Goodbye! But Only for Now...

Thanks, you guys, for following along and reading my blog all these weeks!! It definitely got lonely on the road sometimes so all the feedback was comforting and much appreciated.

Now that the trip is over, I guess I'm officially done blogging. But I'll be keeping this URL to post (less regularly) on the things that interest me more generally. The name might change, but the URL will stay the same. So I hope you'll come back to visit!

Thanks again and see you soon!!

Best Travel Companion

No further comment needed.

Best Overall Day: Marfa

Marfa was absolutely once-in-a-lifetime. The art at the Chinati and Judd Foundations was amazing, but what made our one day in town even more special is that we got to chat with locals and have several pretty pleasing meals (dinner at Maiya's, above). All in all it was a satisfying and unforgettable day.

Best Hotel Breakfast: Holiday Inn Express, Carlsbad

I don't know about you, but I really like to chow down for breakfast. I need my starch (bagels, toast, cereal, oatmeal) as well as protein (eggs, sausage), and I need salty things as well as sweet. Surprise! We got all of this and more in the FREE breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express in Carlsbad, NM.

Kaii hypothesizes that there is a free hot breakfast war going on among the mid-size chain hotels -- like, who can draw in the most customers with the promise of the most amazing hot breakfast ever?? If so, HIE would be just one step ahead. Their signature cinnamon roll may not have smelled great as a lotion, but it sure tasted good.

Best Hotel Decor: Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental, Austin

The Intercontinental in Austin wins the hotel decor award on account of its sophisticated -- and consistent -- stylings. From the lone star emblazoned on everything from the wallpaper to the carpets, to the cowhide & leather armchairs, everything was extravagantly Texan, but not in a vulgar way. Extra points for the fancy curtain valance over the shower.


First runner-up: Holiday Inn Express, Cortez, CO. Again, I was impressed by how this hotel took a decor theme -- in this case, the American Indian/Southwestern theme -- and maxed it out. Kokopelli (the dancing flute player) and other petroglyph figures appeared everywhere from the room number plates to the bathroom mirror.


Second runner-up: Hampton Inn, Savannah, GA. Kudos to this mid-range hotel chain for such an elegant outpost in the heart of the old South! The spacious breakfast room, with its Louis XIV chairs upholstered in rose and mint, was particularly charming.

Best Natural Attraction: Carlsbad Caverns

Another really tough category here. But Carlsbad Caverns was simply out of this world.

Runner-up: Monument Valley.

Best Dessert: Whiskey Bread Pudding, Acme Oyster House

I give this one to the whiskey bread pudding at New Orleans' Acme Oyster House. Loved how that whiskey tang set off the richness of the pudding!

Runner-up: the pralines from River Street Sweets Candy Store in Savannah.

Best Chain Restaurant: Outback Steakhouse

On this trip we sampled the fine cuisine at such chain restaurants as Applebee's and Sizzler's, but Outback Steakhouse would be my choice for when you are stuck in an area with few "local" options. The steaks were done just right, and the seasonal vegetable side memorably crisp and flavorful (I still remember the broccoli I had on my first visit to an Outback in Houston four years ago). I finished those veggies before I'd made it halfway through the garlic mashed potatoes -- surely a first.

Runner-up: Always and forever Mickey D's.

Best Hotel Amenities: Four Points Sheraton, Scottsdale

I've always been really fascinated by free hotel amenities -- the packaging design, the branding, the different scents and colors. What mini identity statement are they trying to make? Is the hotel partnering with an outside company (eg. Neutrogena, Pantene, Crabtree & Evelyn, Molton Brown), or putting out an original product? Are they going for a neutral fragrance or something distinctive? Do they choose to put out mouthwash or lotion? Sewing kit? Shower cap?

My pick for the best in this category is the Four Points Sheraton in Scottsdale, AZ. The scent was a classic and classy lemon verbena, and the packaging cheery. Importantly, the tubes were soft and squeezable -- very user-friendly. Isn't it surprising how many hotel shampoos and lotions come in those stiff plastic bottles that you have to pound against your hand to get anything out of?

Worst: Holiday Inn Express in Carlsbad, NM (not pictured). HIE is very proud of the hot cinnamon rolls it puts out for breakfast -- so much so that they've made "cinnamon roll" the scent for their shampoo, conditioner and lotion. No thank you, I don't want to smell like candy! It's like those ladies at New York Sports Club who insist on polluting the locker room with their "caramel" and "bubble gum"-scented moisturizers. Shudder.

