This trip takes me back to Fountain Hills for the third time, from April 2 to April 29, 2021. This time, I rent a Kia Sedona from Budget on Broadway in my Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago. It’s not February this time, as the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed re-openings. My Fountain Festival of Arts & Crafts (formerly the Great Fair) is pushed to April (the town had a vote), so instead of perfect 75 degree days, it’s 94 degrees Fahrenheit – and, on top of that, no Spring Training baseball. Oh well.
THE ROUTE:
- Chicago
- Eureka, Missouri
- Pittsburg, Kansas: Big Brutus
- Chanute, Kansas: Osa and Martin Johnson Safari Museum;
- Canyon, Texas: Palo Duro Canyon State Park
- Grants, New Mexico: Route 66; El Malpais National Monument; Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano (privately-owned tourist attraction between the two national monuments); El Morro National Monument;
- Show Low, Arizona
- Fountain Hills, Arizona
- Tucson, Arizona: Drive up Mt. Lemmon; Sabino Canyon; Brown Mountain trail hike; Madera Canyon State Park, where you hike the Super Trail to the top of Mt. Wrightson
- Silver City, New Mexico: Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument
- Las Cruces, New Mexico: White Sands National Park
- El Paso, Texas
- Fort Davis, Texas: Fort Davis National Historic Site; go to the night sky program at the McDonald Observatory; take a dip at the Balmorhea State Park spring
- Fredericksburg, Texas: National Museum of the Pacific War; climb to the top of the Enchanted Rock
- Johnson City, Texas: Lyndon B Johnson National Historical Park
- Austin, Texas: Watch the Mexican free-tail bats fly from under the Congress Avenue bridge; swim in Barton Springs
- Dallas, Texas
- Muskogee, Oklahoma: Visit the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame
- Pleasonton, Kansas: Mine Creek Civil War Battlefield (near Marais des Cygnes Massacre State Historic Site)
- Saint Joseph, Missouri: Pony Express National Museum; Glore Psychiatric Museum (aka St. Joseph State Lunatic Asylum #2); Fort Smith overlook
- Kansas City, Missouri: Negro Leagues Baseball Museum; bbq at Arthur Bryant’s
- Marshalltown, Iowa
- Cedar Rapids, Iowa
- Chicago