St. Louis or Bust: Road Trip Day 3 (of 5)

Day 3 (April 28) of this road trip!

Sleeping in our wigwam was actually good! It was quiet at nice and made for a decent stay.

We headed out early and would be making our way to another state – New Mexico!

We stopped by the Petrified National Forest. We drove through windy roads, got out and took a look, and then we were over it. It was beautiful, but it all looked the same after a while.

We also made a stop at the Meteor Crater. It was a bit overpriced but at that time, I just needed to stretch my legs and use a clean restroom. If you are into this type of thing, it is a great stop. We went to a few lookout points and took photos. You don’t get the enormity of the crater until you look through the various telescopes with target sites on the lower deck. That made the experience much better than looking at a giant hole.

We also did a quickie stop to see the Continental Divide.

We made a quick lunch stop in Albuquerque and headed out to our final destination for the night, Tucumcari. We booked a night at the Blue Swallow Inn.

We made it to Tucumcari. Okay, this was getting old. This was not advertised as a ghost town but sure looked it. At this point, I’m growing weary of Route 66, 66, old cars, old trucks, old gas stations, worn down towns with boarded up windows and no signs of life, and diners. Anyway…….this motel is adorable! There are murals from the Cars movie painted in the garages. The hotel feels so old but still quaint. 

We had dinner at one of the few local choices, Del's Steak house. 

Then, we headed back for some quality TV and sleep. I wouldn’t say this was my best night of sleep. I went to bed later because I was working on the computer and uploading pictures and the wifi was as slow as molasses. When I went to bed, I was immediately uneasy. I barely slept. As much as I loved this gem, this find, this SO iconic motel, I would have packed my bag and headed out of there that night if I could have. Well, and also if New Mexico didn’t scare me so much. I was spooked and then I found out the next day hours into our drive that Luba felt the same way.

Overall, New Mexico felt dark and depressing. I was going to be very happy to drive out of that state. My apologies to New Mexico-ers, maybe I didn’t see the better parts

These posts are getting as short as my tolerance for Route 66 “stuff” was. We were also getting “over” unpacking a car every night and repacking it in the morning. Well, Luba was.

Love,

Danielle  

St. Louis or Bust: Road Trip Day 1

I wanted to blog our road trip so I am going to do it per day to include stops and hotel stays.

Overall, planning this trip was SO SO SO easy. I used the Roadtrippers app. I entered the destination (STL) and then dropped in places I wanted to see along the way. It automatically adds stops to your timeline according to location on the drive. It also gives you a map with your stops numbered and in between it provides mileage and time expectancy. I also added dates so I could keep up with our agenda. This was a lifesaver in terms of stress and having to plan out the route. I also used Roadside America, the app, as we drove. In each town, I used location services to search for sites to see around us. If they seemed quirky and/or fun, then we stopped. Users rate the sites in terms of boring, must stop, major fun, etc. It also gives directions, tips, and how far off the interstate it is. Those two apps planned our trip for us and were fantastic. I highly recommend both!

To avoid such a long drive on day 1 and to maximize time, we stayed in Barstow on April 25, after our going away party. We drove about 2-2.5 hours to get ahead of schedule. We also stayed at the Super 8, my first time (and last) at a Super 8. There are not many options in Barstow and I sure didn’t want to spend good money on a hotel in a place we wouldn’t enjoy but only sleep for a short time before heading out early. We were so tired (and emotionally overwhelmed) that when I walked in that night I thought, “This isn’t so bad!” The room overall was good with everything that you need. When we woke up, we both said, “This is gross. Let’s get outta here.” Luba thought we smelled like the room. Funny how perspective changes after rest! What got me was AFTER I finished showering, I saw a booger on the shower curtain. I immediately started gagging and almost vomited. My gag reflex is so sensitive since my surgery and one gross thought can send me running to the toilet. I threw on clothes and away we went!! That was a sign that adventure awaits?

Our first destination was Oatman, Arizona which I kept referring to as Donkey Town. I had seen my friend Heather’s (@diningwithdisney) pictures and knew it was a quirky place I needed to see. It was a 3-hour drive to Oatman from Barstow. We walked around the town and had a great time seeing all of the shops, grabbing photo opps, and watching/yielding to the burros. Yes, burros wander the streets. At most stores, you can buy feed (it looked like a block of marijuana). I couldn’t leave without buying some and feeding the burros so that was my last stop. It started out fun until I was swarmed and surrounded by burros. Experience complete – time to move on out of “Donkey Town.”

We headed out back the way we came instead of driving forward through Route 66 to avoid extra hills and miles. We filled up the tank and headed on to the next destination, Seligman, 2 hours away. We might have been low on gas because of misunderstanding of what "ghost town" means (as in no working gas stations, not a town with ghosts). 

The next stop was Delgadillo’sSnow Cap Drive-in, a find from Roadside America and Roadtrippers. I loved this stop! It was so much fun. It’s a simple drive-in with all sorts of “stuff” out back to look through as well as old cars (like Cars the movie). We ordered basic burgers. The staff is very funny and they play jokes on patrons like asking if you want ketchup on your burger and then squirting the bottle at you that has a red string that pops out on you. The doors say pull on one side, but the pull is actually on the other side so it takes everyone a second to realize what is going on. It didn’t outsmart me though, I just started doing the opposite of what it said. Pffffft. Simple jokes, fun laughs.

After running around and taking some pix in the town, we headed to Bearizona (another @diningindisney recommendation). It was 40 minutes away in Williams. This place, people, is a must stop if passing through! Kids would LOVE it. It’s a park that allows you to drive your car through and look at the animals. We saw wolves, different kinds of bears, and bison. There is also a walk-through part as well. There were also bear cubs to see. Oh! During our drive, we also saw some bear cubs “in the making” as you’ll notice in one of the pictures.

We ended the day in Williams. We stayed at a B & B type hotel, the Grand Canyon Hotel. It’s an old quaint hotel that resembles a B & B or hostel. It felt like staying at someone’s house, in a guest bedroom. The room had an old dresser, and the bed had a teddy bear on it and it felt like Luba was sneaking over into my bedroom. Ok, enough of that. We had dinner at Red Raven, which was next door. We toasted a fabulous first day, a new adventure, and our 1-year anniversary with some bubbly.

Day 2 coming soon!

Danielle

P.S. I’ll also be posting reviews on Trip Advisor and Yelp of all the sites, restaurants and hotels