Statistics -
Duration: 16 days, starting on Friday June 11 at 6 pm and ending on
Sunday June 27 at 1:45 am.
Miles: 5953 averaging 372 miles & 6 hours driving a day.
Gas: 20 fill-ups averaging 27.336 mpg while averaging 70-75 mph. We used
a total of 214.297 gallons @ an average cost of $1.889/g for a total cost of
$404.80.
Hotels: Best Western, Fairfield Inn, Grand Canyon (Yavapai Lodge),
Holiday Inn(2), La Quinta, Le Pavillon, The Peabody-Little Rock, Super 8, Wigwam
Motel & The Wild Rose Inn. (The service was the best at Fairfield Inn-Roswell,
NM and the facility and room was the best at Le Pavillon-New Orleans) Average
cost per night $71.
States: (10) Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas,
Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Louisiana.
NBs: Angelisa met many of her sisters and brothers across the land. There
were individual sightings during the trip plus the Southern California Caravan
of 12 NBs, then at R2K, the skywatch party, glow parade, car show, afternoon
parade, road rally and finally the Drive-In.
Herbies: I gave away 1 Herbie beanie to Dean Jones. This was the one that
sat on Angelisa's back shelf for the last 4+ years. It just seemed appropriate
for the last one to go to someone who was part of the real Movie. David also
gave me a signed copy of the original Herbie movie (unopened) that I had Dean
Jones personalize to me. Last, we watched Herbie Goes Bananas at the Drive-In
Sunday night as the last event of the show.
Photos: 2,896 taken and 2,096 published on our web site. Taken with a Sony
CD digital camera with a 40x zoom and auto-stuff. We took many of the scenic
photos while driving 70+ mph out the window, I was very happy with the results,
most of the bad pictures were due to operator error or poor lighting.
Music & DVDs (These are all the CDs we played during the trip):
| Air Supply - Greatest Hits |
| Annie - A New Musical |
| Barry Manilow Summer of 78 |
| Bryan Adams - So Far So Good |
| Disney - Music from the Park |
| Faith Hill- Faith |
| Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits |
| Jennifer Lopez - On the 6 |
| LoneStar - Greatest hits |
| Old Time Radio - All Time Favorites |
| Old Time Radio - All Time Favorites |
| Old Time Radio - All Time Favorites |
| Old Time Radio - Comedy Favorites |
| Old Time Radio - Detectives and Crime Fighters |
| Old Time Radio - Detectives and Crime Fighters |
| Rick and Bubba - Smell of Success |
| Rick Springfield - Rick Springfield |
| The Kinleys - Just Between You and Me DVD - Mom's out of Sight
|
| The Good, the Bad and the Ugly | |||
| Mitch | Naomi | Heather | |
| The Good | The driving was great, the car was comfortable the whole
trip, I never felt exhausted until the last day after it had been raining
for 3 days in a row :( Showing Heather a small part of our country was fun, it was her first ever vacation. She really didn't understand what to do until the vacation was half over but she enjoyed the trip. I loved the Cowboy Breakfast, Indian ruins, Grand Canyon & R2K and Rally plus our short time in New Orleans. The people in general where great along the trip, we experienced no road rage and everyone we talked to along the way loved our trip. The bellhops were amazed I could actually get all our stuff in the car and still have room for 3 people. The Fairfield Inn in Roswell and Le Pavillon in New Orleans were great hotels both worth staying at again. |
The really comfy bed at the Peabody! The really nice hostess at The Wild Rose Inn, in Tombstone. There were
cookies at night and the breakfast awesome.
The Le Pavillon in New Orleans, for the wonder suite that they upgraded us
to and their peanut butter and jelly snacks at night. I enjoyed getting to stop and see allot of silly roadside attractions. The National Memorial in Oklahoma City, is beautiful and very moving. Everyone should go there at least once. Getting to spend sometime with David, outside of Roswell and getting another of the infamous David Allen tours. If you ever get a chance, I highly recommend one of his knowledge tours around the Dallas/Ft Worth area. |
Riding the horse at the Cowboy Morning Breakfast, even
though my mom had to make me ride it.
The dimmer switch in my bedroom at the Le Pavillon in New Orleans. Having my own bedroom at the Le Pavillon and the Wild Rose Inn. Meeting Jerry!! |
| The Bad | The headlight going out Friday at the R2K car shows would be my bad especially for the Glow parade. I had tried so hard to get Angelisa in good shape for the show and she goes blind in one eye the day of the show :( The other bad would have to be the Peabody - Little Rock. I can't remember everything, but I had a list of 6 problems we had with the room, not something you expect from a high-end hotel. | Not enough time in Roswell to
spend with everyone.
And just not enough time to do everything we planned to do. We spent too much time just rushing around. |
Being made to get out of the car and enjoy myself! |
| The Ugly | Holiday Inn would definitely be the ugly. We had reservations at 3 Holiday Inn hotels, Birmingham, Carlsbad and Galveston. When I was confirming our reservations the week before our trip, I couldn't find the first hotel. Turns out Holiday Inn had sold the hotel to Best Western and didn't even tell us. Best Western sent us a note about 2 days before we left but it would have been nice if Holiday Inn had said something or given us the option to change locations. In Carlsbad, the A/C didn't work well, it wasn't normal A/C and the water leaked in the tub all night, older hotel that we will avoid in the future. We got to Galveston really late and were tired. We checked in to the Holiday Inn Express and went to bed, we we got up we realized the sheets were dirty. We had the manager come take the sheets out of the room, but were not even given an apology. We will not be staying at a Holiday Inn any time soon. | The rain during the last days of our trip.
Heather never wanting to get out of the car. She is just happy to sit and stare. :(
|
Muffin Bars! |
| Conclusion | It was a great trip, I enjoyed showing Heather a little piece of the world. I enjoyed the new experiences like the Cowboy Breakfast and Indian ruins the most, but I don't think we had a bad day the whole trip, except the last day which covered 670+ miles and rained almost all day very hard. | It was a fun trip. I just wish Heather would enjoy getting out of the car and seeing the sites. Even getting her out of the car for the Grand Canyon was extremely difficult. And this was the one thing we prepared her for the most and she was excited about seeing it, but once we got there, she could have cared less. | |
| Would I do it again? | Yes. Although our next trip will probably go north to Yellowstone, Utah and Alaska :) The next time we go west, we will probably go all the way to California and would like to spend more time at the Grand Canyon going to the bottom of the canyon and maybe rafting down the Colorado. | Yes, as long as we include a
side trip to San Diego!! And the canyons in Utah.
I would also like to get some more time in Roswell, to actually spend time with people, instead of rushing in late on Friday and out early on Sunday. |
|
| What would I change? |
I would add a few more days to the Grand Canyon stop, add some time in Utah and maybe shorten the trip on the way back. Stop in Austin or see something different on the way back. I think our plans at R2K would stay the same, maybe spend some time planting flowers or something at Katie's bench. Not stay at any Holiday Inn, check out the hotels a little better and stay at newer properties and possibly shorten the driving days a little so we had more time for sights. |
The need for more time, to enjoy the trip and get some sleep alone the way. | |