Corey Stokes

10 Lessons learned from traveling across the country!

I recently traveled from Kansas to Los Angeles with my wife, my son and 3 dogs. While the trip was absolutely amazing, there were a few things that I wished I would have done differently! There were also things that I wished I would have known before hand I started driving. If you are doing any kind of long distance driving on your next vacation, you can use the lessons learned to help you plan your road trip.

Here are 10 lessons that I learned on my way to LA and back!

Travel with a destination or a stopping point in mind! The first day of the trip I started driving with the end destination in mind. I planned on stopping somewhere in New Mexico for a nights sleep. But, I did not think to make reservations at a hotel in New Mexico. By the time I realized it, all hotels in the area were booked. That was the first and only time we started driving with no destination in mind. At breakfast, we planned and made reservations for the next leg of our trip.
Check and verify! We ended up staying an extra day in Arizona because I didn’t double check the distance between our current location New Mexico) and our destination (The Grand Canyon). If we had hard time constraint this extra day would have limited the rest of the trip.
Look for hotels with inside doors! I didn’t write this in the original post, but the original hotel we were scheduled to stay at near the Grand Canyon did not appeal to us at all. Later we found out that many people book at that hotel and change reservations at the sight of it. The Customer representative at the second hotel said “Hotels with room access on the inside of the building tend represent a more quality in appearance and in feel.”
Don’t forget the Kennel! Even though they will find a place to sleep, you don’t want your pets to create a bed out of your suitcase. We travel with our dogs almost everywhere we go and usually stay at LaQuinta Inns and Suites along the way. This was Bailey’s first hotel trip. While the older dogs are not as anxious about the outside sounds and everyone that passes by the room, Bailey wanted to huff and bark at everything that moved. She, like most puppy, was so curious about her surroundings, wich made it difficult for anyone to sleep some nights. Had we remembered to bring her kennel she would have had something familiar to return to.
Keep costs down by cooking in your room! We called ahead to confirm that the hotels would allow us to cook in our room. Two of the things we packed to bring with us were our electric skillet and a rice cooker. We limited our dining out and ate as if we were home. Note: when cooking in your hotel room, open the door or the window!
If you have done any type of Interstate driving, you know that once you leave an area your beloved radio station will be gone! Even if you have Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Prime Music or any other streaming service chances are, if there is no cellular signal on the road, there will be no radio. In my wife’s vehicle, the CD deck is not working so playing a CD was not an option. Even if you have a hot spot, limited cellular service will hinder your ability to stream. Plan ahead, download a playlist long enough to last the entire drive just in case. If you are like me and like to listen to audio-books during long drives, download them ahead of time. Also, make sure your copilot will enjoy the book you choose as well. Oh yeah! Did I mention, Download it before you leave!
Don’t forget the entertainment for the kids! We normally travel with a movie player in the car, but this time, we chose to use a wireless hotspot. My son has an old phone that he is using over WiFi and we thought that would work for him. Unfortunately, that was the only thing that he had for entertainment. Once we hit New Mexico and the cellular signal disappeared, so did his entertainment. If you have a removable media player for your car, make sure it stays in the car! There is bound to be a red box when you stop by Walmart for your bathroom break. Or, download extra content from your app store if your device will allow it.
Remember the doggy breath mints or pet treats and toys! I don’t know about your pets, but mine love being right in my ear looking out the window as I drive. Even if you are on top of your pet’s dental hygiene, pet breath has a strong smell.Your pets need something to do while they are in the car as well. Just remember if you are going to go the route of treats… What goes in must come out.

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A road trip of a lifetime!: From Kansas to Los Angeles and back

I did it! I finally made my way to the west coast! Even though I only planned to go to Arizona.

This summer, the Stokes family (minus one) decided to hit the road and go on an actual road trip. With only one destination in mind, we packed the car and made our way west to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. This trip was truly an adventure.

Day one: I booked our hotel in Arizona, I planned the route… I did it! But my initial excitement was short lived. While we did plan to stop in New Mexico, I’d forgotten to make the hotel reservations near Santa Fe. When I called an hour away from arriving, every hotel was booked. We drove until we found a rest stop which provided a place to recover for the night!

Note to self: don’t forget to make reservations for in between stops!!!

Day 2, New Mexico

I’m not sure what woke me up. I guess it was a mix of the constant movement, and people talking outside my window. We had stopped about 2 hours outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. We have a friend from high School that recently moved out that way so we ended the drive in front of her door. Of course, I wasn’t coherent enough to drive any more than those two hours, luckily my original hotel blunder was rectified when we were able to get a hotel for the night.

We arrived in Santa Fe during the wee hours of the morning, later I realized is was about 4 am. The time change from central Standard to Mountain time really threw me off. Since the town wasn’t quite awake yet we decided to do some site seeing!

Awake and ready for adventure:

We ended up at Tent Rock, New Mexico. If you follow my Facebook page, you have seen many of the pictures. Wow, what a treat this was! The views from the elevated altitude were simply amazing. Even with my fear of heights, it was truly enjoyable.

At some point during the hike, I thought “I should turn on my fitness tracker” in order to track it as exercise. Hearing my wife and son’s enjoyment along with the beautiful trails, I never transitioned that thought into an action. Needless to say, amidst the fun, I did meet all of my fitness goals for my day in New Mexico.

