Shout out to Mother Nature and all the sickness gods for basically giving me an allergic reaction that turned into a two-week cold with no voice for most of it. I have been wanting to put this episode out for quite some time in hopes that you all will still remember episodes one, two, and three of the Cross Country Series. I’m sure you don’t remember, since I can barely remember, but ill try and give us a little recap.
Day one consisted of us saying goodbye to California and Juliannas home and starting our adventure. We headed down the coast taking in the Mojave dessert and all the hills and beautiful sites along the way. We ended up in Las Vegas and enjoyed a night of dinner and relaxation at the MGM Grand. We walked the strip and in pure tourist fashion, had to stop by the Bellagio and see the water show. Even though it was Super Bowl Sunday and the strip was hot, we decided to take it easy and spend most of our night at the hotel getting what little bit of rest we could get before the bulk of our trip and exploration started.
Day Two was awesome. We headed from Nevada to Page, Arizona where we saw some of the most beautiful rock formations I’ve ever seen. Glen Canyon Dam was our first stop. Like I mentioned in episode three, Glen Canyon was my first taste of any type of rocks or canyons, and boy did it blow me out of the water. That wasn’t even the best. After Glen Canyon, we headed to Antelope Canyon, and HOLY COW YALL, that was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. We actually took a guided tour and I’m so glad we did. Our tour guide even demonstrated how these canyons were formed, and it was eye opening and educational. We spent a bulk of our day at Antelope Canyon. Thinking that this was the peak of our trip, we headed to Horseshoe Bend to watch the sunset. Guys, if you’ve followed my Instagram at all, you will have seen these pictures by now. FREAKING BEAUTIFUL. Breathtaking was an understatement. It was almost emotional. Watching the sunset over one of the most beautiful God created spaces reached euphoria in my eyes. Please head to the blog and check out the pictures from this trip. I wish I could share them all!
From Horseshoe Bend, we headed to Utah for day three. Monument Valley was our main stop of the day. We spent all day roaming around the beyond amazing sites. If you’ve never heard of Monument Valley, you probably don’t even realize that you’ve seen its backdrop in a number of movies, especially Westerns. It’s basically the main scenery of the Wild, Wild West. Once again another peak, if not the main peak, of this trip; pictures don’t do this place justice. I 100,000% perfect recommend a trip to Utah once in your lifetime. Living in a woodsy, suburb of Baltimore, Maryland, it was hard to believe that something like Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, and Monument Valley existed in our very own country; Unbelievable and amazing.
We were sad to see a few previously scheduled destinations get rain checked due to unforeseen weather of the weird polar vortex that just happened to blow thru that week. We missed out on sites like The Grand Canyon and Zion National Park, but that didn’t stop us from having the time of our lives. Now on to days four, five, six, and seven. The bulk of the cross-country driving took place during these days. While we weren’t really on a specific time schedule, we still knew in the back of our minds that we had some SERIOUS driving to do from Utah to Maryland. We promptly started the morning visiting Four Corners. It was a cool, but quick stop. Obviously, I had never been to Colorado and this was a cheaters way of checking it off the list. LOL I know, I know – definitely a cheater, but I’m half counting it. Four Corners makes up Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico and where these four states meet. It was also my first time to New Mexico, but we actually ended up heading to Santa Fe after this short touristy visit.
We spent a few hours on the road and like I just mentioned, ended up in Santé Fe. It was dark and cold out, so we didn’t do a lot of exploring on our first night there. We stayed at a really cute boutique hotel called The Saint Francis near downtowns Main Street. I loved the culture vibes immediately. We woke up the next morning and had to get breakfast burritos as many recommended it to me. Once breakfast was over, we walked the streets of downtown, until it started snowing! We knew we had a lot of driving to do and didn’t want Herbert to get stuck, just our luck! Our visit in Santé Fe was short lived as we got on the road and headed towards the Texas border.
Along the side of the road in Amarillo Texas, is Cadillac Ranch. Cadillac Ranch is the homes to several-abandoned old Cadillac’s that are buried into the ground. What makes this stop cool is that you can bring your own spray paint as the old Cadillac’s are decorated in beautiful graffiti like designs. It was a little daunting walking to the Cadillac’s, as we were clearly on a livestock ranch and had to walk past several roaming animals. It was a cute little detour on our way through Texas.
