<p>In Sinner’s Alley, sluggbugg suggested the idea of a ROAD TRIP!! She suggested Mesa Verde as a possible destination. </p>
<p>I propose that each of us can suggest one destination and then we can put them all together in one itinerary. Mesa Verde for slugg. Here’s mine:</p>
<p>We stop in Santa Fe and stay at the Don Gaspar Compound (<a href=“http://www.dongaspar.com)%5B/url%5D”>http://www.dongaspar.com)</a>. We’ll each get our own casita with a small courtyard, and we’ll meet for breakfast at the main house, admiring the unbelievable flower gardens within the entire compound. We’ll walk around Santa Fe on our own that day and then meet again for dinner at Cafe Sena in the Sena Plaza for authentic Santa Fe dining pleasure. Then walk back for another night at Don Gaspar and be ready to hit the road after another incredible breakfast!!!</p>
<p>I would not count myself as being among the more worldly CC parents out there. Big road trip for me was from my state school in Ky. back in early 80’s to visit a friend at a tiny college known as Georgetown—right near UK. So—when my too bright D was in 4th grade she began revealing her ultimate dream of going to Georgetown–imagine my amazement that she had ever heard of the tiny school ! Then imagine my embarrasment when I realized she meant the grand school in DC. How else would she ever get to be a Supreme Court Justice…</p>
<p>Hope my family will be making a few road trips to another Gtown in a year or so:)</p>
<p>Steamboat Springs CO, just a few hundred miles north of Santa Fe. Ski in the winter; hike, bike etc in the summer. Great weather anytime except May (mud season, when the melt is on). The legend is once you see the Yampa Valley, you will inevitably be drawn back there.</p>
<p>About 3-4 miles west of the town of Grand Marais in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, down one of the worst roads in the state, which is saying something in Michigan, is a huge sand dune called the “Log Slide” which goes right down to the shore of Lake Superior. You can run down in 3 minutes and crawl back up in about 2 hours. During the lumber era (late 1800s) they rolled the white pine logs (100’ plus in length) down to the waiting ships in the lake.
The great thing about it is that you have to want to go there. Not many people make it up to Grand Marais and even fewer make it out to the Log Slide. Last time I was there I saw 2 young guys with skis, skiing down the dune. Little known and spectacular! Grand Marais is a nice, sleepy little town as well.</p>
<p>Let’s get out our western wear and swing on down to the Prude Ranch near the little town of Ft. Davis, Texas. It is way out in the middle of nowhere, so we’ll fly into Midland-Odessa and caravan to Ft. Davis. The Prude Ranch has bunk houses and there are a few bed and breakfast places in town. We’ll ride horses and pretend we’re cowboys/cowgirls for a day! Then just down the road is historic Ft. Davis, where the “buffalo soldiers” were stationed. We’ll brush up on our history there and then head up to Mt. Locke to visit the star attraction of this part of our trip…the McDonald Observatory! </p>
<p>During the ride out to the observatory, you’ll notice the Limpia Crossing home development, where there are a lot of houses that have their own small observatories attached. This area of Texas has some of the darkest skies in America and is an astronomers paradise.</p>
<p>The observatory is operated by the U of Texas and is home to the 9.2 meter Hobby-Eberly Telescope, one of the world’s largest. There are three other very large telescopes on Mt. Locke and several smaller ones. If we plan our visit just right and make advance reservations, we can actually observe through the 107 inch telescope.</p>
<p>We’ll dine at the Hotel Limpia, where upstairs they have a members-only club, and downstairs you dine on some great food. We’ll tell the waitress to save us a piece of their pie, because if you don’t, they might run out. They are famous for their french silk pie, but I like the coconut cream pie best. Might try a piece of the buttermilk pie sometime, just to see what it is like. Our waitress is from San Diego. She is going to college in a nearby town, Alpine, where she is a history major. She already has a history degree, but is trying to get a masters so she can teach at a junior college. She chose this college because she wanted to be as far away from everything as possible. She succeeded. :)</p>
