We (Myself, My sister and her husband) left Savage, MN at about 11:00 on Sunday the 25th of March driving my wife's 06 Mazda 3 hatchback. My grandparents live down in Sun City, AZ and this is the 2nd time we have driven down there to visit.
first pic: you can faintly see the miles remaining: 1769! Buckle up!
We took 35 down thru Iowa and our first stop was this newer rest stop near Story City:
Down through Iowa and the NW tip of Missouri and then into Kansas to our next stop at Truckhenge in Topeka: If you go call Ron and ask for the tour. Plan about an hour and a half. Bring either christmas lights or old shoes as donations, we didn't have any with us
so we flipped him some cash. 
It was night when we left there, then further through most of Kansas, turned on 54 for a blink in Oklahoma, a bit of Texas and caught up with the sun again in Santa Rosa, NM, at a rest stop:
Drove on across NM stopping of I40 (old 66) in Laguna NM in search of the local "frybread" advertised on the signs. Got there and checked out the little trading post and of course the fryer was being cleaned, so no frybread for us
Oh well finally did some backroad exploring in Laguna and made sandwiches for lunch:not a bad spot:
Still on I40 Crossed into AZ and stopped at the Jackrabbit Trading Post, they sure had a lot less souvenirs and other stuff since 3 years ago, but still bought some soda made in mexico, it tastes different! better! Me being myself:
Further on in Winslow AZ stopped at the Standin on a Corner statue:
then stopped at the Meteor Crater, it is HUGE! filled up at $4.20/gal!
Finally turned off I40 to 17 South and then 89A through Sedona, definitely worth the extra time!
Got into Sun City around 7ish (their time) and crashed! Slept probably 2 hours the whole trip down. Thank god for monster lol. Some pics while we were there:
Saw a Coyote for the first time (Except for swerving to avoid them in NM at night) carrying a rabbit in its mouth, he didn't really care that we were walking near him at all!
and then, ironically:
dont ya think?
My other sister and her daughter flew in for a couple days too and we all drove to the Grand Canyon for the day. They had never seen Sedona before, so again we went!
then on to the GC:
at the parking lot looked like the guy next to us had a fun drive in!
sunset:
and me:
Back down to Sun City for 2 more nights. We checked out some of the local activity centers in town and they are pretty great. They have walking pools, full exercise rooms, wood/metal shops, dance classes, pretty much anything you want to do, they have a class/club for it.
We also like to watch Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives so we Drove to Phoenix one morning and ate at Over Easy, we all ordered something different and shared. FYI if anyone goes there, they have moved! LOL the look on our faces when we pulled into the abandoned old location, noo!!!!
Called them up and found their new place. Breakfast was great!!!!Now for the way back home: We left G&G's at about 11:30 Friday night, drove up 17 to 40, then 191 north through Utah:
A welcome sight in the dead of night: they were closed but the gas gauge was getting there...
At a rest stop near Moab:
We took 128 just past Moab, definitely worth the extra time, VERY scenic ride, speed limit is mostly 35 MPH, so you really get to enjoy it! Watch out for free roaming cows near the end.
Alright, lets jump on 70 and make up some time to Colorado, we want to drive the mountains during the day!
At a rest stop near Vail:
The sis. then got out her atlas and found Mt evans-the hightest auto road in North America over 14,300 feet!
Too bad it was closed at the time, but we still turned off in Idaho Springs and did a little backroad exploring:
This pic does not do it justice, our lil Mazda was spinning tires trying to make it up this steep hill:
Stopped at another DDD spot: Casa Bonita in Lakewood (Denver) Co. Really interesting place to eat! Good mexican!
outside:
inside:
Well the rest of the trip was pretty boring, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, zzzzzz. Got back home about 8AM, just in time for my son's 2 year old birthday party! Man did I sleep good that night! All in all we logged 4200 miles on the car, killed umpteen squared bugs cruising through 11 states. Can't wait to do it again some day! Well thanks for reading, hope you had as much fun reading this as I had writing this up for you guys!
-bobby
Thanks for sharing.