SXSW Road Trip day 1
Was going to go to SXSW, but had time on my hands being between jobs right now. I decided I’d combine heading to SXSW with one of my favorite things to do on my own, take a road trip. I had one place I wanted to visit again, since on a prior road trip, I only got to visit a short time, Bisbee, AZ.
Headed off about 7:30am after coffee and some cold pizza (breakfast of champions) with my wife, @rabbitroodle.Would have loved to have her along, but jobs and vacations wouldn’t allow that. Said goodbye, was going to be gone 3 weeks or so! First step, get far from the neighborhood, a road trip isn’t a road trip until you’ve left the familiar behind. Got to Bakersfield, first choice to be made.
TomTom was telling me to head south to get to Bisbee, the fastest route, but was there anything interesting on that route? Got out the map book (sometimes, you need a physical medium to explore, GPS or laptop screens just aren’t adquate.So, the recommended path would take me through Yuma, I’ve never been there. Other route would take me through Needles, a route I’ve taken several times before, but there were two places on that route I’d never visited, the London Bridge at Lake Havasou, and Oatman, a tiny turn of the century western town. I knew that LondonBridge would be a “hop out and take a picture” spot, and why I’d never visited before. So, I flipped a coin, heads, go east, tails, go south. Heads won, so off I went to London Bridge.As expected, a weird touristy area, lovely bridge, took pictures, fueled up, headed out.
It was dusk now, so I headed to Oatman. Got there about 7:30, but Oatman is a 2 block town, and it wasn’t tourist season, so the town was all closed up. The hotel wasn’t open, no place to stay. Now I had to choose if I was going to just continue on for an hour or two, or stay in Needles and come back. Being an adventue, I chose the latter route.
Popped into Needles, ate at a resturant I’d been to before on a 4wheeling adventure. Wasn’t as good as I remembered, OK meatloaf, burnt gravy, good mashed potatos, green beans, texas toast. It was a C+. Local road food it cost $13 with a side salad and a soda, so at least it was cheap!
Grabbed a bed at Motel 6, which as comfortable enough aside from the pipes, that sounded like someone put an electric sander to the wall when anyone flushed a toilet. Had working internet, so I uploaded some pictures, got some stuff done online, and day one was complete.
Mar 11 2009
[RoadTrip]