I am a big Kevin Durant fan. His game is just out of this world at times. For those NBA fans keeping track, 2016 was a particular interesting year. It was Kobe Bryant’s last NBA season, Golden State established the record for most wins in a season, the Cleveland Cavaliers came back from a 3-1 deficit in the finals to win the chip, and 2016 was KD’s last season in Oklahoma City.
When the season began I had a feeling this would be Kevin Durant’s last season in OKC. I’ve been watching him and this team for years and really admired their home court advantage. My cousin, Randy, who was living in Utah at the time, was also a big KD and OKC fan. We both decided we had to get out there before KD left and witness a game in person. We began planning for this trip towards the end of 2015. My sister had recently moved into Utah and wanted to tag along with us; had no interest whatsoever in going to the game.
Like I’ve said before I like road trips. I like the planning, the driving, the everything involved with road trips. So I took it upon myself to get everything arranged for us. I went ahead and scouted best restaurants in our routes, places to see and go. Here’s the route we took for our trip:
In case you didn’t notice that’s roughly 2600 miles of driving without detours; not the most I’ve taken on, but quite a bit.
Day 0 – Friday, March 11th 2016
The day before the trip began. We were planning to leave early on Day 1 because of the amount of miles we were driving. I scheduled to pickup the rental late because I had a snowboarding class that day; I think I scheduled it for 9pm. When I arrived at the rental counter I was asked for my insurance card. I didn’t have my car or my insurance card with me. My car was in Orem where I was living at the time. To this day this has been the only company that asked me for this; I’ve rented all over the country and from several companies and not once have I been asked for my insurance card. The rental company closed at 10p and it was impossible for me to go and drive back from Orem before 10p. The representative said they would honor my rental the next day first thing in the morning. So I left, went to go get my insurance card, got ready for the trip, and went to bed early so that I could pick up the rental early.
Day 1 – Saturday, March 12th 2016
Woke up early, had everything ready, so I hopped out of bed, put on clothes and went straight to the rental company. This rental company canceled my reservation, and charged me a penalty for not picking up the car. The representative that was attending me was not left aware of the situation I ran into the night before. But wait there’s more, this company did not even have a car to rent out to me on this day. They made me wait a long time before telling me this. I was beyond furious with them and just left because I did not want to be mean to the representatives, they were just doing there jobs. Luckily I found another rental just a few minutes away within the amount we had budgeted for a car. At this other company everything went really smoothly compared to that first one.
On Day 1 we had planned to leave early so that we can go to both Monument Valley, and Four Corners. Because of the delayed pick up we had to choose between one of them; Four Corners unfortunately closes at 4pm, and we were just barely going to make it there before they closed, and it didn’t make sense to go back to Monument Valley afterwards. One rule I have on Road Trips is, I do not like to drive at night. I want to keep that to as least as possible, which is why I plan on having a day wasted just for travel.
We hit the road from SLC at 8:30am. Stopped in Orem to pickup my cousin, and went straight to Monticello, UT. My cousin was a big fan of Shake Shack, and I had found this bootleg Shake Shack in UT. I was planning for us to have lunch at this joint, but unfortunately this placed was closed for the season. There weren’t many options open in this town, so we had lunch in Blanding instead. We were still on schedule to make it to Four Corners before 4pm, and to our hotel in Farmington, NM before dark. Four Corners, was meh, we took some fun pictures though. On our way to Farmington we saw this weird shaped rock. We kept getting closer, and closer. We were all startled by it, like confused, because it looked like an Alien Ship, and funny enough I looked it up afterwards and saw that it’s called Shiprock. Checked in at our hotel as scheduled and called it a day. This was a long day, with the rental fiasco, and all the driving, so we all needed some rest.
Day 2 – Sunday, March 13th, 2016
I had planned lots for us this day. I noticed there was this nearby dam that had some beautiful east facing views, so I woke up the crew before dawn. Our hotel did not include breakfast, and the only place open was McD’s, so we went thru their drive-thru. Drove straight to Navajo Damn and just took in the sunrise. It was beautiful and peaceful.
We hit the road and headed towards Taos Pueblo. We drove through some mountain passes on our way there. Luckily the weather was on our side because if it had been snowing we would have been screwed. The views were beautiful. When we made it to Taos Pueblo we found out the historic monument was closed for the season; what?!? I was so bummed because I had found this little gem, but did not know it was closed for the winter months. We did drive around the town a little to take in the architecture views. This town definitely has an Aztec feel to it. After driving around hit the highway again with direction to Santa Fe, NM. To my surprise we drove over the Rio Grande. We had to stop to take in the views.
We made it to Santa Fe and had brunch at this cute little restaurant. The food was phenomenal. The weather was great, so we sat outside and just embraced the weather, sunlight and great food. Afterwards we explored around Santa Fe, NM. This town has a like a Spanish feel to it. Reminded me of the Zona Colonial in my hometown of Santo Domingo. After sight seeing found our way to the interstate with direction towards Albuquerque.
