End of the Road

May 9, 2009

It all started when Dek’s consulting contract ended and he finally had time to take some time off before his next contract starts on May 11. It was too late to make arrangements for a cruise and air travel. So after some research, I stumbled upon the Grand Circle of National Parks tour offered by Elderhostel. The tour was fully booked, of course, so I simply copied the tour itinerary and booked the hotels myself.

Because we did the driving, we had the luxury of making any detour that interested us, took as much time as possible in some places, planned for shorter driving stretches, and allowed for some down time.

For 14 days (from April 25- May 8), we traveled 1,972 miles with our 2008 Sienna XLE. We crossed 3 states - Nevada, Arizona, Utah, visited national and state parks and monuments, and took time to visit museums. We discovered the jaw-dropping beauty of the national parks in the Grand Circle tour, including the very impressive highways and sceneries leading to these parks. I got interested in geology and brought books about each of the parks.

In hindsight we prepared well for the trip:
• Packed our food/snack/water/drinks supply. We didn’t have to worry for ‘I’m hungry, where do we eat’ or ‘we have to bring food/drink for hiking’. At times, we ate breakfast at our hotel room.
• Packed car emergency kits and medical/health kits for us. Fortunately, we didn’t have to use them.
• We had a day-to-day schedule. We knew what to expect from the places we visited.
• I brought 3 jackets: for rain, a down jacket for really cold weather, and a light dressier jacket. I used all of them during the trip. Dek brought 2 jackets and used both of them. We also brought an umbrella, which we also used.
• We brought along hiking poles, backpacks and hats.
• We brought an ice chest with wheels. It was so much easier to transport this from car to hotel room.
• We kept ourselves organized day to day. It was easy to be overwhelmed by all the stuff we had in the car. Other things we brought along: gallon plastic bags, sandwich bags, trash bags, toilet paper, paper towel, wet ones, knife, scissors, paper plates, forks/spoons. Seems like a lot, but they helped us organize day to day.

We were surprised to find out that road food wasn’t great. I was expecting local restaurants to serve good homemade food. That actually was a rarity. Bad food, we found out, was just as expensive as great food. I didn’t research the ‘where to eat’ part of the vacation. I would certainly do that next time around.

We mostly stayed at budget hotels like Best Western and Ramada, but it was great to intersperse these with more luxurious ones. After several days on the road, a more luxurious accommodation did wonders to body and soul.

I’d do the same trip again, hiking a different trail, joining jeep tours to go to the interiors of the parks, stopping at other parks we didn’t visit but were tempted to. I really encourage everyone to take a similar trip, while you’re still active and can hike the more challenging trails.

It is a beautiful country out there.