San Jose or bust

San Jose or bust, that was our family motto heading west from Fort Worth, TX with a baby in the back car seat.  First stop, Amarillo, TX the lonely city in the panhandle of Texas.    Everybody that's ever driven through the great plains of Texas has seen the billboards for The Big Texan Restaurant and Hotel but, do you know it actually serves good food?!  Well, they do.  I love watching people coral and gnaw a 72oz steak on stage.  It's pure greatest.  Pro-tip buy a cute little cowboy hat and toy pistol to really set the mood for your table while you listen to music from the cowboy band moseying around and eat. 

The next pro-tip is to stay in West Amarillo the fancier hospital district.  We did not take that tip and stayed next to the local strip club where we checked into our room with a prostitute checking in next to us.  Sure makes you look at your bed a little differently after that. 

With the San Jose or bust motto in our heads we headed to New Mexico the next morning.  My mind took off in imagination as to where all the Native Americans were hiding.  We stopped at the tourist shop to find out.  Still not sure we bought the baby some authentic moccasins and an orange Flintstone pushup pop. 

It kept her chill until we made it to our Grand Canyon hotel.  It was a neat New Mexican themed hotel.  It happened to have a bowling alley to keep us entertained for the night before we woke up to hike the canyon.  The next morning we did just that.  Took some beautiful family photos to remember forever because who goes to the Grand Canyon and doesn't take a picture? 

We came, we saw, we may not have conquered much with a toddler, but we were off again. 

Next stop Las Vegas to the Red Rock Casino.  This hotel is not anywhere near or close to the strip.  It does however have a kids club which means mom and dad get a sitter for the night!  We loved the pool during the day and Canada loved her pineapple whip! 

We could have stayed longer if we were able to.  The hotel was so fancy it even had a flat screen TV on the wall to watch when taking a bath.  It was perfect for our little bathtub cartoon loving baby.  (I think this may have been Canada's favorite part of the trip).

I had pictured San Jose the whole way there, and then we finally arrived.  There weren't robots running the town no, in fact, it wasn't futuristic at all it was shabby, sort of country for California I thought and dry.   The whole state had been in a drought for quite some time.  We winded up the hillside to our destination to a house where a man had passed away.  He left his home to his family to keep as their permanent gathering spot.  It was loaded with lots of cool things like hotrods, signs, posters, grills, surfboards, you name it.  We loaded the 32 on the trailer while the baby played on her new pick, a little tricycle scooter she had gotten for free.  What a gift it was.  It was autographed by old salt flat drivers and had their quotes.

We had already purchased and shipped a roadster from the same location and were making sure we got everything we could pick up before leaving and heading to Santa Monica for the night. 

Beverly Hills that’s where I don’t want to be with a truck and trailer on the street of Rodeo Dr!  “Honk, Honk the Cassel’s are here” we shouted as we got chewed up and spit out.  At least got spit out at the beach and that is if you enjoy an overcrowded pier. 

We did our best to enjoy our time finding the restaurant at the end of the pier.  We drank coconut margaritas and listened to the eccentric singer on the boardwalk while people were watching. 

Is this what California is all about I asked myself being the newbie to the scene.  I most indeed answered with a yes after being pretty woman’d at the outdoor mall.  At last, we parked our truck and trailer in a small parking garage at the hotel and went up to our cute but very tiny hotel room.  You see when you're from Fort Worth your just used to big.  At least I can say it was a big trip for a little one-year-old. 

San Jose or bust it’s a must!

So-Cal it is.

We needed to deliver a 1949 Pontiac Fastback and some signs both to Southern California.  We left not having anything to bring back but we needed to sell and knew we could find something on the way home to bring back.  A little risky but we had a couple of backup plans. 

First stop was to Albuquerque for dinner and sleep.  This was the first of our fiery meals throughout our trip.  The High Noon Grill and Saloon sounded like a place out of a western so we had to try. 

Try was the key would since our baby wasn’t feeling it.

