Frugal-yet-fun vacation ideas: need ideas from vagabonds

[loosechickens]

Well, if you do decide to drive and take off on Rt. 66, and happen to whiz through Albuquerque, make sure to do it at lunchtime, and give yourself a treat.......stop at the Route 66 Malt Shop, 1720 S.W. Central, near Old Town.......

Absolutely one of these vagabonds favorite lunch spots.....happened to think about it because we are in Albuquerque this week, and had lunch there yesterday. It had been almost a year since we'd been able to come through here and I was really ready for my fix.

It's just a little hole in the wall place with a few tables, run by a husband and wife. They make their own homemade root beer, bake their own homemade hamburger buns, and get all their meat from a custom butcher who contracts for it when the calves are born, and they are raised on grass without antibiotics, and no feedlots.

Their blue cheese and green chile hamburger is to die for, followed by a root beer float, and your tummy will sing with contentment.

We eat very little meat, and no factory farm type meat at all, and I look forward all year to being in Albuquerque and being able to eat there. They are great folks! People come from all over the world to that little place, on friends' recommendations.

Have a great time, whatever you do.... LooseChickens

[deserat]

OK - San Antonio - you can drive to a small town outside of it called Fredericksburg which is nice - they have ltos of antique stores and is a nice country town. Also, San Antonio is not far from Austin which has 6th street - some great live music and excellent restaurants - of course the River Walk, the Alamo are to be seen in San Antonio - I drove down to north South Padre Island and enjoyed the beach scene for awhile - wasn't too long of a drive. There's a hike west of San Antonio (some mound or rock) that's really neat, too - looks like a mini Ayers Rock.

Santa Fe - haven't been in awhile - pricey as well as Taos - but beautiful nonetheless. Taos has mountains so hiking and/or skiing may be available now. The mexican food in New Mexico is awesom - it isn't Tex-Mex - in fact, my favorite places for Mexican food are NM and AZ.

Enjoy - the area in New Mexico is very pretty and some of the 'hill country' in TX is pretty, too.

Deserat

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by deserat There's a hike west of San Antonio (some mound or rock) that's really neat, too - looks like a mini Ayers Rock.

It's Enchanted Rock located a few miles northeast of Fredericksburg.

You will note the rock looks a lot like a petrified mulch pile (ask Nords to verify the accuracy of my statement), but this one isn't in any danger of catching fire. If you do visit, be very careful - it's covered in scorpions and rattlesnakes.

[Jeb-NY]

DW and I do a couple of road trips a year. Part of doing a road trip is enjoying the drive. We can go for a week or two and only spend a day or so at the end point. The end point is picked just because we needed to define a place to turn around.

We plot a trip that avoids 4 lane roads as much as possible (usually only to go around large towns that are not part of our plans). Once we have picked the destination we both start lists of things we want to see and do between start point and destination (internet finds lots of things you would never think of doing). Then you lay out all the places on a map and plan a route to go through the most points (remember you have to come back and you can take a completely different route back).

We make no reservations, we stop at things that look interesting (no reservations has got us into trouble a few times so now we try to guess where we will be when we are ready to stop for the day and call ahead mid afternoon). We take a few good audio books along to listen to while traveling. We do trips with the camper as well as in the car using motels. Some times we use motels even when the campers along. Part of the fun of a road trip is not to get to structured. You can always start back early if you are having to much fun to get as far as you planned. Our earlier road trips had some long driving days at the end, we do better now.

Jeb