After Tent Rock, we met up with our friend for ice cream before heading back to the hotel for some much-needed sleep.

Day 3, Arizona!!!! Oops wrong part

After having such a great time in New Mexico, we were ready to get to the Grand Canyon. The drive from Santa Fe to Arizona was breathtaking. The view of the mountain’s from the highway was enough to make me wish I want the one driving!

7 hours later we arrived in Phoenix. The destination we wrongly set out for from the start. I’d booked the hotel thinking we were only an hour or so away from the Grand Canyon. We arrived with enough time to grab something to eat, and get directions to what we’d come to see only to realize that the Grand Canyon was 3 hours away! Had we not already check in to the hotel we could have driven the remaining three hours. Since we were there, we decided to stay in Phoenix for the night. At least we made it to Arizona. Right? 😖

We’d hope to see some firework celebrating the Fourth of July, but there was not a fireworks display for miles. I spent the evening swimming in the hotel pool with my son. He and another little boy his age decided to make of game of how far I could throw them in the pool.

Another thing worth noting about the drive thus far is about the availability of a cellular signal. Once we left Oklahoma the less of a cell signal we had. This made using our cell phone as a GPS and a radio really difficult. Arizona was mostly desert. We ended up reactivating an old SiriusXM radio subscription in order to have music for the drive. We would get a flood of message alerts when we drove through a major city. But, it only lasted a minute or two while we were close to the city.

Day 4, Grand Canyon

We finally made it to Flagstaff AZ., the closest hotel that we could get to the Grand Canyon, without staying at the Grand Canyon. After checking in, we were off. After driving for an additional hour and a half, we made it to the Grand Canyon!

A trip to the Grand Canyon is a must. The pictures that were posted, really do nothing for the extraordinary views. We took a tour along the red bus routes. We were told that this was the most scenic view of the canyon. We took the bus to one location and then walked along the rim of the canyon to the next location in order to catch the bus to a location that simply amazed us.

We stayed until sundown. Watching the sun set over the canyon as we made our way back to end the 4th day of our adventure.

Originally, this was supposed to be the end of the trip. But along the way to we started seeing signs for Los Angeles. Seeing the signs begged the question, how much further could it be? By the end of the day, our plans were set to spend the next two days on a beach in Los Angeles.

Day 5 and Day 6, Los Angeles

Roughly 7 hours later we were checking into our hotel in Los Angeles. In hind-site, I should have booked a hotel closer to the beach because we never did make it to the sandy beaches of California. Instead, we went shopping in the most bizarrely situated Walmart I’d ever seen. I used to think that if you have shopped at one Walmart, you could find your way in any Walmart, regardless of the city. I guess they didn’t get the memo. We spent nearly half the day of our first full day in California trying to find supplies in Walmart.

Later, we’d decided to try to find our way to the Hollywood sign. Apparently, there was a hiking trail that leads to the top of the mountain. We followed the GPS directions, to what we’d hoped would be the Hollywood sign and found ourselves at Griffith Park home to Griffith Observatory… WOW!!

If you have ever heard me tell stories about my wife and “following a crowd” this will come as no surprise to you. We followed the crowd! To my surprise, the great gem that awaited us was better than anything that we could have hoped for. We sat through an amazing exhibit at the planetarium about the sky, stars, and planets. We walked around and were truly amazed by what we’d found by mistake.

We got directions from the locals and finally made it to the Hollywood sign just before the sun started to set.

My thoughts: Fast Girl A life spent running from madness

Let me preface this by saying although this book was on my reading list, it was a “blind pick.” I did not know anything about Suzy Favor Hamilton prior to doing a bit of research (A google search) on her after getting half way through the book. I picked up the audiobook after searching for books on running. I’d already read the first two that populated my search and the next one in line, was this one.

I must say although it wasn’t at all what I was expecting, I really did enjoy listening to it. I enjoyed hearing Suzy’s story which brought me through the ups and downs as she experienced them. I found myself yelling at her through my radio and at times, because I couldn’t understand why she would risk her life and reputation. It felt like I was listening to a fictional novel not the story of someone’s life.

Had I known what I was getting myself into when I started listening to this book, I would not have listened with my children in the car with me. When the book went into something I didn’t want to explain to my kids, I’d simply switched books, normally Ghost in the wires, Kevin Mitnick’s story, then put Suzy’s book back on when they were not in the car. My son, who had really started to enjoy Fast Girl asked me after Kevin dropped a couple of F-bombs, “both books have bad words, why can I not listen to Suzy’ book?” I had to explain to him (11-year-old) the difference between adult language and adult content. I had to explain to him what an escort was when the book spoke about calling a service for the couple’s first night in Los Vegas. But When the book went started telling about Suzy’s insatiable sexual desires and her masturbating several times… my fingers could not hit the stop button faster enough. But that has nothing to do with the book. I wasn’t ready to give that explanation to my children.

I could relate, on some level to Suzy’s story. Which for me, made this book hard to put down. I wanted to see her get through her struggles. Although, I had to run for my job, I started to enjoy running after a hard time in my life. I’ve been running ever since.