Unfortunately close to home

In the build up to our trip, Lisa and I were really looking forward to including everyone in our adventure. Through various means of social media we were going to keep everyone abreast of our travels, posting videos, pictures and updating this blog with our daily escapades.

That was until a couple of weeks ago, where an incident, all to close to home, occurred.

Lisa was at work, doing a few extra hours to help catch up with a busy week at work and I was returning home from a PT session with my cousin. Turning into the road we live on, a police car was parked up outside our house and two police officers were walking around the house of our neighbours, across the street.

They were joined by another car and officers a few minutes later and a police dog unit. They were searching around the property for something but I could not tell what. Lisa returned home and we waited to see if we'd get a knock on the door...

Sure enough, around 9.30pm an officer came to the door to report that there had been a burglary and were out asking if we had seen anything. Unfortunately we couldn't help our neighbours as we were both out at the time.

Immediately my mind turned to our road trip and we decided that it'd be best if we didn't make it public knowledge that we'd be away and that unfortunately meant that we'd be unable to involve everyone in put travels.

Whilst the house won't be completely unoccupied during our absence, we feel it's better to keep details to a minimum BUT when we get back, it means we can relive the entire journey all over again by sharing all our pictures, video and memories with everyone - I guess every cloud does have a silver lining.

Planning and some "minor" detours Pt. 2

   With the hotel in Chicago settled upon our eyes turned towards the journey we'd be making, looking at all the towns and cities along the way and one stood out in particular, Holbrook, Arizona.

   Holbrook isn't a very large town but it hosts one of the more famous landmarks along the mother road, the Wigwam Motel. Opened in 1950, the motel comprises 15 individual rooms, constructed to look like teepees. The "Cozy Cone" in Disney's Cars, was based upon this motel.

   Whilst we are in Arizona, Lisa's sister Belinda will hopefully be coming to spend some time with us. Belinda lives with her family near Salt Lake City, Utah and is very keen to take the opportunity to see her big sister whilst she is relatively close by.

   Previously, I have mentioned my love of the film Twister and we'll be travelling through Tornado Alley during Tornado season (a complete coincidence, honestly...) and one of our overnight stays is in Oklahoma City. A couple of hours drive from there is a little town called Wakita and for those who have seen Twister, you will know that Wakita is a location from the film. The residents of this small town have used its fame to attract a bit of tourism by creating the Twister Museum and so, again with Lisa's permission, another detour was added.

 
   Unfortunately, due to the limited amount of time we have, we aren't going to get the time to stay and explore some of the towns and cities along Route 66, some will simply be places to rest our heads before we head on the next stop. Given the choice we'd happily spend two or three days in each location, sampling food and seeing the sights but without that Euromillions win, it's just not possible.

   We did however agree on spending two nights in Las Vegas, specifically at the Stratosphere Tower Hotel. Here there is a (small) amusement park on top of the tower and you can bet your bottom dollar that Lisa & I will be going to that!

Planning and some "minor" detours Pt. 1

   Wow, it's been a while since I made that first post but time is just flying by. As I type this post, it's less than 100 days until our big trip!

   In this post I'll go into some detail about are planning of the trip and fitting in a couple of detours to places that we're taking the opportunity to visit whilst we're travelling (relatively) close by.

   So first off we had to decide which way to travel, Chicago to LA or visa-versa. It seems that most who make this journey travel East to West and many of the route guides are written this way too so it seemed logical to follow in these footsteps.

   The next big decision was where to stay along the route and how long for. There are countless towns and cities along the way and many more hotels and motels so we were spoiled for choice in this sense but eventually we settled upon the following destinations for our overnight stops. Chicago, St Louis, Springfield MO, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Holbrook AZ, Las Vegas and finally Santa Monica.

