Road Trip To Disneyland, Griswald Style With A Lime Thyme

A family road trip should feel like a moving scrapbook—part planning, part luck, and plenty of laughter along the way. We set the tone with our “Lime Time” cocktail, a park‑day refresher built with gin, limoncello, lime, thyme, and sparkling water, then hit the highway with two coast‑to‑castle itineraries that turn the drive to Disneyland into a highlight, not a hurdle.

First, we chart a Winston‑Salem to Anaheim route that hugs I‑40 and stacks Americana classics: a Buc‑ee’s pit stop with spotless bathrooms and jerky walls, the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge for peak kitsch, and Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry for a music‑soaked evening. Memphis brings Beale Street rhythms and a reverent walk through Graceland, before Route 66 legends take the wheel—Katusa’s smiling Blue Whale, the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum, Shamrock’s Art Deco gas station, and Amarillo’s Cadillac Ranch where you can add your own paint to the ever‑changing canvas. We sleep in places that tell stories, from Conestoga wagons on a family farm to a historic Flagstaff icon, and keep drive windows sane with a 12‑hour max.

Then we swing north from St. Cloud for a different flavor of wonder: South Dakota’s Corn Palace and Wall Drug, a Badlands photo‑op that feels like Mars with bathrooms, and a quick detour to Mount Rushmore that sparks a family debate over a “Disney Mount Rushmore” (we nominate Walt, Mickey, Snow White, and the castle). Devil’s Tower invites Close Encounters jokes, Yellowstone delivers bison traffic and geyser awe, and the Great Salt Lake reminds us not every swim is wise. A cheeky Vegas detour channels Vacation vibes before a merch‑heavy glide through Area 51, and finally the desert serves up Roy’s Motel & Cafe neon and Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch on the glide path to Anaheim.

You’ll leave with road‑tested pacing rules, can’t‑miss Route 66 stops, family‑friendly detours, and lodging picks that turn “where we slept” into “remember when.” Mix a Lime Time, queue this episode, and steal our maps to craft your own cross‑country Disney story. If this sparked ideas, tap follow, share with your favorite road warrior, and drop your must‑stop attraction in a review—we’re planning the next route with your tips.

Transcript

Lime Time Cocktail Intro

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello, welcome to Tears to Ears, where today we're taking a family road trip inspired by the family of Griswold while drinking a limetime beverage. Welcome to Tears to Ears.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

We're gonna click our drinks. We're gonna toast, we're gonna toast, and get our tears to it.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Okay, and we're back. Hello. Hello, hello. Fancy theme song. Gotta talk about our drink here first. Let's talk about it. It's the Lime Time from the Magic Key Terrace. Yes. Disneyland's DCA. Yep. And we've been there. We've been there. It's a great place. They did not have this drink. They did not. They didn't have very good drinks when we were there last time.

DIY Recipe And Tasting Notes

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Overall, I've been very unimpressed with their drinks, considering it's Magic Key. They should have some good stuff there. And this looks pretty good though. There's a couple that are were okay, but I want to try something a little unique and different. And have not been they haven't been horrible, but nothing I'd ever reorder from there.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

But the Lime Time is made with lemon cello, hangarite gin, lime juice, thyme, and sparkling water, and it's$20.

unknown 1:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

That's kind of Disney spindy. Disney for this drink. Yeah. Because well, how do we make it first?

SPEAKER_01 1:22

So we did two ounces of we we actually went with Bombay gin, an ounce of lemon cello, half ounce, no, it was an ounce of lime juice. Sorry. A shot of thyme-infused simple syrup, and topped off with a little stir, and there we go. So it's a refreshing beverage. It's a very refreshing beverage. And I think you summed it up perfectly. It's usually do. It's a booze. It's a boozy Gatorade. It tastes like a Gatorade. I can pick up definitely lemon forward. No gin taste at all. No gin taste. You can taste the lime. I can pick up a little bit of the thyme. Take another sip here.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

And maybe if we use the tangare, because isn't tangare like a juniper-based gin? Word the London directly. It's called juniper. But it has a more oily. It's a more flavorful, is a tangare.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Yeah, because it's very oily. Yeah, which makes it good for when you're doing a gin and tonic or something like that. But to me, it's not a good gin for like a martini. Yeah. It's just because of the oiliness. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

I like this drink. I'd have it on a nice hot day in the park. Yes. When you're sitting up, like we sat outside there on the terrace.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Yeah. This would be a good one.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

That would be good where we were sitting having the appetizer we had that day.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Yeah, we had a couple of appetizers.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

I know we got talked in. That was that lady that talked us in.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

She sold us on everything.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

She did. She was good. Well, you gotta try that. You gotta take a drink to go. Yeah. You can walk around with this. Walking around drink. So anyway, I think sitting up there on that little balcony, little terrace, watching everyone walk by, having a limetime beverage and some meats and cheeses. Oh that sounds like a good afternoon. What'd you get?

