Traveler's Rest SC to Ashland VA to HOME

 We started the second to last day of our adventure with a trip to our last Roadside Attraction of said adventure: South of the Border. For the uninitiated, South of the Border is a mini city of craziness on the North Carolina / South Carolina border. It looked like they had put a fresh coat of paint on everything since the last time I had been there, but it still gave me a weird feeling. I can't really describe it, the place just gives off an odd feeling and most people wander around baffled.

There is a giant sombrero ride, tacky ' Mexican Shop's ', plastic oddly colored animals, a campground, a motel, food courts, and a variety of other shops and madness. It's an experience. And getting there is also an experience as there are billboards for it like every mile for a long long time coming from either direction.

After a quick mediocre lunch there, we kept going to Raleigh North Carolina where we just missed a friend of mine. We had to keep moving, but someday we'll catch up with her. Eventually we stopped in Ashland Virginia and crashed for the night. We took a swim in the pool, which was okay but not great (a few too many dead bugs for me) and I was able to make a few of these blog entries live.

The next day we drove home to Connecticut and our adventure came to a close.

I'll be updating this blog with more of our adventures, when we have them, but I'm also going to begin work on the book I'd like to write about this adventure. Please keep visiting as I may put some of my more personal thoughts about this adventure up here soon.

Clearfield UT to Colby Kansas to Columbia Missouri

 Part 1: Utah to Kansas

We drove a lot on this part of the trip with little stopping. We wanted to get as far as possible because we knew we would be crossing mostly states we had seen before. We drove through the beautiful Rockies again, a lot of Wyoming and then went south into Colorado. Unfortunately, we drove through the corn field part of Colorado instead of the mountains. Some day I want to go back and visit Boulder.

Through a lot of Colorado I napped. I was so incredibly exhausted that I just couldn't help it.  Napping made me more refreshed and felt good.

In Colby, a smallish town, we were surprised to discover that the Days Inn we had planned on staying at was full except for one smoking room. We ended up at the Super 8 down the road, in a decent enough room with supposed working internet. It didn't work. I brought the netbook to the office and they fixed it, but it was so slow that it wasn't even really worth using.

We slept well though, and overslept a bit because we knew we had a short day ahead of us.

Part 2: Colby Kansas to Columbia Missouri

One of the first slightly strange billboards we saw upon leaving the hotel was an ad for a store proclaiming that it was the SECOND FRIENDLIEST YARN STORE IN THE UNIVERSE! This billboard raised a lot of questions for me. Why the second friendliest? Who is the first? Why wouldn't you just say you were the first? And - the Universe? Really? Have you been to that yarn store out on Venus? Mars? It all made me smile, but I can't remember the name of the store.

I wanted to go to Liberty Kansas, home of animatronic Wizard of Oz displays. But it was three hours out of our way, so we went to the Oz Museum instead. We first saw billboards for it not long after the yarn one and immediately knew we would stop because we both love the Wizard of oz and the billboard just looked cool.

So, a few hours of driving later we got off of I-70 and on to "The Road to Oz" towards the museum which turns out to be in a town full of a whole lot of nothing. Indeterminable stores lined a downtown area with one restaurant that I could see - Toto's Tacos - and an Oz Winery.

The Museum itself was set up well, if a little cheesy. You opened the screen door on a farmhouse facade and entered a very colorful Oz with wax figures of the main characters and lots of glass displays. I particularly liked seeing the old Oz books and illustrations. There were also Oz games and toys from around the world and a really cool selection of props from the musical Wicked. Overall, we spent about a half an hour wandering there and it was pretty fun. We could have sat and watched the movie too, but of  course had to keep moving.

A tale of Smelliness and a Lesson in Curiosity:

We stopped to get gas somewhere in Missouri and Matt goes in to the bathroom while I pump the gas. He comes out laughing a few minutes later and I have to ask what he's smiling about. He tells me that in the bathroom there was a box on the wall that you could buy cologne from. There were these little knobs to pick which scent you wanted and then a big knob. He pulled on the big knob out of curiosity, not really expecting anything to happen, and a stream of cologne shot out straight at him. We had to drive with the windows down for a while until the smell went away.

