3,280 miles: A cross-country roadtrip to Disneyland, CA! (NEW x2! 5/22)

After we hit the road again, it suddenly occurred to me that we were in ATLANTA!! I mean, I knew we were in Atlanta but it hit me that we were possibly minutes away from film locations of The Walking Dead! I whipped out my phone immediately with the intentions of googling if any locations were close by. Turns out that Rick's house (from episode 1) was mere MINUTES from where we were!

It took a few minutes of solid convincing to get Mitchel onboard to take this little detour, but eventually he reluctantly agreed (although he was clearly not happy). I just wanted a cool photo-op!

We plugged the apparent address into Karen (the GPS, remember) and Mitch took off. He was already really cranky about doing this because he really couldn't have cared less. Well, the crankiness only flourished when we couldn't find it anywhere but I insisted that we keep trying. After several minutes of driving around in circles, I eventually gave up.​
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Mitch was not happy with me and the whole debacle ended up in just a lot of wasted time and gas. Now we were both cranky. What are ya gonna do?

We obviously eventually made up and were back on the road by noon. We observed that Georgia/southern drivers in general drive a lot slower than we're used to back home, which just added more to our annoyance of lost time. Oh well!​

I found it really odd that Atlanta police drive pick-up trucks.​

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We soon hit Alabama! Woo! Nothing too exciting other than endless roads and Waffle Houses. I apparently declared that I love Alabama because the people say "y'all" and Mitch said "Meh, it's alright". He's a cranky pants.​

I guess we had some leftover salad from Julie's...​

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The safe way to eat while driving (have your co-pilot feed you)...​

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And then he decided to feast on the open air (no really, that's what he's doing)...​

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Before we knew it, we reached Mississippi (can you see the sign above??) and stopped for a potty break. Mitch decided he was hungry (salad and air just don't cut it) and wanted to eat at the Subway at the random/sketchy convenience store. I protested (wanting something less commercial and maybe more like a local favorite?) and rebutted with this exact quote...

"Why do you want to eat at this frickin' ROADSIDE Subway when we can eat at any of Mississippi's finer eateries??"​

And this is where "roadside Subway" became our new favorite quote. Mitchel apparently thought it was hilarious that I was so disgusted with this "roadside" Subway as if they were selling roadkill carcasses off the side of the highway.​

In the end, we both got ourselves a bit of roadside and it was actually quite delicious.​

Miles and miles of boring highway got us entertaining ourselves with mock mother and son conversations in Southern accents and yelling "YEEEEE HAAAAW" and "SWEET DAWGGY!" It worked for a bit. Tuneage included a mixed playlist of opera and the Anastasia soundtrack.​

Here's a pic of the Mississippi River to satisfy your needs...

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One thing to know about good ole Mississippi is that there is an endless supply of Sonic billboards. And I can say that "Shake it up, Mississippi!" slogan really got us. We detoured to the nearest Sonic and had one of the most confusing ordering experiences ever. Having never been to a Sonic because they don't exist in our area (even though we are always bombarded with commercials), we struggled a bit. Mitchel extremely awkwardly yelled our order into the machine only to get a long pause of silence. Not knowing what to do, he repeated it and finally someone answered. Then we were instructed to pay right on the machine but it wouldn't accept either of our cards. We had no idea if they still brought your order out if you didn't pay so we sat there for quite a bit wondering what to do. Mitch ended up pressing the button again and they said they would work it all out when our order was brought. Okay.

What felt like 45 minutes later, we finally got our shakes and paid. Mine was oreo cheesecake (tasted like plain oreo) and Mitch got peanut butter fudge (tasted like plain peanut butter). Didn't stop us from ordering several more times throughout this trip, however!​

And we were back on the road!​

STAY TUNED! (if I didn't lose y'all with this boring post LOL)


 
After stopping for our first of many Sonic milkshakes, we were back on the endless highway. Since our plans changed with the recent shootings in New Orleans, we bypassed Louisiana (sadly) and were on our way to Arkansas instead. I was in total de(nile) (shoutout to my Jungle Cruise lovers ;)) and blasted the soundtrack to Princess in the Frog. We drove across Alabama, which was 99% Waffle Houses and into Mississippi. We passed what I figured must have been the Mississippi River...

