EPILOGUE: The Voyage Home

Being back is exhausting! "We'll post an update later tonight," turned into a day and a half of decompression, depression and recovery. We're back to "life." Colin produced an hour of news today and Emily spent her two hours in traffic (oh how she misses the open road).

The final leg of our trip, Flagstaff to Los Angeles, was marked by two distinct parts of the journey. The first part - mountainous desert and vast sandy plains - was characterized by desolation and openness. The second part - say, the part where you get on the I-15 just south of Barstow - was marked by good, old fashioned Los Angeles smog and stop and go traffic. Isis particularly didn't enjoy the traffic, continually updating our estimated arrival time to the point where her normally reliable travel time prediction was off by about 45 minutes. Isis forgot what L.A. traffic was like. So did we.

And is there a worse feeling in the entire world than blasting across America, open road at your feet, for nearly three weeks, only to have to hit the brakes for a stop-and-go final 45 miles to home?

Also, a tip for future travelers: Grab that last gas at the trucker rest stop thing in Arizona, because once you cross the border to Needles, they bend you over. Most expensive gas of the trip, but after crossing all that desert, you need it. And they know it. Ouch!

When we got home, we were greeted by two loved ones - Emily's mom, Jody, who prepared a fantastic welcome home picnic lunch for us, and, of course, JoJo, the world's cutest (and, we guess, oldest) puppy. JoJo was sad we'd left his potential brother/sister behind in Clarksville, but he's still top dog in this household, at least for now.

So now, we're back. It's all over. A 5200-mile journey across America, finally come to an end.

Thanks for coming along on the ride. We'll continue to post for a little while longer -- still some wrapping up and some fun "top three" lists to come -- if you'll keep reading.

DAY FIVE: Where The Buffalo Roam

Where the buffalo roam? Turns out, Hays, Kansas. They don’t roam very far because they’re caged in a giant pen (more on that later).

Today was a day of covering ground; that is, after driving in circles around the greater Denver area in search of breakfast. There’s apparently this great place for muffins, and Colin knows exactly where it is... or, does he? We later found out that it is called Le Peep and we missed it by a tenth of a mile. So, if you’re ever in Denver, check it out, Le Peep, it’s by the Zoo. We hear the Zoo is pretty good too; it’s over by Le Peep... or is it? As it turns out, Le Peep is not just by the zoo, apparently they’re all over the Denver area (see http://www.lepeep.com/).

Emily finally did some serious driving today. She drove from 11:00am to 5:00pm. Emily thinks this should count as six hours of driving. Colin thinks it’s important to take into account the time zone change as we crossed from Colorado into Kansas… (we learned that the hard way about time zone changes!) and insists that Emily drove for only five hours. Still, as this more than quadrupled Emily's driving contributions, it was much, much appreciated by Colin.

About 25 miles before our first destination, Hays, Kansas, Emily decided it was too windy and she had enough of driving, so we pulled over into a gorgeous rest area. Truly, Kansas has some of the finest rest areas around (even some with WiFi!), and this was a perfect place to switch drivers.

Once in Hays, we searched for the Fort (see 8^th grade U.S. History book) and the buffalo (see AAA Kansas Tourbook), but were unsuccessful in both quests, and turned our focus to food. Sunday in Kansas is God’s day and apparently God doesn’t eat. Most local eateries were closed, but we did find Gella’s Diner and the LB Brewing Company, and what a find it was.

This diner/functioning brewery has great food, including the North Kansas specialty of Grebble. What is grebble, you may ask? It's a fried bread served with maple syrup and, what else, but pesto! Now, you may think that fried bread, syrup and pesto is an odd combination... and you’d be right, but it is DELICIOUS!

Our friendly waitress also drew us a map to the buffalo, and as it turns out, they’re at the Fort. Or, at least, across from the fort, in a park. We took pictures and then went on our way. (This may have been Car Woody's favorite stop so far... back in the Old West, at last!)

Now, after 9+ hours of driving, we made it to Kansas City and, we’re not in Kansas anymore… we’re in Missouri.

We've finally settled in to our third room of the evening... the first two, suffering from unfortunate issues you would not expect to find at a three-diamond Triple A rated hotel. We should have taken the sage advice of loyal blog reader and experienced traveler Jody Moss, and had them show us their third room, first. The good news is, we've been upgraded to a suite with a jacuzzi! And yes, other loyal blog reader Jamie, it's a Trading Places-style Duke and Duke jacuzzi... not a self-powered one.

