road trip

From the Blog: Not All Who Wander Are Lost (plus the final recap)

(please excuse the glare, I didn't want to take it out of the frame)

created by me

This has always been J's favorite quote (one of our many similarities is having a strong case of wanderlust) so I thought I'd surprise him by making something special this Christmas. It was a lot of fun to make (not to mention it was super simple*) and has quickly become one of our favorite pieces.

*If you don't enjoy free form lettering it may not be super simple, but then again you could always just print out your favorite quote and trace.

Speaking of wandering, I realized I never wrote my final recap. I'll attempt to keep it short!

Welcome to Vegas via courtney khail

After Sequoia we drove to Las Vegas. I'd never been to Vegas before (J had) so he drove so I could stare out the window and navigate when necessary. Of course, it is exactly what I expected- bright, loud, busy, and over the top. We spent the majority of our days wandering around casinos, drinking out of absurdly large glasses, and people watching. Playing up our tourist cards, we wandered around the old Vegas strip, took photos in front of the "Welcome to Vegas" sign and may have even wandered into Gold and Silver Pawn (you know, as in Pawn Stars. Case you're curious it is really small inside.) Oh! And we went to a Cirque show. (J had never been and we both agreed that was unacceptable.) Probably the best part though was spending time with J's best friend who actually lives in Vegas. (It was like reuniting brothers p.s.) Plus, it was kind of cool to see what people do off the strip.

Grand Canyon via courtney khail

From Vegas we drove to Santa Fe- taking a detour to stop at the Grand Canyon. Thanks to a rain storm that had just passed through, we could see for miles. I feel like I'm lessening the experience trying to put it into words, so you'll just have to believe me when I say it was phenomenal. So pretty and so amazing to witness- we've already planned a future helicopter tour over it. From there we drove late into the night to get to Santa Fe (thanks Map Quest for the wrong estimated time) and dear God. Let me just say it gets REALLY dark in the desert. Like scary dark, but if you can take a second and look up, the stars are amazing.

After some much needed sleep, we wandered around Santa Fe for a day, drove along the Turquoise Trail, talked to some local artists and ended the say eating some amazing pizza (who would have guessed we'd find that in Santa Fe?) Now, given the "desert southwestern vibe" isn't really our thing and we were kind of ready to go home, I can't give an accurate review of the city. I will say it's for an older crowd though, which makes sense because a ton of people retire there.

After Santa Fe, we were going to stop in Oklahoma City to see Kelly, but unfortunately she caught a cold and was bedridden, so in a reckless youthful moment, we decided to just drive home.

Yep, drive home from Santa Fe to Atlanta in one day.

Well, MapQuest said it would take one full day, but we made it in 20 hours and 34 minutes.* And boy did it feel amazing to sleep in our own bed.

So there it is! The last recap of our trip. I still can't believe we were able to do it, but I can easily say it was one of the best times of our lives. If you're ever given the opportunity, promise me you'll take it.

After driving from Santa Fe we woke up the next morning and drove to Florida to pick up Bella and get in some beach time before coming back to the real world

*As for the 20 hr cross country drive- aside from some jerk in a U Haul who tried to crash us into a concrete guard rail at 3 am in Chattanooga, it was a decently easy ride. Plus, we now know every Chickfila there is from Santa Fe to Atlanta-you know, in case you guys ever need that info.

road trip recap part two

As promised, I'm going to start with the first national park of our trip- The Grand Teton National Park. To say it's beautiful is an understatement, but as I would soon come to figure out that goes for all of the national parks.

