I originally was only going to road trip from Washington State to Virginia, with my friend Martha, and then drive back a different route on my own. Along the way, I added a few stops and a few puppies. I ended up going to Saint Simmons Island in Georgia to see friends, after leaving Martha at her home in Virginia. I then took the long drive on highway 10 from Georgia to Austin, Texas, which is where I picked up puppy #1. After spending a few days with friends there, I made my way back to Washington by driving through New Mexico and Colorado, then over to Portland Oregon (to pick up puppy #2), and then finally back home.

The total mileage was about 8000 miles and I was on the road for close to 4 weeks. I hadn’t taken a road trip like this for many, many years and after 2 years of “lock-down” with Covid restrictions, it felt good to get back out there again! There were days where we didn’t go far and spent time wandering around the town or city that we had landed in and there were days when we drove for 8 hours, just to get to the next designated stop. Taking this trip is a reminder of how vast our country is and how different the landscapes are from state to state. We also traveled to some high-altitude places, like Vail, Colorado, at just over 8000 feet in elevation. We mainly stuck to the major highways, but from New Mexico to Oklahoma, we took the historic Route 66.

Below is the long and winding route we took and some of the sights we saw along the way…

We started from northern Washington state, almost to Canada, and went southwest through Deception Pass on Whidbey Island. We drove the entire island from north to south and took the short ferry at Clinton to head towards boring interstate 5, before heading east to Walla Walla, WA for the night. It was unusually cold and snowy in EasternWA for this time of year, but still beautiful. This area is known for its agriculture, especially wineries, and rolling hills. The town itself is adorable with its craftsman-style homes and lush yards and gardens. Walla Walla is a wonderful place to spend a few days, but after staying the night with a friend and enjoying some local wine, it was time to get back on the road again and head toward Idaho.

I’ve stopped in Twin Falls Idaho for the night many times while traveling across the country. I guess I forgot to mention that besides my companion Martha, my dog Cash was along for this trip. Driving across the country with a dog definitely limits the hotel options but then, we weren’t looking to hang out in hotels. Because of this fact, most of our hotels were of the “Motel 6” variety – dog friendly, clean, and cheap. From Idaho we went south through Utah and just south of Salt Lake City, we headed east again, towards Colorado. Our plan that day was to spend about 9 hours on the road and end up just outside of Vail, CO to stay with a friend of mine for a few days. We got just outside of Glenwood Springs and were diverted off the highway due to a fire in the canyon that had shut down the highway in both directions. Knowing that it was getting late and things weren’t improving (hailing and high winds) we got off at the exit for Parachute and stayed there for the night. In the morning, the weather had cleared and the highway was back open, so we proceeded to the Vail area for a few days.

From Vail, we drove a short 2 hours a few days later to the Boulder, CO area and stayed again for 2 nights with friends of mine. We took a short hike, enjoyed wandering around Boulder, and had an amazing dinner at Flagstaff House. I could have stayed there for many more days, but we headed south towards New Mexico, stopping in Colorado Springs to see the cliff dwellings.

Santa Fe, NM is only about a 6 hour drive south from Denver, so that’s why we had time for one of the historic stops in Colorado Springs. Having lived in Colorado for years, this is the only spot in Manatou that I had not visited yet, so I was happy to check that off my list of things to see. There are a few different Motel 6 options in the Santa Fe area and the one we chose was within walking distance to “old town”. It was a bit more expensive that the others but worth it for walkability, and there was also a great park across the street for me to take my dog in the evening and morning. We drove from Santa Fe to Albuquerque, via the Tourquoise Trail instead of using I-25. It’s always good to get off the main highway when you can, to see more of the state and small towns and the character of the area.

From Albuquerque we headed east again, this time on the famous Route 66 for a while. Our goal on this day was to see the “Cadillac Ranch” just outside of Amarillo, TX. We hit high winds and drove around some small fire situations, but finally got to our spot – in the middle of nowhere. I know it looks like we were the only people there, but there were actually quite a few other tourists, buying spray paint to put their mark on the cars – we chose not to do that.

Sticking with Route 66, we encountered crazy strong winds and enless gigantic windmills for miles. We also found some of the coolest old gas stations in Mclean Texas and Shamrock, which were highlighted on information on route 66 sites.

At some point in this part of the trip, we tired of Rt 66 and got onto highway 40 instead, still heading east, just a bit more direct. We drove through Yukon, Oklahoma which is apparently the “home of Garth Brooks” and we saw the leaning water tower as we drove by at about 80mph. As I stated previously, because I had my dog with me, most of our hotels were Motel 6 and many had been really good and in good areas, with space to walk the dog – until we hit Arkansas. Having picked out our spot for the night, that morning and secured our hotel, we almost didn’t stay there. This motel 6 hadd a squeaky and leaking AC, questionable sheets and towels, on their last legs and most of the outlets didn’t work. The only saving grace was that there was a fantastic local burger place across the street. This place only served burgers, fries and shakes and my strawberry shake had chunks of real fruit in it – so delicious – no wonder there was always a line outside for pickup or for dine in. On these kind of trips, you take the good with the bad and I must say, this was the only bad hotel that we encountered, but I won’t be back! Ironically we left the worst motel and stayed in our best rated Motel 6 in Cookeville, TN the next night. We had planned to stay somewhere near Nashville, but it was too crowded, too much traffic, soo many events going on at the same time and no access even to a park to walk the dog – so we moved on quickly. Cookville, TN is a wonderfully charming town with a great distillery tasting room, fantastic restaurants and friendly people. Southern hospitality spilled over in abundance here and we loved it!!

