Post #360123 by Mai Tai on Fri, Feb 8, 2008 5:27 PM

In 2000, Coco Loco and I both quit our jobs, and went on pretty much the exact same road trip. We didn't know exactly where we were going, we just got in the car, headed south to Los Angeles, and made a left. Three months or so later, we ended up in Key West. We mainly focused our journeys on the deep south, on or around I-10, and worked our way back to California on I-40.

There are a couple of books that I highly recommend. One is for restaurants, called "Where The Locals Eat". Every dining recommendation delivered, whether they were hole in the wall dives or upscale restaurants. And it was great to be able to find and support the local independent restaurants instead of just large industrial chains. The other is "Roadside America", which is great for finding the world's largest ball of twine, Carhenge, Meteor Crater, various muffler men, Coral Castle, Big Daddy Don Garlits Drag Racing Museum, etc.

I could go on and on and on about places to visit and check out, but I'll try to make an abbreviated list here.

Arizona - Trader Vic's, Kon Tiki, Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Tombstone, Shady Dell Trailer Park in Bisbee, and The Thing - Mystery Of The Desert.

New Mexico - Carlsbad Caverns. Check out the caverns, and beat the heat during the day, check out millions of bats exiting the cave during the bat night flight at dusk. Roswell isn't too far from Carlsbad, but it's UFO Festival is highly over-rated - I wouldn't recommend it unless you were passing through on your way to Albuquerque or something.

Texas - The Alamo, The San Antonio River Walk, The Big Texan, home of the 72 Ounce Steak Challenge in Amarillo, and the Cadillac Ranch. I haven't been to Austin, so I have no recommendations for there.

Tennessee - Memphis is a must, including Graceland, Sun Studios, Beale St. - B.B. King's, Blue City BBQ, Rendezvous, EP's Restaurant for a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. The Jack Daniels Distillery tour is great, you cah hit that on your way to Nashville.

Key West - Blue Heaven Carribbean Restaurant is a must, Sloppy Joe's Bar, Southern Most Point in the U.S., Hemmingway House, sunset celebration at Mallory Square every evening.

Other Florida Key things to check out are the Dolphin Research Center, and the Turtle Hospital, both in Marathon. Also, on your way into or out of the Keys, check out Coral Castle, and make sure to go to the Everglades Alligator Farm, where you can not only check out the alligators, but you can also go on a killer air boat ride in the everglades - definitely an E ticket ride!!! :D

Ft. Lauderdale - The Mai Kai!!! A must see!!! It's amazing!!! You won't regret going there!

Orlando - tons of theme park stuff to do. Of course I have to recommend Walt Disney World. And as an alternative, Universal Studios Islands Of Adventure is great. I've heard Cypress Gardens is nice, but I haven't been there. Remember, there is so much theme park stuff to do there, you can get burned out, so don't try to do it all, just pick a few favorite things. If you're not so much a theme park guy, you can still check out Walt Disney World's Pleasure Island, especially The Adventurer's Club. Also, Universal Studio's City Walk has some good bars, including a Pat O'Brien's, and for you a Margaritaville. :)

If you have time, go over to Cocoa Beach to the Kennedy Space Center, it's great. Also, you can try to catch a space shuttle launch, but even better than that, you can go to Jetty Park, which is directly across the water channel from the Cape Canaveral rocket launch pads - they are constantly launching Titan and Delta rockets from there, carrying satellites and such into space - you'll be less than a mile from the launch pad, so go out onto the pier, watch the rockets launch, and feel the whole earth tremble and shake!!! It's amazing!!!

Also, if you are heading up I-95 to New York, I would recommend stopping at St. Augustine, Fl, since it's the country's oldest city (older than Jamestown). Savannah, GA, was great too, and for one of the best southern style meals you'll ever have go to Mrs. Wilke's Boarding House, where they will bring out huge plates of fried chicken, okra, mac salad, etc, and you sit down family style with a bunch of strangers and start passing plates like it was Thanksgiving. That's as far north as I made it on the east coast.

Anyways, it's great that you can take this trip. What you will discover is that there is a whole lot to see and do across this vast country. I wouldn't be surprised if you extended your vacation longer, and I would highly recommend that you do extend your time out on the road if possible. With all of lifes complexities and obligations, these kind of trips are hard to do - I know that Coco Loco and I have talked about going on another grand journey for the past 8 years, and have not been able to pull it off. So go for it while you can!!! And have fun!!! Cheers,
-Mai Tai

"It's Mai Tai. It's out of this world." - Victor Jules Bergeron Jr.

[ Edited by: Mai Tai 2008-02-08 17:58 ]