It's not lost on me that my beginning point isn't far from Winona, Arizona, and my destination was near Winona, Minnesota. That said, I had a long, but pleasant five days driving my father and his wife from their Arizona wintering home back to the pleasant upper-Midwest. We stopped to take in a few sights (mostly tourist-y things) and a few uncommon birds (my father is an avid bird watcher).
Here are a few favorites of mine from the trip.
Best Night's Sleep: Swedish Country Inn -- Lindsborg, KS
Worst Night's Sleep: Best Western -- Santa Rosa, NM
Best Dinner: Irene's Tea Parlour -- Lindsborg, KS
Worst Dinner: Jim-n-I's Restaurant -- Elkhart, KS
Best Breakfast: Jim-n-I's Restaurant -- Elkhart, KS
Best-Looking Waitress -- Jim-n-I's Restaurant -- Elkhart, KS
Favorite Bird Spotted on Drive -- Roadrunner, along highway in Arizona
Best Tourist Trap: Boot Hill Museum -- Dodge City, KS (while looking pretty cheesy from the outside, the layout of the museum and the information offered was really top quality)
Best Section of Road for Driving: Highway 26 -- New Mexico
Worst Section of Road for Driving: Interstate 90 -- Minnesota
State with Most Garbage along Roadways -- New Mexico
State with Least Garbage along Roadways -- Iowa
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Stix, as you may have heard, I'm leaving on Saturday and driving to Arizona, so I appreciate this list a lot. I'm glad to hear that the worst section of road was I-90 in Minnesota, as that's only about the first 45 miles of my 1600-mile trip. Out of curiousity, what made it so bad? Road conditions?
While I wasn't planning on going through Kansas, I might have to check out that waitress in Elkhart. What's her name?
I'm glad you gave Jim n L's a second chance.
K--
Well, first of all, there was that cute waitress. But mostly, there wasn't a whole lot of choice in Elkhart, Kansas.
And it's "Jim - n - I". I know this sans serif font makes it look like an "L".
When they answered the phone they were saying, "Gemini's" with a drawl.
Okay, now that I'm back, here's my list:
Best Night's sleep: Super 8 -- Topeka, Kansas
Worst Night's sleep: Denny's house, my last night there -- Sun City, AZ
Best Dinner: P.F. Chang's -- Phoenix, AZ
Worst Dinner/Lunch: some Chinese buffet place -- Winslow, AZ
Best Breakfast: didn't eat much on the road (other than motels' free ones)
Best-Looking Waitress: Hostess at P.F. Chang's -- Phoenix, AZ
Favorite Bird Spotted on Drive: birds? really? I saw a wild turkey in Missouri today
Best Tourist Trap: none (didn't make any touristy stops)
Best Section of Road for Driving: I-76 the last 40 miles before Denver
Worst Section of Road for Driving: I-76 the first 40 miles after the Nebraska-Colorado border
You know your dad might have something with that whole avoiding-the-Interstate thing, if I-90 in Minnesota was your worst section for driving. I drove a little over 3500 miles and all but about 300 or so was on Interstates. I would say that about half of that was as bad or worse than I-90.
I think that one of my dad's dislike for Interstates is something you touched on in your blog -- the truck traffic. I-40 being particularly bad. Again, let's remember that the ol' guy is 82 and probably not up for competing for road space with a 16-wheeler.
Yeah, I-40 was pretty bad for that. I generally don't mind a lot of semis on the road, as often they're better drivers than the average yahoo in his/her SUV, but every now and then you see one swerving around a bit and that's mighty unnerving when you're in a little car. Next time we get together, you'll have to show me the route you took.
Post a Comment