She preferred to stroll Old Town Albuquerque but since everything was closed by 9pm she had to explore our downtown Hyatt room which she didn’t seem to mind at all. 

Waking up to Starbucks in the lobby of our hotel wasn’t a bad way to start off the next 8 hours of driving.  We made a pit stop at the El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, NM   I felt it was totally worth it.

I mean I learned about Native American CLOWNS, yes, this was a thing! I saw these crazy looking jester dolls in the window of the famous Richardson Pawn shop I had to google.  Which, to my surprise where made to help fertility and so on.  

We made it to Flagstaff, AZ.  In the beautiful ski town we ate at one of the thousand breweries they have.  I feel we made the right choice since our meals were to die for.  My husband wearing his ball cap with a TX flag emblem ordered the Texas burger.  As a true Texan he approved.  The strangers next to me apparently did approve of my muddy looking drink as they ask me at the end of our meal what it was and that their whole table was wondering.  Hey I ordered a cider.  It just happened to be unfiltered. 

After lunch my husband let me shop!  We went to the thrift store were Canada scored a hat and toy to keep her occupied until we stopped for dinner.

Well, we weren’t able to stop before she faced a meltdown from being in to car too long.  We had no choice I was driving almost 80 mph in the state of California which by the way if you don’t know you are not allowed to drive faster than 55 mph on their highway pulling a trailer.  Being from Texas I just can’t image living this way.  The last time we where there we found this out the hard way when my husband was driving.  I told the officer that was ridiculous we are just a pickup truck driving an 18ft trailer not a semi truck driving a 48’-53’ trailer but he didn’t understand.  Maybe it was my accent.  We also came into California earlier as outlaws trying to smuggle a wood block in, whoops.  You see in order to get into their state you cross a check point.  You can’t freely come in from the other states without being stopped.  I saw a sign on the check booth that said, “Burn it where you buy it” which is what the office said, “We can’t bring our Texas termites or weeds into Cali” lol.  If you are wondering why we had one it was used as a chock on our back tire of the Streamline.  We left with my husband wondering what they do with it after it was confiscated and, we he didn’t even check our giant RTIC cooler because we felt we may have smuggled some illegal cantaloupe in, yikes! Back to the crazy screaming baby in the back we got her to Barstow, CA SAFELY and ordered pizza to the hotel room before passing out.

We woke up feeling good Cali vibes with the perfect weather blowing our hair as we watched dune buggies driving through the dessert.  Onto Tehachapi, CA to drop the signs, we got there a tidbit earlier than the people we where meeting so while my husband picked, the baby and I went to a German bakery for some goodies.  We finally met the men at K-Mart.  Well my husband was able to meet them.  Canada and I were in K-Mart the whole time.  One, we don’t have K-mart in Texas two; they had a play kitchen she couldn’t step away from.  

We made it to our Second drop Glendale, CA to deliver the Pontiac Fastback to our new So-Cal Friends. 

They loved the car and we loved their Cali cool hospitality.  They recommended Huntington Beach for us to stay at since we had a need to get to the west coast.  We stayed at one of the big resorts there since we knew we would be using the pool. 

It just so happened that there was a big country concert in town on the beach with Tim McGraw headlining.  With our boots packed we wanted to make it down to what our bell boy said was a two blocks walk.  It was actually a 20 minute walk one way which we were disappointed to not be able to get to go to with the baby and trailer.  The next day waiting for our truck a man leaving the hotel at the same time as us asked us how the concert was.  I sadly reported, “We weren’t able to make it” he replied, “Oh, I thought you went because of the boots” to which he pointed to our luggage rack.  The new bell boy laughed replying, “No, they actually where those for REAL”.  Yes, we are from Texas and we wear boots for real lol! 

With our Texas pride on our backs we headed to watch a Jet Ski competition on the pier.  It was awesome, so where the breakfast tacos from Sancho’s Tacos. 

