Roadtrippin’ from Florida to California
Since moving across country from the East Coast to the West Coast, I’ve driven across country twice. The first time was from California to New Jersey with my high school best friend and the second time was from Florida to California with my aunt. This blog will be about my second cross country road trip!
My aunt and I spent 10 days, taking our time traveling across the country. We ended up starting our road trip a few days early due to a hurricane scheduled to hit Florida. We didn’t want to get stuck, so we drove up to Nashville, TN and spent 3 days there.
Day 1: We left Florida at 3am and drove 10 hours to Nashville. We did gain an hour due to the time change, so we arrived in the early afternoon. We decided to make our first stop of the trip a ‘beach’ in Nashville. Living in Florida, this ‘beach’ was definitely not what I was used to, but it was a great place to stop and cool off for an hour.
We stayed in a super fun airbnb just outside of downtown with a movie theater and popcorn machine! It was both of our first time in Nashville, so we spent the evening exploring the city, checking out different country bars, and of course taking silly photo booth pictures!
Day 2: This was September 2019 and it was HOT and HUMID in Nashville. So the next day we spent the morning before it got too hot finding murals throughout the city. I was stoked to find Nashville’s famous wings! But definitely be prepared to wait in line for a picture. After a few hours of mural hunting, we ventured a little outside of the city to Wave Country (a giant wave pool with some water slides) to get a break from the heat. We were pretty over the bar and party seen that downtown Nashville offers, even after only one night, so we spent the evening out in nature at a lake nearby! We even saw some deer! While I did map out the places we were going to stop before we started the road trip, I left a lot of space during our days exploring so we had the freedom to wander, which turned out to be so much fun!
Day 3: We knew we needed to spend our last day by water because a 90 degree day walking around the city was not ideal. Our airbnb hosts recommended Pinewood Social. It’s a pool, bowling alley, cocktail bar, and coffee shop all in one! This place had it all and we were not disappointed! It was honestly such a cool place to spend the day. We stayed cool by sipping some cocktails by the pool (which was surprisingly not very crowded) and then played a round of bowling before heading back to the airbnb.
https://www.pinewoodsocial.com
Day 4: Next stop New Orleans! We spent only 1 night in this city, so we left Nashville very early in the morning to make the most out of our one day and drove 8 hours. We drove through Alabama, so naturally I had to get a picture at the Sweet Home Alabama sign. We arrived in New Orleans in the afternoon and checked into our Airbnb, which was conveniently located near the trolley station. We road the trolley into town to check out bourbon street and do some exploring. We had to get a frozen drink (again because it was 90 degrees with 100% humidity and also because they are ALL over New Orleans). September was definitely a VERY hot time of year to do this road trip (check out Aunt Franci’s fan below).
Later that evening we scheduled a ghost tour because after all NOLA is said to be haunted! We did a walking tour throughout the French Quarter. We visited haunted buildings and learned about the history of the city. The LaLaurie Mansion (pictured below) has a brutal history and is said to be one of the most haunted buildings in the city.
Day 5: The theme of this trip was getting up early and hitting the road haha. Another early morning as we drove 8 hours from New Orleans to Austin. Aunt Franci used to live in Austin, so it was fun to see her reminisce! The first afternoon we stopped by Hippie Hollow. It’s a pretty walk down some rocky steps to Lake Travis. The water is very refreshing. FYI it is a clothing optional public park, but everyone was very respectful. We ate dinner at The Oasis on Lake Travis, which has beautiful views of the lake! This place is very popular especially during sunset and does not take reservations, but is worth the wait! We then drove back to Hippie Hollow and caught a gorgeous sunset over the lake.
Day 6: We spent day 6 in Austin. It was nice to have a day to sleep in and enjoy the city without having to drive too far. We spent the day at Barton Springs. It is a giant public pool that gets its water from underground springs, so the water was cold! It was perfect for a warm day though. There is even a diving board, which makes you feel like a kid again jumping off of it! It’s a little bit outside of downtown Austin, so you can feel connected with nature while you’re here. There is also a beautiful few of the city through the trees! After this we went to the bar that aunt Franci used to work at to grab a drink before heading back to the airbnb.
Day 7: On the road again! We hit the road early and drove 11 hours to Madrid, NM. We gained an hour of time due to the time change, so that helped with the amount of driving we did! By the time we got there though, we were exhausted! We grabbed some dinner and went to bed.
Day 8: We spent the next morning exploring and LOVED this town! It is a small artist town with no cell service. We stayed at an airbnb and the host had her own pottery store next door (it was one of the small towns you see in movies). All of the shops, signs, and buildings in this town were so brightly colored and uniquely decorated. We stopped by the soda shop and enjoyed an old fashioned milkshake. We had so much fun just walking around the city and checking out the local art.
After exploring Madrid, we hopped in the car and drove an hour to Albuquerque, NM to ride the tramway for sunset. The Sandia Peak Tramway is an aerial tram that takes you to the top of the Sandia Mountains, with a gorgeous view of Albuquerque. It’s also an EPIC place to watch the sunset. There is a restaurant up there as well that has beautiful views of the sunset, but we decided to skip that and walk around on our own. It was much less crowded this way, so we were able to get some spectacular pictures of the sunset. There is also the option to purchase just a one way tram ticket and hike the way down!
Day 9: We spent the morning driving 8 hours to Las Vegas, NV - our final stop of the trip before arriving in San Diego. Neither one of us are gamblers, so we used Vegas as a place to lay by the pool and relax before our final stretch (shoutout to Papa for the comped room & Caesars for the multiple pools). We did walk around the Vegas strip at night and see an acrobatic show, which was really entertaining!
Day 10: We drove 5.5 hours back to San Diego! Thank you for following our travels across the US! I hope this inspired you to visit someplace new :)