#  >  > Non Asia Travel Forums >  >  > Travel the World Travellers Tales Forum >  >  Phoenix to Niagara Falls & Back Roadtrip in 8 Days

## BoganInParasite

In August 2017 unexpectedly found myself on gardening leave in Phoenix and rather than die of boredom I asked the wife what was the one destination she really wanted to see before we left the USA in a few months time. Her answer was Niagara Falls. That was mid-morning, by late afternoon I picked up a rental car, we packed with the intent of heading off around 4:30am. Not sure which of us woke early but in the end we left at 2:30am and headed up interstate 17 towards Flagstaff in northern Arizona. At Flagstaff turned east onto interstate 40 that runs generally along the old Route 66. 

Not long after getting onto I40 we pulled into a truck stop for a rest break and comfort stop. The wife soon noticed the...aaahhh...ladies and not being naive realized what they were doing. I spared her by not telling her the term generally used in the industry was 'lot lizards'.

We continued east and stopped in Holbrook at a Denny's restaurant just before 6:00am for breakfast. Along the way passed a huge power station that I not previously noticed during the day time. Kind of hard to miss in the early hours.

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## BoganInParasite

Darn, thought the alignment of portrait mode photos had been sorted. Sorry about that one, no repeats through the rest of the thread.

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## BoganInParasite

We continued east on I40 towards Albuquerque, crossing the high plateau country of upper eastern Arizona, actually an extension of the Colorado plateau.

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## BoganInParasite



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## BoganInParasite

We crossed into New Mexico just before 7:30am.

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## BoganInParasite

Saw hundreds of these on a large property just to the south of the interstate. Could not work out what they were. My best guess was concrete reinforced armory but there was little evidence of perimeter security. We had a lot of ground to cover this first day and didn't stop to take a closer look.

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## BoganInParasite

We crossed into Texas just before 3:00pm and continued on to a northern Texas visitors centre in Amarillo.

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## BoganInParasite

This part of Texas and indeed large portions of northern Texas have vast wind farms with hundreds of them.

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## BoganInParasite

On the western side of Groom is this huge cross. It is a landmark for a major Christian ministry school.

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## BoganInParasite

On the eastern side of Groom is the Leaning Tower of Texas. Not sure when we crossed into Oklahoma but we arrived at our hotel in Weatherford around 8:00pm. We had driven 935 miles, not a bad effort. (That is not the further-est I've driven in a day. Back in the mid-90s when I was living in Denver once drove 985 miles to most of the way across Nevada.)

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## BoganInParasite

Day 2 started early as well. We were on the road before daylight and intending to get breakfast in the northern suburbs of Oklahoma City while skirting the city centre and navigating towards interstate 44 towards Tulsa. I recall it was raining and reasonably close to the chosen restaurant I took a wrong turn that cost us 10 minutes to fix. My bad mood wasn't improved when after breakfast we found ourselves on a turnpike heading towards Tulsa. While we were moving fast I was low on fuel and not sure we had sufficient cash to pay for the turnpike when we got to the end of it. Thankfully there was a small service centre before the end where we got gas and cash and determined we could pay by credit or debit card in need.

This appears to be the only photo we took of that part of the journey.

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## BoganInParasite

We crossed into Missouri near Joplin and were in St Louis late morning. We'd already decided we wanted to look at the The Gateway Arch and the Mississippi River. We had a bit of trouble parking because there was a baseball game in the afternoon at Busch Stadium.

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## BoganInParasite



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## BoganInParasite

Crossing the river at St Louis and we were in Illinois. We were now on interstate 70 continuing to head a bit north of east. Energy was flagging so we stopped for night 2 in Effingham. There are some quaint parts of the town however it is small with the bigger part of the town now centred on the interstate bypass. It struck me that Effingham was now probably a convenient rest or overnight location for travelers, rather than a desirably place to live. This photo collage highlights what passes for late evening colour and scenery in such a transit stop.

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## BoganInParasite

These photos are from two proper cameras and two iPhones. Both the proper cameras were on incorrect day/times so I've found some day 2 scenery shots to share, sorry about the out of sequence issues.

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## BoganInParasite

Some more St Louis shots.

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## BoganInParasite



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## BoganInParasite

Crossing the Mississippi River.

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## BoganInParasite

Sunset in Effingham, Illinois. Our charming hotel room vista. Day 2 was 712 miles.

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## BoganInParasite

Waking on day 3 in Effingham. The ducks were heading south. Hundreds and hundreds of them.