After that little adventure things got boring until we stopped for the night. This time the Days Inn was empty and we watched Dave and munched on ordered Dominos. By the way, their Mac N Cheese bread bowl is crazy good. And the chocolate lava cake is even better. The internet worked perfectly and I blogged a lot that night. It was good.

Manteca to Arcata California

Day 11 was full of curvy twisty road driving through the always incredible Redwoods of California. We also drove through lake-side towns that felt like seaside towns and both were wonderful drives. At one point there were rumble strips on both sides of the lane and driving became like driving in a game of Operation. I was never very good at Operation.

We had lunch at the most 50's-tastic Burger King with a Wurlitzer (gorgeous!) and James Dean posters on the walls and stopped briefly in the very hippie town of Fort Bragg; which, for being on the coastline is very not touristy.

Later in the drive we took a scenic alternate route through Humboldt Redwood Forest, stopping several times to take photos and just wander in awe of their size. Redwoods are so beautiful, I would love to build a log cabin in a Redwood Forest. The trees are massive and the mood is awesome.

 We drove through the Chandelier Tree. Or, rather, I drove through it and Matt took photos of me driving through it. We also found a store devoted to Big Foot (he lives in that area somewhere).

When we arrived in Arcata, we found that most hotels were sold out because the local college was having an orientation. Luckily we got a room at the Best Western and took full advantage of their pool and hot tub before crashing for the night.

Route 66: Barstow to Santa Barbara CA

After the movie in Barstow, I stayed up late trying to blog. The internet was just too slow and it wasn't happening, but I was up late working on it so I didn't get much sleep. The next morning I was a bit groggy and felt nauseous most of the morning. It was not a good start to the day, for all the awesome things we ended up seeing.

We found out via the TV that morning that there would be a huge parade in LA celebrating the Lakers winning the NBA champs - the very city we were supposed to drive through. Luckily it ended up working out fine, but we were a tad worried going in.

Anyway, we picked up Route 66 outside of a town called Rancho Cucamunga (or something like that, seriously) and from there it was suburban town after suburban town. Palm trees lined the streets and cute houses abounded. The hills were also lined with houses in places and our first big cheer came when we passed through San Dimas (high school rules!) and saw a Circle K. There really wasn't too much to stop for until we hit LA proper.

We saw the Hollywood sign, which made us both happy and drove Sunset Blvd. to Santa Monica Blvd. which was interesting. I directed us towards Hollywood and Vine with Matt's iphone and then to Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

We walked around there looking at all of the hand/foot/cigar prints (George Burns for that last one)  taking a ton of photos. Here are the two that we were most excited to see, well maybe not most excited but I can only show so many photos here!

 After walking around for a while we drove the rest of Route 66 to Santa Monica where we parked again.

The Santa Monica Pier was pretty cool to walk down. It had everything from a Trapeze school to a Carnival along with shops and restaurants. It also had the new Unofficial Official End to Route 66.

Yes, that's right, you have to walk to the end of Route 66. It was fun and well worth it. We walked a little more around Santa Monica and decided to find a campground closer to where we were than the one we originally planned on.

 Driving CA-1 along the coastline we saw Malibu, which was actually kinda of a cute beach town. In Santa Barbara we changed course and drove up into the mountains. We camped at at Lake Cachuma that night and it was beautiful.

The Lake was on all sides of us, with mountains beyond. Then we noticed the holes. All around our campsite were this holes in the earth. I was a little nervous about snakes but it turned out there were ground squirrel holes! Super cute ground squirrels were running around all over the place. It was a really fun place to camp and there were only two other small groups of people on that particular peninsula with us so it was also kind of solitary. Once the girls turned down their music.

