Across the country in 10 days.
Disclaimer: Started in St. Louis :)

Wow, what a road trip. As I type this now I am in Los Angeles in my lovely Extended Stay America drinking a cup of coffee. I took a few days to try to muster up what I was wanting to say about this trip that would give it what it deserved. It was unbelievable, very inspiring, mentally energizing while also physically draining. As cliche as this sounds, life changing.

I have been wanting to do a trip like this for a while. My initial plans intended to make it two to three weeks but Rob's schedule and my budget could only afford ten days worth. That being said:

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." — Mark Twain.

I saw that today on the St. Louis Post Dispatch's website from the travel journalist's last column. Talk about a great job! Check out Tom Uhlenbrock's Travel Beat - he has a photo gallery of the favorite places he's been to.

I digress.

Our itenary was as follows:
Day 1 drive to Albuquerque NM
Day 2 Painted Desert, Grand Canyon, spend the night in Las Vegas
Day 3-4 Drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, visit with Rob's family
Day 5 Drive up Pacific Coast Highway, spend the night in Monterey
Day 6 Drive up rest of PCH to San Francisco
Day 7-end From San Francsico fly to Seattle until Rob and I depart on the 10th (I was to fly to San Francisco and drive to Fresno while Rob flew back to St. Louis).
Needless to say, plans changed but I'll go into that more in other posts.

New Years:
Was amazing. Rob and I rang in the new year with great friends at a great venue. We went to Off Broadway in St. Louis to watch a (free) funk show. The band we originally came there to see was Fattback, a band that played the Phish after party when we went to see them in Cincinnati in November. We wound up seeing this other band that blew our minds - Nebula Funk Orchestra. They lived up to and surpassed what their name brings to mind - check out their pictures I linked to their name, unbelievable. They say they rarely get together (I mean, there are like 20 people in the band) but if they do you better go see them. After checking out Fattback we went to the Gramophone off of Manchester in St. Louis and checked out another funk band, Hazard to ya Booty, til 3am. It was a great New Years with great music and great friends, probably my most favorite yet.

Day 1 - Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico:
Rob and I started our trip on New Years Day Eve. We left around 11pm which should have put us in Albuquerque, New Mexico around check in time at our hotel. Driving through the night was not bad as Rob and I heavily caffenated ourselves and talked about various things. We picked to start at night because we figured western Missouri/Oklahome were the most visually boring part of the trip. I have to say, Rob is a great road trip partner, it made the nighttime drive so enjoyable. It was around 5am when we were starting to see daylight. As the sun was starting to come up the overcast was setting in - winter in the Midwest.

The first sign of elevation and the first sign that we were far from home were when we crossed the Glass Mountains in Oklahoma. They were beautiful! They looked like small plateaus painted red. Of course Rob and I had to get out and take pictures (especially since we received a new camera for Christmas).

The red in the formations was everywhere. It is the iron rich soil(Red Carpet Country) around Oklahoma/Texas - it is in the mud, on my shoes, and still in my car. But it was still beautiful, I cannot imagine what that place looks like when it is sunny.

As we were driving southwest and getting closer to Texas the weather started cooling and frost was everywhere except the road (thank God). We even hit a white out in Texas. White out of fog, not snow.

Driving through most of Oklahoma/Texas is pretty much desolate until you arrive in Amarillo. By this time Rob and I are starving and craving some steak (we are in Texas, after all) and eggs. I get on my phone and google best diner in Amarillo, Texas and the Blue Front Cafe comes up as an option for Steak and Eggs. We arrive...

It wasn't in the best of neighborhoods and it was a little sketchy when we pulled in. We decided to give it a try anyway. Walking in it felt as if you were taken back, a truly classic diner. The coffee was strong, the service was fast, and the steak and eggs were just what we needed (for $6). You could tell it was a "local" place because they knew right away we were from out of town and stroke up conversations with us about our trip, how we found the diner, and where we came from.
We keep going through Texas..

According to Garmin - Texas was about half the drive time of Oklahoma, however, it felt as if Texas was so much longer than Oklahoma. As we were driving it was getting warmer which was very welcomed after being in a white out. From Amarillo on it was nothing but desert but that clued us into that we had to be close to New Mexico - then this appeared:

We arrived in New Mexico. Beautiful state. I have to share a lot of pictures with you of New Mexico - I believe you can see larger images if you click on them.
These pictures were taken as we were driving.

Then we finally arrive in Albuquerque, just right over the mountains as the sun was setting (see picture above). We check into our hotel and head out to Sadies, a famous, local-favorite for Mexican food. We heard of it from Rob's physical therapist who lived in Albuquerque for 20 years. The salsa was HOT. So hot we had to have three beverages (margarita, cerveza, and water), nothing could cut the spice they put in their house salsa. It was delicious.
Then we tried finding some funk music that night to no avail - we did not want to pay a cover larger than $5 for an unknown band in an unfamiliar town. We hung out in Sadies a little while longer and talked with some of the locals who were very friendly then retired to our hotel. I could definitely see myself returning to Albuquerque to visit for longer next time.

Tomorrow.... Day 2, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, and Las Vegas.

Love
L