Days 19 and 20 - Big Sur, CA

Well Hello People!!

I am writing this blog from Petaluma.Yep- we made it! But let me tell you about Big Sur before I get sidetracked by how strange I feel about being finished with the trip and back in Sonoma County...

Our trip from Las Vegas to Big Sur was fairly uneventful. A long day of driving without a lot of beauty until we got closer to the coast, or at least Paso Robles. That drive through Bakersfield is barren! We would have loved to stop and visit a few wineries a la "Sideways" in Paso Robles but decided that with still 2 hours of driving ahead of us on Hwy 1 it was probably best to keep on going. We stopped at San Simeon to watch the sunset and our first view of the Pacific ocean-ahhh. We had been landlocked for the last 3 weeks and were very happy to see the coast. We arrived at the Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park after spending 60 miles on Hwy 1 in the dark-not fun. We stayed right in the park at the Big Sur Lodge. It was super charming and so serene! No television, telephone, cell service, room service...you get the idea. What it lacked in technology it made up for with a fireplace and hiking trails right outside the door. After a meal in the lodge dining room we built ourselves a fire and got a good night's sleep in preparation for an 8 mile hike up Mt Manuel the next day. Much to our chagrin we awoke to torrential downpours :-( Not to be deterred we put on our rain gear and headed up the 3,358 feet of ascent. About a mile up we found that the path was disintegrating and the rain and wind increasing. Darn-thwarted!! Tony decided that we should turn around in the name of safety.  The rest of the day continued to belt it down so we found ourselves in front of the fire again...We did manage to get out to a few of the local lodge's bars for the game and drinks and that was about it.
We woke to the most amazing blues skies this morning as we prepared to depart. Wouldn't you know it!  We managed to get in a quick walk up one of the trails before hitting the road. So long Big Sur...

The drive up Hwy1 was so beautiful and we were happy to be experiencing it but sad we weren't able to stop. We did however stop in Aptos for a fuel stop for us and the car. In that moment I was so happy to be back in CA- the sun was shining, the sky was so blue and not a siren to be heard.

I think I speak for both Tony and myself when I say that the trip was all we hoped for and I would do it again. I think it is also safe to say we are really looking forward to the next chapter of our life.

As always, thanks for your support and

Keep On Truckin'

Gina

Days 16, 17 and 18- Las Vegas, NV

Good Afternoon People!

As I write we are actually in California!! What a trip…

I’m having very mixed feelings about being in California. Great to be back in my home state and looking forward to seeing my family and friends, and yet very sad to be saying goodbye to the Jeep patriot and the adventures we’ve been having.

So we left the Grand Canyon Wednesday morning in search of some action to balance out all of the nature we’d been experiencing. We figured that Vegas was a good spot for some action as it was quite near. We stopped along the way at the Hoover dam. It is quite a dam! It’s not the engineering feat on the same scale as the Brooklyn Bridge, but this was built  in another era with the Hoover dam using  much more modern technology and knowledge. It is described as one of the top 10 construction  projects of the 20^th century. It actually grew out of an agricultural irrigation issue. The Colorado river was diverted to create the Alamo canal back in 1904. It wasn’t very successful however, but it got people thinking of uses for the river and its incredible force. There was much debate and controversy between many different agencies, that went on for nearly 25 years, but construction began in 1931 and was completed in 1936, a full 2 years ahead of schedule. Originally called the Boulder City Dam, the name  was changed  to then president Herbert Hoover. It’s estimated that 96 people lost their lives during construction. It provides electricity for parts of Arizona, Nevada and California and gets over 1,000,000 visitors each year.

