Day 4: Drove Through the Desert in a Car with No Name

Today was supposed to be our shortest day driving, but turned out to be the longest. Even though we were just there a few years ago, we just couldn’t resist the lure of the Grand Canyon. So we took a slight detour (an hour in the wrong direction) for lunch. We stopped at the El Tovar, a beautiful historic hotel, and had lunch in the restaurant. Got lucky and scored a table right by the window. Just can’t beat the view!

Afterwards, we strolled along the Canyon ledge for a few minutes. Last time we were here, there were Elk all over the place. This time we didn’t see a single one. The weather couldn’t have been better, though. Like Flagstaff, the temperature was in the mid-70s and, of course, there was a great breeze.

You just have to marvel and praise God for His handiwork every time you look out over the Canyon. It’s one of those things you never get tired of seeing. Absolutely amazing! You just can’t do it justice with a picture, though I’ll admit you can do a better job these days with the iPhone’s panoramic feature. That one turned out pretty good.

Then it was back in the car for the now longer drive to LA. As predicted, cell service in this part of the country was spotty to non-existent. Luckily, I’d put aside some projects that didn’t require internet. Though I did have to reschedule one conference call.

Once we left the lush greenery of the Grand Canyon, it was back to the desert. Scrub brush, rocks, plateaus, and long, long trains. It didn’t take us too long to get out of Arizona before we finally crossed into California! Which was a route we’ve never taken before. Our two previous cross-country trips included a jaunt up to Las Vegas. No time this trip!

Now, people talk about New York and LA being the meccas of urban living. Which is true. But you can drive out of NYC and in less than an hour it’s as rural as they come: mountains, forests, and small towns spread far apart. I’m here to tell you that California is exactly the same, if not more so.

We drove for hours, and hours, and hours through the desert. Not a sandy desert, but rocky and dry with lots of good-sized hills and scrub brush. We finally reached the end of 40 in Barstow (I expected to see a mile marker, but didn’t), which was our first sign of civilization. And we were only around 90 minutes outside of LA. We were less than an hour from Glendale before we were finally out of the desert for good.

The sun was just going down when we reached Victorville, the next town. We swung through In-N-Out Burger (shockingly, our very first time) for a quick bite before making the final leg. We were stunned at just how busy that place was. Even after 8:00 pm, the drive through line went all the way around the parking lot (and it was a BIG parking lot). We were going to get some gas next door, but when we left, we couldn’t turn into the gas station because of all the cars. By then they were lined up down the side street.

The upside of our detour to the Grand Canyon was that had we stuck to our original schedule, we would have gotten to LA around 6:00 pm when the traffic was the worst. Even close to 9:00 it wasn’t too busy, but still crazy. I wasn’t going slow by any means, but people were flying around us left and right. It was quite a relief when we finally got off the highway and pulled into the City of Angels.

After four days, many hours, and nearly 3000 miles, we finally made it to LA! Tomorrow we start apartment hunting!

Day 3: Standing on a Crater in Winslow, Arizona

Today was our longest day on the road, which was partially remedied by the fact that we crossed two time zones (sort of). We left Shamrock around 9:30 and it didn’t take us too long to reach New Mexico and Mountain Time.

The landscape soon gave way to wide-open vistas of rocks, plateaus, desert, and tumbleweeds. The towns got further and further apart. And smaller.

We took a quick detour through Tucumcari, where we’d spent the night 18 years ago on our first cross-country trip. The main road is part of historic Route 66, so it was cool seeing some of the old motels and shops, some of which are still open. Others the ghosts of days long past.

We sort of crossed another time zone when we reached Arizona. Technically, it’s still Mountain Time, but they don’t practice Daylight Savings Time, so right now they’re the same as Pacific. Therefore, when we actually change time zones again tomorrow (Pacific), the time will still be the same.

Even after we crossed into Arizona, we still had many hours of driving to go. Marsha contemplated driving up to the Grand Canyon for dinner at the El Tovar, but it’s 90 minutes in the wrong direction. And they didn’t have any tables available until after 9:00 pm. Now she’s thinking about going there tomorrow instead of straight to LA. So much for the shorter drive tomorrow.

We were almost to Flagstaff when we kept seeing billboard after billboard for Meteor Crater, which is “the largest and best preserved meteorite crater in the world.” We were a little tired after all that driving, but decided to stop anyway. Since our goal is to just get to LA by Friday, we haven’t taken much time for sightseeing and diversions. So, we stopped to check out Meteor Crater.

They have a great little museum all about meteors, how the crater was actually determined to be from a meteor impact (and not a volcanic crater), and how they’ve studied it and used the data to identify other meteor impact craters. And reclassify some that were actually volcanic.

