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U.S. Travel Experiences
Driving as a Couple
This is the overview of our tip you can find the
national parks pages HERE.
In December of 1999 my wife an
I decided to take a trip across the American southwest for a pre-honeymoon. This
trip would wind up taking us through 4700 miles, 3 weeks, and 10 states.
The only set plans we had were to be in Flagstaff for Christmas, hopefully to
find snow, and to be in Las Vegas for new years eve to see in the year 2000. I
will be leaving out all our trips to national monuments as they can be read in
their own section. This was our best trip we have taken together so far. Total
budget for a 3 week trip, hotel, gas, attractions, and food were $1100.
We started out by buying
a $400 1987 Toyota Tercel that had seen better days. Although this car had seen
better days I felt it would probably get us through the trip, and even if it
didn't we could leave it at some junk yard and take a bus home. Heck at least we
would have a good story to tell. My family, especially my brother Chris seemed
to have reservations about my choice of transportation but didn't voice it too
loudly. I think they have always considered me a bit strange and perhaps that I
take too many risks or don't plan things enough. I think that adds to the
excitement of the trip and Pilly finds it fun being spontaneous.
So one Friday
after work we leave Columbia Missouri for the short drive to Springfield. We
spend the night at my brother Chris' house and he has a cynical look over the
car. We leave early the next morning and take a leisurely drive down I-44
heading towards Oklahoma. We have allotted ourselves 7 days to get to Flagstaff
Arizona which is really only a 2 day drive. We did this so we could stop at ANY
place we wanted to along the way.
Now I am no big fan of
Oklahoma, for me at least, there is not much to see. I wanted to take this
route because I have always be fascinated by Route 66 and wanted to share that
with Pilly. We did our best to follow the remnants of the old highway most of
the way west. The first really interesting place we stopped in Oklahoma was,
ironically, the Route 66 museum. This was a brand new facility located in
Clinton Oklahoma that is a must stop for anyone traveling through. They have
several beautifully restored old cars, a replica diner, a nice history movie, a
great gift shop, and generally informative exhibits. It covered everything from
the dustbowl through the late 1960's and is great for fans of Route 66 or
American history. This was really about it in Oklahoma for us.
The Texas stretch of
route 66 is relatively small and not a whole lot to do. They do have the "Big
Texan" restaurant where you can get a 72 ounce steak with a potato and bread. If
you eat it all its free, but if you don't its $50. I swear one of these days I
will go there and at least attempt to eat this. I really think I could do it,
cholesterol be damned. Following the route we took there really isn't a lot of
Texas to drive through so this was it for us.
New Mexico is a state that on
the surface may not look like much more than barren stretches of desert and
scrub. Dig a little deeper and you will find one of the most fascinating places
on earth. We spent several days in New Mexico touring national parks and
actually could have spent weeks doing it.
We altered our course to make a side trip into Santa
Fe. It is a place I remember going to as a child of about 8 with my family. It s a
quaint little town, a bit touristy but also a bit artsy. Located 7000 feet above
sea level in
the Sangre de Cristo mountains this town has beautiful crisp air and gets over
300 days of sunshine a year. They have a very western looking town square of
adobe buildings where Native Americans sell their wares. There is also an
interesting little place called the Loretto Chapel. What makes the chapel
interesting is, of all things, a staircase. When the Loretto Chapel was
completed, there was no way to access the choir loft, 22 feet above. Carpenters
were called in to address the problem but they all concluded access to the loft
would have to be via ladder as a staircase would interfere with the interior
space of the small Chapel. To find a solution to the problem, the Sisters of the
Chapel made a novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. On the ninth
and final day of prayer, a man showed up at the Chapel with a donkey and a
toolbox looking for work. Months later the elegant circular staircase was
completed and the carpenter disappeared without pay or thanks. After searching
for the man (an ad even ran in the local newspaper) and finding no trace of him,
some concluded that he was St. Joseph himself. The staircase has two 360 degree
turns and has no visible means of support. Also, it is said that the staircase
was built without nails -- only wooden pegs. Questions also surround the number
of stair risers compared to the height of the choir loft and about the types of
wood and other materials used in the stairway's construction. They even have
engineering reports from several universities saying the staircase is impossible
to build. It is very strong too, as they have a picture of about 30 choir members
on it at the same time. Pictures cannot portray the engineering feat of this
staircase. Anyone who has done any carpentry will be amazed.
Arizona is a state I have
lived in, and has parts I enjoy immensely and some I don't, Phoenix being at the
top of my "not like" list. There
are, like New Mexico, lots of National Parks and Native American History to see
here. There are also some of the most beautiful drives in the world here. We
drove through deserts, pine forests, and mountain aspen groves all in a 2 hour
span. My favorite town is AZ has to be Prescott. Its a quiet little artistic
town that has avoided the touristy feel of many town like it. It is located at a
fairly high elevation so it is cooler than Phoenix and with more vegetation.
There are also some great twisty tree lined roads leading to and from it great
if you have a motorcycle. Not much to do in Prescott but if I had to live in a
town in Arizona this would be it. Flagstaff is where we chose to spend Christmas
with hopes of having a white Christmas. We arrived here on Christmas eve and
booked a room at the local travel lodge for $26. Wouldn't you know it, it was
the warmest Christmas Flagstaff residents could say they ever remember. Not only
didn't it snow, we were dragging out our short sleeve shirts for the 65 degree
weather. We were a little bummed but had a great time anyway. We also had a bit
of car trouble in Flagstaff. I went out to start the car and it did nothing. I
jacked up the car and found the starter wire had fallen off. I re-attached it and
we were off again. Flagstaff is
Arizona's gateway to the Grand Canyon and we were heading there next.