Ok- finally we arrive in Sin City. Ironically enough we end up at New York, New York, simply because they had  great mid-week offers. It turns out that it’s a great place to stay! A reasonably sized hotel/casino. Not  at all like the Big Apple itself, but we really liked it. And funnily enough our room looked out over the Brooklyn Bridge- ha! Not the same view as we had from our living room, but thought it was a cute coincidence. There’s not a whole lot one can say about Vegas- it is what it is- but it was exactly what we were looking for. We took in 2 Cirque de Soleil shows while there: Viva Elvis and Zumanity. The Elvis show was surprisingly disappointing. After visiting Graceland we were up for more of The King, but actually found it boring. I didn’t think that Cirque could be boringL Zumanity on the other hand was FABULOUS!!!! It’s billed as their erotic show , but it was so much more. Super funny and sexy and camp. We had great seats- 2 rows from the stage- and I have never seen so many beautiful bodies, let alone that close. There was a bit of audience interaction as well, which is always fun. Tony was worried that he might be drug up on stage to “perform”, as he had read they bring the audience up for simulated “acts” but he was safe, although a 60-year old named Margaret wasn’t so lucky(or was she?) and got a really lively romping with one of the hunky men. So funny!!!

The only other thing I can add is the casinos do have many new, fun games- lots of 3-d and interactive screens. Makes spending your money with mindless abandon much more enjoyable.

We have been on the road since 9:00 am and are hoping to pull into Big Sur by 6:00. We need to re-balance ourselves after Vegas and hope to get in some hiking.. I am trying not to think that this will be our last stop before hitting Petaluma on Monday…stay in the moment.

Keep On Truckin’

Gina

Days 14 and 15 - Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

Good Morning People!

Many states down now and just two more to go…we are getting there!

We are just heading out from the grand Canyon as I write. We spent 2 nights there and thoroughly enjoyed it. Neither of us had been before and found it very grand  indeed! We stayed at a hotel within the park sitting right on the South Rim. It had a view of the canyon and was right on the Rim Trial path. Great location! We arrived Monday afternoon to glorious, sunny weather and headed out for a walk around the Rim Trail. They call it a hike, but it’s just a walk. A beautiful walk, with amazing views of the canyon, but definitely not a hike. This is just one aspect of the bigger picture of the lack of actual hiking that goes on within the canyon. Less than 1% of the 5,000,000 visitors each year to the Grand Canyon actually go into the canyon. We aren’t sure if it’s due to a lack of time, a lack of any sense of adventure or simply a lack of fitness by those visitors every year. We are now members of that elite 1%  group and feel so bad for the 99%ers!  The canyon is so amazing and the hikes very doable. We did have the advantage of being acclimatized, having spent the last week in Santa Fe and Sedona, both of which are above 4,500 feet, and therefore weren’t as affected by the 6,850 feet altitude.

We chose the Bright Angel Trail for our big hike yesterday. We read that it was the best maintained path and since there was a bit of snow on the ground we wanted the most passable route. Tony did a lot of research(but of course!) into the various distances that one can journey on foot through the canyon. The Bright Angel Trail has 4 levels one can attempt: 3 miles, 6 miles, 9 miles or 12 miles round-trip. These levels are all out and backs, equal distance down and up. And they are very “down” and very “up”. The 12 miles round-trip was labeled as very dangerous for a one day walk. This was suggested only to those who had a night to spend down at the bottom before heading up the 6 miles of steep ascent. Tony read enough things to convince us to heed the warnings and instead we opted for the 9 mile endeavor, which was also apparently too tough for many to attempt in one day. After reading everything we set off with a bit of trepidation. All of the guide books said to plan on 6-9 hours round trip. The trail was amazing and surprisingly empty (we hadn’t read about the 1% club at this point and weren’t sure why we weren’t coming across more hikers). We passed a mule tour and several backpackers coming up who had spent the night down at the bottom, but not a lot more than that aside from a few Pinion Jays . We made it down the 4.6 miles to Indian Garden in about 2 ½ hours. It was gorgeous down there!  It was apparently used by the Indians as an oasis during their treks through the canyon. We had a bite to eat down there and started heading back up, as we were concerned about giving ourselves plenty of time for the ascent - we had read and been told that we should expect to take twice the time ascending as we did descending.... It had seemed very steep coming down… we made it back up in just under 3 hours!  Now I’m not writing this to make us sound like elite athletes- cuz we’re not- but just to show how surprised we were by  chasm ( pun intended) of what we read vs what we experienced. Again- not sure where the disconnect was. Apparently 350 people per year have to be rescued from the paths as they are too unfit to make it back up, but still. And I know the cool weather helped us, but still. If I sound frustrated, I am. We felt cheated out of the experience of making it all the way to the bottom by the propaganda we read. Oh well, next time… And let me be clear- we thoroughly enjoyed the hike and there were some very steep parts that were extremely strenuous.