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Got a little more lemon as it's getting towards the bottom. Giving a little shake.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

You're getting towards the bottom fast. Yeah. You're thinking there's electrolytes in there. Yeah. I need to stay hydrated.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

I'm just getting over a cold.

Setting The Griswold Road Trip Rules

SPEAKER_02 3:19

You gotta stay hydrated if you're taking a trip with the family. You do. All the way to Disneyland. Take your beverages. Take your beverages.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

But not too many because you don't want to make a bunch of bathroom stops.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

So what we did today was this is inspired by one of my clients who is taking a road trip to Disneyland in a few months. From where? With her family. She's leaving from the state of Idaho. Okay. Down to Anaheim. Which is still a road trip. And I reminisced when I was talking to her about it, I reminisced about the times I did that with the family. And the even though they were just straight from Washington State, straight down to I-5. Yeah. Straight, it's a straight shot. Still some stuff happened.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

There was yeah. There was some stuff that would have been movie worthy that happened over the time.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

So thinking of that, I told her, hey, you just came up with something good here. And we we it morphed into this.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Yeah. If you've ever seen National Lampoon's Vacation, that's what they're doing. They're headed to Wally World. And which I think in the movie is actually like Magic Mountain is where they end up going. But they're traveling from Chicago. So what we how we set this up is I picked the city you had to leave from, you picked the city I had to leave from. Uh-huh. And we wanted to make stops along the way. So they stopped and saw Cousin Eddie and the Grand Canyon. They made all those stops. So we made stops along, and that's what we're going to talk about. The trip to the park. You ever had a beer, Russ? That's a messy because he drinks the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Okay. So you chose St. Cloud, Minnesota for me.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Yes. And then as soon as I sent that to you, I saw Brainerd up north, and I was like, I should have had to leave from Brainerd. Brainerd's funny too.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

So I tried to clip pick something also funny for you.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yes. Winston, Salem, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Yeah. Which, and I this is what was funny, is I realized after an hour and a half of driving, I've actually done this drive myself.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Back in 2004. That's funny. Yeah. Was it two or two thousand three? Anyway, I've made this exact trip. That's hilarious. So I know I didn't stop at all these places, but I know this road trip. And this is a long one.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

So you're gonna go first with it. We're gonna go our first day. I put down like the route I took, how many miles it was, yeah, stuff like that.

Route One: Winston‑Salem To Nashville

SPEAKER_01 5:45

But oh, I didn't actually do how many miles total was that trip. It was 31 hours of driving. But what I did, my parameters was I I wanted to keep it under 12 hours a day. So basically, if I left at seven in the morning, I wanted to be arriving at the next hotel by seven o'clock that night. Oh, okay. And some days were shorter, some days pushed that, but that's where I landed and stuff. But mine was mostly, it was almost a straight shot on I-40.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

All the way across the country. So I think there was a little part that was off, but yeah, for the most part, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

So you're chilling out in North Carolina, tell the kids you're gonna go on a trip. How do you start your time?

SPEAKER_01 6:28

So we start Winston-Salem, and our first day that the goal is to reach Nashville, Tennessee. Okay, which is in the center of Tennessee. And if you've ever driven I-40 across Tennessee, that is a long state. It's not as long as driving I-5 California all the way down, but it's a long state because it it enters in like the top corner, very edge on one side, and leaves the bottom corner on the other side of the state. So, anyway, first thing we have to stop, and it's in Seaverville, Tennessee, is a Bucky's. Oh, gotta go to a Bucky's. You gotta go to a Bucky's. I love a Buckeys. So it's mega gas station, they got the clean bathrooms, all kinds of snacks, merch galore, all kinds of merch. But it's a road trip, you gotta stop at a Bucky's. Yeah, if a Bucky's is available, you gotta stop at a buck.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