Sunrise at Grand Teton National Park via courtney khail

We woke up before the crack of dawn (literally- it was pitch black outside and there was absolutely no one around) ate a quick breakfast and set off for our campsite. You may be wondering why we woke up so early to drive no more than 25 minutes away. Well, long story short, the campground we wanted to stay at is super popular and is first come first serve. According to everyone, you really want to get there just as people are waking up and start asking when they are leaving. If you luck out (which we did on our first try) you politely ask if you could put your check in slip behind their slip (to reserve your spot) and then just kind of hang out to make sure no one comes in behind you and replaces your ticket with theirs (which does unfortunately happen.) We had roughly 3 hours to kill so we watched the sunrise over the Grand Tetons, ate granola bars and fruit, and explored the area- which like I said earlier-was absolutely beautiful. From canoeing on Jenny Lake, napping in hammocks on the lake shore, hiking Cascade Canyon (and getting within 10 feet of 3 moose!), climbing higher than I ever thought possible, and the most exhilarating moment- having a stampede of elk dash in front of our car just barely missing us, it was an absolutely amazing start to the trip.

Grand Tetons via courtney khail

A stormy Yellowstone via courtney khail

It started to rain on our last day (which led to a very entertaining hour of us running around trying to set up tarps so we could stay dry while cooking and eating) and continued to drizzle on and off as we drove to Yellowstone. Because it seemed like the weather wasn't on our side, we canceled our campsite reservation and just spent the rest of the day exploring the park. It was absolutely amazing to me how many different type of landscapes were in that one park. From plains to mountains, geysers to canyons, thermal pools to salt like limestone mountains, it seemed like whatever you wanted to see and experience was in this park. The best part was that thanks to the rain a lot of the crowds cleared out and we could actually see everything up close. From watching Old Faithful erupt (with hot chocolate in hand), to walking right up to the thermal pools (which are made up of the most fabulous colors I'd ever seen) to taking pictures in front of the falls, when we finally hit the open roads of Wyoming and Montana, we couldn't help but feel as though we'd had the park to ourselves almost all day.

The Falls at Yosemite via courtney khail

aren't these awesome? Mammoth Hot Springs via courtney khail

After Yellowstone we drove north to Helena, Montana. I wasn't sure just what I was expecting, but it was friendlier than I imagined. Like super friendly. Even the waitresses at the little pizza place we slide into right before closing were super sweet! Of course that could have something to do with the fact I asked them what the easiest thing for them to make was and then after ordering that item, I offered to have it to go so they could go home. Apparently they appreciated that last part the most! I can't really give much more info on Helena (except that it is indeed pronounced Helen-a as opposed to He-lane-a) because we weren't even planning on stopping there until 7 hours earlier, but I can attest that the Holiday Inn Express there is super comfortable and that they don't judge when an obviously fresh from camping couple comes in at 9p with a last minute reservation. They even gave us water and snacks.

From there we went even further north the Glacier National Park, but that will have to wait until next week. Hope you've enjoyed the recap so far!

sunset in Montana via courtney khail

A side note for anyone driving in Montana during the summer: Apparently the summer means road construction (and A LOT of it.) I would time most of your driving to occur long before the sun begins to set. (I would have said at night, but then you'd miss the beauty that is Montana and that would be really unfortunate.) Anyhow, you want to have most of your driving done BEFORE sunset because once it starts setting, the dust from the never ending construction turns into a sun filled, blinding dust shield and you pretty much end up completely relying on faith that you are a) still on the road, b) won't hit a cow, and c) won't drive into the other lane and hit another car/semi. To be honest, it was a little terrifying at times, but there aren't really many options for roads out there so you just had to go with it and assume the drivers coming the other way stayed clear.

road trip recap part one

on the road again (all photos via courtney khail)

Now that we've been back a little while, I figured it was about time to tell you all about our trip. Although I consider myself pretty well traveled (travel means a lot to both of us so we do our best to take at least one trip a year) I'd never actually seen the United States as a whole. Instead, I'd normally just fly out to a city, spend a few days and fly back. The back roads, the landscapes surrounding that specific city, the random places that make up the country that aren't really destination cities- well I had missed out on those parts and I wanted determined to change that.

I think I mentioned this earlier, but J. and one of his best friends took a 3 month road trip back in college and J. has wanted to do a similar one ever since. Luckily, after two years of planning, we were able to mesh together 6 weeks of vacation time as well as all of the equipment (since we would be camping too) and decided it was now or never. Of course we went with now. As for the recap, I'm going to break it down into different parts and I'll do my best not to ramble, but as we should all know by now- I'm not very good at that.

