Road Trip from KPIG to BAcon 2013 Prologue

Tomorrow is the start of a 3,000 mile road trip from Monterey, California to Colorado Springs, Colorado to attend the first Boarding Area blogger conference called BAcon, hosted by Randy Petersen. BAcon is a private event for BoardingArea bloggers and several other miles and points bloggers including The Points Guy and Million Mile Secrets.

This should be an interesting conference to discuss the direction and future of Boarding Area and the points and miles blogger world.

BAcon also kind of seems to me like a credit card intervention where I might emerge thinking my travel blogger life would be more complete as a credit card churner.

Or not.

I’ll have plenty of quiet time on the road back to Monterey to reflect on the future direction of Loyalty Traveler.

Utah Revisited

Last month I planned the road trip to BAcon driving through Arizona and passing by Four Corners where the states of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico meet with a road marker site to photograph. I since changed my route to drive through Utah and visit some or all of the five National Parks along the way in southern Utah.

I have driven across Utah seven times over the past 30 years. All the trips have taken place in July or August when the temperature was generally in the mid-90s or hotter. Kelley and I still have deep impressions of being in our early 20s and sweating our way across Utah sleeping in a tent. The next three trips across Utah were due to household moves and we drove a 24-ft. truck across Utah, twice towing an auto trailer. The only sightseeing on these trips was sighting any space where we could easily pull in a truck, park and get back out again without having to back up.

Our last trip across Utah was July 2011. I called that trip the Brokeass Mountain tour. That was a rough trip with breaking my camera on the second day on the road and Kelley suffering from altitude sickness every day we traveled over 8,000 ft. I routed our trip to travel over 10,000 ft. on most days of the trip. My posts for the 2011 trip are listed at the end of this piece.

The southern Utah weather forecast is for 70s and 80s over the next week. Early morning is still in the 20s in some locations. Gloves and sunscreen are both essential packing items.

From KPIG (Monterey) to BAcon (Colorado Springs).

KPIG is our eclectic local radio station around Monterey Bay and the Salinas Valley. The station broadcasts from the pig sty in a little town called Freedom, California. I am a regular piggy listener when driving around Monterey Bay. This is the kind of station that sounds like it would play country music and occasionally it does that format. Usually the music format is mixed up with sounds of Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and songs by a wide range of musicians that are rare for radio playlists. They even broadcast stand-up comedy routines.

Once I leave the Salinas Valley to cross the central valley and Mojave Desert the radio shifts to Christian Rock and preacher talks with only rock and roll metal sounds or hip-hop offering a break in Bakersfield, California and parts of the Mojave Desert covered by Las Vegas stations.

Music is a big part of any road trip.

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Google Maps: KPIG to BAcon = 1,448 miles passing by six National Parks. I hope to visit most or all of these park lands.

Monterey to Las Vegas, Nevada is a little over 500 miles and the longest driving stretch. Tackling that stretch in one day gives me three days to hang out in Utah.

My posts this week will likely happen in the evening, if at all.

 

Brokeass Mountain Road Trip, July 2011

This routing to Colorado crossed over the Sierra Nevada over Tioga Pass, the mountain pass through Yosemite National Park. Tioga Pass is still closed for 2013, but may open by May 11. This is far earlier than most years.

This trip took us across central Nevada and Utah on the way to Denver and back via northern Utah through Park City and I-80 from Salt Lake City to Reno across northern Nevada.

Monterey, California – Denver, Colorado

1 Comment

  • Very much looking forward to meeting you and hearing your roadtrip stories. This is a part of the country I haven’t explored but has always looked beautiful. I hope you enjoy your time on the road!

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