We pulled out of the driveway for our Cloudcroft road trip on Sunday, May 22, 2011 at somewhere near 6:57 AM. The trip meter has been reset to zero and just as a safety the total mileage on the odometer is 51,418. It's become a tradition that we stop at the Daily Bagel Cafe for coffee and something to eat before we get on the road, so that's where we headed.
And, just as we were pulling out of the driveway, Linda cut loose with one of those "Oh, there's something I forgot!". She fetched her clementines and cream cheese and we took off again. Linda has this habit of glancing around to make sure the garage door was closed. Oops! It was open so John fixed that.
Obviously, Linda isn't the only one who forgets things. About a mile down the road, John thought about his fanny pack which he forgot to bring. So, we turned around and went back and Linda gladly (almost gleefully) fetched the fanny pack from the house for John. We also cleared the trip meter so that we start off at zero again from our driveway and we then left on our trip at 7:10 AM.
Again, in accordance with Buzzard Road Trip Tradition, on the road trip there will be no radio or music in the vehicle. And in the motel rooms we will NOT be watching TV. There will be one exception. Well, make that two exceptions. We will be watching the last two episodes of American Idol.
We ate lunch at a McDonald's in Burbank. John had an angus bacon cheese burger and iced mocha. Linda had yogurt and fruit and a chicken roll up.
While in Burbank we filled up with gas and paid $4.14.9 cents per gallon. Then we got back on the road headed toward Indio.
We arrived in Indio at about 3:15 PM. Remember, we made no reservations in advance. From what we had seen on the internet we had our eye on a Best Western motel in Indio. However, it had no outside doors. That's a no-no for us. So, we cruised around Indio and stumbled across a Motel 6. The sign on the marquis said $43.95 for a single. It had outside doors. Just what we wanted. So John went into the office and inquired about a room. For a double it was $44.95 instead of $43.95. The only add-on was for Wi-Fi access at $2.95. Not bad overall. We have a very nice room with two double beds and a great air-conditioner.
We've been thinking about stopping at Tombstone, AZ for a couple of nights on our way to Cloudcroft. John was checking on the internet and found a Best Western in Tombstone. But, when he looked for room availability for tomorrow night and the next night, he found they had no rooms available. So he searched and found another pet-friendly motel, the Tombstone Motel. It had good ratings, is close to town, and is pet-friendly. So, John called and spoke with Barry. Now we have reservations for the next two nights.
Linda and I are partial to IHOP restaurants and we found one just up the road from where we are staying that's our plan for dinner tonight.
We only had to backtrack about 7 miles to La Quinta, CA in order to get to an IHOP restaurant. Linda had a nice grilled talapia, smothered with mushrooms and served with broccoli. John had breakfast-for-dinner. His meal consisted of fried eggs, bacon, pancakes and hash brown potatoes. Both of us had decaf coffee.
After returning to Motel 6 Linda took Fannie Mae for a walk to historic Clark's Truck Stop across the street. There are old-timey murals on two walls of the building and a brass plaque commemorating that "In 1991 Jimmy Swaggert picked up a 'date' at Clarks". As soon as Linda finished taking the photo the next thing she saw outside Clark's was a "working girl" trolling for a "date". History has a way of repeating.
The weather here in Indio is warm (about 83°) and very, very windy. Linda and Fannie are out for a walk right now. We have a long drive ahead of us tomorrow and will be leaving pretty early. There is a Valero truck stop right next door that has gas at $4.03 per gallon and has a restaurant. Will stop there for breakfast and to gas up.
On our last road trip Linda posted a piece of Tea Bag Philosophy each day. Despite their popularity she is switching to a trio of other SOMETHINGs of the day. You will get 0,1,2 or 3 of them a day. Ta dah! The personalized license plate of the day is "Rkamysol" (Rocka my soul?) seen on a pickup - with maybe a guy named Abraham driving. The joke of the day (from Linda's Joke of the Day calendar is "If you can't be kind, at least be vague". And Linda's silly socks of the day are purple with pink letters that say "Party Your Socks Off".
Well, here's the link to the brief photo gallery for today.
Good night, all!
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