Recently I was invited to join my friend and her 7 year old daughter, on a cross country road trip to the Grand Canyon.
This was a once in a blue moon trip that couldn’t be refuse. Excited I said yes, before knowing any details to our trip. New York has been my home my whole life, at 35 years old it would be nuts to miss an opportunity like this. Traveling has been exciting, I have been able to experience other cultures with my own eyes. The United States is the least place my friends want to explore. Having a friend that’s as excited as I am to see this great big nation was a dream come true.
We embarked on our voyage March 27th around 7:30pm from my lower east side apartment. Our first destination was St. Louis Missouri. The drive from my apartment to St. Louis is about a 15 hour drive, it took us about 17 hours. My friend Sesilia drove the entire way there. We obviously made some stops for gas, food, and to use the facilities. She is focused when she is dedicated. Wanting us to get a good start on our trip she figured driving straight would get us to the Grand Canyon by Tuesday.
This trip was a dream come true my cousin Ernesto went on a trip to Arizona a while back before covid and took some pictures on the views. He told me that there are camping trips available at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, you go hiking and white water rafting for a week.
After that I told the universe that I wanted to go see the Grand Canyon and the rest of this beautiful country before the conglomerates fuck it up. Going to Europe sounds nice but I can wait on visiting where the colonists lived. Seeing mother natures beauty is what I want.
We arrived early afternoon to our hotel in St. Louis, booking it 2 hours prior using the Hotels.com app. Sharing with me that it was a life saver, coming handy on her last road trip to Mount Rushmore with her two daughters. Parking out front as we all rolled out of the car, glad we were no longer sitting. Sesy went in grabbed the suit case cart rolled it over to me and headed towards the front desk to check in. That put me on bag duty, I unloaded all the suitcases bags, yoga mat, pillows or blankets we might of needed.
(we brought everything, this is a week long trip and I wanted to make sure I was ready.)
When we arrived to our room as we could think about was taking a shower and having a real meal. The last thing we ate was Denny's around 6:56 am in Illinois so we were hungry.
(Shout out to Denny's feeding all the hungry folk's on the road.)
While the ladies were in the shower getting ready I looked up places to eat near by. Learning a few things from my foodie friend Kelley, I found a place that was kid friendly with great reviews. Both the adults are Pescatarian's so we needed a place with a lot of seafood options.
Landry's Seafood House was the destination, which worked perfectly because of a surprise which was right out side the restaurant.
Shea ordered every kids favorite, Chicken tenders with fries. Sessy got her fish and chips she kept talking about with a mango mojito, I ordered the shrimp and lobster bisque with crab cakes. To drink I went with a cucumber margarita, I'm not much of a drinker but thought it was necessary to celebrate making it this far.
We bought tickets to go on the St. Louis Ferris wheel that took us to spectacular heights. Having a great view of the sun setting in Missouri. We were on top of the world, after our adventure on the Ferris wheel it was time we head back.
All shea kept asking was that if the hotel had a pool. I decided to go join her for a bit especially since Sesilia was tired from all the driving. Giving her a break and helping her out with entertaining her daughter. I swear kids learn to splash before they learn how to swim, because that’s what this eager little swimmer was doing. I held her up as she laid on my hand, a thing i've seen parents do when teaching kids to swim. I explained she needed to move her legs faster but keep them under water so she's splashing less. She did great, becoming faster but still splashing. A little girl came over and asked if we wanted to see her flip, next thing you know they became friends. Taking that as my cue to exit the pool area. Thinking ahead to shower, and no one would have to wait for the bathroom. Allowing shea to enjoy her pool time, and giving me some time alone.
Picking up where the other might of needed help is what team work is all about. I may not have driven the entire 10 days, but I did my best to make sure to load an unload the car, pump gas when it was my turn, and look for good places to eat if there were any.
Heres to collaborating and trying to be the best co-captain I could be on this cross country road trip.
Thanks again to Sesilia and Shea for welcoming me on your road trip I had fun till we mooed the cows good bye…
As always Hasta La Proxima my beautiful people, and remember drink water be good and Live Happy.
More post to come about this trip stay tuned.
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