Attachment 38904

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## BoganInParasite

The day 3 objective was to get to the southern shore of Lake Eire. The rough plan was to take I70, I71 and I76, then turn north at Youngstown, then head north east along the shore of the lake on I90.

We used the ring road system to skirt around both Indianapolis and Columbus.

Got some city shots of Indianapolis.

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## BoganInParasite

Stopped at Cracker Barrel near Richmond, Indiana for lunch. Didn't realize this was a chain and that we had one in Phoenix.

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## BoganInParasite

After lunch we quickly crossed into Ohio and were heading towards Columbus.

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## BoganInParasite

Skirting Columbus.

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## BoganInParasite

We arrived at our hotel near Eire on the shores of Lake Eire about 7:30pm. There was an amazing sunset underway so the wife jumped out of the car to take photos, I parked and did the same. It was only afterwards we got our bags and checked-in. The following photos were taken by the wife on her iPhone and she has applied a filter (which I hate her doing). But it was spectacular none the less.

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## BoganInParasite

And so day 3 ended after another 568 miles for the day. We settled in for a well earned dinner highlighted by poor service and the first five items we tried to select off the menu not being available. Go figure that. There was no tip.

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## BoganInParasite

On day 4 we had a bit of a wander around the hotel precinct and lake front.

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## BoganInParasite

You can see why folks apply filters, a practice I hate.

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## BoganInParasite

Didn't think breakfast could be worse than our dinner but was wrong. The only breakfast available had to be ordered like a takeaway at the coffee bar. Took forever to order, forever to get it and was on the whole disappointing. To make it worse I hadn't realized there was a Sheraton next door where I was a smidgen away from being a Lifetime Platinum and generally got treated like royalty even if I was being obnoxious.

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## BoganInParasite

So the plan on day 4 was to drive along the lake front on minor road number 5 as far as we could before joining the larger roads and interstates and heading to Buffalo then Niagara Falls. There is a bit of wine grape and fruit growing here so we stopped at one of the farm shops to buy some local produce. It was an honour system. Select, weigh, pack, price and pay for it yourself.

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## BoganInParasite

So nice flowers along the side of the road.

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## BoganInParasite

Not long after leaving Eire we crossed into New York state and eventually road number 5 became a main road and took up further along the lake front and into Buffalo.

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## bsnub

Fantastic mate.Very nice.

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## MarilynMonroe

Nice sunset and flower pics, cheers.
I've lived and travelled more on the Eastern coast, never been to those parts.

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## BoganInParasite

I've had the good fortune to work and live in the US twice. The first was two years based in Denver in the mid-90s managing an airports technology business for the whole of the Americas. The second was the more recent 16 months in Phoenix. In both cases I was able to travel for business and leisure extensively. Not getting much feedback on this thread yet but will press on an complete it and then reassess any more. Tough audience to impress at times. Regards, -BiP

PS! Just remembered it was three times. Did a ten week consultancy for an airline in Dallas in late 2012 and at the end decided to drive from Dallas to LA via Albuquerque. Driving like that is one of my passions and is shared by my Thai wife as well. But those days are now over.




> Nice sunset and flower pics, cheers.
> I've lived and travelled more on the Eastern coast, never been to those parts.

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## BoganInParasite

We arrived in Niagara Falls around mid-day and parked close to the hotel. Only 111 miles on day 4.

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## BoganInParasite

We walked down to the park and viewpoint for the American Falls, then up to Hells Half Acre, then checked into the hotel and late walked around the city centre and drove out to Goat Island for a closer look at the Canadian Falls.

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## MarilynMonroe

^Great pics of the falls. I was there as a teenager.. don't remember too much. The maid of the mist boat is an experience.




> I've had the good fortune to work and live in the US twice. The first was two years based in Denver in the mid-90s managing an airports technology business for the whole of the Americas. The second was the more recent 16 months in Phoenix. In both cases I was able to travel for business and leisure extensively. Not getting much feedback on this thread yet but will press on an complete it and then reassess any more. Tough audience to impress at times. Regards, -BiP
> 
> PS! Just remembered it was three times. Did a ten week consultancy for an airline in Dallas in late 2012 and at the end decided to drive from Dallas to LA via Albuquerque. Driving like that is one of my passions and is shared by my Thai wife as well. But those days are now over.


Cool,I have relatives that have lived for many years in Phoenix. Hope to get to the grand canyon myself one of these days. 
How did you like living there? I lived in the US twice. A year near Raleigh-Durham in NC, and a few months in Northern Pennsylvania.

