A "breezy" travel day and a DIY dinner

(I will add photos to this post when we get to Tucson)

We breezed into Flagstaff Friday afternoon where the high was 64 degrees. Usually when we arrive here we are digging out the trailer from snow and I’m freezing my hands off trying to hook up the trailer. Not this year.  Actually this is not good news for Flagstaff as they really rely on the winter skiers to boost their economy.

Arizona here we are!

The trip from Tucumcari, New Mexico was uneventful and the temperature was 41 when we left so a major improvement over the past few days.

As per usual we encountered high winds as we drove through the high desert on the way to Albuquerque (they call it breezy on the news) so the gas mileage was a little down on this portion of the trip.

Outside Albuquerque the temperature rose to about 60 and bounced around there all day as we drove through western New Mexico. We passed a sign that usually has a great warning for us as we drive along I-40 with temps in the 60s – “Caution  watch for ice.”  Not this year!

By the time we arrived at Flagstaff the temperature had risen to 69 degrees. Before anything else we headed to check on the trailer which was sitting in the same spot we left it in April. It was apparent we had a couple small visitors and one was still inside – dead. We pitched the mouse out the door and moved our luggage and supplies to the trailer in anticipation of an early departure tomorrow.

I moved all the hitch gear to the car so all that is left in the morning is to drive over, back up to the trailer and hitch up.

Following that we went to Camping World to take back a hitch lock we purchased last year. Although you are supposed to return items within 90 days they nicely took back the item because they could obviously see that we had not used it.

Our burgers roasting on an open fire.

Our next adventure was to find a restaurant we had read about on the Internet. The Roadhouse Grill was not as easy to find in reality as it was on the Internet. Following the pointed directions of the clerk at Camping World we drove down a paved road that rapidly turned into a potted paved road and then narrowed into a two-path dirt road that was leading us nowhere.

Realizing (too late) that no restaurant would be located on such a remote lumber trail we turned around and checked into our hotel. For some reason they booked us into a Handicapper room which always troubles me because it feels like I am parking in a space meant for someone with disabilities. But that’s where they put us.

Using the directions given to us by the hotel clerk we found the Roadhouse Grill along the same road we had traveled but it was much closer to the good part of the road than where we had previously traveled.

Our handicapper room

It was a really nice restaurant and at the time we were there we were the only ones in it. We quickly found out that the unusual aspect of this place is that you order off the menu whatever meat you want and then they point you to a grill where you cook your own steak, burger, chicken or hot dog.

They had all the fixins’ and a really nice soup and salad bar so we cooked up our burgers had a nice salad and some chili and then called it a night. (I was tempted to tell them that my burger had been cooked incorrectly and see what they would do).

We went back to the Days Inn and fell asleep early watching Ohio State beat USC.

Mileage out: 95518

Time out: 7:52 a.m. (MST)

Mileage in: 96039

Time in: 3 p.m. (MST)