In addition to packing up our apartment here in Queens and preparing to move into and fix up the new place in San Francisco, Mike and I have a cross-country trip to prepare for. Because we have two cars (and two cats), it’s much cheaper (and more adventurous) to drive one of those cars across this great country of ours.
When I embarked on a similar journey with Pops almost five years ago, we initially thought we would pick our lodgings based on when we were tired of driving. That lasted one night. Pops and I were in Ely, Nevada. We were tired, and I was on the verge of losing it. That first day, the cats spent most of it trying to jump ship and it had been a long day. Ely, Nevada, despite a plethora of motels, was not welcoming. There were no rooms at the Best Western, the Motel 6, the Super 8, the Hilton, or any of the other chain-brand motels in town. So Pops, me, and the two cats stayed at the El Rancho Motel. The only thing memorable about the El Rancho Motel is that it was the cheapest motel I’ve ever stayed in ($39 for the night). After that, Pops made sure to plot our course (one that allowed me to take in Mount Rushmore) and made reservations the rest of the way. By the time we got to the Best Western Motel in Cheyenne, Wyoming (in the pouring rain), the hotel was booked. Man, were we glad we had a reservation.
Mike and I want to enjoy our journey, but we also don’t want to linger. We’ll be leaving NY 36 hours after the movers leave (giving us a little time to complete a final cleaning pass), and we’re still hoping to beat the moving truck so we can paint the one room that is wallpaper-free before they arrive. Therefore, we’ve plotted out a very straightforward route with approximately 8 hours of driving per day. And yes, we have already made our hotel reservations.
The mad route