re: Help me plan a 7 day SW US road trip with the wife

Everyone is crapping on your trip but I think it looks awesome. Wake up early and drive and you'll be at your next destination for lunch and a cocktail. I just did a roadtrip with my 3 kids where we did BTR->Amarillo->Santa Fe->Pagosa Springs->Amarillo->Dallas. We had a great time. We stayed 3 nights in Pagosa Springs (At the Springs Resort) but only 1 night at every other location. I was worried it would be too much car time but it really wasn't.

While we were in Pagosa we did the Silverton/Durango Steam train. We did the raft and rail where we rafted in the morning and then rode the train in the afternoon (otherwise it wouldve been too much time on the train). Pagosa Springs is 40 minutes or so from Durango and if you go to Chimney Rock you'll be halfway there. You can get a day pass to the Springs Resort to do the hot springs and river plunge. It's a cool area.

Also, don't sleep on Amarillo, lots of great hiking in the Palo Duro Canyon.

Last I will say on it, and I always say the same thing: do the trip you want to do, don't let us sway you.

HOWEVER:

I have driven in that area a decent amount. You will regret this trip. A lot. If it was two weeks I'd say go for it.

But this trip will be 100% miserable. You will regret it.

Fly to Phoenix or Tucson. Rent a car, drive around the Southwest. See the grand canyon, drive down to Bisbee, go up to Arizona wine country. You will like that trip A LOT more.

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Have you ever actually done a trip with this amount of driving?

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Well I've driven across Texas probably over 100 times. I've driven and traveled all over west Texas and NM. I've driven to Montana twice. Colorado multiple times. Sometimes without stopping. So yeah.

Also when we were kids, we would go on 2 month long road trips every summer. Now we would stay at places longer than 1 night because we had the time, but we would cover basically the entire western US during those 2 months.

I feel like a lot of y'all are just not understanding the point of a road trip

Y'all seem to be focusing on destination trips, which are fine and what we normally do, but this isn't a destination trip, moreso the "getting there" is the trip itself.

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Your entire days are taking up with driving with extremely little time NOT driving.

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Most of the drives are 6ish hours. That leaves another 12 hours of non driving time. I don't understand why you and others act like 6 hours is all day.

And that 6 hours will almost assuredly be broken up in smaller chunks considering we will be stopping a lot along the way to explore anything that looks interesting.

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What is the point of doing that? I don't get it.

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Exploring different areas? Seeing places that you wouldn't otherwise see if you flew to a destination and only focused on that specific destination?

Allowing the flexibility to go a completely different route if a certain area looks interesting?

And the best part? If we really like an area, we could stay another day. We will likely be truck camping for most of this trip.

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It sounds like the most miserable trip I could possibly imagine, but you do you.

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This is how I feel when people talk about sitting on the beach for a week, but I don't go into their threads and tell them how much their idea of travel sucks.

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its something you and your wife like to do.

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well me and my wife have never done this before

I've done it by myself or with friends, but never with the wife

So we shall see if I agree with you after

The key is to contact every divorce attorney in town before she does, so she won't be able to hire any of them and be forced to look elsewhere. It will give you some time to file first.

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Sounds like you've done these type of trips before so you know what you're getting into and its something you and your wife like to do. That's awesome. If I was spending 10 hour days in the car with my wife I'd want to die.

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You and me both. I call a road trip driving to where you are going instead of flying. We did them when I was a kid and were gone several weeks, but we stayed more than 1 night in a place.

My driving limit is 6 hours, generally. Doing 6 hours in a car 7 days in a row would make me want to pull out my hair. I wouldn't want to do it with my hubby, my kids, or anyone. I guess I don't feel like seeing anything is through a car window. But it does sound like the OP has done and likes this. I hope the wife does too!

There aren’t too many places to stay in Alpine AZ. Greer might have a few more options but Pinetop and Show Low will have everything you need to spend a night.

Harry died September 2, 2022. The bar is closed until everything gets figured out. You can check his facebook pages. Harrys Tinaja and Harry Mois.

This basically reminds me of doing Dead tour, without the Dead ??.

In all seriousness, I used to love this kind of trip when I was younger and did it often until I had kids. Enjoy yourselves and have a blast! My family are road warriors and can handle 20+ hour stretches in the car, but we tend to knock out a big stretch of driving as quick as possible then get somewhere and stay for a while then knock out another big stretch of driving.

That said, when you’re hauling 4 people worth of stuff and outdoor recreation gear (fly rods and bikes) then packing up and unpacking is a pain. So we try to limit that. Anyway, I’ve traveled that area extensively, you’ll have a great time. Enjoy!