Good Luck Makes for Good Football Trip

The rain is falling again on Playa Del Rey as I write this while watching the last NFL game of the regular season. On my TV its the Rams vs Seahawks for the division title. Or maybe its a replay of the Rose Bowl. It seems like I've seen a year's worth of football in the last ten days so I'm a little fuzzy on the details. I've just come home from a 1400 mile road trip during the holiday break and I'm the most grateful person in the world. I did not hit a single traffic jam during my journey which took me through three states. While miserable travelers were stranded in airports due to the east coast blizzard, I avoided three major traffic jams by pure luck! They say luck and preparation are the makings of success. This journey proved it.

For the past twenty years I've tried to make a trip to see a college bowl game at the end of the year. The games are full of blaring bands and rabid fans and great half time shows with fireworks better than the 4th of July. A couple of times that meant a short trip to the Rose Bowl before ticket prices became absurd. This time I planned to go to the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Arizona and the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. Two games, two days and 350 miles apart. A perfect storm of football mania.

Then another storm of the rainy kind hit the southland and flooded my hotel in San Diego. The Days Inn sent me an email and promised to rebook me but all the rooms near the Holiday Bowl were sold out. Fans from icy Nebraska and rainy Washington were coming south to bask in the sun and I had to change my plans. If I couldn't go the Holiday Bowl I would go to a place where I could bet on the game: Las Vegas. I booked my room for the following week and with my plans finalized, I was ready to hit the road. On a sunny Christmas Eve morning, I headed north to my first stop, Santa Maria, where most of my family lives.

Highway 101 was clear and beautiful all the way up the coast before I turned inland to take the San Marcos pass through the Santa Ynez valley. I stopped at a turn out overlooking Lake Cachuma and took a couple pictures.

I used to live in Santa Barbara and drove this route countless times but never stopped to"smell the roses." This time I dropped by the Chumash Casino and won $20 from a video poker machine. Not a bad way to start a vacation.

I had the usual fun with my family playing card games like UNO and catching up with my sisters and their husbands. On Christmas Day it rained hard and I was glad I wasn't going anywhere. The next day I drove back to Playa Del Rey under clear skies and pondered taking PCH once I hit Oxnard. Fortunately I turned the radio to KNX and found out Highway One was closed due to a mudslide. I stayed on 101 and avoided the first major traffic snarl of my trip.

I had one night at home to pack and prepare for my 400 mile drive to Tempe. When I was younger I would sleep late before starting a road trip. Now I know I better. When there's less cars on the road there's less chance of a major accident so I was on the freeway by 6am. The weather was fine and the road was clear for all of us heading east but for anyone heading back to L.A. the scene was quite different. Major highway construction had reduced I-10 to one lane in each direction about 50 miles outside of Tempe. For some reason I skated through the area while cars heading west found themselves in a five mile backup! I don't know know why more people were going that way on a Monday at noon but it looked like a nightmare. I counted my blessings and filled up on gas which was about twenty cents cheaper per gallon than back home. That's why I always buy gas after I cross the state line.

Before I checked into my Days Inn on Apache Blvd. near Arizona State University I did a quick check of the pool area. I'd stayed there in the spring and knew they had a nice jacuzzi which is my number one requirement of a budget motel. I was dismayed to find the pool gate locked so I asked the woman behind the desk about the situation. She said they were remodeling some rooms by the pool and were worried about debris and dust but it looked clean to me. I told them I would have to cancel my reservation when one of the managers came by and said he would open the pool just for me! Another lucky break and the reason I like small motels.

This Days Inn is next to the light rail which I rode to Sun Devil Stadium for the exciting Insight Bowl between Missouri and Iowa. After spending all day in my car I appreciated public transit and the fact I didn't have to pay $20 for parking. The weather was sunny and mild for my two days in Arizona. This allowed me to get in 9 holes of golf and some serious pool time. On the last Wednesday of the year I said goodbye to my favorite college town and took off for Las Vegas under ominous dark clouds.
The Phoenix area and Las Vegas are two of the nation’s largest cities not connected by an interstate. That leaves Highway 93 as the most direct route. In the past that meant driving over the Hoover Dam which was usually congested. I’d heard about a brand new bridge over the Colorado River which was expected to shave twenty minutes off the 300 mile drive. I was halfway through the trip when a light and steady rain started to fall but once again I counted my blessings. I’d rather have it rain on a lonely desert highway than a crowded city freeway.
The rain let up when I reached the border and crossed the bridge. There wasn’t much to see from the road but people were out there, braving cold winds to take pictures of the bridge, supposedly a great engineering feat. Then things turned ugly. Apparently no one thought about the effect of re-routing traffic through tiny Boulder City after the bridge opened in October. As I headed north I noticed cars driving south were backed up for miles. Once again I was going in the right direction while others were stuck in a major traffic jam. I only hoped my luck would hold in Las Vegas.
I checked into the Super 8 next to the Ellis Island Casino and immediately went to the jacuzzi. It was about thirty degrees outside and would get much colder but I was feeling fine. The next day I heard about snow falling on Highway 93 and stranding travelers throughout Arizona. Once again I’d dodged the traffic bullet. After two fun days betting football and playing video poker I was ready to go home.
The highway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas is a crap shoot at best. I knew most of the traffic on New Year’s Eve morning would be heading north and once again I enjoyed a 300 mile drive without a single traffic problem. Sure, I left earlier than I usually do and of course my car was filled up with cheap Nevada gas. So I was prepared for the drive home. Yet I know it took a whole lot of luck to make this holiday road trip one I’ll never forget.