As promised, I’ve put together a brief trip recap for you. The trip was a lot of things, but as it turns out, it wasn’t generally at 75 miles per hour.
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By the Numbers
Category: Southwestern USA 2010
I dabbled with Twitter for my Southwest @ 75mph trip, posting photos from the road at @Floodcation. Unfortunately mobile phone camera quality in 2010 is not that great, so you’ll need to use your imagination a bit to make the most out of these precious memories. Here are my tweets and associated photos, extracted from Twitter:
8th September – This is a first. Parents are late picking me up at the airport. Fortunately this overpriced banana is here for me 
8th September – Beautiful Breckenridge, unfortunately in the rain 
8th September – Just west of Rifle, Colorado – sun is back out, car is still going 75. 
9th September – Sunny day. Flat land. Goodbye Colorado, hello Utah. Still going 75. 
9th September – Can’t have a road trip without good gas 
9th September – Hey, where did the trees go? (photo by Mom Flood) 
9th September – Middle of Nowhere, Utah. Population: small. Soft drink themed gas storage tanks: 4 
9th September – Still not many trees, but Utah has a bit more blue and green now. Nice work Utah – keep it up. 
9th September – The verdict is in. The Grand Canyon really IS a big hole. In a good way. 
9th September – A trekking Trek and the big Arizonian hole 
10th September – Arizona lesson #52 – don’t forget to water your garden or else this might happen 
10th September – Arizona lesson #52 – don’t forget to water your garden or else this might happen 
10th September – Who put this dirty city in the stinky desert anyway? 
10th September – Memo to Las Vegas. You live in a desert 
11th September – Record short drive (2 hrs) for the Floodcation to Red Rock Canyon 
11th September – Oh snap. Cleaning lady isn’t done with our room. Warning. Floods stuck in the sun. 
11th September – Yay, a shuttle bus ride. 
11th September – And up we will go 
11th September – Helitweet 
11th September – Crappy picture but I have a feeling that this low brow cheap steakhouse/brewery is going to be a winner 
11th September – Here’s to being number 9 
12th September – Holy snap! They have Denny’s here 12th September – This may or may not be true for you 
12th September – Dam. 
12th September – Dam crowded. 
12th September – Damn nice drive home. 
13th September – So long Las Vegas 
14th September – Bad UI design 
14th September – Wildest drive of my life. Put the Apache Trail on your list and bring your rugged road vehicle 
14th September – Old school gas pump. New school gas prices 
14th September – Sweet red rocks of Sedona 
14th September – Sweet silhouetted rocks of Sedona 
15th September – Hot air tweeting 
15th September – I like Sedona 
15th September – Balloon adventure complete 
15th September – Good advice 
15th September – Let’s hear it for the trees. Woot! 
15th September – Still Grand 
15th September – Dark roads aren’t as fun as light roads 
16th September – Instant Western movie backdrops available here 
16th September – 9 days in, we just had our first construction-related stop. 
16th September – At the 4 Corners Monument you pay the Navaho $3 in exchange for seeing tourists and flags 
16th September – I think that I’m finally in the cultural west now 
16th September – I think that I’m finally in the cultural west now 
16th September – I get the sense that these cavemen (cavepeople?) were no dummies 
17th September – Let’s play “Guess that Decade” – Durango Econolodge edition 
17th September – Last long drive (for me) on the Floodcation has begun. Only 10 more hours to go 
17th September – With so much red and brown in the Southwest I had almost forgotten about green. Thanks Colorado 
17th September – Note to self – move here 
17th September – Great plains in between mountain ranges. Who knew? 
17th September – Ride the pony 
17th September – Autumn aspen near Breckenridge 
18th September – flippin’ Gorillapod this place is beautiful 
18th September – flippin’ Gorillapod this place is beautiful 
19th September – Until next time Estes Park 
19th September – Goodbye Rocky Mountains … sniff 
19th September – Denver. Look west and you see the mountains. Look anywhere else and you don’t see much of anything.
Categories
Saving the Best Until Last?
It’s nearly time for this good thing to come to an end. Time to go back to work and help pay the bills. But before Monday arrives, we’ve still got some traveling to do.The trip from Durango to Estes Park (northwest of Denver) was quite long, but offered consistently beautiful mountain scenery. With the exception of the first day of this adventure, we haven’t seen a drop of rain. Crisp blue skies tend to help everything look better. Given that one of the main attractions in this road trip (and any Floodcation) is the scenery, the drive went by reasonably smoothly. Smooth enough that we decided to add on an extra 45 minutes by taking a scenic route up to Estes, rather than the Interstate through Denver and Boulder. The mountains near Durango looked a lot like the Canadian Rockies — big, rocky and gray with lots of green trees; the mountains in the middle were taller, but not quite as pretty. As we neared Rocky Mountain National Park, things started to look a bit more Canadian again. That’s always a good thing.
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Border Crossings
My sunrise jaunt out into the Monument Valley area was a nice teaser; after fueling up the car and our bellies, we set out again. We didn’t stop and get the full Navajo tour of the valley, but we did see quite a bit from the road. Amazing open country scenes; hopefully the people, the state and the country are able to preserve that openness for generations to come.
Yes, that 4:30 wake up call did come very early. Needless to say, we were up well before dawn.
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The Road to Sedona
Oh, the road. After a few quiet days of driving, relatively speaking, we’ve hit the road again. We’ve hit it hard.
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Dam It
Not wanting to deprive you of a great shot of a pair of Handsome Bearded Floods™, here you go. We went to the Hoover Dam today. Not to take anything away from the engineers, but … it’s a REALLY huge pile of concrete. Stops water, generates electricity. Everybody there seemed pretty happy about it.
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Still in Vegas
The suspense has been killing you. Has Vegas drawn him in – has it won over the stubborn skeptic with it’s fast ladies and loose slots? The lights, the glitz, the glamor? (What does any of that mean anyway?)
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It’s been a long road
Friday night, many, many miles from home. It’s been a long road to here, but so far a good one.
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Parents on the road
I’m still at home, enjoying the long weekend, thinking about packing and the like. Mom and Dad have already been on the road for a day and a half – should be in Iowa soon. 48 hours from now, we’ll be ascending the eastern front of the Rockies. Looking forward to it.