We left pretty much at the crack of dawn- hoping to cover as much ground as possible before the morning rush hour as well as make it to our hotel in Kansas before it was too dark. I can't say I remember too much of the first few hours (I was sleeping thanks to getting zero sleep the night before) but woke up roughly around Kentucky. I'd never been to Kentucky before and really wasn't expected too much, but holy cow it was beautiful. You know the paintings of lush green meadows and perfectly painted red barns? That my friends, is Kentucky.  It also happened to be in Kentucky where we saw the Oscar Mayer WienermobileI may have felt like a five year old, but I simply could not stop my excitement over this one. I believe we actually called a few people...

A few (record breaking) hours later, we were in St. Louis. Once again, never really thought much of St. Louis. To be honest, I just know it as where the Cardinals play and as an Atlanta Braves fan that didn't really get my too pumped up. The architecture though? It was beautiful. And the arch? Kind of breath taking. As in, we almost turned around just to stare at it. Only seeing it in photos, I figured there was just some fancy camera angles going on and that it wasn't really going to be all that huge. I was wrong. Apologies to St. Louis; you all have a really cool arch. J. and I kept trying to figure out how the elevator works- since there was no way it could just go at an angle all Willy Wonka/ Glass Elevator style- but as we were informed later, that is indeed exactly what it does.

We made it into Kansas some 12-14 hours after we initially left and from the moment we walked into the lobby of the hotel we knew it was a little different. Have any of you seen Cedar Rapids? Well the hotel was almost EXACTLY like that. (Well, minus the prostitute outside.) I could almost hear Ed Helms running around talking about it being "so lush." No lie, we had a water slide in the middle of the lobby surrounded by potted palm trees. It was hilarious. (Even more so after our 99 cent margaritas and cheap Mexican food from next door. Apparently it was "the place to go.") Note about Kansas- by far some of the nicest drivers in the country. It seems once you cross over the Mississippi River no one (and I mean no one) likes to go the speed limit let alone above it, but everyone in Kansas followed the "stay in the right lane and let people pass on the left" rule. It was marvelous.

The second day we made it to Fort Collins, Colorado and completely fell in love with the city. After spending some time looking at real estate, eating (wonderful) Italian food, and just walking around the downtown we felt pretty much at home (which is good, given that's the area we are planning to live in just a few months.) Everything is so beautiful out there and relaxed.

after taking the easy way up

After Fort Collins, we drove north to Jackson Hole. I know most people won't make this drive since you can fly directly into the city, but I would do it again in a heart beat. J. and I were in a constant state of awe thanks to all of the beauty surrounding us. And between the evergreens, the steep, green mountains, and the crystal clear rivers, it reminded us a lot of Switzerland and Germany. There were even little Swiss styled chalets that popped up every few miles! Once we arrived in the city, we decided to take the aerial tram to the top of Rendezvous Mountain and then the gondola lift to a mountain side bar. I'm not sure we'd do either again (we actually would summit a mountain so it's not exactly necessary) but if you are not like us and want to see the views without having to climb, I'd definitely suggest it. The views are mind blowing and in case you'd like to do a little hiking, there are two or three trailheads that start at the top. Just remember to bring a jacket because even in the summit it's barely 52 degrees and incredibly windy. As for the gondola ride to the bar- the views are beautiful, but it's really touristy. I'd suggest going to dinner at  Couloir instead if it's open (it wasn't when we were there.) Random fact, the town square has 4 entrances all framed with elk antler archways. They were so perfect I figured they were fake, but thanks to reading the handy plaques everywhere we found out they are actually collected each year.

don't they look a little too perfect?

The next morning we left for our first national park visit of the trip, but seeing that this post is already longer than planned- that will have to wait until next week!

studio sneak peek: commemorative road trip map

both images via courtney khail stationery and design

Before I start recapping everything, I wanted to show you a little something I painted to commemorate our trip. I love the whole putting pins into a large map thing, but since this was more about the journey than the specific places, I thought it deserved something a little more special. Plus, I have a soft spot for maps so I figured why not bring in a fun colorful one?