Current Mood: On vacation! No driving tomorrow!

Current Location:

DAY THREE: Panguitch to Moab (to Chance)

Greetings from Moab, Utah, a city that HAS entered the 21^st Century, and provides free wireless access in most hotel rooms. (Thanks for the encouraging notes, folks – believe us, we’ll post as often as we can!) Here’s the thing about today – once we got here, we saw insanely spectacular sights at Arches National Park. But our decision to take the 12-24 combo highway out of Panguitch really, really paid off. It’s a “Scenic Highway” or “Scenic Byway” that takes you through Capitol Reef National Park, atop a few mountains, and through a variety of terrains that made you feel like you had perhaps slipped through a rift in the Twilight Zone and ended up on some alien planet. Highly recommended – making the drive with either a Corrs playlist (something about the Irish flute and fiddle sound on their more traditional numbers) on the iPod, or firing up the soundtrack to the space Western Firefly. Also entirely appropriate – the B-52’s “Planet Claire,” which was kind of where we felt like we were.

So the drive – fantastic. And Arches – fantastic. And the hot tub at the Super 8 in Moab? Warm at best… but that in no way had a negative impact on a day full of incredible sights. Utah – who knew?

Miscellaneous Day Highlights:

--Seeing the distinctive smoke pattern of a wildfire burning, followed by a “Utah-trans” Sign on the side of the road reading “Natural Fire – Do Not Report.” Well then, okay.

-- There were a lot of cows grazing in fenced off lands just off the highway. Only two “free range” cows decided they wanted a piece of the freeway, including one inquisitive young mooer who made like the giant bird/bat from the other night, and took at run at the C-RV. Fortunately, this cow peeled off before impact. Moo!

--After “arching” a photogenic spot at Arches National Park (if you “summit” a summit, then when you go stand in the middle of an arch, you’re “arching”, right?), Emily got all “Johnny Hiker,” and set off on something called “The Primitive Trail” back to the parking area. This seemed like a good idea, and, in fact, it turned out to be a great idea. We only had to consult Isis once or twice (Isis assuring us that the CR-V was within a thousand feet of our current location, it was just on the other side of that massive, impassible sandstone arch), and there was NOBODY else who took this trail for the whole 30 minutes we were on it. So there we were, on the back side of an arch, with nobody around for miles. We had the park – miles, and miles, and miles of Utah countryside, to ourselves. It was very, very quiet, and very, very wonderful.

--“Arching” another arch, and Colin getting moderately stuck on the way back down. (Getting up was the easy part, but if you’ve ever seen Colin dance, you know the problems he has with getting down… (These are jokes). Eventually, and carefully, he made it down, just beating the sunset, and the rapid onset of darkness.

-- The couple up in this somewhat hard to reach arch before us? We saw them later at the Chevron station in Moab. They were from the L.A. area, too… La Mirada, I believe, on their way to Denver for a wedding. They had come from Grand Canyon (current destination of Doctors Ponder and Campbell) and were going to hit Bryce and Zion on the way back to L.A. Told them about the 12-24 combo. Their loss if they miss it!

--We’re not entirely sure, but it seems that Isis is getting a bit jealous of all the attention Car Woody has been getting from the blog. Before giving us directions to Interstate 70 today, Isis started going on and on about the Mattel toy recall, and how Car Woody was probably next. Odd…

-- Final Daily Score card:

Free Range Cows: 2

Free Range Coyotes: 1

Free Range Lizards: 1

Not-so-free range bugs on the front license plate after car was meticulously detailed before start of journey: Incalculable

Number of times Emily quoted Trading Places: 4 (For those who know the film, we ate a lot of beef jerky, and ended the day in the Jacuzzi.)

Current Mood: Jazzed

Current Location:


On Tap: Denver! Red Rocks! Bad Beatle Cover Bands!