<p>Put on your most comfortable shorts because we are going to be sitting on our butts for a long time. We’re taking I5 from SF to LA. Long - 6 hours or so. Boring and hot. Get yourself a book on tape(CD), preferably something like Clive Cussler. Stock up on Snapple and CornNuts and Heath bars and beef jerky and other gas station food classics. Get a pedicure. Now get someone else to drive and hang your feet out the window. Round about Modesto level get sick and tired of Clive Cussler, turn on the radio. Country western is all you can hear.</p>
<p>Roll up the winow, take your toes in, we are passing the stockyards and the smell of cattle is everywhere. Stop in the gas station and you can debate the merits of the different brands of toilet disinfectants used across the state.</p>
<p>But hell, it’s California! If you are smart and picked July, the sky is the color of blue you find elsewhere in the world only in a crayon box. There is no such thing as a cloud. The air is dry and warm and way cooler in the shade than in the sun. </p>
<p>If somebody’s going to get totally, TOTALLY in trouble if we don’t take a minor detour to visit their aunt and uncle in Peoria, we can do it. We’ll pick up some fresh, sweet corn and stop by for a bbq. OO-oo-oo, let’s catch fireflies, afterward! </p>
<p>Don’t forget your CD’s. Otherwise, it’s…Every Day’s a Polka Holiday for five hundred miles. Books on tape, good idea, Alum!</p>
<p>DH is planning a solo bicycle trip from Boston to Geneso, NY, to spend the weekend at an air show with his dad (who’s flying out, commercially, from southern IL). He’ll be spending about five days or so on the road, relaxing over the weekend, and then boxing up the bike and taking the train home from Rochester, NY. That’s his idea of a road trip!</p>
<p>Alummom,
I’m with you on the drive from SF to LA.
As a San Franciscan (as well as a child of two holocaust survivors) who has taken the I5 more times that I would care to admit, my kids and I refer to that smelly, stockyard stretch of the road as “Cowschwitz.”</p>
<p>If we’re heading south on the 5, allow me to take you all to one of the most unique lunches you’ll ever experience. We get off at Los Banos and head into the old section of town to a little French Basque restaurant called “Wool Growers”. From the outside it looks like a dive…well it is. Goes back in time about 60 years. All family style dining at huge tables covered in red-checked tablecloths. Everyone sits together. Everything is served on huge platters you share with your tablemates, like an old time boardinghouse. No menu. They serve you, you eat. Charge is per head. Red wine on the table of course. Great bread, beans, soup, salad (a couple kinds), usually some kind of wonderful stew, rice, vegetables, and oh yeah then the food arrives–pork chops, leg of lamb, tri-tip, lamb shanks, chicken. A food porn dream. We may have to take dessert with us in a doggy bag for the car later.</p>
<p>We will have to put some miles on that car to get to Grayton Beach, Florida.
The prettiest beach in the State, hidden away in the middle of the panhandle. Sugar white sand, emerald green to turquoise blue water. Check it out at
<a href=“http://www.graytonbeach.com/graytonbeach.html[/url]”>http://www.graytonbeach.com/graytonbeach.html</a> A perfect beach - no Condos or high-rises, just cottages (bigger these days) soft white sand, gentle dunes, sparkling water and plenty of Florida sunshine. At night we can go to the Red Bar for Margarita’s, or travel up the road to Seaside and sit on the lawn at the Amphitheater, eating ice cream and watching the children laugh and dance as a local band plays music under the stars.</p>
<p>Will we have an entire year for our trip (can you say “sabbatical”?) ?Because I think we need to seasonal-ize things. Recommend Two Lights State Park in Maine for anytime July-early October. We get the foliage if we choose October; lazy hazy days of summer otherwise. We’ll lift our glasses while sitting on the rocky coast of the Atlantic (see favorite drink thread) and have lobster (or fried clams) at the Lobster Shack. Side trips to LL Bean can be arranged for any shopoholics. Other -oholics can stay on the coast or visit local versions of Sinners Alley in the Old Port.</p>
<p>…aaah, I see dig has already started with the season thing. So, while avoiding hurricanes down south, we can be on my northeast portion of the jaunt.</p>