Best Overall Meal: Lunch at Mrs. Wilkes

This one was a tough one. REALLY tough. But I have to give up for Mrs. Wilkes in Savannah, GA, and her 10,000 refillable vegetable sides. (I'm told the fried chicken, BBQ pork and beef stew were excellent as well... but I was too busy stuffing myself with the sides.) I am still dreaming of the black-eye peas and lima beans.

Runner-up: Tan Tan in Houston. Beyond the fact that I was incredibly relieved to have Asian food after a week of deep-fried Southern cooking, the dishes here were far above average in taste and generously portioned.

"Best" Lists Coming Your Way!

Now that I've wrapped up the trip, I'm going to indulge in a little list-making and award-bestowing.

Want to know what the best thing I ate was?

Best hotel?

Most amazing attraction?

Read on...

And... We're Home!!!!!!!!

Arrival time in SD: Saturday, February 21, 9:35 pm
Total days: 22
Total cities stopped in: 23
Total miles from Cincinnati: 4,919

Driving down those oh-so-familiar San Diego roads, it felt like we had just gone to the grocery store and come back. But we hadn't. :)

The Prius Has A Large Meal... of Bugs

Guess there are a lot of critters in the Arizona desert, cause this is what the Prius looked like after our drive:

Car Scenes: Homeward Bound!

Leaving Taliesen West, Kaii and I stopped for a quick lunch, then hit the road for our 7-hour drive to SD. (!) Along the way, it was cacti, cacti and more cacti. We drove through the late afternoon and the night...

Day 21: Taliesen West

The centerpiece of our very last day was a tour of Taliesen West, Frank Lloyd Wright's experimental home-slash-workshop-slash-work in progress in the middle of the Arizona desert. I'm not really a huge Wright fan, but it was fun to see -- and also to learn what a gigantic a**hole he was. (Astounding how the architect stereotype pulls through so many times! Ha ha, apologies to any architect friends reading this... but you know what I mean.)


I was actually more interested in Wright's furniture designs (big surprise there -- check out my post on Donald Judd's furniture). You can see the Asian influence in these "Origami" chairs and table sets:


His doors are also fascinating -- apparently he built them especially low so that you are forced to acknowledge your transition into another space...HIS space.

Pueblo Architecture Redux -- Sedona Edition

Like Santa Fe, the city of Sedona has taken the so-called "pueblo revival" style and run with it. There are a number of manifestations...

In luxury homes, the blocky pueblo style effortlessly adopts a modernist vibe -- all straight lines and rectilinear volumes:


The vigas -- those round poles sticking out of the facade -- are a straight-up Disney-fication of the traditional style, though. Originally, vigas were used to support wooden slats that served as balconies. These are almost cartoons -- they have become completely detached from their original meaning and function. You can also see them on low-end residential developments and shopping plazas alike:


Finally, pueblo style -- and pueblo colors! -- impose themselves on even the mighty McDonalds! (Note to Jess: I spelled it right this time...) Have you ever seen the Golden Arches, well, not golden?? This city has some kind of money if it can mandate that national chains alter their logo fonts, size and even color. And it has -- the free Sedona tourist magazine we picked up proudly declared that if we should seek chain dining establishments, there are plenty to be had... they just don't "blare" their colors. Everything fits into the preestablished, homogeneous pueblo scheme. Goodness gracious!

Day 20: Sedona

Our second-to-last day saw us passing through Sedona on the way to Scottsdale. It's a stunning little resort town with jaw-dropping red mesa rocks as its backdrop -- very upscale, very spa, very second-home. It kind of reminded me of my hometown of La Jolla, except with mountains instead of the ocean. (I am not upscale or spa, btw... that's just what LJ is famous for.) Definitely the hiker/biker/runner paradise!! I'll have to come back with some gear or something.

Ack, It's Our Last Day!

It was always going to come to this. Mega Road Trip 2009 had to come to an end.

Today, Saturday, February 21, is officially the last day of our trip. Tonight, Kaii and I will meet up with the 'rents in our hometown of San Diego. From there, Kaii begins his envy-inducing round-the-world journey, and I will spend a few days in LA and San Francisco before flying home to NYC. It'll be great to see y'all -- I missed you guys! -- but as you can imagine, part of me wishes this trip could go on forever.

So... what can you expect from this here blog in the next few days? Well, first of all, I gotta catch up and let you know how yesterday and today were. In our final stretch, we have and will be covering a lot of ground -- Flagstaff, Sedona, Scottsdale/Phoenix, Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesen West house and, finally, the long drive to San Diego.