Right, that jerky wall is to die for.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Have you ever been to a Bucky's? Yeah, in Florida. They have them in Florida? All over the place. Oh, I've never see, I've never been to one. Oh, it's amazing. Which, if I'd realized what a Bucky's was, I would have stopped because I drove by this one, and this is the original, or one of the flagship is in Seaverville, Tennessee. You need to get out of Orlando and explore that state.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

I gotta, but yeah, it's a wonderful state. One of my favorites.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

Yeah, we're off. We're off. So my next stop is in Pigeon Ford, Tennessee, the Titanic Museum attraction.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

So they built a giant iceberg and a Titanic, and that's the building with the museum in it.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

They built a giant iceberg.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Yes. Can you simulate crash? I guess so. An icy? I'm like, that's a little morbid, but it's kind of morbid.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

That's what I was just thinking. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

They have a king of the world room. Maybe pigeon for their morbid folk. Maybe. I don't know. So there you go. You just have to stop at this kitschy museum in a giant Titanic. That's a good one. So the next stop is in Nashville. So we you arrive in Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry, and I think just touring downtown Nashville, it is just a must. There's all kinds of bars and music playing every night and stuff, but Grand Ole Opry, gotta go stop by there and check that out. But I also, and this is a personal just interest of mine, antique archaeology. So the American Pickers show.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Okay, so they have a store in Nashville. Well, they do, okay. Yes. They started out up in Iowa, but they built another store down in Nashville.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

And so I would have to go in there.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

I've seen that show a few times.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

So it used to be, yeah, I've seen they've done so many episodes. Yeah. They've hundreds of episodes. That's a fun show. So anyway, that would that is the end of my first day. But I also added hotels. You did add hotels. I did not. So I looked for either real, either more iconic or historic hotels, or I don't know, something a little more unique. Okay. And so I came up with the Union Station Nashville Yards Hotel, which is there in Nashville. And it just looked like a very old building, older hotel, but it looks still very nice. So that's where I'm staying. And that's the end of day one.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

That's the end of day one. My day one, we're leaving from St. Cloud, Minnesota. And we the night before I tell the kids, they're saying, Hey Dad, how's this going to take like a couple days to drive Disneyland? And I said, No, kids, we're taking the scenic route. So we're driving right to our first stop is in South Dakota. So we're going that way. So you went west instead of heading south first. West and then south. Okay, so I tell them we have to leave at 6 12 a.m. on the dot is the time we have to leave because we got to beat traffic.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

But the problem is St. Cloud, Minnesota has no traffic.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

No.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

So it's not a problem.

Nashville Highlights And Historic Stay

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Not a problem. I want to leave early. I don't know if anywhere in any of the Dakotas has traffic.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

Yeah, I don't think I hit, I think day four is when I hit traffic the first time in my trip. So I stopped. My first stop is, of course, Wall, South Dakota. Oh, Wall drug. Yes. So my first stop is actually the Corn Palace. Oh. In South Dakota. Of course. This place is amazing. I looked it up. It's free admission. It's an amazing place. It's actually a castle built of corn. And they change it out every year with different colors of corn. And it's a facade built over a building of corn. And everything inside's corn. Okay. The corn palace. So it's free and exactly what it says. It's just a palace made of corn. Nice. You can buy corn there. You can't eat the palace. No. No, but you can buy corn inside. Or pop it. Right. You can't pop. Yeah, you can't bring a microwave. Don't pop your palace. Don't start a flame. Blow torch. Start. See if you get some popcorn.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

It burns down. That's funny.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

That's funny. And then of course we do go to Wall Drug. Oh, yeah. Because it's the drugstore of my people. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Your namesake.

Route Two: St. Cloud To South Dakota Icons

SPEAKER_02 11:33

My namesake drugstore. Yeah. And Wall Drug's just a huge, it's like a Bucky's. It's like a Bucky's. It's just a huge drugstore, but it has over two million visitors annually. Yeah. At this drugstore. And it's actually just a drugstore. It's just a bunch of different buildings. That's all owned by the same people.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

That's just like a big shopping mall. Yeah. A big drugstore shopping mall.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

And it's like Bucky's in the fact that as you get closer, you'll see signs hundreds of miles away.

