The Great Mikegration

Cover Photo: The hike to Vernal Falls at Yosemite National Park;

Adventure Map Days 1-4;

Day 1: 07/05/22

• Headed out from College Station at 6:40am towards our first stop of the trip; Dogs and Links in Comanche, TX. Friendly folks there but the food was ehhh.. 
• Making a left out of the parking lot and Immediately spotted a donut shop on the right so speed racer cut across the lanes and turned into the donut shop. Worth the race car driving.. Very good. Eight security cameras. Exceptional apple fritter rest was just ok
• Rising Star – Little bakery on the way.
• Found the Conan house – in Cross Plains
• Onward through Muleshoe, TX – picture with the mule and the yummy closed donut place. Told Olivia story about how I went to college with a man from Muleshoe.
• Clovis
• Santa Rosa, TX
• And then cool rain shower
• Abilene didn’t look terrible
• Lubbock
• Albuquerque
• All relatively uneventful 
• Stopped at Grant and took road through the route 66 sign. Amazing how much the town had changed since the last time I’d been there several years ago pre-COVID.
• Wasn’t able to visit the Uranium Mine Museum this town however I had previously. Worth the stop if you have time.
• 15 miles outside of Gallup almost made each other pee ourselves. Emergency historical appreciation stop.
• And then Gallup and stayed at historic El Rancho hotel at 9pm arrival
• Dad had John Wayne burger, I had Ronald Reagan and the John Wayne margarita. Terrible waitress
• Room was clean and quiet called Burt Lancaster room
• Neat looking hotel 
• Late night

Day 2: 07/06/22

• Early morning start at 6am. !
• Used the cool elevator with the door pull thingy like you see in all the cool movies.
• Lost car key (to clarify that was Olivia)
• 30 minutes later……
• Found the lost key
• Olivia not awake yet so tricked her into yellow car at 6:25am.. Huzzah for dad!!!
• Breakfast stop at Glenn’s donuts – blueberry cake donut very, very yummy!!
• Down the road a few was Donut and Deli – eh. Unknown quantity. Deli won the cherry empanadas 
• On to Arizona
• Forgot about the time change so made it to the Petrified Forest National Park early before they opened. Worked out well though as these things tend to do. We met people from Southlake that raced motorcycles while we were waiting at the park entrance.
• Bought a passport book national parks so dad wouldn’t be one up on her. lol
• Did the park, hiked the trails, majestic, blah blah blah but WELL worth the trip and time. Special place.
• FaceTimed mom and Allie to show them the park.
• Olivia drove Jaws for first time and never let me forget it the ENTIRE trip!!!
• Friendly ranger at the park let us into historical house; Harvey girls poster there so we decided we needed to watch movie The Harvey Girls as was inspired here.
• Very Hot. About 11am when finished at National Petrified Forest Park

• Onward from the National Park to Dobells minerals
• Mined our own petrified wood (legally at Dobell Curio’s)
• Evans first time with pickaxe 
• Bookends and the mystery piece of several hundred pounds that Jaws hauled around for the next 20 days of the trip up high and down low. Jaw’s rocks!
• Negotiated with the hard-nosed proprietor (15 year old; Ariel). She’s pretty awesome.
• Leaving there drove by a rock shop with dinosaurs in town
• Stopped by Geronimo’s and felt let down.

• Winslow – we took photos by the corner, cherry lime Rockie chocolate malt and New Mexico green Chile cream cheese hot dog. Great spot to stand on the corner! Evan’s first time to listen to it!!! Score!
• Ripped off at meteor Crater; huge though!!!!! $25 a person lol. Where we heard a rumor that it unlocked the secrets of the solar system. If you can make out the little dot in the middle of the picture you win the prize. It’s a life size replica of an astronaut. Yeah, it’s a big crater!
• Apache death caves- very sad story
• Flagstaff museum club – bar grabbed a photo. Entryway was cool but really just dancing saloon these days.

• Pete’s gas station museum in Williams, AZ – Had to look in through the window.
• And we saw the Grand Canyon Railway railroad in Williams, AZ
• Drove to Delgadillo’s Snow Cap and photos
• Stopped for dinner at the Roadkill Cafe in Seligman (the Birth Place of Historic Route 66!!!); good food. Elk burger, bison burger, homemade pies and chocolate cake super good 
• Funny and animals on wall
• Paid way to much for gas at the historic gas museum however we are in the middle of nowhere……
• Potential mishap ac power but it was just the car being whiny
• Drove on into outskirts of Vegas or just baby. Got in about 11pm….long day today……lol

Day 3: 07/07/22

• Woke up in Las Vegas and on the road by 6am.
• Stopped in Pahrump, NV at Java Junkie and got funky human funky coffee fuel to wake us up. 
• Saw the Castle in Clay by Shoshone, NV and then made a hard right into Shoshone.
• Shopped at Shoshone and used bathroom. Looked at the Shoshone Museum Gift Shop Visitor Center little museum/building thing.

