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Tags: Travel Snapshot / Road Names / Road Trips / Zzyxx Travel / → All Tags
Exit Here at Zzyzx. Yes, Zzyzx
If you ever find yourself driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on the 15 Highway, chances are you're going to come across the strangest exit ever, Zzyzx. We've long thought this was a name just for the heck of it, like, "Hey, let's us the last three letters of the alphabet in any way that we can." And the truth is not far from that.
According to its Wikipedia page, Zzyzx is a former mineral hot springs site developed by Curtis Howe Springer in 1944, who was later arrested for misuse of the land and for violation of food and land laws. Basically, he made up the word Zzyxx and it's pronunciation ("zi-zix.")
Today, the land is part of the California State University and it's home to the Desert Studies Center. And no, there aren't any In-n-Outs at this exit.
PS. Don't the mountains look pretty?
Related Stories:
· Jaunted's Top Three Tips For A Desert Road Trip To Las Vegas [Jaunted]
· Pick Your Departure Time Carefully When Driving To and From Vegas [Jaunted]
Tags: Offbeat Travel / Road Trips / Sundance / Utah Travel / → All Tags
Go Off the Beaten Path in Park City, Utah During Sundance
Most of the hipsters who attend the Sundance Film Festival spend the week on the slopes, in a movie theater, or mingling on Main Street, but there are some pretty cool, offbeat attractions just outside of Park City, UT that they're probably missing. Here's a look at a few of them:
Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Even if you're not Mormon (or a fan of Big Love) Temple Square is one of the most fascinating places you'll ever visit. Spread out over three blocks in downtown Salt Lake City, nearly 20 Mormon attractions, including the Salt Lake Temple, the Tabernacle, and the Family History Library, are open to the public for tours daily.
Tags: RV Travel / Road Trips / Airstream / → All Tags
Can Airstream Revive The RV Image For The Modern Traveler?
Thank god the summer of the "staycation" has finished. Boy, was that depressing. So now with 2010 to look forward to, and hopefully a slew of actual trips for everyone, it could be worthwhile to check out the options in RV Travel, especially with icons like Airstream reentering the scene.
Thanks to see-sawing gas prices, the decreasing popularity of good old family vacations to national parks, and a drop in coolness, we're thinking that the days of the monster "King of the Road"-style RVs are coming to an end. Who wants to maneuver a gas-guzzling behemoth when Smart Cars and hybrids are flitting about, with trunk space enough for camping equipment? Instead of heading to "Wayne's RV World" then, how about just hooking a little trailer onto the back of your vehicle? Airstream is betting that this trend will come back in 2010, since they've just released two new models: the 16' Sport and the 30' Flying Cloud.
Tags: Holiday Travel / Christmas Travel / Road Trips / Cars / Events / Lists / → All Tags
The Top Five Places To Have A Drive-Thru Christmas
Nothing beats paying some cash to check out Christmas lights. Well actually, there are plenty of other ways to celebrate the season, but we’re suckers for some quality time behind the wheel where we can see a lighted dancing Santa. Here’s just five places where you’ll be glad you shelled out the cash for a little forced Christmas spirit.
· Winter Lights Festival - Gaithersburg, Maryland
About 30 minutes outside of Washington, DC—depending on traffic of course—sits a pretty good light display for those near our nation’s capital. Things run during the evening from December 4 through January 2 and the lights are only shut off for Christmas and New Year’s Day. Themed areas will get you in the mood for mistletoe especially Penguin Cove and Teddy Bear Land. It’ll cost you $12 per car during the week and $14 on the weekends. There are also times when you can walk through the displays as well as take a ride in an open air trolley—bundle up!
More drive-thru Christmas spirit after the break.
Tags: Travel Snapshot / Holiday Travel / Road Trips / Los Angeles Travel / → All Tags
Live From The 405: Traffic Is So Far, So Good
Making your way out of Los Angeles is never easy, not even on a Monday and especially not on Friday. And driving out of town before the holidays starts to fill us with anxiety the night before. But so far, so good on the 405.
We snapped this shot from the on-ramp from the 10 leading to the 405 and we're happy to report that we're all the way out in the valley with no problems. (Yes, we're using our Verizon Wireless card to file this story from the passenger seat.) Things may change when we hit the 5, which we'll then be cruising for most of the way up to Oakland.
The 5 is a crappy drive namely because its two lanes and it's just flat nothingness unless you get excited by driving by the massive cow patch and inhaling its smell. If we had more time, we'd take the scenic 101 which goes along the ocean. But sorry, turkey awaits. Oh and we just jinxed ourselves. Dammit we knew that would happen! Traffic is stop and go now. Argh!
Got your own holiday travel snapshot? Send it to us! Or drop it into the Jaunted Flickr Pool.
