The Great Mikegration

Cover Photo: Uranium glass;

Adventure Map Days 21-26;

Day 21: 07/25/22

• Good nights sleep at the Super 8 hotel and had the fantastic Nuns baklava and it was gooooood for breakfast. Hope Julie back in Baker City enjoyed it as much as we did. It’s a mandatory stop next time in the area.
• Stopped by the Sacajawea Interpretive Center on the way out of town and took photo of dog statue. They hadn’t opened yet when we got there and due to the fire we were just trying to get out of town so we didn’t stick around. Unfortunate as Olivia and I were both looking forward to going through it as looked to be really interesting. Next time……
• Back on the road and drove for foreverrrrrrr…about 2 1/2 hour but it was pretty non descriptive scenery is how I think I’d like to phrase it.
• Needing a break my ever awesome traveling partner scoped out and had us stop for coffee at the Nice Place Mercantile and Coffee Bar; white mocha huckleberry and oatmeal cookie lattes which were both good. Yum… Just what the road weary travelers needed to reinvigorate them. 
• Ever onward we drove another half hour with great anticipation. Today was going to be the day. The day when dad was going to make up for not going to the potato museum oh so many years ago. There will be no more wailing and gnashing of teeth or muttered undertows to the conversation when it gets brought up. Today is my redemption day. Yes… We wen to the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, ID!!!
• The potato museum is not at all what one would expect.. at least not this one. It was not only very educational but just downright fun! We looked through all the exhibits and since it was close to lunch we thought it was only appropriate to eat a potato at the potato museum. The potato was perfect as was the huckleberry soda we drank along with it. Best of all we finally figured out what commercial potato cellars looked like as it was driving us crazy seeing them along the side of the road everywhere and not knowing what they were. Thank you Potato Museum!

• All starched up we hit the road and drove by Atomic City on our way to Arco. No, Tony Stark does not live in Arco nor do they have an ark reactor (although how cool would that have been). Atomic City, ID is a shadow of it’s former self. Population about 25; run down houses; one store, and the Atomic City Raceway along with an unending amount of high desert terrain. It’s located just a few miles away from the 890 square mile Idaho National Laboratory complex. In 1961 it was here the country’s first fatal nuclear explosion took place. If you’re interested read Wilderness to Wasteland by David Hanson. It’s a very, very, strange vibe town in the middle of nowhere. I think I basically already said that but it bears repeating.

• As you leave Atomic City and drive to Arco you see the Idaho National Laboratory Complex (or part of it anyway as it’s huge) and it looks more like a military installation than anything else. Makes one wonder exactly what is going on out there in the middle of nowhere.
• Making it on to Arco we stopped at Arco Number Hill and the USS Hawkbill-The Devil Boat Exhibit. Arco’s claim to fame is being the first city in the world to be lit by atomic power. It’s a nice neat town that we enjoyed passing through. Next time through I’m make the time to do the self-guided tour or EBR-1 and see “the hot cell”.
• Arco Number Hill is a pretty neat tradition by the graduating class each year. I’ll let you read the picture for details. The Devil Boat Exhibit is fascinating and makes you think of the shoulders of all those we now stand on when you read about S1W reactor and the Boat. I highly encourage you to read info in the pictures I’ve attached.

• Up the road about 20 minutes is Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve. It’s hard to put this place into words so I’ll let you look at the pictures and decide for yourself. You’ll be tempted to take some souvenir rocks however that’s not allowed so we decided to be good (Mischievous Mike strikes again).

• Leaving Craters of the Moon it’s a short but beautiful drive to the Shoshone Ice Caves. I know it looks a little corny however it is actually very good. The ice is depleted in the cave from what it used to be due to how it was treated in the past (current custodians are doing it all right) however the ice is still 7-15 feet thick ice. The entrance of the cave is around 28 degrees F even in the middle of summer so it was quite refreshing for Olivia and I when we took the tour. Make sure you go and take the tour it’s a really cool place that you won’t regret spending an hour or two at. Lots of other pictures I took showing the history however they didn’t come out very well.

