Our Annual Migration South 2024

 September 5 through 15, 2024

Day 1 – 5 Sept – 58 miles – Bellingham, WA to Marysville, WA – We opted to make it an easy day.  I’m still a bit sick with whatever I developed from the cruise or the forest fire smoke, and it took a while to pack the car, so we got a later-than-anticipated start to our drive.  Richard and I like the Village Inn in Marysville, which my family still calls the Pie Place because the original building had a giant slice of pie billboard on their roof when we arrived in 1968.  You know a car full of kids will notice a giant pie in the sky!  We we’re spending our first night here, and will get an earlier start tomorrow.

 

Day 2 – 6 Sept – 284 miles – Marysville to Hermiston, OR – We drove through Snoqualmie Pass, which was somewhat clear but hazy due to all the forest fire smoke in the region.  It’s always dramatic with the tall evergreen trees, rocky cliffs, and soaring mountains.  No animals other than other drivers in cars, all with our windows rolled up to keep out that smoke.  (My smoke and fire map shows medium to heavy density smoke throughout the region, and most of the mountains are in the red flag warning stage.  Not a good time to be doing this drive!)  Then across central Washington with the rolling gold-beige hills, across the mighty Columbia River, and on into north-central Oregon for the night.

 

We stopped for coffee at a little drive-through shop, and the baristas were in bikinis.  Rather surprised the two of us, and I blurted out “oh, I didn’t know you’d be in a bikini!”  Yeah, we live such sophisticated lives.

 

Day 3 – 7 Sept – 335 miles – Hermiston to Bliss, ID – We were planning to get as far as Twin Falls, then turn south into Nevada.  Didn’t quite get that far, but it was a good long day of driving.  Nothing major, just lots of rest stops.  Some repeating places we’ve been before, some new stops.

 

Day 4 – 8 Sept – 87.3 miles – Bliss to Jackpot, NV – We like this quirky little town.  Plus it’s a long drive to go from north NV to south NV, so we like to break it up.  Still a lot of smoke in the air, so we opted to stop at our favorite Jackpot hotel, the Four Jacks.  I played my friendly slot machine Zeus Unleashed – he’s almost always good to me, and has all sorts of flashing lights and thunderous exploding sounds.  We had fun.

 

Day 5 – 9 Sept – 204 miles – Jackpot to Ely, NV – We stayed at the Copper Queen Hotel last time we passed through Ely several years ago.  We’re now staying at their second property across the street, in a quieter and more modern space.  The Copper Queen is definitely an old school bar/restaurant/hotel/casino, not quite of Miss Kitty’s era but about as close as one can find in the 21^st century.

 

It's funny, we’ve been on this route before.  We stopped at the rest area dedicated to the Pony Express riders, I remembered the sculpture immediately!  But the scenery is pretty, the road (Highway 93) less travelled, and we both prefer to be off the beaten path.

 

Day 6 & 7 – 10 & 11 Sept – 215 miles – Ely to St. George, UT – Sort of a winding route through The Great Basin, and a corner of the Humboldt National Forest.  Plus I was stopped by either a state trooper or local police for speeding.  He let me off with a warning (and I told him he was a sweetheart) – but it was a little bit hairy for several minutes there!

 

We spent a second night in St. George – we found an inexpensive hotel that was comfortable, included breakfast, was walking distance to somewhere for lunch, and we were just tired.  So sure, a second night.

 

Day 8 – 12 Sept – 266 miles – St. George to Flagstaff, AZ – We swung around the north side of the Grand Canyon today, and had lunch at Jacob Lake, a place we stayed several years ago.  Good lunch and phenomenal cookies!  Then we continued south on US highway 89, through desert, hills, mountains, national forest, and along the Vermillion Mountains – such an incredible red!  Really a gorgeous drive, though it did make for a rather long day.

 

Day 9 – 13 Sept – 56.8 miles – Flagstaff to Camp Verde, AZ – We have favorite hotels and casinos in various places around the world, and one of those is the Cliff Castle Hotel and Casino in Camp Verde, Arizona.  We booked a room in their less fancy property, The Lodge, which is quite comfortable even if it isn’t in the posh hotel attached to the casino.  But we both had fun (and luck) in the casino, and we’ll enjoy a leisurely breakfast there in the morning before continuing southward.

 

Day 10 – 14 Sept – 143 miles – Camp Verde to Casa Grande, AZ – We tried driving on state roads today, but got hopelessly lost.  Greta the Garmin stopped speaking to us, so we had no idea where we were supposed to go.  Our maps didn’t show what we needed, and driving without any direction in the middle of Arizona is just not a good idea.  We finally went back to the interstates, and braved the highway traffic through Phoenix.  That included a detour off the highway and then back on, which took about an hour.  It looked as if there was some maintenance on an overpass, so, well, yes, if a bridge on the interstate needs repairs, sure, we'll take the detour.

 

Day 11 – 15 Sept – 69.5 miles – Casa Grande to Tucson, AZ – We’re finally here!  Long drive from Bellingham, but we managed to drive about 1576 miles in eleven days, with one rest day along the way.  Not too bad!  Though Google maps says our whole drive was closer to 1695 miles, but I did track our miles each day so who knows.  Somewhere between 1600 and 1700 miles.  At least we weren’t walking that!