vacation slides

A case of astronaut ice cream for the road; gorgeous Hwy. 12 through Utah; my wrist.

It's a funny thing, sharing your vacation photos online. It's like the dreaded vacation slide show. Who really want to sit through all of that? For now, I'm just going to hit you with some more pretty pictures from our road trip. Instagram plus the palette of the southwestern landscape are a marriage made in heaven.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you next week! xoxo

Sundress weather; beer and quicos for motel happy hour; the amorphous bris de soleil at Site Santa Fe.

Four states at once; the sky over Austin, NV; iced coffee at the Kiva Koffeehouse. 

The amazing food; my 4th trip to Bandelier National Monument; un lápiz de color pimiento caliente.

Georgia O'Keeffe, before her husband died and she "took control of her image"; a mid-afternoon cuddle puddle;

Ollie being a grouch in the morning.

Haggling (amongst themselves); The Pantry in Santa Fe for great carne adovada; a Frito pie.

Motor lodge living; wooden ladder at Bandelier; the sky above the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian.

Special breakfast in Corrales; nighttime at the El Rey Inn; dressing up.

The BEST travelers; evening in Santa Fe; a circus at Tinkertown Museum.

At the giant meteor crater we didn't see; a hilarious night; the last night.

the loneliest road: san francisco CA-----> austin NV-----> baker NV

They are not kidding.

You have to have a lot of mettle to start a road trip across U.S. Route 50. It truly is The Loneliest Road in America, which we read about while planning our trip and set out on deliberately. It's a two lane road and there is NOTHING along the way, save for a few gems closer to Utah. If you are headed east from California, this is a fantastic way to get away from EVERYTHING quickly. It set a nice tone for the beginning of our trip. No giant billboards, no signs of commerce at all. We were on a ROAD TRIP.

We set out on a Saturday morning, stopping in town for what we knew would be our best cup of coffee for a long time. We hooked up with Route 50 east of Reno and Lake Tahoe near the town of Fallon. We had a few snacks with us so we made a strong push that day; one pit stop at an alpine campground, lunch in a Walgreens parking lot and about six hours to our first destination: Austin, Nevada.

The landscape across Route 50 is very beautiful, and very repetitive. A mountain pass would open up before us and reveal another twenty or so more miles of open plains, then another, then another. A daunting looking storm in the distance would turn out to be a fifteen second rain shower when we finally passed through it. We got really lucky with the weather during the trip. It never really rained on us, but the rains throughout the southwest during our two weeks away kept the temperatures in the high 80 to low 90 range. Which was fine by us, we were looking for heat.

When we arrived in Austin we found a living ghost town. Every business was shuttered, and they were all for sale. We had booked two adjoining rooms at one of the only places to stay in town, the rustic but nice Union Street Lodging. We had an iffy and overpriced dinner at one of the two restaurants in town and a nice walk with a beautiful sunset, played some games in the living room (a B & B staple) and went to bed early. 

The second day of our trip we enjoyed a nice breakfast cooked by Dee at the B & B. The weather was beautiful, so we lingered for a while in our jammies before heading out. We stopped by a stone monolith called Stokes Castle (not much of a castle) on the way out of town, but hastily departed when we realized we were being stalked by a giant, super aggressive wasp. It followed our car at least 150 feet back down the hill!

That day we were able to make two stops along Route 50. One at the Hickison Petroglyph Recreation Area for a quick little hike, and then at one of my favorite places of our entire trip, the Nevada Northern Railway Museum. The museum is located in the desolate and struggling town of Ely, Nevada and was such a great find. It's an operating historical railroad. We walked around the rail yard and then into the engine house, where train engines were lined up in rows, some idling and spitting diesel smoke through the openings in the roof. It was greasy and so dirty, and it was totally magnificent. I HIGHLY recommend visiting the museum some day if you find yourself in that area. Really cool.

Hickison hike.

Idling trains in the engine house.

The greasy machine shop.

Let me tell you, there is just about no where to eat in Ely, Nevada. This was one of the days we ate gas station food and washed it down with Coke. So gross. The lack of fresh food across that whole part of the country was really shocking, but that's a whole 'nother story.

After our late "lunch" we headed out to cover the last 70 miles of that day's journey, to a strange little hidden retreat center in Baker, Nevada, just east of Great Basin National Park on the border with Utah. That was the end of The Loneliest Road for us. Two days from San Francisco to the center of the Nevada/Utah border. Not bad!

hotel, motel, holiday inn

Oliver, Austin, NV.

Happy hour, Santa Fe, NM.

Bathroom basket weave, Santa Fe, NM.

Stella, Austin, NV.

In-room breakfast (and map), Santa Fe, NM.

Selfie, Austin, NV.

The only guests at a hidden retreat center, Baker, NV.

Tropic, Utah.

Nightfall, Sante Fe. Repeat times six.

Adjoining bedrooms, detached bath, Austin, NV.

Road weary and heading home.

We stayed in eight different hotels and motor lodges during our fifteen days on the road. Some were awesome, some were weird, some were charming, some were downright depressing. The most antiseptic ones were the saddest to us, and luckily we only came across two of those.

The feeling of padding my nest is still fresh on me as I look at these photos. Like when you arrive at a new place and first make sure it is clean, then if it has light, and then maybe you find out it offers a whole lot more than that. Then you unpack the car and scatter a few things about. A pool, the kids forcing you to swim. Maybe you fall in love with your room and rush out to see if you can get a second night there and start arranging your rock collection on an end table and tuck all your road snacks in next to the mini fridge. 

Every day of our trip David or I made sure we saw something GOOD. Underground caves, national monuments, incredible canyons and bizarre museums. We will remember all of that, undoubtably. But I am glad I took the time to shoot some of our temporary homes along the way, because I think a lot of the memories of our road trip will lie in them.