New Orleans LA to Bellingham WA - 2024

 June 1, 2024

We drove from New Orleans to Bellingham, Washington.  We had enough time to not rush, and were able to spend a few days enjoying the journey.

We left a bit later than planned, due to some crazy weather New Orleans style.  I never realized just how rainy it can get there!

Anyway, here's the trip report, complete with photos and the requisite map showing our route!

Day 1 – 14 May 2024 – New Orleans to Natchitoches, LA – 256.8 miles – Drove on a bridge or raised highway along on edge of Lake Ponchartrain.  Wow is that a huge lake!

 

Day 2 – 15 May – Natchitoches to Bowie, TX – 341 miles! – Whew!  Crazy drive on highways around Dallas.  But we seem to be repeating our trip to New Orleans – we stopped here on our way south last fall!

 

Day 3 – 16 May – Bowie to Clarendon, TX – 212.8 miles – Was awakened at 7 AM to thunder and lightning.  You know it’s strong lightning when it flashes around the sides of the blackout shades!  Heavy rain, so we delayed our departure to 10:45 AM.  A bit rainy, but we headed west so we basically drove out of the storms.  However, more stormy weather is predicted for tonight, so we’ll see how it goes.

Texas has a lot of towns that seem to be disappearing.  We drove through Electra, looking for a spot for lunch.  Couldn’t find a thing, at least two-thirds of the buildings in town looked empty, and the town seemed to be half empty.  Just sad to see the lovely old buildings, likely from the late 1800s, unused and likely to fall apart.

 

Day 4 – 17 May – Clarendon to Tucumcari, NM – 168.9 miles – We gained an hour entering New Mexico, always fun!  We had lunch at Adrian, TX, at the Midway Café, so named because that’s the midway point on Route 66.  (Ate there on our way to NOLA!)  So we’re spending the night in Tucumcari, also on Route 66.  I just like the name, it sounds exotic. 

 

Day 5 – 18 May – Tucumcari to Santa Fe, NM – 165 miles – Just a short driving day.  Spent a night outside the city, will catch up with our friends tomorrow.

 

Day 6 – 19 May – Santa Fe with friends, playing

 

Day 7 – 20 May – Santa Fe, more playing

 

Day 8 – 21 May – Santa Fe to Durango, CO – 238 miles – Staying at the General Palmer Hotel in Durango!  Sounds like such a western town, doesn’t it?  Durango, where the wagon train came through, cattle drovers and ramrods caroused, and Miss Kitty oversaw it all.

 

Day 9 – 22 May – Durango & Mesa Verde, CO – I’m always fascinated by human endeavors, and Native American cliff dwellings are one of those amazing efforts that renew my belief in the human spirit, ingenuity, and creativity.  So I spent most of today at Mesa Verde.  I’ll write I separate blog post about that, with tons of photos.  It was a gorgeous day to be outdoors and walking, rather than driving.  The cliff dwellings, tucked into alcoves in the enormous rocky cliffs, never fail to surpass my expectations.  (On the map, this side trip is in magenta to differentiate from our daily driving route.)

 

Day 10 – 23 May – Durango to Grand Junction, CO – 167 miles – Gorgeous views of snowcapped mountains as we drove through the San Juan Mountains along the twisty turny Highway 550.  Then rugged rocky mountains, not quite as tall but imposing as they loomed over the road.  (Yes, the San Juans are part of the Rockies.  Pun intended.)  We even saw a small herd (or flock?) of bighorn sheep huddled in the shade of a large tree!!  SO exciting!  We stopped for lunch in Silverton – the Durango-Silverton train makes multiple runs every day, but we opted not to do that since it was on our route onward.

 

Day 11 – 24 May – Grand Junction to Springville, UT – 234 miles – We got a late start.  My insect bite from Wednesday, at Mesa Verde, has been swelling and spreading.  The swelling hit a point where I thought yeah, maybe it was time for a doctor.  The person I saw thinks it’s likely early stage cellulitis, so I’m now on antibiotics.  The joys of travel.  Anyway, that took all morning.  But we did manage to get through much of Utah, so we had a decent day of driving through everything from desert to mountains.

