Day two of shared driving. Seriously, this makes such a huge difference; I didn't end each day feeling like I needed to sleep for 24 hours, and get myself a whole new knee to replace the one in my right leg that had seized up. And that's just from driving an automatic!
We drove into downtown Santa Fe for a couple of hours before heading out, because it's one of my mom's favourite cities. It is very beautiful; almost everything is adobe buildings, and not much over 3 floors. And yet the city stretches out over quite a wide area, and has a big freeway system, so it does *feel* like a city; just a...short, quaint one. :)
We headed out from Santa Fe through to Arizona, apparently following much of the old Route 66 highway. We had almost made it out of the state when the first car-related trouble of the trip hit: a rock bounced up off the highway and crashed into my windshield, making a circular mark in the lower middle part of the windshield.
As a side note, we'd driven over some gravel road the day before (because there was construction work; I'm not taking my poor little Echo off-roading, don't worry!), and my mom had immediately leaned forward and started pushing on the windshield. Apparently she'd read somewhere that this can prevent cracks if rocks do actually bounce up and hit the windshield. I'm not sure of the science of of this, but the information is now out there for you. Use it wisely. I will warn you, however, of one thing that this method *does* result in: fingerprints on the inside of your windshield.
Anyway, the rock hit us just outside of Gallup, NM, so we went into town to get some coffee (we're like the English that way, only on crack: espresso instead of tea.) We find a coffee place, park the car, get out, and realise that there is a glass place right across the street from the coffee place. So I pop on over, and they tell me they can do the quick fix thing (which my mom - who knew she was such an expert in autombile glass??? - describes as squirting some gel in and making the mark go away) in 15-20 minutes for $25. Awesome! So we wait.
Turns out there are *2* rock holes on the windshield; we have no idea when the first happend, as it's so low and small we didn't even notice it. So it takes a little longer and we pay a little (a very little) more. The holes didn't quite disappear, but they also weren't spreading, so we were happy enough and went on our merry way.
We drove mostly interstates, in the interests of time (we wanted to get to the Grand Canyon in time to put up the tent before it got dark), so there wasn't much to see. We stopped in Flagstaff for dinner, and may I just report that the staff at the Flagstaff Visitor's Centre were among the least friendly I've run into during this whole trip? On the other hand, Flagstaff has some good-looking restaurants, and the one we ate at had some delicious vegetarian fare. I knew nothing about Flagstaff, so this was a pleasant surprise!
Then we high-tailed it up to the Grand Canyon, because there was a break in the clouds and we were hoping to get the tent up before it started raining again. There was virtually no traffic on the two-lane highway we took most of the way, which was a bit unnerving, *especially* since there were no signs to reassure us that we were, in fact, taking the highway to the Grand Canyon! However, there were various "adopt a highway" signs with the names of local businesses, and we reasoned that those would only be there if this was a regularly-travelled highway, so all was well.
We made it to the Grand Canyon National Park, found our campsite, put up the tent, and hightailed it out to the Canyon to catch as much as we could before the light faded.
Wow.
I was a little worried that it had been built up so much that it couldn't live up to expectations, but it did. It's difficult to describe in words - or even to capture in film - how amazingly gorgeous it is. It's huge, with amazing colours and rock formations. Also, however, full of tourists. Many of whom are telling ecach other entertaing "facts" about the Grand Canyon, so that was kind of amusing. :)
Then we got back into the tent and went to sleep as early as possible, with our alarms set for 5 a.m. so we could get up and watch the sunrise.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Day 24: Austin to Santa Fe, NM
Mom and I left really early today, because google maps told us this was going to be a 14 hour driving day. And it kinda felt like that, what with the 5 hours of driving just to get out of TEXAS (remind me never to drive across Alaska which, if I hear tell correctly, is the only state larger than Texas.) (Although, believe me, I did not mention that while I was *in* Texas...:P)
By the way, nowhere in Texas did it actually look like the Texas I expected, and we drove clean across the state. It was all sort of much more green than I expected, and we never ran into any kind of oil fields. Perhaps they are farther north? Or farther southeast than we went?
