Today is the day. The day we place into action that which has been only a thought.
Some months back Marika made a statement out of the blue “did you know there is a Sazerac museum in New Orleans, we should go.”
She added on, it should be a road trip there and fly back.
Road trip starts today. Me and her. New Orleans bound. No plans, just a plane reservation to get home. An adventure, which is what she likes.
Marika was late getting up, surprise, so Emily gave me a ride to Sac Airport to pick up the rental car, on her way to work. Unfortunately that’s where I have to go, no local service. So Emily dropped me off at Hertz, kiss goodbye, no tears.
Turns out Hertz let’s me pick what POS I get to drive. I am going cheap so the choices are not choice. Ended up with the best, a brand new Ford Fiesta. Kinda tells you what I had to choose from. But I do like it and the Sport mode is fun. That’s where I drive.
When I got home the kid was more ready to go. We packed up and drove off. Sadly, we drove the wrong direction for six miles and I had to backtrack once I realized. Auspicious beginning.
Our route took us over the Sierras through Reno then a turn south. We drove south through Nevada most of the day and into the evening. Hit the Arizona border while still light outside and continued on. For 12 hours. Ya. It’s alot.
A quick report on the 12 hour drive. I drove 375 miles while Marika slept. Then we switched. Marika drove the rest. Only stopped for gas. We brought food.
Final stop was the former? cesspool now known as Williams Arizona. I’m not relocating. Trust me on this. Found a room at the inn. The manager kicked the animals out (the hog was pissed!) and we needed down for the night. Oh yeah, only thing available for dinner was Carl’s. Blech. We ate there.
We got up reasonably early on Tuesday. Wash, rinse, repeat? Yes. We did the same thing. Only we added 100 miles to the total daily drive. Wow.
We tried to eat at the hotel but the buffet spread was nasty. The buffet befits the location. We drove to Starbucks on the interstate and got coffee. Ate what we brought, while driving. Economy of motion.
Our day was nice. We drove through Arizona which is pretty. We are up in elevation so lots of forest greenery. Arizona has a lot of pretty places to go, and the Grand Canyon. Which can be considered amazing. We skipped it on this trip. I can say that our drive improves when the landscape is nice.
Later in the day we crossed into New Mexico. New Mexico is sparse, mostly. Except of course in the big cities. Some areas were quite beautiful and many were not. But it was a pleasant drive again. Have I mentioned, Marika slept the first six hours in the car today.
Later in the day we passed into the panhandle of Texas. In a word, ugly. In need of urban renewal. Flat. Did I already say ugly? Yes. We passed through a few towns, all were about half abandoned and really nasty. Lots of Jesus saves signs. Lots of lawyer billboards. Not pleasant. Many stupid people available to see and talk too. And they look dumb too. This is a foreign land.
Thinking we should keep moving, we did. Made it to Wichita Falls late, about 9, and decided to seek food and rest. Rented a hotel room and went to have dinner at a highly rated, by Yelp, place. Turns out, the Backporch does not deserve the high rating. Must be locals that rate it up. I had an extra cocktail to help. It didn’t.
Back to the hotel. I had to go online and finish a tax return for a client who can’t wait a week for me to return. It was a royal pain because of a bad wifi connection. Took an hour, should be 10 mins. But done.
Now I can go to sleep.