 

Day 12 – 25 May – Second day/night in Springville – It was rainy, we were tired and my face probably could use some time to rest.  All good excuses to stay an extra night and relax.

 

Day 13 – 26 May – Springville to Jackpot, NV – 312 miles – We thought we’d take a little diversion and visit Jackpot again.  And stay at the Four Jacks Hotel, just because.  Well, because Richard wanted to, and since I spent a day at Mesa Verde, it seemed we should do what he wanted to do today.  A little out of the way, and Greta our Garmin did not pick the shortest nor most direct route.  But oh well, we’ll have a night in our little quirky hotel, try a couple of casinos, and just have fun.

I should mention that we had lunch in Snowville, UT.   That seemed apropos, driving from Springville to Snowville.  We had lunch at Mollie’s Café, which we both recognized from a previous stop.  And the waitress said she remembered me from a previous visit. Too funny!

 

Day 14 – 27 May – Jackpot to Ontario, OR – 230 miles – We got a late start out of Jackpot, but we made it to Oregon.  Ontario is a small town just over the state line, a good stopping point for the night.  This is high desert country, flat and dry.  Quite different from the west side of the state!

 

Day 15 – 28 May – Ontario to Pendleton, OR – 166 miles – It was a warm 80-something degrees when we left Ontario in eastern Oregon.  We arrived in the afternoon in Pendleton, just outside the Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests, where it was 60-something and windy!  Found a hotel for the night and quickly added sweaters and long pants!  Brrr!

 

Day 16 – 29 May – Pendleton to Yakima, WA – 188 miles – We didn’t take the direct route from Pendleton to Yakima.  We drove an additional 80 or so miles along the Columbia River, which was blue and frothy with white-topped waves on this super windy day.  It’s a huge, gorgeous river, and part of our drive took us through the famous gorge carved by this mighty river over millennia.  We didn’t quite get as far as The Dalles, we took the bridge across the river near Goldendale, WA.  Just a nice little diversion.

 

Day 17 – 30 May – Busy day!  We met with my brother, our attorney.  We always have questions about updating our stuff.  Picked up our mail and such.  Richard needed a computer repair shop, the guy said to come on over, so we eventually made it over there.  Computer fixed, we went to lunch.  Then Richard went back to our hotel, and I went to our storage unit to pull some items from our boxes.  Back to the hotel quite filthy, so showered and got ready to meet my brother, his wife, their son for dinner, just two buildings over from our hotel.

As soon as we were ready to leave, while I was trying to plug in a lamp, the power suddenly went out!  Nothing like being in a strange hotel room at twilight, when the lights go out!  We went to the restaurant, hoping they might have a generator or a gas stove.  Nope, they were closed.  My brother pulled up, we got in their car, tried another place.  No power there, and the traffic signals were all out as well!  We called a third place, they were open, so we went for a lovely Mediterranean dinner.

But that lucky third place that had power?  It was across the parking lot from the spot we had lunch!

Everyone speculated that the power may have been turned off due to a wild fire on one of the many hills surrounding the Yakima Valley.  One hill was rather burned, though I didn’t see any flames.  But we did see a helicopter with a huge hanging bucket, scooping up water from the Yakima River to dump on the fire.  That was quite a sight!

 

Day 18 – 31 May – Yakima to Marysville, WA – 171 miles – We decided that, since we have one free day, we’d stay in a small town on the way to Bellingham.  This town has our favorite place for a meal along I-5 (with great pie!), and is near one of the casinos we haven’t tried yet.  So sure, why not, let’s try a new place!

 

Day 19 – 1 June – Marysville to Bellingham, WA – 58.2 miles – We have arrived at our home for the summer!  More blogs will follow, so stay tuned!