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## BoganInParasite



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## Klondyke

BIP, you were lucky at Niagara, unlike some....

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## BoganInParasite

Nice one Klondyke.

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## BoganInParasite

I enjoyed both Denver and Phoenix. Being somewhat into mountains and streams Colorado was amazing. We also enjoyed Phoenix and were doubly fortunate to be living in Scottsdale, one of the better parts of what is now the third largest metropolitan area in the US. I reveled in the hot and generally low humidity environment and found beauty in the Sonora Desert, low country mountains and the Rim country. And we did the obligatory trips to Las Vegas and a helicopter tour into the GC. But never going back, been there, done that.




> ^Great pics of the falls. I was there as a teenager.. don't remember too much. The maid of the mist boat is an experience.
> 
> 
> Cool,I have relatives that have lived for many years in Phoenix. Hope to get to the grand canyon myself one of these days. 
> How did you like living there? I lived in the US twice. A year near Raleigh-Durham in NC, and a few months in Northern Pennsylvania.

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## frank barber

Outstanding thread, thank you for sharing.
I've only been for holidays.
Your pictures brought back many happy memories
Phoenix to Vegas
Denver to Vegas
For the golfing opportunities of course

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## BoganInParasite

Day 5 commenced with the wife and I trying to make sense of an experience in the hotel room overnight. Something quite bizarre happened that we were both aware of as it happened, but experienced in different ways, and didn't realize the other was aware until the morning. No drugs, no alcohol...just something that makes you wonder whether we truly understand everything in this world. Having ticked off Niagara Falls and breakfast we headed towards Buffalo. Plan was to take a more southerly route back to Phoenix. But first we needed to backtrack a bit towards Eire and then turning south on interstate 79. I was really looking forward to the drive but we seemed to spend almost all of the time in narrow valleys with only the occasional coming up to a rise in the road for a bit of a view and then back down again. And most of the valleys were forested and boring. We skirted just to the west of Pittsburgh but you would never know it except for the road signs. We crossed into West Virginia at 1:30pm and into Kentucky at 5:00pm. Was shocked to see an eyesore refinery in Kentucky. Looked so ugly and dirty. We pulled up in Morehead, Kentucky for the night in the Days Inn, a truly awful establishment. 575 miles driven on the day.

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## BoganInParasite

Thanks fb, not seen you around before. If I get enough interest (and more than this thread for sure) I got the following trips I could do:
- Weekend in Seattle
- Long weekend drive to Albuquerque/Santa Fe
- A couple of Las Vegas trips
- A drive from Atlanta to New York along the Appalachian Mountains
- Phoenix, Four Corners, Denver, Salt Lake City, Jackson/Grand Tetons/Yellowstone, Reno, San Francisco, Yosemite, Death Valley, Las Vegas and back to Phoenix.

Could do a ton of others in Australia and SE Asia.

Regards, -BiP





> Outstanding thread, thank you for sharing.
> I've only been for holidays.
> Your pictures brought back many happy memories
> Phoenix to Vegas
> Denver to Vegas
> For the golfing opportunities of course

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## BoganInParasite

Kentucky is not renowned for Mexican food and this place which was adjacent the hotel is certainly not trying to raise the state's average. Took three attempts to get a Mexican beer. Was picking out of the menu, didn't have the first two selections. Food was okay, service a dud.

Attachment 39001

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## BoganInParasite

Day 6 and we were on the road by 4:30am. It was quite foggy. We had breakfast 90 minutes later, don't know the location but in terms of a restaurant it looks like a Denny's breakfast.

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## BoganInParasite

We continued west on interstate 64 past Lexington and through the famous horse country as the sun came up.

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## BoganInParasite

We then turned south on to interstate 65 and somewhere near Bowling Green we pulled into the most amazing and huge truck and traveler service centre. There were dozens of trucks parked with room for a hundred or more. The service centre building was larger than some shopping malls I've been in. In addition to the convenience store and restrooms, there were full sized laundries, shower rooms, a barber, a full size restaurant, a chapple, a games room, a creche and a member only truckers lounge.

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## BoganInParasite

The wide open roads....continuing south in Kentucky.

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## BoganInParasite

We were now in Tennessee and heading towards Nashville.

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## BoganInParasite

Crossing the Tennessee River.

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## BoganInParasite

Crossing the Mississippi River near Memphis.

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## reddog

Mr Bogan, keep the photos coming, quality shots,have been to some of the mentioned areas so brings back memories.

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## armstrong

You must bloody love driving.