Route 66: Day 7: The Grand Canyon to Barstow CA

 And on the seventh day... we drove more. Well, actually it was a day that started late (.. forgot to turn my alarm back on after resetting it) and consisted of our shortest driving day yet. Arizona Route 66 is full of dirt roads, blocked roads and advice to stay away. Our guide book suggested taking the highway most of the time, exiting for certain towns. We followed this advice, although didn't stop in as many towns as we had in previous states.

 In Hackberry we stopped by the general store, a treasure trove of great photo ops and a "tastefully" decorated mens room. One great thing about Route 66 is that it's a haven for great cars, both in good shape and bad. Along the way we also saw a giant Tiki head:

and a worn out sign pointing the way to a lot of the towns on Route 66. This was a great 66 detour and I'm really glad we took it, though the open desert scares me so I was cautious at first. But once we saw the Tiki I was excited again and anxious for the next awesome thing.

Around this time we realized that Toy Story 3 was out in theaters and I started researching drive in movie theaters theorizing that if there was anywhere they could thrive it would be California. I was right and we discovered that there would be one in the very town that we were staying in that night!

Crossing the border into California we entered an alien planet. The landscape was so different from what we had been seeing that I just couldn't stop staring. These bizarre hills that looked dark purple or black dotted the landscape and I truly think that there must have been some outer space film shot here that I was remembering because I felt like we were on Mars. It was really hard to photograph though.

 We arrived in Barstow with time to spare. We got a room at the local Days Inn, stopped at a taco place for Matt and went right over to the drive in. We chose our spot, close to the screen, and I went to the snack shop. It was near perfect sitting in the car eating corn dogs and watching the sunset over the desert mountains as we waited for the movie to start. And start it did - with a Bugs Bunny cartoon - "That's Opera Doc" and a slew of trailers for movies we didn't know about but are excited to see.

The short before the movie featured both traditional animation and CG and was very unique and stunning. I loved it but can't really describe it. Toy Story 3 itself was awesome, a great conclusion to the story and a bit of a tear jerker. We both loved every minute and were so glad to be seeing it in a drive in.

All in all it was a wonderful day with a perfect conclusion.

Route 66: Day 6 Santa Fe to The Grand Canyon

 In the morning we headed towards a roadside attraction called Tinkertown.

Tinkertown is something I've wanted to see since our last trip, so I was pretty excited to be on our way. About halfway there our GPS told us to turn and we ended up on a dirt road through a beautiful desert landscape. The mini got pretty dirty and it was a pretty bumpy ride, but we laughed about it and kept on going.

Tinkertown itself was everything I could have wanted it to be. The building is made from cement and glass bottles, making for some great lighting and colors. Inside were displays of hand carved wooden figurines within many different scenarios. One long hallway featured an entire downtown area and if you pressed buttons, some of the figures moved. Another was a full on circus scene and the detail was incredible. Other features included Otto the One Man Band - totally worth the fifty cents.

We drove from Tinkertown through to Arizona and The Grand Canyon, staring in awe at the gorgeous painted desert landscapes. Driving through so much flatness with occasional bursts of beauty made for a very long driving day. Added to the flatness was the fact that we crossed a time zone and added an hour to our day which was both good and bad.

From the highway we saw a variety of fun billboards, one leading is right to a rock shop that featured giant dinosaurs eating mannequins:

a live ostrich farm:

and a variety of other craziness.

This was another long day and so I'm going to split this post into two - next up : The Grand Canyon!

Route 66: Day 5 Oklahoma - New Mexico

 Day 5 was a long on driving and no so much on attractions - but the attractions we did stop for were pretty awesome so it was a really good day. At it's hottest, though, it was 104 degrees with a brutal hot wind coming at us while we were at Cadillac Ranch in Texas.

First of all, my apologies on the delay in continuing this story, but we've had a series of internet problems / arriving too late to do anything but sleep nights.

 We drove a nice piece of Route 66 through Oklahoma, but the signs weren't as good as the previous states and we got a tad lost. Driving through corn fields and cattle grazing land, not for the first time, wondering where we went wrong. It was fun though, and a beautiful blue skies day. Once we got back on track we crossed the bright yellow pony bridge that you see above.

 Our next stop was a Route 66 museum in Clinton Oklahoma which led you through the decades of Route 66 from beginning to end. There were lots of informational things to read, full displays to represent each era, music you could listen to and lots of memorabilia as well. It was a fun little stop and a great museum.

Not long after we stopped at another Route 66 Museum but we decided to just walk around the outdoor "cowtown" instead of the museum inside. One thing we noticed first was the GIANT Route 66 sign guiding us into the parking lot.

The "Cowtown" was just like an old western town with store fronts and an open ice cream parlor. There were also a few large Kachina Dolls outside. Around this time the heat became ridiculous. We hopped the highway all the way to Texas and next stopped at Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo.

Cadillac Ranch is similar to Carhenge in Nebraska, but the cars are in a row instead of in a Stonehenge formation. They are also heavily graffitied by the crowds that come to see them. It's a pretty cool sight, walking down a path in a huge wheat field and arriving at this row of cars. At 104 degrees with a hot hot wind, we didn't stay too terribly long but I think I got some great photos and I'm really glad we went.

As we passed from Texas to New Mexico we started to see mountains in the distance, an exciting thing after so much flat farm land and desert. We drove through Tucumcari - a town that used to be a hot spot on Route 66 but is now a bit rundown. Their motto is Tucumcari Tonight! and there are some great hotel signs and unique buildings to take photos of. I think I got some great shots here as well and I'm excited to really look at them when I get home.

From Tucumcari we drove through more desert and up to Santa Fe New Mexico. We rode into town just as the sun was setting and the view was beautiful. I wish we could have spent more time there, but unfortunately we had to keep moving. I think that is the first place we stopped that I consciously thought "I should come back here sometime". One thing that amazed us both was a double decker TRAIN that passed by when we were at a red light. I was so baffled I didn't know what to think of it, but upon later thought - damn that's cool!

We set up our plan for the next day and crashed for the night. Stay tuned, another post coming right up!

Route 66: Day 4 Kansas - Oklahoma Part 2

To continue where I left off, not long after we entered Kansas we left it in our dust and crossed over into Oklahoma. What we found there, in the sleepy little town of Miami (Mi-am-uh) was probably one of the fanciest things that we'll see on this trip (or, at the very least, on Route 66).

We stopped at The Coleman Theatre and were a little disappointed to find that it had closed half an hour or so earlier. However, peeking through the windows a man saw us and let us inside. Not only that, but he gave us the full tour. The theatre is being renovated and it is truly a work of art. Gold leafing is everywhere, hand painted ceilings, a fancy chandelier, a working original organ and an original landscape drop were all on full display. He even got the organ playing for us.

 After touring the lobby and the theater itself, our guide took us backstage to the main dressing room (which was just pure 1920's awesome) and had me posing as a starlet for Matt's camera. We also were brought to the downstairs green room (supposedly haunted) which was equally cool. All in all, an awesome stop on Route 66 that I highly recommend. They are working on renovating the ballroom now, and I bet it'll be absolutely fantastic when done.

Leaving Miami, we got a little lost on a dirt road going between corn fields, but not for long. We soon got on the highway for a bit until we arrived at the famous Blue Whale of 66. The blue whale used to be a water ride attraction of some kind - there is evidence of slides into the now disgusting lake that it sits upon. But now it's just a large blue whale that you can walk on to feed the fish or just be amused. Cute colorful tables line the lake as well, although any cafe or snack bar seems to be closed for good.

We crashed just outside of Oklahoma City a little later than planned that night, but in the end it was all worth it. We are really enjoying our pacing this trip; stopping when we want to and seeing all kinds of interesting things.