Road Trip!

[iandavid]

Martha and I curled up by the fire last night (actually, the soft light of Law & Order: SVU) and sketched out a rough draft of our upcoming tour of the American Southwest. The tentative plan is as follows:

• Travel by Amtrak sleeper car from New York to Del Rio, TX via the Crescent and Sunset Limited (including an overnight layover in New Orleans, LA)
• Rent a car in Del Rio and crisscross the desert region, making the following stops:
• Marathon, TX
• Big Bend National Park
• Presidio, TX
• Guadalupe Mountains National Park
• Carlsbad Caverns National Park
• Roswell, NM (we won't waste our time here, maybe just get some Alien swag)
• Albuquerque, NM/Petroglyph National Monument
• Petrified Forest National Park
• Grand Canyon National Park
• Hopi & Navajo Nation Lands
• Flagstaff, AZ (where we'll catch the flight home)

The trip will take about 8 days total - 3 on the train and 5 days of driving. This plan is certainly subject to change, especially considering its ambitiousness. Though I've mapped the route on Google Maps, and it seems doable, provided we can get camping accommodations at Big Bend, the Guadalupe Mountains, and the Grand Canyon, and a hotel in Albuquerque. Of course, any recommendations on alternate routes other stuff to see would be welcome. We're hoping to make it happen around the end of January.

BTW, Google Maps' "drag to customize your route" feature is so fucking awesome. How did people plan trips before it existed?