   During the nights, planning and looking at maps, I couldn't help but notice that we weren't all that far away from an aviation Mecca... Tucson AZ. Located in Tucson is Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, home of AMARG or more commonly known as "The Bone Yard". This is where old, retired military aircraft meet their fate and are dismantled for parts (in most cases). But before they meet the scrapman's axe, they are lined up in the Arizona desert and the Pima Air & Space Museum run guided tours of the facility. Thankfully Lisa is very understanding and accommodating to the man-child she married and said "we should go because we're so close and you may never get another opportunity" - one happy man-child! So now we added Tucson to our list of overnight stays.

   Next up was, how many nights to stay in the locations along our journey? Obviously we'd love to spend 2 or 3 days in each location and see all we could but time isn't on our side in this case and we only have 16 nights to cram it in all.

  Firstly, Chicago. This being our first stop after our flight we thought it would be a good idea to get properly rested before we begin our epic adventure so we settled on three nights in the Windy City. There's plenty to see and do in Chicago and three days wouldn't be enough to fit it all in but we'll strive to visit the main attractions, such as Chicago 360, Navy Pier, Sears Tower, the Adler Planetarium and hopefully a tour of Soldier Field (BEAR DOWN!!!). We also booked tickets to go see Blue Man Group at the Briar Street Theatre, Lisa and I are really looking forward to that!


Part 2 will cover the rest of the journey and I promise, it won't take me as long to write (otherwise we'll have been and come back!)

 

 

 

Conception

    The idea of travelling "The Mother Road" is one many people have and aspire to. Iconic images of Route 66 shields, classic American diners and driving head-long at the horizon in a 60's Mustang or on a Hawg have inspired thousands to head out on the open road. Starting in Chicago, Illinois and snaking through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and eventually winding up in Santa Monica, California, Route 66 covered nearly 2,500 miles in it's heyday.

     Today, Route 66 has unfortunately fallen some way from it's former glory. Anyone who has seen the Disney film Cars will know of the hard times that fell upon the small towns, that prospered along US 66, when the Interstates were constructed (I40 being R66's nemesis). Many sections of the road have fallen into disrepair and thriving communities and business are a shadow of their former selves.

     However, all was not lost, in the late 80's associations were formed to begin the process of preserving this classic piece of American history and today many of the old sights and indeed new sights, have returned to greet the tourists as they make their way.

     This is where our story begins...

     Three friends, all hurtling towards 30 at an alarming rate are discussing options as to how to mark this significant and in some cases, quite remarkable, milestone. Mike, Steve and myself have known each other for many, many years and growing up together, we all developed a passion for cars and travelling, in one way or another. So when the notion of "let's do route 66" appeared in conversation, there was a general nodding of heads and cogs started to turn. It wouldn't be unfair to say I was the keenest, it's been a long held ambition to visit "real" America, perhaps inspired by my love for the film Twister and the wide open plains, rather than the hustle and bustle of New York or the sun-baked wonder of Florida.

     Lisa, my girlfriend at the time, was also excited by the idea. I think the thought of getting to spend two weeks, pretty much alone with me, was the driving force behind her enthusiasm. BUT there was something of a stumbling block. Due to Lisa's strong religious beliefs, the only way she would be coming would be if she was Mrs Wes. First spanner in the works. Now I wasn't against the idea of marriage in theory but I was 28 at this time and it was a scary thought but, without wanting to get too mushy and vomit-inducing, with every day, Lisa and I were getting closer and really the next stage was "taking the vows".

                   A rare photo of Steve, Mike and myself in a photo together (with the beautiful Lisa of course!)

     Fast forward six months and Lisa and I were engaged and soon to be wed and with everything for the big day running smoothly our thoughts turned to honeymoon destinations. It wasn't a tough decision to make, in fact, we didn't even consider anywhere else, America is where we would spend our honeymoon, travelling Route 66 and hopefully we'd be able to spend it with Mike and Amy and Steve and Charlotte.


     In the next post, I'll be going through how we have planned for the trip and some small deviations from the route.