We stopped in Roswell - we HAD to - and looked for food. We got a little sidetracked by the UFO Museum and Research Centre, which was EXTREMELY interesting. In a can't-look-away-from-the-traffic-accident kind of way...incidentally, a few days later, when Mom and I were at a hotel with TVs in the room, we saw a special on how many scientists believe that memories of alien abduction are, in fact, caused by sleep paralysis. Interesting. As my mom points out, however, it doesn't explain those troubling crop circles...
Other than the many UFO-related businesses, Roswell is a bit of a sad, dead town; a theme we saw repeated all across New Mexico. It's a beautiful place, but I'm guessing there's not a lot going on with the economy there. Very sad.
We made it to New Mexico in plenty of time, after less than 12 hours of driving - heck, the swimming pool at the Motel 6 was still open when we got there! (But, uh, full of screaming children, so we didn't go in.) Unfortunately, we learned a hard lesson upon our arrival there: when Motel 6's advertise that there are internet dataports in each room, what they *actually* mean is that you can unplug the cord from the phone, plug it into your computer, and dial up your own internet service. Um, okay. Then what you really have in the room is a "phone", right? Stop with the false advertising!!!
So, night #1 of no internet access for us. Sigh.
By the way, nowhere in Texas did it actually look like the Texas I expected, and we drove clean across the state. It was all sort of much more green than I expected, and we never ran into any kind of oil fields. Perhaps they are farther north? Or farther southeast than we went?
We stopped in Roswell - we HAD to - and looked for food. We got a little sidetracked by the UFO Museum and Research Centre, which was EXTREMELY interesting. In a can't-look-away-from-the-traffic-accident kind of way...incidentally, a few days later, when Mom and I were at a hotel with TVs in the room, we saw a special on how many scientists believe that memories of alien abduction are, in fact, caused by sleep paralysis. Interesting. As my mom points out, however, it doesn't explain those troubling crop circles...
Other than the many UFO-related businesses, Roswell is a bit of a sad, dead town; a theme we saw repeated all across New Mexico. It's a beautiful place, but I'm guessing there's not a lot going on with the economy there. Very sad.
We made it to New Mexico in plenty of time, after less than 12 hours of driving - heck, the swimming pool at the Motel 6 was still open when we got there! (But, uh, full of screaming children, so we didn't go in.) Unfortunately, we learned a hard lesson upon our arrival there: when Motel 6's advertise that there are internet dataports in each room, what they *actually* mean is that you can unplug the cord from the phone, plug it into your computer, and dial up your own internet service. Um, okay. Then what you really have in the room is a "phone", right? Stop with the false advertising!!!
So, night #1 of no internet access for us. Sigh.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Day 23: Yep, still here in Austin
Aaaaand this morning? I finished the book. Followed by a viewing of Hairspray with my mom, and a shopping trip at Whole Foods for tomorrow’s driving. Then I did some laundry, Mom watched some bad t.v. (a Lifetime movie starring Kellie Martin? Crazy!) Could be anywhere, right? Ah, well. Every road trip needs to include some time for sleeping and catching up on stuff…and re-packing the car.
Day 22: Still Austin
Today, for the first time in the road trip, it rained cats and dogs. I mean, it’s rained before, but only when I was driving (especially at night); it’s never actually rained on a day when we wanted to go walking around. So Anja clearly picked the right time to leave. Or Mom brought her Seattle weather with her. Whichever.
Mom and I had to walk down to a big Austin book store where I had bought a ticket to the Harry Potter book launching that evening. I am actually not a huge Harry Potter fan, despite what impression I may be giving you, what with the movies and the books. On the other hand, I have read all of the other six books, and I really didn’t want to be spoiled for the last book. And I have no doubt people will be running around trying to spoil the book. Plus, a girl I know in Austin was going by herself, so I figured I could go with her.
Anyways, unnecessarily defensive overexplanations aside, Mom and I had to wander down to the bookstore, so we essentially walked through the same areas Anja and I had seen the day before. We got the tickets, wandered the bookstore, then stopped in to the Whole Foods across the street. Where they had a delicious salad bar!! And calzones! Mmmmmm!
We wandered back to the motel, where Mom had a nap and I wrote more postcards, and then went out again to meet up with some imaginary friends for dinner. Well, real friends, that I had only known online up to that point. They were just as great as I had anticipated, plus I had draught Guinness! Though the waiter made fun of my request for a pint. Whatever.