Related Stories: · All Holiday Travel coverage [Jaunted]
Tags: Holiday Travel / Thanksgiving Travel / Christmas Travel / Travel Tips / Bus Travel / Road Trips / Cars / → All Tags
The Jaunted Guide To Surviving Holiday Car and Bus Travel
Over the rivers and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go! Well, wherever you're headed, if you're taking a bus or driving a car to join the 38 million or so others who hit the roads at this time of year, you should leave to us here at Jaunted to see you through the insane travel rush. For a little quick reading with a dash of priceless travel tips, check out these Top 5 Stories To Help You Survive Holiday Car and Bus Travel:
· Our 5 tips for surviving budget bus travel, from past personal experience
· Leave it to the Brits for a great outsider's look at American highways
· Las Vegas-bound? This one's for you
· What to expect from a new Greyhound bus
· Budget bus travel can be enjoyable and fun, we swear!
[Photo: homer4k]
Tags: Rental Cars / Enterprise / Hertz / Road Trips / → All Tags
Enterprise Rent-A-Car Tops Customer Survey, Thrifty Hits Bottom
If you’re renting a car this week to visit family and friends, you might want to consider giving Enterprise Rent-A-Car your business—at least you know they won’t criticize you like some of your relatives. The company best known for the ability to "pick you up" has come out on top in this year’s J.D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction survey. They must be doing something right as this is the sixth straight year they've taken home the victory when it comes to satisfaction among those renting from the airport.
Consumers were questioned over approximately the last year or so on several different areas including overall satisfaction, the rental car itself, and return process, among a few other criteria. Enterprise scored a solid 770 on their 1,000 point scale, but other rental car companies weren’t far behind.
Tags: Literary Travel / William Least Heat-Moon / Blue Highways / Road Trips / → All Tags
Photographer Retraces William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways
Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon is probably my favorite travel book of all time, so I was pleased to see it resurface in the news last week, more than 30 years after its publication. CNN.com has an enjoyable interview with the author and a slide show of photographs from the route he took on his classic journey of discovery. For those who aren't familiar, in 1978, William Least Heat-Moon lost his teaching job and his wife left him, so he decided to outfit his van and start driving across the country, avoiding interstates and sticking to the lesser-traveled roads that were colored blue on the old Rand McNally maps. His three month tour produced a terrific book, and one that reveals many great insights into traveling and life in general.
Tags: Road Trips / Around The World Travel / Around the World / Dangerous Travel / Cars / → All Tags
The Ultimate Road Trip: AP Art Director Plans Around-the-World Drive
Taking the idea of the road trip to the extreme, an art director from the Associated Press is about to embark on an around-the-world driving adventure. Nicolas Rapp will be departing New York on November 15, 2009 and hopefully returning at around the same time in 2010 after having traversed more than 40 countries on his journey.
Tags: Animals / National Parks / Cars / Road Trips / → All Tags
Heading To A National Park? Leave Your Bear-Bait Minivan Behind
On your next road trip to one of the country’s national parks you may want to consider taking the Prius rather than the minivan. Scientists have revealed their findings from a recent study, and apparently bears love minivans and SUVs.
In an article published in this month’s Journal of Mammalogy we learn that black bears within Yosemite National Park prefer to steal some human snacks from the insides of larger cars. Researchers looked at data between 2001 and 2007 to see if there were any connections between over 900 car break-ins caused by black bears at the park. Almost half of the vehicles that were broken into were either minivans or SUVs.
Tags: Movie Travel / Travel News / Road Trips / Family Vacations / → All Tags
Where Will The Next Generation Of National Lampoon's 'Vacation' Go?
When we talk about the best road trip movie ever, nothing even comes close to the 1983 classic "National Lampoon's Vacation." You remember it: Clark Griswald drives his family from Chicago to California to have a family fun time at Walley World, but a million little hilarious obstacles occur along the route. The movie spawned sequels, like European Vacation, Vegas Vacation, Christmas Vacation, and even another sequel to Christmas Vacation. But apparently the world hasn't had enough of the Griswalds, and 26 years after the original, yet another sequel is in the works.
This time however, Clark (played by Chevy Chase) is staying home while his grown-up son Rusty, with kids of his own, strikes out on the American family road trip. David Dobkin, the director of "Wedding Crashers" is expected to at least produce, if not direct, the new movie. Right now, the ultimate destination of the road trip hasn't been named, but we have a few ideas of where the Griswalds might be heading this year century...
Tags: Road Trips / Las Vegas / Las Vegas Travel / San Diego Travel / VegasChatter / Lists / → All Tags
Jaunted's Top Three Tips For A Desert Road Trip To Las Vegas
To save some bucks and see some great desert scenery, road trip it to Las Vegas from California. It's a great last-minute-getaway option instead of paying pricey plane tickets and bag fees, and another perk is that hotels like the Luxor and the MGM Grand offer free self-parking for guests. We recently made the six-hour trek from San Diego and came out better for it, thanks to some tips.
Jaunted's Top Three Tips For Road Tripping To Vegas:
