If you’ve been keeping up with my posts, you’ll notice I’m unfurling our 3-week road trip a bit at a time. I could have easily retitled my post How To Successfully Stay in Motels with a Dog While on a Long Road Trip and Still See Stunning Scenery…
Today’s Sunday Stills theme is “roads, paths, and streets.” I share more about our road trip through a photo journal format and our perspectives on the accommodations in which we stayed. Enjoy the images.
“Still, round the corner, there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.” – J. R. R. Tolkien
What’s Been on My Calendar?
I’m sharing details of our road trip for this monthly feature. Each day, most drive times ranged from 5-9 hours. We stayed a whole week in San Diego, which was the main reason to take the trip. I learned from a family member that staying at least two nights in a location enabled us to spend a whole day exploring the area. A good idea for us and highly recommended if you have the time. In fact, Slow Travel is becoming popular, according to this article from the AARP website (which interestingly popped up in the AARP app), while I was composing this post. Glad to know I’m on trend!
Many thanks to Debbie, Sue, and Jo for hosting WBOMC.
Ways to Take to the Road
Many of our road trips involve pulling our 28-ft travel trailer with my hubby’s truck. We simply choose some dates, secure camping spot(s), make some plans to visit any new places we haven’t seen yet, park the trailer and drive to various points of interest, then come back to our lovely home on wheels. Easy-peasy! And a component of the Slow Travel trend.
When traveling with fur babies, our dogs love the trailer since it feels and smells like home to them. Little Aero spent countless weekends in our various trailers and always felt comfortable, even if we left him there alone for a few hours to do something that wasn’t dog friendly. We added Brodie, our Boykin Spaniel, to the travel mix in 2017 with weekend trips to the Sacramento delta and he got comfortable quickly.
With Aero gone now, we have only Brodie who travels well in the car or truck. We discovered in 2019, when we were traveling back and forth from Sacramento to Spokane and staying in hotels, that Brodie cannot handle being in hotel rooms with interior doors that open to a common hallway. He barked, howled, scratched, etc., and kept us up all night. We nearly got asked to leave, and we learned our lesson quickly.
When this road trip began to shape up, built around my daughter’s wedding on April 1, we opted not to pull the trailer this time due to lingering winter conditions over several mountain passes. We chose to drive my Ford Flex with its brand-new all-weather tires and plenty of room! The mileage from Nine Mile Falls, Washington to San Diego, California is 1500 miles!
“Look at life through the windshield, not the rearview mirror.” — Byrd Baggett
The Search for Accommodations
I researched accommodations that were not only pet friendly but had the exterior door to the parking lot (think motel or cabin), a dog park area, and a free breakfast bar. Not that I’m advertising, but Best Western Hotels and Resorts fit these parameters quite nicely and were available in almost every city we stayed. Whether you choose this chain or not, it’s great to become a rewards member for perks and use their website to book your stays. We discovered other motels that were affiliated with Best Westerns as a “Sure Stay” or a “Best Western Plus.”
Note that pet-friendly hotels charge $10-30 a day for a “pet deposit,” and most are non-refundable. Cheaper than doggy day care plus our dog can be with us.
MARCH 26 DAY 1: ROAD TRIP BEGINS
We chose to drive a highway route in Eastern Washington toward the Boise, Idaho area. We drove through Hells Canyon, Idaho which was covered in snow but beautiful. I scheduled one overnight stay at Motel 6 in Ontario, Oregon, no frills, no breakfast—and we lost an hour to Mountain Standard Time. I read Hells Canyon is the deepest canyon in America!
“According to the map, we’ve only gone four inches.” – Dumb & Dumber
MARCH 27 DAY 2: DRIVING THROUGH UTAH
Leaving Idaho, our 8-hour drive took us through Salt Lake City, Utah, just hours on the heels of a huge winter storm. I-15 northbound was closed for miles due to overturned semis and poor weather.
Luckily we were southbound.
“You may not find a path, but you will find a way.” – Tom Wolfe
I scheduled one overnight stay in Beaver, Utah at a Best Western motel. Excellent customer service and a wonderful breakfast bar. Beaver was a cute little town in southern Utah, rural like ours, and such friendly people.
Mar 28 – April 4 Day 3: Arrival in San Diego, CA, 1500 miles total
After 9 hours of driving—we got our hour back. We stayed at Lamplighter Inns and Suites in San Diego for 7 nights. It was dog-friendly and close to my daughter’s home. We scored an upgraded suite at no charge and enjoyed their awesome breakfast bar. It was very quiet, even near a main street in the San Diego State University area of town. A little pricey but the free upgrade and peace of mind were worth it.
Just a few days before the wedding we visited Mt Helix.
Another look at the wedding. As the mother of the bride, I enjoyed a short walk on the path from the parking lot to the wedding venue.
My son-in-law loves his bikes. They brought one to the wedding for some special photo ops. And yes, Lauren’s leather jacket says “Til Death.” Irony or commitment?
“I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me.” – Walt Whitman
April 4-7 Day 10: To Scottsdale, Arizona
We stayed with Marsha in their Airbnb condo in Scottsdale, Arizona. Excellent accommodations and service 😊 More about that trip here.
The road through Arizona/Utah border, near Lake Powell.
April 7-9 Day 13: Easter weekend in Bryce Canyon
We drove from Arizona back to Southern Utah (Bryce Canyon) to stay at Best Western Ruby’s Inn. A busy place due to the “holiday.” There was free breakfast, but you had to go into the restaurant for the breakfast buffet and sit down. The food was OK. Our accommodations were subpar—we found wet carpet next to our bed near the wall by the bathroom. Melting snow constantly dripped off the roof walking into the room. We opted to stay in the room for the two nights because I wasn’t about to move again, but we received a good discount.