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## bsnub

> just something that makes you wonder whether we truly understand everything in this world.


Please do elaborate. I am waiting.  :Smile:

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## BoganInParasite

Pleased you are enjoying reddog, will do.



> Mr Bogan, keep the photos coming, quality shots,have been to some of the mentioned areas so brings back memories.

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## BoganInParasite

Always have armstrong, and the wife loves it as well. Sadly a thing of the past now since we have no plans to travel outside of Thailand together again. Although I would like to make the drive down to the deep south provinces one day and anything south of Bangkok would be a relatively new experience for us.


> You must bloody love driving.

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## BoganInParasite

The wife said she woke to heavy pressure on her chest and upper arms. She struggled and tried to call me but couldn't get the words out. I was sleeping facing away from her and woke to her struggling and muffled calls. I thought she was having a bad dream and noticed the room was really cold. She gave a bit of a jump and then there was two lots of noise near the room door. I thought little of any of it and went back to sleep.

Next morning the wife was quite disturbed and couldn't understand how after what she believed she really experienced she just went back to sleep almost immediately. You could put the whole thing down to a bad dream but then you'd still need to explain why the little wad of notepaper the hotels give you that was on the desk near the window when we went to bed was now on the floor near the door six meters away in the morning. Neither of us have had any similar experiences before or since. A few months later I did a little online research on the hotel and found it indeed has some interesting history and event reports, the most interesting being really unique but nothing like what we believe we experienced.

I'd stay there again if I found myself there, but not in that room.




> Please do elaborate. I am waiting.

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## bsnub

> I'd stay there again if I found myself there, but not in that room.


WOW!! Very interesting.

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## Klondyke

> Nice one Klondyke.


I was also lucky at Niagara more than 30 years ago.  However, not so lucky with a wife like you but with a friend, passing by from Toronto one Friday afternoon on the way to Manhattan, and Sunday night driving back again.

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## BoganInParasite

Pressing on we continued west on interstate 40 and then on interstate 30 south west to the east side of Texas. I was really REALLY disappointed with the drive across Arkansas. For some reason I had been expecting to drive through country that looked like The Ozarks. We'd driven through the northern portion of them going from Oklahoma to St Louis a few days back. But apart for an early glimpse of some distant mountains that we veered south of, Arkansas turned out to me to be largely green, flat and boring features, at least along these two interstate. What we saw of central Little Rock as we drove through had some charm but it not a big place.

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## BoganInParasite

We got to Texarkana just inside of Texas in the early evening. We'd driven 766 miles that day. Last photo for today is of the wife at 3:50am next morning. I knew we had had an early start but that was a bit earlier than I thought. There is a look of resigned tiredness in her face I think. The mad farang wants to go early. The goal for that day (day 7 I think) was to cross Texas and get to El Paso for the night). More tomorrow afternoon.

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## BoganInParasite

Deferred our shopping trip to Nan till tomorrow so can post a bit this morning. No point going to Nan if I can't get a burger at Crossroads Nan.

We drove about 70 miles before we stopped in Royse City for breakfast. It was pouring rain, absolutely torrential and still dark except for the numerous lightening strikes. We got drenched getting from the car into the Dennys restaurant. The wife was suddenly quite cold from wet dress and the air-con. You can see my shirt was wet as well, much more than the photo would suggest. I remember there was a live cockroach on the floor next to us, but the breakfasts were fine.

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## BoganInParasite

We were having an interstate countdown day. I30 to Dallas, then switch to I20, then join I10 to El Paso. But after breakfast we were listening to the Dallas local radio and it was clear we needed to avoid the central city as even the interstates were being impacted by flash floods. So we avoided the worst of the problems by turning south on 635 and joining I20 south of the city. The sun was coming up and there were sheets of water on the roads and farm fields. Little streams were running fast where earlier there was only a slight depression in the terrain. Prior to breakfast the rain was perhaps in the top three I've experienced in terms of how heavy it was when I was driving. We kept moving slowly because everyone has seen those YouTube videos of cars being plowed into when parked on an interstate. This interchange was south of Fort Worth and much more impressive in height than the photo hints.

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## BoganInParasite

Somewhere in central Texas late morning we crested a low range of hills to find this quite knew rest stop, and tornado shelter it would seem.

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## BoganInParasite

We took this photo because they are all mobile oil drilling rigs waiting for a gig somewhere.

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## BoganInParasite

Some many railway lines in the US. When I lived there in the mid-90s the freight trains seemed to track at a sedate speed 35-45 mph. Nowadays they thunder through 50-65 mph but on long climbs they slow down considerably.

