In 2 weeks, I’ll be jumping in the car and starting a 3,500 mile road trip.
As soon as I saw this video, I decided that I had to attend the Blog Paws pet-blogger conference. And I had to bring my dog Milo.
The first dilemma was how to get there.
Milo weighs 22 lbs and is too big to fly in the cabin on airplanes. All of my pet-loving friends, including one who worked for an airline for many years, said that I absolutely shouldn’t have Milo fly in cargo.
So I decided I would drive.
Yes, driving from St. Louis to Las Vegas is 23 hours each way. While my Mom eventually decided to join me on the trip, the initial plan was for me and Milo to take the trip by ourselves. I decided to turn it into a 2 week road trip vacation and see as many dog-friendly sites as I could along the way.
The more I started planning the route, the more excited I got.
My niece Megan lives in Denver and I’ve never been to Colorado. This trip would be a perfect chance to see her and Colorado. I’ve always wanted to see the Grand Canyon. And I’ve never been to 4 of the states on the route.
Listening to me talk about the trip got my mom excited too. When she asked if she could join me, I was thrilled. My mom and I have taken two trips together in recent years and had a great time. The first trip was a road trip across Mexico to see my brother who lives in the remote village of Mahahual. The following year we went back to see him again, this time going to Chetumal, Mexico and Belize.
Even better, my mom just decided she wants to bring her dog Lexi on the trip with us. Milo and Lexi adore each other and will keep each other company so we can do a few non-pet friendly activities without feeling guilty.
Two women and 2 dogs driving 3,500 miles across 9 states. This should be fun!
Where are We Going?
Blog Paws Trip | My new trip on Roadtrippers.com!
I’m using the website Roadtrippers to plan my itinerary.
It’s perfect for a road trip because you can add as many stops as you would like. You can also create a bucket list for the trip to bookmark the places you want to see along the way, without actually adding them as a stop to the itinerary.
Then you can sync everything to you iPhone for easy navigation.
Our Schedule:
- Day 1 – Leave St. Louis, drive through Missouri and Oklahoma. Overnight in Elk City, OK (drive time 9 hours)
- Day 2 – Leave Elk City, drive through the Texas panhandle and New Mexico. Overnight in Sante Fe, NM (drive time 7 hours)
- Day 3 – Enjoy Sante Fe and the neighboring pueblos. Spend a 2nd night in Sante Fe.
- Day 4 – Leave Sante Fe, drive through New Mexico, Arizona and visit the Grand Canyon. Overnight in Grand Canyon Village (drive time 7 hours)
- Day 5 – Visit the Grand Canyon again, then drive through Arizona and Nevada to the Hoover Dam. Spend a little time at the Hoover Dam and then head to our resort hotel on Lake Las Vegas (drive time 4 hours)
- Day 6 – Blog Paws Conference!
- Day 7 – Blog Paws Conference!
- Day 8 – Blog Paws Conference!
- Day 9 – Leave Las Vegas, drive to Utah. Stop and visit with my blogger friend Brett in St. George, UT. Get back on the road and drive through Utah. Cross into Colorado and overnight in Grand Junction, CO (drive time 8 hours)
- Day 10 – Leave Grand Junction and drive through Colorado. Arrive in Denver for a visit with my niece Megan. Overnight in Denver (drive time 4 hours)
- Day 11 – Enjoy Denver and visiting with Megan. Spend a 2nd night in Denver.
- Day 12 – Leave Denver, drive through Colorado and Kansas. Overnight in Kansas City, MO (drive time 8 hours)
- Day 13 – Leave Kansas City and head home to St. Louis (drive time 4 hours)
I’ll be blogging the entire trip, sharing our adventures, mishaps and plenty of photos.
Be sure to subscribe for email daily updates or my weekly newsletter so you don’t miss any of the trip!
This sounds like so much fun! We road trip to my in laws most summers, but my hubs never wants to stop along the way…16 hours straight to St. Augustine! I’m looking forward to your posts from the road.
You have a friend in me. This is my 6th BlogPaws and we drive with our dog to every one. You will love it on so many levels, seriously. I am blogging our journey from PA to Vegas and then onto California and back for vacay. Would love to have you follow our adventures, too. Looking paw-ward to meeting you!
Sounds like fun. Where is the Blog for Paws conference. I plan to be in Las Vegas with my sister the middle of May. I will probably just miss you.
Iris – the conference is held at the Westin Lake Las Vegas. Too bad you’ll miss us…Mom would love to see you.
It’s about the same drive time to the conference from Seattle. We’re not posting our itinerary because, although we DO have a plan (I think I’ve planned the route…the same route….three times now, we want to leave space to take a different road and camp a different place if we want. We’ll be writing about your trip for sure though.
So fun that your Mom is going with you. See you there!
We wont’ be going this year but it seems like you have an Epic roadtrip planned.
My mom and I (and Mort) are taking a road trip to BlogPaws as well! It’s much, much shorter (only 540 miles each way) and as such will be a much shorter blogging series 🙂 I look so forward to following yours!
Jen – I’ve found 3 other Moms coming to BlogPaws and we are planning a get together on Wed night during the Bissell event so they can make some plans to get together while we are busy with the conference. If your mom is interested, email me at karen @ futureexpat.com with her name, email and phone # and I’ll include you 2 on the email I’m going to send to everyone in a day or two.
We’ve already been emailing about it – I’m that same Jen 🙂
Oh, I had wanted to do this when the conference was in Denver (I live in Ohio) This will be an incredible trip! I look forward to chatting with you at BlogPaws!
Molly (the Fire Safety Dog) and I will be driving the 2,500 mile round trip adventure in the SpotMobile.
Thank you for sharing your story and telling everyone about Roadtrippe! We travel all over the US and this is perfect for us.
Safe travels and see you at BlogPaws!
Oh gosh that looks like so much fun! I love my pup and he would enjoy this too. Vegas is only about 4 hours away and we go often, but I have never been there for a conference. Thanks for the tip on Roadtrippers. I had not heard of that site, and I am a planner!
Really looking forward to meeting you!!
can’t wait to meet ya at B/P safe travels.
Santa Fe is very dog-friendly. I just spent a month there pet sitting 2 dogs. Dozens of restaurants have pet-friendly patios. The Santa Fe Bite restaurant green chili cheeseburger was good and fries were GREAT!; their patio is dog-friendly. The Frank Ortiz off-leash dog park is huge! If your small dogs will be intimidated by big dogs, park at a distance from other cars so you can meet other dogs, or not. It’s on the west side of town. On the southeast side off Old Las Vegas Highway I-25 exit to Clines Corners is Cafe Fina. At the drive thru they’ll give you bacon for the dogs! But don’t drive thru. Go to their patio. Have the Mexican Mocha coffee and a bacon-date scone for me. Their food is so good! You can tell I miss it. See you at BP.
http://santafetails.blogspot.com
Thank you for all of the great tips! I can’t wait to check out your suggestions and then to meet you in Vegas and tell you who it went.
What a fun trip!! We can’t wait to meet you! Drive safe and have a great time!