I recently planned a road trip from Southern California to Dallas, Texas, but ended up making it as far as El Paso, Texas before deciding to return because the drive was exhausting, plus there were warnings for tornadoes in Dallas. For those of you who enjoy learning about travel, here is a brief summary of the trip!
I left from the Inland Empire of Southern California on May 13, driving on the 10 east to Phoenix. This was an easy drive that had two lanes after making it past the east side of the Coachella Valley. There were plenty of gas stations along the way, with Quartzsite, Arizona having more interesting shops and locations. The total time driving to Phoenix was six hours.
I met with a group of people interested in Republican Atheists in Central Phoenix, which was a busy city center but much more manageable than Los Angeles. I stayed at a friend’s house in Goodyear, Arizona, located 40 minutes west of central Phoenix. Despite Goodyear being on the far outskirts of Phoenix, it had a surprising amount of development, such as housing and shopping centers. My friend mentioned Phoenix is currently one of the fastest growing cities in the United States.
The next day I went to Scottsdale, Arizona (right beside Phoenix) to attend a livestreamed FOX Nation Fan Summit event. I had been invited by a friend to attend and figured why not since I had never been to an event like that before. It was interesting to see a number of Fox News personalities in person, and to see camera people dashing around them as they spoke into the camera. I met David Webb, host of ‘Reality Check’ on FOX Nation, and Ed Henry, whom currently serves as Fox News’ chief national correspondent. I left with a Fox Nation towel.
After visiting Phoenix for two days, I continued on the 10 freeway for approximately three hours to Tombstone, Arizona, a famous old western town. After exiting the east side of Phoenix, the hot desolate desert emerged again, and there wasn’t much to look at. On the way to Tucson there was a billboard advertising an ostrich farm, which I would have visited if I had more time. I drove through Tucson on the 10, which had a central area with a few high rise buildings, but still appeared to be a relatively small town surrounded by empty dusty desert.
Finally I made it to Benson, Arizona, where I merged onto the 80 highway heading south to Tombstone. The sparse desert landscape surprisingly began to have more vegetation. I first assumed Tombstone would be a decaying western town that I would stroll through in an hour or so, but while there I learned that the town is well maintained and is full of activity.
I first stopped at the Tombstone cemetery, the first attraction when driving into town from the 80 north. A brochure about the cemetery stated that the location had long been abandoned and was nearly overtaken by the desert landscape, until residents became interested in restoring the site and learning about the people buried there. Grave sites featured piles of rocks that had wood markers stating how the person passed away, such as, “Hanged,” or just said, “Unknown,” if no information was found.
Next I explored the main street of the town, which had a classic western look found in movies. It was surprisingly lively for being towards the end of a weekday, as people strolled through shops and took stagecoach rides. Main street had a dirt road where horses pulled stagecoaches with tourists, and cars were not permitted. I went to one of the shops and bought a couple of souvenirs and a craft soda, and then sat on a bench outside in the shade on the wood walkway.
I soon saw four men wearing black western garb oddly walking down the road together. They stopped and stood in the middle of the town’s dirt road for everyone to see. I thought perhaps they were western enthusiasts, until one yelled out in a “sheriff-ish” voice that a gun show would be starting in 15 minutes and that people should buy their tickets now. I had never seen a gun show before, and thought if there was ever a place to see a gun show it would probably be Tombstone, so I bought a ticket for $10. The ticket paid for a viewing of the gun show, viewing of a mini-documentary about Tombstone, viewing of a museum area and a classic printed newspaper.
On the way to the gun show arena there were lots of old western artifacts on display, such as funeral carriages, old cash registers and horse riding equipment. I made it to the show area and took a seat in the bleachers, and so did other people from the public. The show started and featured characters that had really lived in Tombstone at one point. The story line focused on conflict between the local police squad and a few unruly men, resulting in a shootout. The show was over within 15 minutes.
After spending over five hours in Tombstone, I decided it was time to sojourn on to El Paso since the sun was beginning to set and I still had five hours to drive. I would have preferred more time to visit Tombstone since there was so much more to see! I made a brief stop in the small town of Bisbee, Arizona, which has a history in mining. The town is situated in a narrow canyon and has a unique Italian-feel with narrow alley ways and structures built into the hills. I will note that the town had a very “liberal” feel because of posters on buildings and the types of businesses there, and a person I’m acquainted with mentioned it is the most liberal city in its county. It reminded me liberal hub Arcata, CA, in Humboldt County. Not much time to waste, on to El Paso.
Finally I made it to east side of El Paso a little past midnight. I brought my bags into the hotel room and hit the sack. The next day I drove through Socorro, Texas, located right alongside the Mexican border, to go to central El Paso. Socorro had a third world country appearance and reminded me of Mexico. There was trash on the ground and bent chain link fences that were fallen over, as well as a number of abandoned structures with caved in roofs. The businesses did not have modern light signs that are usually seen throughout the US, but rather were painted on, similar to structures in Mexico.
I came upon the 10 freeway that would drive right along the border and into central El Paso; however there was construction being done on the on ramp and I had to turn down another road to try to get on the freeway. The road quickly became congested and I learned I was actually in line to cross into Mexico, which was something I did not want to do. Thankfully I was able to turn onto another road and get back on the 10.
I got off the 10 within 10 minutes and was in a populated area on the outskirts of the central El Paso. This area also had a feeling of poverty because there was no consistent planning and businesses still boasted painted signs like Mexico. I stopped at a bakery to purchase pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread) and asked the young person managing the cash register how to get to the city core. He was nice, well spoken and gave me directions.