SPEAKER_02 12:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Like 312 miles to Wall Drug.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Yeah. I have Wall Drug coffee cups, shot glasses. But on this trip, we're going to purchase. We're going to get pictures on the in front of the 80-foot Brontosaurus. Oh, yeah. That's out there. You gotta do that. Yeah. And then everyone gets a bag of taffy. Mm-hmm. Right. Now I'm going to purchase a cup. I'm going to buy a cup that says free ice water. Nice. At Wall Drug. And then we're also going to stop. We're making quite a few stops on day one. This is a big day one.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Go to we're going to stop at Badlands National Park real quick just for a picture.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

But uh it's like Mars.

unknown 12:36

Right?

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Badlands National Park is like Mars with bathrooms. Yeah. That's exactly what it is. It's just a big windy. A windy place.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

And then we find that there's a prairie dog hanging out. He's just a lonely prairie dog. And so in true vacation fashion, he joins us. And now we have a dog.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Like an annead.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Yep. Strapped to the roof. Stapped to the roof. Yeah. And that is the end of my day one.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Okay. So my day two, Nashville to Oklahoma City is the drive.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

You're taking some good city. You're taking some big cities in. It's I-40. Those are all along I-40s.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

There's a lot of stops in Memphis. So Beale Street, which is the blues. It's the street. Right. That you're walking.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Album something Beale Street. No, it's a movie.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Oh, is there? Yeah, there's a movie. So yeah, just taking in downtown Memphis and all the things and the sights and the sea things to see, all that. There's also a Bass Pro Shop that I found out. Okay. Bass Pro Shop's at the Pyramid. And it is a pyramid with an indoor swamp.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Yeah. So I gotta stop there. Gotta stop there. Because it's a bass pro shop. I will stop there, Cabela's. Just because.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

But this one has a swamp.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

But that has a swamp and it's a unique one.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

And it's a pyramid.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

So you have to stop. So from there, you're walking around that down downtown a little bit, checking things out, maybe getting a bite to eat, whatnot. But from there, you head a little south. I'm going to Graceland.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

You have to.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Yeah. On my road trip, Graceland was a must. There's certain things I had to add to when I was from the typical list. So like I Googled different things along Route 66, because a lot of this is along Route 66, but just things to see. And that didn't actually pop up in a lot of the list, which was odd. But yeah, I had to add that.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

Gotta add that.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

But the one that I did add, the blue whale of Katusa, and it's just a big smiling roadside whale. Okay. Just a old leftover Route 66 stop icon. Roadside attraction. Yeah. Big old smiling blue whale. Love it. And Katusa, Oklahoma. So make it into Oklahoma City, and we stay at the Conestoga wagons and teepees at the Orr family farm. Well, that's a good one. And yeah, Conest, you can either stay in a Conestoga wagon, a teepee, or they had cabins. And I'm like, like a wagon. Conestoga wagon. Yeah, wagons are where it's at. Where it's yeah.

Memphis, Graceland, And Route 66 Kitsch

SPEAKER_02 15:21

Yeah. Like there's any other choice. I know there's none. Unless they're booked and you just have to stay there. Yeah. You got to plan that in advance to get the wagon. Now that I know about the wagon, yeah. Yeah, I'm staying wagon.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

So this is a trip to plan well ahead of time because you want to get these.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

You gotta want to get the wagon.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

So, yeah, obviously you gotta stay there.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

And you gotta reserve your spot in line for the whale.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Because who knows how busy that's gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

That yeah, that could be packed. So anyway, Nashville to Oklahoma City, day two.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Nice, good one. Good one. My day two, I'm going to the great city of Cody, Wyoming. That's my day too. Cody, Wyoming, where I'm gonna stop at Mount Rushmore, of course, because you have to. Yeah, it's known for being out of the way and you don't get very close to it. Yeah. And it's one of the best places in the country to purchase your George Washington bobblehead. It's a very good place if you want to buy your very own George Washington bobblehead. Yeah. It's one of the best places. Yeah. Mount Vernon's a good one. Yeah. White House Museum, probably. Yeah. Yeah. But that's one of the top five places to purchase a George Washington bobblehead. And it's also the place you can look and you can have your own Mount Rushmores of everything. Right. Oh, yeah. Everyone has a Mount Rushmore of this and that. Oh, yeah. So I can't even Mount Rushmore. I don't know if we have. I was thinking we might have. We've talked about it if we haven't.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

We need to do national monuments that best represent like what Disney character represents the national monument.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

And who would be on the icon of the Lincoln Memorial?

SPEAKER_01 16:53

So who is the Disney memorial?