• Having cooled down from the ice cave we got back in Jaws and headed onward to Shoshone Falls Park in Twin Falls, ID. Shoshone Falls is the Niagara of the West and is used for irrigation and hydroelectric power. Maybe we just had already seen a lot today and while we thought it was beautiful we weren’t overwhelmed by it. We sat there, ate peanut butter sandwich and decided it was ok.

• Leaving the falls we ended up driving by the Clif Bar Company and since we both like Clif bars we thought it was kinda serendipitously neat.

• Drove on about another 2 hours to get to our Hampton Inn hotel room for the night in Wells, NV. Ok, we didn’t get started until 6:30pm and it’s about a 2 hour drive to Wells, NV from here. This is not your typical drive. This is really a drive forever…..There just isn’t much there and you have to watch out for the wild cattle and other animal crossings. In fact they have places on the road where they can shut it down to allow the animals to cross and by the way there is no one anywhere even remotely around you on this drive. You eventually come to Jackpot, NV which is the first border town between ID and NV and it all breaks loose for a minute. Since gambling is legal in NV the whole place is totally juiced up like a desert oasis specially built for gambling…..which it is!! Nice oasis! From Jackpot it gets pretty sparse, couple of other little towns (San Jacinto, and Contact) and then back to what feels like a never ending sparseness until you get to Wells, NV. Wells isn’t that big but it is a neat place. Don’t speed as the police do patrol many a mile outside the city limits and you don’t want a ticket. You’ll be greeted by a billboard welcoming you to visit Bella’s Hacianda Ranch which is Nevada’s oldest legal brothel. We just went to the hotel and I walked across the street to Love’s to grab a sandwich for our dinner. Couldn’t resist the call of the slot machine there so lost $20, grabbed our sandwiches, and then got in line behind one of the local workers from Bella’s I assume. Very flustered clerk on that one…. anyways, back to the hotel, eat the sandwich (with Olivia, lol), and off to bed in a surprisingly comfortable hotel.
• Yes, it was a long, long day of 500 miles of driving plus doing everything we did. I was so tired I slept like a rock; maybe that’s why the hotel was so comfortable.

Day 22: 07/26/22

• It’s another wild and crazy day in the never ending party that’s dad and Olivia. Woke up feeling like a million dollars and ready to embrace this day with all sorts of super cool to dos. For those of you keeping count today is a 478 mile day give or take a couple. lol
• We woke up to the gentle sounds of civilization’s garbage trucks emptying the garbage containers outside our room window at 5:56am. Dad laughed…Olivia not so much. I was already awake and feeling great so yeah; I thought it was pretty funny.
• First stop of the day was just north of Wells about 20 minutes (11 miles but feels much further) to the ghost town of Metropolis – home of the Big Blue, the one and only, up up and away, yes that’s right…..wait… wrong Metropolis. This Metropolis was established in 1910 and was a fast growing city. By 1912 they had rail service and over 700 residents, however the town was doomed due to them being denied water from the nearby Bishop Creek Dam. The lack of water, a typhoid epidemic, rabbits, and Mormon crickets led to the closing of the post office and the last school in the 1940’s leaving Metropolis known as the town that ultimately died of thirst. The roads out there and back are not paved but well rocked and we had no issue getting there or back. We did see some friendly farmers putting up their hay. We stopped and watched them for a little bit as Olivia hadn’t seen anyone windrowing or kicking out a bale from a baler. I think they got a kick out of it also as they were smiling and waved to us as they went about their day. Good folks!

• Leaving Metropolis we stopped by the Flying J Travel Center back in Wells. It was a glorious stop and fresh start for the day. I found the type of Uptime I like so bought some extra for the road and decided why not; I’ve got that lucky feeling so it being Nevada there is a small casino attached to the Flying J. Went in and put a $20 bill in, pushed the button once and lost then tried it again and TaDa! I won 176$ on my second pull at the gas station on the Wheel of Fortune. Follow the immediate cash out and happy dance in front of the vehicle to be insufferable to Olivia in my good fortune!