I only planned for us in Albuquerque to go up the Sandia mountain since we had to make our way to Amarillo, TX that night. I did leave it open for Dianne and Randy to do anything they had in mind. Randy wanted to go see Walter White’s house from Breaking Bad. Funny enough they were several people there who went to go see the house. The owners seemed so disgusted that we were there. They had signs all over the place saying TO NOT THROW PIZZA on the roof, lol.
We drove around downtown Albuquerque, found a descent empanadas spot, and drove through Route 66. It was pretty cool driving through Route 66 since there were lots of choppers, and old school car meet ups. After all the sight seeing went up the Sandia mountain not thinking much of it. When we made it to the top we were mesmerized by the views. Do yourself a favor and go up there to the very top viewpoint; it is beautiful. Even for a few Utahns where we have great views everywhere. We were running late at this point, so we didn’t spend too much time up there and went straight to Amarillo, TX where we had a hotel reservation for the night.
Day 3 – Monday March 14th, 2016
This is it. This was the big day. This was the Portland vs. OKC game, so we had to make it to OKC for the game. Luckily the game started at 7pm, so we had plenty of time. Since OKC was a 4hr drive from Amarillo I gave the crew the morning off so that they can catch-up on rest. When they woke up we checked out of our hotel, had an awesome ribeye steak lunch in Amarillo, and checked out the old route 66. Made a few stops here and there to see a few sights. Afterwards went straight to Oklahoma City. Made it to our hotel at a really good time. Rested a little and went straight to the game in order to catch the pre-game workouts. Man, I don’t know how games in OKC are nowadays since Westbrook and Durant are gone, but back then that was quite the show. Like shit, we had a blast starting from the moment we were outside the arena with some drummers, all the way to the end of the game. OKC has this tradition in their home games where the crowd does not sit until the first bucket is scored. Take a look at that next time you see a televised game from OKC. OKC obviously blew Portland away and easily won the game. We got to see Durant and Westbrook kill it. Mission accomplished! After the game we went to a nearby bar to get something to drink and eat with my sister.
Day 4 – Tuesday March 15th, 2016
For Randy and I the trip might as well could’ve ended after the OKC game because that’s why went out there for, and it was a hell of a game. But we were still in OKC, so it was worth exploring while there. I had planned for us to have this entire day to just get to know Oklahoma City. First order of business was food. I gotta say the most underrated burgers in all of US are the Onion Burgers in OKC. My gosh them burgers were good, really good! After eating we were torn between going to the National Cowboy museum or this lake Randy had found on his list. We went to the lake and weren’t at all impressed; should’ve gone to the museum instead, oh well. Drove around downtown for some sight seeing. We split from my sister and went to a baseball game where the OKC Dodgers play; some other team was playing that day. Randy wanted to go eat at KD’s, a restaurant dedicated and themed after Kevin Durant at the time. KD’s didn’t open until dinner time, so to kill time we decided to watch a movie, 10 Cloverfield Lane; heck of a movie if you haven’t seen it. Went to KD’s for dinner, and I gotta say the food was really good. I didn’t order anything myself, only tried some of Randy’s, but it was really good. After dinner did a little bit more site seeing at night and then called it a day.
Day 5 – Wednesday March 16th, 2016
Travel day! This was our last day in OKC and we were facing the long journey from OKC to Denver, CO in one shot. First order of business was food, and I had to take Randy to the Waffle House since we were in the south because he had never tried it. Cleaned the car, checked out, and hit the road. On our way to Denver we stopped at The Top of Oklahoma museum in Blackwell. This museum while interesting was kind of creepy. Randy and Dianne were obsessed with this clown doll they found in a corner. Head straight to Wichita, KS for lunch. On our way there we crossed our first tollbooth in the entire trip. Randy was so happy to see one because we don’t have any in UT and it obviously reminded him of Jersey. Had a descent lunch in Wichita, afterwards walked around and went sight seeing. It’s a cute little town. Definitely liked the brickyard neighborhood. After Wichita we were running behind on schedule, remember I don’t like driving in the night, so we went straight to Denver.
A side story for this day. I really screwed up on this day. This is where I screwed . Instead of going to that museum in Oklahoma and spending so much time in Wichita I should have planned for and researched the town of Hutchinson, KS. What’s in Hutchinson, KS you may ask? Well let me tell you. The freaking spaceships and artifacts from the Apollo 13 mission! They’re stored in the Cosmosphere Museum. Along with that there is Strataca, a big salt mines where a lot of artifacts are kept because of how well they are preserved. Big mistake on my part, but oh well, definitely on my to-do list.
