Best. Trip. Ever. Cross Country Road Trip - 08/08

Bobby,
Just stumbled upon your journal and I am impressed. At about 17 I went on a family trip to Vegas and AZ, unfortunately we flew there, I do remember flying in and out of Vegas (the slot machines just about everywhere you go and being kicked out of just about every casino for being underage) and seeing the lights from there. We of course did the Grand Canyon, which I still remember half a lifetime later. We also went to Sedona AZ which I am dying to revisit, my mother has been there numerous times since then. One of the most gorgeous places I've seen in my life (of course I've been limited to the US and Canada lol, we went to Holbrook AZ and saw the Meteor Crater, the Petrified Forest (which is amazing, the Painted Desert and did part of Rt 66, stopped in Oatman AZ.. amazing how I remember the details 17 yrs later.
My father used to live in Kansas City, MO, one summer we drove through Kansas, which is another state I'd like to avoid again, nothing but farms for 100's of miles. Our destination was Colorado Springs, took about 10hrs somehow but we got there, he had a friend there we stayed with. We drove to the summit of Pikes Peak which was quite a spectacular view, there was snow towards the top in mid-August, Garden of the Gods and some famous hotel which name eludes me at the moment. On the way home we went through Denver and went to a Rockies/Giants game. The view from the old Mile High stadium was priceless. We used to plat Frisbee all the time so of course it went with us on our trip& I remember while we were CO because of the elevation (and prob better air quality) with the slight flick of your wrist the thing went FOREVER, if we had brought an extra one we wanted to through it off of Pikes Peak just to see how far it would go.
Little did I know then but my Aunt and 2 Cousins moved to CO, right outside of Denver and would need me to help drive the 32 ft Bduget truck to my lovely home of Long Island NY in July 2007. Unfortunately we were in a rush and between my cousin and I split the driving each day for 3 days, we took I-80 into NJ (which is a nightmare then especially when you have the rest of your family following you in a car that you can'tsee in your rear view mirror). I was the lucky one that got to drive that part since I'm from around there, lucky me. Gas was NOT cheap then especially driving a truck. The truck had an "engine block" on it that would not let it exceed 70 mph which in the mountains of PA would also not accelerate in the mountains of PA and required us to put the hazard lights on a few times. Day 1 of the trip we stopped at a rest stop in Nebraska, my gf left her purse on the back of the truck and didn't realize it for about 10 miles, took us at least another 15 miles to get to the next exit so they could take the car back to rest area, where she learned from the extremely nice people that NYers are not used to, that a nice Boy Scout found it in the parking lot (it basically carried her entire life in it) and brought it to local PD (an hour off the interstate in the middle of nowhere) so that took us about 3 hrs to get back on track. We stopped on Day 2 in Sandusky OH and stopped at the 1st cheapest motel @ 11pm(which looked like the Bates Motel from the movie Psycho), when the clerk opened the door bugs flew out so we left the rest of the family with the truck and went to the one next door to find out someone had recently been murdered there. We went running back to the truck screaming we have to save our family from the "jason bateman motel", we were exhausted. We get back in the truck I went to start it and it didn't start, I've never done a 3 point turn in a car that quickly let alone a truck of this size. Although that was a rushed trip it was another I'll never forget.
In Dec 09 my father passed away, he was living in SC at the time, my parents being divorced for @ 30 yrs I was surprised when my mother said she wanted to go. Anyway we get there without a problem, coming home (not sure if you remember being from CT) we hit a massive blizzard that started for us on the NC/VA border. We made it to VA and stopped at a rest stop to get a travel guide knowing we are not making it home that day. I had begun calling hotels a few miles up I-95 to discover they were all booked, then dropped below freezing (@ 4pm)and cars were sliding all over 95, my mother said she was stopping whether we had a place to stay or not, luckily there was ONE remaining hotel in the entire area and we got it. We left the next am @ 9, (95 hadn't even been plowed and we did @ 30mph all the way to NJ) we finally got home @ 12hrs later and it should have taken about 7 hrs, Long Island hadn't been plowed either and we got about 30 inches of snow in less than 24 hrs, another trip for the record books, my brother drove from WA.
We got to Lake George twice every yr and every time without fail either on the way there or the way home on our "detour' to avoid the George Washington bridge and the Cross Bronx expwy (also i-95) I miss the exit for the Tappan Zee Bridge and don't realize it until I see the sign that says "welcome to Conneticut" maybe in the future I should pay the extra $ for the ferry from LI to CT and avoid both the Bronx and getting lost lol.
Anyway, I have a friend who lives in LA/W Hollywood and I am dying to take a road trip out there, go the northern route, stop where ever we want and come back through Vegas and UT/AZ see the Arches and take my gf to the Grand Canyon and Sedona, she has never been there and I just can't find the words to explain it enough to do it justice. She's a terrible driver so I usually drive and she really enjoys scenery lol which is why we go to Lake George twice, once is Oct for the foliage, we don't get much here, guess it would help if we had trees. She only gets 2 weeks off every yr from work, right now I'm not working so I'm on my own time schedule but it makes it hard to save up to do it. Her father owns an RV which would save in hotel/motel costs but the gas for it may exceed that, I'd love to camp in some of those spots but her definition of camping IS the RV.
There is SO much to see in this country, especially places you don't hear of often, Sedona was an accidental find, no one really knew of it back then, that I just want to drive and find all those hidden places. We make it a goal every yr to find a new waterfall in Lake George, most of which take a few yrs because most of the people who live there have no idea where we are talking about but we don't stop until we find it, took us a boat and an entire day of hiking to find the last one. I'd love to hike down the Grand Canyon, theres probably an amazing rush you get from it and it has to be gorgeous in every direction, it would take me days to do it plus I've heard of a semi-secret spot where there is waterfall and a "spa" type water pool that in the summer it's like a hot tub.. gotta find that lol
Best of luck in your future travels.. don't worry I won't go with you and cause you problems although they are fun after the fact.