Can We Make It Back Home In Three Days?

Oklahoma Dash Back to California in 3 Days, 4/9-11/25

On our website, we have not kept it a secret that we are retired and now (although I’m still fighting the label) senior citizens. In our youth (and still anyone who is young) we would be able to drive for hours on end. Growing up in LA, driving was a way of life, and EVERYONE drove….even if you were going to your next door neighbors house. And if you planned a roadtrip because you had to get somewhere and be somewhere, you drove 18-20 hours if you had to. But as older folks, we didn’t know if we still had it in us to drive 1900 miles in 3 days. We were battling several issues: The first reason was, remembering the snow storm driving TO Oklahoma, weather conditions were setting up again for more snow storms, for our drive back. We figured we had one day, maybe a day and a half, to get past the weather in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area. The second reason was we had received some very important papers that had to be forwarded to my daughter as soon as possible. We had real incentive to try to get home safely as soon as possible.

It's Wednesday, 4/9, and we are going to try to get home in 3 days. We set out at 7:45 AM after eating breakfast. We went through many towns, stopping for gas when necessary, eating snacks when hungry, but we just kept driving . We managed to make it to Moriarty, New Mexico, 696 miles. We were definitely tired and ready to stop at a hotel. It was 7:00 PM, when we settled into a Best Western Hotel. Time changed to our advantage going from Oklahoma to New Mexico, because we gained an hour to our schedule.

Waking up in Moriarty on 4/10, we still had the goal of beating the weather, and getting through Albuquerque, New Mexico. Our focus of heading home quickly continued, so we ate breakfast early and were on the road by 7:30 AM. Stopping only when necessary, we again made a good distance of 570 miles to Needles, CA. Once again we gained an hour of time by crossing into California, but also noticed how much the gas prices have increased as we headed west. The highest price so far for gas was over $6.00 per gallon. Once again we settled in a Best Western in Needles.

At 7:00 in the morning, Needles was ridiculously hot at 70 degrees farenheit. But, the forecast was 100 degrees by noon, so we definitely had to hit the road, as we have 4 hours of desert driving before we hit the central valley of California. Now we were within one day of being at home and knowing all that, we ate breakfast and left by 7:00AM. Determined to make it home by the end of the day, our stops were short and focused. Arriving home by 6:30PM, after driving 603 miles.

It was a quick trip back, just 3 days. Looking back at our experience, we have decided when driving on a trip, we will not drive that many miles every day. Even though we got out of the car when we filled up the gas tank, or made sandwiches, it wasn’t enough time to give our bodies enough exercise or stretching, for a healthy trip. On our next trip, trip #4, we took a different approach. Be sure to read our blog for Oklahoma Trip #4.