Day 6 – Thursday, March 17th, 2016
It’s been quite the trip so far, but oh you’re in for a treat. The trip has only started at this point, lol. We made it to Denver late the night before and had to wake up early. Today Randy and I were going to split from Dianne and go snowboarding in Loveland ski area. My best friend, my sister from another mother, my homie, Patry, lived in Denver, and she had free tickets to this ski resort. We picked up the tickets, got breakfast at the Denver Biscuit Company, picked up our rentals and went straight to the Ski Area. Little did we know a big storm was headed that way, and it was going to create a nirvana like snowboarding conditions. There was so much powder, it was crazy. This day was bound to fail for many reasons:
- I got altitude sickness because of the insanely sweet and huge breakfast I had an hour before snowboarding.
- The lack of rest from the night before.
- My history with keys (more on this later) .
- The snow storm (although it provided some of the best shredding I’ve ever done).
After I was able to hydrate enough to fight off the altitude sickness Randy and I shredded the shit of that mountain. We did Blues, we did a little bit of a Black, we went all the way to the very top of the mountain and snowboarded like crazy that day. It was sooo much fun. We had been taking a snowboarding class all winter and were ready to put our skills to the test, and boy were we ready.
This is where things go south. We were all done shredding and took a picture at the bottom to remember this majestic day. Right after the picture was taken I reached for my pocket to get the car keys, lo and behold my pocket was never zipped up and the keys were gone. Have you ever ridden a scary roller coaster? You know that feeling you get in your heart/chest during that first big drop, that’s what I felt. “Shit! Where are the keys?” – I said. We could not do much. I went to Ski Patrol, and they said they usually have ski patrol go through the runs after closing, but with all the fresh snow falling it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Long story short the keys never showed up. We were supposed to go to Patry’s house for dinner that night; she was going to cook for us. I tried getting help through the rental company, but they couldn’t help me since I was so far away from their location. I called Patry afterwards and she dropped everything and went to go pick us up. The drive back to Denver was scary because of all the snowfall; we even swerved a lot on the road, but luckily made it back safely. We ended the day by going to TGI Fridays for some booze and food since it was St. Pattys day. I was supposed to pickup my girlfriend at the time from the airport, but since this debacle happened I had her meet us at TGIF.
Day 7 – Friday, March 18th, 2016
Well our rental car is stuck in the mountains, the keys have not and will not show up. I tried getting a hold of several locksmiths in hopes of getting into the car but none of them would go out this far to service the car so I had to get it towed. Luckily it was a new car, so I found a loophole where I was able to get it towed to a Toyota Dealer for free. Anyways, back to Friday, this day was supposed to be Denver day. Get to go out and explore the city with the gang. Instead I spent most of the morning doing damage control in hopes of getting a car so that we can drive back to SLC. I have to say I was really lucky to have Patry in Denver, without her we would’ve been really screwed. She helped me get around town, and afterwards we were able to still explore a bit. We decided to go to Golden, CO to tour the Coors Factory. Later on, my girlfriend at the time had booked a hotel for me and her in downtown. She wanted to have a date night. Funny enough that also got screwed. I ended up somehow getting some kind of food poison and was sick all night so we weren’t able to do anything. It was a really gorgeous and romantic hotel I have to say, oh well.
Day 8 – Saturday, March 19th, 2016
This was supposed to be a travel day where we get back to SLC, but we still didn’t have access to the car. The car was still in Loveland on this day. My hope was getting the car to a Toyota dealer so that they can make a new key. I have to say I had a guarding angel at the Rental co. When I lost the keys I mentioned how I called the rental company for help. This lady helped me and she said the best thing to do was find a way to get the car to their location at the Denver Airport. I don’t know why I didn’t stick to this first. After being unsuccessful at making a new key for the car at the Toyota dealer I called the rental company again, and lo and behold it was the same lady again. She didn’t want to tell me directly, but she kept insisting don’t worry about getting the key replaced, just get the car to the rental location and they’ll take care of me. It’s like she was telling me, dude we’re not going to make a big deal out of this and charge you all these fees. I got the car to their location, and I have to say there priority was helping me get my belongings out of the car and into a new car. Got the new car, was waiting for a bill, nothing, no charges. The gang was out and about without me this day. They wanted to help, but I told them this was on me, so I had to get this fixed however I could. Luckily I did. At 4:30p I was able to pick them up from downtown Denver. I put it up for a vote and said should we pay for a one night at a hotel and leave first thing in the morning to SLC, or leave right now. Everyone just wanted to go home, so we hit the road. We broke my role of driving at night, but luckily we took turns driving back to SLC. We made it back to SLC safely around 1:30am into Sunday.
TL;DR there was so much that happened in this trip. This is one of my most memorable trips because of the people I shared this with, the moments and places we experienced, how I fucked up by losing the rental keys when snowboarding, and how we pulled together at the end to make it back home safely.