Sabbatical Part 1: The Road to New Mexico
The first leg of our sabbatical road trip took us from Cleveland, Ohio to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We drove this distance in five days.
Thursday, August 25 - Cleveland to Casey, IL. ~423 miles.
We packed the car while Birdie watched television from her pack'n'play, then left our house and drove down to Columbus. Our original plan had been to run Birdie around a park or Grandma's yard while we had takeout with my in-laws, but we ended up having lunch on a patio. Birdie did not run around during or after lunch, and we paid for it when we got back in the car. This was the first day of Birdie's life that she didn't take an afternoon nap. She was miserable, and she let us know she was miserable most of the rest of the day. We even resorted to letting her watch cartoons on the iPad, which we had never done before. This helped, somewhat, but she was still pretty unhappy, particularly when we had to detour through downtown Indianapolis due to construction on the interstate.
We were relieved when we finally arrived at our AirBNB in Casey, IL, concluding what would end up being the second longest day of the entire trip. Unfortunately, our first AirBNB smelled weakly of cat urine, or something similarly musty and 'off'. We then fond that the only room we could fit Birdie's pack'n'play in was the master bedroom, so M took a twin bed in the second bedroom and I slept on the sofa. It was an inauspicious beginning to our trip. The frozen pizzas M got us from the grocery store were pretty good though.
Friday, August 26 - Casey to Rolla, MO. ~240 miles.
We woke up and saw the sights in Casey before we hit the road again. Casey has built its roadside attractions around "Big Things, Small Town." The World's Largest Wind Chimes, Mailbox, Rocking Chair, Barber Pole and other such things have been built and certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. In addition, there are many other "Big" but not "World Record" items around town, including a pencil, a taco, a bird cage and a wide assortment of other items. We walked up and down main street and checked out some of the highlights. We mailed the birthday cards for the week from the World's Largest Mailbox. We would have stayed and checked out more items, but it was extremely hot that day and rather than risk melting by tracking down everything we opted to get going. It was fun though, and if you happen to drive by Casey it's worth stopping to check them out.
Our next stop was lunch in St. Louis. M went to grad school in St. Louis and one of her good friends ended up living there (unrelated to grad school). We stopped and had lunch with Marjorie and her dog Acorn at The Boathouse in Forest Park. It was still extremely hot (and would remain so until we got to Santa Fe) but we were on the shade and on the water and lunch was excellent. It was the first time I'd met Marjorie. Birdie loved meeting Acorn.
From St. Louis, we rolled on to Rolla, MO. Our AirBNB had great air conditioning and we were not inclined to leave it. Instead we let Birdie run around all evening. After being contained to a car seat all day, she really made the most of it.
Birdie has a much better day than she had before. Whether it was walking around Casey, the excitement of hugging a dog repeatedly, or just getting more used to travel, she actually napped in the car for a time. Every subsequent day was less and less painful, and we didn't have to resort to cartoons on any of the subsequent days headed west.
Saturday, August 27 - Rolla to Tulsa, OK. ~290 miles.
It was completely unplanned by us, but our route from St. Louis out to Santa Fe ran along historic Route 66. This meant that we had easy access to an assortment of old roadside attractions. The first one that we stopped at was only a few miles west of Rolla. We stopped in Uranus, MO, which is full of exactly the kind of puns and double entendres that you'd expect from a roadside attraction in Uranus. You can get fudge packed in Uranus. You can lose (mini-golf) balls in Uranus. You get the idea. There is also the World's Largest Belt Buckle and an assortment of other attractions. It was well worth the 30 minutes we stopped.
Our lunch that day was at what might have been the friendliest restaurant of the entire trip. We stopped in Joplin at the Undercliff Grill & Bar. As implied, the restaurant is up against a cliff, and they intentionally left off the interior wall on the cliff side so you can see the stone. We sat out on a really wonderful patio. Birdie moved a bunch of rocks to the amusement of the extremely friendly wait staff. Trains went by across the street. The food was fine, but the service was excellent.
Later that day we made a quick stop at another classic Route 66 attraction, the Blue Whale of Catoosa, which had seen better days. From there it was a short hop (including our only toll road of the trip west) to our AirBNB in Tulsa. M declared this to be the nicest AirBNB we've ever been in, at least in terms of interior decorating. It was also one of the few that didn't ask us to do any cleaning on checkout, which is the way it should be. For dinner, we used a Cheesecake Factory gift card a coworker gifted us when Birdie was born that we'd kept failing to use.
