AA^2: Planning Phase

October 29, 2012

Less than two months before we leave on our AA^2 adventure!!  We are beyond excited and can't wait for more adventures.

How I will feel studying for my MacroEcon final. 

We will be leaving late Saturday afternoon.  We were hoping to leave Friday night but I found out I have a final on Saturday at 2pm.  I talked to the teacher about taking the final sooner but I'd only be allowed to take it the following week which won't work since I'll be 1200 miles away.  Oh well.  One day won't mess with our plans too bad.

My 2008 Saturn VUE XE

No rental car this time!  I got a new car - a 2008 Saturn VUE because my beloved 2004 VW Jetta was about ready to die.  It just kept having issues, so I figured I might as well spend $200 a month on a new car rather than $200+ a month fixing the Jetta.  I really like my new car...well it's more of a small SUV.  Gas isn't terrible.  The ride is smooth and no more manual transmission, which is nice since there is always traffic in Houston.  Anyways, I can't wait to take it out a road trip.  It's spacious, has low mileage and is just begging me to go out on the open road.

So we would like to go to Nashville and at least drive through the Smoky Mountains.  I'd love to go hiking a little but it depends how cold it is outside when we get there.  Then we plan on stopping at Virginia Tech, where my brother and sister went to school.  While I was talking to my sister, Chelle, about the trip, she told me that Virginia Tech has had some of its worst snow storms at the time that we plan on driving through that area. Yikes.  I'm not really a fan of driving in the snow. 

I informed Stella about what Chelle said.  So our options are:

Option 1: Make a hotel reservation.  Be okay with being 'stuck' in a city/town until roads are clear IF it snow.  Drive the northern route to Maryland and hope for no snow.

Option 2: Make a hotel reservation ,with a cancellation policy that would give our money back if we had to cancel.  IF it snows, cancel hotel reservation, and drive the southern route to Maryland.


Hoping we won't get stuck in snow like this!!

I don't think the southern route has as much to see as the northern route but it does have warmer weather and it's a way to avoid snow.  BUT we would both rather chance it and take the northern route.  Option 1 it is!  Gotta make sure my tires are okay for cold weather precipitation, and have blankets/hand warmers in the car in case we do actually get stuck in my car.  I think we will be okay as long as we check the weather channel a lot. 

Now to start looking for dog friendly hotels in Nashville.

Since we can't leave until late Saturday afternoon, we need to figure out when we would get to Nashville and if we should stay at a hotel there, or somewhere else.  If we stay somewhere else, I could probably just put Kobi in a doggie daycare or something while we do touristy stuff.  It would give him sometime to stretch his legs and play.  Something for us to figure out.

We're in Vegas, baby! Day 3, 4 & 5

Awesome Adventure^1

Day 3

Just a few hours and we will be in Las Vegas!!  I've never been to Vegas but it looks pretty cool.  We should get there around sunset, about 8 or 9pm.

After Montezuma Castle, we had to drive through Flagstaff to get to Las Vegas.  I had a lot of people ask my why we didn't visit the Grand Canyon since we were right there.  We didn't visit because we had somewhat of a plan before we came on the trip and Las Vegas comes before the Grand Canyon.  I think Stella was more excited about Las Vegas than anything else on the trip.  I was more excited about the wilderness type stuff on the trip.

Near Flagstaff, AZ

So anyway, Flagstaff was beautiful!!!!  I fell in love with it.  The view was spectacular.  I loved all the pine trees and it was about 70 degrees outside, in August!! I wish we had more time in Flagstaff.  We were a little rushed because we made hotel reservations in Las Vegas for Night 3.  Flagstaff is near the Grand Canyon...well about an hour away.  It's close to Bearizona.  We saw a million signs for Bearizona.  We wanted to stop but it was raining and we didn't have the time this go around.  It was like a safari park but with bears, wolves, and other animals.  I don't think they had exotic animals, but when do you ever see bears, wolves and moose in the wild.  You can see them, but it's rare.

We stopped for lunch in Flagstaff at NiMarco's Pizza place.  It was delicious!!  I had pizza with green chilis and a watermelon ice tea.  It was amazing.  I seriously have green chili fever. 
















