Tag: road trip

The Grand Drive – Land of Enchantment

Day 3 was a little different as we spent the whole day in New Mexico, discovering this mesmerizing Land of Enchantment. Since we ended yesterday with cold springs, we decided to start today with the Montezuma Hot Springs. We tried several of the springs and they were various levels of “hot tub temps”. But one of them, the Lobster Pot, was so hot that I could barely dip my toes in (120 degrees!) The warm mineral water felt amazing and it was surrounded by lush forest and a babbling brook. On the way out, we discovered a cool outcrop where I was able to walk out and enjoy yet another gorgeous view.

We left the springs and drove towards the mountains through the valley. We made our next stop at the National Scouting Museum at Philmont Scout Ranch. Working with Scouts has been a big part of my life for over 15 years, so this was a really cool stop for me. It was also meaningful since my dad went to Philmont; it was neat to see a place where he had a journey once upon a time.

After the scout museum, we embarked on the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway, which loops around Wheeler Peak. We drove through Eagle Next, Angel Fire, Taos, and up to the Taos Ski Valley. Thise drive had it all–winding mountain roads, valleys, mountain lakes, and even some snow-capped mountains. It’s funny that the highest elevation I’ve been to (Clingman’s Dome at just over 6500 feet) is the same elevation as the valleys in the area. The highest we got was the Taos Ski Valley at 9200 feet (but the ski lift would’ve taken us up over 3000 more feet).

Our next stop was at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. It was quite windy standing on the bridge 650 feet above the river. Heights don’t normally phase me, but my stomach did some flips looking into the gorge.

I didn’t talk about our day 2 hotel, as it was just a good old standard Holiday Inn. However, we ended day 3 with a stay in Albuquerque at the Painted Lady Bed & Brew. This was an old saloon and brothel built in the 1880s. Our room, which used to be the front of the bar, still had the old floors (refinished) and was filled with old art and historical info. It is allegedly haunted, but the spirits didn’t bother us! There was the Ghostlight Saloon (converted bus) for Hoppy Hour and they had a beautiful courtyard with games, fire pit, and great spots to just relax. Really cool place!

The Grand Drive – Westward Bound

We survived the janky motel last night. The bed felt like it might have once taken quarters, as it was comically shaky. It had a weird aroma featuring a mixture of cigarettes from another era, pot, and bleach. The room coffee pot just boiled the water in the reservoir and leaked around the edges (only producing one of the four cups of water into coffee). The front office didn’t have coffee, but it did have coolers of live fish. Well, it seemed like they actually cleaned things and the toilet worked, so we’ll call it a win.

We headed out early with almost 650 miles ahead of us, departing AK and entering OK. Shortly after crossing the state line, we saw a disturbingly massive bank of dark clouds. Then my weather alert went off to warn us of a severe thunderstorm with straight-line winds, hail, and a chance of tornadoes. Luckily, we just had heavy rain, wind, and lightning but that was quite the storm for 8 in the morning. It was a good opportunity to sing the Oklahoma song lyrics, “Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain…”  

Although we’re only on day 2, we’ve sufficiently worn out all the cheesy road observations we tend to say. We’ve yelled “hey” at the hay bales and remarked “look at that ass” to the donkeys. We’ve pointed out the cows with either “ground beef” (for those laying down) or “click clack moo” (for those standing around in a huddle). We’ve even resorted to singing the Ren & Stimpy classic Log Song at the passing log trucks. I know–this really makes you want to be on a road trip with us. LOL

As we continued through OK, the sun came out and the clouds became friendly. It was at that moment that we understood the OK car tag design. The blue tag perfectly matched the baby blue sky. The white abstract bird image on the tag matched the wispy white clouds spotting the sky here and there. Try as I might, I didn’t find a bird-shaped cloud in the sky. OK was a beautiful state, and I loved seeing thousands of windmills throughout the landscape. (I tried to get an “up close” picture, and the windmill seemed so close in life but looks comically far away in the picture.) We also saw the largest cross I’ve ever seen.

Before leaving OK, we headed over to part of Route 66 and went to the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City. In addition to the museum, they had a whole city block full of historical buildings that had been transplanted from places all along Route 66. It was cool to stroll through and fun to see families with kids running around imagining themselves in the pretend world. My kids would’ve loved this place when they were younger–I could almost envision little Lizzy running her brothers around to play school, pretend shop, visit the movie theater, etc. As a note, there seems to be hundreds of “official” Route 66 museums, and we even stumbled upon Mater at another location. 

Back on the road, we quickly came upon Texas. In addition to windmills, we occasionally saw these weird tire mountains. It looked like someone had made huge strawberry plant mounds (with the white plastic covering) and then buried tires in them. Is this some sort of TX recycling??