Sunday, August 28 - Tulsa to Amarillo, TX. ~365 miles.
This day featured nothing almost nothing but driving. We stopped for gas. We stopped for lunch under an oppressively hot patio roof at a place called The Shed in Weatherford, OK, that I mention only because M got a souvenir plastic cup there. We tipped that waitress really heavily because she graciously came outside in the heat to serve us.
After we had our dinner in Amarillo and Birdie went to bed, M and I enjoyed the hot tub at the AirBNB. Amarillo smells like cow shit when the wind blows the wrong direction, so that was nice.
Monday, August 29 - Amarillo to Santa Fe, NM. ~300 miles.
We did some sightseeing before we hit the road. We started by doing the scenic drive down to the bottom of Palo Duro Canyon State Park. It is the second largest canyon in the U.S., and while it's a distant second to the Grand Canyon it still has plenty of beautiful scenery within sight of the scenic road that the Civilian Conservation Corps carved down to the bottom. It was well worth the $10 to take the drive, especially because it was way too hot to do any hiking.
From there, we hit another Route 66 attraction just west of Amarillo when we stopped at Cadillac Ranch, which features ten Cadillacs buried nose first in the ground. People are encouraged to spray paint them, and in the best spirit of capitalism people were selling spray paint right there. We were gifted some spray paint by people who were done with it and added Birdie's name to a car or two. The art installation is surrounded by fields and clouds of dust occasionally flew by from a combine that was working that day.
After that, it was a long drive all the way to Santa Fe. We drove through a briefly violent rain storm that made the dessert very beautiful indeed. We saw windmills as far as the eye could see in all directions. We got off the interstate in Tucumari to drive by a bunch of Route 66 murals, most notably the famous Blue Swallow Motel. We stopped for a lunch at a very authentic Mexican place in Santa Rose; or at least it had both menudo and tongue on the menu, and it sure seemed authentic.
Finally, we checked into a Santa Fe AirBNB for two nights. More on that in the next update.
Trip Stats
This brief segment covered 7 of the 8 states we'd hid on this trip. After starting in Ohio, we slept in Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. We only stopped for gas in Indiana on the way west, but did eat there while headed back.
We ate on five patios (all lunches) and had takeout once in this segment.
We bought 6 tanks of gas on this segment, not counting the full tank at the start. That by itself is more than I bought for my car in all of 2021.
Thursday, August 25 - Cleveland to Casey, IL. ~423 miles.
We packed the car while Birdie watched television from her pack'n'play, then left our house and drove down to Columbus. Our original plan had been to run Birdie around a park or Grandma's yard while we had takeout with my in-laws, but we ended up having lunch on a patio. Birdie did not run around during or after lunch, and we paid for it when we got back in the car. This was the first day of Birdie's life that she didn't take an afternoon nap. She was miserable, and she let us know she was miserable most of the rest of the day. We even resorted to letting her watch cartoons on the iPad, which we had never done before. This helped, somewhat, but she was still pretty unhappy, particularly when we had to detour through downtown Indianapolis due to construction on the interstate.
We were relieved when we finally arrived at our AirBNB in Casey, IL, concluding what would end up being the second longest day of the entire trip. Unfortunately, our first AirBNB smelled weakly of cat urine, or something similarly musty and 'off'. We then fond that the only room we could fit Birdie's pack'n'play in was the master bedroom, so M took a twin bed in the second bedroom and I slept on the sofa. It was an inauspicious beginning to our trip. The frozen pizzas M got us from the grocery store were pretty good though.
Friday, August 26 - Casey to Rolla, MO. ~240 miles.
We woke up and saw the sights in Casey before we hit the road again. Casey has built its roadside attractions around "Big Things, Small Town." The World's Largest Wind Chimes, Mailbox, Rocking Chair, Barber Pole and other such things have been built and certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. In addition, there are many other "Big" but not "World Record" items around town, including a pencil, a taco, a bird cage and a wide assortment of other items. We walked up and down main street and checked out some of the highlights. We mailed the birthday cards for the week from the World's Largest Mailbox. We would have stayed and checked out more items, but it was extremely hot that day and rather than risk melting by tracking down everything we opted to get going. It was fun though, and if you happen to drive by Casey it's worth stopping to check them out.
Our next stop was lunch in St. Louis. M went to grad school in St. Louis and one of her good friends ended up living there (unrelated to grad school). We stopped and had lunch with Marjorie and her dog Acorn at The Boathouse in Forest Park. It was still extremely hot (and would remain so until we got to Santa Fe) but we were on the shade and on the water and lunch was excellent. It was the first time I'd met Marjorie. Birdie loved meeting Acorn.