• Drove westward and made a quick stop in Elko to use the facilities and back on the road.
• Turned south onto the brothel road (look up real name later)….LOL. it was on Hwy 278 that we made the turn and the brothel was The Dovetail Ranch. We thought it was funny because it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere but what do we know. Anyway we laughed for many a mile as drove on down the road.
• We stayed on Hwy 278 all the way to Eureka. It’s a nice drive. Windy in some spots and just not at all in others. Pretty countryside though that we enjoyed. Couple things of note. Olivia saw what a square bailer looked like so that was cool. Even cooler though was a quick stop we made north of Eureka that was part of the Pony Express Trail Garden Pass. You can pull right off the road and walk on it or even drive on it with a bike or 4 wheeler if so inclined. Needless to say we (I) pretended to be men of old and make myself at one with the great Express Trail.

• Arrived in Eureka, NV finally. Eureka is an old mining town that was famous for it’s lead-silver deposits. The town was named Eureka when the minor discovered the rich ore here in 1864. Population boomed to 10,000 but production began to decrease in 1883 and in 1897 the smelters closed. You can still see the huge slag piles at both ends of main street when you drive through.
• The other super cool thing about Eureka is that Highway 50 aka the Lincoln Highway aka THE LONLIEST ROAD IN AMERICA goes through it! I’d been wanting to drive on this road for quite some time so it was a treat for me that I loved. We headed east onto the Loneliest Road in America -very pretty indeed!

• Saw a Peeper cow on side of the road.
• Stopped outside of Ely in Ruth, NV to look at an old copper mine. Mining was big in Nevada! More than I ever knew. Before you wonder why I took pictures of this and posted know that this area produce almost a Billion dollars of copper, gold and silver. The huge mounds we thought were mountains are the waste rock from the mining operations. It makes one think. Click on the pictures so you can get an idea of the magnitude.

• Heading northeast out of Ely we went to McGill to look at the McGill Drugstore Museum. Sadly, it was closed. I should have done better research! Peeking in through the window it looked pretty neat. We decided to shop next door at the antique shop and found some radioactive glass and cool book that we bought.

• Realizing how late were running we hauled it back to Ely so we could have a good internet signal for Olivia’s Russian lesson.
• Flash alert: We were not late. Time change baby…..
• Since we had some extra time we went through White Pines Public Museum. It was pretty cool and open since 1950s. If you end up anywhere close to the area make sure and take a look. Plan on a couple of hours as it’s got a lot of information in it.

• Having now actually used our extra time Evan did her Russian lesson while I walked around town. I was excited as they had a soda fountain but it was too commercial for my tastes. Cool old mining town overall though with a rich history and of course the mandatory Nevada brothel that we both just decided to ignore in the future.

• Heading southwest out of Ely on the Grand Army of the Republic Hwy we were thankful again that we had the hybrid Jaws. Over a 500 mile range before we needed to fill up with gas. We saw another sign on the way out of town stating No Services for I don’t know like 180 miles or something. A long ways!
• Driving down the road about an hour and half we say a sign for the Lunar Dry Lake and thought hey… it’s only 5:30pm let’s go check it out as it looks pretty neat. Ended up it’s a National Backcountry Byway on BLM land with Lunar Dry Lake and Lunar Crater on it. A perfect camping spot. Comes with a huge mud flat. The road was pretty rough in places so it took us a while in Jaws to drive it so two wheel is fine when it’s dry. Now, there are a lot of other road/trails that lead further back in that looked much rougher. I wouldn’t try them without a 4 wheel drive of some sort as you’ll be way back in there. Don’t forget to bring firewood and extra gas if you plan on staying a while since the nearest gas station is at least 2 hours away! We played around a bit at the Dry Lake and wanted to hike the Crater however we were running really short on time as we had a long way to still go for the day.. Next time… PS> The pictures don’t do this place justice.

