FRIDAY.
Our road trip started Friday morning with a 3 hour flight from FLL to Dallas at 7am, landing us in Dallas at 9am (1 hour time difference)! P.s. we flew AAL, the flight was very smooth and clean BUT there was no social distancing which was a little stressful but we made due.
Our friend picked us up right from the airport and we were off to start our 10 day road trip,... but first coffee! If you've seen me without my morning coffee, bless your beautiful heart but imagine me in a car for 8+ hours without a coffee.. or don't cause it wouldn't be pretty...
This was an 8+ hour drive (including a few pee breaks) to see a sculptural art installation built back in October of 2005 in the middle of no mans land, literally the most boring drive (scenery wise) lol. Just land, land and a lot of bugs! But I would 10/10 recommend stopping to see it if you're ever out that way. It's real Prada merchandise but you cannot go inside, it's just for show. You have to see it during sunset, its amaaaazing. We got there around 5:45pm.
Somehow I managed to always be the first one awake & ready. Saturday Morning, we were up around 5:00am and needed to be on the road no later than 5:30am for another 1 hour drive to the White Sands National Park, New Mexico. We wanted to see the sunrise so we had to be there by 6:45am. I cannot fully explain how fucking incredible this place was. I have NEVER seen something like this before. It's literally pure white soft sand for miles and miles, it's so white that it resembles snow in pictures. It was about 48 degrees out with wind so we were a little chilly. This is a spectacular spot for engagement photos ;)
After spending about 45 min there, we were on the road again. And this was going to be the LONGEST drive, 12 & a half hours :))))) to ASPEN, CO baby! This was more of a scenic route, thank gosh. A little more than half way there, we starting going up in elevation and my ears started hurting so luckily we had altitude pills (which I highly recommend these natural capsules). I took one and took a quick nap and next thing you know, I woke up and we were basically there!! I was so ready to see Aspen for the first time. We stayed in the "W hotel", got there around 5:30pm (because there was another time difference of 2 hours now). We checked in, they gave us free Rose & some recommendations on places to go eat/grab a drink. We ended up walking like 5 min to a speak easy underground bar called "hooch", awesome crafted cocktails and apps. And then we went to dinner at "White House Tavern" and I had the French dip (GET IT, YOU'LL THANK ME!!). Then we just walked around the town, but because of COVID, we ended up going back to the hotel since they had a curfew. The next morning we got up early, walked to a little coffee shop around the corner called "Local Coffee House", I got a hot latte and blueberry buckwheat pancakes. I figured hell, I'm in Aspen, lets get some boujee pancakes! Yes they actually were very good. Then we took the long way back to the hotel to check out, but of course I wanted to stop in a dispensary because what the heck, I've never been somewhere that allowed you to walk right in & buy a pre-rolled, so we did. I will say, Aspen I am coming back for you!
SUNDAY.
Talk about anxiety!!! 11,700+ elevation on the side of a rocky mountain, one wrong turn and bye byeeee. If my mom even knew what I was doing she would have called the damn swat team to come bombard my vaca and take my ass home. Im not gonna lie, it was a little sketchy. But I'm also not a fan of heights especially on a small edge. There was an old crushed car when we looked over the edge (RIP), and at that very moment, me & Gal said NOPE! We got out and started walking the trail. If you love thrill and long bumpy trails then this is for you. If not, then choose a different route! There is a first & a last time for everything, and that will be the last time I go on that route :) I don't even what to show the pictures because they don't do it justice, plus I only got pics on the beginning which was smooth!! I couldn't even think about taking pictures during the scary part, I needed both hands on the door incase I needed to jump out lmao. This pass took like 2 hours to get all the way to another town. When we finally got into Telluride, we stopped for a quick bite to eat at Gold Belt Bar & Grill, we all ordered Rueben's and then got back in the jeep and drove like another (1) hour to a hotel. All that anxiety knocked me and Gal out like a light!
MONDAY.
Another early morning for us. We woke up around 6:30am, packed up our bags and got back in the jeep (7am) to start heading back south to New Mexico. Another 3 1/2 hour drive to check out "Bisti Badlands". (Got there around 11:00am) Think of a legit desert.. that's what this place was. Just miles of flat land with these random giant rocks all shaped so oddly but fascinating. If there was any sort of wild animal out there, you better hope there's a rock big enough to hide you, that's all. Of course mark was looking for specific rock lmaooo so we walked quite a ways until finally me & Gal said "Yeah, you're on your own buddy, we're going back". 9/10 recommend to visit, but don't be an idiot like us & bring water with you.. we started heading out around 12:30pm
Next stop, Moab, UT!!
We were dying to get here. This place was epic! We drove another 4 hours straight to Arches National Park, UT. The hike to the Delicate Arch is 3 miles total, climbing 480 ft. Being this far into the trip, my body went into "get it" mode. Half way through the hike my friends slowed down but I couldn't stop. I was certain to cross this off my bucket list. So I kept going, my heart was pretty much beating out of my chest because of the incline and the cold temp was not helping lol but I finally got to the top and finally sat down and enjoyed the sunset while I waiting for them to make it up. This is a MUST DO. The view is sick, for someone who has not traveled much.. this was such an eye opener. Like I cannot believe shit like this exists. So yeah, we watched the sunset and then realized we still had to walk back but now in the pitch dark. Totally worth it, 12/10 recommend!! By the time we got back to the jeep, it was now 7pm. We were starving so we made reservations at the best Thai place called "Arches Thai" which was PHENOMENAL, and lucky enough our hotel was right across the street, called "Hoodoo", this hotel was absolutely beautiful.
I woke up around 7am, & walked over to a cute little coffee shop and picked up coffee for all of us, pretty much gave myself a 3rd degree burn holding the hot coffee walking back because they were out of cup holders, but it's all good. Then we went to the restaurant in the hotel and had breakfast at "Josie Wyatt's Grille". If you know me, you know I'm a sweets person so I got the frosted flakes french toast & everyone at the table drooled over it. It was fire. My future husband better learn how to make that, just saying.. Then we headed to Canyonlands National Park for more sight seeing. Got some giant ass crew looking thing in the tire, so we took a quick 30 min break to change the tire out, NBD. We made it into a little photoshoot lol Then we continued on our route up a steep side of a mountain, reminded me of that sketchy "jeep trail".. but such awesome views. At this point it was about 5:00pm ending the trail. Now to the fun part...
We now needed a place to sleep & decided to try a cool Airbnb out in the middle of freaking no where of Monument Valley, UT, which is where part of Forrest Gump was filmed. We found one that had 4 stars but we never actually read the reviews.. when we arrived to the Airbnb around 7:00pm (Yes another 2 hour drive) we realized the only thing around to eat was fast food and for some odd reason (or maybe because the only life out there were coyotes & rabbits) everything closed early so our last resort was a damn burger king so we ran there before going to the Airbnb. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Im pretty sure we all ordered the veggie burger at Burger King too, hahah. Then when we finally go to the Airbnb, we walked in and the lights didn't work :) P.S. its dark as heck out, I hear the coyotes coming for me & I felt like some Freddy v. Jason shit was about to go down. I was not ok. We then figured out the house was ran on solar panels & there was a generator that we needed to find somewhere outside. So long story short, we had no light till morning, we didn't even know what the house looked like, thank gosh for phone flash lights, but again, it's the little things like this that makes the trip that much more interesting. So we decided to build a fire outside, chill out and look at the stars. Finally in the morning, we saw how cool of a place we stayed at. We were able to actually see what the house looked like. I would recommend it but with the whole light situation, I'll give it a solid 6/10.
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