Trip Report Keep your eyes on the road, hands upon the wheel–A South West RT-The End!Bonus Tracks

[Luvchefmic]

Totally behind Loved the way you reported your crappy car day Sorry I missed
your birthday Safe & fun travels

 

[usnuzuloose]

Have a great time!

 

[franandaj]

Well folks we have been on the road for about an hour. We're almost out of LA County. So much for the seafood buffet tonight for dinner. They close at 9PM, and our waze estimates our arrival in Laughlin at 9:15. We still have more traffic to get through.

We started off our trip with In-and-Out Burger, so that's a good start!

 

[PrincessInOz]

YAY for In n Out Burger and being on the road. I hope you find somewhere else to have dinner.

 

[rentayenta]

Love the WAZE app!

In n Out always hits the spot.

 

[franandaj]

Happy Birthday Alison, and I hope the day goes much smoother for you and you get to enjoy it.

Are you going out to dinner?

It was a long day, like today is working out to be.

Happy Birthday!!!!! Hope the day goes smoothly and you get to enjoy it a little bit.

Jill in CO

I did get to enjoy it a little. I put off doing some necessary things after dinner which forced them all into today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!​

​

Thanks Pam. Overall it was a nice day.

From my Dad and Step-Mom....

As long as they keep it up well, that should be nice. Old cars can be a pain.

Oh no on the White Cougar!!!!

​

Fran is now convinced the car hates her, after a couple days ago.

 

[franandaj]

That is way too much car drama. You do need a vacation.
Seems to be coming together.
Happy Birthday again. LOL

Yeah. I'm done with car drama.
Thanks for the birthday wishes!

Today's the day!!! Safe travels.

Thanks! It was an ordeal but we're on the way!

Have fun A&F! Safe travels. Utah should be gorgeous!

I just hope I don't freeze my patooty off!

safe and amazing travels for you both!

Thanks

Safe travels and have a fabulous trip!!!!

Thank you

Totally behind Loved the way you reported your crappy car day Sorry I missed
your birthday Safe & fun travels

I understand, I'm totally behind too. I'm glad you found that update fun. It was so surreal thats what it felt like.

Have a great time!

Thanks!

 

[Luvchefmic]

Happy Trails To You

 

[franandaj]

YAY for In n Out Burger and being on the road. I hope you find somewhere else to have dinner.

Well one of the reasons we chose the hotel we did for the first night was that they had a 24/7 coffee shop type restaurant, so I knew that we weren't SOL, just not going to have the yummy cool dinner I wanted.

Love the WAZE app!

In n Out always hits the spot.

If I drove myself more, I'd use much more of the Waze features. Fran doesn't like to try new routes (especially in downtown or east LA), but if I were driving, I'd take the suggestions to avoid traffic. I bet if we'd followed the suggestions yesterday we would have saved some time and got through some of the stupid LA traffic that we were fighting on our way out of town.

I just love In n Out and had been craving it since Tuesday. When I realized how late we were getting out of town and that we weren't going to have an awesome dinner, I decided we should at least have In n Out lunch because our other choice was going to be Mickey D's

Happy Trails To You

Thanks!

 

[franandaj]

Here we are. Already one day into the trip. In the past couple days we have accomplished a multitude of items. The one that scores as biggest PITA was new tires. Our local Costco did not have them in stock so we had to drive to Garden Grove. That's four Costcos away. For those of you knowing So Cal geography, heck we were almost at Disneyland!

I finally picked up Olga's special cat food, her medicine and I shredded half the turkey meat two nights before we left, but I just lost my oomph and had to go to bed. I finished that up before we left Friday.

The car itself was ready to go, clean, tires from 2006 replaced and all tuned up. Thank goodness, because we already put several hundred miles on her! Mail is on hold. Plant sitter and cat sitter were been briefed on their duties. Bags were not packed by leaving day and that set us back a good half an hour. Then there was the Fran crazy list. That’s all the stuff she puts in a word document for the two weeks before every trip. Some of it is necessary and some I bring just to make her happy and it never gets used. It’s more crazy when we have to stuff it in the suitcases for a WDW trip!

One of the last things we needed to do was put letters on the doors of all the tenants with phone numbers of folks to contact in emergencies, leaks, power outage, locked out of their apartment... We also needed to pick up the rent checks and deposit them in the bank. Oh yeah and withdraw a bunch of cash to barter with the locals in case anything strikes our fancy.Also we had to drop a check by the architect's office so she can appear before the review board on Thursday.

We have our Audio books, a good 30 hours worth of listening and our discounted Easter candy for snacks. I still need some bottled water, but I think we can get that in Flagstaff. We've decided to leave both Lucifer and Marie home on this trip. We're afraid with all the hotel switching we might forget either one at a hotel.

