also slowed down significantly by traffic and Garmin Fail in New Jersey.
Not much more to say at the moment - too tired from driving all day! There’s not really all that much to share for these first couple days of the trip anyway. If we have time/wifi tomorrow, maybe we’ll get to share Mary’s New Jersey haiku or have an increased Irony Jeep count. For now, however ever, zzzzzzzzzzz…….
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New York,
no, let me sum up
Maryland
New Jersey
Vermont
day 1
