Driving from California (San Antonio, Austin, El Paso: hotels, homes, restaurants)

[ElisabethLP]

We are driving a Penske truck and towing our vehicle on our way to Austin on Wednesday. What are popular stops on 10/290?

We are planning on stopping in El Paso and Fredricksburg, but I know there must be some great stops along the way. Any must eats? Any oddities (like the world's largest ball of twine, etc.)? Any beautiful vista points?

We are driving with our eleven month old, and thus we will have to stop fairly often.

[Guingirl]

Congratulations on your move!! We actually moved using Penske from Sacramento to Fort Worth. We took the other route so I can't really give you points to stop. Are you starting from the LA area?

We took I-40 all the way across. We opted for 40 because we didn't want to be that far south. With 40, we ended up generally following Route 66 so we stopped mostly along the song Dinner in Kingman, stayed in Flagstaff, went to the Grand Canyon one day, crossed most of NM during the day and stayed in Tucumcari and then drove straight from Tucumcari to Fort Worth. A great drive...we did it twice...once for my Mom and another a month later for us. Penske can't be beat!

Looks like we will be doing it again towards the end of the summer. My Mother in Law is moving out as well.

Good luck and have a safe trip out here! Welcome to Texas!!

[Steel Man]

Originally Posted by Guingirl

Congratulations on your move!! We actually moved using Penske from Sacramento to Fort Worth. We took the other route so I can't really give you points to stop. Are you starting from the LA area?

We took I-40 all the way across. We opted for 40 because we didn't want to be that far south. With 40, we ended up generally following Route 66 so we stopped mostly along the song Dinner in Kingman, stayed in Flagstaff, went to the Grand Canyon one day, crossed most of NM during the day and stayed in Tucumcari and then drove straight from Tucumcari to Fort Worth. A great drive...we did it twice...once for my Mom and another a month later for us. Penske can't be beat!

Looks like we will be doing it again toward the end of the summer. My Mother in Law is moving out as well.

Good luck and have a safe trip out here! Welcome to Texas!!

Agree. I've been on both routes and I40 is better. If you still want to go to El Paso, then take I25 south from Albuquerque.

[ElisabethLP]

I looked up I40. It does indeed look to be a better route, but unfortunately since we are in San Diego, it would create an additional 7 hour detour to get up to I40.

So it looks like I10 is the way to go!

I am at a loss as to where to stop from Yuma to El Paso, though. I don;t know much about Las Cruces, anyone know a thing that city?

Thanks!

[holmes]

Originally Posted by ElisabethLP

I looked up I40. It does indeed look to be a better route, but unfortunately since we are in San Diego, it would create an additional 7 hour detour to get up to I40.

So it looks like I10 is the way to go!

I am at a loss as to where to stop from Yuma to El Paso, though. I don;t know much about Las Cruces, anyone know a thing that city?

Thanks!

Las Cruces is about a 40 min drive north of El Paso, but depending on what you may find interesting and how "far from the path" you're willing to wander, there are a few fun things to do.

In Las Cruces, I would say Old Mesilla is a pretty neat thing for the tourists. Lots of cool shops, etc. It's more a smaller version of "old town" in Santa Fe. Follow that up the old highway 28 and the valley is quite picturesque. Make stops at Chope's or Severo's on the way for some great new mexican food. Just further down the road is Stahman's pecan farm. You'll know when you're close by the miles and miles of pecan trees. They have a pretty cool gift shop and the best pecan pies anywhere. You can follow the old highway for another 30min or so, and come across a few wineries like La Vina and Zin Valle on the outskirts of El Paso in La Union.

Just outside of Las Cruces is White Sands national monument. Pretty cool place if you've never been there. Aguirre springs is another favorite place I like to go for its rugged, pristine environment just on the other side of the Organ mountains in Las Cruces.

Now for El Paso.. Coming from San Diego, the proximity to mexico is probably something that might not interest you so much but there are a few really nice restaurants/touristy areas in Juarez. I'd also suggest the missions (Ysleta, Socorro, San Elizario). Franklin Mountain state park which bisects the city is also really pretty and a nice spot for a picnic. The Wyler tramway can take you to the top of ranger peak, which I hear is pretty cool (never been). A favorite spot to check out for locals and tourists alike is rim road/scenic drive. Beautiful old homes and a great view of downtown. On your way out of the city are two other really neat places. Hueco Tanks state park has an outcrop of really huge boulders, cliffs, indian paintings, etc. It also happens to have some of the best rock climbing in the world. No, I'm not kidding. Used to be an avid climber back in the day and was always amazed how people from all over the world would flock to this one spot in west texas. And last but not least is Cattleman's steakhouse at Indian Cliffs ranch. Great steaks and lots of fun things to do for the kids, etc.

Hope it helps!

[Steel Man]

If you belong to AAA (Auto Club) you can get all kinds of trip information and prices/ratings of motel/hotels along the way. If you do not belong, then it is worth it. Get the "Plus" membership as it allows up to 100 miles of free towing instead of the usual 3 or 4 miles.
One more suggestion, be careful about theft as those "U-haul" type trucks can be broken into while you're asleep in the motel. You might want to get one of those cheap magnetic alarms that you can stick inside the storage door in back of the truck. If they open the door, then off it will go with a piercing sound (best bet to place it up high so they can't get to it too quickly).
Enjoy your trip.

[Trainwreck20]

One more suggestion, be careful about theft as those "U-haul" type trucks can be broken into while you're asleep in the motel.

We always backed up to a pillar or other permanent object when we were pulling a u-haul trailer, so that it was pretty dang near impossible to open the rear door. Of course, this was a 'swinging' door type u-haul, not the slide up door.....

[movingtohouston]

We made that trip last January. Too cold to do much stopping then but we did make a side trip in Arizona. We stayed the night in Tucson then we took a side trip to Tombstone Arizona (OK Corral). Little tiny town, original courthouse is there, they have a dirt street with lots of little touristy things to do. We didn't get there in time to see the reenactment of the gun fight but did take in one of their little western shows. Cute. Good diversion for my boys. Our second night we stopped in Fort Stockton. Didn't see it but there is supposed to be the world's largest statue of a Road Runner there. 3rd day we hit San Antonio and stopped to see the Alamo. Very moving. Good luck with your move.

[Magnum Mike]

Originally Posted by ElisabethLP

I looked up I40. It does indeed look to be a better route, but unfortunately since we are in San Diego, it would create an additional 7 hour detour to get up to I40.

So it looks like I10 is the way to go!

I am at a loss as to where to stop from Yuma to El Paso, though. I don;t know much about Las Cruces, anyone know a thing that city?

Thanks!

If you're driving from San Diego, and I know nobody mentioned this, but I'm sure you know that you'll need to take Interstate 8 east through El Centro, Yuma, Gila Bend then to just south of Casa Grande, Arizona in order to get on Interstate 10.

[Scholar]

We always go to San Diego through El Paso because we like to go in the winter, so we don't want to take any northern routes that might have snow problems. It is a wonderful way to go. Advice: Can't advise stopping to see "The Thing" in Arizona, but we can recommend the Airplane Graveyard in Tucson. We like to go to Las Cruces if there is time -- Old Town and farther down the road, White Sands. Both are worth the detour. Fredricksberg has great German food. We usually just stop at the Cracker Barrel in El Paso if we can't go to Las Cruces, so we can have clean restrooms and stay on the interstate. Warning: Really watch the road signs because water and gas stops are few and far between in places. You do not want to get caught in the middle of nowhere without water or gas, etc. Sorry that most of the places we recommend are outside TX, but we are probably guilty of rushing out of TX to hurry and start our vacations. Hope this helped some.