Here’s the real deal, we trekked all the way from San Diego to Boston, a little North of Boston even in a whopping 7 days. I’ll go into a little more detail (if you were keeping up with my Instagram you saw a little) and tell you what we did, what we saw, our highlights, what we ate, and where we stayed. I’m also working on going through our video footage, and going to be making a video! (Stay tuned for that)
DAY ONE: We left San Diego, headed to Scottsdale, AZ. It was almost a surreal moment, like I wasn’t moving, but more of going on a vacation. My friends were texting me, “is it an April fools joke?” or did I really leave. Bittersweet moment, as I was excited for my adventure, but sad knowing that the life I love is over as I know it.
We didn’t want to do long days because of Gatsby. So our 5.5 hour drive went by very fast! I did my nails, we confirmed with border patrol that we were in fact US citizens, I know the Golden Retriever in the back didn’t give it away at all. We drove through desert, looking at lots of windmills.
We stayed with my freshman year college roomate (love her). Our golf loving boyfriends immediately hit it off and had the biggest bromance I think I’ve ever seen. We started off going to lunch at O.H.S.O which was dog friendly. Gatsby made friends, they had a lot of craft beer, even for dogs! Except the “beer faucets” were water. Fun atmosphere, and we experienced AZ heat. (I packed correctly for this)
After lunch we went to old town Scottsdale, had a margarita at salty senorita. Then when in Scottsdale, I’ll give you one guess as to what we did. You got it! Went swimming and I was in heaven. Giant pool floaties included. The Celtics game was on, so naturally the guys watched that. And since I was in the process (now a resident) of Boston. I’ll appreciate the game, and they won. Go boys!
Remember how I said my boyfriend, and my friend’s boyfriend had a bromance? Well, they even wanted to stay another day in Scottsdale and have longer days, changing our whole route because they were crushing that hard. Their dreams didn’t last long because the whole reason we were doing shorter days was for the baby, Gatsby. (Sorry boys!)
Dinner: Sushi happy hour, as if that was even a question. Geisha A Go Go, had half off not only rolls, but even appetizers! And it was delicious. Not that I am biased at all on loving all sushi. We called it a night, with full bellies. Knowing that was only the first stop of a long journey.
DAY TWO: We went from Scottsdale, AZ to Albuquerque, NM. And our drive was about an hour longer, so 6.5 hours, but instead of driving through desert, we drove mostly through forests, which turned out to be national forest Petrified. We listened to Pandora and they loved this Charmin commercial, which became the theme song for our day: “My hiney is so Charmin Shiny” just in case you needed a new jingle 😉
We were going to stop for lunch in a town we kept seeing signs for called Holbrook, still in AZ. As it turns out, Holbrook isn’t anything special, nor did we even see anything we wanted to eat. All they had was million of dinosaur statues everywhere, sooo if you love dinosaurs, I highly recommend.
When we passed into AZ, we stopped and took a picture with the sign, and of course I wanted to do this with every sign. I was copiloting, and if you know me, is not my best job. So we drove past the sign, and Danny says “that was the sign,” and I immediately after we passed it. “STOP STOP STOP” So we did, and walked back to the sign to take a picture with the sign. Which we did. Danny: 1 Amanda: -1 on looking at the GPS for state borders.
Now comes the real juice: we made it to Albuquerque, and followed the GPS to where our Air BNB was…and I thought it was a joke. We were straight up in the ghetto. We walked in and the people were nice, but sketchy. Not somewhere I felt comfortable at all. We knew it was for one night, and we wanted to do this cheap- so we rented a room from this couple. Which I will not do again.
They told us where so we walked, contemplated getting a hotel, leaving, anything but stayed. We made it out alive. Went to bed by 7pm and woke up at 4am to get out. If that tells you anything…
DAY THREE: We left so early and started to OKC, which let us have longer there! This was our longest drive yet, and our first storm we drove through. After the storm, we got so much wind. I literally thought our alignment was off! We stopped at the cutest, and cleanest rest stop, all decorated in Route 66 gear.
We found a donut shop, in Tucumcari, NM, and they had dino statues too? Weird. What’s even weirder? This led us to our road trip debate (still going on to this day) on if it is normal to get a breakfast sandwich at a donut shop…please feel free to help us with this debate. Danny LOVES to get one, like eggs, sausage, on a bagel or croissant. And I think it’s so odd.
I also found my selfie stick for my gopro, so I became that basic bitch! And we passed by Texas.
We had this cute little cottage, and took Gatsby to throw the ball at a little nearby park! (do you blame him for needing some exercise?) then we were dyyyying of starvation. One of our friends grew up there so he told us where to go, we ate at bricktown brewery and the food was to die for. I’m drooling just thinking about it. We got pretzel sticks with queso, then a BBQ pizza, and a turkey pot pie. Oh, the diet that needs to be in full force. BUT SO WORTH IT!
After dinner, we found this cute little botanical garden/park area, so we walked around, we met this yoga instructor from San Clemente (small world right), and Gatsby found a puppy friend. Then had a chill night, after all we woke up when it was still dark.
Most memorable? I bought a bottle of OKC wine, and it dropped out of my bag, and broke. You wine lovers, know how I feel…
DAY FOUR: We started off by getting coffee at elemental coffee and although the coffee wasn’t amazing, their breakfast wraps were. (I swear all we did was drive and eat). And off to Memphis, TN we went.
I would argue that every rest stop along AK was closed, and if you know me you know how much I pee. So I wasn’t a happy camper, which led to a led foot. (whoops).
We started to listen to the podcast Serial, which was perfect! It made time go by so fast, I would highly recommend it. Then we can debate if Adnan Syed is innocent or guilty. I really agreed with how she went back and forth, and majority of what she said. I could 100% follow her train of thought.
Danny thought this was hilarious, saying, “You agree with whatever she says.” And I agree, and reply “I’ll just eat my cheetos and listen.” Which became another thing I got made fun of for…but again, all we did was eat. CASE AND POINT. I’m pretty sure we ate the whole bag…whoops!
When we got to our spot, we knew we needed some good Tennessee BBQ. We tried to go to dinner, and leave the needy puppy behind. He was not having it. At all. We closed to the door and you would have thought someone was in the apartment torturing him. We waited 5 (long) minutes to see if he would stop. Of course he didn’t so we took him to dinner at Redezvous where he had to have known we weren’t happy because he just sat under the table the whole time. No begging! (I know, woah).
Another Memphis bucketlist? Beale St, so we were gonna go grab a drink and listen to some live music. Don’t worry, Gatsby, he wasn’t into being left alone, again. So he came.
Per the usual, another early night. Twenties going on seventies, that’s me!
Most memorable? The sunset. It was beyond amazing.
DAY FIVE: We went to Louisville to visit my cousin. I did learn that it’s pronounced luuulllllville. Like you can’t open your mouth all the way.
On this drive we learned: Danny doesn’t like Annie’s brand crackers because they taste “too organic” from that we had to switch to our cheezits. We had a contest: Gatsby vs. Danny catching things in their mouth – Gatsby won by a land slide. And also learned that you can get really delusional while driving.
Since all we do is eat, can you guess what we did when we got there? Yep. Eat. But this was deeeeeelish, royals hot chicken. I got loaded potato wedges, and probably could have licked the plate. Then we went right across the corner and got “the best chocolate chip cookies” please and thank you bakery and damn were they good.
If you know us, then you know we HAD to go to the Kentucky derby. And if you also know us, we didn’t win anything. But they had $1 beers so who cares!
(Just in case you wanted a taste of the sass, and the bullshit)
DAY SIX: Our longest drive, it was about 10 hours, without stops, to Rochester. When I go to start writing about this day, all I can remember is all the crap I ate. 100% too many cheezits, and that’s all you get to know.
We also started to hit tolls, which I believe is 100% an East coast thing, cause I just can’t wrap my head around them. Yes, let me pay $4.00 to drive on this road.
We also started to get pet peeves, like driving in the pouring rain! When we have to go less than 80mph ever. No thank you. Also, when people/cars/trailers “try” to pass a slow moving car- cut in front of you going maybe 50 mph so you slam on your breaks & look behind you, and oh what would you know…there is noooooo one ever close to being behind you. Which just fuels my road rage.
Danny also got a new pet peeve, my bladder. Every time I’d say “I have to pee” he would laugh, think it’s a joke, look at me and have this “are you serious” look on his face. Then it became a joke– who had to pee more, me or Gatsby? Yes, I won.
We did it again, where we saw a town on the sign and tried to eat there, this time being Erie, PA, and let me save you the time. We didn’t find anything, at all. Not even a snack. So we wasted about 30 minutes driving around, and when you’re in a car for already 10? Adding onto that sucks.
We were STOKED when we made it, maybe because of the long ride, or maybe because tomorrow we were done & in Boston!
(I’d tell you where we ate but it’s all embarassing and I can’t even bear to write it down, sorry!)
DAY SEVEN: THE LAST DAY! Do you remember how we are taking pictures with all the signs as we came across the states? Well, obviously the Massachusetts one was a necessity. But guess what! My camera wanted to be difficult and wouldn’t take a picture. Yes, I was pissed. So I just got a picture of the sign itself, not our tiring faces in it!
It was surreal driving into Boston, our new home. Gatsby didn’t understand this is was where he would be living. He also didn’t understand he wouldn’t have to spend all day in the car, ending up in a new city.
Big news: WE MADE IT! And didn’t kill each other!
~ XOXO, your new Boston girl, Amanda!
