How I planned our EPIC summer road trip (Part 4)
Road Trip - photo by wili_hybrid
(Continued from Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.)
Back when my husband was about ten years old, his family took a road trip from Arizona to Wyoming to visit some family. Picture, if you will, the family packed in the old woody station wagon - Mom, Dad, my husband, and his two younger sisters. Picture, if you will, all of the luggage and gear that said family would require, also packed into the aforementioned station wagon. And, picture (again, if you will) two 150+ pound German Shepherds gleefully sprawled among the children in the back seat, tongues lolling, drool a-spraying. All crammed into this one station wagon. For fifteen hours straight (his dad didn’t believe in pit stops), and nearly a thousand miles. One way.
It’s a wonder my husband didn’t need therapy for this childhood experience. But, not only did he come out the other side of it (basically) normal, he’s willing to repeat the experience. Sans the station wagon. And the other family members. And the dogs.
Wyoming Sky - photo by jurek d.
My husband recalls Cody, Wyoming with a large degree of fondness. Named after William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, the town has a strong wild-west theme that appealed to my husband as a child, brought up as he was on Bonanza and Spaghetti Westerns. Thus, it became a “must” stop on our route through Wyoming. I booked us a room at The Cody - after our stay at Yellowstone’s Old Faithful Inn (Cody is just east of the park), it will be the last night we’ll spend in Wyoming before heading back toward the south.
Statue of Buffalo Bill - pic by Marcin Wichary
The helpful reservations representative stressed that it was practically a requirement to visit the Buffalo Bill Historical Center while we were there, so I asked for discounted tickets to be included in the price of our lodging. And apparently our trip - nay, our lives - will not be complete without enjoying the offerings of The Cody Cattle Company’s Chuckwagon Dinner & Live Music Show. Not one to pass up on a local’s very passionate recommendations, I assured her we would partake the very evening we got into Cody. We have a short 24 hours to enjoy the area’s offerings, so I want to make sure we make the best of our time.
Our plans for the remainder of our trip are very simple, and vague in a way that’s a little terrifying. We know which direction we want to go, and a few destinations we want to hit, but we’re winging it and (gasp) not booking any hotel rooms. We’ll just find whatever is available when we get there. Look at us, all adventurous! If you knew my husband (he of the philosophy that Every Second Must Be Planned In Detail), you’d understand what a huge deal this is.
Arches National Park - photo by mandj98
From Cody, days eight, nine, and ten (and potentially eleven) of our road trip will be spent making our way south to Aspen, Colorado. From there, we plan to cut across toward Utah again to see Arches National Park. Then south back into Arizona for a quick visit to the Grand Canyon, and then four more hours south to arrive, finally, at home. A ten or eleven day (depending on how much driving we do on that last leg, there) road trip covering over 2,500 miles.
In my next entry I’ll summarize all of the important tips and tricks I’ve learned while planning this epic road trip. Stay tuned!
