Road Trip to Vail - Floridian Style!

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Well, my plan was to update you a few times during our drive across the country, but after waking up super early every day and sitting behind the wheel for 10-12 hours at a time, sitting down and opening the laptop was the last thing on my mind! So here I’ll go through the highlight reel of our 2,200 mile jaunt and share some photos that we took along the way.

We left before sun-up on Wednesday morning, waving goodbye to the parents and in-laws after collecting our very confused canine. Our cars were crammed with every bit of winter gear we possessed, along with whatever kitchen, bathroom, and other miscellaneous gear we could stuff in there. We headed out of Palm Beach and stopped for lunch in Ocala, about four hours north. There we met up with our friend Monica, who showed us around the picturesque horsey town and took us to lunch at a Cajun café – yum!! We dined on shrimp ‘n grits, jambalaya, and even fried grit cakes topped with spicy Creole sauce. Divine.

After lunch we kept on driving (Florida is a LONG state for those who have been lucky enough not to have driven it), finally reaching the Alabama border around 5pm. We stopped for the night in a little dot in the map called Troy, ordered some mediocre take-out, and called it a day.

Thursday dawned chilly (in the 40’s), and once again we were on the road before sun-up. Overnight the scenery changed from the lush green tropics to a palette of orange and red. Yes, the autumn leaves were peaking as we looped across the hills of Alabama and northern Mississippi. We passed briefly through Memphis, Tennessee before emerging in Arkansas – uncharted territory for both of us. It took a couple hours of twisting through back roads and miles of desolate cotton fields, but we finally reached Batesville just before dark, where we stayed for two nights with our newlywed friends Amber and Matt.

And I must say, I was very pleasantly surprised with how lovely Arkansas was! It’s kind of off the grid as far as any mainstream touristy attractions, but between the beautiful fall foliage and the big rolling hills and the sizeable lake, it was a great place to stop over for a few days and unwind. We did a bit of hiking, visited the dam was apparently the last project President JFK authorized before he was assassinated, took their boat out on the lake (though it was quite cold), and then had some good southern cookin’ at a riverfront restaurant in Heber Springs.

Friday was our longest drive, over 600 miles from Heber Springs, all the way across Oklahoma, and into Amarillo, Texas. Oklahoma was another surprise delight! Rather than your traditional county lines, the state is divided into territories by the Native American tribes who reside there. Signs along the interstate inform you that you’re entering Cherokee, Checotaw, Sioux, or Cheyenne country, just to name a few. It seemed that most of the workers at the gas stations and restaurants we stopped at were of Native American descent. And the state was surprisingly green and fertile, even in early November, with sweeping hills and wide open plains. We stopped for a little window shopping beyond Oklahoma City (where they apparently had several earthquakes just after we passed through), and at the roadside “trading post” they had a buffalo exhibit. Would you believe our crazy dog tried to burrow under the fence and go chase them? Denali vs. the Buffalo – Hmmmm...the odds aren’t too good...

The terrain flattened and grew rather boring as we crossed into northern Texas and cruised in Amarillo. It was worth it, though, just to stay the night at the “Big Texan” motel which, if you can imagine, is like a Texan Disney World. No lie. The hotel is decorated like the main street in an old west town. There’s a corral and “horse hotel” out back. There is a Texas-shaped swimming pool, a saloon, and a shooting range. But the highlight of the place is their steakhouse. Anyone a fan of Man vs. Food on the Travel Channel? Well, this restaurant has been featured on that and numerous other shows because of their 72-ounce steak challenge. You’re given an hour to eat (count ‘em) FOUR AND A HALF POUNDS of steak, along with a salad and side dishes. If you clean your plate before the buzzer sounds, you get your meal for free. Many have tried, very few have managed to do it. As for Jeremy and I? Well, we figured the 8-ouncer was more our speed, but as we were leaving there was one brave man who stepped up to the challenge! It was late so we didn’t wait the full hour to see if he finished...

Sunday was our final day driving, north on a two-lane highway out of Amarillo, across the northeastern tip of New Mexico, and into Colorado from the south. After driving through four hours of nothing (there were maybe three small towns with populations of less than 500 people) and the stoic Capulin volcanic crater, we rounded a bluff and – gasp! – there were the snow-covered Rockies in all their glory. It’s quite a jolt to go from two days’ worth of flat plains to 10,000-14,000 foot peaks that literally come up from nowhere. Our drive along interstate 25 took us north through Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and straight through Denver...an interesting drive because if you look east, it is nothing but flat prairie, and if you look west, there’s more snow-capped peaks than you could ever count.

We stopped outside Colorado Springs so Denali could get her first taste of snow. Literally her first taste – the goofball went crazy, licking the snow for about ten minutes straight like it was a popsicle or something! Jeremy seemed just fine with the steady climb in elevation – my head was pounding and fuzzy like some sort of weird hangover. But onward we pressed, through Denver and onto interstate 70 west for the last hundred miles of our journey. Denver sits at 5,000 feet; our journey took us through two passes well over 10,000 feet on our way to Vail! It is so beautiful, words can’t even describe it; nor my shoddy pictures taken through the windshield. I promise to get better photos of the surrounding areas as the winter progresses! Suffice to say, everywhere you look, the mountains are hovering over you. All civilization rests in narrow valleys surrounded by snow-covered pines and naked aspen trees. Remember the model train sets we had as kids, with the miniature pine trees and houses with chimneys? That’s what this area looks like, but life-sized.

So! We arrived at last in Vail and met our very groovy new landlord, Penny, a local artist who is almost full-blooded Navajo. We found ourselves at a sports bar in Vail watching multiple football games, and the funniest part was that no one seemed to be paying attention to the Broncos game, but when the Patriots scored, the whole place went into an uproar! Apparently Bostonians like Vail...

And then we (finally) followed her home, up a winding mountain road out of Vail to the town of Red Cliff. It’s an old mining town tucked way up on the mountainside, with a population of less than 1,000 people. It has exactly one post office, one restaurant, and one general store. We can see the entire town from our three big windows!! We’re occupying the downstairs portion of a large house; we have two bedrooms, a bathroom, a full kitchen and laundry room, a hot tub (yes, we have a hot tub!), and a view to die for.

So who’s coming to visit first??

I’ll blog again soon with photos of our place, Red Cliff, and Vail. Already our first day was QUITE the adventure...

P.S. – Might I add to our friends/family we regularly speak with on the phone, cell phone service does not exist in Red Cliff. We cannot receive or make calls/texts while we are home. We’re working on getting a Magic Jack and/or Skype number so we can have a phone here. However when we’re in town (Vail), our phones work fine, so if you call or text and you don’t get an immediate response, we’re not ignoring you...we just won’t get it ‘til the next time we’re in town. Our internet works great though, so we can always be contacted via email, Facebook, or Skype!!

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