My Dad and I started out from Martinez on the 10th and started heading south. Our goal was to get to Laughlin Nevada for our first stop. We made there a little after the sun went down (around 6:30 or so). Most of the central valley was pretty well traveled, so there's not much new to report for that leg of the trip. Since it was dark when we arrived there wasn't much to see of the Colorado River. After checking in at Harrah's we decided to hit the craps table. We were scoping out the table when an inebriated cougar spotted us and proceeded to coo about how she would spoil me so much I'd never want for anything again. She became rather disinterested when she found out I was 30, and not 21 like she thought I was. Odd, but she left and we played for about an hour. I won a whopping $18 dollars, and my Dad walked away $1 richer. Oh yeah, big rollers in the house.
View of Colorado River from our hotel room in Laughlin
Originally we had planned on taking the I-40 all the way across the country, but watching the weather reports convinced us otherwise. Nearly the entirety of the mid-west and mid-east was coated in ice and snow so we decided to dive south. After heading east on the 40 from Laughlin we took 93 southeast down towards Phoenix and Tucson, with Las Cruces New Mexico being our target. We figured from there we'd then be able to check the weather again to see if heading across on I-20 would be best, or if we would need to continue further south to I-10. The desert was really beautiful, lots of cactus, rolling mountains/hills, and neat rock formations. We even spotted a commercial airliner graveyard, a place they go to mothball old passenger jets.
We arrived a little bit after sunset (sense a theme here?) in Las Cruces. The clerk suggested a Mexican place down the road in the old town area of the city that he guaranteed to be authentic. New Mexico Mexican food (as opposed to Californian) felt like it was smothered in more sauce. This place also didn't have a liquor license so no margaritas for us! The meal was tasty nonetheless and we returned to the hotel. Thankfully there was free internet in the rooms, so I brought in my PC and hooked it up so we could do a little weather research. Same story, ice and snow everywhere. I found a few state's 511 websites and wow. Tennessee had the best, with an interactive Google map to show the road weather conditions throughout the state. Sadly, those conditions were either dangerous/hazardous, or ice/snow on EVERY major interstate. Ya, we're not jumping back up to the 40. Atlanta was not faring any better, and was still frozen (which is where the I-20 ends up). So we made our decision to take the long way around and take I-10 all the way over to Jacksonville, FL and then head north.
We made a big push the next day since we were adding so many extra miles on I-10. We went from Las Cruces to Houston (791 miles). Here was Texas on the I-10. Flat. Trees. Power lines. FOREVER. Also their on/off ramps are insane. You have 20-30 feet or so from the time you enter/exit to the time you are on/off the highway. So exiting you have to slow down waaaay before you get to the exit, and entering you just have to floor it if any cars are approaching. Thankfully the speed limit was 80 through most of the day's trip so we covered a lot of ground quickly.
Next up was another long day, 5 states in 14 hours. Thats right, Houston to Jacksonville. Things were flying by since we were trying to push it to make good time. We ended up staying at a hotel near the airport in Jacksonville so my Dad could rent a car to head south back home in southern Florida.
(We passed through Lafayette, LA. I used to live in Lafayette, CA for awhile)
So I made the last leg of the trip solo! Jacksonville to Fairfax. Another 5 states tackled in 1 day. That seems to get a lot easier the further east you go. We barely got through CA and TX in a single day at the head of the adventure. I ended up arriving a little after 5 at our place. It was perfect timing to go and pick up Catherine from the metro!
Martinez to Fairfax in 5 days, taking probably the longest route we could have taken. Its pretty cool looking back to see how far we went, though it is kind of a bummer we didn't have time to stop and see some of the sights the country has to offer. I'm sure we'll be making it again some day, so I'm sure we'll do it then!
Made it!
Yeah, an update!
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