• As we exited the BLM land there is a potential lava flow scenic byway to investigate right across the road however no time, remember…
• We decided that Nevada has more mountains than thought – kind of pretty; actually much prettier than I realized. Driving on to the Warm Springs Bar & Cafe in Warm Springs. It’s nothing but a couple of old abandoned buildings but it is in an extremely important spot.

• Why is this spot so important you say? Because it’s the beginning of East Nevada 375. What? You still say you don’t get it. How about if I tell you that the highway is also known as The Extraterrestrial Highway!! That’s right baby, the ET highway and we are PUMPED!!! Had to stop and take the photo op. While we were taking pictures had a couple come off the ET highway pulling an RV. They thought we were pretty funny taking our pictures because we were like five years old and it was glorious!! So much fun! Them seeing us act like we did they made sure and warn us about the cattle that roamed free on the highway. Make sure you zoom in on the cattle sign in the background as it’s a little different from the normal one you see and yes, that is a cattle guard at the intersection. More cattle guards on the highway so do be careful if you come this way.

• Drove on ET highway ahhhhh. Yep….still acting like five year olds! We saw several mean free range cattle that did not like us. Gave us the old eye….we think they were watch cattle….just saying by Area 51 and all……Yeah, the cell signal was weirdly good also… Just saying.. You wouldn’t think it however it was a beautiful drive. Took about an hour and half for us to get to our hotel stop spot for the night; The Little A’Le’Inn.

• The Little A’Le’Inn is located in the town of Rachel, NV. It’s weirdly quirky but In a way that could have gone wrong but did not. It delivered! Rachel is a very, very small town and it’s way far away from anyplace else (except Area 51). There did look to be an old gas station there that we saw in the morning (gas station is now open I just read) and then the inn/restaurant but not much else. I think this is where everyone was planning to gather for the Area 51 “storm the gate” event that took the internet by storm a year or so ago. There is no way they had the infrastructure to support that and I think they were telling everyone that also. Rachel is a CDP (census-designated place) with a population of about 48. the Little A’Le’Inn is the ONLY place to stay along the highway and it’s small so make a reservation during the summer months as it’s the fastest connection highway between Yosemite, Zion, and the Grand Canyon North Rim.
• It was twilight/dark when we go to Little A’Le’Inn so we couldn’t see to much. Got checked in at the bar and decided to have a bite to eat. Evan was immediately probed (drink), dad was alien blooded (drink) and we ate a spaceship burger and alien burger with alien fruit pie (coconut, pecan, raisin) and alien pudding (pistachio with chocolate cake crumbles) for desert. The food was good after a long day on the road. Olivia loved it as the bartender was nice but mean and liked her :). (That’s part of the charm here as the bartender is supposed to be mean to you so no getting offended). Bellies full we physically went to the trailer we rented for the night, picked out our respective room, and threw our stuff in. We wanted to walk just a little as it was dark and the stars were beautiful outside so we took a walk alongside the highway in the deep night. Evan say a car coming and wanted to hide in the ditch and then jump out at the last minute to scare the passing car into thinking it was an alien… Dad said no!!! They’d probably swerve and kill us to collect the alien bounty. Took some photos of the property and back to the trailer. The trailer was okay and it was also clean, quiet and most importantly there was nowhere else. Overall would I stay and eat here again? Oh yeah baby, sign me up as what’s not to like!

Day 23: 07/27/22

• Great nights sleep and woke up at the Little A’Le’Inn looking forward to another great day. I was up early so I took a walk around outside about 6 in the morning while Evan was still asleep. Was beautiful outside and just walked around. They do have a campsite location where someone was camping. I went back and woke up Olivia so we could get the day going and take a quick walk around together. Funnily enough we saw the girl from the campsite had dragged her stuff to another spot and set up a different tent, was on her phone, and saw her dude (now ex-dude) getting dumped via tent relocation.

