Our Honeymoon Road Trip
           

Starting off from West Virginia we traveled West towards Kentucky. On our first night we decide to stay at the Knights Inn where it all “started.” The chance meeting at a chance convention and then just by chance happen to be staying at the same hotel.

Once we got into Kentucky our first point of interest was Mammoth Cave National Park. We missed the last tour of the day, so we had to spend the night and go on one of the morning tours. There are several tours to choose from. We chose the Historic tour. Mammoth cave is not like other caves, with stalactites and stalagmites. But it is huge with big open rooms. On the tour we went through there was even a bathroom. I didn’t really have to pee, but I figured I would because how often do you get a chance to use a toilet inside of a cave?

There are more than 350 miles of surveyed passageways. Approximately 130 forms of life can be found in Mammoth Cave. Mammoth Cave was authorized as a national park in 1926 and was fully established in 1941. Cave tours are given every day except Dec 25, but tour schedules vary from season to season. Reservations are good, because tours do sell out.

Near the cave is a small diner that we ate at called Joe’s Diner. It serves malted milkshakes. Yum! The only problem is that it is a diner, in a silver bullet trailer, and there were bugs.

Off to Bowling Green, Kentucky where we went to the National Corvette Museum. We got to see the only 1985 ever made, and also the 1^st Corvette rolled off the assembly line for each model. If you are into cars, I recommend stopping by!

We travel through Arkansas and then Okalahoma. Okalahoma is a very tough state to drive through because the roads are badly marked. We see a sigh for Lake Eufala, and we decide we want to rent a boat. It was closed, so we go over and get a room at a “resort.” It looked like a 70’s cruise ship. We watched our Edward Scissor Hands DVD on our laptop, and since then I’ve lost the DVD. So if you stop by the resort, ask them if they ever found that DVD for me. Thanks :)

Our next stop is the National Route 66 Museum. It is closed, so we have to spend yet another night where we have to wait till morning to be able to see what we had come to see. The museum is full of all sorts of nostalgic Route 66 artifacts. It was fun, but we must get back on the road! Next state, Texas!

Texas has a huge welcome center at the state line. There are even little grills for you to make hotdogs on if you wish to do so, and they are in the shape of Texas! Texas has really amazing thunderstorms, where the clouds get dark in patches across the sky. Exit 114 is Groom, where there is a leaning water tower. There is also a 190 foot-tall cross erected in 1995. Perhaps the largest cross in the northern hemisphere, Groom's cross has become a roadside shrine and destination for pilgrims.

We made it to our next stop, Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. One of my favorite stops on our cross country trip, 10 Cadillac’s buried nose first in the ground. We got out my set of permanent markers and added some color. We tried to find hard to reach spaces, since we knew one day it would be covered over. We put our names and the day we got there. It was an amazing spectacle. If you are in the area, you have to go see them for yourself.

We spent the night in Tucumcari. Tucumcari is situated along Historic Route 66 and has the appearance of a 1950s movie set. It was once the place to go for your honeymoon with over 4,000 hotel rooms throughout the whole town. One of the most famous, being the Blue Swallow, where you can park your car in an adjoining garage.

Next we are on our way to Albuquerque New Mexico. It is a huge city, with lots of things to do. We ate at the famous Route 66 Diner. (it’s featured in several paintings) After lunch we went to the Albuquerque Science Museum. It was cute and fun to look through. There was a good amount of hands on things. Then we stayed at the Farmington, Days Inn. It was a very nice hotel.

The Four Corners! Somewhere I had wanted to go since I had heard about it in the third grade! You can stand in all four states at one time! It’s really neat because there are all these booths set up with people selling their arts and crafts. A lot of Native Americans. It was fun to go from booth to booth, while walking from state to state.

Next off is the Grand Canyon. It is so huge, that it looks fake. There’s this constant blue haze over everything making it look flat. We spend the night and get up for a 6 AM photography tour of the Grand Canyon. The sunlight was magnificent! The place is so huge and we only got to see an ounce of it, but it’s something that you’ll never forget once you see it.