Finally I made it to central El Paso, which contained a nice center park area and a number of old high rise buildings that had classic architecture and aged advertisements on the walls. Vintage electric trolleys moved through the city, which I later learned were the city’s original trolleys from the early 1900s that transported people before cars became more popular. The trolleys were installed to improve the city’s ambiance and draw visitors to the area.
I picked up a map that noted points of interest in the central area, and decided to visit a museum that showcased El Paso’s history. The museum featured information about the area’s indigenous history, development and how land came to be transferred to the United States from Mexico. The museum takes a couple hours to view. After leaving the museum I decided to drive an hour north to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where I would stay the night. I was expecting Las Cruces to have a similar trashy appearance to El Paso, but was surprised to see the city was actually well maintained and clean. The city was relatively small and many buildings had a neat adobe-theme. I visited an old part of Las Cruces, known as Mesilla. This area featured many boutique stores and restaurants located in structures that were nearly 200 years old. One building had a sign that noted it used to be the capitol building for both New Mexico and Arizona before the two states split. Notorious outlaw Billy the Kid also has history there. One of my favorite things in Mesilla was seeing dried peppers hanging from the structures for decoration. I had never seen those before in California or Arizona.
The next day I went to a museum in Las Cruces known as the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum. A brochure drew me to the museum because it mentioned visitors can learn about livestock, dairy production, farming equipment, blacksmith work and more. I grew up close to farming in Southern California but was never much exposed to the farming industry. For some time I have thought it would be ideal to have a museum that teaches young people about livestock and farming, so perhaps this museum would be an example of that.
The museum was surprisingly large and well maintained, containing an indoor museum and corrals on the outside. A guide drove me around the corrals and gave brief descriptions of the different types of cattle, goats and other animals. He noted which countries certain cows originated from and whether they are dairy or meat cows. Many cows originally came from Scotland. The Texas Longhorn is the only cow that was bred in the United States.
I was surprised to see a huge museum inside that contained displays relating to New Mexico’s history relating to indigenous people, American settlement and ranching. There were photos of settlers doing daily activities such as camping, riding horses and spending time with their children. Needless to say, those were rough days!
After viewing the museum, I got on highway 25 and drove north to Albuquerque which took a little over three hours. The drive was beautiful, but was rather uneventful (just as uneventful as how map of New Mexico looks). There were a couple of gas stations on the way north, but otherwise it was long stretches of open land. We made it to the small town of Socorro, New Mexico, which has a number of stores, and then continued the final hour drive to Albuquerque.
I did not have much time to visit Albuquerque, or “Quircky” as locals call it. I got off the freeway and drove through central downtown which contained a number of high rise buildings, but was surprisingly empty at 5pm. There was no one walking and few cars were driving on the roads. I went to old town Albuquerque, which was very similar to Mesilla, New Mexico. There was a central area surrounded by boutique stores and restaurants in old adobe-themed buildings. I purchased a few souvenirs and got a bite to eat, then headed west on the 40 freeway for two hours to Gallup, New Mexico to spend the night.
I was glad to visit Gallup, particularly because of the mention of “Gallup, New Mexico” in the song “Route 66” by Depeche Mode (original “Route 66” was produced by Nat King Cole). I stayed at the Red Roof Inn on the far west side of town, which had a decent hotel room but horrible breakfast area. The next day I quickly drove through the main roads of Gallup, and then returned to the 40 freeway to drive five hours to Kingman, Arizona.
I had mistaken Kingman for being the town where people feed burros, but it was still a neat city to see nonetheless. Kingman contained a number of patriotic murals, and had a cool vintage car show happening while I strolled through town. I asked someone where the burros were, and he said they were actually in a town called Oatman which was about a half hour drive away.
I quickly went back to my car, got back on the 40 and then got off on a small desolate road going up to Oatman. The drive to Oatman goes up a mountain where visitors can see fantastic views of the desert floor. A burro happened to be walking on the narrow road, so I stopped and looked at it. Surprisingly it was not fearful at all, and just looked at me. I continued driving.
Finally I made it to Oatman, a small town that emerged in 1906 when a gold mine was established. The mine has since opened and closed a number of times, and right now happens to be open. Most of the business in Oatman, however, lives on tourism. A big draw of tourists are burros that walk through the town as visitors feed them hay pellets. The burros have been in the area for some time, having first arrived so miners could use them to haul gold ore. When the mine first closed the burros were let loose in the wild and have since survived. Now the burros have no problem surviving as they obtain ample food from visitors.
The town of Oatman contains various stores and restaurants where people can purchase food and snacks. It is a rather small town that people can quickly stroll through. The nearest large city is Bullhead City, located where the borders of California, Nevada and Arizona meet.
The final stretch of the trip was driving from Needles, CA to the Inland Empire, nearly a four hour drive. The road trip was a total of six days.
While I do enjoy road trips, from here on out I am most likely going to fly to a destination in the US to begin a road trip rather than start from Southern California. I have been to most parts of California, as well as surrounding states, so it has become even more time consuming to drive to new destinations. I am thinking in the future I will fly to Dallas and then rent a car to explore surrounding areas and states. I also also enjoy touring Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
Lauren Ell is an American blogger born and raised in Southern California and is currently based in Sweden. She discusses Epilepsy, Politics and Fun. Professionally Ell is an Online Marketing Consultant and Virtual Assistant. She is also founder and president of Republican Atheists and GunSafetySociety.org. Connect with Lauren on Facebook and Twitter.