• Finished loading up Jaws and on the road. Back on the ET highway to drive the rest of it ending at Crystal Springs. As you drive towards Crystal Springs you may notice a black mailbox on the side of the road. That’s the ET mailbox.
• We stopped at the black op mailbox and left note (photo attached) for ET. See if you can guess which one is ours….so say.. no replies.

• Stopped by sign on side of road and learned some cool facts about Joshua Trees and continued on into Crystal Springs. Do NOT speed going into Crystal Springs or anywhere around it. The sheriff’s office has patrols out everywhere and they were pulling people over consistently. We only do the speed limit being the good citizens we are so no ticket o for us o. Cool looking Alien Research Center when you come into Crystal Springs that was closed so we couldn’t stop at. Really wanted to though. It was about 8am when we drove by there.

• Happily though the E-T Fresh Jerky store was open. We got jerky, gifts, and a golden carved shot glass. Lot of variety of different jerkies in the store. Makes for a good stop for snacks and a little fun.

• Out of the jerky store and onto the road. Drove and we drove and saw even more people getting pulled over.
• Quick stop in Alamo at the Sinclair to gas up and grab a quick breakfast. Terrible fritter but good burritos. Being a Sinclair we had to stop and say hello to the dinosaurs.
• Drove through rest of Nevada 
• Ducked into Arizona
• Ducked into Utah through St George
• Ducked through Arizona
• And we’re back in Utah and stopped at Little Hollywood Land: Museum, Trading Post & Chuckwagon Cookout. It’s a western museum that you can wander around int and look at some cool old movie sets, gift shop, etc. The old movie sets were pretty rad. I had a blast going through them all and the old posters were just crazy fun (make sure and read the one I posted). Evan bought some John Wayne toilet paper to complement her Roswell Alien TP from a previous trip. It’s a collection!!!

• Kanab Valley, Hatch and other beautiful red rocks and canyons nearby.

• Started going through other national parks 
• Decided to drive through because of weather warnings 
• Slipped Zion Park because of flooding potential
• Went through Bryce but didn’t have time to explore Bryce Canyon.
• Started scenic Highway 12 – huge gorges, national monuments, majestic mountains, weirdly small towns. Ran into lots of road work. Lots curvy roads and mountains. Had a moment of excitement when a guide vehicle was going really fast coming down a mountain road and waving a stop sign at everyone then about 30 seconds later a big truck came just barreling down the road looking out of control. Not sure if it was a potential runaway vehicle situation or what but glad we were stopped and out of the way. It was a very narrow road.
• Kept on going and drove on top of Ridgeline and then all the way back down. It was really weird driving on top of the ridgeline as narrow and just felt like you could fall off at any moment. If heights don’t bother you you’ll love this part of the drive!
• Entered scenic byway 24 and drove through Capitol Reef National Park. Super scenic and we drove through canyon with huge red walls and striations on it. We had to skip the scenic backway because of time limitations. Eventually we came out to an alien gray and black landscape jutting into the sky as we continued on towards Hanksville.
• I feel like I need to take a few minutes here to comment. We had already booked a hotel in Moab for the night and we were trying to squeeze as much in as humanly possible before we got there (well…..we were also on a timeline to get back home but that’s another story). In retrospect we did NOT do this entire area justice at all. I will be back to spend several days in the area to go through it much better. It’s a stunningly beautiful area that we loved; we just flat didn’t have the time. If we would have realized how enamoured we would both be by the area we would definitely have done it differently. Also, I’m severely lacking pictures of this area. I was so focused on driving and enjoying the scenery I just didn’t take many pictures. I’ll rectify that on the next trip also!

