Road Trip!

We have filled the NSX tank 5x to cover 2 full days of driving and the prices vary as expected: Costco in Los Angeles- $3.04 ...Moapa & Salina CO $3.23..Glenbrook CO $3.44...N Platte NE $3.09 We estimate roughly that our entire road trip may produce up to a $700 gas bill...

As in day 1, we drive till 8:30pm and decide to put ourselves to rest in Kearney Nebraska. With a later start, we have gone 626 miles today. I called the Kearney BW an hour before we arrived and was told there were 3 available rooms, so we are dismayed to see a "NO VACANCY" sign posted at the office as we pull up. The manager explains there are several football teams in town and they also just discovered one of the rooms can not be opened from the outside. Since we don't plan to go out once we get in the room, it works for us and we get the room for $45, plus 15% off dinner and 2 free breakfast coupons. Jon and I think we got a pretty good deal!

We stop at Charlie D's in Keenesburg CO for a late lunch and are quite entertained by the waitresses swatting flies on the counter and telling stories about how they come back to life. Jon has a buffalo burger (kinda dry) with fries and I ALMOST order the "Rocky Mountain Oysters" until the waitress squints and asks "Do you like bull's testicles?" I end up ordering the daily special, which is chicken-fried steak and mashed potatoes. I was quite surprised when the plate came out, completely covered in white gooey stuff....but it tasted pretty good ;)

The elevation in Vail rises up to 10,000 ft. above sea level... and the trees are vibrant yellow in the cool mountains. Wrapping down around the Colorado River, the shrubs turn every color: red, pink, yellow....Colorado scenery is just beautiful!

We are now realizing our posted itinerary was very conservative (figuring that we would drive 500-600 miles a day) As we speed across Utah we know we are way ahead of the game, but still able to appreciate the Utah countryside which is mostly pastureland with chiseled mountains in red, green and yellows. Before nightfall, we would cover 808 miles and 4 states: CA, NV, UT and CO, deciding to hunker down in Grand Junction CO. Fortunately, we did NOT make any hotel reservations besides Chicago and Seattle and the BW directory/atlas proves to be a very welcome tool in guiding us to our resting place every night.

Made 2 interesting pit stops: The first in the Mojave desert had posters saying "BEWARE, LAND TORTOISE CROSSING") and the second in Moapa NV where a sign to the men's bathroom said "HAY RIDES". I got a kick out of the "KUM AND GO" gas stations and as we came up towards Aspen CO I was intrigued by 'YAMPAH HOT SPRINGS AND VAPOR CAVES". The best sign was in North Platte NE that read 'YOU ARE NOWHERE".....

Got into LAX 30 minutes early...we could see a large ground fire on approach. Learned from Jon's friend Rob that a chicken farm (90,000 chickens) was ablaze. This is a serious fire that could not be brought under control.

5 days and counting. Today I tried to imagine what I could squeeze into my baggage allotment: 1 carry-on... All the luggage between us needs to fit in the SMALL trunk of the NSX as there is no back seat. Packing for this road trip will undoubtedly be one of my major challenges. I do give Jon credit for allowing me extra space for the matching cosmetic bag that sits on top of my carry-on (XOX hey,every little bit helps! :)

Here's a pic of Jon delivering his "baby" to Pacific Air Cargo...the NSX will be transported by 747 to LAX on 9/27.

Keola and Jon look forward to the fall season

Legend has it that Mr. Honda requested the Acura auto design team to come up with a "new sports car concept...one you could drive every day...". The design label "New Sports Experimental" was acronym'd to "NSX". The official color of Jon's 2003 NSX is Imola Orange, Imola being a famous (infamous) race track in Italy. This could be the last time you see an NSX.. as production will cease this year.

Before our road trip actually begins, we'll clue you in on all the planning in case you ever do a road trip yourself! Figuring out a driving schedule/accomodations: we plotted out on mapquest.com the cities/states/driving directions we would hit travelling 500-700 miles/day. Then we joined the BestWestern club and requested their atlas and hotel directory across the country. You'd be surprised at the difference in amenitites and prices!

Keola created this "mobile blog" so we can send daily journals and pix from the road, using her Treo600 cell phone (Jon says no room for the laptop ...well, hooray for wireless messaging!)

Jon wants to attend an ACP conference in Chicago Oct 6-8. He thought it would be cool for us to fly into Iowa where he did his residency, visit friends, rent a motorcycle, and ride to Chicago. Now he's thinking of shipping up his NSX to LA to do a real road trip to Chicago. Then I piped up with the idea to drive back to Seattle and fly home from there . Even though I've travelled a lot, this will be my first visit to both Chicago and Seattle! Way to go ;)