Returning home from vacation is always with very mixed feelings. We are looking forward to seeing family and friends, sleeping in our own bed and getting back in a routine. However, we will also return to the things at work and home that have accumulated over the past two weeks.
The evening before leaving on vacation or returning from vacation is always stressful. We worry about forgetting something or oversleeping and missing a flight. Although Mary is such a careful planner, we always remember the important things and set several alarms so we don’t oversleep. We were awake before the alarms and caught the motel shuttle to the airport in plenty of time, especially since Mary had checked us in the evening before. We went through security with no problems and we were at the gate well ahead of boarding time.
We had lunch at Mandarin Express in the Atlanta airport which was pretty good for airport food. While in Atlanta, I ran into a friend, Bev Kingery, who is superintendent of Nicholas County Schools. She was coming home from New Orleans after a few days off.
We were in Charleston a little after 4:30 and headed for home, tired but happy to be back.
Along the trip home, between naps on the flights, we were reflecting on the trip. We wanted to list some of the things that we thought we would do again and things that we would change if we were to do this trip again.
We were very pleased with the rental car. The Toyota Corolla was just the right size and had plenty of power and got great fuel economy. The over 2100 miles that we put on the little car were tough miles of desert driving. Between 5 and 10 percent of the mileage was on dirt roads. We liked the option of being about to return the car without gas since we only had to pay $3.58 per gallon which is less than the prevailing price. We did not choose the optional insurance options since the rate for the rental would have more than doubled with the insurance. In addition, the collision coverage on our cars covers rental cars. Another option that we did take that we would not do again was the additional driver. The arrangement that we have always found best is for me to drive and for Mary to navigate from the passenger seat. Even if we have GPS, it is great to have her checking tour books, maps and brochures to identify places of interest. Just taking a rental was the right decision. If we had driven to Albuquerque, we would have put over 7,000 miles on our car and would have used five days just getting there. That would have left only seven days for our vacation to tour the sites. In addition, after all of that driving, we would have been so tired that we wouldn’t have enjoyed the trip nearly as much.
The duration of the trip was about right. A trip of that distance would have not been worth the trip if it were any shorter. A longer trip would have been too long. The pacing of our trip was perfect. We knew that a couple of days would be long (May 16 at Chaco Canyon) but we had a lot of flexibility and sometimes added things as we went. For example, on May 13, we had planned a short day with a trip to the Needles area of Canyonlands. Since we completed our tour of the area, we decided to go to Moab and drive through Arches National Park which we always enjoy. At no time did we feel that we were on a schedule or had to keep to a timeline.
The timing of the trip was just perfect as well. Many of the attractions that interested us are not open until May 1. However, after Memorial Day, the weather is typically very hot and the number of visitors to the attractions is much higher. The only other time that would be as ideal as early May would be late September or early October. In years past, we could only go on vacation in July since we were both teachers. Mid-summer is just not a great time to be in the Four Corners area. We would recommend early May for a visit to the area if at all possible.
The annual pass for the National Parks was a good move for us. We went to 14 National Parks (historical areas, monuments, etc) and many of these have a fee of $5-15 and the pass exempted us from the fee. If we were to do this again, we would just purchase our pass at the first park we visited rather than ordering on-line in advance.
In thinking about our favorite things about the trip, Mary and I agreed that our favorite visit was to Chaco Cultural Historical Park. We had seen Pueblo ruins at Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, Hovenweep and Mesa Verde but none were as impressive as those of Chaco. The road to Chaco was terrible. There just is no good way to get there but the visit is well worth the drive. The ruins at Pecos National Historical Park were interesting since ancient Pueblo people who had lived in other areas came to the Pecos area after they abandoned their home areas in the mid 1200s.
Of the towns we visited, Mary liked Cortez, Colorado best while I enjoyed Farmington, New Mexico best. While we liked different towns best, we like them for the same reasons. Both towns are large enough to have some amenities of town but have managed to maintain the small town attitude and feel.
Favorite meals of the trip stimulated a good deal of discussion for us. We had a lot of excellent food in our travels through the Four Corners area. Many of the places we ate were featured on shows in the Food Network or Travel Channel. Some places were reviewed by Jane and Michael Stern in their RoadFood column. Other places were recommended to us by friends. When we travel, we really try to avoid chain restaurants. We can eat at Applebee’s a mile from home. We want to eat where locals eat and have the specialties of towns we are visiting. We did not have a bad meal the whole trip, if you don’t count the continental breakfasts at motels. Mary’s favorite meal of the trip was her barbacoa at El Burro Pancho in Cortez, Colorado. She had a huge serving of tender flavorful beef with well seasoned sauce. My meal of Mole Pollo there was very good with a very dark rich sauce. However, my favorite meal was the rabbit mole enchiladas at Buck’s Grill House in Moab, Utah. She liked her duck tamales there but the barbaco in Cortez was her top pick.
We agreed on our favorite lodging spot at the Holiday Inn Canyon de Chelly in Chinle, Arizona. The motel was just outside the entrance to the National Park, was quiet and comfortable. The restaurant there was very good and had huge portions for all the meals. We ate only half of the sandwiches that we had there and ate the other half the next day for lunch. Hotel and restaurant staff there was friendly and helpful. The motel is operated by the Navajo Nation and is on the reservation. We felt that we had great rates on all of our lodging with the possible exception of our night in Kayenta, Arizona which is understandable because there was a large track meet nearby that had all rooms booked far in advance.
We discussed things on our trip that we could have skipped. We were pleased that we saw Anasazi ruins in the sequence that we saw them (Canyon de Chelly, Hovenweep, Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon) since each the quality of the ruins was better at each location. Had we been to Chaco first, we would have been disappointed with the others. That being said, we would not have wanted to skip any of these historic sites. If we had to pick something to skip on the trip, Mary would have passed Natural Bridge National Monument since we saw similar formations on a grander scale at Arches National Park. I would have chosen Navajo National Monument to skip if something had to be taken off the list. There were ruins there but less well preserved or spectacular than those we saw elsewhere. There were also interesting rock formations but bit as grand as those at Monument Valley or Canyonlands.
We always enjoy our vacations. We like to do things that are educational. We like to be outside and on short hikes. We like to see things that we have never seen and to experience other cultures. We like to enjoy the food of different regions of our country. This trip had all of these things and more. We had never been to many of these places but our drive through the Southwest reminded us so much of trips to Utah when the kids were young back in the 1980s and 90s. We have a lot of great memories in the area from years past and made many good memories on this trip.
We will not update this blog but will refer to it from time to time to relive the places we have been. Since this trip was so successful, we will use it as a model for future vacations. Right now we are thinking of possible trips to Yellowstone, Florida Keys, and Northern California.
The maps below show the overall route of our trip. Since there were so many stops, we couldn't get everything in one interactive map so it it divided into two parts.
May 8-12
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May 13 - 19
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