After we checked into the hotel (the nicest Hampton Inn we’ve ever seen; it reminds us of the Wilderness Lodge) and then drove to downtown Flagstaff for dinner. The main road there is also a part of historic Route 66, but the complete opposite of Tucumcari. It’s a thriving thoroughfare with a good selection of old motels still in business, mixed in with chain restaurants, a giant Barnes & Noble, and more.

We loved downtown Flagstaff, which is very quaint and filled with lots of great shops and restaurants. We had an excellent dinner at The Market Place, then checked out an old historic hotel (also a restaurant and bar) from the late 1800s that still had much of its original charm.

The thing that really surprised us, though, was the temperature. It’s been averaging about 99 degrees every day (it’s a dry heat), and cooling down just enough at night to be comfortable. But Flagstaff was borderline chilly. It had dropped to the mid-70s. Warm, but just barely. Especially after we’ve been sweating all day.

Tomorrow is the final leg! We’ll see if it involves a big detour or not.

Day 2: The Stars at Night Are Big and Bright

We are officially halfway across the country!

This morning we were a little slower getting up than we’d planned. We’d thought about going by the giant pyramid, but spent too much time looking up Disneyland tickets (next week!), and left the hotel later than we’d planned.

Leaving Memphis, we stopped for breakfast at McDonalds and were surprised to find one of the early ones with the arch built into the building. The inside was completely modern, but the outside was so cool I had to get out and take a picture. I kept expecting Michael Keaton to run out and urge me to buy a milkshake.

Traffic today went from good to great to nonexistent. Mostly just us and a lot of trucks. Today was our only four state day. We started in Tennessee (just barely), then drove through Arkansas where we experienced our only hiccup. I was in the wrong lane when the highway split in Little Rock and couldn’t get over because of the trucks. We went off in the wrong direction and had to backtrack a bit to get back on I-40. It was rather confusing, so thank goodness for GPS!

The rest of the day was smooth sailing. We marveled at the many windmills in Oklahoma (as we always do in this part of the country). Lots of flat farmland and the occasional hill. Just beautiful.

Last cross-country trip I noted in which states the farmers rolled their hay as opposed to baling it in rectangular blocks. Thus far, I’ve only seen rolls. But I also haven’t been driving the whole time either, which feels odd. Managed to work a full day again, though we hit our first patch of poor cell service. Tomorrow I’m planning some tasks that don’t require internet.

Our stop for the night was Shamrock, Texas. We’d thought about going to Amarillo, but thought it might be too far. Probably not, but we were still ready to stop for the night. We’d wanted to eat when we got here (steak in Texas!), but didn’t want to eat that late, so we just ran through Taco Bell. Not quite the same thing.

The billboards for Shamrock boasted their link to the movies (Cast Away), so we looked up their most famous landmark, the U-Drop Inn, which is a historic landmark from Route 66 and the inspiration for a building in Cars. It used to be a gas station and cafe (sadly, no longer an actual cafe), and was lovingly restored to be a visitor’s center. What I thought was most interesting was that they had old-fashioned gas pumps on one side (like the cafe, just for show) and Tesla charging stations on the other. How times have changed.

We’d rerouted our trip to the hotel just to see it. Turns out it was right next door to our hotel. We could have walked!

Day 1: Go West, Young Woman

Madison graduated from college (ahhh!!!) and, just like one of her idols, Walt Disney, she’s heading to LA with “a suitcase and a dream.” Plus a car full of stuff and a six month internship.

She needs a car in LA, since to be without “is like having your legs cut off,” to quote Joe Gillis. We thought briefly (very briefly) about shipping her car, but with all her stuff, too, we ultimately decided to just make the drive.

This is our THIRD time driving across the country, but our first time where the goal is just to get there. And in less than a week. I plotted it out multiple ways, but we finally decided to just break it up into four equal 9-10 hour days. The challenge is that the further west you go, the smaller the towns. And further apart. The easy part is that we just get on I-40 and keep driving to the end.

We left this morning about 9:30. We’d considered leaving earlier, but I didn’t want to rush out in a panic and likely forget something. For that reason, departure went very smoothly.

Marsha and I are both working in the car to conserve vacation days for when we get there and go apartment hunting. We look a bit like the Beverly Hillbillies (and heading to the same location, no less!) with so much crammed in the car.

We’re also taking turns driving, so that makes it more of a challenge to work. Day 1 went well, but I suspect we’ll have to take a half day or two when we get out West and the cell service isn’t as good.

