Life is a Highway

Monday, June 8, 2009

Challenge: Accepted

Our friends Jeff & Meghan challenged us to sing Amazing Grace at the Grand Canyon. We thought they would come up with something more difficult to do, but nonetheless, we accepted and completed the challenge.

Day 1 in Pictures

So, due to some technology issues, I'm about a day behind in posting pictures. Luckily, we've found a great Denny's here in Holbrook, AZ that has free wi-fi, so maybe I can catch up.

Anyway, here are a few photos from day one:

Taken from the plane of the landscape below

The official start of Route 66 in Santa Monica, CA

On the beach in Santa Monica, CA

The Santa Monica Pier from the beach

Entrance to the Santa Monica Pier

Jordan and Jess on the ferris wheel

Meg and Steph on the ferris wheel

Yep! That's where we're goin'!

I'll try to get more pics posted from today soon!

Sunday

Today started at Denny's, and is also ending at Denny's. Yeah. Weird.

Anyhow, here are some highlights:

We drove from Needles, CA, to the Grand Canyon this morning. It was a pretty uneventful trip. We listened to my "Sunday" playlist, which I think I did a darn good job creating.
We arrived at the Grand Canyon early afternoon and spent some time wandering around the rim and taking lots of photos. Jess said it best when she said, "That's a really cool rock."
After stopping for some food, we headed to Flagstaff. This is where I kind of screwed up. Ok, not kind of. For some reason, I was under the impression that our hotel for tonight - the Wigwam - was in Flagstaff. When we got there, we called to find out how to get there, and I was informed that it is actually in Holbrook, 91 miles east of Flagstaff. Oops. So... we continued on our journey.
Between Flagstaff and Holbrook lies the little gem of Winslow. Yes, as in, "standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona" from the Eagles song, "Take it Easy." There is actually a little park dedicated to this lyric, including a statue of a man - standing on the corner - a mural, and a flatbed Ford. We got some fun pics.
Then we made it to our destination for the evening: the Wigwam Motel. I'm pretty sure that 'Mater from Cars is parked right by our wigwam. But we haven't run into Lightning McQueen yet... The wigwam is pretty small on the inside, but hey, how many people can say they've slept in a wigwam?
We had dinner at a charming Italian restaurant where we overheard the waitress ask someone to "make" her a Sierra Mist. She also asked if we were geologists. Huh?

I think that's it for now. Tomorrow we are heading to Albuquerque.

Saturday Recap

Steph's note: This was collectively written in the car, late at night when we were very tired... We are a little behind but trying to catch up. We are actually at Denny's right now, for the second time in one day. Yikes. But Denny's has internet, and the Wigwam Motel does not!

The moment you’ve all been waiting for…day one play by play

In the spirit of vacation, I’m going to make this easy and give it to you in bullet points.

· We made it from Indy to L.A. safe and sound, but have decided that Kansas City’s airport (where we had a connecting flight) is on our bad list. In fact, Meg gave it a “D.” We ended up going through security twice. Whatever.
· In L.A. we became the proud temporary owners of a blue minivan. It’s pretty tricked out. Monica, our safety conscious car rental salesperson talked us into the best possible coverage and we are set and good to go. Jordan says this thing can turn on a dime, so that’s something for the pro column. Just in case we have to make a u-turn now and again.
· Once safely out of the parking lot, we headed to In and Out (yum) and to the Santa Monica Pier where we played in the ocean a bit, rode a Ferris wheel, and generally acted like kids. So much fun.
· I have to add here that we did a LOT of walking. Just saying.
· From there we naively jumped in the car, thinking we’d head over to Arizona with no problem. Here’s the thing, though. Route 66 does not exist anymore. So we had this hand map that gave some pretty amazing directions. Here’s a sample “under the first RR tressle, make a left and follow the road until you see a “S” curve, take the curve and go right at the next light.” Yeah. I’m not kidding. The map is a real trip. But, our first navigation teams rocked it.

Some things we learned today:
o Bring an updated road map on your trip.
o Car snacks are necessary.
o The HOLLYWOOD sign is not as big as some of us expected.
o In and Out loves Jesus…or at least they put Bible verses on their wrapping for the burgers. Who knew?

Tomorrow, it’s onward and upward…or rather downward, as we are headed to the Grand Canyon!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

day one

We made it to Needles, CA but haven't had a chance to upload photos yet. I took nearly 200 photos and several videos so hopefully we can get some of those posted soon.

Right now I'm blogging from my BlackBerry so its hard to type much... We're ejoying breakfast at denny's right now and we all agree that the best thing from yesterday was the Pacific Ocean!

More to come soon!