One Sleep Closer

We are spending our last night on the road in North Little Rock, and we were going to go explore downtown, but we don’t want to, so we have chosen instead to hang out at the hotel, until we leave to come home early tomorrow morning.

I want to say a couple of things about this road trip overall, and I want to thank all of you who have followed along with us. It has been a wonderful trip, and I still recommend it for everyone. Pretty sure I will never do it again, but in case you are interested, here are some things that worked for us and might work for you.

1.  Plan. You need to start doing this months in advance. My personality type is not that of a planner, but I will plan the heck out of a vacation.

2.  Join a hotel points reward program. We paid for 98% of our lodging through hotel points, and it helped a lot.

3.  Plan your trip according to your personal preferences and not what you think you are supposed to do. Should you visit the Grand Canyon? Yes, of course. Everyone should see it at least once in their lifetime. Should you visit every national park between here and California? If you want to, but not because you feel as if you should. By the 2nd National Park, the Kingston’s pretty much decided that we were over them.  We don’t regret going, I don’t think, but they took a lot of time, cost some money, and outdoorsy stuff isn’t generally what we are attracted to, so why did we feel we needed to do it? Also, by we, I mean me, because I did the planning, and the other two graciously went along with me. We loved Vegas, but the General Sherman tree? Not ever going to be a repeat trip, unless they have a replica in Vegas.

4.  Be flexible. What you think you may want to do or see during the planning stage may not be what you want to do or see during the actual trip itself. Family votes are important, but be realistic. Don’t try to cram something in just because it is on the list. We dropped several things. Yes, they were nature things and I don’t feel bad at all for dropping them.

5. Try not to do marathon driving. We never drove over 7 hours from one hotel to the next. Rest is important. Very important.

6. Avoid chain restaurants if possible. We did eat chain restaurant food for breakfast, but we tried to go to restaurants indigenous to a particular area as much as we could. Definitely go to In and Out Burger. Also Black Bear Diner is a western states chain that is really good, and they are creeping their way down South. We ate at the new one in North Little Rock today. If you go to Vegas, you must eat at Peppermill. So good!! Also, all food in California tastes better. Even their McDonalds is better. I realize that I said don’t eat at chain restaurants by mentioning chain restaurants. Sorry. Eat at small town restaurants as well. You get my drift.

7.  Plan a rest day. We planned one day where we did nothing. It was a good day to do some laundry, take naps, hang out at the pool, or in my case, obsess over the next earthquake. I need that day back.

8.  Apologize and move on. You are going to get angry with your travel companions. You will get on each other’s nerves. Say you are sorry and move on. It is a very long trip and not a time to hold grudges. Keep it light and keep laughing.

9.  Rent a car and preferably a van. There were only three of us for the majority of the trip, but that van held us and all our stuff, and it was all accessible to us. Plus, a van is just comfortable! You can recline, there are armrests, and the back seat passengers have access to their own AC!

10.  Put the camera down. I took a lot of photos, but it was when I put the phone in my back pocket during that dolphin cruise that I really enjoyed myself, and just experienced the dolphins without trying to get a photo. I wanted the photos so that we can look back at them and remember the trip fondly, but it took away a bit from my overall enjoyment because I was constantly trying to get the “perfect shot.” What I could never capture is the awe I felt when I saw all those mountain ranges so close we could touch them, or the laughter we shared when one of us said something funny, or even the shock we felt at the earth literally moving beneath our feet. No camera can capture that, but they are instances I will never forget, and that can only be forever remembered by those who were there to share it first hand.

Speaking of photos, I did not take one today, so I am going to post one from the photo bank. I need something to show up with the blog on FB.

Thanks again for reading the blog. We will arrive home tomorrow and Anthony and I will return to work the next day. Vacation over.