The drive itself went well today. We drove in a monsoon through Nashville and lost some time having to slow down. Plus there was the Nashville traffic. But I managed to keep up with every time the highway split off (chock that one up to experience) and was glad.

We made it to Memphis around 7:30 and had dinner at Rondezvous, which is famous for its dry rub ribs. And I do not exaggerate on the famous part. They told us people driving down 40 pull off to eat there (we did) and I think there was a bus load leaving when we did, too. We’d eaten there many years ago on a previous trip to Memphis and just had to go back!

Afterwards, we walked down to Beale Street for just a minute. They had it blocked off for a car show. It reminds me a lot of Broadway in Nashville. Then we strolled through the lobby of the Peabody. Too late to see the ducks, but that is one beautiful hotel!

And we were stunned to see a giant, life-size pyramid which is actually a Bass Pro Shop! Marsha had to look that one up. We were tempted to stop just out of curiosity, but it was getting late and we have another long day in the car tomorrow!

Day 15: Final Leg Home

Even though this is the last day of our trip, it doesn't feel as much like a vacation. That's because the only thing on the itinerary is to drive home. Still, it beats driving home from NY or even PA, which is just the way we designed it.

We slept in as late as we could and still manage to make check out. On the downside, we missed the complimentary breakfast. But thankfully there was a McDonalds just around the corner.

A quick side note about McDonald's all-day breakfast: as awesome as it is (the greatest thing since TiVo), the menu really varies from restaurant to restaurant. Some locations (like the one down the street from us) have multiple selections (including biscuits), where others just have a few items (mostly Egg McMuffins). So when we put up, I have to ask for first and second choice. And then we all get Egg McMuffins. Makes me appreciate my local McD even more.

We hit the road just after Noon and took 81 most of the way home. Luckily, traffic was pretty good. We had a few small traffic jams, but nothing major. The Virginia State Police were out in droves. I was constantly spotting them hiding in the trees. Unfortunately, they missed the most aggressive driver we saw all day. A guy in a black pickup was speeding, didn't slow down for a traffic jam, and almost hit a guy pulling a boat. We thought for sure he was going to impact. We were so close to the boat that I was worried that we'd get hit, too. He passed the boat in the emergency lane and then whipped it back into the road. We saw a State Trooper moments later, but was just far enough away that he missed the whole thing. Such a shame. I kept hoping for the next several miles that I'd see that guy get pulled over, but no such luck.

We keep ourselves entertained and relive the magic of the Big Apple ("the greatest city in the world"), we listened to the soundtracks of Hamilton (for which we couldn't get tickets, sadly) and Something Rotten! Interesting thing about the latter: two performers from the original cast (main character Nick and the Narrator) had moved on. Nick was originally played by Brian d'Arcy James (who we knew from Smash). But we actually liked the current Nick better. We'd never seen him before (his name is Rob McClure and apparently starred in the short-lived Chaplin), but he's edgier than his predecessor and really exuded the "mad at the world" quality the role requires.

Listening to Hamilton (which is really long, by the way, since the entire show is sung) really made me want to learn more about Alexander Hamilton (mission accomplished, Lin-Manuel Miranda). And since the show mostly takes place in NYC, it also made me wish that we had visited some of the historic locations while we were there. For example, Hamilton, his wife Eliza, and her sister Angelica, are all buried at Trinity Church, which we walked by a couple of times while we were in lower Manhattan.

We made it home just fine, though it finally started raining just before we got here. Got a little damp unloading the car, but still nothing like the deluge we had in NYC. Once we got the laundry sorted ( and started), we were able to settle in a bit. John and Katie had dropped off their dogs for the night while they went out of town. But that means we get to spend the day with them tomorrow before we have to go back to work on Monday.

Great ending to an awesome trip!

Day 14: Full Circle to Pennsylvania

Today was our last entertaining leg of the trip before our final leg home. We decided to drive a few hours and then spend the afternoon in Pennsylvania before making some progress towards home. Taking the trip full circle a bit. We wanted to swing through Hershey (especially since we missed it on our last trip through the area) and Strasburg for some mini-golf.

Still, I didn't manage to take a single photo (mainly because we did things that I've -- wait for it -- covered previously). So, I've interspersed this entry with interesting signs we saw in New York.

We had one more friend, Jess, with whom we wanted to meet up. So we had an early breakfast together at David Burke's fabrick in the Archer hotel. That actually worked out perfect for us (due to checkout) and her, too, because she had a work function right after lunch.

We got up early, just threw on our clothes, and walked down to the restaurant. We'd never been to a David Burke restaurant before (seen him on TV, of course), so we were excited about that. Marsha and I had just passed one of his other restaurants yesterday, David Burke's Kitchen, on our way to the Brooklyn Bridge. The food was really good (yay breakfast!), though we found out afterwards that they had a B rating. That was a bit of a surprise. We expected better based on his reputation.