From Texas, we hit Oklahoma and let me tell you, this was my least favorite part of the trip. If you are from Oklahoma and love your hometown, now is the time to stop listening. Just Kidding – I’m sure we just caught Oklahoma on a bad day. As we were driving along route 40 to get to our overnight destination of Oklahoma City, we drove into a crazy hailstorm. Within ten miles the temperature dropped 30+ degrees and we headed straight into a storm. Obviously tornado alley comes to mind when it’s basically the only thing you know about the state. Although it probably wasn’t a tornado, I’m going to pretend it was one, because I was scared shitless. Am I allowed to say that on here? Well I don’t care because it was one of the most terrifying storms I have ever been stuck in. Its not like you can just find the next overpass and park for a few minutes. When you’re on the interstate going 70 miles per hour and can’t see in front of you, you panic. You also can’t stop the car because then you become an even bigger danger to the cars around you, not like you could see them in the first place. Thank god our father was with us and just happened to be driving, because him calm, cool, and collected attitude made the whole situation better. We eventually came up on an exit after several miles and pulled off into a Wal-Mart to wait out the rest of the storm. Guys, I know this sounds dramatic, but I have no clue how we made it without getting into an accident or having car damage from the hail. If you followed along on stories, you will even know that I named a huge blemish Oklahoma after the stress it caused me this night. We obviously made it to our destination safely, but it was scary. How could Oklahoma get any worse, right? Well after getting a good nights sleep, we woke up to a completely frozen over car that took FOREVER to chip into, just to turn the car on and get access to our ice scraper. My geography and meteorology skills clearly weren’t up to par, as I kept telling myself we were in the southern region of the country and how the hell could we be stuck in an hail storm last night and an ice storm this morning? I have some major brushing up to do. After a while, my father finally scrapped enough to gain access, thaw the car, and safely get us on the road to Arkansas.
We skipped Mississippi and headed straight for Memphis, Tennessee. I had driven thru Memphis a few years ago on a girl’s trip in a successful attempt to find some amazing bar-b-qu. Successful indeed. We actually went back to the same place, Central BBQ. It was just what we needed after an ice storm and several hours of driving. We gorged on ribs, brisket, mac and cheese, beans, the works. We tried to visit Graceland, but they were having an event on the premises and it just happened to be closed for the evening. We didn’t know what else to do there, so we got back on the road to spend the evening, or what was left of it, in Nashville.
We made it to Nashville just in time to hit the hotel bars last call. After the 48 hours we just endured, my sister treated her and I to an over priced, crappy bottle of wine. It was gross, but much needed. We went to bed ready to officially take on Nashville the next morning. Julianna and I had been to Nashville in the past, so we were mainly looking forward to showing our father the touristy sites. He is the ultimate tourist, love ya, Dad. We hit all the good spots. We saw the Opry, drove around a bunch, and ended up on Broadway. We walked the streets of Broadway checking out the Honkey Tonks and taking in all the scenery. We had a great lunch right off the main street and then spontaneously decided not to stay the night and head towards home. When you have been on the road for six/seven days at this point, your bed is looking might fine.
From Nashville we plowed thru Virginia and finally made it into Maryland. Boy was it good to be home, but it was also a treat to have just been on the trip of a lifetime with my family. It would have only been better if our Mother was with us, but she is NOT a traveler by any means. The fact alone that we were able to experience this together, and come out in one piece with hardly any fighting was beyond me. I continue to cherish these memories and talk about them on a daily basis. I am still posting photos to social media and basking in the glory of this one in a lifetime experience. If you ever have the time and means to take a trip like this, please do so. I will have these memories for the rest of my life and am so thankful my sister included our father and I on this experience. I can’t wait for our next trip, as the travel bug will now forever live inside of my soul!
This might be where the Cross Country Series ends on Chapters & Tea, but the memories will forever live in my heart. As always, thank you for tuning in to this episode of Chapters and Tea: Conversations about all things life and self-care. If you want to see what’s going on in my daily life, check out my instagram page @sarahs_reads and at Sarahsreads.com – I look forward to hearing from you all and can’t wait for our next episodes and upcoming series! Talk soon.
