Travel

I am currently in Africa, but managed to read GPL for the opening Gopher game. The lengths we fans go to for our team!

Africa has been a dream, almost a full month, we return the 14th. Botswana, Kenya and now Tanzania with brief stops at each end in South Africa. The animals are amazing and are so close. We’ve watched lions eating a zebra from less then 15 feet. Elephants walk right by our open LandCrusier. A giraffe almost stuck its head in our vehicle! It’s spring in this region, so lots of baby animals OR lots of mating. My observation: male lions get a gold star for frequency (often 4-5 times in an hour) but a black check mark on duration (less then 10 seconds). It is definitely quantity over quality :biggrin2:

The people are open, friendly, culturally hospitable. Covid hit the tourism industry very hard, our first camp had just opened after being closed almost a year and they only had 2 tents occupied. Most days we’ve felt that we’ve had the entire place to ourselves and rarely see another vehicle. Each and every one of our guides has been professional, funny and great fun to talk to.

But it’s been a long trip and with just a few days left we are both looking forward to getting home to our own bed, cooking for ourselves and rehashing memories.

And on a bonus note, per my tag line below…the road in Africa isn’t paved at all! I’ve gotten a core workout just staying upright and in my seat.

PHL is still an American hub…it’s just serviced by mostly regional traffic.

I hate to say that people around here need to listen to a North Dakota fan... but in this case, they really do.

Good to see you around these parts again, MNS

What can I say…midnight shift can get quiet. Even reading basketball and soccer threads.

Just saw Delta announced Basic Economy will no longer earn miles or count towards Medallion status. That is a big change, but not surprised by the move.

Due to Covid travel problems I have to cancel my Hawaii vacation this spring. I can not book any vacation where I have to fly anywhere with so many flights being cancelled

But you might get stuck in HAWAII!

When were you going? We are headed in March and dealing with the same concern

Honolulu but I want to go sky diving for the

second time but to CO I want to jump with used to provide transportation from the hotel to the jump site and back to the hotel. Due to Covid they do not include transportation and Uber is more expensive then the jump ?

And with so many flights being cancelled I can not take the risk of a extended stay in paradise ?‍♂️

Must be the place to go this Spring. We'll be there for 9 days in early February, assuming we can successfully jump through all the hoops they throw at us.

My parents are renting an Airbnb down in Phoenix for 3 weeks in April, for my cousin's wedding down there. Since I work remote, I'm going with them and working from down there! With that length of time, we want to have a vehicle, so instead of renting one we decided to drive down there!

On the way down we're going to drive through Colorado, we're thinking about getting to Colorado Springs by the end of day 1. Not looking forward to driving through Nebraska lol.

That made me think of a question, what are the worst/best parts of the country you've driven through? What are the most boring, and most interesting drives you've taken on road trips?

The two most boring drives in my opinion are I-80 west of Lincoln and I-70 west of Topeka. I used to drive from Denver to Omaha a lot and it sucked.

The prettiest drives I’ve seen are Glenwood Canyon in western Colorado and the north shore of Lake Huron between Sudbury and Toronto. Outside of North America near any roads through the Alps would qualify as amazing as well but I always loved the drive from Munich to Salzburg

Best: 1.From Zion NP to Capitol Reef NP in Utah.

2. Pacific Coast Hwy 1 in the Big Sur area of CA

3. Florida Keys hwy

4. Most anywhere in Colorado, but winter seems like you're pushing your luck.

Boring: From here to the Badlands

Interesting that you mention #1 because we did that drive in August. We were coming from Arches so from the East we drove through places that felt like they could have staged a Moon landing from, but once you got west of Capitol Reef it was much more scenic

The PCH from The 10 north to San Francisco is spectacular and I definitely want to do the chunk from San Fran north to Seattle someday.

I'd say the Going To the Sun Road in Glacier NP is the best of the best IMHO. Just about any mountain drive is awesome. Loveland Pass, the road to Mt. Polymer, Blue Ridge Parkway also jump to mind as being great drives.

I love road trips and don't really mind what some would call boring drives, I'm weird that way.

Couldn’t agree more on the Omaha to Denver drive… man even when you cross the state line in CO it’s 3 more hours before anything interesting.. still.. it’s worth it to ski in CO.

Blue Ridge Pkwy is very pretty. I took a train along the coast in the south of France.. yeah that didn’t suck. I’ve heard the Cali Coast Rd. (Hwy 1?) is supposed to be fantastic.

Yeah I'm weirdly kind of looking forward to it. We drive 10 hours north into Canada every summer to do a fly in fishing trip, and I don't really kind that drive, so I'm thinking I will enjoy it! I'm hoping Colorado and the mountains in the middle of April will provide some good sites.

I was talking to my uncle and cousin about it and they said driving through northern Arizona is pretty scenic, as well.

I-29 in North Dakota will test your will to live.

I tend to fly to places that are more than a 6 hour drive from here, so I don't have many boring road trip comparisons, but I-39 in central Illinois had me nodding off a few times.

