Turns in the Road (Travel) Archives

How to Spend Two Days in Santa Fe

April 25, 2022October 14, 2022 Heather Leave a comment

On our road trip from Las Vegas to Boston last fall, we stopped for two days in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As we mentioned in that article, we were quite taken with Santa Fe and with all of the wonderful experiences that we had there.

Traveling to or from Santa Fe through Albuquerque

If you are visiting Santa Fe via road trip, as we did, we highly recommend choosing a route that takes you along the Turquoise Trail. The Turquoise Trail consists of about 50 miles of highway 14 in New Mexico where you will experience gorgeous views and visit the old mining towns of Golden, Madrid, and Cerrillos. Today these towns are full of arts and crafts stores, museums, and restaurants. In Madrid, we visited a number of stores, including our favorite, Carnival Azatlan. Carnival Azatlan displayed a wide variety of fascinating arts and crafts, including some funky furniture we might have picked up if it had fit in our small car. We also visited a number of jewelry stores and attempted to visit Shugarman’s, a famed chocolate store, that was sadly closed on the day we visited. Our chocolate needs would have to wait.

Cross Country Road Trip: Las Vegas to Boston

April 4, 2022March 28, 2022 Heather Leave a comment

We recently shared the details of our cross-country poker road trip from Boston to Las Vegas. On that journey, we mainly followed Route 80 across the northern part of the United States, visiting multiple poker rooms along the way. For our return to Boston in November, we chose a more southern route, largely following Route 40 back to the East Coast. After a poker-packed month in Las Vegas, we also decided to focus on the sights, rather than more poker for our return home. We will visit any poker rooms that we missed along the way on a future trip. The current post describes our adventures traveling across the South.

As with our previous road trip, we had a very carefully thought-out plan…which we then completely reconfigured. We learned during our September poker road trip to Las Vegas that moving quickly across the country with long drives every day can be tiring. So on our way home we decided to take it slower. Many of our days featured short drives, and we chose to stay two nights in a couple of our destinations to get some more time to explore.

How to Spend a Month in Las Vegas

March 21, 2022August 31, 2022 Heather Leave a comment

One of our bucket list items has always been to spend a month in Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker. The problem was that we could not imagine spending a month in 100-degree heat during June and July when the WSOP has been traditionally held. That kind of extended heat exposure is just not our thing. Then, in one of the many twists of these bizarre times, the 2021 WSOP was moved to the fall. Suddenly, everything fell into place. Our two youngest children had just entered college, our primary jobs are portable, and we had saved up enough for the trip. So, last October, Vegas it was! We chose to drive to Vegas, in order to have our car. You can read about our poker road trip from Boston to Las Vegas.

Where to Stay

The array of hotel options at various price points in Las Vegas is obviously endless. However, if you’re spending a month in Las Vegas and are at all worried about cost, you’re going to want to look for a condo rental via AirBnB, Vrbo, or other rental site. The two primary advantages of renting are: 1) the cost per night will be much lower for the quality you can get, and 2) having a kitchen will save you a lot of money. An extra bonus is the lack of Resort Fees, that are very difficult to escape in Vegas hotels these days. In our Airbnb on West Flamingo Ave, we ate most breakfasts and lunches at home. We also cooked 2-3 dinners a week, plus leftovers.

Poker Road Trip: Boston to Las Vegas

March 7, 2022August 10, 2022 Heather Leave a comment

As we rapidly approach our year-long poker pilgrimage, Paul and I have begun to spend more time traveling and visiting poker rooms around the country. Our first serious poker road trip featured ten days in Southern Florida back in 2018. In 2020, we spent another ten days in Tampa Bay. And about a week after we returned, the world shut down. Last fall, we were finally able to get back on the road for our most adventurous road trip yet. We planned out a month-long visit to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. On our journey out in September, we would take the northern route, following route 80 across much of the country. On our return in November, we would dive South via route 40 and visit some national parks along the way. The current post describes our adventures traveling the northern route. We have also shared our experience of a month in Vegas during the WSOP and the details of our trip home.

Three Days in Charleston, South Carolina

February 14, 2022February 10, 2022 Heather Leave a comment

We recently stopped in Charleston, South Carolina for three days on our way from our home in New England to our winter escape in Florida. Neither Paul nor I had ever been to Charleston before and we were looking forward to a little of that Southern charm we have heard so much about. I am happy to say that we were not disappointed. We loved Charleston and are already thinking about how we can spend some more time there in the future.

Category: Turns in the Road (Travel)