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Today was a much anticipated leg of our trip. We visited the Grand Canyon! When we mapped the distance, it was only 5 hours from Tucson but all of the switchbacks through the mountains made the trip feel so much longer! The car has GPS built in and puts a checkered flag at the destination. When I’m driving, I like to zoom out so I can see the flag on the screen – it makes me feel like the destination is closer. September, however, likes to zoom in to see the individual street names. I’m convinced this is the reason why it felt like it took FOREVER to get to the Grand Canyon. (Sep was behind the wheel the whole time.)

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Day 3 – San Antonio to Tucson
We woke up early today to explore some of San Antonio. Staying just 2 blocks from downtown, we were able to walk to the Alamo and snap some pictures during sunrise. The stone wall that surrounds the Alamo cathedral takes up the whole block but the Alamo itself (the structure everyone knows) is open to the public for pictures. So just like typical tourists, we took tons of pictures of ourselves in front of the monument.

The Alamo in San Antonio, TX

My mom had suggested we see something called The Riverwalk downtown. What a cool place! It’s known as, ‘the Venice of the U.S.’ because of all the river ways and canal streets that run through the city. Irish pubs and fancy restaurants line the canals and tour boats putz down the water giving tours to the tourists. We LOVED this area. It was so cute and so artsy, we vowed to check budget flights once we get home to see if we can come back and visit for a long weekend.

San Antonio’s River Walk

One last site to see before we left San Antonio was a giant pair of cowboy boots!

We had mixed feelings about driving through Texas, mostly because there’s a lot of distance to cover and boring. But we were so enthralled with the change in landscape, that driving clear across the giant state was really great! Up until today, much of the landscape looked the same. Florida had a few more palm trees, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana looked a little swampy and Texas looked similar to the Midwest. But west of San Antonio things started looking really dry and desert-like. There were hills/mountains, plateaus and lots of desert shrubs.

We stopped in El Paso for dinner because I wanted ‘authentic’ Mexican
Food. The little restaurant we decided on was next to a cemetery and just the hole-in-the-wall place I was craving! Lots of locals at a restaurant is a perfect indicator of a good food find. J & L Mexican was delicious! My enchiladas were divine and September said her tacos were fantastic. Yum!

After dinner it was back to the open road for the final 4 hours of our day as we headed to Tucson. Luckily, we crossed another time zone and gained another hour of daylight (and sleep time). Sunsets in the southwest seem to last for hours. The sun went down over the highway in New Mexico as we drove west and the colors just lingered in the sky forever. So pretty!

Day 2:
We left Gulfport around 9 this morning. We forgot that Mississippi is in a different time zone, so it felt like we gained an extra hour to explore! Our first site of the day was the world’s largest rocking chair at the Dedeaux Furniture Store in Gulfport, just down the street from our hotel. The chair is 35feet tall and is made from telephone poles! It is HUGE. Luckily we beat the crowds and were the only ones snapping pictures of the chair… In the rain.

Back in the car, we headed to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for our next destination- a giant root beer mug! The Frostop is a 1950′s diner famous for its homemade root beer. It is DELICIOUS!! I’ve never had root beer this good! I could taste the real vanilla in every sip. We met Madonna, a very gracious, super smiley server who told us all about the diner’s history and the awesome root beer they make in-house. If you eat inside the diner, all of the root beer comes served in frosty mugs! So after a couple orders of French fries, a chocolate shake and 2 cups of root beer (free refills!), we jumped back in the car to make the drive to Texas!

We saw sugar cane fields for the first time in west Louisiana. They looked kind of like tall dune grass.

In Beaumont, Texas, we visited the world’s largest fire hydrant outside the Texas Fire Museum.

Next stop: the beer can house. It’s a house/museum made of and decorated with beer cans, tops and tabs. The weirdest part – it’s in a really nice suburb of Houston. Neighboring houses were super nice and expensive cars with Stanford Alumni plates were parked in driveways.

Next we saw a 50-foot saxophone! (It’s made of car parts.)

We detoured slightly to swing past the teepee motel in Wharton, TX one of only four in operation in the US. After years in the spotlight, the motel closed in 1980 when few drivers strayed from the newer, faster interstate to explore Business Route 59. It was remodeled and opened again in 2006 by a local lottery winner!

We hit the road 45 minutes early today, leaving St. Pete around 1:30pm.

So long, Tampa Bay!

We made great time – even with dog breaks! We had great driving weather throughout most of Florida and then hit storms around Pensacola. I made it to Tampa before I opened the Snacks. (A great record considering when I was a kid, I used to break into them before even leaving the driveway.)

Just south of Tallahassee, we passed a farm with a bunch of mini donkeys roaming around. Sadly, I couldn’t whip out my camera fast enough to take any pictures but that our first time seeing baby burros!

Before we left on this trip, I spent quite a bit of time on the Roadside America site – a giant database of random, unique, mostly odd and very memorable roadside sites and attractions. I mapped out our route to San Francisco and all of the fascinating sites along the way. Today, our first stop was in Tallahassee, FL to see a front yard full of whale sculptures… this site is literally called, ‘Yard Whales.’ It’s just a random Person’s front yard with giant whale and dolphin sculptures made to look like they’re swimming in the grass.

Raffles likes driving a whole lot more than stopping. She’s a little anxious and seems to think we’re going to leave her every time we stop

More rain through Alabama made us quickly discover the rain-sensing wipers on the Beamer. Way cool!

Just before 10:30pm we arrive at El Camino Chicken and it’s exactly what it sounds like: a giant chicken sculpture built into the back of a El Camino at a Citgo gas station. Weird!

For now, we’re resting peacefully in our hotel room. We snagged the last available pet-friendly room at the Hampton Inn in Gulfport, MS. We hope to hit the road early tomorrow for more site seeing and much more driving. Good night!