After dinner? Harry Potter madness at the bookstore. There were, I swear, more than 1000 people in the parking lot of the bookstore, many in costume. Stalls were set up, there was a band playing…it was crazy. They apparently gave out 1500 vouchers for books, but it looked like some people had doubles. I had #606, and I had the book by about 12:30 a.m., so at least they were moving it quick!
Then we came home, and I read the book. Not *all* night, but…uh…longer than I had intended. But I did stop and sleep, I swear!
Mom and I had to walk down to a big Austin book store where I had bought a ticket to the Harry Potter book launching that evening. I am actually not a huge Harry Potter fan, despite what impression I may be giving you, what with the movies and the books. On the other hand, I have read all of the other six books, and I really didn’t want to be spoiled for the last book. And I have no doubt people will be running around trying to spoil the book. Plus, a girl I know in Austin was going by herself, so I figured I could go with her.
Anyways, unnecessarily defensive overexplanations aside, Mom and I had to wander down to the bookstore, so we essentially walked through the same areas Anja and I had seen the day before. We got the tickets, wandered the bookstore, then stopped in to the Whole Foods across the street. Where they had a delicious salad bar!! And calzones! Mmmmmm!
We wandered back to the motel, where Mom had a nap and I wrote more postcards, and then went out again to meet up with some imaginary friends for dinner. Well, real friends, that I had only known online up to that point. They were just as great as I had anticipated, plus I had draught Guinness! Though the waiter made fun of my request for a pint. Whatever.
After dinner? Harry Potter madness at the bookstore. There were, I swear, more than 1000 people in the parking lot of the bookstore, many in costume. Stalls were set up, there was a band playing…it was crazy. They apparently gave out 1500 vouchers for books, but it looked like some people had doubles. I had #606, and I had the book by about 12:30 a.m., so at least they were moving it quick!
Then we came home, and I read the book. Not *all* night, but…uh…longer than I had intended. But I did stop and sleep, I swear!
Day 21: Goodbye Anja, Hello Mom!
Today was Anja’s last day of road-tripping. Not that I wanted her to go home, but she apparently couldn’t take any more time off. In all honesty, there’s no real way both she and Mom would fit in the car with all my crap…
We wandered around downtown Austin for a bit, had a delicious egg/tortilla/black bean/salsa breakfast, shopped for souvenirs, and mailed about 100 postcards at the post office. In downtown Austin, by the way, there is a mailbox painted up like R2 D2. Presumably to go with the USPS’ Star Wars stamps. Whatever, it’s cute!
We had ice cream for lunch at Amy’s Ice Cream. I love vacation.
Then Anja tried desperately to pack all of her things into her backpack for the trip home. She brought out 6 books that she had intended to leave with me, and thought she’d go back with a light backpack; instead, she had a huuuuuge plastic bag filled with carry-on souvenirs, and actually ended up leaving some of her toiletries with me. Heh. Who can resist Elvis and folk art?
I drove Anja out to the airport, came back and tidied up the hotel room a bit, napped a bit, ate some dinner, then drove back out to the airport to pick up my mom. When I went out the second time, I swear I followed the same route I took the first time, to the point of pulling into the parking garage, but I turned left and parked in the third row instead of turning right and parking in the second row. Yet, somehow, when I dropped Anja off we were on the first level of the parking garage, and when I picked up Mom I was parked on the second level of the parking garage.
I can’t even begin to explain how this happened. I thought I was going crazy for a second. Does the Austin airport short-term parking garage have a day set-up and a night set-up?
We wandered around downtown Austin for a bit, had a delicious egg/tortilla/black bean/salsa breakfast, shopped for souvenirs, and mailed about 100 postcards at the post office. In downtown Austin, by the way, there is a mailbox painted up like R2 D2. Presumably to go with the USPS’ Star Wars stamps. Whatever, it’s cute!
We had ice cream for lunch at Amy’s Ice Cream. I love vacation.
Then Anja tried desperately to pack all of her things into her backpack for the trip home. She brought out 6 books that she had intended to leave with me, and thought she’d go back with a light backpack; instead, she had a huuuuuge plastic bag filled with carry-on souvenirs, and actually ended up leaving some of her toiletries with me. Heh. Who can resist Elvis and folk art?