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## BoganInParasite

There is no doubt Texas is a big place in the context of the size of other US states. But most of it is flat and boring although there is often a low mountain rage in the distance that you never reach. In terms of geography the only interesting country we saw was within forty miles of El Paso. Here we are mid-afternoon two-thirds of the way across the state with a big sky in front of us. Traffic has died away considerably.

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## BoganInParasite

We got gas in a beaten up road stop in Van Horn. The restaurant kitchen was half open, sufficient for us to see we didn't want to eat anything from it. Thank God for diet coke and packets of crisps. The attached dining room is the most bizarre I've ever seen.

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## BoganInParasite

About 4:30pm and getting close to El Paso. More big skies.

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## BoganInParasite

View out of the hotel window towards El Paso and Mexico, dinner, sunset and the lights of El Paso. 810 miles for the day.

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## BoganInParasite

Well this thread hasn't exactly set the forum on fire, but bugger it, I'm 80% through the trip and will finish it. The plan for day 7, or 8, or whatever it was was to drive from El Paso across New Mexico and stop in Tuscon Arizona. After we left the hotel we got off the interstate and drove to the El Paso CBD before rejoining the interstate 10 and head west across the Rio Grande River.

Sunrise in El Paso.

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## BoganInParasite

We were soon in New Mexico with I10 going north. Soon it split from I25 and turned west and we crossed the Rio Grande River. Not much of a view of it unfortunately.

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## BoganInParasite

Once out of the fertile Rio Grande River valley we were in high desert wide flat valleys climbing ever so gradually to the Continental Divide. Thinking about it over the years I driven across the Continental Divide in two places in New Mexico, five in Colorado and two, maybe three in Wyoming. Another example of why the wife uses filters for some of her photos, I don't.

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## BoganInParasite



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## beerlaodrinker

Excellent thread mate. Thanks for sharing

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## BoganInParasite

Thank you sir. Not too much interest but I'm going to finish it.



> Excellent thread mate. Thanks for sharing

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## BoganInParasite

We got to Tucson mid-afternoon and checked into a hotel. Had a nice view to the north of Mount Lemmon, our destination next morning before we headed to Phoenix and home. We traveled a modest 335 miles today.

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## BoganInParasite

But first to dinner. We had noticed this Thai restaurant was next to the hotel so went there for dinner. The wife was concerned there wouldn't be enough chili so she asked them to go heavy. The food was excellent and as you can see, the wife got her chili hit.

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## BoganInParasite

Having been disappointed by the hotel and knowing our time in the USA was drawing to a close we decided to go to iHop for breakfast, neither of us had ever been before. Was quite good.

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## BoganInParasite

While having breakfast another group came in. Both women bare footed. Never ever seen this in the USA previously in a setting like this. Maybe I've had a sheltered life here.

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## BoganInParasite

So we headed up Mount Lemmon which is approximately 9,200 feet high. Tucson is around 2,600 feet elevation so it is kind of hard to miss when you look north. It is high enough to support alpine meadows and one of three or four ski resorts in Arizona.

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## BoganInParasite



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## BoganInParasite

Nice views and great road to the top.

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## MarilynMonroe

^Pretty cool views from that Mount Lemming. I like how the cacti are growing up the mountain. 
Just beautiful views and road trip that you did.

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## Bettyboo

Nice pictures/report, thanks.

You certainly covered a lot of ground, and quickly... I'd love to do a lot of that (maybe all of it), but at a more relaxed pace and perhaps taking a bit more in. For example, many of those weird places that you mentioned, the dirty, empty skull-ridden bar/restaurant, would have been a good place to get drunk at, imho - maybe Dennis Hopper would walk in... If you're doing an American road trip you've gotta expect the weird...  :Smile:

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## beerlaodrinker

Awesome. Ive fond memories of the states. Bought a winibago and cruised around starting in seattle and finishing in los angeles . One of the most hospitable counties ive ever been in. The folk there treat you right and are genuinely friendly.  It might of helped that im aussie and the movie Crocodile dundee came out at the same time making aussies flavour of the month. Would go there again in a heartbeat

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## BoganInParasite

Have seriously neglected finishing this thread so going to do so now with several more photos from Mt Lemmon to the north of Tuscon.

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## BoganInParasite

And that was it. Late morning we descended the mountain and drove back to Phoenix to finish our eight day trip. 5,062.5 miles in eight days of driving.

But that was just a warm-up....

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