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And then we finally hit Arkansas. Karen (our GPS) took us off the highway for a bit and through some super country back roads. We ended up getting stuck behind an extremely slow driver who had to have been going 20 under the speed limit. UGGGGH.

The windiness of the road made it near impossible to safely pass since we could never really tell if another car was coming. After following the extremely slow driver for quite a bit without a chance to pass, Mitch couldn't take it anymore and made the quick and desperate decision to pass on the right. He maneuvered the car over the solid line, hit the rumble strip and pressed on the gas. Might not have been the best of decisions, but we could finally get some more miles out of the way without that driver hindering us!

After driving for quite a while, we were led back on the highway. We were about 10 minutes from our hotel at this point when a cop suddenly shows up behind us. He was pursuing us pretty closely, making us both super nervous! Mitch was doing the speed limit so we started to assume that he was bored and trying to get us for something.

By now were both breaking out in a sweat and wondering what we should do. After a couple of minutes, his lights go off. Awesome. What could we possibly be being pulled over for??

:confused3

The officer comes up to Mitch's window and tells him that he tracked him doing 75 in a 65 earlier. Whoops, that might've been true. Ruh roh!

Mitch gives him his license and registration and the officer goes back to his car. In the meantime, a Sheriff pulls up. Great.

The cop comes back up to the window and then states in his Southern drawl that he got a report of Mitch's vehicle doing reckless driving on the shoulder.

Gulp.

:guilty:

Mitch calmly as ever responds with "hm, I don't think so" and I can tell that he actually wants to vomit/cry. I just remained quiet.

After a few tense moments, he let us off with a warning and no ticket. THANK THE LORD.

:cheer2:

Still shaken up, Mitch immediately swore to drive like a good, law abiding boy for the rest of the trip and couldn't even bring himself to go 1mph over the speed limit. We laughed nervously about how the slowpoke driver must have actually reported him and decided that we really hated Arkansas.

Just a few minutes later, we reached our hotel. It was a Super 8 located in El Dorado, AK. Happy to finally be off the road, we grabbed our bags and headed into the lobby. We checked in with no problems and pretty much were ready to pass out. I did manage to snap a few pics first of our very standard room. (What can you really expect from less than $50 a night :laughing:)

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Anxious to get out of Arkansas, I woke up at 4am. Mitch followed close behind at 5am, not needing as much time as me to get ready. #princessproblems

Shining and ready to hit the road for another billion hours...

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One perk of this place is that they offered free breakfast and we fully intended on taking advantage of it. The selections weren't bad either and they had a waffle maker! YUMMM.

We both made waffles and I made some hot green tea. We then settled down with some other hotel guests who I'm pretty sure were all involved in a heavy drug ring. After nervously finishing off our breakfasts, we snitched some yogurt and muffins for road snacks.

The lady at the checkout desk had a bit of sass this morning. She was all like "I SAID thank you..." after Mitch asked if we were all set. Lol.

We hit the road a bit after 6am and we were soon on our way to Texas! SEE YA, ARKANSAS.

:wave2:

See ya'll real soon now!


 
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Scary police pull over. It looks like you are about half way there. Still riding right along with you.
 


We're comin for ya, Dallas! But first...frosty CONES from Wendy's. Those darn bulletin boards got us AGAIN. I mean how you you resist a classic frosty in a cone?? The answer is...you can't.

(PSA: Stick with classic chocolate frostys, they're SO much better than vanilla)

After our quick little snack, we soon hit Dallas. We didn't have any plans and weren't sure what to do, so we just drove around aimlessly for a bit exploring the city. We had a thought to check out the football stadium but then came up with the brilliant idea to go to Six Flags! (plus neither of us are big on football) Yay for impulse decisions to go to theme parks!