• Made it to Hanksville, UT about 8pm and had a bison burger and milkshake in at Stan’s Burger Shak. The burger was way overdone so can’t recommend… The milkshake was pretty awesome though and a definite repeat. Also, it was clean and friendly. Just before you get to the Burger Shak if you look to the left you’ll see a gas station carved into the mountain. Pretty wild!!!! Finished eating and time to hit the road. A pretty bad wind and rainstorm had rolled in while we were eating but looked like it would be over in an hour or so. We were running so late we had to get on the road so we braved the storm to the vehicle and promptly drove the wrong way. About 5 minutes later we were like…..yeah, I’ll let you use your imagination here… and we turned back around and headed north on Highway 24 towards Moab and the SpringHill Suites we were spending the night at. One good thing about the high winds and dust was once it died down it made for an absolutely stunning sunset for us to enjoy while we were on the road. Finally made it to the hotel about 10pm so we quite quickly called it a night after our long day.

Day 24: 07/28/22

• Woke up feeling pretty excited after a good rest. Really have to recommend this hotel. Great rooms, quiet, pretty view and a great location.
• Not for sure how Evan managed to do it however she had gotten us park passes to Arches National Park this morning for 7:30am when she was looking yesterday evening. Great job Evan!!!!! I took way to many pictures but no guilt because it was beautiful! I’ll break them up so more manageable.

• Overall we spent about 3 or 3 1/2 hours in the park. We moved pretty quickly but felt like we saw everything we wanted to see plus we needed to move on to our next stop.
• Canyonlands – Island in the Sky. About noon when we got there so quick stop at the Visitor’s Center and we were on our way. We ended up following the main road and making some stops along th e way and then at the end of the road was the Grand View Point Overlook that we hiked part of. It started sprinkling on us so had the potential to be slick so we didn’t hike as far as we wanted to but it sure was beautiful. Every step made the scene look different even though it was the same subject. Beautiful place. There is a road you can take if you have 4 wheel drive that winds about 100 miles and takes 2 days…. We didn’t have a 4 wheel drive or 2 days sadly. Next time though. Don’t know why I’m just captivated by deep canyons like this. Beautiful and peaceful. Well, pretty peaceful depending on who is in front of you on your hike and if they happen to be discussing their daughters future life and investment strategies as she is hiking with them. Very entertaining… Still, Great hike!!! Would go back in a minute and make sure to spend more time and possibly do the White Rim Road (that’s the 4 wheel drive one I mentioned above).

• Finished our hike and with just a few miles backtracking from Canyonland – Island in the Sky is Dead Horse Point State Park. I had seen just a glimpse of it on a travel show and thought it looked pretty so we thought; “What the hey. We are right here so let’s go do it.” We were a little less enthused at the $20 admittance fee we had to pay but thought, “we’re here so let’s go ahead.” I know you have to be tired of me saying this but WOW!!! This place is stunning and worth every penny. Looks like they had some yurts you could stay in as well as some campgrounds. They also had mountain bike rentals if you wanted to. All the facilities were clean and in perfect shape. The story of how it got it’s name is very sad. Cowboys used to use it back in the 1800’s as a natural corral and the horses often died of exposure there. Sometimes they forgot to open the gate and let the horses out they didn’t want so the horses died because of lack of food and water. Very sad history in that regard. Having said that this was one of those places that I fell in love with the beauty of. Like a child I kept bargaining with Olivia to stay a few more minutes and let me just look at the view. She finally had to take me by the arm and physically pull me away so we could keep going. The pictures just don’t do it justice. It’s stunning. Unfortunately we had to make it to Farmington, NM that evening and there was going to be a storm we had to go through so we had no choice but to move on down the road.

