Today was the major driving day of the road trip: Flagstaff, AZ to Durango, CO, with points in-between.
leisure
Southwest Road Trip: Day 1
We woke up this morning and had breakfast at the buffet at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel before loading our bags back into the rental car. Then it was on to watch the western cowboy show before boarding the train for the ride up to the canyon’s south rim.
Spring Training 2017: Day 4
Normally my Spring Training vacation doesn’t have a “Day 4” but this time I’m staying in Phoenix to kick off a four-day southwest road trip with my family. My brother had a later flight, as did my sister. So after checking out of the hotel we had time to actually go out for breakfast together at the Black Bear Diner.
Spring Training 2017: Day 3
This morning we had breakfast at our hotel and then drove over to the Cleveland Indians Players Complex in Goodyear to watch their warm-ups and shag some fly balls during batting practice (we each got one). It was Corey Kluber bobblehead day at the ballpark so we were in line to shortly after it opened at 11:30am to get our vouchers. Strangely, getting a voucher didn’t guarantee getting a bobblehead so we got in another line to pick up our giveaway.
Spring Training 2017: Day 2
Our morning started out early with a hike up the Echo Canyon Trail to the summit of Camelback Mountain, our annual tradition. It was great weather for the hike and we were in the shade most of the time. It only took us just over an hour to reach the top. After spending about 20 minutes taking our obligatory mountain-top photos, we made our way back down which took another hour. This was perfect timing as my sister was flying in to join us and her flight landed at 10:15am. We drove directly from the trailhead to the airport, picked her up, and went back to the hotel to watch the end of the Dayton/Davidson basketball game. The Flyers were the regular season A10 champs this year, but unfortunately lost to Davidson in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament. We’ll have to wait until Sunday to see if they’ll be dancing in the NCAA Tournament next week.
Spring Training 2017: Day 1
It’s been two years since I’ve been out to the Cactus League to watch my Cleveland Indians at Spring Training … but it’s time! The tech arsenal is pretty simple this year: my Surface Pro 4, iPhone 7 Plus, Canon PowerShot SX710, and FitBit Charge 2 (I also brought my trusty Garmin nüvi GPS but ended up not using it because the rental car didn’t have a CD player so I couldn’t use my magnetic slot mount and hadn’t brought the beanbag dashboard mount … oops! So I ended up using Waze on my iPhone).
Thanksgiving 2016 Road Trip: Day 9
We’re finally home, back in warm, sunny, Florida.
At 8:15am we were checked out of the hotel after breakfast and on the road for the final time. We were worried there’d be heavy traffic on I-75 South around Gainesville due to the UF/FSU game in Tallahassee yesterday, plus students returning to school after the Thanksgiving break, but it turned out to be fine. We made a brief stop at Busch Gardens to pick up our annual passes (my daughter is going on a field trip there for Physics Day later this week) but were home by 11:45am. Whew!
Driving stats: 3 1/2 hours; 211 miles
This was quite the road trip:
Total drive time: 53 hours
Total miles driven: 2,955
Average MPG: 25.7
Total fuel cost: $240
Colleges visited: 5
Thanksgiving 2016 Road Trip: Day 8
Today was the long haul …
We were on the road at 9:00am, continuing our drive south on I-75 through Kentucky. Around noon we crossed in Tennessee and finally saw the sun again (after three cloudy, gray days in Ohio). About an hour later in Knoxville we started encountering heavy traffic. According to Waze there was a bad accident on the interstate so we took some back roads to route around it. This allowed us to stop at a Whole Foods and pick up a healthy lunch to each in the car.
At 5:00pm we were driving through Atlanta and we stopped for dinner in Tifton at 7:30pm. Our original plans had called for us to stop in Valdosta again, but we decided to push a little further and get as far as Lake City. We checked in by 10:00pm and were done for the night.
Tomorrow, we finally get back home.
Driving stats: 11 1/2 hours; 736 mi
Thanksgiving 2016 Road Trip: Day 7
Yesterday we spent Thanksgiving with family but today it’s back on the road as we start heading for home.
We had loaded most of our stuff into the Highlander the night before and at 8:00am we were back on the road. Being the weird road trip people we are, we started driving north, to go south: we took I-90 West towards Toledo and then I-75 North (again!) toward Michigan. Since we didn’t do our Frankenmuth trip on Wednesday, we were doing it now. We crossed the border into Michigan around 10:00am and by noon were pulling into the parking lot of Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland.
After doing some Christmas shopping in the Black Friday madness of the world’s largest Christmas store, it was finally time to head south. We took US-23 South and, keeping with our college visit theme, took some time to drive around the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. (The next day, the Ohio State Buckeyes would defeat the Wolverines in double-overtime).
We left UM around 2:30pm and crossed into Ohio two hours later. Then it was back on ol’ familiar I-75 South. At 7:00pm we stopped just north of Cincinnati to meet some old college friends for a leisurely dinner (at Marion’s Piazza again!). Afterwards, back on the road, we stopped at Graeter’s in northern Kentucky around 9:45pm for dessert since we had been snubbed on the way up. 45 minutes later we were checked into our hotel for the evening in Florence (y’all). Tomorrow will be our longest driving day.
Driving stats: 10 1/2 hours; 606mi
Thanksgiving 2016 Road Trip: Day 5
Originally we were going to go to Frankenmuth, Michigan today to visit Bronner’s, but we decided to move that to Friday during the drive home. Instead, we took it easy this morning and then took I-90 East to downtown Cleveland to (again), see some of our old haunts.
This included: lunch at the West Side Market, driving past the waterfront icons (the Factory of Sadness (oops, I meant FirstEnergy Stadium!), the Great Lakes Science Center, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), and a photo opp with the Cleveland sign (one of three installed during last summer’s Republican National Convention). We also stopped briefly at Tower City Center (it was rainy so the ice skating rink in Public Square wasn’t open), and drove past Quicken Loans Arena, home of the 2016 NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers.
On our way back to the west side we stopped at Malley’s to pick up a jar of our favorite fudge sauce. The jar we bought last Christmas was confiscated by the TSA when we forgot we had it in our carry-on luggage. Since we’re driving this trip it should make it back to Florida safely (unless we eat it before then).
For dinner we met the whole family (including the people we hadn’t yet seen) at Red Robin. Afterwards, my brother took me to an awesome bar called 16-Bit. A bar filled with classic arcade games? Hell yes! We spent a few hours playing old favorites like Gauntlet (“warrior needs food, badly”), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Spy Hunter, Donkey Kong, and my personal favorite, Galaga (I had over 100,000 points before my brother got to play his first life, ha!).
