Help me plan my 2500-mile sightseeing trip
 

In two weeks I'll be spending a week driving from San Diego to Memphis. I'd appreciate your feedback on things to see. Here is what I have so far:

Tombstone, AZ
Thatcher, AZ - Spencer Kimball boyhood home
Snowflake, AZ - temple
Albuquerque, NM - temple
Santa Fe, NM - Cathedral Basilica, O'Keefe museum
Taos, NM - pueblo village
Lubbock, TX - temple
Fort Worth, TX - friends, temple
San Antonio, TX - Alamo, Riverwalk
Houston, TX - friends, temple
Baton Rouge, LA - temple
Home

After Thatcher you could cruise by neighboring Safford and see my grandparents' old place.

In between Albuquerque and Santa Fe you can stop at the Sandia Casino and hit the craps tables.

Take the high road between Santa Fe and Taos, much nicer.

Be sure to stop and get a picture of yourself taking a leak on one of those pretentious "Don't Mess With Texas" signs.

After Houston you must make a pilgrimage to the site of the original Gilley's, located in Pasadena, TX. You won't be able to live with yourself if you don't see the spot where Bud and Sissy first met.

Carslbad Caverns.

There is no temple in Fort Worth btw.

avoid Lubbock.

That was in my mission. Being the idiots we were, we decided to tract his old house. The people who lived there were not nice, to say the least.

We also tracted the house next door. It turned out the old guy used to sell insurance with SWK back in the day, and told us a few stories about him. That was back in '92, I'm sure he's passed away by now.

AGree abotu avoiding Lubbock. Blecch.

Leave plenty of time for the Taos Pueblo, which is one of the cooler things I have seen in the american West.

I htought the O-Keefe museum in Santa Fe was pretty weak. Make sure you see the museum now in the old building in the main square, which I thought was much more interesting. There is also an indian cliff dwelling outside of town up near where Brian used to live that is also worth a side trip, IMO. I echo Landpoke's suggestion about the high road to Taos.

I guess the San Antonio temple isn't as important as the others? :)

There are some Indian museums in Albucracky, but if you've stopped in a Pueblo in the Taos/Santa Fe area they'd be redundant. Mostly there are some good restaurants -- but also good eats in Santa Fe. If you're driving from Taos to Ft Worth, you don't want to go through Lubbock, rather Amarillo. West of Amarillo is the "Caddilac Ranch" you can see it from I-40. You can also see some big wind farms from the highway out there. Maybe even a dust storm or brush fire nowadays. If you have time -- you might want to drive through the Palo Duro Canyon on the way from Spamarillo to Ft Worthless.

Typical Okie.

We once went as a family and saw some of these sights in AZ. We wound up in an old west town and got locked in a jail cell by some crazy old man.

Luckily, he left the key hanging on the wall. My dad took all our belts and shoelaces, tied them together, and made a makeshift rope to pull the key towards us. We got out of that town quickly and never went back.

The saddest part for me was saying goodbye to the little indian kid who put some pinto beans in my flashlight. Those beans were good.

Ah, didn't realize they had one. Seven sessions? I might as well hit up Oklahoma City too and make it eight.