DAY TWO: All Aboard the Flying M

Greetings from PANGUITCH, a city in Utah that we can’t pronounce (we’re too embarrassed to ask a townie for proper pronunciation). It’s our stopover between Zion and Arches National Parks. Panguitch is a row of motels and coffee shops right off the highway. Late tonight, we landed at the Flying M restaurant for a piece of apple pie, and as a bonus, got a waitress with all the town gossip. Said waitress tipped us off to the bait and switch pricing scandal at a nearby hotel, and it was on her recommendation that we turned the CR-V in to a Doc Brown-modified DeLorean, and went back to 1952…

Or at least, that’s how it seems in large parts of Panguitch, a city where the thin line between “gimmicky retro” and “not upgraded in five decades” is oft-blurred. So here we are in 1952 at the Lamp Lighter Inn, which is definitely on the “original” side of the scale… in a good way.

Things that happened today that were good: Breakfast with Doctor Kathy Campbell, and her lovely husband, Doctor Steve Ponder, at the Food Network-featured “Coffee Cup” Diner in Boulder City, NV. The drive through spectacular Nevada, Arizona, and Utah countryside. XM Satellite radio. Emily taking her first turn behind the wheel. Zion National Park. Getting a great WPA-designed poster of Zion which is going to look fantastic in our house. Hiking the Riverside Trail at Zion, stopping only when we had to start wading through the water The pie and tater-tots at the Flying M. Not getting sunburned.

The not so good: Emily pulling on to the freeway after a gas stop with the emergency brake still activated. (Whoops.) No Internet access at Lamp Lighter. (What, they didn’t have the ‘net in 1952?) Car struck by a flying bird/giant bat at sundown. Our GPS device (“Isis,” we call her, after the Egyptian goddess of navigation) trying to find a Starbucks located inside a casino, and sending us on a fourteen mile Interstate detour. (What, they didn’t have Starbucks in ancient Egypt?) Completely forgetting about the Mountain Time Zone, and discovering on our return to the Zion visitors center that it wasn’t 5:45, it was really 6:45, and an extra hour had been snipped out of our day.

The great: Ending the day, safe and secure, looking at 100+ photos of day two, writing this blog, an air conditioned room. And heading for Arches National Park, possibly via a very scenic highway, in the morning. After we check out one of the other cool diners in town…

Dam, That's Big!

Greetings from Boulder City, Nevada, where after a full day of travel, Emily and Colin (composing this post together in the seldom-used "joint first person" tense) are safe and sound, back at the hotel room, after a day filled with driving, the majesty of a pizza and chicken wings cruise on Lake Mead to the Hoover Dam, a late night visit to the ritzy Wynn Hotel and Casino Resort in Las Vegas (where one machine spit out a cool $100 bill for Emily... yes, it was the ATM...), granola bars, 50's diners, meeting up with Colin's mom and husband Steve, cheese plates, air conditioning failures (in the hotel room tonight, not in the so-far performing like a champ Honda CR-V), a variety of beverages, and so much more!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so instead of going on and on, here's a thousand words worth of our day:Unofficial trip mascot "Car Woody," atop the CR-V, at the Hoover Dam. Which, Emily learned today, was not named for J. Edgar Hoover. Who knew?

Current location:


Current mood: Satisfied, and a bit tired.

And... we're off!

The iPod is loaded. The GPS is updated. The XM is waiting. Every device with initials is charged and ready. So am I.

Too nervous to sleep? Have I forgotten anything? More importantly - what if all the stores in America are closed, and we can't get something that we really, really need? This is why the decision to bring along 24 cans of Mountain Dew seems, to me, to be a good one. Plus, you know, we'll drink it... and then the car will get lighter as we drive. By Kansas City, we may even have to hit a (gasp!) Wal-Mart for refills!

Emily is great with lists and checklists, and categories, and sorting, and organizing. And while I was off working tonight (and packing, way too late), she was organizing all of the essentials - the big plastic box filled with a trash can and Costco-sized packages of beef jerky, the box-o-chargers-and-cords, aforementioned suitcase full of beverages (Gatorade, water, etc.)

Let the journey begin!

Current location:

Current Mood: Excited

Planning? What is this "Planning"?

If by "planning," Emily means we have both:

A) A Bluetooth-enabled Garmin Nuvi 360 GPS device and
B) An old-fashioned AAA "TripTik"

... then yes, we've done some planning. Other than that, the road, much like the sky, is wide open. (And by "wide open" I mean raining. Which may be good. Maybe the flooding will help do something about the oppressive heat.)