Road Trip Day 1-4 – Holidays with Family
We spent Yule (Winter Solstice) in the Salem, MA area taking care of business (doctor’s visits, etc) and visiting our friends and family.
Our days were filled with toddler play dates, pizza with friends, and holiday fun with my family.
Then, on Dec 23rd we began the first leg of our cross-country road trip driving to Connecticut to spend Christmas with Brian’s family.
The day after Christmas the journey further south commenced.
Given the winter timing of our trip, we agreed that, while it would take longer, it would be better to take a southern route rather than driving more directly across the country.
I’ve personally experienced enough midwestern snow storms to know that I wasn’t interested in getting stuck in a random hotel in Pennsylvania, Indiana, or Kansas.
That’s why back in July I started planning this southern route using www.RoadTrippers.com, which is a really great tool for road travel like this. It gives me a rough sense of the distance, and how long it will take to get between different towns, as well as some local attractions and other resources in the area.
Here was the planned route:
Road Trip Day 5 – Connecticut -> Washington, DC
We were very glad to make it to our hotel that night, but we also were very grateful that our little Pumpkin turns out to be a very contented road tripper (except for nap time).
She’s still not a fan of sleeping in car, unlike her father who has been jokingly referred to as having “car narcolepsy” by several members of his family *hahaha*.
Road Trip Day 6 – Washington, DC -> Raleigh, NC
We encountered a bit of traffic heading out of town, but we made somewhat better time into Raleigh. Our arrival around 4pm allowed us to go out to dinner at the Raleigh Beer Garden, which was both fun and delicious!
Road Trip Day 7-10- Raleigh, NC -> Atlanta, GA -> New Orleans, LA
Road Trip Day 11- New Orleans, LA Play Day
Road Trip Day 12-16- New Orleans -> Austin, TX -> Odessa, TX -> Santa Fe, NM
Heading from Odessa, TX to Santa Fe, NM mean that we had to make a quick stop in Roswell, NM for some tacky alien photos, and a really nice lunch at Big D’s Downtown Dive.
NM and AZ had gotten some significant snow in those past few days, so our drive between Roswell and Santa Fe was (surprisingly) some of the more treacherous driving of the trip as the snow blew over the roads and froze into icy sheets. But, some good New England driving sense and a bit of luck meant that we made it safely into Santa Fe.
Road Trip Day 13 – Santa Fe, NM Play Day
After a nap, we spent the afternoon grabbing lunch with another friend and colleague, Miriam Ortiz y Pino, who drove up from Albuquerque. (This really has turned into a great way to visit a bunch of my old NAPO friends ;).)
She took us on a personal tour of the Plaza in downtown Santa Fe, and gave us some great insights on the area.
Even before we left town we started planning to come back in 2020.