• Quick stop at Moab Coffee Roasters back in Moab for a Cuban Coffee and we were on our way to Farmington NM. The coffee was good by the way. As I mentioned earlier there was a bad storm we had to get through but finally made it to the Towne Place Suites there where we were staying for the night. Funny story about the hotel. It’s built so that the entrance is in front and on a different floor than the parking in the back. I made the amateur mistake of parking in the back, grabbing our luggage and trying to come in the back door because it was raining. Comedy ensued as the doors were locked. I told Olivia to stay there while I ran around to the front and opened the back door for her. I got to where she was supposed to be waiting but no Olivia. Went back up a couple floors to the front desk and asked if they had seen her and was told no. Started to get worried so ran back down to check vehicle and such. No Olivia so ran back up again and found her chatting up the desk clerk. LOL. We all got a laugh and the front desk clerk was super nice about it all and even gave us an upgrade on the room! Ends up somebody opened the door for her so if I would have waited a minute all would have been avoided!
• Feeling kinda hungry after all that so we drove down to Boon’s Family Thai BBQ. Food was ok but not great. Ate the meal, drove around a bit, and back to the hotel for some sleep.

Day 25: 07/29/22

• Continuing our drive back today – Evan up late at 6:45am and snooze until 7am… Sigh.. kids.. lol. Good nights sleep though so that always make it a better day. Super quick breakfast at the hotel; really just the bare minimum at this point. I think we are both getting tired of the continental breakfast “spread” that all the hotels have went to. Only so much cereal, boiled/scrambled eggs, oatmeal, and yogurt you can handle.
• First stop of the morning was at 7:45am at Johnny O’s Spudnuts there in Farmington, NM! OK, call it how it was…..Terrible coffee. Just Terrible to us. Everything else was above average, spudnut donut’s were exceptional and bathroom floor donut vortex was cool. The taste of the spudnuts was different from a regular donut; again great tasting; just different. Very intriguing and captivating. Everything clean and everyone friendly. We loved the retro look of their box’s and artwork! I’d stop again for the Spudnuts donuts; just not the coffee! Although it’s not fair to post a picture of the vortex with the donuts just realize how good the donuts were and how cool I thought the vortex was.

• Good grief; I put the pictures here and my mouth started watering. Talk about a Pavlovian response.. YUMMY!!!! Ok, back to the rest of the trip. Headed down Hwy 550 to Cuba. Pretty scenic drive and as we were coming into Cuba and on the outskirts of town we saw Juicy Jitters. A small locally owned coffee stop right off the road into town; they also stocked some donuts and other type snacks. We really liked it, fun cups, espresso was good, friendly person manning the stand, and helpful double espresso with oat milk and sugar. In short this stop was a total win!!!! I’d rate it up there with the coffee stops up in Washington state that we visited. Can’t really say enough good things about this place even though we were only there for a few minutes. I think it was the combination of how good the coffee was along with how nice and friendly the lady running the stand was.
• Continuing on through Cuba on Hwy 550 we whipped a u-turn for some faux Amish coffee bread, banana bread, and pumpkin roll. Great prices at $6 per loaf and they tasted great. They were also very nice and friendly. I was really impressed with this town overall. We only stopped in those two places however the town appeared clean and the people at those places were all very friendly, nice, and accommodating.

