Last month, I had the unique experience of driving across the USA from the Three corners of Arizona, California and Mexico to my home town of Greensboro, NC. There were a few interesting stops along the way, but for the most part, it was pedal down, eyes to the East.

Some part of I-40 in the Midwest.  It all starts to look alike after a while.

At an average cruising speed of 520mph, trip out to the Arizona desert was considerably faster than the trip back at 70mph.

Ready for departure from GSO on the way to ATL then PHX

After a quick connection in Atlanta, we were off to Arizona. Flying high with in-flight WiFi.

Photo by atmasphere

Once the rental car was picked up and under way, we stopped for the most delicious fast food burrito I've ever experienced at Pollo Loco.  If you’re ever on the west coast and hunger strikes, this is the place to go.

El Pollo Loco, Yummay!

Halfway to my Brother’s house, we spotted the Space Age Lodge in a little town called Gila Bend, AZ

 

Space Age Lodge, Gila Bend, AZ

So we drove the rental to Yuma, AZ to pack up my Brother’s things and start the journey back to this side of the country.  It’s for sale if anyone is interested in a new home in the desert. Flagstaff was more popular than we had imagined and almost every hotel was booked up for the night by the time we arrived. I've never slept in an ash tray before, but this place was close to it.

 

Consider it a best practice to book a reservation ahead of time when visiting the only major town near the Grand Canyon.

Once loaded up we piled into the moving truck and set course for Flagstaff, AZ.  It was quite late, and unexpectedly cold, when we arrived very early in the morning on Sunday.  When the sun rose, we were greeted to one of the coolest looking towns I’ve seen.  Flagstaff reminded me a bit of Boulder, CO with fewer dirty hippies.

Sunday morning, we got on the road about 9am and all piled into the Xterra to go visit the Grand Canyon.  It was the first time there for each of us, and the experience of being there can’t be put into words.  Just go there, you won’t regret it.

 

Chris at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

Two hours is not nearly enough time to spend at such a picturesque location, but that is all the time we could stay and still be able to get back to Greensboro by Tuesday.  We turned around and drove back to Flagstaff to pick up our gigantic moving truck.

Further west in Arizona, there’s this gigantic hole in the ground.  We paid our $15 and explored where this big rock had fallen out of the sky.

 

Chris and Jimmy at the Crater

For the next thousand miles or more, there wasn’t much to speak of, except for lots of this.

   

 

In the meantime we crossed some Big River.

 

 

 

By Tennessee, save for this one, we were all were out of new ideas for snacks from the Convenience Stores, but the variety of goods was at an all-time high.

 

We pulled into the driveway at just a few minutes before midnight on Tuesday.  All that in just under 91 hours in planes, no trains, and several automobiles.

View the rest of the pictures from my trip here on Flickr.