I was wearing a dress (aka inconvenient park attire) so I grabbed a new outfit and quickly changed in the car in the parking lot. Turns out tickets for Six Flags over Texas are $64, plus $20 for parking. Yikes!

:scared:

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Turned out to be a complete waste of time and money because almost everything was closed. We went on a total of three rides (and paid $1 extra at each one for a dumb mandatory locker) before it sprinkled and everything was shut down. Yeah, I said sprinkled. For a total of maybe 5 mins. We had limited time here and spent a lot of money so it was just really annoying.

Mitch spent most of our time eating and the other portion resting because he's a total grandpa who tires way too easily . He ended up getting a turkey leg and I didn't complain because he fed me what he likes to call "kibbles". Love me some turkey leg!

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He also ended up getting a Dippin' Dots sundae and I ended up getting 3 cookies for $5. Apparently, they were "good".

For the rides we actually did get to go on, the "New Texas Giant" was our fave. We also rode "La Vibora" which was a fun bobsled-style ride and our last ride before the shutdown was "Yosemite Sam's Gold River Adventure" which was literally a Splash Mountain knockoff except that it was terrible and didn't have a drop. Total rides=3.

We walked around forever, our time rapidly running out, waiting for ANYTHING to reopen. Even the indoor rides were closed, and the workers knew nothing when you asked them questions. Unfortunately we just couldn't wait around anymore since we had to get back on the road. We left pretty grumpy and a lot poorer. #WOMPWOMP

Our next hotel was another Super 8 in Abilene, and it was about a 2.5 hour drive, during which I was behind the wheel. Of course we had to stop at Sonic yet again for more milkshakes (those billboards, they get us). I got a peanut butter and jelly shake for half price ($1.26) and I'm not sure what Mitch got if anything at all.

The drive was so beautiful and relaxing. I drove with the windows down and marveled at my surroundings. It was magical here. Mitchel watched Teen Wolf on his phone and complained that my music was too loud. Never happy, that one.

:rolleyes2

We got to the hotel around 9:45pm. It was SOOO much nicer than the one in Arkansas!

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We went to bed pretty quickly as usual and rose early around 6am. Breakfast started at 6:30 so we headed on down. Even the dining area was much nicer! Yay Texas! So far they were proving that everything is indeed better here.

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They had the same offerings here that they had in Smackover, but the waffle maker here made Texas shaped waffles! SO CUTE.

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I had green tea con honey again and Mitch had oatmeal, eggs and yogurt. I decided to document him eating but he seemed to have his cranky pants on this morning.

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After breakfast, it was time to hit the road again! It was decided that I would drive to our next destination...Carlsbad, New Mexico, which was about a 4 hour drive! Stay tuned!
 
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Still here. We are in Dallas right now for a wedding. Took the same route you did. Six Flags sounds like a rip-off. Not in Disney anymore.
 
We made our way though Texas and into New Mexico. Texas was never ending, but this part was one of my favorite aspects of the trip! The desert just calls to me for some reason and I love the feeling I get when I'm surrounded by it. So watching the scenery turn more and more desert-y was thrilling to me!

I was fascinated by the drive and wanted to take it all in but Mitchel had his cranky pants on and refused to take them off. It was at this point where he was tired of the whole road trip part and just wanted it to end. WOMPPPP. He insisted on "Mitchel quiet time" (which was watching Netflix on his phone) and every time I got excited about seeing something cool (like wild cows or a tumbleweed), I'd just get shut down. So in the end his misery became my misery and we were both cranky.

After driving for a bit, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye in the rear mirror that looked like a bug zooming by in the back seat. I thought nothing of it since our windows were open and carried on. WELLL, about a half an hour or so later, I glance over at Mitch and this WHOMPING PREHISTORIC LOOKING DINOSAUR INSECT was just hanging out on his shirt. This thing looked like a wasp and was the size of a freakin' bird, I swear!

Naturally, I freak out immediately which alerts Mitchel, but he remains calm (even though I know he's dying in the inside). All of a sudden, it hops/flys/locomotes to HIS HEAD and panic ensues. I pull over as soon as possible because if that thing ever landed on me, I'd crash the car without a doubt. So I pull over, and we dash out of the car because we had no idea what this monster was capable of. After some dancing and flailing of a roadside stick, it flys away and we pop back into the car. No more windows down for us!

