2018 Jumbo Road Trip

Where The Locals Eat

Day 27 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Minden, LA to Hammond, LA. Last night’s hotel clerk recommendation for a good breakfast where the locals eat was to drive just up the street a bit and go to Hamburger Happiness and Southern Maid Doughnuts. We were worried a bit as there was only one other vehicle in the lot when we pulled in.

The one guy sitting by himself didn’t seem too friendly, but the nice old lady at the counter where we placed and paid for our order was very pleasant. I think it was literally a mom and pop shop because I could see an old man through the saloon doors to the kitchen.

Soon the rest of the locals started arriving one by one and they greeted each other by name. The same lady brought our food to us pipping hot and it was delicious. The portions were correct and the price was right. We could hear the locals in background discussing the weather and the size of farm tractors. When we finished up and stepped outside I knew I needed to snap a picture. Take a guess, which one of these things is not like the other.

26,000 Potatoes

Day 26 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Gainesville, TX to Minden, LA. We walked a half mile into downtown Gainesville for breakfast on the recommendation of the clerk who checked us in last night. We ate at a place called Fried Pie Co. & Restaurant. Because we were at a place with Fried Pies in their name, we both opted to try one for breakfast and both our reviews of this dish was, “Interesting, not bad, but I bet the fruit pies are better.”

For lunch we didn’t need a recommendation because we knew just where we were eating because we had eaten there 4 years ago. I had even planned our return route through the city of Paris, TX so we could get a hamburger and fries at Burgerland. The 65′ Eiffel Tower replica with a giant red cowboy hat on top was a bonus. The hamburgers are of course awesome, but the fries don’t really take second billing here, they are hand cut, salted just right and a single order consists of about 26,000 potatoes. Not only is the their food fantastic, it is easy on the wallet too. Two burgers, a small order of fries and a large drink came to $14.75.

We did manage to grab a couple of geocaches before lunch in Paris and had plans for more after, along a 10 mile long walking/biking path, cheekily called Trail de Paris, but one look at the sky and another at the weather radar made us just hop in the car and head east as fast as the speed limit would allow.

About ten miles from arriving at tonight’s hotel the Lady Bug ticked over 26,000 miles.

The above photo came from Burgerland’s Facebook page, the ones below are mine.

A Wife’s Revenge?

Day 25 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Amarillo, TX to Gainesville, TX. Traveled through the Texas panhandle today with lots of long trains, powerlines stretching to the horizon and several wind farms. Five of six in geocaches today. The only one we missed was called A Wife’s Revenge in the town of Memphis, TX. Here is the description:

Ahhhh, a woman scorned is a scary thing....

Not far from this cache is a very unique memorial to a roaming husband. As the story goes, this sculpture was placed on the husband's grave by his widow. Supposedly, he liked to entertain (or be entertained) by various ladies. The sculpture is a naked lady hiding her face in shame. This was the story that was told to us. However, it looks like it might also be one of the people from Pompeii... You draw your own conclusions.

This is the second day in a row we have DNF’d a cemetery cache and after not finding this one, both Donna and I felt like recreating this pose…

25,000 Coats of Paint

Day 24 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Albuquerque, NM to Amarillo, TX. 4 for 5 in geocaching. A couple of them had no container required, just a photo or a question answered and the two small containers we had no difficulty with, but the one regular sized one, we just couldn’t find. 🙁

We did a few other stops today besides the geocaching and eating or rest breaks, first up was the Bosque Redondo Memorial in Fort Sumner, NM. The Bosque Redondo spot was very interesting. Do yourself a favor and click the link and at least read the main page. Neither Donna nor I knew nothing about the history this place represents until we stumbled on the little red square on the New Mexico state map that was right along our route. A little humbling when you are confronted with something of this sort. Reminded us of our visit a couple years ago of Manzanar Camp.

Secondly, by some sort of weird quirk, also in Fort Sumner, is the grave of Billy the Kid. We stopped outside the cemetery to take a quick photo, but didn’t bother to go in. What is even quirkier for us is, with absolute no pre-planning we have now happened to pass thru two of the three towns that claim to be the burial site of Henry McCarty, AKA Billy the Kid. On the way west we stopped in the small town of Hico, TX for a leg stretch and there was a small museum dedicated to The Kid who they believed wasn’t killed by Pat Garret in NM, but lived out a quiet life there and died in 1950. And had we known we were going thru two, we could have adjusted our route in Arizona, adding a mere 100 extra miles, and hit the third in Prescott, AZ. Billy the Kid Wikipedia Page.

The third stop is obvious from the photos above and below, Cadillac Ranch (it is a mere 3-1/2 miles from tonight’s hotel.) I have now been to both of the Big Two of car related Roadside America having visited Carhenge back in 2009

On the way back to the hotel in Albuquerque after breakfast the Lady Bug crossed the 25,000 mile mark.

Return Trips

Day 23 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Flagstaff, AZ to Albuquerque, NM. Today’s drive is day three of our trip to return to Aiken. We have returned to Albuquerque for another nights stay and a probable return trip to the Central Grill and Coffee House for breakfast tomorrow. We also paid a return trip to a Siamese-twin National Park, Painted Desert & Petrified Forest, which we had visited way back in 1989, before the world had heard of blogging.

We only grabbed two geocaches today, both in the National Park, and spent the rest of the day zipping east along I-40. Tomorrow we return to venturing off the the Interstate for a big chunk of the day even though our start and finish cities are situated on I-40.

Death Valley Morning

Day 22 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Beatty, NV to Flagstaff, AZ with another dip into Death Valley. Because of a bad wreck on US-95 yesterday evening that was along our path, and the road wasn’t totally cleared this morning, we opted to duck down into Death Valley again. When we went last night we took a right and headed northwest, but our drive through this morning would be south and east. We were so excited last night when the car GPS read -57 feet we took a picture, but this morning we got to below -200 feet and were so jaded by being below sea level that we didn’t take that picture.

No geocaching today. I had picked a bunch all along the original route, but with the detour through the valley, our impromptu tour of southern Las Vegas, the weirdness of new road construction around Hoover Dam, and all the road construction along I-40 in Arizona we just never got in the groove.

I didn’t check the odometer when we parked, but I bet today was our longest day in the car (over 400 miles.) It was either that and/or the change in altitude, -200′ in the early morning to 7,000′ at the end of the day, that got us both a little cranky with each other as we unpacked the Mini at tonight’s HIE.

24,000 Sagebrush Bushes

Day 21 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Glenbrook, NV to Beatty, NV with a dip into Death Valley. Today was the first of ten travel days on the drive back home. Our Nevada drive today was a much better one than the one eight days ago and a thousand miles ago. Zero interstate and practically zero rain. We did do three widely separated geocaches on the day just to get in a couple of small leg stretches as an accompaniment to our usual snack stops along the way.

After dinner in Beatty we took a small drive down into Death Valley. A few miles into the park, NV374 turns into Daylight Pass Road and it falls from 4300 feet to below sea level in 13 miles. And even though the sun was already dropping behind the mountains to the west, the temperature in the valley was 101° (it was 80° at the top.)

Somewhere between Mina and Coaldale, Nevada along US95 South, the Angry Ladybug flapped her wings past the 24,000 mile mark.