• Stopped in Bernalillo and paid $3.33 cent a gallon for gas. Shockingly cheap after our $5-6 a gallon we had been paying in California and at some of the other remote areas we had stopped at to fill up.
• Hopped off onto Rt. 66 at Santa Rosa and headed toward the ghost town of Cuervo. Not much at Cuervo but cool to drive by. Crossed to the other side of the main road to stay on historic Rt. 66 into Newkirk and got a lime Route 66 drink and Boston Baked beans. Just a little gas station in the middle of Newkirk and there is really not much else in Newkirk. It’s a cool Route 66 travel stop as we saw a few other people stop in while we were there to use the facilities and get something. FYI: the facilities are NOT in the gas station. They are port-o-potties a few hundred feet from the station. Overall though it’s a cool and nostalgic stop that I thoroughly enjoyed.
• Evan taught me a dad joke – “Road work ahead? Boy I sure hope it does!” Funny!!! I had never heard and still makes me laugh so that’s always the sign of a good joke!
• Finally crossed into Texas and we loved all the signs that were advertising for attorneys if you get stopped for marijuana possession in TX. Evidently must be a lot of people coming in from NM that don’t realize it’s illegal in TX. Must be a lot of money in it given the number of billboards up!
• We wanted to eat at Midpoint diner but our timing was all wrong and it was closed. Next trip…..
• Getting pretty hungry we wanted stop at Beef Burger Barrel in Amarillo, One of those iconic stops to grab a burger. It was ok (as in better than average), the barrel was fun, and they were extremely nice. Loved the overall concept and gimmick!!!! While we were waiting for our burgers at the Barrel I had to drive across the street to fill up full of gas. When I got back some dude was talking to Olivia outside the Barrel sharing funny stories and history of the area as well as his personal info. So funny, our order was ready so she told him it was great talking to him and bye. We got back in the vehicle and headed out. I started laughing once we got back in the vehicle and she couldn’t figure it out. I was like….”Did you not even realize your were getting hit on by this dude, you totally were going along with it, and then you totally shut him down when you told him bye and walked off to get your burger and you just left! You broke the poor guys heart!” Olivia was stunned into silence for a few before she said; “Wait, that’s what was happening? No…..” Then a few minutes more of think on it was “OMG, you’re right….He was totally hitting on me and I never even realized it….Not that it matters as I’m happy with my boyfriend!”
• Only about 15 minutes away is a cool statue of Ozymandius of the Plains. Cool background story here. You can read it on the picture of look it up. It’s a shame that there is so much graffiti on the plaque and statue.

• Drove drove drove and then drove even more on Hwy 287 to Wichita Falls. We called the family and chatted. Listened to my new favorite podcast called “History That Doesn’t Suck” and played the slugbug & Tesla game. Weird as we didn’t see any of those today. We did enjoy the chatting and podcast though.. Very tired when we finally hit Wichita Falls at 9:30pm. Lots of driving today as covered about 700 miles over 11 hours. Not the most but definitely a lot of windshield time. We slept like a rock at the Hampton Inn off of Kemp Blvd there in Wichita Falls.

Day 26: 07/30/22

• Good nights sleep and leaving the hotel to get some coffee and then moving on from Wichita Falls to home today!
• First stop was Frank & Joe’s Coffee House there in Wichita Falls just a few minutes from the hotel. Trying to find something good here but can’t. Bad service and bad coffee here. Not sure what was going on it was about 8am when we were there and it was like everyone was asleep and didn’t want to be there. The only good thing was we bought a yummy cookie there from an unaffiliated company. The cookie was good but I’ll never be back. Maybe they just had an off day however just no for me!
• Drove on for a bit on Hwy 287 and stopped at Quiktrip to get a decent cup of coffee and fill up with gas. Thank goodness for QT!!
• Since we were driving through Hillsboro anyway we decided to visit the Roadside America Museum! Little odd as even though they are open the door is sometimes locked as the owner is working in the back on cars or other projects. We had to call the number on the door to be let in. Only took a minute but something you should be aware of having to do. Tour from an older guy and nice and friendly. It’s a really cool place with lots of older neat stuff that is extremely rare to see. Also has some old cars he has restored and much, much more! Definitely worth the time to stop. He really enjoys his museum and will even give you a tour. Do it!

• Since we were in the historical part of town we decided to stop by the Hillsboro Antique Mall. Always love old Antique Malls! Found and old uranium glass and platter that Olivia bought. It is super cool.
• Back on the road and Home Again to a heroes welcome from our Epic Trip! : )

• And that’s it! 26 Days, 8,672 miles driven, and to many epic adventures to count! LOVED it! There were so many adventures we had that we didn’t plan on and so many we didn’t have that we did plan on. I think that is the hallmark of any great adventure though. I hope you’ve been inspired to go do your own epic adventures. I know I can’t wait for the next one!