SPEAKER_02 16:55

We change it to Lincoln sitting there to somebody else. Somebody else. I like it. So I made my own Mount Rushmore of Disney. Yeah. For this, for the purpose of this topic. Yeah. And this is a crazy one because it's all Disney, right? Yeah. The whole company of Disney. I have Walt. Okay. Mickey. Snow White. And then a big castle to represent Disneyland. Oh. Disneyland's on my Mount Rushmore of Disney.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

That's a good because I would have stuck with characters. I know.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

But I wouldn't have thought I think the parks are Disney to us.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

It's hard to come up with like you want to do a characters Mount Rushmore. You want to do a CEO type of Mount Rushmore, maybe, or an executive. There's like live action. You have a crossover. I just crossovered. Yeah, you got some crossover. And I like the addition of Snow White.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

Yeah. First movie. First movie. Made the Disney animation what it is. Yeah. So that's our first stop. Our second stop is Devil's Tower. Okay. Because we want a close encounter. We yeah. Yeah. Just had to have a close encounter. Yeah. And we're gonna get some clay and mold our own Devil's Towers at dinner. Not mashed potatoes? At dinner. Well, we could do mashed potatoes. Yeah. Or a bunch of mashed potatoes at dinner. That means something. I bet they have that. There's a restaurant. Yeah. A clunky little joint somewhere in Cody, Wyoming area.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

That probably has a mold and they pack it full of mashed potatoes and then they gunk. Knock it down on your plate and then pour gravy over the top.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

You could probably buy the Devil's Tower mashed potatoes. I would look that up afterwards. I bet it's a thing.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

It's gotta be somewhere. It's gotta be a thing. And that is my day too. So my day three, Oklahoma City. This is a short day. Actually, my last the first two, you're covering some ground. Yeah. My last two, because there's more Route 66, there's more stuff to see, I think, uh, even though it's you're out in the middle of nowhere. But uh Oklahoma City to Amarillo, Texas.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Oh, okay.

Rushmore, Devil’s Tower, And Disney Mount Rushmore

SPEAKER_01 18:56

So the in Elk City, Oklahoma. So right after you get up, you you get to leaving, Route 66 Museum, Elk City, Oklahoma. Just it's a museum of Route 66. Of course you gotta stop. Right. How do you not stop? So then you head a little bit further down the road, the you drop in, Art Deco, gas station, and it's straight out, it's straight out of cars. Okay, perfect. It's something like you would find in Carsland at DCA. Perfect. Shamrock, Texas. So Shamrock, Texas, okay. Yeah, I yeah, I know. I'm making a mental note of these places.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

That's a different name because the Irish Texas community doesn't sound like a huge demographic.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

At some point, it was just takes one guy to name a seamless. Yes. Seamus Fitzgerald showed up and I'm naming it Shamrock.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

He got stranded during the Mexican-American War.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

I'm in the middle of nowhere. It's my city.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

He got stranded by a company out of the out of the battle of the Alamo.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Gonna figure out where he's at.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Settled. So next stop, which is just outside of Amarillo, the Cadillac Ranch. There's also a slug bug ranch, which I saw. But it's half-buried Cadillac. So they're all buried nose down into the ground. And you can go up with cans of spray paint and spray paint them.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

And same thing with the Volkswagens.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

That's a fun one.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Yeah. And it's different eras of Cadillacs. So you can see the back ends and how the fins came to shape and then they faded out and stuff. But yeah. Good one. Just one to stop at. Now the last stop, it's a dinner stop. And probably the breakfast next morning. I was looking at their menu. Yeah. This looks like some good comfort food type cooking for a stop here. But the Big Texan steak ranch.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

And there's also the Big Texan Motel, which is right by there. So that's where I'm staying that night. They have a 72 ounce steak challenge. Cowboy vibes. Yeah. Chicken and waffles for breakfast. Oh, yeah. And yeah, fried chicken, you can get steaks. Just looks good. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good place. Yeah. So I thought stopping there for dinner, and I thought, well, maybe not. But it's one of those where after seeing the dinner menu, I looked at the breakfast menu and I thought, yeah, gonna have to go to breakfast there too, even if you're not hungry after that massive dinner. You won't be hungry. After that 72-ounce steak challenge.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

That's crazy. I have to share both. Yeah. So that is the end of my day three. That's your day three. My day three, we're going to Salt Lake City, Utah. Okay. We're heading south. Heading south. Heading south. So of course we stop by Yellowstone, but we don't have a lot of time.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Because yeah, that's a road trip up north out of the way, at least.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

It's yeah. It's on the way.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

Yeah.

