Road trip evolution

The proposed road trip is evolving… taking on a life of its own…

The core goal survives… San Mateo to Ft Lauderdale… but details are changing…

The road trip is official… My leave request has been approved… Both Steph and I have purchased return airline tickets (on Virgin America, the best damn airline in the world)

And the trip itself is changing as we explore options… 

It started with a basic journey on I-10… picking up the interstate somewhere near LA, leaving it in Florida when we headed south towards South Florida…  Now we are finding ways to avoid the interstate… visiting places off the interstate… in the hinterland…

We have the option of avoiding LA, instead of I-5 to LA then west via I-210 to I-10, we can go via Hwy 58 from near Bakersfield to Victorville, to San Bernardino, then pick up I-10.  This version would include the Tehachapi Loop, the town of Boron, home of a 20 Mule Team Borax wagon... through Cajon pass

My favorite nephew in Tempe is unlikely to be home, instead off on his own adventure involving scuba and water… so instead of Tempe, i.e. greater Phoenix, we will head to Tucson the first night… Jen, (aka the niece) and children, the great nieces (both great and Great) will be in town… This opens up options, entering Tucson via Gila Bend instead of Phoenix,  Tucson is 100 miles further east, so we are able to shift the paradigm, the schedule eastward… 

Leaving Tucson, we have a couple of options… I-10 or maybe a diversion to Tombstone, then east on small roads to Churchill NM, a town raided by Poncho Villa… then back to I-10, through El Paso… we might extend the first day to Marfa, 70 miles beyond Van Horn, on Hwy 90, with its own old hotel, with its own history, and legend of the Marfa lights, strange elusive unexplained lights in the desert.  If we extend to Marfa, we have a chance to look for the lights…

Hwy 90 is increasingly becoming a destination… a thread… part of the trip…

San Antonio is still a hard point… an overnight stop… 

Reaching Cajun country, we are likely pushing a bit beyond Lafayette to Breaux Bridge… then south along old Hwy 90 through Cajun country… still visiting the Tabasco sauce factory… still in search of interesting food…

New Orleans survives as a overnight stop… what did you expect… it New Orleans…

Then a hard day… a bit over 800 miles to Ft Lauderdale…

More changes, adjustments are likely as the three of us negotiate a trip, a plan.

There will be more changes... more sites to visit... more plans... Followed by a trip, with photos and a couple of blog posts and an airplane ride back...

Randy