We went back to hotel afterwards to shower up and pack. We called down for the car,  checked out, and went down to the parking garage. All right on schedule. As always, it was tough to leave NYC. We always want to spend more time in the city.

When we got to the car, they said they were having a problem with the key. I'd had a glitch once before where I had to open the door manually, and figured that's what was going on.

Nope. We actually had a dead battery. I couldn't even open trunk. This was all very frustrating, especially since I'd just had it serviced ahead of schedule before we left. Since we were driving so far, I wanted to get my checkup done beforehand. Luckily, they were able to give us a jump start. Still have no idea what caused it. There weren't any lights left on our anything. Just another fluke, I guess.

Thankfully, we had plenty of gas, because I was determined not to stop until we reached Hershey. Of course, getting out of NYC was a challenge in itself, thanks to road construction and tunnel traffic. I just prayed that the car wouldn't cut off when every time we got stuck for a few minutes and were surrounded by other cars. Had we broken down, it would have been a real pickle. I finally breathed a sigh of relief after we made it back out of the city and onto the New Jersey Turnpike.

We managed to make it to Hershey just fine. We stopped at Chocolate World, of course, which they've updated yet again even since Marsha and I were there last. On that trip, they'd completely rerouted the entrance to the ride. Now they've changed the entrance even more by taking your picture before you even get on. And they've replaced a lot of the mechanical effects (such as baking beans and stirring chocolate) with animated video screens. They've even added holograms of their cartoon mascots (talking Hershey bar, Reese's Cups, and Kiss) and a big social media push to the finale. And, of course, we bought some chocolate in the giant gift shop. Which posed a slight challenge since it was 90 degrees outside.

Afterwards, we drove over to the Hershey Lodge (another favorite) and had an early dinner at The Bears' Den, the hockey themed cafe in the hotel. We also bought more chocolate afterwards.

As tempting was to stay there, we still had more ground to cover. We drove over to Strasburg to play mini-golf at our favorite course, Village Greens (again, see previous post). It was still in the high 80s, so we asked them to keep the chocolate in the little cafe for us. Got the feeling this wasn't the first time they've gotten that request.

We did the long (gold) course again because it's just so beautiful. It was National Cow Day, so each hole had a trivia question about cows. You won a free little sundae if you got them all right. We did terrible (even using Google), but they gave us sundaes anyway. Participation trophies, I guess.

The general goal was to drive to Winchester, VA, before we stopped for the night. That still seemed pretty do-able after we left Strasburg. But because we had gone east from Hershey, our GPS had us cut across 30 to get to I-81, instead of going back up to Harrisburg and then down again.

At first this was just fine, since 30 is a major highway in that area. We actually went right back through York and even drove past the Around the Clock diner, where we'd eaten breakfast two weeks ago (feels like forever) on our first morning out.

But then 30 turned into a tiny country road and we ended up going through small town after small town. Gettysburg was nice and made me want to go back some time. Eventually it was slow going and very frustrating until we finally made it to I-81. Would have definitely been quicker to have driven back to Harrisburg.

To make matters worse, Marsha had some troubles trying to book a room in Winchester. She even called Customer Support at Hampton Inn and still couldn't get it booked. Still not sure what was going on there, but she finally managed to book a room in at Holiday Inn Express. We got there around eleven and were so glad to finally call it a night.

Tomorrow is the last leg home, which I hope will be uneventful. I especially hope that the car starts again in the morning. Fingers crossed!

Day 13: Hard to be the Bard

On our last full day in NYC, Madison spent the day hanging out with a friend, so Marsha and I had practically a whole day to ourselves. We've actually contemplated staying over another day. The Cats revival just started in previews tonight, but to see it we'll need to spend an extra night. That's because we already have tickets for Something Rotten! for tonight.

I was still a little concerned about the weather and the predicted rain this afternoon. Marsha and I both ended up taking our jackets (neither of which are actually rain coats), which seemed like a dumb idea for most of the day. It was already pretty warm out and only managed to get hotter. Umbrellas might have been a better plan.

We took the subway down to the West Village to another of our favorite places, Ditch Plains (which I've also covered before). Of course, just getting there was a challenge in itself. For some reason, our Metro cards stopped working last night right after we added money to them. The guy in the booth said to try them over and over and finally just let us go through the door.

Ditch Plains is owned by chef and frequent Chopped judge Marc Murphy. We had planned to eat brunch, but they only serve it on the weekends, which is when we usually go. Lunch was still great, though. Which is why Ditch Plains is one of our favorite places.