Route 66 Museums And Cadillac Ranch

SPEAKER_02 21:53

It's on the way. So we stop by there real quick. Boom, Yellowstone. Uh huh. And uh because down From Wyoming through probably through Montana a little bit. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we're there for just six hours total in all of Yellowstone. We drive around it real quick, but we see some bison. And then dad mentions how majestic it all is. Yeah. Like kids look around. This is America. Yeah. This is the America we built. Don't jump in the bubbly hot. This is it. And then a bison blocks the road for about a 45 minutes to an hour of our trip. Yeah. And then mom says, We probably should have flown. And that's our trip to Yellowstone. And then we go to the Great Salt Lake. Yes. That's our last stop of that day before we go to the hotel. And everyone dives in the Great Salt Lake because we think, hey, one of the big one of the biggest lakes in the country. It's a man-made lake. Let's dive in this thing and check it out. Yeah. But it just we smell like minerals and sadness after we get out. Yeah, I've not a very good idea.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

No. Not a good swimming hole.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

No, and that is the that's the full day three.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Yeah. Okay. So my day four, Amarillo to Flagstaff.

unknown 23:05

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

So that's Flagstaff is where they had to drop off An Adna. Yeah, in the movie. Oh. You have a vacation crossover. Yes. Which is great. So as we leave Amarillo, we stop at Adrian, Texas, at the Midpoint Cafe. And that is exactly halfway on Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica. Oh. Where it ends.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

Although, so now Route 66 technically doesn't exist anymore, but it's been overlay with other highways in a lot of spots. So you can still do Route 66, but it's not it's not the original. Then the Tucum Kari murals, neon signs and painted walls. Oh, that sounds fucking and Tucum Tar Tukumkari, New Mexico. I don't even know. I know. And butchered it.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

I would have skipped it if I came up with those words.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

So then standing on the corner park, there's an Eagles photo up Winslow, Arizona. Yep. So I've seen that picture many times. Yeah. So that's where the uh such a fine sight to see. Yeah. Right there. From the Eagle song. Yeah. Or the Eagle Song. Yeah. But in Winslow, Arizona, it's just it's along the way.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

Is there a flatbed ford right there?

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Yes, there is. Flatbed Ford. Close down and take a look at me. There's a couple other things that are in the song as well. So of course, yeah, you gotta stop there. And then the meteor crater, which is just that big impact crater, which is Coconemo County, Arizona. It's just a little bit south of Winslow. Right. So yeah, I mean it's there. Right. Big hole in the ground. Let's go check out the big hole in the ground.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

Let's go look at a big hole in the ground.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

And so that wraps up that as far as checking things out. Uh-huh. So you finish off heading into the Hotel Monte Vista in Flagstaff, Arizona.

SPEAKER_02 25:02

Okay.

Yellowstone Dash And The Great Salt Lake

SPEAKER_01 25:03

And with that, it was interesting reading the history because they felt back in the what 1920s that they didn't have a fancy hotel for people to come visit. So they started raising money to build this. And Zane Gray, the Western writer, contributed a big chunk of the money to build this hotel. So very historic old hotel in Flagstaff, downtown Flagstaff, Arizona. So that's where I stay on day four.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Nice. Like it. My day four, we're hitting big time. Okay. We're in Vegas. Yeah. We're in Vegas on our way. And we hit the strip, and then all of a sudden the day turns way way too much like Vegas vacation. All of a sudden. It just flips a script of the whole thing. So here's my crossover day, is the Vegas day. It got it gets real, real fast. It gets real very fast. Dad loses all his churro money at the craps table. Uh-oh. Right? But the son figures it all out and saves the whole trip with his fake ID.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

With his fake ID, Mr. Papadopoulos. Right.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

So dad yells, we're getting the we're getting the premiere pass and a VI tour, baby. VIP tour, baby. Thanks, Nick Papa Giorgio from Yuma, Arizona.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

Yeah. Papa Giorgio.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Nick Papa Giorgio.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

That's what his name was? Okay. Yeah, that was his name. I was thinking Papadopoulos, but Papa Giorgio. It was.

