Let’s face it, New Year’s Eve is a lame “holiday”. So we thought it would be great to convince some friends (shout out to Jason, Erin, Scott, and Maria) to get out of Austin and spend the ‘holiday’ skiing in Colorado. Since we just got a place there, we wanted to bring the dogs, Cayman and Casey.
An “easy” drive from Austin, Texas to Beaver Creek (Avon), Colorado is to go north through Dallas, then Oklahoma, to Salina, Kansas and turn left (west). Although a longer drive in miles, it takes a little less time since it is all interstate. With the exception of Oklahoma, the speed limit for the majority of the drive is 75 MPH (which is really 80 MPH).
Because of bad weather this time around, we ended up going the more ‘direct’ route via major metropolises of Early, Texas; Winters, Texas; Lubbock, Texas; Amarillo, Texas; Channing, Texas; etc. You get the idea.
17 hours. 10 in Texas alone.
The girls love car rides. In fact all you have to do is say “car ride” and the girls are at the door ready to go. So we weren’t worried about a 17 hour car ride with the dogs.
Are we there yet?
We ended up overnighting in Lubbock, Texas at the beautiful La Quinta Inn & Suites in North Lubbock. I am not a hotel snob and can pretty much stay anywhere as long as it is clean and safe. The LQ was fine, especially for a place to crash overnight.
I stay in a lot of hotels. One thing that I don’t understand are those nasty ‘quilts’ on hotel beds. They are gross. And you know they are not cleaned after each guest. One of the first things I do when I get to a hotel is to throw that quilt in the corner of the room.
Picture courtesy of lq.com.
Not 5 seconds after getting into bed and the dogs snuggled next to me, Cayman got off the bed. She explored every last inch of the room. Once she was done exploring I figured she would head back to bed, but no. She went over to that nasty quilt and started pushing and pulling on it to make a nest. I swear, she spent a good 7 minutes building the perfect nest. Once she was done, however, she sniffed the quilt and then walked over to the bed and jumped on. Even the quilt in the perfect nest was too nasty for her. Just sayin’.
The next day, we were up early. Out into 9 degree weather the girls and I went. Luckily, being Texas dogs, they wanted nothing to do with the cold. So we loaded up the truck and were off for day 2.
Casey’s on the road again.
Here’s a tip for any of you that want to take your dogs on a road trip. The best place to stop for breaks are McDonalds. Why you ask? They ALWAYS have patches of grass that the hounds can use for their business. Plus, you can pickup a soda, coffee, or snack. Perhaps even a McRib if you’re feeling up to it.
Someone spied a french fry.
The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful. If you follow me on twitter (@JustinDoesBlog), you kept up to date on some of the amazing sites along the way. [If you are a tweep and you don’t yet follow me, please follow me!]
Just truckin’ along.
After 17 long hours and some pretty snowy mountain roads, we made it to the condo in the early afternoon. Now we’re just waiting on the friends to arrive for a long weekend of skiing, snowboarding, and wine!
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