From Potatoes to Pralines: A Two Week Solo Roadtrip from Boise to Houston

It was an elaborate plan to get one of our vehicles from Idaho to Texas. I worked around an anniversary dinner in Houston, a wedding in California and a girls’ trip to a lake in central Texas. And I needed to be out of Idaho and Nevada before it started snowing.

The morning after Don and I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary with a dinner in Houston, I flew to Idaho where the car was waiting for me near the airport. I panicked a bit when I realized that I had a 5-1/2 hour drive to my first stop, Ely, Nevada. Alas, it wasn’t an issue as I was listening to a great book, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, as I drove.

I arrived in Ely at dusk and found a decently rated restaurant in the casino next to my hotel. The dinner was good. The slot machines were not.

I left this cold mountain town and continued south to Las Vegas through a portion of the Humboldt National Forest and a stretch of road with tons of Joshua trees. You don’t have to go to Joshua Tree National Forest to see Joshua trees; you, too, can drive the 9 hours from Boise to Las Vegas through rural Nevada to see them.

I made it to Las Vegas to a nice casino hotel where I got a great price, if you don’t count the slot machine losses. I’m starting to think that maybe gambling isn’t a great idea. But I had so much fun that entire afternoon/evening!

The next morning I packed my carry-on for the weekend, left my car and other suitcase at the Las Vegas airport and flew to San Diego to meet up with Don and Will for a family wedding. The bride and groom chose La Jolla, a neighborhood in San Diego, for their destination nuptials. If you’ve never been to La Jolla, you gotta go! Beaches, seals and sea lions, Pacific Ocean on three sides, and fabulous restaurants with great views are just some of the assets of this walkable, albeit hilly, village.

A delightful welcome party Friday evening at Duke’s, a restaurant named after a Hawaiian Olympic swimmer and water polo medalist with a theme to match, followed by a gorgeous wedding at The Valencia with the Pacific Ocean as the backdrop were the highlights of the weekend. But the best part of the trip to La Jolla was all the time spent with Don’s aunt, cousins, cousins-to-be and especially the bride and groom.

I scurried off early the next morning to the airport so I could continue my roadtrip to Texas. It’s a good thing that I took an early flight as I spent almost an hour trying to figure out the parking garages in Las Vegas. I surprisingly never got frustrated; just treated it as a puzzle that needed to be solved. Because I flew different airlines to/from San Diego, I landed at a different terminal than where I parked my car. So after going from parking garage, to terminal, to train, to the other terminal, to the correct parking garage, I was finally back in my car and heading to my next destination.

I have been to all fifty states, five of the seven continents and more than a dozen national parks, but I’d never been to the Grand Canyon. So when the girls’ trip at the lake was postponed, I decided to add that stop to my journey. I stayed in Williams, AZ, a historic town known as the “Gateway to the Grand Canyon”, but the town’s identity comes more from it being part of the famed Route 66. A nice meal and off to bed I went. I had a big day ahead of me.

The drive to the national park was scenic and easy. Once I arrived at the park, I realized that the drive was effortless because very few people were there. The government was shut down so that might’ve affected the number of visitors, but all I know is the second most visited national park in the US was like a ghost town.

A walk along the Mather Point Trail and a ride on the yellow shuttle bus to Yaki Point, South Kaibab Trailhead and Pipe Creek Vista was all my time allowed. It was a quick stop, but I’m so glad I made it; the memories of those views were worth it.

I hit the road in time to make it to my friend’s condo in Phoenix by nightfall. Too long of a lunch break and another stop along the way resulted in driving in the dark for a short time. As luck would have it, the sunset that evening was stunning!

Ever since a friend from my Chicago days moved to Phoenix in the 90s, it has been a recurring vacation spot for me. She and I have done a lot of the touristy Phoenix/Scottsdale things already, so we had to think hard about how we wanted to spend our time.

We over-achieved. But we also got lucky. At the Japanese Friendship Garden we happened upon one of two weekly tours. Without the tour guide we not only would have missed nuanced items, but probably some of the obvious ones, as well.

Since we were near the Heard Museum, we stopped by there before heading home. Just as with the tour guide at the garden, we happened upon a very informative docent here, too. The museum is dedicated to Native American civilizations featuring arts, crafts, historical artifacts and a significant space dedicated to boarding schools. You can find photos of some of my favorite pieces below.

The next day we toured Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West and the Wrigley Mansion. So many interesting objects, facts and lessons learned in those stops they will need a blog post all of their own. Here’s a sneak peek of a few photos.

My next stop was Tucson which is a short drive from Phoenix, so I scheduled a street art walking tour for myself before I left town in the morning. My friend had other commitments, so she wasn’t able to join me. I was the only person who booked a tour that day, so I got a private tour. I expected great artwork, but the history of the neighborhood, the venues, the artists were a bonus. Too much info to discuss here, so I’ll add it to my detailed Phoenix excursions blog post. A preview of some of my favorite pieces is below.