I drove Anja out to the airport, came back and tidied up the hotel room a bit, napped a bit, ate some dinner, then drove back out to the airport to pick up my mom. When I went out the second time, I swear I followed the same route I took the first time, to the point of pulling into the parking garage, but I turned left and parked in the third row instead of turning right and parking in the second row. Yet, somehow, when I dropped Anja off we were on the first level of the parking garage, and when I picked up Mom I was parked on the second level of the parking garage.
I can’t even begin to explain how this happened. I thought I was going crazy for a second. Does the Austin airport short-term parking garage have a day set-up and a night set-up?
Day 20: Memphis to Austin, TX: it’s a 4-state tour.
This was our looooooongest driving day yet. We left our hotel at 7:30 a.m., and rolled in to Austin at about 11:45 p.m.
Did I mention that Anja doesn’t drive? ‘Cause she doesn’t. Those gazillions of hours of driving? All me, baby.
We did stop a few times. We had wanted to drive down the coast of the Mississippi River for a while in the morning, and couldn’t find a highway that actually gave any kind of view of the River. We did find a visitor information centre, though, so we stopped to ask them. They gave us directions, and then got very excited because I’m Canadian – apparently, Mississippi is doing some kind of survey of Canadian visitors, to find out how and why they’re coming to Mississippi (I’m assuming this is because they want more Canadians to come and spend tourist dollars, and not because they’re trying to figure out how to stem the tide of invading Canadians or anything…) and I was the first Canadian she’d seen since the survey came out. I agreed to fill out the survey form, and she told me that it was available in two languages: French, or Spanish.
Uh, Spanish? Ooookay…
Luckily, my French is good enough to say I came to Mississippi par voiture, and stayed there for zero jours, and spent moins de cent dollars. And one of the questions was actually in English. So weird. Mississippi needs editors, methinks.
We also stopped in a little town in Louisiana to see the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum. It’s a funny little museum, and a bit gruesome, but very detailed. And the man who runs in – Linton Hinton! – is the son of one of the police officers who ambushed Bonnie and Clyde! He is full of stories, but his desire to tell us stories conflicted slightly with my intense desire to make it to Austin before I fell asleep at the wheel. I think we left a little to fast for him, but an HOUR was more than the time I had meant to allot to him in the first place!
We routed through Waco, because I had hoped to see the town and maybe any memorial marker they might have, but it was about 10 p.m. and there was no way we were stopping. Interestingly, the highway from Waco to Austin – about an hour and a half? – is essentially one loooooong urban sprawl. It was unexpected for me, because I didn’t think Austin was that big. Urban sprawl is also not what I think of when I think of Texas – unless I’m thinking of Dallas, I guess, but that’s entirely Larry Hagman’s fault
We checked in to the Austin Motel, and, as usual, collapsed into stupephoria.
Did I mention that Anja doesn’t drive? ‘Cause she doesn’t. Those gazillions of hours of driving? All me, baby.
We did stop a few times. We had wanted to drive down the coast of the Mississippi River for a while in the morning, and couldn’t find a highway that actually gave any kind of view of the River. We did find a visitor information centre, though, so we stopped to ask them. They gave us directions, and then got very excited because I’m Canadian – apparently, Mississippi is doing some kind of survey of Canadian visitors, to find out how and why they’re coming to Mississippi (I’m assuming this is because they want more Canadians to come and spend tourist dollars, and not because they’re trying to figure out how to stem the tide of invading Canadians or anything…) and I was the first Canadian she’d seen since the survey came out. I agreed to fill out the survey form, and she told me that it was available in two languages: French, or Spanish.
Uh, Spanish? Ooookay…
Luckily, my French is good enough to say I came to Mississippi par voiture, and stayed there for zero jours, and spent moins de cent dollars. And one of the questions was actually in English. So weird. Mississippi needs editors, methinks.
We also stopped in a little town in Louisiana to see the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum. It’s a funny little museum, and a bit gruesome, but very detailed. And the man who runs in – Linton Hinton! – is the son of one of the police officers who ambushed Bonnie and Clyde! He is full of stories, but his desire to tell us stories conflicted slightly with my intense desire to make it to Austin before I fell asleep at the wheel. I think we left a little to fast for him, but an HOUR was more than the time I had meant to allot to him in the first place!