April 9-11 Day 15: Logan, northern Utah near the Idaho border
We stayed at the Baugh Motel, a Sure Stay affiliate of Best Western. There was an excellent breakfast bar and we felt like we had the entire 75-room motel to ourselves. You can see my lonely red car parked.
Did I mention my dog Brodie loves road trips? He was exceptionally good and received many compliments from people.
“Dogs love road trips because they get to spend all day in the car with their favorite person.” ~ Unknown
Logan is home to Utah State University and is a cool little college town, about 80 miles north of Salt Lake City. Part of the reason we stayed there was to drive back to Salt Lake City and see some sights. I just love how the huge, snow-covered mountains to the east created such gorgeous backdrops to the City centers.
I will share more scenes from our visit to Salt Lake City, on May 7th (the Sunday Stills theme is Temples, Churches, and Spiritual Centers).
“Road trips are the equivalent of human wings. Ask me to go on one, anywhere. We’ll stop in every small town and learn the history and stories, feel the ground and capture the spirit. Then, we’ll turn it into our own story that will live inside our history to carry with us always. Because stories are more important than things.” — Victoria Erickson
When we left Logan to travel north to Montana, we drove through Idaho Falls then veered East on Hwy 20 where we could see the Grand Teton Mountain Range in Wyoming from the viewpoint in Rexburg, Idaho. The viewpoint was about 70 miles from the mountain range as the crow flies, affording us a spectacular view.
April 11-13 Day 17 Big Sky Country, Montana
Continuing north on Hwy 20 we got close to the West Yellowstone turnoff, but all roads were closed, due to, you guessed it…snow. We continued north on Hwy 287 which brought us to Helena, Montana.
We stayed at the Lamplighter Cabins and Suites, independently owned and in the heart of Helena, Montana’s state capital. Our cabin was small, with tiny, awkward floor space, no breakfast, but dog friendly. Lots of restaurants within walking distance. With a Winter storm warning coming in mere hours, we spent a drizzly day in downtown where we also visited the state capitol building and the huge Catholic church.
Montana became the 41st state to be admitted to the US in 1889. The capitol building was completed in 1902.
We had wanted to stay closer to Bozeman, where the TV series “Yellowstone” is filmed but the accommodations were very expensive! I also wanted a shorter drive home since Helena is less than a six-hour drive.
Day 18, April 13 Homeward Bound
Winter weather caught up with us as we packed the car and left Helena. We followed the snow plow for the first 40 miles on Hwy 12, then drove I-90 through Central Montana, the Idaho panhandle to Spokane, then the few miles north to Nine Mile Falls.
The check tire pressure light came on after the “escort,” so we pulled in for gas and air fill-up. With snow and mud coating the tires, we figured the sudden cold temps caused the tires to lose a bit of air. Once home, turned out we picked up a nail between the treads of the driver’s side front tire!
“Because the greatest part of a road trip isn’t arriving at your destination. It’s all the wild stuff that happens along the way.” — Emma Chase
As much as I enjoyed our three-week road trip and all the milestone events and sights, I could have kissed the ground of our backyard when we arrived home. Even with spring’s slow start, I spied an emerging arrowleaf sunflower and new growth on our baby western larch trees, ensuring spring is finally here!
Trip mileage driving from San Diego back home was 1900 miles, with a total tally of 3400 miles driven round trip.
Worth. Every. Mile.
Photo Challenges I’m Inspired By this Week
Each week I find inspiration from my fellow bloggers’ photography and other creative challenges. I enjoy incorporating these into my Sunday Stills weekly themes.
- Marsha’s Wednesday Quotes: Writer’s Choice
- BushBoy’s Last on the Card (see below)
- Cee’s Flower of the Day
- Dawn’s Spring Festival
- Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday
- Hammad’s Weekend Sky
- Lens-Artists: Backlit
“Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?” ― Garth Nix, Sabriel.
Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders
The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo challenge is easy to join. You have all week to share and link your post.
- Remember to title your blog post a little differently than mine.
- Please create a new post for the theme or link a recent one.
- Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
- Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
- Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
- I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.
This Week’s Featured Bloggers
Sunday Stills is a wonderful community of bloggers and photographers who desire to connect with one another. Below are this week’s links from bloggers who shared their photos of views from or on the road, path, or street. I add these all week as new links are posted. I also add links to posts I read that fit the theme.
- YOUR BLOG’S NAME HERE…
- Always Write
- Between the Lines
- Bushboys World
- Calling All RushBabes
- Cats and Trails and Garden Tales
- Cee’s Photo Challenges
- The Day After
- Deb’s World
- Denyse Whelan Blogs
- Equipoise Life
- Frost on the Moose Dung
- NEW Gfpacificbee’s Insights & photography
- Graham’s Island
- Hugh’s Views and News Image shared in comments
- Horse Addict
- Lady Lee Manila
- Live Laugh RV
- Loving Life
- Musin’ with Susan
- Philosophy through Photography
- Picture Retirement
- Quaint Revival
- Roberta Writes
- Stevie Turner
- This is Another Story
- Travel with Me
- WillowDot21
- Woolly Muses
- Working on Exploring
Themes for the month of May are ready to view on my Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Page. This page is updated monthly.
New here? Subscribe to Second Wind Leisure Perspectives to receive my weekly posts.
Thank you for traveling all 3400 miles with us on this long, slightly strange trip. I’m excited to see what your photos from the road, street, or path look like! Have a wonderful week!
© 2023-2031 Copyright — secondwindleisure.com — All Rights Reserved
Second Wind Leisure Perspectives 
Leave a reply to Hudie Cancel reply