Starting Point: Dallas, TX
Ending Point: Albuquerque, NM
Distance Traveled: 650 Miles
This morning, I left Dallas at around 5:30 AM to get an early start for the 10-hour day of driving ahead of me. Getting an early start makes the driving go by much faster because the first few hours don’t feel like its day yet. When I get an early start, there are more productive hours to the day because I feel like I got a head start and therefore feel motivated and confident to continue being productive.
A few hours into the drive, I stopped at John Sisemore’s Traveland in Amarillo, TX (http://www.sisemoretraveland.com/). Traveland is an RV sales dealership, RV service center, and RV museum. The museum is rated highly on Trip Advisor and since it’s free I decided to stop by and take a quick look.
After noticing that this was an RV dealership and repair center, I thought about the genius marketing plan of creating a museum behind a dealership in order to increase traffic. After visiting a museum with such awesome RV’s, visitors can’t help but draw positive connections with that dealership, reduce the common paranoia that comes from visiting dealerships, and possibly even stroll around the new RV’s and gain a deeper appreciation for them.
The secretary escorted me to a metal building behind the main building which houses many historical RV’s of all kinds. In the museum, there were restored RV’s from as early as the 1930s. The one common thread throughout all the RV’s is the compact, social interior layout that unquestionably leads to quality family time and paving the way for an unforgettable road trip.
Similar to Bicycle Heaven and Book Loft, the RV museum was a display of whole-hearted passion for the RV lifestyle and it’s history. In 1974, Jack Sisemore, built his small RV rental company on the original site of the car dealership, because of his love for RV’s, while not being able to afford one. Over the span of 40 years, Jack’s small leasing company became a large company fully utilizing six acres of land.
Afterwards, I drove an additional few hours to Albuquerque, NM. After realizing how uneventful Albuquerque, I decided to hike the La Luz Trail (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60933-d559827-Reviews-La_Luz_Trail-Albuquerque_New_Mexico.html) The La Luz Trail begins at 6500’ and climbs over 4,000 ft in about nine miles. The trail has many similarities to Cactus to Clouds: Desert terrain, changing elevation landscapes during the hike, beautiful view of the city for most of the hike, and the aerial tramway/restaurant located at the top (enabling a one-way hike). Initially, I was worried that 4 hours wouldn’t be enough to complete the hike before the 9pm tram deadline, however I arrived at around 8:20 PM and realized that the trams heading downward run until 10pm or 11pm. This hike showed that the quality of attractions/activities is much more important than quantity. I probably could have visited several mediocre attractions but I’m glad I eventually decided on hiking the La Luz Trail.
