Road Trip!!!!

Today is the first day I will write on this blog.  I have been trying to decide for two weeks now exactly what I wanted this blog to be like.  I haven't come up with anything concrete at this point.  I can only tell you that the topics will revolve around travel, either places I have gone, places I would like to go, or Places You'll Go.  Sometimes it will be nostalgic, other times it may hopefully entertain you with a short story about an adventure I or someone I have talked to has experienced but many times it might just be informative.  I will include as many pictures as possible along the way.  As we go through this journey you will find that my vacations are usually centered on A.) Food and B.) Photo opportunities.  Hopefully, for those of you who read my daily blog won't see too many stories here that I have already covered there.  If you do, I apologize in advance.

My love of travel began at an early age.  I was born in the early 60's and we were one of those families who took a family vacation every year.  We didn't travel back then like people do now.  Back then, you piled into a Ford Fairlane with lots of luggage and an ice chest full of soft drinks, lunchmeat and condiments in the back and you just drove.  Much of the time our family went to Colorado.  Growing up in Texas, I always thought of Colorado as the "backyard" of Texas.  You know, it's where we always went to play.  I think our family was fairly normal in that these vacations weren't terribly planned out.  Not like they are today.  Today, before making that road trip to Colorado, the average traveler would spend weeks scouring the forum pages of Trip Advisor getting every morsel of information available.  We would be asking Colorado's "trip experts" for advice on everything from itinerary to the best breakfast Pagosa Springs has to offer.  By the way if you are interested, The Pagosa Baking Company comes highly recommended http://www.pagosabakingcompany.com/.  Today's traveler would also book hotel rooms, weeks, perhaps months in advance to ensure availability.  Once ready to make the trip today's traveler would probably fly in to Colorado Springs and rent a car and then only make day trips out of the city missing all of the wonderful little towns between here and there.

There is nothing wrong with flying to a location and then taking day trips.  But when it is possible, there is nothing quite like a good road trip.  Without road trips how many of us would ever have stopped at a New Mexico roadside curio shop for fake Native American artifacts?  Who among us never got a fake tomahawk and arrowhead as a child????  As kids we would save our allowance for weeks prior to a trip so that we could afford to buy a new "artifact" at each place we passed.  There don't seem to be that many of those places left based on what I see on the internet.  But the Tee Pee Curio Shop on Rt 66 in Tucumcari is still around if you want to hit it on your next trip through New Mexico http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/16398.  I suppose when it became so much easier to fly, a lot of those kind of places went by the wayside.  Too bad, it was a lot of fun to walk around those stores and pick up things to take to Mom begging her to let me buy it.  Mom would inspect it and certifiy that it was fake and we would say something like, "I don't care, I reeeeeeeealllllly want it, PLEEEEEAAAASE!!!?!!???"  She would respond saying something like, "it's your money" and we would buy it.  Then 5 minutes after leaving Tucumcari, it would break as you were driving up Hwy 104 toward Colorado.

Back then getting to the destination was half of the enjoyment.  Now, for the most part we all fly across all of the small towns along the way and hop off of an airplane in our destination without ever knowing what we missed.  Even when we do drive these days, much of the time, we drive as fast as we can along the interstate overnight only stopping for gas and food but never to explore the towns along the way.  A few years ago our family rented a vacation home in Destin, Florida for Christmas.  We took three cars with 10 people traveling in them.  My mom and dad traveled in the first car.  Me and my niece traveled in my car right behind them.  On our trip, we made our first stop in Natchitoches, LA for meat pies.  We were traveling on Christmas day so we had to settle for meat pies from a gas station.  But even so, it was wonderful.  I am not sure how or why anyone would ever travel through Natchitoches without stopping for a meat pie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natchitoches_meat_pie.  Obviously, the best place in Natchitoches to get a meat pie is at the Natchitoches Meat Pie Company http://www.natchitochesmeatpies.com/pies-empanadas.htm, but when you are traveling on Christmas day you do what you have to do.

We stayed that night in Baton Rouge at a Hyatt Place.  I am a big fan of the Hyatt Place hotel chain.  They are usually very well priced and for the most part very well appointed also.  The next morning we got an early start and were in Destin by 4 in the afternoon making stops along the way for a sit down lunch and to just get out of the car and walk around a little.  If given the opportunity the traveling that was done on the second day through Mississippi and Alabama could have taken a few days.  I would like to have stopped in a number of places along the way.  But since we had the rental house from Saturday - Saturday, that wasn't an option on this trip.

My brother and his family made this same trip all in one day.  They stopped for gas and I suppose they ate meals in the car.  There were 6 of them in the car.  I can't think of anything less pleasant.  My trip back from Destin to Dallas at the end of the week was all done in one day and I was exhausted and slightly miserable when I got home.  Driving that far in one day is not a vacation it is work.  I suppose necessity dictates a trip like that on occasion.  But whenever possible, it sure is nice to stop and smell the roses.... or the meat pies.  In my opinion there is nothing quite as great as a roadtrip with family.  Sure, Europe and Hawaii are terrific.  But you can't drive there and 40 or 50 years later, when you think back, about half of the great memories are the ones that took place in the car.