SPEAKER_02 26:29

That's his name. I love that name.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

I want a car. I just pulled the lever. Want a car. Pulled the lever. Won a car. So then that's our day in Vegas. But then we go to Area 51 for the rest of the day.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Oh, Area 51. Okay. Nevada. For some reason I was thinking Roswell, and I'm like, you backtracked a little there, but no, no. No, so Area 51's not near Roswell.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

So Dad goes crazy with the merchandise.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

He loves this place. This is in his realm. All the alien stuff.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

Dad gets a glow-in-the-dark alien head. I looked up the shop. I searched the Area 51 shop. Give shop. Yeah, it said shop online. And I clicked it and looked at stuff. So the glow-in-the-dark alien head, a take me to your leader hat, which is amazing. Yeah. The tie-dyed alien shirt with the alien giving the peace sign. That's only$43. Oh.

unknown 27:21

Alien.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

Let's go to peace size tie-dyed. It says peace. You almost got to buy two. I know. It's awesome. Family family shirts. That's a good Disney family day. Uh-huh. And a happy alien coffee mug. Okay. What I bought there. And that is my day four total. So my day five is just driving to Disneyland.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Driving to Disney from Vegas.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

From Vegas.

Midpoint Cafe, Winslow Corner, Meteor Crater

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Okay. So we're driving there. It's about a seven-hour straight.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

We're not going to the park that day. We're just going to Disney, getting our checking our hotel. Or less. Yeah. I forgot. I forgot what it was. I looked at it.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

I've driven to Vegas for to Vegas and back from LA a couple times.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

I didn't write down the miles every day, but my average is it's about 2,000 miles that I drove total.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

And it's about 400 miles a day, I did, with the last day being the least.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

Least. Yeah. Because that's only 300 miles or something like that. And now I'm at Disneyland. Now you're in Disneyland.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

You got to get there.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

So my last day, day five, Flagstaff to Anaheim. So of course, you got to run up to the Grand Canyon National Park. It adds two hours, but it's you have to do it. Now, granted, you might just like, Dad, uh, don't you want to see the Grand Canyon? Yeah, great. Okay, let's go. Because he's just ripped off the store, left a check there. Little crossover. So from there, we could head down. Hey kids, look, it's Big Ben in the Parliament Building.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

We're getting all the vacation movies in.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

Big Ben. So in Amboy, California, I stop at Roy's Motel and Cafe, abandoned neon Route 66, Route 66, Perfection. So just one of those roadside has turned into iconic roadside stops. Okay. Yeah, have a little food at the cafe.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

And yeah, take some pictures, check out their little museum, whatnot. Then stop at Oro Grande, Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch. Okay. So just one of those weird places out in the middle of the desert.

SPEAKER_02 29:20

Oro Grande. Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Yes, Oro Grande, California. Just a little north of Victorville. So explain this place to us. So it's a forest of glass bottle sculptures. Okay. But someone thought of this. Someone thought of this.

SPEAKER_02 29:36

An executed plan.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Well, I was thinking that, and it didn't offer it to me, but I thought about the it seems like in Joshua Tree, and you're not too far from Joshua Tree on this route, but to stop and because there's a tree, like everybody hangs their shoes up in this, throws their shoes up into this tree at Joshua Tree. Uh-huh. Didn't do that one. Found this one instead.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

I like this one.

Vegas Detour And Area 51 Souvenirs

SPEAKER_01 30:01

So this is just a little out of Victorville. And from Victorville, it's like two hours. So you know, you go rolling in because you've seen Grand Canyon, you made a couple other stops out of the way. You had a long day driving in from Flagstaff. So you get in that evening and you were at the park. And there you go. Wow. That our that's our Griswold road trips. Those are pretty good trips. Across the country from different starting points all the way in. I like it. We took a roundabout both sides. And I almost did a return trip, and it's good that I didn't because we've we would have a right a very full.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Like, amazing. Subscribe, follow, do anything that your platform asks you to do, that would really help us out. Share it with your friends. Where can they email us? At cheers the number two, ears the number one at outlook.com. Correct. Send us your ideas. We love ideas.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

And if you want to have that conversation with me that leads to an episode title title and topic, you can email me at aaron.bestdayvervacations at gmail.com and I can help you plan your trip to Disney or like anywhere else you want to go, but mainly Disney. Yeah. Because that's what we do. But great drink. Great drink. We've got a road trip. Road trips planned. And yeah. We did good today. We're well hydrated.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

We're well hydrated. All the electrolytes. I got our Gatorades in. So until next week. Cheers. Cheers.