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Went for breakfast with my daughter, ended up taking her to get a new tire for her car since one had gone flat. Great breakfast, then off to home! Had a great trip, but was ready to be home again.

Road trip Summary:

• Days on road: 21
• Driving days: 14
• Miles driven: 6640
• States visited: 11
• States I’d never visted before: 5
• State border crossings: 17
• Oil changes: 1
• 2+ day cities: Austin, New Orleans, Santa Fe
• Cans of Red Bull consumed: 15
• Food/beverages called Hand Grenades consumed: 2
• BBQ meals consumed: 6

Visited the Cathedral of Junk in Austin.

Spent the early afternoon with friends who moved to Austin.

Went to Lockhart, the BBQ capital of texas.

My first stop, Kruez, was my favorite. Wonderful BBQ.

Next I went to Blacks. I found their meat too greasy for my taste, but it’s a popular spot, and really nice folks.

Finally stopped by Smitty’s, but they closed at 6, and it was 7ish at this point. This was a good thing, since I really couldn’t eat anymore anyway.

From here, I drove east, passed Houston, and stopped by a hotel next to the freeway just west of Louisiana for the night. Next stop, New Orleans!

Winny Texas to Austin Texas. Drove straight through today. Very foggy as I left, then the rain started, rained light-to-medium the entire 4 hour drive. Fredricksburg is wall-to-wall people. No pictures today given the drive to get to Austin, and the nasty weather. Got to the room, really cute, but 40ish and kinda chilly. Couldn’t enjoy the patio.Here are pictures from when it warmed up though.

Blah breakfast at hotel, mucked about in Bisbee for the morning and got some gifts. There was an elder tour in town, so the shops were pretty crowded, even though town wasn’t, so I didn’t spend a lot of time shopping with the crowds. Bisbee’s a very cool town, interesting architecture, and built on a hill, very interesting to get around.

Next, started the long drive to Austin. A lunch stop in Douglas for a good TexMex lunch, Mole was a little too sweet for my tastes, saw the Mexican Border for the first time ever.

Back on the road, drive through El Paso, too full from lunch to eat. My last trip through El Paso, I had an amazing meal. Drive through Texas until 11pm, long day of driving, but wanted to get as close to Austin as I could, Winnie Texas it is! BTW, the Comfort Inn in Winnie is exceptionally nice, more like an upscale hotel than a roadside hotel.

Headed out for Oatman first thing, knew nothing would be open, but figured I’d take some pictures, and wasn’t interested in buying stuff anyway. An interesting turn of the century town, much seemed original, slightly touristed up, looks like it’s quite the town during tourist season, a fake gun fight kinda town.Made me think of a much smaller and less remodeled Tombstone. Clarke Gable and Carole Lombard stayed at the Oatman hotel on their wedding night, and visited on occasion.

Compare this to the night shot from Day 1…

Heading out from Oatman, I was on a mission to get to Bisbee, so I headed over the pass to get through Phoenix and Tucson as soon as I could. The pass was a great drive, twisty switchbacks, climbing some 2000 feet in 8 miles, passing many active mines and some interesting places to see.

After getting through the pass, a slower decent into collections of houses, then eventually towns. A quick stop in Wickieup for a Dr. Pepper, the combination souvenir store, deli, market was the perfect stop.

And, the potentially offensive “road attractor”

Past this, I hit the interstate, a 70mph blurr into Phoenix, where the road turns into a stoplight and traffic ridden road for a while, slowing progress to a crawl. It took an extra hour to get through Phoenix with all the traffic and lights. Grabbed a bite at Chik-Fil-A, which I’d never visited before, but had heard wonderful things about. It was a fine chicken sandwich, but didn’t match the hype for me. Then off through Tucson, and I realized I’d never make it to Bisbee before stores closed. There was one shop I wanted to visit with particularly nice turquoise (Bisbee Blue), but I couldn’t make it tonight. I’d passed a sign for “Colossal Cave”. My friend Keith had mentioned this a couple weeks earlier when I said I was going on the trip.So, looked it up in my guidebook, called, and I could make it there for the last tour. Ahh, road trip attractions, the key to a fun and memorable journey.

After this, another hour and change to Bisbee, then picked the Copper Queen, the nicest hotel in town when it was built, and possibly still is. I noticed the John Wayne room, as I went to my room, guessing they have many rooms that had well known guests who stayed there.Was pretty full, but got a nice, if small, room. Quiet and very comfortable. Dinner in the resturant was OK, but not spectacular and a little pricy. The semi-fry bread was the highlight, but was fine considering it was late and I was tired. Unfortunately, the wireless didn’t work, signal was poor, even next to the router, but no connection to the internet. Gets to be a pattern.

Was going to go to SXSW, but had time on my hands being between jobs right now. I decided I’d combine heading to SXSW with one of my favorite things to do on my own, take a road trip. I had one place I wanted to visit again, since on a prior road trip, I only got to visit a short time, Bisbee, AZ.

Headed off about 7:30am after coffee and some cold pizza (breakfast of champions) with my wife, @rabbitroodle.Would have loved to have her along, but jobs and vacations wouldn’t allow that. Said goodbye, was going to be gone 3 weeks or so! First step, get far from the neighborhood, a road trip isn’t a road trip until you’ve left the familiar behind. Got to Bakersfield, first choice to be made.

TomTom was telling me to head south to get to Bisbee, the fastest route, but was there anything interesting on that route? Got out the map book (sometimes, you need a physical medium to explore, GPS or laptop screens just aren’t adquate.So, the recommended path would take me through Yuma, I’ve never been there. Other route would take me through Needles, a route I’ve taken several times before, but there were two places on that route I’d never visited, the London Bridge at Lake Havasou, and Oatman, a tiny turn of the century western town. I knew that LondonBridge would be a “hop out and take a picture” spot, and why I’d never visited before. So, I flipped a coin, heads, go east, tails, go south. Heads won, so off I went to London Bridge.As expected, a weird touristy area, lovely bridge, took pictures, fueled up, headed out.

It was dusk now, so I headed to Oatman. Got there about 7:30, but Oatman is a 2 block town, and it wasn’t tourist season, so the town was all closed up. The hotel wasn’t open, no place to stay. Now I had to choose if I was going to just continue on for an hour or two, or stay in Needles and come back. Being an adventue, I chose the latter route.

Popped into Needles, ate at a resturant I’d been to before on a 4wheeling adventure. Wasn’t as good as I remembered, OK meatloaf, burnt gravy, good mashed potatos, green beans, texas toast. It was a C+. Local road food it cost $13 with a side salad and a soda, so at least it was cheap!

Grabbed a bed at Motel 6, which as comfortable enough aside from the pipes, that sounded like someone put an electric sander to the wall when anyone flushed a toilet. Had working internet, so I uploaded some pictures, got some stuff done online, and day one was complete.