From St. Louis, we rolled on to Rolla, MO. Our AirBNB had great air conditioning and we were not inclined to leave it. Instead we let Birdie run around all evening. After being contained to a car seat all day, she really made the most of it.
Birdie has a much better day than she had before. Whether it was walking around Casey, the excitement of hugging a dog repeatedly, or just getting more used to travel, she actually napped in the car for a time. Every subsequent day was less and less painful, and we didn't have to resort to cartoons on any of the subsequent days headed west.
Saturday, August 27 - Rolla to Tulsa, OK. ~290 miles.
It was completely unplanned by us, but our route from St. Louis out to Santa Fe ran along historic Route 66. This meant that we had easy access to an assortment of old roadside attractions. The first one that we stopped at was only a few miles west of Rolla. We stopped in Uranus, MO, which is full of exactly the kind of puns and double entendres that you'd expect from a roadside attraction in Uranus. You can get fudge packed in Uranus. You can lose (mini-golf) balls in Uranus. You get the idea. There is also the World's Largest Belt Buckle and an assortment of other attractions. It was well worth the 30 minutes we stopped.
Our lunch that day was at what might have been the friendliest restaurant of the entire trip. We stopped in Joplin at the Undercliff Grill & Bar. As implied, the restaurant is up against a cliff, and they intentionally left off the interior wall on the cliff side so you can see the stone. We sat out on a really wonderful patio. Birdie moved a bunch of rocks to the amusement of the extremely friendly wait staff. Trains went by across the street. The food was fine, but the service was excellent.
Later that day we made a quick stop at another classic Route 66 attraction, the Blue Whale of Catoosa, which had seen better days. From there it was a short hop (including our only toll road of the trip west) to our AirBNB in Tulsa. M declared this to be the nicest AirBNB we've ever been in, at least in terms of interior decorating. It was also one of the few that didn't ask us to do any cleaning on checkout, which is the way it should be. For dinner, we used a Cheesecake Factory gift card a coworker gifted us when Birdie was born that we'd kept failing to use.
Sunday, August 28 - Tulsa to Amarillo, TX. ~365 miles.
This day featured nothing almost nothing but driving. We stopped for gas. We stopped for lunch under an oppressively hot patio roof at a place called The Shed in Weatherford, OK, that I mention only because M got a souvenir plastic cup there. We tipped that waitress really heavily because she graciously came outside in the heat to serve us.
After we had our dinner in Amarillo and Birdie went to bed, M and I enjoyed the hot tub at the AirBNB. Amarillo smells like cow shit when the wind blows the wrong direction, so that was nice.
Monday, August 29 - Amarillo to Santa Fe, NM. ~300 miles.
We did some sightseeing before we hit the road. We started by doing the scenic drive down to the bottom of Palo Duro Canyon State Park. It is the second largest canyon in the U.S., and while it's a distant second to the Grand Canyon it still has plenty of beautiful scenery within sight of the scenic road that the Civilian Conservation Corps carved down to the bottom. It was well worth the $10 to take the drive, especially because it was way too hot to do any hiking.
From there, we hit another Route 66 attraction just west of Amarillo when we stopped at Cadillac Ranch, which features ten Cadillacs buried nose first in the ground. People are encouraged to spray paint them, and in the best spirit of capitalism people were selling spray paint right there. We were gifted some spray paint by people who were done with it and added Birdie's name to a car or two. The art installation is surrounded by fields and clouds of dust occasionally flew by from a combine that was working that day.
After that, it was a long drive all the way to Santa Fe. We drove through a briefly violent rain storm that made the dessert very beautiful indeed. We saw windmills as far as the eye could see in all directions. We got off the interstate in Tucumari to drive by a bunch of Route 66 murals, most notably the famous Blue Swallow Motel. We stopped for a lunch at a very authentic Mexican place in Santa Rose; or at least it had both menudo and tongue on the menu, and it sure seemed authentic.
Finally, we checked into a Santa Fe AirBNB for two nights. More on that in the next update.
Trip Stats
This brief segment covered 7 of the 8 states we'd hid on this trip. After starting in Ohio, we slept in Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. We only stopped for gas in Indiana on the way west, but did eat there while headed back.
We ate on five patios (all lunches) and had takeout once in this segment.
We bought 6 tanks of gas on this segment, not counting the full tank at the start. That by itself is more than I bought for my car in all of 2021.