The Road Not Taken is never more appropriate, tempting or interesting than when on a road trip. This is a lesson we’ve learned in full this time around. While most of us usually plan a trip around destinations we’ve heard of (Austin! LA!) and choose roads that will get us to them the fastest (hello, I-10), I could not recommend doing the opposite more. It’s the space between the destinations that’s the most fascinating.

Over the past few months, we’ve journeyed to Paris, the countryside of Spain, under-the-radar islands in Greece, the streets of Rome and beyond, and the absolute favorite part of the entire adventure so far? This current U.S. road trip across the southwest.

And we loved many of the aforementioned places (loved!), so that’s saying a lot. The surprises you don’t expect along the way are what make it so fun and memorable.

While it can seem challenging to find accommodations beyond a Best Western along the way, it can be done. Thank you to my iPhone, Google, TripAdvisor and way too many years of Internet research for enabling me to find them (oh yeah, and to you too Al Gore for inventing the Internet).

One place not to miss when you find yourself in Gila, New Mexico? Where? Exactly. The Casitas de Gila.

Five casitas on the edge of the Gila National Forest, four miles down a dirt road, on top of a hill, oh-so close to the stars (like stars I’ve never seen in my entire life).

Your own little casita comes with a darling kiva fireplace, an outdoor chimnea and picnic table and a shared hot tub between the casitas that, if you’re like us, you’ll have all to yourselves because you’re the only ones crazy enough to use it at night during 20-degree weather. The stargazing – and subsequent frozen toes — are worth it.

Sunset magazine named Casitas de Gila one of the top 10 romantic cottages (for Valentine’s Day getaways) and they were right. I only wish we could have stayed longer. Hope you take the time to enjoy the space between, my dears.

I’ll leave you with a little Robert Frost (so perfect for kicking off the New Year, don’t you think?) and a question…

 

The Road Not Taken

 

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

 

Have you ever chosen the road not taken? Was it worth it?

{photos by kellygolightly}

 

Your own little casita comes with a darling kiva fireplace, an outdoor chimnea and picnic table and a shared hot tub between the casitas that, if you’re like us, you’ll have all to yourselves because you’re the only ones crazy enough to use it at night during 20-degree weather. The stargazing – and subsequent frozen toes — are worth it.

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