We finished the afternoon off with a pint and a little nap-yeah it did tire us out a bit- before heading out for a much deserved steak dinner at the Arizona Room and a sighting of mule deer outside the restaurant.

We got up early and are making our way to Vegas- yeah Vegas baby!!!! All of the ”great outdoors” was starting to get to us so we put Vegas back on the itinerary. Come on lucky #11…

Keep On Truckin’

Gina

Days 11, 12 and 13-Sedona, AZ

Good Morning People!

I’ve lost track of how many states and miles we have gone… I just know it’s a lot!

We just finished 3 nights in Sedona, AZ. What an amazing place!  The rock formations are so beautiful and breathtaking. It’s hard to even capture the majesty in photos, although we tried.

The meal for Tony’s birthday was super good. Super expensive, and super good. We did the chef’s menu and wine pairing at L’auberge de Sedona. Truly fine dining.

Saturday was a mostly clear day and we headed out for a full day of activities. We started off with a Pink Jeep tour of the ancient ruins of the 12^th century natives, the Honanki. Even the ride out to the rocks was amazing with all of the mountains on full view from the comfort of our blankets in the jeep. Our guide was laid back and knowledgeable. He had gone to the liberal studies college in Petaluma so he was good to go in my books. We arrived at the trail head and walked out to the ruins, learning about the area on our way. Sedona is surrounded by 1.8 million acres of preserved wilderness. All of the hikes and campgrounds are public space and the town will never be allowed to grow any larger. It makes for a very pristine and open area. There are over 250 hiking trails in the area. The ruins were interesting and extremely well preserved. We arrived back at our hotel just in time to grab a quick bite and head out to hike Cathedral Rock. Hike is a bit of a misnomer as the trail to the (about a 700 foot extremely steep climb)top is almost all sheer rock face, but we got dug in and made it up- and that was so worth it! What a view. This particular hike crossed one of the 4 main Vortexes in Sedona. It was the Vortex of feminine energy and we made sure we stopped on the vortex and re-invigorated our feminine side.

There is isn’t a lot going on in Sedona at night but we managed to find a great barbeque joint and some fabulous ribs before calling it an early night.

Sunday was raining when we woke up. This really put a damper on our idea of a 9 mile hike. We waited for it to clear up, but it never did so we headed out anyway. We managed a really muddy 6 mile hike up to the fog line on the Brin’s Mesa Trail. It was really beautiful even though we couldn’t see much due to the weather. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the spa facilities at the Hyatt before grabbing a burger while watching the football(Tony was happy).

We are now headed to the Grand Canyon for 2 nights. I’m super excited as I have never been there, even though I’ve been to Vegas many times. More hiking awaits!!

Keep On Truckin’

Gina

Day 10 and 11 - Santa Fe, NM

Good Morning People!

13 states and 2200 miles down…

We just had 2 really nice, COLD, nights in Santa Fe, NM. We arrived on Wednesday night in time to get settled into our condo and head out to take in the town. We were within walking distance and went it on foot, not fully appreciating how cold we might be on the way home later that night. Santa Fe sits at an altitude of slightly over 7,000 feet which makes it very cold this time of year and the air very thin.

We found the architecture to be even more charming then we had imagined and found ourselves enamored with the place early on. Even the Albertsons we shopped at was in true adobe style, red clay with blue accents in south western motif.

We walked around the main point of the town, the central plaza, and found many great stores with south western gifts and many more restaurants and bars. The bloom didn’t come off the rose until we sat down to our very carefully chosen restaurant, Pasqual’s, and found it over the-top- expensive and the food to be bland and lackluster. The service was also very inattentive. We had such high expectations we were feeling very let down. Has having spent the last 18 months in NYC  jaded us possibly?  As we sat at the table feeling disgruntled by the whole experience, we agreed that Pasqual’s wouldn’t last 2 weeks in the Big Apple, where amazing restaurants flourish and the weaker go out of business. It’s a brutal place to be a restaurateur but an incredible place to be a diner J We made it back to our cozy adobe casita in time to curl up to a movie in bed…not that kind of movie!

The next day started on the famous Canyon Road of Santa Fe. It’s the art community of the town. There must be over 100 galleries on the ½ mile road. It’s super cool with outdoor sculpture everywhere. It has a very commune feel to it as the streets are narrow with mountains on both sides and most of the sidewalks are unpaved. We spent quite a  bit of time here enjoying the art. We nearly bought a $2,000 painting in one gallery. I think it may have been the Datura plant growing inside that brought us to that unrealistic state of mind. Datura is an extremely strong hallucinogenic flowering plant. It’s indicative of the area that is was just growing rampantly inside the gallery. Along the walk we couldn’t help but notice 2 more restaurants we were considering the night before and their prices were even higher than Pasqual’s. We really were shocked at the prices of things here. I think it must be the Aspen of NM. We meandered more through town and found the Santa Fe market on one side of the plaza. It was where the Native artisans were hawking their goods on blankets on the sidewalk.

Thursday night we decided to enjoy our condo and cook ourselves a meal for the first time in over 2 weeks. It was so nice! Tony built a fire and we stayed in and stayed warm. Seriously, there is snow all over the ground in Santa Fe- it’s COLD there.

Today is Tony’s birthday so we agreed I would forgo my morning run(who really wants to run in 30 degree weather anyway?) and get an early start to Sedona. We should be there by 3:00, which will give me time to work out at the gym at The Hyatt and still have plenty of time before our 8:00 dinner reservation at L’Auberge at Oak Creek. It’s supposed to be the best restaurant in Sedona. Since it is a special day we decided to splurge a bit. Speaking of the Hyatt- in true Hyatt style the concierge called us yesterday to ask us if we wanted her to arrange some activities for us. As the conversation progressed it came out that we were in Santa Fe. She got really excited and asked “ have you eaten at Pasqual’s yet? It’s the best place in town”. We won’t have her booking any restaurants for us…

Keep On Truckin’

Gina

Day 9- Oklahoma City, OK and Amarillo, TX

Good Morning People!

11 states and 1864 miles down…

We had an epic day of driving yesterday and not much else. We left Hot Springs and drove through a massive thunder & lightning storm to arrive in Oklahoma City just in time to get in a quick tour of the OKC  museum and memorial. It was really well done and I wish we could have spent more time there. The museum had much more detail then I expected and I found it quite moving. The thing that struck me the most about the museum were the reactions and actions surrounding the attacks. They were completely surprised and unprepared for an act of terrorism.  I think the way that we are all forced to travel today (air travel) and having lived 4 blocks from the WTC site for the last 18 months, I feel as though I have just gotten used to the idea that this is a real concern and something to be aware of at all times. April 19^th, 1994 in Oklahoma City was really the first time this country had dealt with such an act of devastation and hatred(aside from the WTC attack in 1983). It really shaped policy moving forward and felt like the end of innocence for our country. We left the museum at dusk and continued heading west…

We finally arrived in Amarillo ,TX  around 9:30 after driving through miles and miles of flatlands. We lucked out with a steakhouse right next to our hotel so managed to get in a steak dinner in Texas after all.

We had a relaxing morning and stopped at the Cadillac Ranch for a quick photo shoot before hitting the road. We are heading to Santa Fe for a couple of nights and are really looking forward to it!

