On the Open Road
>> June 30, 2013
A few weeks ago I mentioned that I started a little road trip with my brother. It was a cross-country trip from Arizona to Georgia, and so far I've only told you about our time in Arizona! Whew.
Anywho, picking up where we left off. We finished our long day at the Grand Canyon with dinner and drinks and the historic El Tovar hotel inside the park. The next day, we were up bright and early to head out again...our goal was to make it to Santa Rosa, New Mexico with a quick stop over in Petrified Forest National Park. Unfortunately, the Petrified Forest was at a bit of a disadvantage. The day before we were in the Grand Canyon which was stunning, and absolutely incredible. By the time we made it to the Petrified Forest we were like "is this it"? While it was great to get a few more stamps in my passport and check that off the "to-do list", needless to say we were happy to get back in the car and get to our final destination.
If I could sum up our experience in New Mexico in one word it would be "weird". It was definitely an interesting place caught between the glory days of Route 66 and, well...somewhere else. I've heard great things about Albuquerque, but we were only passing through so we didn't see much while we were there. Finally, we made it to our hotel and checked in long enough to relax for a little bit and head back out for dinner. Restaurant options in Santa Rosa, NM were slim...we asked the guy at the front desk for suggestions. Enthusiastically, he said "I always suggest the Route 66 diner, OH and it's Burger Thursday"! I thought, well...when in Rome, right? We were right in the thick of old Route 66 and we could take a trip back in time, plus burgers...I can dig a good burger. Needless to say, if you ever find yourself in the area I would implore you to try a different option. Our little diner should have gone away with the Route 66 travelers of old. I digress.
It was up and At em' bright and early again the next day. Well sort of. We were 20 minutes outside of Santa Rosa when we realized that we forgot to fuel up so we decided to turn around because we weren't sure when we would see another gas station. So after a short detour, we were on the road again and headed for Amarillo. We weren't scheduled to stop in Amarillo, but I was interested in seeing the Cadillac Ranch on our way through town. It certainly was interesting and weird...but I did say that I was looking for Americana and well, I found it. We didn't stop, but it wouldn't take more than a quick pit stop on the side of the highway. Then it was onward to Oklahoma City and the Stockyards! After breezing through OK City and stopping for a quick lunch is was on to Van Buren Arkansas. Today was our longest driving day, and we clocked a total of 600 miles in one day...whew! There wasn't much to note about Van Buren aside from the fact that it was in a dry county and apparently that have large baseball tourney's there.
Again, after a long day it was up bright and early the next morning to hit the road. This time we were headed to Memphis, TN. Memphis was a short four hour drive (lol) and since we were up pretty early, we rolled into town around 11am-ish. Neither of us had ever been to Memphis, so we did what any good Southerner would do...we headed straight to one of their best BBQ spots to check out the 'Que. We ended up at Central BBQ and gah...let me just say it was nice to be back in the South. After several days of really bad food, it made their ribs taste that much better! No trip to Memphis would be complete without a stopover at Graceland, Beale Street, and drinks at the Peabody ...so we did all three! After several days of straight driving, it was really fun to hang out with Elvis and slurp gigantic beers with twangy blues in the background. Good stuff all around...so much so, that we didn't want to leave. We stayed for dinner and got to our hotel room late that night in Corinth MS.
We were SO tired after spending the whole day in Memphis and getting in late. But alas, we were early risers again because we had another full day ahead of us. Today it was onwards to Shiloh National Military Park, we were both really excited about visiting this park. Will and I both love military history, and he especially has a wealth of knowledge about various Civil War battles and military tactics that were used. We arrived fairly early and opted for the driving tour around the park, it was amazing and I would love to do it again on a bike. It's unreal the amount of soldiers that fought and died there, I tried to imagine what it would have been like and it seems like it would have been just sheer chaos and terror. shudder. A word of advice about visiting the park: first; DO visit and second, give yourself plenty of time. We budgeted two hours in the park, we stayed for three and we still didn't see everything.
We actually intended to take an additional detour to drive on the Natchez Trace Parkway but couldn't because we spent too much time in at Shiloh. After leaving Shiloh, it was on to Decatur Alabama for a quick stop for lunch at legendary Big Bob Gibson's. We had several kinds of their 'Que, the best by far being the chicken with white bbq sauce and the pulled pork. So delicious that I didn't even snap a picture, I just grabbed one outside as we were leaving. Back on the road again, and we passed through Town Creek AL which is where our grandfather is from. It was cool seeing his little bitty town with it's one four way stop. #precious. After passing through Birmingham, we were in the home stretch. We rolled into Atlanta around 7 o'clock after a long day and an even longer trip. It was an amazing experience, I had so much fun exploring the country and I'm thankful for the quality time that I spent with my brother. I would do it again, in a heartbeat.
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