We escaped the snow and headed to the southwest to visit my Mom and family. We moved them out there in June 2012 and was happy to escape back to the cool of the Northeast. This year though it was a welcome relief to get away from the bustle of the NYC metro area, and only hear the sound of tractors, birds and the wind. It was great to find roads with no one around, the photo above is only a minute from my Mom’s place.
Even as a skinny kid I had a low tolerance to heat. Maybe it’s the whole being born in February thing or my DNA, I do not like heat. Returning our car in the morning turned into chaos. The rental company did not give me a specific requirement. They called and I said, “Oh yah we’ll be back by 10:30am” and proceeded to not realize it was 10:15am and we were no where near leaving. Making matters worse was my Mom and Dan had some errands they wanted to run which made it a little more confusing to coordinate, and then it turned out Prescott had Rodeo Days going on, so traffic was insane. I did finally get the car turned in, the guy was very nice and the room full of people waiting on our car return kindly did […]
We woke with the sun at 5:30am and we were out the door and on the road at 6am. From my Mom’s place the Grand Canyon is about 2 hours away. The day before I read up on visiting the Grand Canyon, what to do, what to avoid and so forth. We headed north on AZ 89 to I-40 and then east to Williams. We stopped in Williams for both Starbucks and gas. We had driven by here twice in the past week but never got off the highway, I wish we had. Williams is a really cute town with lots of Route 66 charm. In many ways it looks like Radiator Springs from Cars. After stocking up on gas and caffeine, we headed north on AZ 64 to the Grand Canyon. It’s a straight shot, 1 hour of driving […]
Also known as the most amazing road to drive! If you love driving, and long for a road that seems to be made for a Porsche 911, then this is the road for you. Sadly we were not driving a Porsche 911 but rather a GMC Terrain. We took it easy yesterday morning and then in the afternoon decided to explore Highway 89A. I had found this route for my Mom and Dan back in September 2011. I looked on Google Maps and saw all the twists and turns and told them, “you gotta drive this road it looks amazing.” They did and were incredibly impressed. Anyone who’s known me for a while knows I love the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire. It’s possibly my favorite scenic road to drive, and it’s where Craig engaged to me. This route puts […]
The sun comes up early here. 5:00 am and Craig and I were both awake. I drifted back and forth between sleep and awake, while Craig wrote lyrics. We got up and headed out to the Safeway for Starbucks and some groceries. It feels like people can tell we’re not from the area. Not sure what exactly it is, but there’s a feeling. We came back home and relaxed with my Mom and Dan. Craig napped and I worked on installing face plates and cleaning up the bathroom. I took a much needed shower that felt awesome. We lounged around some more, I got my full lazy on sitting in the living room looking out over the mountains with my feet up in a recliner. It was great. Later in the evening we took my Mom and Dan down to […]
We departed Gallup, NM and quickly crossed over in Arizona. This section of I-40 was particularly flat and looking like driving across Mars, as much as one can imagine. The red rocks of New Mexico were gone, replaced with light brown rock, bleached ground, sage brush and the occasional small shrub. Craig and I switched drivers so he could sleep. I had to make time to catch up with my Mom and Dan who’d kept going. I put tunes on, kitties chilled out and I put the pedal to the floor. I cruised along doing 85mph and slowly caught up. We stopped in Flagstaff for lunch only to be surpised that it was not 11:30am like we thought but 10:30am. The nice people at Cracker Barrel worked it so we could get lunch. I really liked Flagstaff, surrounded by mountains […]