We'd decided to mark another major item off our list by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. On the way there, we walked through Little Italy and Chinatown. We just love strolling through both of these areas, which are right next to each other. In fact, parts of Chinatown, such as Mott Street, used to be Little Italy. We especially like all of the little shops that display their goods right on the street. Though the smell of fish is a bit strong.

We also did a little movie location scouting. Mott Street was also used for a pivotal scene in The Godfather. Obviously, it looked a lot different back then. Unfortunately, there was a big truck making a delivery, so it was hard to get a good picture.

This building was the location of Genco Olive Oil, Don Corleone's company.

Directly, across the street is the spot where Don Corleone was gunned down (spoiler alert).

We walked down the street a bit and found a spot with some overhead lanterns and other decorations. And there were more delivery trucks blocking the whole street.

But when we walked around them, we realized that they were actually setting up for a film or TV shoot. I asked one of the crew people what it was and he said it was a Marvel show called Kick. I looked it up and found out that Kick is actually the code name for the the upcoming Marvel series, Iron Fist. It fits in with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage.

We walked just a couple of blocks more down to Doyers Street, which is also in Chinatown. It's a small, curved street that looks like something on a Hollywood backlot. It was nicknamed "the Bloody Angle" because of all the Tong battles that took place from 1900 through the 1930s.

From there we hiked just a few more blocks to the Brooklyn Bridge. Marsha thought there wouldn't be very many people there, but it was pretty full. We were also surprised to see sidewalk vendors on the bridge selling water and souvenirs. It had gotten pretty dang hot by this point, so we'd already gotten a big bottle of water to share.

The pedestrian path runs down the center of the bridge and is higher than the traffic lanes on either side. At any point, you can look down and see the cars below. The path is split in two: one side for bicycles and the other for pedestrians. The path up on each side is concrete and is, therefore, the hottest sections.

Once you get up to the highest point, the path turns into wooden slats, like a boardwalk. This was the best part because you get the breeze coming from every direction, including below. That was awesome and a welcome relief from the heat, which was close to 90.

After we reached the other side, we had some debate over just how far we needed to go to say we'd crossed the whole thing before turning back (we're both completionists). We were both cooking from the heat and running out of water. We walked further just to make sure. Once I saw the words "Welcome to Brooklyn" mounted in the concrete, I deemed that far enough.

By the time we made it back up to the top, we were both getting overheated and had to stop for a break. We sat down in the shade at the Brooklyn-side tower. After a short while, we looked at the time and realized that we needed to get going. We had early dinner reservations due to a 7:00pm curtain time.

We hoofed it back across the bridge and down into the subway station at City Hall. 

We were both drenched in sweat. And, of course, wehad trouble with our Metro cards again. The guy in the booth told us to just keep trying them over and over. We eventually got through and onto the air-conditioned train. Such a relief!

Now, it was all blue skies and hot as blazes when we got on the subway. But when we came out roughly twenty minutes later, the sky had turned dark and the wind was blowing like crazy. We were only a couple of blocks from the hotel, so we were sure we could get back before it started raining. No such luck. The bottom dropped out and we got drenched. At least our jackets finally came in handy. Madison got caught in the rain, too, and got even more soaked than we did.

The rain didn't last long, though and ended while we were getting ready for dinner. By the time we walked up to Bar Americain (Bobby Flay's restaurant, yet another favorite I've covered previously), you couldn't tell it had ever rained except for a few puddles.

Dinner was awesome, as usual, and yet another reminder of why we love eating there so much. No trip to NYC would be complete without eating there, especially before a show.

We had balcony seats for Something Rotten!, which is playing at the St. James. Built in 1927, it's another of those theaters with really tight rows. We didn't really know what the show was about other than it was a musical comedy about Shakespeare. And that it starred Christian Borle. In one of his final performances before leaving.

Now the funny thing is that on our last trip to NYC back in December, Madison actually got his autograph and a picture without actually having seen the show. We'd gone to see Misery, which was short and let out earlier than everything else. So she got in line at the stage door and even managed to grab a Playbill from someone who'd just come out.

The show was hilarious and we loved every minute of it. The humor was really over the top and it both paid tribute to the theater while poking fun at Broadway itself. I'll never think of Hamlet the same way again. And was so relieved that Borle performed tonight, which is always a risk (like the time I tried to see his ex-wife, Sutton Foster).

Afterwards we went back to the hotel, checked on our wet clothes (still wet), packed up a bit, and settled in watching Ghostbusters (the original, of course). Tomorrow we get up early to meet a friend for breakfast before we hit the road and say goodbye again to NYC.