I’m still processing our recent road / train trip out west and back. In mid-April, Tim and I rented a car and drove to the Denver, Colorado area to visit a friend, then to Tucson, Arizona by way of Santa Fe, New Mexico to visit our son. We returned home on the Amtrak train, the Texas Eagle.

The road trip remains my favorite way to travel. Train is second. Flying a distant—and preferably avoided—third.

I know, sometimes flying is necessary. It’s often faster and cheaper, particularly if the road-driving alternative is more than two days. But for me, getting there really is half the fun. And flying is not as fun.

Here are my Top 15 Reasons Why This Road Trip Was Better Than Flying.

In almost chronological order

1. Pizza at a fancier-than-anticipated Italian restaurant in Hannibal, Missouri, hometown of Mark Twain.

2. Visiting the Pony Express memorial in Julesburg, Colorado. Check out how I used a cloud to enhance the image! What’s even better? It was so bright and sunshiney, I didn’t realize what I’d caught until looking at the photos later.

3. Conifer Café in Conifer, Colorado. What a cool little café! It has the best indoor décor. And swings! And super nice and friendly customers.

4. Colorado coffee shops generally. Coloradoans brew a good cup of coffee!

5. Being able to stop the car and get out to play in a mountain stream that ran by the road in the Rockies.

6. Holding a snowball at Kenosha Pass in the Rockies.

7. Seeing wild pronghorn antelope roadside! And elk! I’d never seen wild pronghorns before, thrilling experience for me.

8. Breakfast at Cafe Pasqual’s in Santa Fe, after a lovely evening in a casita in Tesuque, New Mexico.

9. El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico. I had not heard of El Malpais. We plan to return.

9. Wild horses! In Salt River Canyon

10. Salt River Canyon! And Corduroy Canyon and Cedar Canyon. I was thoroughly unprepared for this. We’re driving along and all of a sudden there’s a beautiful canyon roadside. For miles. Followed by another. And then another!

11. Roadside fry bread. We took US 60, which included the Salt River Canyon and the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests and the Fort Apache Reservation. Somewhere along that route, while still marveling over the canyons, we stopped at a roadside vendor for some Native frybread—which I’d been eager to try. It tastes better when you are eating it canyon-side. If only I’d taken a picture!

12. Trying a regional fastfood chain—Runzas. German sandwiches. (Think Michigan pasty and you are close to what we had.)

13. The salsa at Booga Red’s in Springerville, AZ

14. Driving through mountains for two days.

15. No waiting at an airport.

And then, of course, there’s the destination. We had a great visit with Will and Jensen and Ernie the Good Dog. That’s for another blog.