This post is a day late since I was too tired last night to do anything more than write it down in a Word document. I'm still tired after a sleepless night, but now have the opportunity to post our first day's travel here on my blog. I doubt that my grammar and syntax are very good since I nearly nodded off a time or two while composing the following paragraphs. Eventually I'll re-edit.
Day 1: Summer is over, kids are back in school and families are for the most part off the roads so we packed are bags and began our latest trip. Today is day 1 of our trip from San Diego to Denver and back.
We began the day a bit later than intended. Dave, thought for sure that we’d be ready to leave by 7 AM, but it turned out to be more like 8. No matter. There is no real time table for this trip other than to make it to Denver in only 2 days. We’ll try a bit of sight-seeing on our return trip. Heading east on I-8, we drove for around an hour before making our first stop. At that point Dave traded spots with me and I took over driving for a bit. Oh joy, my turn involved winding mountain roads and then a very long stretch of boring scenery in the Imperial Valley. There was not even one curve in that road. Just straight asphalt that went on forever. At least it was a change from the adrenaline producing part in the mountains. I kept on driving until it was time to pull over for some gas in Yuma, AZ where, after grabbing a quick, light lunch, Dave once again took over driving duties.
We made a left turn onto Route 85 in Gila Bend, AZ and continued north where we then made a right turn onto I-10 and headed east into Phoenix. Another left turn at I-17 took us north again. About an hour’s drive out of Phoenix, it was my turn to drive again. Once again, what did I get? Winding mountain roads with big trucks and nutcases on motorcycles. By the way, there is no helmet law in Arizona. They must be true believers in Darwinism.
My drive from north of Phoenix to Flagstaff was considerably more scenic. We went from flat desert dotted with odd shaped hills to craggy landscape populated by tall saguaro cactus. Suddenly we found ourselves reading altitude signs that said we were at 6000 ft and there were mountains with pine trees as far as the eye could see. There were also a lot of signs warning of elk that could jump into the road without warning. Probably a good thing we weren’t planning to drive much at night. Just before pulling into Flagstaff, I noticed that the altitude sign had increased to 7000 feet. The air is thin there.
With Dave once again at the wheel, we began driving east on I-40 and the terrain changed again. No more mountains with pine trees. It was now true high desert. The altitude varies between 5000 and 6000 feet and there isn’t much to look at, but it has its own sort of beauty. Occasionally irrigation creates farmland, but for the most part, it’s desert scrub with mountains and mesas dotting the horizon. A large expanse is part of the Navaho Indian Reservation so there are quite a few places to stop along the way where you can purchase Indian art and crafts. We also took note of a few places where we’d like to take a little side trip on the way back home.
Tonight we’re staying in Gallup New Mexico. The sun had set by the time we got here so we’ll have to see what the town looks like when we get up in the morning and head out. Tomorrow’s plan is to head east on I-40 until we get to I-25 where we’ll turn north. Our route is shorter by around 100 miles so it shouldn’t take us quite so long to drive it as it did today.