Driving south after my art tour and lunch I was eager to get to one of my favorite hotels (really a motel with a great personality). Halfway through my hour and forty minute drive, one of my tires decided to explode. So I sat on the side of the highway for almost an hour before roadside assistance arrived. Of all the places this could’ve happened, I got lucky. There was a Discount Tire just minutes away in Casa Grande. It took a while, but they had tires in stock that fit my car and they made time to put them on. All Hail Discount Tire!

I arrived at my hotel later than expected but so stinkin’ happy to be there with my brand new shiny tires. Of the half dozen recommended restaurants, I unwittingly chose the one Don and I ate at the last time we were in town. Delish dinner followed by an amazing oatmeal buffet the next morning.

After a boring drive down Interstate-10, I arrived to a check-in line three deep at my hotel in Las Cruses, NM, so I decided to head out to White Sands National Park. What do those orange cones mean at the entrance? Well snap. The park entrance closes at 5:00. Yep, it was 5:05pm. So I headed back to my hotel to check in and find something to eat.

The next morning I made sure I got an early start. I really wanted to see White Sands NP and I had a 4-1/2 hour drive to Alpine, TX that afternoon. Early start be damned – I needed to check out the case full of marketing flyers before I left the hotel.

Did you know that White Sands National Park contains the world’s largest gypsum dunefield? It’s true! The geology of that 275 acres of sand is interesting, too. The bedrock for the dunefield was created over hundreds of millions of years ago when the Permian Sea covered this area and gypsum settled on the ocean floor. The dunes themselves are thousands of years old. How cool is that?!!

Speaking of cool (it will take me a minute to connect the “cools” so bear with me) – the road within the park was being repaved and only one lane was operational. I happened to be first in line for the next trip down the one-laned road. Usually that is not a good thing because it means you just missed the last trip through. But the flagger was chatty. She was working during the government shutdown because she works for a contractor, not the government itself. She lives in Montana but works at national parks all over the U.S. Three weeks on. Three weeks off. Not a bad gig. Also, she told me the sand was cool compared to the current temperature. She wouldn’t vouch for summertime sand temps though. The sand was indeed cool. And beautiful.

Along the route to Alpine was the Prada and “Giant” Marfa art exhibits and Marfa itself. I’ve stayed in Marfa and Alpine before, so I did not spend much time exploring and taking photos. Been there. Done that. As they say.

But a bit about Alpine before I move on. It is the county seat of Brewster County, the home of Sul Ross State University and the Alpine Cowboys (Pecos Baseball League team), and often called the “Gateway to Big Bend”.

My cousin had gone to Big Bend National Park in the 1990s and came home raving about it. I have been eager to go ever since. My visit had finally come. My first stop was at Venga, a unique shop outside of the park in Terlingua. The store not only serves delicious food but also sells artwork, hats, hiking boots, books, and plants. It was a really neat place with such a cool vibe. I really wanted to take photos of the interior but didn’t want to look like too much of a weirdo. Here are a couple of photos from outside.

I spent the first day at Big Bend driving the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive and, of course, stopping for every information marker. The second day I went to a different area of the park near the border crossing to Mexico and Rio Grande Village. There were very few people at the park, so I was not interested in hiking much. I hiked a small trail and happened upon a pond with some beautiful birds. And then I found the Rio Grande River itself. Successful trip indeed!

As you might’ve guessed, the Big Bend National Park deserves its own blog post. So much information about history, geology and dinosaurs to share! Stay tuned!

Halfway through my second day at the park a man at one of the stops asked me why I wasn’t driving with my convertible top down. The answer was that it had been incredibly windy the day before, and I just hadn’t thought about it that day. I took his advice and enjoyed the beautiful day. I had been listening to audio books on the long drive from Idaho to Texas, switched to podcasts about Big Bend once I got to Texas, and now leaving the park, I turned to Texas singer-songwriter music. While driving U.S.385 from the Persimmon Gap park exit through Marathon to Fort Stockton with an open road and wind in my hair, I listened to my favorite Texas artists on repeat. Check out “Boots On My Feet” by Drew Kennedy and “Lone Star Highway” by Josh Grider to get a feel for my state of mind that glorious afternoon.

The drive from Fort Stockton to Buda wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t a top down music blasting kind of day either. I stopped in Sonora near the courthouse at the cutest little cafe for a bite to eat then continued on my journey through Fredericksburg, Johnson City and Dripping Springs before arriving at my friend’s house in Buda.

My friend’s house was my last overnight stop before I arrived home. The tenth bed in fourteen nights, if you’re keeping track. She’s my longest time friend (oldest doesn’t sound very nice). A fabulous evening catching up on each other’s lives and then the next morning I was off to a lunch date in Burnet. If you know Texas geography, you know Buda => Burnet => Houston is a check mark, not a straight line, but I decided it was worth the extra time on the road. I met my friend (a former step-mother) and her beau for a long wonderful lunch before heading back to Houston. I got lucky and dodged traffic issues in both Austin and Houston. A nice easy landing from my fourteen day Boise to Houston roadtrip.