If you think it’s crazy to wake up one morning, draw a destination out of a hat, drive 1,000 miles cross-country in two days to said destination and then turn around and drive 1,000 miles cross-country back home in two days, you’re probably right. But hey, you’re talking to the person who also jumped out of a plane.
On Thursday, July 14 at about 9 a.m., 1,400 #25before25 fans tuned in to my Facebook Live video in which I drew… drumroll please … Santa Fe, New Mexico as the official road trip destination.
The game plan: head in the direction of Santa Fe, finding stuff to do along the way. If we get to Santa Fe by Friday night, that’s fine. If we don’t make it all the way, that’s fine — the whole point was to do things along the way.
Armed with a special road trip playlist, a really handy app called Roadtrippers and a set of road trip game ideas we picked up in Branson, we packed up the car and hit the open road.
P.S. Shout out to Mazda for excellent trunk space in the 2016 Mazda6.
https://twitter.com/TannerWard/status/753783767173443585
First stop: the Welcome to Oklahoma visitors’ center just past the state line, where we picked up a map of Oklahoma (really not sure why, since my car has a navigation system and we all have iPhones) and info on Route 66 and Oklahoma City. After lunch at Braum’s, we checked on my tribe at our tribal casino, the Grand Casino in Citizen Potawatomi Nation, near Shawnee, Okla.
After big wins and lots of second-hand smoke, we left the casino, and from here, we connected to historic Route 66, which we followed for much of the rest of our trip. We had dinner at Pops Soda Ranch and then headed to Bricktown in Oklahoma City, where we celebrated National Hot Dog Day at Sonic’s headquarters and checked in to the Hampton Inn.
Day 2 was a full day of travel along Route 66/I-40. Stops included:
- Lucille’s Famous Route 66 Gas Station, Hydro, Okla.
- National Route 66 & Transportation Museum, Elk City, Okla.
- Texas State Line
- Tower Station & U-Drop Inn Café (don’t be fooled, they don’t serve lunch…), Shamrock, Texas
- VW Slug Bug Ranch, Panhandle, Texas
- Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, Texas
- Route 66 MidPoint, Adrian, Texas
- New Mexico State Line
And then, finally, we made it to Santa Fe. When we stepped out of the car, we were pleasantly surprised by how cool it was — even a little chilly. We got a snack at McDonald’s, checked in to the Marriott Courtyard and got ready to do it all again the next day.
On Day 3, we actually got to spend quite a bit of time in Santa Fe. We had crepes and ice cream for breakfast at The French Pastry Shop and walked in St. Francis Cathedral, which coincidentally is the same age as Ouachita. We checked out the vendors in the Plaza, bought socks at Sock Magic, stopped by the oldest house (800 years old) and the oldest church (500 years old) in America, found the New Mexico State Capitol and then ate pizza next door to the oldest house in America. We bought Santa Fe t-shirts, found a hill to take pictures on and then packed our bags for the trip back.
We stopped at a few historic places in Tucumcari, New Mexico — Tee Pee Curios, Blue Swallow Motel and Del’s Restaurant — and stopped for the night in Shamrock, Texas.
Side bar: one of my requirements of the trip was to stay one night in a “classic” roadside motel.
We found the Route 66 Inn online, and the reviews seemed to be acceptable. So we checked in for the night. After some scientific research of the rooms to check for bed bugs, we determined that we were safe.
Day 4 was pretty much a long-haul. We left Shamrock and didn’t really stop until Oklahoma City, where we ate lunch at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill. From there, we headed all the way back to Bryant, rolling in with a final total of 1,860 miles in 84 hours.
Five take-aways from the unplanned road trip:
- America is beautifully diverse. From the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas to the farmland in central Oklahoma, the plains of the Texas Panhandle to the deserts of New Mexico and the unique landscape and culture of Santa Fe, everywhere we went felt like a completely different place. Santa Fe almost felt like an entirely different country. It’s cool to experience so many different parts of our nation.
- It’s fun to vacation without a plan. I wouldn’t want to do it every time, but not knowing where you’ll end up at the end of the day, and not having a schedule to keep helps you enjoy each stop a little more.
- Travelling on Route 66 would’ve taken forever, the way it zig-zags through towns and doesn’t follow a straight path.
- Route 66 is an important part of our history that unfortunately will probably soon begin to fade away. Much of it is in disrepair, and isn’t going to be maintained. A lot of the historic places along the Route are closed or just photo-ops now.
- I spend a lot of time just focused on my destination and not my journey. This trip was a good reminder of the things you miss when you don’t stop and smell the roses … or the old Cadillacs.
If you care to, take a look at some of our photos below:
Tanner Ward 