Two that tested my will to live: The drive from whatever the pass is north of LA to Las Vegas is desolate as is 10 from the Coachella Valley to Phoenix. There is a CA high security prison (I love the do not pick up hitchhiker signs!) not too far from the AZ border and if someone could escape the chances of living long, especially in the summer, are probably slim.

For the 2017 Solar Eclipse... We drove from Lincoln, NE to Lingle, WY and back to Lincoln that day. Didn't phase me at all.
[attachment=0]Eclipse.jpg[/attachment]

By far the worst drive I ever had was from Edmonton to Winnipeg in a day. Central Canada is the worst!

Any road I am on with a motorcycle is a good road except I39. I came back from riding the Skyline & Blue Ridge Parkways to to the Smokies. Stayed the 1st night just this side of Indy. It was 100 degrees + as I rode north. [mention]HockeyBum[/mention] is dead on. Boring.

In so far as AZ driving.

US 54 from Wichita to Tucumcari is bad too. It is better the closer you get to I40 / NM but it shaves a couple of hours off taking I35 to I40.

In AZ 89 A ( Back road from Flagstaff to Sedona & thru Cottonwood & Jerome to Prescott) is a blast.

Lots of great roads in AZ. Get down to Bisbee if you can.

89A is fantastic, great call.

A portion Utah 261 descending into the Valley Of The Gods - about ten miles north of Mexican Hat - may be the greatest 2.5 miles I've ever driven.

https://goo.gl/maps/M1znAbRVvooRqb9j6

89A is a great drive! We go down to Phoenix every year, so one year we did a day trip to Jerome and Sedona. Beautiful part of the country!

My parents are huge Eagles fans. So they want to stand on a corner in Winslow, AZ

Plan from Colorado Springs is to go I-25 south through Santa Fe, and catch I-40 in Albuquerque, to Winslow and Flagstaff, then I-17 south into Phoenix

The switchbacks on 89A are def a driver's highlight. Sedona is other worldly.

Obviously 191 from the south entrance of Yellowstone to Jackson.

Pike's Peak is the best pure driving experience I've ever had, though. Peak to Peak HWY, Trail Ridge Road, and Old Fall River Road also obviously very fun.

Meteor Crater is about 20-25 miles west of Winslow and pretty cool stop. Yes it's a little hokey but to see what a meteor impact can do is simply amazing. IIRC correctly the crater is at about a mile wide.

[quote=gopherguy13 post_id=1007965

My parents are huge Eagles fans. So they want to stand on a corner in Winslow, AZ

Did that. It's kinda a kitchy thing to do. There was a cool street corner musician playing kitty corner from " The Corner". I was pulling a motorcycle transport trailer and on a weekday in late Jan I just parked a block away, no problem.

Speaking of Northern AZ, a hidden gem 5 miles east of Flagstaff is Walnut Canyon National Monument.

I stayed in a motel in Winslow in 1989 that was $15 a night. And it was overpriced.

Bad things happen when you don’t take that left turn in Albuquerque

It’s too bad you’re not going through the state on I-70. I’d say stop at BeauJos in Idaho Springs for pizza and thank me later. They do have one in Colorado Springs too but the Idaho Springs one just seems to be another notch better

I joke with people that all you see out there are semis, cattle, and that stupid museum they built over I80.

At least once you get near Denver the view makes up for the hell of the views of Nebraska

A very good friend of mine grew up in Lutsen and now lives in CO.

Sterling, CO.

And he's an excellent skier....hell he's a Nelson from Lutsen he should be an excellent skier.

I've asked him a few times if he's aware of the western side of the state.

I learned how to ski as a kid in the Bavarian Alps and didn’t ski again until I moved to Colorado Springs. It ruined any possible fun I could have skiing in MN

Same… Grew up skiing on Big Mnt. In Whitefish, Mt.

This sounds pretty cool.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/coast-starlight-amtrak-train-route-intl-hnk/index.html

Headed to the Big Island in a couple weeks. Any recommendations on msut see or places to eat/drink?

We went a few years ago. Here are the places we liked:

- For a beach day, we really liked Hapuna Beach

- Papakolea Green Sand Beach was also pretty cool to see. It's a bit of an "adventure" to get there. You can hike to it or hire an ATV driver to bring you out there. We hiked out and hired an ATV back.

- Black Sand Beach had a lot of sea turtles

As for food:

- The Coffee Shack had a great breakfast

- Umeke's Poke Bowl in Kona

- Kona Brewing has some good food too

So I will be in Lincoln, NE a week from Thursday, when we'll be playing in the Frozen Four.

Anyone familiar with Lincoln got a bar/restaurant recommendation where to watch the game?

Boiler Brewery is phenomenal but didn't have a ton of tvs last time I was there...but get there before the game for sure.

Just got back from our Phoenix trip, when I asked earlier in the thread about driving routes, etc.

On the way down we went through Nebraska, around Denver, through Albuquerque. Once you get through Nebraska and get to Denver, that drive through Colorado, NW New Mexico, and Arizona is actually really nice. We spent the night in Albuquerque, and then drove down through Payson, AZ. It legit looked like Northern Minnesota at points. Massive pine forest, absolutely beautiful!

