Friday, March 24, 2023

Road Trip to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Napa valley and Redwoods: Days14, 15, 16, 17 Drive back home

 

Day 14  Nov 30 Drive back home Houston

STAY Motel 6, Santa Nelly, California

No hotels were booked, we  stopped when we felt it was enough. We checked for hotels near the vicinity on booking.com and checked the reviews and drove in if we were satisfied by the cleanliness, safety scores in the reviews and the price of the hotel

It became dark early, but the cold had not yet turned to icy snowy weather. Very grateful for that.

In fact we had been very worried about snow and inclement weather for the whole vacation and routed avoiding the northern routes. It had been pretty cold in Vegas, Redwoods etc but no rain/storms and our drives were also without snow

CHECKED OUT OF  LIGHT HOUSE INN






Moose farm


Motel 6, Santa Nelly, California

Neighbor kid set a pit bull puppy on us when we were bringing our bags to the room

· There was a family next door with a dog. The little girl ran out of her room and stared at us when we opened our room and put our daypack inside.

We walked back to our car and wheeled out our bags. She sat inside her room with the door open just enough to let the dog (a pit bull)on a leash to block the passage and prevent us from entering our room with our bags. The dog was barking, lunging at us aggressively

She did not pull in the dog despite our shouts, and was laughing and setting the dog on us. We said we are calling the cops, then a young guy inside pulled the dog in

What a weird family!! We complained to the lady at the front desk, who said she'll talk to them. They had already gone out for a meal may be. 
We had parked our car on the other side, the weird kid may even do some hanky panky otherwise.

Next day we checked out early, so no more incidents.


Day 15 Dec 1 Drive

STAY Motel 6, Tuscan downtown

Motel 6, Tuscan downtown

Liked · Spacious room, comfy bed and right off the I-10 freeway.

Disliked · The hotel sign was not lit up. Made it difficult to find it.

The door had a gap between the edge and the wall. It let in sounds from outside and light as well.

There was a guy lurking around while we were unpacking bags from our car (our room was located on the back-side of the building - Room 113)

Day 16 Dec 2 Drive

STAY Hillcrest Inn and Suites, Ozona

Hillcrest Inn and Suites, Ozona






Day 17 Dec 3 Saturday 

Back home in Houston [with time to rest on Sunday before staring the office routine]

       

DRIVING SUCH HUGE DISTANCES, WAS IT CRAZY/ WORTH IT?

It was crazy and yes, it was worth it

Avoiding airports, flights, baggage restrictions was great. We took our own electric stove, 3 utensils, water filter, rice, veggies, spices, fruits etc right from home




Return trip miles:
483+756+793+387 almost 2450 miles
WOW!!\

Even Vegas and back is a LOOONG drive. But it was amazing to enjoy all the special Christmas decor there , We got out on Thanksgiving day when crowds started pouring in

All the hotels were cancellable, Strat at Vegas, LA, Petaluma  and Crescent city right on the morning of check in, we could have decided to not go and turn back.

LA was a relatively short drive from Vegas and it was enjoyable.

More time on Highway 1 and Big Sur would have been better.
We found Napa valley Sonoma underwhelming for non drinkers.
Redwoods was pretty, though not comparable to Kings Canyon, Sequoia .

all in all the trip was good, extra satisfaction of doing in our own car on our own terms!!

Happy travels to every one!

We were in Mexico city [with a weekend trip to Silver city Taxco ] for 10 days in Jan, Feb 2023, Report starts here





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