When you drive a Prius in the winter, you become very interested in the weather and the mountains and need to plan carefully. So, our New Year’s trip from Salt Lake City to Orlando became a little longer than normal, but gives us a chance to visit some new gems and old favorites.

Our drive needed to start early to avoid a winter storm coming across route I-15 which gave us an opportunity to make an extra stop in St George, Utah. St George is a surprising hot spot in Utah and is 10-15 degrees warmer than anywhere else in the State. It was always a favorite jump off point for exploring Zion and Brice National Parks. But on this trip, as we are being stocked by Old Man Winter, we were more interested in weird things and staying warm, so we utilized Roadside America website again to find the local oddities.

After a night at the Hilton TRU hotel (13,000 HH points), we headed to Las Vegas to enjoy a night in the New York, New York Casino and to visit the Seven Magic Mountains (SMM). Although we had been in Vegas dozens of times we had never headed south on I-15 to visit this sculpture. SMM didn’t disappoint and ranks with Cadillac ranch in Texas as a “Do Not Miss” stop along the highway.

Reva and I have been playing,” My Vegas Slots” on our phones to earn free nights, food and shows in Las Vegas as well as, on-board ship credit for cruises (whenever cruising starts up again). Its free to play and it provided us a free room at the Casino (Resort Fee $42) and access to the wildlife habitat at the Mirage ($50 value). Surprisingly, it worked quite well and not a bad little game.

Next stop, Phoenix for a quick visit with our son and daughter-in-law. The highlight of this portion of the drive was Chloride, AZ. Chloride is a small town a few miles off off Route 93 about 20 miles North of Kingsman. It a goofy little town where most of the residents have opted to erect displays made from junk in their front yards. There are also some murals in the mountains behind the town, but that required 14 miles of driving on unimproved dirt roads…not suitable for a Prius in late December…if ever. (MK Hotel, Mesa AZ, $66 – Collected bonus $5,000 IHG points for paid stay)

Our next destination along the trip was Las Cruces, NM, one of our favorite places to visit and a relatively short drive from Mesa, AZ. As I am driving out of Mesa, I noticed that my rear-view mirror wasn’t aligned correctly. As I adjusted it, it came off in my hand. “Oh Crap”, I exclaimed, as I was driving down a dark two lane road with one hand on the wheel and one hand in the air holding on to the mirror. The mirror weighted about 2 pounds and was connected with a short wire to the car electrical systems. “Reva hold this! and find a Safelite office to get this glued back on.” Reva took the mirror and tried to find something to tie it to. “Do you want to stop and fix this”, Reva asked. “No you can handle it”, I replied……not my best choice of words. After a reasonable amount of drama and frustration, she found a power cord and was able to tie the swinging mirror up to the sun visor. Safelite had replaced the windshield after our last long drive and the glue had failed. Luckily they had an office north of Tucson, AZ and we able to get us back on our way in an hour or so.

As you cruise down I-10 from Tucson you pass “The Thing”. “The Thing” is advertised for 100’s of miles and is a well know tourist trap. I surprised Reva when I pulled into the parking lot. (I figured I needed to do something to make up for the mirror comment or it might be a colder than normal New Year’s Eve.) “We have passed this place a dozen times and never went in the museum, you interested?”, I said. She smiled…”Sure.” After leaving the $5 museum, I went up to man selling tickets, “Well Done, that was great!” He seemed a little surprised and nodded at me as we headed for the car with big smiles on our faces and a dream-catcher from the gift shop.

Las Cruses is the home of New Mexico State University and a gateway to White Sands Missile Range. With inexpensive modern hotels and great restaurants its a gem in Southern New Mexico and the region is wonderful to explore ….but not so much in Winter during a Pandemic. So after a quiet New Year’s Eve with wine and Ridiculousness reruns on MTV, (Townplace Suites, 10K Marriott points) we pushed on through West Texas toward San Antonio.

Now when you drive long distances and especially through west Texas, you appreciate the 80 mile-per-hour speed limits and little to no traffic and you would think New Year’s day would be a good day to enjoy it. But, west Texas is an isolated area and the weather can be unpredictable. The winter storm that we had dodged in Utah had swung through the area the day before and dropped over a foot of snow, stranding motorists and causing massive delays. We missed that, but the roads weren’t clear and our leisurely drive turned into a multi-hour nightmare. While we were were parked on the freeway we took the time to have lunch and watch other motorists build snowmen or have snowball fights. Reva counted 13 snowmen erected along the highway in the unusually white desert. Most had hats and scarfs and were smiling at the cars and trucks just a few feet from the roadway as we inched our way from Ft Stockton to Ozona, TX. It was kind of funny watching truckers chatting and building snowmen….they all seemed to be fine with parking for a bit and enjoying the snow. Schedules don’t mean much when there is a foot of snow on the roadway. Google maps yet again proved to not to be our friend as she kept advising us to get off the highway and take the side access road which was uncleared, under feet of snow. “Exit here and turn right.” She advised time and time again. We just laughed and watched a few drivers take that fateful advice. Even four-wheel high clearance vehicles weren’t going to get through that.

We have explored this area extensively and it really has a number of interesting things to visit and well worth your time. Sonora Caverns are considered by some to be the most beautiful cave system in the world and should be visited at least once. But, I will save that for another blog.

We eventually got out of the snow and slowly descended into the Hill County around San Antonio…a few hours later than planned. After a quick night in San Antonio, TX at the airport Springhill Suites ($68 Priceline…excellent hotel!), we headed east further along I-10.

At this point, we decided it was better to pick-up our pace. So just one more night on the road in Daphine, Al (Fairfield Inn, 10,000 Marriott points and then home to Florida. Six nights, three thousand miles: total gasoline cost $146..76, with about $175 in hotels costs. Not bad for a trip!

Traveling back and forth across the country can be tiring especially in the winter, but as long as you have a wonderful co-pilot and are on the look-out for adventure, it can be an amazing journey. The same thing also applies to life in general….I hope all your travels are amazing! Waddle on Ducks!