On the other side of the coin, on the way home we went through New Mexico, from Tucumcari up to Liberal, KS where we spent the night. And oh my god, that stretch in NW Texas and the Oklahoma panhandle was just DEPRESSING. These little towns one after another full of decrepit abandoned buildings. They all looked like they could have been used to film an episode of The Walking Dead...

So if we do it again in the future, we'll probably come back that Denver route; the way we came down... Lol

I've never been to KS/NE/OK, but always just assumed it was flat boredom like most of ND/SD/IA and therefore never saw a reason to go.

I have driven to Kansas City twice...bring good music because otherwise you will fall asleep at the wheel.

I’ve never been to KS/NE/OK, but always just assumed it was flat boredom like most of ND/SD/IA and therefore never saw a reason to go.

Just drove to KC a couple weeks ago.  Here (Twin Cities) to Des Moines is pretty boring.  There's a small part of SW Iowa that gets a little bit hilly and is not quite as boring.  Then when you get to Missouri it's pretty boring again.

I've done the drive to the Black Hills many times and that is probably a tougher drive in terms of boredom....doesn't get interesting until you get near the Badlands.

I’ve driven across the Dakotas. Nebraska. (Twice in one day for the eclipse) Kansas. Oklahoma. Texas.

But none of them compare to central Canada. Drove from Edmonton to Winnipeg in a single day. 800+ miles of NOTHING!

Mrs. GE and I are trying to visit all 50 state capitols.  A few years ago we noticed we were missing a chunk of middle America so we did the road trip no sane person would do: Stops at in Des Moines, IA, Topeka, KS, Oklahoma City, OK, Little Rock, AR, and Jefferson City, MO.  We also mixed in return visits to Springfield & Madison.   Hot, humid, and dusty.

I’ve driven across the Dakotas. Nebraska. (Twice in one day for the eclipse) Kansas. Oklahoma. Texas. But none of them compare to central Canada. Drove from Edmonton to Winnipeg in a single day. 800+ miles of NOTHING!

You can, however, see the curvature of the earth.

A few years ago Mrs. GE and I drove home from Banff across Canada and the worst part was the ridiculously low speed limit on Canada 1.  100/KPH if I recall correctly....

You can, however, see the curvature of the earth. A few years ago Mrs. GE and I drove home from Banff across Canada and the worst part was the ridiculously low speed limit on Canada 1. 100/KPH if I recall correctly….

OMG Yes!!! It was brutal!

It is worth the extra miles driven to come back in to the US first and drive Montana and North Dakota instead.

We decided to add Provincial Capitals to our quest or we would have ducked back into MT a lot earlier....

I did have plenty of time to cue up Sonny James as we passed the turnoff for Saskatoon. 

Just a little bit south of Saskatoon
Pick my guitar for board and room
Met a little girl, her name was June
A little bit south of Saskatoon

Mrs. GE and I are trying to visit all 50 state capitols. A few years ago we noticed we were missing a chunk of middle America so we did the road trip no sane person would do: Stops at in Des Moines, IA, Topeka, KS, Oklahoma City, OK, Little Rock, AR, and Jefferson City, MO. We also mixed in return visits to Springfield & Madison. Hot, humid, and dusty.

Jupiter wrote:

I’ve driven across the Dakotas. Nebraska. (Twice in one day for the eclipse) Kansas. Oklahoma. Texas. But none of them compare to central Canada. Drove from Edmonton to Winnipeg in a single day. 800+ miles of NOTHING!

You can, however, see the curvature of the earth. A few years ago Mrs. GE and I drove home from Banff across Canada and the worst part was the ridiculously low speed limit on Canada 1. 100/KPH if I recall correctly….

Yes! The speed limit in Canada is insane. We drive up 5 hours into Ontario to go fishing, and once you cross the border it feels like you're crawling up there.

I am off to New Orleans for Jazzfest tomorrow...strike another thing off the bucket list.  NoLa rocks anyways but the lineup for this weekend is just awesome!

I am off to New Orleans for Jazzfest tomorrow…strike another thing off the bucket list. NoLa rocks anyways but the lineup for this weekend is just awesome!

I've heard such mixed reviews from people about NoLa.  Pretty much either a complete dump or the best place ever.  No in between.

I am off to New Orleans for Jazzfest tomorrow…strike another thing off the bucket list. NoLa rocks anyways but the lineup for this weekend is just awesome!

I highly recommend a little breakfast joint called the Camilla Grille.  Behind Jackson Cathedral.  Classic diner place with “W” shaped counter, open kitchen.  Get the pecan waffles!  Also there’s a walk up window at Cafe duMond.  Don’t stand in that outrageous tourist line, go to the back window for the same stuff. AND try a NO Snowball!  Much better then a snow cone, the flavors are usually homemade.  Add the sweetened condensed milk like a local.  My personal favorite: tangerine or raspberry with the milk.

I see the FQ location is closed, that’s the one behind the church.  The original one is still open.