The drive from Flagstaff to Las Vegas was great.  The views and changing scenery were awesome.  We went from mountains covered by cactus and rocks, to mountains covered by pine tree forests, and back to rocky mountains again.



Our room at the Imperial Palace

So we arrive in Las Vegas around 8pm.  We were hoping to get there in time to go see a show but traffic and checking into the hotel took a long time.  We stayed at the Imperial Palace.  It was cheap and our room was great.  No view but who cares.  I'd rather spend my money on other things.
Day 4

We stayed in Las Vegas for two nights.  I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail because well, you know.  What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas.

We shopped alot.  Did toursity stuff.  Walked around - bring comfy shoes!!  Played slot machines.  Slept.  Met someone who hooked us up with a table at a club for free since we are girls.  :)  Ate at a brazilian steakhouse - yum!

We saw Peepshow.  I loved it and I think Stella did too although I think she wasn't quite prepared to see all that nudity.  lol.  I love Holly Madison, but her body didn't look as tight as the others.  (Now I know why, she was actually in the early stages of pregnancy!)  I found out Coco will be taking over for Holly Madison.  I love Coco too so I gotta go back, right Chivo?  Be prepared to pay a pretty penny for shows.  If you want a discount on shows, they have stands around Vegas that show discount tickets but the good tickets sell out early.  Stella really wanted to see the Beatles show: Love but it was crazy expensive and sold out.

 

 

Pictures of Las Vegas

 



Day 5

We decided to sleep in. It was raining anyway. We rolled out of bed, got ready to get back on the road. Off to see the Hoover Dam.  We parked a little ways before the dam and walked to a bridge that gives you a nice view of the dam.  We didn't stop on the actual bridge and check out the visitor center because you have to pay to do all that.  We did drive across the bridge, but the road doesn't go anywhere so we had to turn around.  The Hoover Dam is really spectacular.  It's HUGE!

Back on the road, we are heading to Grand Canyon Caverns and then the Grand Canyon!

To be continued....

Awesome Adventure 2: Texas to Maryland

We are planning our second road-trip! When will we have time to go?? I have a pretty full schedule with work, school, Enactus (formerly SIFE), and I teach AutoCAD on the side. Stella is devoting her time to studying for the LSAT, which is December 1st I believe. I have a break between semesters in December and Stella will be waiting he results of her LSAT, sounds like the perfect time to take a road-trip!! I'm crossing my fingers that my boss approves my vacation time. I'm hoping to take the week before and the week after Christmas off from work. My family lives in Maryland and I'd like to bring my dog, Kobi, with us on the road-trip since it will be over Christmas. He is my fur-child. :) Stella will be with me the first week, then fly back to Maryland right before Christmas to be with her family. Although she is more than welcome to stay in MD with me and my family if she wants.

So we have figured out the perfect time frame to go. We met up tonight at Zoe's Kitchen to start planning our trip. Their wifi was down...again....so we used our phones and wrote stuff down on paper I start the planning. BTW, Zoe's food is good! I am on the paleo diet so I ordered the protein power plate and substituted the slaw for roasted veggies. It was delicious!!

Kobi

Anyway, we used the maps app on my phone to figure out our route. Should we take the northern route, or southern route? Through Baton Rouge, Mobile and Atlanta (the Southern route)? Or through Birmingham, Nashville and the Smoky Mountains (the Northern route)? Stella REALLY wants to go to Baton Rouge to stay in a haunted plantation..... My first thought, we scared ourselves while camping in non-haunted places, how will we ever make it through staying in a haunted plantation. Since we have Kobi with us, and Baton Rouge is relatively close to Houston, we can go another time without Kobi and stay on the plantation. Stopping there wasn't really working with our timeline anyway. So we have chosen to take the Northern Route. I've never been to Nashville. Maybe we should watch the new show, Nashville, to get ideas what we should see while there.

We are super excited about going on another roadtrip. We won't be continuously on the road as long this time but once in Maryland and Kobi with my parents, we will have many places within a few hours that we will be able to travel to and we won't need to worry about it being pet friendly or not. Places like Intercourse PA, Hershey Park, NYC, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Baltimore, and Cunningham Falls.

Oh and we've decided to nickname this trip AA^2.