You can also expect to see a couple "best of" and "worst of" round-ups summarizing the trip, including "best hotel amenities," "most livable city," "most disappointing dinner" and the like.

Lastly, will I be continuing this blog in some form in the future? I hope so... keep you posted!!

Day 19: Petrified Forest

After the brilliant reds of Monument Valley, the muted, almost pastel blues, purples and ochres of Petrified Forest were a marked change. We took an excellent ranger tour where we got to walk through fields and valleys of deep red, yellow, orange and blue petrified wood -- little and big pieces just lying there on the ground. So tempting to take! (And so illegal...)

Mixed in with the petrified wood were pieces of fossilized root and animal bone. (Nerdy factoid: How can you tell if something is bone and not rock? Put it against your tongue -- porous bone will stick to it.)

At different spots in the park, we were also able to see petroglyphs left behind by the ancient Puebloans.

Nostalgic Signage in Holbrook, AZ

The whole town of Holbrook, AZ, where the Wigwam Motel is located, seems frozen in time -- in a good way! Check out this awesome signage:

The Wigwam Motel!

"Have You Stayed in a Wigwam Lately?" the sign outside the Wigwam Hotel asks. Indeed!

Kaii and I just had to stay here. Now a historical landmark that makes it onto just about every poster, brochure and video about historic Route 66, the Wigwam Motel harkens back to the enthusiasm and optimism of the 50s and 60s, and the midcentury golden age of pushing westward to California in America's shiny new cars.

The inside was roomier than you might think and nicely heated, the beds comfy and bathroom clean (although seriously 50s-style). It was cute that they also parked period cars outside to add to the ambience!

Day 18: It Was Bound to Happen...

After 2.5 weeks, we finally hit a bad road on the way from Monument Valley to Holbrook, AZ. The pavement on the Navajo "highway" we took petered out after about 20 minutes and we were stuck in the middle of the mountains going 15 miles per hour on a dirt road sometimes covered with ice, mud, water or all of the above.

We gave up after about 40 minutes and turned around, losing two hours in the process. :(

Navajo Food for Dinner

Goulding's Lodge is sort of its own little community, being one of the only two hotels in the Valley. In addition to traditional amenities like a pool and fitness room, it also has its own restaurant, gas station, car wash, convenience store and movie theater (to screen John Wayne movies, of course!).

You would expect the restaurant to be a price-gouging disaster, but we were pleasantly surprised by both the quality and prices there. On our second night, I sampled a Southwestern-style pork & green chile stew, accompanied by Navajo flat bread. It's a massive fried thing -- kind of like youtiao, the fried bread sticks Chinese people eat at breakfast, if you're familiar with that -- and served with a bottle of honey.

NEW Feature! 360 Video: Monument Valley

For something a little different, I took this panoramic video from John Ford Point, to give you a better idea of how grand Monument Valley is:

Lunch in the Desert

For lunch, our guide killed this horse, tore the flesh off its bones with his bare hands and cooked it over an open flame.


Just kidding!

We came across this horse carcass in Mystery Valley and our guide ever so thoughtfully reconstructed the skeleton for our photographing pleasure. I have pix of the leg, which still had hair on it... but I'll spare you. :)

Anyway, the lunch he did make was pretty yum -- he made a little fire in the shade of one of the arches and grilled us hamburgers. The rest of our box meal included chips, an orange and a cookie.

Scampering Up Rock Arches

We saw Monument Valley as part of a full-day tour arranged by our hotel, Goulding's Lodge. It was an off-roading fantasy come to life -- trust me, if you want to heave up and down sand dunes seeing sights you can't from the main roads, this tour is for you!

The experience as a whole gets an A+, but our laconic Navajo tour guide left a little to be desired. When I asked him how all the big mesas were formed, he paused a minute before answering, "... Nature formed them." Wonderful, thank you!

One cool thing about him, though, was that he let us climb up the many rock arches in Mystery Valley, the perhaps lesser-known part of Monument Valley we drove around in the morning. You can bet Park Services would not be allowing that kind of behavior!

Day 17: Monument Valley

We've had so many highlights on this trip -- the Menil Collection, Marfa, Carlsbad Caverns, Mesa Verde -- but Monument Valley was right up there with them.

I find it interesting that a landscape can at one and the same time feel so familiar and so alien. On the one hand, it's the very image of the Wild Wild West, as popularized by John Wayne's grandiosely romantic Westerns (nine of which were shot here), and on the other, its bizarre shapes and hues seem to hark from another planet, like Mars.