Road Trip Travel Log 05.08.25

Ride along with us once again on another one of our great American family road trips. This year we are westward bound, headed back to Williams, Arizona to dip our toes in the Grand Canyon, and to visit an extraordinary park I’ve wanted to see for a good five years now — Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado.

As you can see, we were packed pretty tight. This is more or less the same arrangement of space we’ve used for years now, but with the kids a lot older and bigger than when we first started setting out on the road, we figure it’ll be the last time we try to cram everything into the cab like this.

I’ve wanted to go to Sand Dunes since I first heard about it on one of the national parks videos we watched sometime after our first big trip in 2017.

Something about that weird juxtaposition of sand and high altitudes. The place seems to have a kind of magical aura about it. Like it doesn’t quite belong in this world.

Later I’d find out how appropriate that initial impression was.

Another reason for this particular trip plan was for Kassi and I to test our legs and knees on an actual descent into the Grand Canyon. We are preparing for a much bigger hike there later this year, if all works out well.

We like to end all our trips with either a weird event-style destination, or a big celebratory meal. This year we made reservations at the Big Texan, Texas’s biggest Route 66 attraction, and where they do that thing where if you eat all of the ridiculously oversized steak you don’t have to pay for it.

Always makes me think of that scene from The Great Outdoors. Probably worth a rewatch. I forgot the menus were printed sawed off planks of tree. Nice touch.

Practically all of our big vacations have been in the four corners states. As a result we always leave Texas along the same route headed for Albuquerque. Over the years I’ve begun to watch for certain landmarks along the road. This one old shack always catches my eye. I’ve taken many pictures of it from the car. It’s a spooky old place, in its abandonment and overall decrepit condition. I wonder about the history of spots like that.

Another thing I look for is that first small mesa you spot off the road outside of Amarillo. It’s not much, but it’s a sure sign you’re leaving the flat plains of Texas behind, and are coming up on the drier and more visually interesting terrain of New Mexico. That, for me, is where it feels like you’re really entering “the Great American West.”

You see a lot of windmills out on the prairie, but this is usually the first one I notice, probably because it sits right at the beginning of a very wide stretch of windpower generators in the Texas Panhandle.

About ten percent of Texas’s power comes from these wind farms. They are surprisingly controversial. I think a lot of that has to do with politics. I never really bought the notion that they are responsible for any significant percentage of bird deaths. Birds are fairly agile. It’s hard for me to imagine them not being able to negotiate through or around those things. The turbines are notoriously unreliable for obvious reasons. And they are massive. It’s hard to tell unless you get close to one of them. We’ve seen trailers transporting the big replacement blades, and those things would seem to be the length of aircraft carriers. That’s apparently part of the problem. They are made in China, and contain a lot of toxic materials. Like nuclear waste water, they cannot be disposed of very easily.

Nevertheless, I always like passing through this area. I like the look of the tall sentinels on the prairie, though I understand most around here don’t appreciate it.

This old granary is another one of my favorite photo targets. I guess it’s just emblematic of so many of the small farming towns we pass through in rural Texas.

It wouldn’t be a family trip if we didn’t stop at Buc-ee’s somewhere along way. This time it was in Amarillo. Kassi needed to take a business call and we were banking on being able to camp onto their wifi. Surprisingly, there was no public wifi. We ended up hanging out there for about a full hour that day, wondering around the department store-sized gas station perusing the various store-branded offerings.

Buc-ee’s is famous for its bathrooms, its barbecue, and Beaver Nuggets, I guess. I had to try the toilet at least twice while we were there. It’s a whole experience. The little country store merch is pretty cool, too. I love it that you can pick up a jar of pickled quail eggs or a bottle of hot sauce, or five, all branded with that stupid looking beaver face. I noticed that the spice levels seem kind of random on the hot sauces. The ghost pepper sauce is just “hot”, while the habanero sauce is labeled “medium.” Go figure. Maybe it’s meant to be a flex on the spice levels of their top tier sauces.

I will hand it to Buc-ee’s, though — their arrival on the scene noticeably improved the overall cleanliness of gas station bathrooms across southern highways as other chains fought to compete for the traffic. Much appreciated.

If there’s one thing Buc-ee’s does right, it’s branding. Using gas station wine to sell your home-grown Beaver Nuggets is brilliant. And pretty cheeky, too, cause it’s a total lie. This would be like pouring a Cabernet Sauvignon in your Corn Pops.

If you’d like to learn more about Beaver Nuggets, catch this review Brian and I did way back in 2018.

Next year will be Route 66’s 100th anniversary for anyone interested in seeing some of the classic mid-20th century sights, or what remains of them.

Texas really doesn’t have a whole lot to offer along its little stretch of that road, other The Big Texan and Cadillac Ranch, if you’re into that kind of thing. The better stuff starts once you cross over into New Mexico.

Approaching Albuquerque from the east the road gets very windy and hilly. There is this one spot where the road passes through what looks like a narrow crack blown out of a mesa, beyond which you start to get closer to the city. I love passing through that area. The land starts to look noticeably prettier past that point as well.

Albuquerque features lots of adobe houses and architecture. It gives the city a unique, authentically southwestern vibe. I’ve always had a positive impression of the town, despite it having the reputation of places like Baltimore or New Orleans when it comes to violent crime. The last time we were here they were having a special event at city hall to commemorate a new statue being erected to honor the TV series “Breaking Bad,” which was set in the town. All the main celebs were there.

We stayed in Albuquerque overnight, and the morning after we set out for the couple hour drive to the Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano, not knowng what at all to expect. It would turn out to be a pretty cool little place, and a great first hike to break us in to the higher elevation.

Day 2 coming soon.