Erica & Wes' belated honeymoon road trip, part 1 -
INTRODUCTION & CONCLUSION aka the short version.
(...for those of you who don't have time for the in between details. This will be long enough anyway.)
We finally have wedding bands!!
They both arrived just in the nick of time, too. I got mine the Tuesday before our trip and Wes' came in that Thursday (we left on Saturday).
We survived our 12 day road trip. \(^_^)/ We drove across 5 states, totaled 3,000 miles and I drove all but about 8 hours of it. **applause please** This is quite impressive since I've never driven further than Dallas, TX before embarking on this trip. And because I hate driving. LOL Driving 8 1/2 hours straight from one state to another is horrible. I had a wonderful vacation over all but Wes and I agreed that we're flying on our next trip.
My coworkers got us a "just married" sign for my car. I accidentally rolled down the windows and lost it on our second day. My bad >.>
"Why a road trip?", you ask. Well, I've always flown to and from my vacation destinations. I've never done a road trip before. Okay, I take it back...we drove to a few places here and there when I was growing up but I
hated it. My mom, dad, two aunts and two cousins (that is 7 people in a 5 passenger car...good thing we were all small) piled into my dad's car and drove straight to wherever we were going--usually Lake Murray or Houston, TX--with no stops. No potty breaks. No snacks. No sightseeing. No whining. When Wes and I were talking about honeymoon ideas, I decided I wanted a
real road trip. One that was the exact opposite of the trips I took when I was younger. I wanted stops at random interesting locales. I wanted to take my time and not have a destination timeline. I'm not sure if Wes was 100% on board but he didn't object so I decided that's what we were going to do. I mean, who would want to vacation in Aruba when you can spend two weeks in a car? Hahaha...
My coworkers gifted me with an awesome road trip goodie cooler the day before I left. We only got through about half of the snacks.
I had a few destinations planned out (mostly friends and family I wanted to see) and Wes was my navigator. With my car serviced, cleaned and filled with snacks- thanks, Elizabeth, Rachel, Tashara, Brendon & Audra--we set off. We were on the road from Saturday October 3rd until Wednesday October 14th.
We drove out of Oklahoma (there were no interesting stops) and into Texas. Somewhere in Texas, I stopped in a "trading post" aka touristy rest stop + gift shop and got some Minnetonka moccasins. We also missed a turn and accidentally drove through the town of Anson, TX. That was one of my favorite stops. We barely stopped (only at the Dairy Queen to use the restroom) but it was the cutest town to accidentally get lost in. The speed limit was only 30mph so I got to take in the sights. They had quaint homes along the street, a park, town hall and some old fashioned looking restaurants. They also had all the expected small town shops: a bakery, pharmacy, general store and church. It was like driving through
Pleasantville (remember that movie with Toby Maguire & Reese Witherspoon?) I wish we could have stopped to explore but it was our first day out and we wanted to get to New Mexico before dark. If it was around dinner time, I would have insisted that we eat at the Anson Diner.
Out of Texas and into New Mexico... and straight into monsoon season. We got into New Mexico pretty late at night and it was raining solid sheets of water. Living in Oklahoma my entire life, I was accustomed to driving through rain. I was not accustomed to driving through streets that had
no drainage systems. Seriously, zero storm drains on the streets. All of the roads immediately flooded. You know how on the news they tell you to not drive through water if you can't see how deep it is? That was like every intersection. There was flooding everywhere and I couldn't tell if it was just a foot deep or 6ft deep. Getting into New Mexico that first night was the worst part of driving the entire trip! Luckily, we made it to Carlsbad, NM without any trouble (just one stressed out Erica :/ )
We spent the next day in White's City, NM exploring the Carlsbad Caverns. I will blog about that experience in full next week. (I took tons of pictures!) There was an Apache Trading Post that had cherry cider but they were closed when we drove by :( Literally, every place was closed on Sunday. I feel like the only good part of New Mexico was the handwritten thank you note our hotel left for us when we checked in.
I took a picture of my car in almost all of our destinations. I started to forget to toward the end of our trip.
Out of New Mexico and into Arizona... but not before passing through El Paso. That was another stressful drive. I'm not sure if any of you have driven through El Paso, TX but it is
terrible. The speed limit changed from anywhere between 45mph to 65mph every 3-4 miles. I was constantly either speeding or being run off the road. And there were cops EVERYWHERE. I was waiting to get pulled over but we made it with zero speeding tickets : ) After passing through border control, we were safely in Arizona. We stopped in Arizona to see my cousin, Sieu, and his family. We also went to Arizona Mills (the mall I go to every year when I visit) and IKEA. Wes & I got some good home decorating and furniture ideas. I picked up some candles for my mom and drooled over a sewing machine. Then Arizona was done and we were off to Nevada!
