Honeymoon Road Trip - Part III

After a relaxing morning hanging out with mom, we hit the road. Destination Laughlin, NV. Why Laughlin you ask? Cause we didn't want to go to Vegas and I had no idea what Needles, AZ had to offer. In hindsight, we choose horribly wrong. I'll get to that later. Another reminder of why I hate Cali so much occurred along I-5 about 3 hours away from the Bay Area. Traffic in the middle of no where! Seriously, there is nothing out in the valley along I-5 in Cali yet there was stop and go traffic for numerous miles. We stopped for lunch at In 'n Out and there might have been 40 people in line ordering ahead of us. So a portion of the trip I thought would go smoothly was painful. After 4 hours after leaving the Bay Area, we got off the interstate and headed thru Bakersfield and towards the CA/AZ border. It was getting dark, and with the help of Matt, we made it to Laughlin some 9 hours after we left. And what a crappy town it was. Old greasy stinky dirty. Yeah the town had a few high rise hotels but nothing about the area was attractive. The Colorado River that carves thru there was equally disgusting. A quick breakfast the following morning and we were on our way on the 29th.

The goal that day was Flagstaff, AZ with a side trip to the Grand Canyon, NP. I'd been once, when I was 8, and Michele and never been. The drive along I-10 was beautiful, calm but long. More so for Michele. She was a trooper though. So many days and miles in a car seat and she was doing great. Finally after some 5 hours we made it the Grand Canyon. The weather held off just long enough for us to enjoy the views of the landscape. Within an hour snow was falling and the weather was turning for worse.



Worse all the way to Flagstaff. We finally got to our hotel late that afternoon and we were both extremely cashed from the back to back days of driving. Snow was falling and temps were cold in Flagstaff, but the Beaver Street Brewery made up for it with some solid food and even better beer.

The 30th of December offered horrible weather. Snow, cold and no views to be had. Made our way to Walnut Canyon National Monument before heading off to Sedona. Apparently snow in Sedona is rare yet it was snowing when we got there. The views were minimal at best which was too bad since Michele had never been here before.



With the weather deteriorating, we headed back to Flagstaff for a nap and some walking around historic downtown. While the day was low key, it was nice to do a lot of nothing.

Finally on New Year's Eve the skies opened up. Beautiful views of the San Francisco Peaks, Sunset Crater and the surrounding landscape.



It was too bad we were heading out of town since the skies had cleared but we were ready to get home with a quick side trip to Durango, CO. Roads for the last few hours sucked due to recent snow fall but around 2pm we made it to Matt's house. Unfortunately Andrea and Adaira were still in Denver so we didn't get to hang out with those two. Honestly didn't stop us from having a great time. Dinner at The Palace and drinks at the new joint and the night, for me, was a drunken mess.



Hung over on New Year's. How I didn't vomit is beyond me. Michele and Matt were doing much better then I was which isn't surprising since I'm a light weight. Finally around noon we were back on the roads for one last 6 hour stretch left on the road trip.

9 days, 3,000 plus miles, 6 states and lots of friends and family. It was fantastic to spend so much time with Michele away from home. Our day to day lives are hectic with work, family and friends and rarely do we get the chance to just do nothing and think about nothing together. It's during these times that I realize how lucky I am to have such an amazing gal in my life. So I guess this maybe not be a lot of peoples ideal Honeymoon but one I will remember for the rest of my life.