Sadly I could tell we didn’t fit in.  Our family didn’t have on trucker hats and I had never even heard of a charcoal latte or whatever kind of health food they were trying to serve.  We did however feel just right cruising the ocean front highway passing Newport, Laguna, and La Jolla Beaches. 

Making it to San Diego we stayed in Old Town.  We ate at Duke’s and got to see the sea lions or seals which ever they where I didn’t ever figure that out. 

After leaving the beautiful city of San Diego we made it to Tucson, AZ.  I talked my husband into eating a Sonoran hot dog.  It is popular there.  It is a hot dog wrapped in bacon with pinto beans, peppers, and some other stuff on a soft bun.  We enjoyed them but, unfortunately my husband used it as an excuse to watch the Texas Tech playoff basketball game in the hotel room instead of swimming in the pool with C and I. 

Our hotel, The Hotel McCoy, was hipster, artsy, and classic all in one and with the two drink tokens I received I loved it!  

My husband used his time to find what we had been looking for.  Something to bring home and boy did he!  A 1956 Buick Station Wagon that would just barely fit on our trailer. 

We left Tucson and headed back up to Albuquerque to pick up our wagon.  We made some neat stops along the way.  Passing through Hatch, NM we of course had to grab some chilies. 

I also finally found a stop to buy some silver jewelry.  With a price tag of $20 my husband ok’d it since I had been finding $400-$40,000 pieces, yikes!  We stopped to get gas at a station that had a “Thing” which we didn’t see but, are pretty sure we missed out on. 

One thing we did not miss out on, popsicles! Yes, in the middle of Nowhere, Somewhere in the desert on a two lane highway; our good friend Dakotah found and stopped us to give us popsicles out of his vintage ice cream truck.   How random is that? Running into your friend in the middle of nowhere, that was pretty cool.

In Albuquerque for the second time we picked up the Buick on the north side close to the hot air balloon park.  Luckily for us we passed a super famous, which I would call secret, restaurant since we only found it on the way to the station wagon.  The car was in a beautiful peacefully equestrian neighborhood.  The man with the car was an awesome hot-rodder with loveable puppies and horses my daughter loved to pet and play with.  We made yet another friend along our travels. 

The night was not over I still had yet to burn my tongue off.  The El Pinto Restaurant was the answer to the heat.  I mean I should have known considering chili peppers lined the entrance.  The walls where however lined with photographs of the owners with famous people.  I saw pictures of Snoop Dog, Little Wayne, George W. Bush, Gretchen Wilson, Katy Perry and so many more.  I was informed by the hostess that Tom Hanks had just been there as well.  My husband ordered the Red Chili ribs and I the stuff sopaipillas.  I am not sure if I liked them because my taste buds where lit but, I am sure they had to have been good considering all the celebrities that eat there.  We stayed at The Nativo, an older lodge style hotel that did not disappoint on the New Mexico theme. 

Finally we were off back to TEXAS.  This time we went home through Lubbock.  It was windy, very very windy but, in that little farm town we made it to the largest sign park I would say in America.  Cook's Garage and restaurant, it was a sight to see.  We loved the decor, Texas hospitably, hotrods and, not to mention delicious food. 

We met the mother of one of the owner's of Rev Limits Garage that is also attached to the venue.  She told us they would be in Austin the following week for Lone Star Round Up which we were also going to.  So, of course that Saturday I found the Lubbock boys and gave them a big howdy.      

   - Peace love and Hot Rods     

Wherever the road takes us!

Well, it took my husband back to Northern Kansas for the 3^rd time.  I guess that’s the consequences of finding a sweet honey hole.  We hit the road with a fresh start at the beginning of the week in late February.  It was not long after leaving Fort Worth, Texas that the snow began to hit.  We were warned of the icy dangers but, that didn’t change a thing for our travels. 

We pulled into Downtown Wichita, KS for an early dinner giving us enough time to play in the snow covered downtown plaza. 

It was beautiful brick everything and a trolley still poking along the sidewalk tracks. 