I didn't consider that we'd be driving through mountain and desert for a majority of this trip so my options for interesting touristy stops was very slim. Most of our stops were at gas stations for potty breaks. Nevertheless, I got to take in gorgeous scenery and drive through a few mountain ranges--I don't remember which ones. I do remember that the Guadalupe Mountains were really pretty. I wish I would have pulled over for pictures but I will just have to keep the images of the mountains in my memory instead of on my camera roll.
Before driving into Las Vegas, we stopped at a bridge over the Hoover Dam. We got to walk over the dam and we walked out of Nevada & back into Arizona (then turned around and walked back into Nevada. LOL).
Las Vegas was a lot of fun. Besides the usual Las Vegas Strip tourist stuff, we got re-married by a spunky Elvis impersonator. And we gorged ourselves on Korean BBQ when we met my uncle for lunch. My uncle is only in his fifties and he still gets around just fine but he had a stroke a few years ago. He was having a hard time getting out of my car (we dropped him off at an Asian grocery store where his wife was meeting him after lunch). I stopped in front of the store & put my emergency lights on. My uncle started to get out and the car behind us honked their horn at us. Ummm...excuse me...first off, you don't honk at an elderly man with a cane and secondly, you don't honk at a Ngo. My uncle turned around, glared at the guy behind us (first an angry look then an "oh watch me" look) and proceeded to take his sweet time getting out of the car. Wes & I laughed. And I wished for myself that I can be that sassy at 50 years old.
I think both Wes and myself were too grownup to truly enjoy Las Vegas as they portray it on television. We only drank in moderation and didn't gamble our life savings away. But for me, that isn't what I wanted to do anyway. I will have an entire blog post devoted to Las Vegas activities but for now, I will just leave you with a picture of me and David Copperfield, who is still dreamy at 59 years old.
We spent four days and three nights in Las Vegas and were both ready to leave. We did everything we had on the list and didn't feel like exploring anymore. It was entirely too hot. I really wanted this evil eye bracelet from the Cosmopolitan but oh well. I suppose I can always order it online if I really wanted to. We drove back to Arizona to see another cousin & her family (Trevor and Andrew!!) and then to lunch with an old friend. Details and pictures of our Arizona ventures will be posted on later blogs, if you're interested. It'll mostly be pictures of me and my cousin's kids & dog and then pictures of me and Christine. Because family.
Then out of Arizona and back through New Mexico, Texas and back home. We had to drive through the scary city of Holbrook, AZ. It was an old paleontology site so all of their town decorations were old run-down life-size ceramic dinosaurs. The entire city was old, drab and unwelcoming. I wanted some pictures of the dinosaurs but not enough to actually get out of my car. All the gas stations had signs proclaiming "no free restrooms." We finally went into a Dairy Queen and Wes asked about the signs. The teen at the register said they needed to have those signs to prevent the homeless population from ruining their restrooms. There were zero homeless people on the streets when we drove through so either the homeless are all invisible ghosts or the town of Holbrook just hates people. I vote the latter. On our way out through New Mexico, there were signs on the highway advising drivers to not pick up hitchhikers because the Federal prison was nearby. Then we saw a few hitchhikers. We both had a good laugh about that. I wanted a picture but decided against it. And, no we didn't help anyone escape prison. LOL
The later half of the trip wasn't as fun as the beginning because we both started to get sick. And I started the monthly dread. (x_x) Between cramps and a sore throat, I was just ready to get home. That was the only time I couldn't do all the driving. I had to pass the wheel off to Wes as I laid in a painful ball. But, it wasn't all bad. We did stop in Albuquerque, NM and spend a day at Old Town. I really enjoyed Old Town and will be writing about it on a separate blog. I paid for an hour of parking but spent two hours walking through the plaza and looking in its unique gift shops. I would have wandered more but I started to worry for my car. Wes decided he wanted a souvenir kachina doll but he was too picky to find one he liked. Nothing else noteworthy really happened on the way home. Oh, we did stop in Cline's Corner. Wes and his family used to stop there on road trips in his youth so we made a stop for nostalgia's sake.
I will blog more about each of our Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada stops later. I have so many pictures (SO.MANY.PICTURES.) and stories I want to tell you! I love to journal and I'm pretty long winded so be prepared. LOL Overall, it was a wonderful honeymoon vacation. I'm glad we drove it and I loved all the extra stops we got to make. Our vow renewal ceremony in Las Vegas was my favorite part. Elvis was hilarious and I can't wait to get our pictures back. It was amazing getting to see my family along the way and catch up with old friends. But...like I said earlier, we'll definitely be flying to our next vacation. Driving for 8+ hours really put its toll on my old bones. And I've rediscovered why I usually don't go into gas station bathrooms. I have a crazy month of craft shows coming up so travel blogs might be put on hold. But yay for craft shows, right?!!?! (^.^) CRAFT SHOWS! TRAVELING! RAGSREBORN! Sometimes, the Universe is pretty swell.
