Its the journey, not the destination, right? But what if you’re pressed for time, and the destination kicks ass? Enter the Ben & Becca 11-day cannonball run “overland edition”. Our goal: use our precious 11 days of vacation time to drive out West (Colorado and Utah), see and do as much as we can without running ragged, and use only ~2 days each way as dedicated travel days.
So far, so good. We managed to covered about 1,200 miles on day 1, making it all the way from Richmond, VA to Olathe, Kansas. Day 2 got us into Denver at about 3PM local time (after 600 more miles on the road), with plenty of afternoon/evening to explore, hit up a great happy hour, and enjoy a night on the town. So there you have it: in about 1.5 days, we made it to our destination state, primed and ready to kickoff our outdoor adventures on Day 3.
Our tricks to covering the massive distances safely, and without going crazy:
- Start Early – logging massive miles just takes time, the earlier you can get started, the better. We had wheels turning at 5:30AM Day 1
- Stop Regularly – stay fresh by stopping for a couple minutes every 1.5-2 hours (b/c someone has a small bladder …)
- Make it Interesting! – Becca and I researched states and towns we were passing through to learn some interesting facts (thanks Wikipedia!). Sounds corny, but it was fun and helped to pass the time (why is seemingly every state bird the Cardinal???)
- Make the Occasional Fun Stop – One of the coolest things we did on day 1 was to look up restaurants featured on Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” and find a cool one along our route. We ended up going to a really good deli (Wallace Station) outside of Lexington, KY and were treated to about 5 miles of beautiful horse country that we would have missed had we opted for a truck-stop meal.
So, there’s what works for us! We’ll be updating more on our “out West” adventures in my next couple of posts – but we are having a blast!
Ben & Becca, My wife & I lived in Colorado and loved to go to a Mexican restaurant called Casa Bonita in Denver. Food is fair but the atmosphere (including high dives) is exceptional. We also spent much time 4wheeling on the back country Many trails are on the free and easy (Not really hard core) but the scenery is Great !! Cripple creek , Ouray Mt Blanca, Kelly Flats are also GREAT. Mobile Safe ! P.S. Check with BB4WA.com for more ideas on trails in CO. Mike
Mike thanks so much for the note! We just made it back to the DC area late last night, and are still savoring the time we had in Colorado. I’ll check out BB4WA.com for the next time we make it out there – thanks for the heads up!
Awesome Ben! My wife and I are still planning our 2 week+ trip to 10 National Parks in the American SouthWest. The Rockies will be our last NP. We decided to take our 4Runner for a more involved and memorable trip. We were dedicating 3 days out and 3 days back – looks like we just bought ourselves 2 extra days! When you get back I have a few questions such as, any pointers for the route out there? and what are some nice trails to hit while out there? You’re trip is inspiring and looks like a blast – have a safe rest of the trip
I just noticed all the claims to Lincoln…interesting