Getting out of town was tough, it always is. We packed and did the stuff above from 6AM until 2PM. By the time we actually left the house we had to deliver the letters, mail stuff and take care of the banking.

I did make the choice for lunch at In-and-Out which added some time to our departure. However I already knew we weren't making the seafood buffet, I figured we better have an awesome burger and not just Mickey D's. If you haven't tasted them, let the picture speak. I got the Double Double (double meat Double Cheese, and when they say Double they mean two slices on each patty), Fran got the Cheeseburger. I’ve found that while the Cheese burger is good the Cheese to meat ratio of the Double Double is far superior in flavor.



We hit mega traffic on the way out of town. In our right minds we would never go to Vegas on a weekend, but we were only going halfway to Vegas. Finally after driving up the Cajon pass traffic lightened up. I love the rock formations in the desert.





We always see these signs but we always go to the left to Vegas, never take the right to the 40. This was new for both of us. I took some shots but the little camera in a car doesn't do the scenery justice.



We passed this guy on the way. I guess dogs aren’t the only ones who like to stick their heads out the window.



Fran drove 80-90 miles an hour the whole way. My waze app tells me how fast we are traveling and whenever we got over 90 I asked her to slow down.



The sun set behind us and I tried to capture it in the rearview mirror, doesn’t do it justice.





As the sun was setting it was still blazing hot.



We finally arrived right around 9PM and checked in. After that we headed directly to the players club. Fran already had a membership so they just reissued her some cards. I was new so they offered me a special that if I got 25 points in 24 hours, I could redeem it for a free buffet.We headed off to the only open restaurant, the 24 hour cafe. They were still serving the dinner menu so we got a bowl of French Onion Soup,



a side of onion rings



and a French Dip with fries. We split everything.



By putting it on my players card, I got credit towards the buffet, plus we got a discount on the food. We headed back to the room and decided to hit a few slots on the way. Each of us put in $40 to start. I played just until I got a glass of wine and my 25 credits for a brunch tomorrow. Fran hit a $200 jackpot and stopped right at the same time. Our tickets. It wasn’t until later the next day that she told me she had to put in a total of $200 to get the $242.



We may or may not have cashed them in for chips to play Blackjack the next day. So it was around 11:30 when we finally got to the room. I only know because Jimmy Kimmel was on when she turned on the TV. The room was OK, it had a slightly musty smell. I’m not sure if that was because the river was so close and the humidity or it was just a slightly cheap hotel, but the bed was comfy and I really didn’t notice it after about a minute.









So how did our day go the next day? As planned?

 

[PrincessInOz]

I sure hope you next day did go better than planned.


Busy first day. But you made it to your destination and came out ahead.

Loved the pictures from the car. Sunset looked wonderful.

 

[ACDSNY]

What no animal style In & Out? Nice sunset pics.

 

[Luvchefmic]

WOW I am so enjoying this you hit on so many things I LOVE in your first day
the soup, the french dip, more importantly that GORGEOUS sunset and hey didn't that horse look like Maxine ? I seriously miss road trips and knew I would get my "fix" through you and Fran

 

[rentayenta]

Yay! Love semi live updates! You are semi live, right?

Waze is also great for cop spotting. I like to speed Its saved me from a few pullovers.

I have never had a double-double. Michael always gets those though. In n Out always hits the spot.

That sunset is beautiful, love the deep red and orange.

Dinner looks delicious. Love a good french dip with steak fries.

Fran spent $200 for $242. You gottta spend money to make money. The $42 is some fuel for the road.

Safe travels girls, can't wait for the next check in.

 

[Leshaface]

Catching up on all my subbed TR's...and now another one where i'm desperately behind!

Be back to comment!

 

[Pinkocto]

At least it wasn't a loss I hope you're having fun!

The room doesn't look bad. Glad the smell didn't bother you long.

 

[disney ny]

Great start to your trip. I so wish I was on vacation- anywhere! I love seeing the pics of Ca too. I am really starting to get excited about a trip out there in the next few years. Never been west of Missouri. It just always seems like you guys know how to travel and enjoy each other and the small things. Can't wait to read more. Oh and a big reason to head to Ca is to try In and Out which I hear such good things about!!

 

[franandaj]

Hey! We made it to our third destination and we're staying for a few days. There aren't a lot of plans, and Fran really needs to rest up so I'll probably be posting sporadically as even with our hot spot, the wifi is like dial up speed. I should be happy that we even have wifi, at some points along the way here we had no service!

Thanks for your replies and I will reply to them when I have some decent service!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Hope you're enjoying your room with a view!!!!

 

[ACDSNY]

I hope you're staying cool and enjoying the new destination.