After leaving Tennessee, we headed towards Virginia, our final stop for a few days and home to Martha. That was a long day of driving, with lots of trucks clogging up and slowing down traffic constantly. My dog Cash was SO happy to roll in Martha’s uncut backyard full of grass, as this was the first time during the trip that he was allowed off-leash. We spent a few days in Woodstock, VA and visited the Woodstock Tower, a winery, a brewery, Monticello, Fort Valley drive, and Museum of the Shanendoah Valley.

After relaxing a bit and site-seeing a bit, Cash and I left Martha and traveled about 8 hours to Saint Simmons Island in Georgia for a few days. We stayed with friends who live by the beach, and being the end of April in the South, things were heating up. I’m not a fan of heat or humidity, but walking on the beach every morning was comfortable because of the ocean breeze. Once again it was great to see friends and catch up in person for a few days and share some great meals. Cash and I hated to leave, but it was time to head to Biloxi MS which was our destination for the night before getting to Austin, TX. The highway from Florida to Texas is mostly flat and boring. There were some of the craziest and downright creepy billboards that I’ve ever seen – from “God and Jesus” to adult super stores open 24 hours and everything in between. When I got out of the car in the early evening to check into the hotel in Biloxi the humidity hit me light a wet slap in the face, I couldn’t get into the AC fast enough. The highway in MS was mostly by the ocean or over marshland – pretty, until we hit horrible pelting rain with lightning and thunder and that continued through Baton Rouge and Houston. We finally made it to Austin the next day after 10 hours of driving and I was happy to get out of the car.

I was in Austin Texas to pick up puppy number 1 – Dakota Blue a French Bulldog. The road trip with Cash was great because it gave the two dogs about a week back home in the car to get aquainted. Dakota was only 10 weeks old and just 6 pounds when I first saw him in person. I had been receiving photos on a regular basis for weeks, so it was so great to finally meet him. Cash and I, along with baby Dakota, spent a wonderful afternoon at a park near a lake just outside of Austin with my good friend Katie. She packed an amazing picnic lunch and we just chatted for hours – not hard to do since we’ve known each other for about 50 years now. We lucked out with no rain that day and fairly “cool” for Texas standards in early May. My original plan for leaving Texas was to drive through New Mexico again and on to Colorado before heading to Oregon. Katie had looked at the weather and road conditions the day before I was leaving and saw that there were still fires in NM and hail storms, so I drove a more direct route north through Witchita Kansas, where we stayed a night and then back to CO with friends again. My final Motel 6 of the long road trip was in Pendelton, OR. It was a nice clean and quiet motel, just off the highway, with a restaurant next door and plenty of grass for the dogs to walk in. From Pendelton, I drove a short few hours to Portland, OR where I picked up puppy number 2, who was staying with friends of mine. Patou is just a month older than Dakota Blue. He’s a handsome Great Pyranees and lab mix who really reminds me of my dog JJ, they were/are both beautiful old souls. All three got along pretty quickly and my house is full of excitement on a regular basis now – which I absolutley love…

This was a crazy long road trip, but I really did enjoy most of it. The fires due to a dry spring were scary, as were the hail storms to drive around, but here’s my quick impression:

Washington and Idaho in April was changing from winter to spring and was mostly green and lush. Utah is a dramatic high desert with mountains surrounding it and Colorado with it’s high elevation also was majestic. New Mexico is also a high desert area, but completely different landscape than Utah, dryer with spring flowers starting to bud. I’ve never been a fan of Texas, with the exception of Austin, and I’ve been there a few times. The rest of the state that I’ve driven through is dry and flat and windy, as was most of Oklahoma on this trip. Once we hit Arkansas, things were getting greener and the rolling hills began, as in Tennessee and Virginia. While with other people, I listened mostly to Sirius Radio for background sound and after trying multiple stations, we stuck with the “road trip” channel – perfect in all ways. When I was on my own, I switched to books on Audible or local radio stations just to see what was in the area. Everyone should get out and see America at some point. You don’t have to go as far or for as long as I did, but just get out there for the experience – it’s really beautiful.

After completing this trip, I now only have one state that I have not driven through and stayed in – North Dakota, and I think I’ll keep it that way. My next trip was in December on my first River Cruise down the Danube for 10 days, so check back for my post on that, coming soon.