“Do you think we’ll get to drive over it?” was a question I heard a lot as we were approaching Hoover Dam. And we did! But once again we were late and didn’t get to take the tour. So we had to go back a couple days later. The tour was neat, they don’t take you as far into the dam as they used to. But you get to see the engine room, and the tunnel that leads into it is awesome. There’s a little museum that you go through. All in all it’s quaint. I think the best part of it was using the bathroom that on the top of the dam. I mean, how many people can say that they peed on a dam, much less on one of the Seven Engineering Wonders of the World?

Las Vegas. I guess I should leave this paragraph blank because, “What happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas.” But I wont. Vegas is actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be. We ended up staying there 4 days! There’s just so much to do. Our first night we stayed at Mandalay bay which has it’s own water park in the backyard. It also has an aquarium that we paid to go through. Very unique. The next night we stayed in the Hilton off the strip. It was great to explore the casino’s, each with it’s own theme, and we only hit about 5 of them. The New York, NY hotel is amazing inside. It looks just like walking down the streets of an old city. The façade on the outside makes the hotel look like a skyscraper. The Luxor had an Egyptian theme and when you stood in the middle and looked up, you could see all the way to the top of the pyramid. The rooms circled the outside rim of the building all the way up. At the top of the Stratosphere there is a power tower type ride that shoots you into the air and lets you free fall. Josh had fun on that, and got a unique view of the city! We didn’t get to see the fountains of Bellagio because we never seemed to be there when they were going off. I was disappointed, but there’s always next time. Our next part of the drive is actually quite long, off to California.

So, when you finally make it to California you might wonder what there is to do? Well, I’ll tell you the fun that we had on our short jaunt through the lovely state of California. The first night we got there we had to do something I’ve been waiting to do all my life, stick our feet in the Pacific Ocean! It’s cold! So we decided to walk out on the Santa Monica Pier. There are lots of performers on the pier. The pier also has carnival games, an amusement park, and a restored antique carousel with hand carved wooden horses. We spent the evening in the game room. By day Santa Monica has a lot of shops, restaurants, and boutiques, none of which we went to. That night we stayed at a hotel in Fullerton, near Anaheim, where Gwen Stefani, my music idol, grew up.

The next day we head out to Long Beach, California’s fifth largest city. Yet we spent all day looking for a bathing suit and flip flops. Once we finally got the bathing suit, we decided the water was much to cold to swim in. Most people surfing had wet suits on. That evening we went to Malibu Beach to watch the sun set over the ocean, unfortunately there was a piece of land that jutted out on the right hand side, and the sun set behind the piece of land. Our fortune! You come all the way to California to watch the sun set on the ocean, not near the ocean!

Off to Hollywood next! We can’t go to bed yet, it’s too exciting! So we go to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. A little side fact, “When visiting the newly constructed theatre in May 1927, silent film star Norma Talmadge stepped into a sidewalk of wet cement, thus beginning the tradition of immortalizing the prints of legendary Hollywood stars in the concrete of the theater’s forecourt.” –AAA TourBook 2003

While we were there we got to watch them film a car commercial on Hollywood Blvd. You never know when you are going to walk onto a moving movie set! So then we head across the street to Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museum. It was full of amazing things to see. I’ve been to several Ripley’s, all over the US. They all have something unique to offer. This one had the mermaid fake and a piece of the Berlin Wall.

The next morning we head over to Hollywood to do some more sight seeing. I made my husband track down a store called Kitson, where I had overheard someone say that Gwen Stefani had shopped there. I walked in and it looked exactly like a store she would appreciate. Then we decided to find the infamous Hollywood sign. It’s impossible to find, and I was too cheep to buy one of those star maps. So I took out my camera, and while no one was watching, took a photo of the instructions on how to get there. Then when in the car I uploaded the image to my laptop and read them off as we drove up, up, and up these windy backwoods roads. But finally we found it, along with lots of expensive houses. One being the house used in Charlie’s Angels, where Drew Barrymore fell out of the window. We were our own tour guides!

So then we went to the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. Sticky asphalt beds trapped and preserved prehistoric plants and animal life. More than 3 million fossils have been recovered. Very fun to go through the museum and then walk around out side. But be careful where you step! New pits bubble up all the time!

After our day in Hollywood we started driving up the coast (SR 1). What no Disney or Universal Studios? Nope, we lacked the time and the money. We still had many destinations on this long trip of ours. Along State Road 1 are gorgeous cliffs and beaches. Shell Beach, Pismo Beach just to name a few that we stopped at. Then there is the Hearst Castle, which is amazingly expensive to go up to, but you can always go to the gift shop for free. It’s cool just to pay a quarter and look through the telescope.