• Kept on a driving in the middle of nowhere and made it to Death Valley at 8:40am so took 2 hours and 40 minutes. There were NO other cars on the road……
• Maps didn’t work frowny face 
• Western rim road; really unpaved and we got to actually drive in the Death Valley – reached 115 degrees by10am
• Greatly surprised by how much we loved death valley. In awe – “not just sands and shit” (quote from Dad, 2022)
• Hit the Devil’s Golf Course: could hear popping from the crystallized salt pinnacles expanding and contracting.
• Took a hike onto Badwater Basin salt flats which is the lowest point in the western hemisphere and had the dubious distinction of having to use the worlds stinkiest pit toilet!!! Sorry folks no photos….lol
• Walk out onto salt flats in Badwater Basin
• 113 degrees at 11am
• Drove Artists Palette loop and it was really beautiful. Short walk and we did the back and forth
• Briefly hiked the Golden Canyon Trail as in about 100 yards. It was noon and super hot so we followed all the warnings to NOT hike after 10am! Cause that’s how we roll….
• Stopped at historic inn and thought it looked cool. Want to try to stay there one day.
• Took a tunnel to the elevator
• Four wheel drive rent place
• Visited Furnace Creek Visitor Center – Not the best visitor center I’ve been in but considering how hot it was it had working a/c so really it was great!
• Borax mining ruins
• Stopped at general store meh. Got cool patches
• Went by Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes – scorching hot and watch out for snakes!
• Drove out on a very long very windy road where we lost and gained 2000ft of elevation three or four times. Saw four or five broken down vehicles by road. Lots of elevation here and great views!!! Don’t overheat the vehicle or the brakes when you come back down!!!!!

• Quick stop at Padre Point where unsurprisingly enough a Padre used to stop on the way and back to visit his congregation members.
• Passed through ghost town Keeler and found the Keeler End of the Line where the railroad stopped in 1885 so the line was never extended and dooming the town.
• Couldn’t drive to other (Cerro Gordo, CA)
• Historic gas station in Keeler ghost town.
• Dolomite limestone plaque and mine. It’s the largest Dolomite marble mine in the United States.
• Lone pine visitor center 
• Journeyed to McDonald’s for Russian lesson and enjoyed watching everyone searching for the combination to get into the bathrooms there. Evidently McDonalds is a favorite meet up spot for people going camping in the area. Lots of packs and hikers!
• Called Carrie with Toyota for problems with the ac power outlet in minivan turning off. Surprise, it was the cooler that was the issue and not the minivan. No more buying Alpicool coolers for me!
• Nightmare rock
• Got lost in the movie road in Alabama Hills, CA on the Mobius Arch Loop Trail.
• Found each other hanging out of rock
• Got “snake” bit and watched dad have cardiac event; ie. dad about wet himself when he thought a snake bit him but was only a plant that “snapped” back on his leg when he was walking.
• BBQ place it was ok

• Bakery ! Yummmmmmmmmy. Eric Schat’s Bakkery, Home of the Original Sheepherder Bread since 1907
• 60 degrees at 8 pm
• On way to Yosemite for stay at the historic Ahwahnee Hotel. Arrived very late at 10:30pm. Can only drive 20mph on roads due to wildlife and the hotel is waaaaaayyyyy back in there on the route we took. Lots of wildlife so follow the speed limit!!! Don’t be the person that hits a deer or black bear…….

Day 4: 07/08/22

• Awake at butt of clock in the morning…. that would be 5am for all your late riser’s; and yes I let her sleep in because it was already light when I got her up!!!!!!
• Hiked to lower Yosemite waterfalls
• Decoy from upper falls to conceal Vernal Falls
• Beautiful hike to Vernal Falls done by 8:30am. Had a guard squirrel follow us on the way back wanting his treat in exchange for protection from all the other squirrels.

• Hiked back to the hotel; unsure of our trail blazing efficacy. Translation: We got lost taking the short cut back to the Visitor’s Center or in our traveling terms we advanced to the destination in a different direction ultimately achieving our goal!
• Checked out of hotel and on to the Visitors center for advice and directions
• Ranger told us that Mariposa Grove was closed (fire going on) so we would need to go to Tolumne Grove to see the giant Sequoias. Quick stop to peruse for souvenirs at the general store and on our way.
• Drove to Tolumne Grove
• Steep hike down. Saw 20 giant sequoias. Hard to grasp how truly big and magnificent these trees are.
• Crawled through a dead one. Was able to almost stand upright at times.
• Saw lots of tired families 
• Even steeper hike back up….
• On yet another road of hairpin turns again
• Realized we’d we did 16 miles
• Bypassed mark Twain town but did go to Utica Park and see one of his memorial statue’s.
• Onward to Lodi but was unable to find the Plaque of A&W Root Beer to mark where it was originally concocted. We looked around pretty hard so sure it was missing. Drove over a few streets to an A&W Root Beer store and got some of the original recipe root beer as a reward for not giving up. VERY tasty!!!
• Made it to our hotel for the night, the Embassy Suites by Hilton Napa Valley. Little frustration as I missed the exit and then next time around the turn but hey….Third times a charm they say!
• Was beautiful hotel and got free wine too thanks to great guy working the front desk. Have to say it was a great hotel and the front desk was super nice. We had just missed Happy Hour so he helped us out!!!!!
• Pizza okay looking after three glasses of wine. Pizza was an order in and not from the hotel. Next time I’ll order from the hotel….
• Showered and called a night