Our next stop was Cadillac Ranch. We came prepared with our spray paint but, sadly, flooding from this morning made it impossible to reach the cars without stepping into water and, most assuredly, deep Texas mud. It was still a cool site to see, and we painted on the ground and some walls to be part of things. I also had a bracelet to retire, as it was falling apart. It was a match to one Lizzy and I got together in summer 2019, so I couldn’t just throw it away. Instead, Thom and I painted it with our green and purple paint and tied it on the fence where people left all sorts of mementos. It seemed fitting to leave it near the colorfully painted Crocs. :)

Approaching New Mexico, the landscape changed to absolutely nothing but road and nature as far as the eye could see (which was a pretty long way). There was prairie with growing ridgelines here and there on each side of the road. There weren’t even any windmills! This is what they mean by wide open spaces!

We had one final stop of the day–The Blue Hole. Apparently this dive locations is world-famous for its cave system at the bottom of the hole (going from 80 feet deep to nearly 200 feet deep). In addition to divers coming and going, there was a spot for cliff jumping in the hole and then plenty of room for swimming or snorkeling. It was beautiful, fun to snorkel, and extremely refreshing at a cool 61 degrees!

Let the Grand Drive Begin

On New Year’s Day, sitting around my mom’s table, the predictable question went around: “What’s everyone’s plans for 2023?” Thom quickly piped up and proclaimed that he was taking his woman to see the Grand Canyon. This was news to me, but thus the journey began.

I originally had a big “Out West” road trip planned for summer 2020. The kids and I were going to camp across the West for nearly a month, and Thom was going to meet us for part of it. As with many things in 2020, that trip fell apart. Since that time, the Galloway kids have scattered and it’s quite tricky to get us all in one place for a weekend, much less a month. So, I had mentally given up on this trip ever happening. Thom is full of surprises though and often seems to know my inner thoughts that even I don’t know. He decided to make it happen and stated it in front of others, knowing that would keep me from justifying any postponement of the trip (due to money, time, or not being able to do the trip with the kids).

Over the course of the last few months, we’ve gone from idea to loose planning to booking plans. Thom even got me a giant atlas for the planning (as he knows I love a good map). We added Pike’s Peak to the top goal along with the Grand Canyon. We knew we had a max 10 days available and just filled in the schedule with other cool spots to visit and scenic roads to drive.

Today took us from Kennesaw to Ozark, Arkansas (five states in one day!). The first stretch of road was filled with me doing my nails since I ran out of time before the trip but wanted to look my best on this long date. (Shout out to Stephanie Ann Jones and her Color Street Nails. There’s no way I could do my nails in the car otherwise.)

We had some scenic roads in North Georgia, raced a train in Alabama, and crossed the Tennessee River on the way to a new-to-me Buc-ee’s in Athens, AL. Buc-ee’s to Memphis was the Bee Line Highway, aptly named as it was a straight line between the two. There wasn’t much but corn fields and then this weird place in Mississippi called an Attendance Center (that looked like an old prison with a playground out front). Apparently that’s a school??

Our Memphis stop was at a place called Central BBQ. The decor was a fun picnic vibe but with lots of music art. They had Memphis soul music keeping things lively as well. We sampled each others meals and I can say the classic Memphis rubs were awesome; it was some of the most flavorful BBQ I’ve ever had.

We left lunch, passing the Memphis Pyramid and crossing the wide waters of the Mississippi River. (Side note-I failed to blog about my quick trip through the midwest in 2021. We went to the Memphis Pyramid and it was super fun.) We settled in for a few hours along I-40 with an episode of History of Rock Music in 500 Songs. While technically the episode was about the Byrds, there was a lot of discussion of jazz, bebop, and soul–seemed extra fitting for our Memphis visit.

Once we got out of Memphis, we finally escaped the haze coming from the Canadian fires, but quickly entered gloomy clouds and occasional rain. Despite the dreary weather, we pulled off I-40 just east of Clarksville (which randomly happens to be a nuclear evacuation route…good to know?). We also passed Ozone Burgers, which Thom aptly named the Stabbing Shack–it was a run-down building surrounded by these weird creepy trees that were black and had leafless branches reaching straight upward, so like something out of a horror movie (and we never saw trees like this again on the drive). Anyway… we took the Ozark Highlands Scenic Byway up into the Ozark Mountains and then cut west to take the Pig Tail Scenic Highway back south to I-40. We had no GPS signal and were warned with multiple signs that the road was “Very Crooked & Steep”, but that’s the kind of road we love. However, it was raining lightly most of the drive. While wet roads aren’t as much fun, we drove in and out of the clouds in the mountains and through lush forest regions…and we had the road to ourselves. It was a different experience that we expected, but it was still breathtakingly beautiful.

We ended the day in Ozark with dinner at the Hillbilly Hideout (weird location but great food) and a sufficient hotel. The sign says “Luxury Accommodation” but I think that was put up in the 60s. All in all, it was a long, good day. We moved about 700 miles in 14 hours (including all the stops). Time to hit the hay and start a new journey tomorrow!