Just entered CMT zone so gained another hour for Santa Fe- woohoo!!!

Keep On Truckin’

Gina

Days 7 and 8- Hot Springs, Arkansas

Good Morning Y’All!

Nine states and 1300 miles down…

We just spent 2 super relaxing days in Hot Springs, AR, the childhood town of Bill Clinton. We were originally going to stay in Little Rock but decided it didn’t have as much of what we wanted. We stayed in a hotel right in the middle of Hot Springs National Park. The Arlington Hotel & Spa. It was an historic property that had been the exclusive place to stay in town since 1875. It was a bit like the Overlook(The Shining) but without the snow outside-grand in its day but a little tired now. Thankfully we had done our research and had read that it wasn’t in its prime anymore but still a great place to stay. And it was.  It was really interesting to see a hotel of its kind still operating.

We arrived in the afternoon and did another one of our “drop and goes”. This time out the back door of the hotel straight onto a hiking trail into the park-brilliant!  We had a beautiful hike, getting back just before dark. Daylight savings has really cut into the evening hasn't it? We decided to go out for dinner to find that most things in town are closed on Sundays…and Mondays. There were only 2 restaurants in town that we felt were worth eating at and they were both closed Sun and Mon. We did find a great little bar, The Ohio Club. It is the oldest of the old casinos that Hot Springs were famous for, still operating since 1905, but now as a bar only. It’s famous for its  giant wooden carved bar that was shipped down the Mississippi river from Minnesota to Memphis and then trucked over to Hot Springs. The Ohio was the hangout for the rich and famous: Mae West, Al Capone, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr were all regulars back in the day.  Hot Springs  was also a hangout  for the mafia in the 20’s and 30’s. Al Capone is memorialized all over town. At The Arlington Hotel there is a whole floor dedicated to him. He used to rent the entire 4th floor for his parties for weeks at a time.

The other thing Hot Springs  is famous for are the Bathhouses. They lined the streets back in the early 1900’s when they were primarily wooden, ramshackle buildings. They since gave way to  buildings that still line the streets but are much more grand. They were constructed to take advantage of the multitude of  natural hot springs in the area. There are only 2 of the originals still operating  but there are many more still standing that are just used as museums- or just standing empty. That really tripped me out to see beautifully maintained buildings on a main street of a tourist town not being used for anything but just to look good on the street as you walk by. We’re not in New York anymore! Discovered just how true that was as we prepared for our 8 mile hike the next morning. There is not a place in town to buy a piece of fruit of any kind nor a protein or energy bar. Just candy bars- yep that’s it. And the convenience ( giant misnomer) store where we might purchase a bottle of water and said candy bar didn’t open ‘til 10:30. A sleepy, fiberless town for sure. I had to settle for grits and sausage at the local pancake house(the only thing that is open every day til 12:30 pm).

The hike was amazingly  beautiful and quiet. We only saw 2 other hikers the entire time. It was quite athletic and we found ourselves ready for some relaxation afterwards so headed to our hotel for treatments. This is when the 2^nd Jack Nicholson film in as many days, came to mind. This time, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”  goes south . Super old-fashioned spa complete with large black women in white uniforms shuffling you around from tub to tub to table with lots of clucks and “Miss Gina’s”. It was brilliant! Just what we needed after a long hike.

Decent food was not to be found again, as it was a Monday after all, so we grabbed a salad and called it an early night…again. I was asleep by 9:30 2 nights in a row. LOVE it. I was a bit beat up after all of our shenanigans in TN.

After a great run through the park and a quick breakfast at the Pancake House again( I managed to get a bowl of frozen blueberries this morning with my oatmeal-yummy) we headed are out towards Oklahoma City for a quick stop at the Memorial and lunch .We hope to make it to Amarillo  tonight,  for sleep only, so we can be nearer to Santa Fe in the morning. However, we are currently caught in the middle of a HUGE thunder & lightning storm with torrential downpour so not sure if we will make it all that way today.

Keep On Truckin,

Gina