Traveling from Phoenix towards our end destination, Indianapolis, we knew it would be long ride. Bettie, our VW, has a small fridge, stovetop, and sink. We are vegetarian, so stocking up on beans, cheese, tofu, and good ole PB & J’s for the road seemed like the safest choice. Especially since we had our children Indy and Magnolia (2 ½ & 5 years old.)
Our first stop was in Pine Top, Arizona where we stayed at for a night. Small town, quiet in the woods. It was 176 miles away from home and had absolutely no vegetarian food available. We then drove from Pine Top to Moab, Utah: what would be about 6-7 hours and 600 miles’ drive.
We drove through Holbrook, Arizona, where we stopped off of the old Route 66 where we passed the Historic Wigwam Hotel.
"Wigwam Hotel" — Photo Credit: http://theconfessionsofahairstylist.com/blog/2016/5/29/instagram-inspiration-roundup
We took a wrong turn and had to go through New Mexico, where we stopped to see Ship Rock. Not much to do and restaurants were very sparse.
From there we drove on to Moab, and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. It was a great budget hotel! We made sure to stop at Arches National Park and see the natural arches as well as Native American petroglyphs.
"CO" — Photo Credit: http://theconfessionsofahairstylist.com/blog/2016/5/29/instagram-inspiration-roundup
We headed on to Edwards, Colorado, but we got stuck in Vail due to a blizzard and chain laws were in full effect. As luck would have it, our bus broke down. The ignition switch had a failure, and we couldn't find a switch at a part store, so we had to manually hotwire the ignition for the remainder of the trip. It was hard, but we kept on trucking!
After Edwards we woke up early in the morning to head to cute breakfast cafe, Cafe 163, that had plenty vegetarian breakfast options before attempting to go through the pass. After looking at the traffic cameras, we thought it looked pretty safe to attempt to go through with the pass. 30 minutes later we made it through and stopped to check out the snow to celebrate where then we found that we had a carabiner stuck in the tire which caused a flat. Was super grateful that it happened then and not in the pass.
After fixing our flat we continued on to Littleton, Colorado for my first class downtown Denver at Hazel and Harley. The class was large (almost 25-30 people!) from 10-5. Afterwards we stayed in Littleton with good friends until Tuesday where we got to see great sites like Red Rock amphitheater.
After Denver heading to Nebraska, we weren’t too sure where to stop and sleep. We went through several small towns that didn't offer much but finally made it to a cute little town called Ogadalla. Stayed the night at a Holiday Inn Express once again and then made it to Lake Ogadalla National Park for some camping.
Lake Ogadalla was odd, but fun. Camping was only $5. It was very sandy with barely any trees but the sandy beach was fun for the kids to play in.Lake Ogallala is a well-known fishing destination, particularly renowned for its fast-growing and feisty rainbow trout.
After a night of camping there, we moved to another camp site at Lake Maloney State Park, which hosted several camping spots to choose from. Somewhere in a large grassy area or there were some next to the lake, where you were shaded by beautiful trees. We chose the spots next to the lake for $8. All day we watched people pull into the lake to go fishing.
Miles after miles we made it to Omaha for a class I taught on Mother’s Day. I wasn’t aware it would land on that day specifically but it was a decent turn out! The class was at Staiy Salon and we had such a blast.
We quickly made our way to Kansas City to Lees Summit to teach a class the following day at Salon de Crist, which was also another large class and my students killed it!
We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge, which is a nice, overly kid friendly resort that had indoor water park. Our family spent a total of 3 nights there and had so much fun. They had several activities for the kids including the water slides and MagiQuest which is like a treasure hunt using a magical wand that kids get to use for their special quests.
We also spent time with our Aunt Mary in Overland Park, Missouri and went to a petting zoo called Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead If you have children in the area you should certainly go. The admission was $2 but I would have paid $15. They had play grounds, a petting zoo, a variety of exotic animals, gardens and much more.
Next was Chicago but since it was a 7 hour drive we stayed in Davenport, Iowa about halfway there. The most important thing that we did in Davenport was discovering a few Amish country stores for some homemade pie.
We finished our way towards Chicago where I had a class called Butterfly Circus with a hand full of educators. Bettie, with her trailer in tow, was having a difficult time due to heavy traffic trying to get our bus to downtown Chicago where we stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel. Parking was so tough with Bettie. We had to park almost a mile away so that the trailer would have a home.
After my class in Chicago we headed to Indianapolis which was a short 3-hour drive. Taught a night class at French Pharmacie from 6-9 and had about 20 stylists. We had a blast!
Sites we saw were Indianapolis’ Motor Speedway and ran into last year’s Indy 500 winner Juan Paublo Montoya! We really loved the area in Indianapolis called Broad Ripple where we came across tons of good restaurants and shopping all while being a quaint little area.
We then left Bettie the bus in a storage unit to come back for her for tour 3. On the way to storage she broke an axel a mile away 2 hours before our flight so we had to call AAA but that’s ok, because my husband Casey will fix her up before tour 3 as he is a mechanic!
Hair By Jenny Strebe
Jenny is a kick ass hairstylist who is on the road with her son and their VW bus named Bettie, traveling and educating hairstylists across the nation, while filling us in on the way.