After the Grand Canyon we went
to Lake Powell and toured the Glen Canyon Dam. Lake Powell is one of the most
unusual lakes I have ever seen. Imagine if someone damned the grand canyon and
flooded it. The lake is surrounded by beautiful walls of sandstone and has so
many coves and fingers that you could easily get lost. They say it is also
decent fishing but it is one heck of a party lake. All the kids from Arizona
State go there and have big drunken boat parties.
We chose to spend the time
around new years in Las Vegas, but got a hotel in Utah. This may
seem a bit strange but hotels in Vegas for New Years were starting at $200. This for a room
you would normally pay $25 for, so we opted to stay in St. George Utah and
commute to Vegas for the new years celebration. The drive is only 2 hours or so
and we paid $28 a night versus the $200, we felt it was worth the drive. Las
Vegas was amazing on New Years eve. They closed down the main strip so it could
be used for foot traffic only. There were people as far as they eye could see and
everyone having a good time. They actually closed the casinos to everyone who
wasn't staying there at about 10 P.M. but we managed to find back ways in to
each one. There was just so many people I guess they couldn't hold the crowd and
didn't want trouble with the fire marshal. We wound up at Paris and it was the
place to be. They have a 3/4 replica of the Eiffel Tower and had acrobats on guy
wires dancing in the air. They also had a big fireworks show and confetti
launched at midnight. All the major news agencies were there and we were on Fox
cable news as they panned across the crowd. They had huge TV's like at a
football game so you could see celebrations in other areas of the country.
We had a great time and left at about 2 in the morning so we could get some
sleep.
The next day we drove through
Utah up to Salt Lake City. Utah is a really underrated state, it has some of the
most beautiful terrain anywhere. As I say in the National Parks section on the
next page, Bryce
Canyon and Zion Park are the most beautiful places we have ever been, and I mean
this sincerely. Not much in the way of industry there though so I imagine it
would help to be retired if you chose to live there. It was January and there
was still no snow and we were disappointed. This was soon to change. We spent
the night in Vernal Utah just a few miles from the Colorado border. When we woke
up and looked outside, everything was covered with 6 inches of snow. After a
brief snowball fight, which Pilly won, we were off. We were a bit worried how
our little car would do in the snow but it handled like a trooper. We were on
our way to Colorado and Dinosaur National Monument.
Driving up to Dinosaur
Monument was an experience. It is a bit off the highway, if you could even call
what we were on a highway, and there was 8 inches of snow on the ground now.
We were wondering if anyone would even be at the place to let us in. We arrived
and lo and behold there were several National Parks workers there. They were a
bit surprised to see us in out little car, perhaps thinking I was a bit crazy.
They all had four wheel drives and said they didn't expect anyone there that
day. They were very helpful though and let us wander around and admire the
place. I am sure glad they have the place roofed in as it was quite cold. It was
a neat place and after looking for quite some time we were back to the, and I
use this tern loosely, highway. It seems as this area of Colorado is quite
remote not many plows come here. No problems for me as I love driving in bad
weather. We were driving along and Pilly spotted a huge herd of Elk. This is
truly amazing because I can point out a deer frozen in headlights to her and she
will not see it. She managed to successfully spot several herds of animals on this
day. It was an amazingly enjoyable day, slow driving through a gentle snowfall,
no traffic, beautiful scenery, with good conversation. I think the cold weather
helped too, it was a really romantic slow paced day. We stopped at a log
store/restaurant for lunch and postcards. They rented snow mobiles here but as we
wanted to keep our budget around $1000 we decided against it. It was about $100
to rent one for a couple hours. Not bad though because they give you a guided
tour of the area. Next time we go we will do it. We spent an hour or so eating
and watching the snowmobile's coming in and out. They all looked at our little
car and I think were amazed that we had gotten through the highway on what was
now about 12 inches of snow. We left here and got back to some main roads. By
the time it was getting dark we were in Aspen Colorado. We didn't plan to be
here but decided to spend the night even though aspen is a very expensive town.
This was our one expensive hotel of the trip at $90. It did have an indoor pool
and Jacuzzi which we made full use of. The next day we spent exploring Aspen. It
is an extremely quaint and expensive town. Lots of neat shops and streets to
wander down. Good food here too. We left aspen late that day but managed to make
it to Kansas before resting again.
The rest of the trip through
Kansas and back to Missouri was fairly uneventful. This will always be a
trip that I will remember. It was great fun doing it on a tight budget with no
plans and what some would call a crappy car. It was fun experiencing such a
thing with someone you love, showing them things for the first time. Exploring
and adventuring with your spouse is something that can really bring you
together. We were amazed at things we found, great Asian food in small town New
Mexico, where everyone in the kitchen comes out to look at Pilly. To National
Parks you have all to yourself. To small cafes that serve the same food yet are
states apart. To hotel owners that tell the same stories yet have never
met. It is funny to see how people everywhere have so much in common yet are so
diverse.
Click to go on to
National Parks
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