We routed through Waco, because I had hoped to see the town and maybe any memorial marker they might have, but it was about 10 p.m. and there was no way we were stopping. Interestingly, the highway from Waco to Austin – about an hour and a half? – is essentially one loooooong urban sprawl. It was unexpected for me, because I didn’t think Austin was that big. Urban sprawl is also not what I think of when I think of Texas – unless I’m thinking of Dallas, I guess, but that’s entirely Larry Hagman’s fault
We checked in to the Austin Motel, and, as usual, collapsed into stupephoria.
Day 19: The King has Left the Building. And So Did We…Eventually.
We woke up and “enjoyed” the free breakfast provided by the hotel. On the plus side, they had one of those conveyer toasters, so you didn’t have to wait for everyone in line in front of you to toast (or, in my case, double toast – who are all these crazy people who just want their bagels warmed up a little???) before you could start. On the minus side, bad coffee. Baaaaaaaaaaad coffee. Ugh.
Then, we embarked upon the 3 hours extravaganza that was our visit to the Graceland complex. This was the entire reason we went to Memphis which, as you may have noticed if you ever looked at a map, is a bit out of the way for a trip from Florida to Texas…Neither Anja nor I is a particularly rabid Elvis fan – I could maybe name a couple of movies, probably sing most of his ten most favourite songs, and I think I’m doing better than Anja – but who could resist the allure of all that fabulousness???
Not us, that’s fer sher!
We were taken by shuttle from the ticket area (right next door to the Heartbreak Hotel) across the street to Graceland, given headphones and a self-guided tour set, and sent off to shuffle our merry way through the house. It was PACKED. On a weekday. At about 10:30 a.m. It was pretty amazing.
The house and property are both a fair bit smaller than I would have guessed, and I didn’t know that Elvis had bought the house; I always thought he had it built. I also didn’t know how close he was to his family, or how much money he gave away, or about all of his toys and sports. You leave the tour with a much better sense of him as an interesting, flawed person than as an icon; it’s very interesting.
Except, really? The man couldn’t decorate AT ALL. I’m sorry. It’s true.
After the whole Graceland tour (which included stops – and purchases – at no less than 5 – FIVE – themed Elvis gift shops), we headed downtown to tour Beale Street (home of the blues), Sun Studio (where Elvis and Johnny Cash first recorded, among others), and the Rock and Soul Museum. It was jam-packed, but sooo amazing. I bought muuuuusic, we bought t-shirts and writing paper and mugs and all kinds of awesomeness!
(And had much less trouble finding dinner that night!)
Then, we embarked upon the 3 hours extravaganza that was our visit to the Graceland complex. This was the entire reason we went to Memphis which, as you may have noticed if you ever looked at a map, is a bit out of the way for a trip from Florida to Texas…Neither Anja nor I is a particularly rabid Elvis fan – I could maybe name a couple of movies, probably sing most of his ten most favourite songs, and I think I’m doing better than Anja – but who could resist the allure of all that fabulousness???
Not us, that’s fer sher!
We were taken by shuttle from the ticket area (right next door to the Heartbreak Hotel) across the street to Graceland, given headphones and a self-guided tour set, and sent off to shuffle our merry way through the house. It was PACKED. On a weekday. At about 10:30 a.m. It was pretty amazing.
The house and property are both a fair bit smaller than I would have guessed, and I didn’t know that Elvis had bought the house; I always thought he had it built. I also didn’t know how close he was to his family, or how much money he gave away, or about all of his toys and sports. You leave the tour with a much better sense of him as an interesting, flawed person than as an icon; it’s very interesting.
Except, really? The man couldn’t decorate AT ALL. I’m sorry. It’s true.
After the whole Graceland tour (which included stops – and purchases – at no less than 5 – FIVE – themed Elvis gift shops), we headed downtown to tour Beale Street (home of the blues), Sun Studio (where Elvis and Johnny Cash first recorded, among others), and the Rock and Soul Museum. It was jam-packed, but sooo amazing. I bought muuuuusic, we bought t-shirts and writing paper and mugs and all kinds of awesomeness!
(And had much less trouble finding dinner that night!)
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