That night we stayed somewhere near Santa Barbara. Tuesday we went to Santa Cruz because there is the Giant Dipper wooden roller coaster, built in 1924, but still ranks among the nation’s most thrilling; and 1911 Looff carousel. We never actually made it to those either, because we got lost in the arcade. Oh the silliness of the “younger generation”. Then we drove to my friend’s house in Stockton, where we went to Sacramento to eat at the Hard Rock Café. Also near Stockton is a huge wind farm. I think it is very beautiful.

The next day we went to San Francisco. If you want to go see Alcatraz you have to have reservations way in advance. So needless to say we just saw it from afar. On our first day we wanted to go to the zoo to see the tigers get fed. Rabbits. Gutted rabbits. It was interesting to say the least. I just think it’s weird that feeding time is one of their advertisements. Well, hey, I guess it got us to go there! They have an amazing water raft ride, it doesn’t compare to the one at Islands of Adventure, but it was still fun!

We spent the night in town in a very small hotel right across from an IHOP. Needless to say we decided to go eat there during the wee hours of the morning. Then it was off to the Coit tower. It is designed to look like a fireman’s nozzle, and you can see lots of cool things from the top. We also drove down Lumbard street several times. It’s hailed as the windiest street in the US. Why? I have no clue. Maybe to make people slow down through there. Maybe just so that the people living in the apartments could watch all the crazy tourists come down the street. Then it was off to Fisherman’s Wharf. Ahhh the smell of fish. Yuck! We stopped at a famous place for Josh to get clam chowder in a bread bowl. Then it was off to the arcade! Next we had to go across the Golden Gate Bridge, why? Because you can’t come all the way to San Francisco and not go across it! It cost us five bucks just to go across and back. But we did prove a rumor that we had heard. There are phones near to top that say “for emergencies and crisis counseling” Yup, suicides have decreased since they installed those phones.

Our next stop was Yosemite National Park. Since Josh is a big fan of Ansel Adams, this was an especially awesome place to stop. We got to see famous natural landmarks such as Half Dome, El Capitan, and Bridal Veil Falls. An amazing place to visit. But our next stop would prove to be even more illustrious. 

West Yellowstone. We decide to spend the night on the boarder of Yellowstone. We go to a nature preserve to see the bear and wolves. Our hotel is very rustic and warm. From the town we are staying in we can see the smoke from the wildfires over 25 miles away!

Once we get into Yellowstone it is one of the most beautiful and amazing places I’ve ever been. But you have to be extra careful, those pools of water are actually boiling and will cook you alive! So we miss Old Faithful by this much *holds up index finger and thumb* and had to wait an hour for the next eruption. But it was nice to just read signs and relax in the sunlight. Once it starts it’s nothing but “oooooohhhs” and “aaaahhhhhs” and it’s worth it. We stop and hike a couple of other trails, the scenery is amazing with the way the earth flows and cakes and makes all sorts of weird colors and shapes. If you ever get a chance to go, take it. You won’t regret it. Every color of the spectrum can be found in Yellowstone. We saw so many wild animals, elk, bison, birds that you’ve never seen before. It was an amazing trip. We decide to camp for the night at a free camp spot. It was the scariest night, the wind would rush through and we slept with the rain fly off, so you could see the stars. I went to sleep starting at the stars and woke up to the clouds covering the entire sky. Very spooky.

Off to North Dakota where we visit Devils Tower, Mount Rushmore, and Crazyhorse. We camp at Devils tower, it looks as if it’s right there outside of our tent door. There is a small building with information on it once you get to the base. All around the base are fields of prairie dogs.

Next, Crazyhorse. You have to spend about fourteen bucks in parking and the closest you can get is a mile away. But it’s all okay. The museum is cool, and you can take rocks from the blasting. The whole thing is funded by donations and by the parking fee.

Mount Rushmore was equally as neat. Did you know it’s actually not finished? But they quit working on it and declared it finished. We didn’t get to hike closer or anything, and we got there too late to see any of the shows or whatever they had going on. Plus we had only two days left to make it home for my friend’s graduation party, which meant we had to book it.

We drove all the way through the next two days to make it home in time. All in all it was the best vacation ever!