 We walked downstairs off of the sidewalk into a farm to table restaurant, Public.  Luckily they had an antique sketball machine to keep the baby occupied. We warmed up to our totally unexpected “best meal of my life” dinner!  Well it was pork belly cooked like crispy, juicy, thick, steak bacon so um; yeah you tell me if you have ever eaten the daddy of all bacons.  I am pretty sure it will change your life! 

This was followed by our, toddler distracter, gourmet-carrot cake.  You know there’s more than one way to get your little one to eat their veggies.

I don’t know if it was the amount of fat or sugar I just devoured but, when you call your child by the wrong name, Kansas …. I mean Canada! I think it’s time to step away from the amazingness.  Who knew in Downtown Wichita, Kansas we would find such an adventure.  I mean our waiter came with enough personality to sell us on anything.  We left there running back to the truck like the cold little Texans that we were.  We checked into our hotel across the highway.  Complete with a not so welcoming crack head we still managed to get our keys, unload, and make it up to the third floor without any complications. 

The next morning my husband was thankful we were next door to his favorite gas station, QT.  I don’t know if it’s a guy thing, or construction worker thing, or what but he has a thing for good gas stations.  Gas station snob, it’s an oxymoron I know but hey it’s the little things in life.  An energy drink and whatever he can find rolling on the heat rollers.  With my warm coffee in my hands we headed to our destination. 

It was a holy experience, I will admit.  On the road with no cars, no trees, no homes, nothing but snow covered fields.  All you could see was sparkling white snow and ice and the glistening sun shining down on it.  It was peaceful.  It was heavenly.   We stumbled upon an old car field in a town of 50.   

Crazy I know.  The town seemed to be a graveyard for antique automobiles, trains, and tractors although, there was evidence of life. 

My husband did find the owner and talked to him on the phone.  He needs a train track to add to his collection if anyone knows where he can get one I am sure he is willing to pay. 

Moving on to our first pick on the trip we met a man out in Southern NE in the city with the largest porch swing in America.  Yet, for some reason we never managed to find it.  He showed us his pride and joy he’s pickup.  He then took us on a four wheel drive to Ruston, NE.  The environment changed from University of Kansas, Kansas State, and Shocker County to Cornhusker territory.  Yes, there were still remembrances of cornfields even in the snow covered fields.  I did discover something new to me.  Beautiful barn quilts!  No not actual cotton material quilts but wooden signs placed on a family’s barn.  Huge, bright, and joyful.  I am totally taking this to Texas and adding one to our barn. 

Back to the car pick up.  We made it to the half circle metal barn.  Getting out of our pickup we were in a foot of snow walking into the collection. 

There set the roadster we were picking up and there set the other goodies! A Galaxy, Riviera's, 32 frame, it was awesome, cold, but awesome. 

Back to KS to stay the night so we could load some of the rest of the things we purchased previously in Kansas. The roadster body we were picking up was there in the ghost town building waiting for us.  We got it and decided that this area needed more scouting in.  I mean it was like we couldn’t go to a town without something there we had to have.  I found four small towns to pass through before we made it back to hwy 35.  More uninhabited snow enchantment leading us to an undisclosed town in Kansas where we found a Buick my husband still needs to get his hands on.  He will never forget a car he wanted but did not get and not rest until he at least talks to the owners.  It is an obsession you might say but, hey it keeps gas in our tank!

Lastly, to another undisclosed town, in KS.   We met a beautiful soul who let my husband in his house to pick through his possessions. 

Witnessing his lifestyle of ease in the middle of nowhere kind of makes you question your fast pace city life.  That is until you need pizza delivery on Wednesday at 8pm.  We said our goodbyes and wished him well making it back to the highway and onto OKC giving us a nice stop to see family for dinner!  The next day we couldn’t wait to get back to our small funny farm in Fort Worth to see our two Great Pyrenees puppies and Bull Terrier we missed. 

We also have sheep, a pig, and chickens.