We were both pretty shaken up by that incident and this one road was LONG and there was literally nothing around. Just oil rig after oil rig. Eventually, we began to lose our sanity. We considered skipping our next Super 8 and just driving right onto our next destination. Mitch was beyond over it and I eventually agreed, so we called and cancelled our hotel reservation and told Mitch's family in Arizona that we were coming a day early. No big deal!

This was basically our view for hours upon hours...

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I didn't want to completely bypass NM since I had been super excited to explore the caverns so we decided to venture there anyway! Karen (the GPS) screwed up and told us we were still an hour away from the caverns even though we were in Carlsbad. We decided to make the trip anyway and stopped at a nice New Mexican Walmart on the way. We picked up some cool ranch Doritos and birthday cake oreos, aka #essentials. We finally got to the caverns and the area was beyond beautiful!

WELCOME TO THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT!

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I was lov-ing-it. Mountains for miles and miles.

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When we finally got to the caverns, we opted out of doing it because we realized you a) had to pay, and b) it was going to take too long. The drive there and the view from the top alone was worth it for me, but Mitchel was as unhappy as ever. We talked about how unappreciative he is of everything and how he just likes to "sit there" and is never happy. I wasn't going to let him ruin my happiness this time! I was having a great time and we were almost to Disneyland!

 


After we explored what we could of the (area around) the caverns, we got back on the road. It was Mitch's turn to drive, which was fine by me! I saw some starved looking wild horses and some (wild?) cows and got to enjoy the beautiful day!

At some point, Karen crapped out on us so we had to use the map apps on our phones to get around. Womp Womp. We hit some major traffic at border control and had to wait a bit for inspection. For some reason I was super excited about this and Mitchel was super nervous. Everything went okay because we apparently looked like normal U.S. citizens and our loaded car wasn't suspicious. The end. We stopped to get gas and switched drivers again.

Somewhere along the way, there was an accident on the side of the road that looked like it involved a wolf/coyote! Crazy stuff! We ended up losing cell services and had to resort to using the old fashioned maps that Mitchel's grandparents gave us. Guess they weren't useless after all! Lol!

There was an amazing sunset, so of course I had Mitchel take 900,000 photos which he was super happy about! :rolleyes:

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And I got my first glimpse of my favorite type of cactus, which I like to call "put em ups" (aka saguaro cacti). They're like aliens to me. I get so excited and awed when I see one lol.

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Luckily we knew we had a good 300 miles to go on this one road because the old fashioned maps were not convenient for us. Thankfully, we got service back before we got lost!

We reached Snarky's (Mitchel's second cousin's wife, who we love) around 8:30 and were greeted with crepes and strawberries. They live in the nicest house ever and have cacti in their yard. #lifegoals

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This picture doesn't do it justice. They have their own arcade-style game room and my bedroom ceiling twinkled. Talk about fanciness.

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However, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking that my sheets were alive and almost had a heart attack. Musta been dreaming about spiders.

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We got up around 7 and feasted upon cinnamon buns and coffee with lots of french vanilla creamer. Life at Snarky's is easy, lemme tell ya. Then we went to go see Epic with the whole fam. Snarky got us popcorn and drinks, which was awesome. Me and Mitch were both obsessed with free popcorn flavoring powders they have here because where we're from, you have to pay for it. I thought the movie was cute but Mitchel was bored with it after awhile (not surprised lol). Then they took us to Paradise, which is basically the same thing as Panera (but better). I got the "you pick two" with a strawberry salad and a tomato mozzarella sandwich. Paradise wins over Panera because you get a free cookie and who doesn't love free cookies.


After lunch, we had to hit the road again. I was sad because Arizona is my favorite and I wished we had more time to explore, but oh well! We got back on the road around 12.

Wonder if this house in Snarky's hood is still up for grabs...

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I WANT TO LIVE HERE.

 

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