Monday, December 31, 2018

Smooth sailing and a safe arrival in Tucson


   What a difference a few hours makes.  After Friday night and early Satiurday’s miserable driving conditions we awoke to better conditions on Saturday in Moriarity, New Mexico. A heavy morning fog kept us in Moriarity until about 11 a.m., but the last thing I wanted to do was drive over the mountain into Albuquerque on icy roads in a dense fog.

    It was also very cold and we awoke to 8 degree temperatures outside.

A much nicer day in New Mexico
   To make good use of the delay I drove to a nearby truck stop to fill up the Tahoe. Idling in traffic the night before had drained a good part of the fuel I had and I wanted to start the ride over the mountain with a full tank of gas. The eastbound lanes of I-10 remained closed about 8 a.m. but the west bound lanes were open.


    Joan stayed back at the hotel while I drove to the Pilot Gas Station and when I arrived I found a police officer was directing traffic due to the traffic jam of semi trucks that had camped out in and around the station. Fortunately for me while the semi trucks were lined up 5 and 6 deep at the pumps there were open gas pumps for cars.

   As we headed over the mountain pass towards Albuquerque we had clear sailing, but not so for the folks headed eastbound. On the hill going east out of Albuquerque there was a miles long line of cars and trucks due to an accident on the hill. Needless to say, we were glad to put this part of the trip behind.

   We listened to the Michigan versus Florida bowl game as we headed west towards Flagstaff. Michigan laid an egg, or at least it sounded that way on the radio. After that was over we tuned to the Clemson versus Notre Dame game and this time it was the Irish who laid an egg.

  With this being a short leg of the trip (only 360 miles) we decided to stop at the Twin Arrows Casino for dinner and give Joan a chance to exercise her arm with the one-armed bandits for a couple hours. She deserved a reward for being so patient over the previous 24 hours.

   As a veteran I got $5 free play, which I rapidly donated back to the local Native American tribe. 

Joan was having some success and then after being nice to a lady by watching her machine while she went to the bathroom the woman pointed to one of her favorite machines that her daughter had previously been playing.

   In just a very few minutes Joan spun the wheel and won $359, which we promptly cashed in and then went on our merry and richer way.

    We arrived at our Flagstaff hotel at a reasonable hour and watched the end of the Alabama versus Oklahoma game. This time is was Oklahoma that laid an egg.

    Time out: 11:19 a.m.  (MST)

    Time in:  7:38 p.m.  (MST)

    Mileage out: 3218

    Mileage in: 3597

   I need to say something about the hotel we stayed out Saturday night in Flagstaff. I booked it online because it was in the mid range price for hotels in Flagstaff, but still about $130 a night. It is ski season here so nothing is cheap.

    The hotel had a pretty fancy name “Hotel Aspen Flagstaff/Grand Canyon.”  It did not live up to its name. The facilities were old, but that wasn’t the problem. The room was not clean. Coffee stains on the table, a used chapstick on the floor and it took a Silicone Valley engineer to figure out the television. I called the desk to get directions and between Joan and I we were on hold for nearly 30 minutes before we got an answer.

   The place was packed and I was too tired to make a fuss and the bed looked good so we got a good night’s sleep. I did mention to the hotel clerk in the morning that the housekeeping left a lot to be desired. So if you are in Flagstaff you might want to avoid Hotel Aspen.

   We got out early to head for the trailer storage and arrived to 10 degree temperatures, but very little snow. We checked out the trailer and it appeared in good shape after 9 months without us in the mountains.

    For the second year I made sure I had lock deicer after the problem I had three years ago when all the locks were iced up. For the second year it wasn’t necessary. I did have to use some deicer spray to open one of the storage doors on the front of the trailer where I store the hitch equipment.

A cold hook up
    It took a little longer than usual to hook up because my fingers froze. I had gloves but unfortunately working with some of the equipment requires more dexterity than is possible with gloves on. Once we were hooked up, I took it a little slow at first to make sure that the wheel grease got warmed up a little before we hit the freeway.

   The lowest temperature we recorded that morning was 9 degrees but the temperatures warmed quickly as we headed down the mountain towards Phoenix. By the time we got to Phoenix (thank you Glen Campbell) it was 57 degrees, cool for this area but welcome warmth to us.

   One highway sign we noted was aimed at New Year’s Eve revelers. “Drive Hammered. Get Nailed.”

  The trip to Tucson was uneventful as was the set up for the trailer once we got checked in. We left the trailer winterized because overnight temperatures were expected to fall into the 20s so I hooked up the water this morning (Dec. 31).

   While working outside one of the men I work with on the table and chair set up crew drove by and asked if I was going to help with the New Year’s Eve party set up. I agreed and headed over at 9 a.m. to help set up the ballroom for tonight’s party, which Joan and I will attend. I bought tickets last week over the phone before we left Michigan. Good thing too, because they are sold out.

   We spent the rest of the day Sunday setting up our site and then shopping for food. Sunday I went to the fitness center, did the table and chair set up and then we went back out to pick up a new carbon monoxide detector because the 12-year-old one in the trailer was indicating that it had given up the ghost.

   Cooler than normal temperatures are expected over the next few days, so we will need to take precautions over night to run water in the trailer to keep the pipes from freezing.

Time out at hotel: 7:38 a.m. (MST)

Time in at storage lot: 8:08 a.m. (MST)

Mileage out: 3597

Mileage in: 3614

Time out at storage lot: 8:54 a.m.

Time in at Tucson: 1:35 p.m.

Milleage in Tucson: 3894

Saturday, December 29, 2018

A harrowing travel through New Mexico


   In all our 12 years of traveling we have never encountered a day as awful as yesterday. Usually when I write these travel posts I do it chronologically, but as an old newspaper reporter that would be burying the lede.

The I-40 New Mexico parking lot at 11 p.m.
  On Friday morning we left Henryetta, Oklahoma with the knowledge that we could run into some snow as we drove through I-40 in New Mexico. That is not unusual and as an experienced winter driver not something I am even too anxious about. I had been following the weather and over the last week the outlook had been improving for our trip.


   At one time there was a prediction of 12-inches of snow, but that was readjusted several times to the final prediction of 3-5 inches of snow and most of that was to occur before we ever got to New Mexico.

   So the trip was going along quite well, we hit a little flurry action in Amarillo, also not unusual this time of year, and we were able to maintain a good speed and make great progress.

  My first indication (and my first mistake) was when I punched in our destination for the night (Moriarity, New Mexico) and OnStar gave us an incredibly long alternate route to get there. 

Unfortunately they didn’t explain (and yes, I did ask) why the unusual route, but we soon found out.
   Just outside Tucumcari, New Mexico traffic came to a standstill. I pulled up my phone and found out that accidents ahead had closed I-40. So I got back to OnStar and they gave us another alternate route to get us around the problem. The problem kept moving east. As soon as we leap frogged to Newkirk, New Mexico, we were informed that new accidents had occurred ahead.

Late for Monday Night football?
   In Newkirk, road crews were loading dirt from a field onto plow trucks and spreading it on the freeway just as we were released to continue our journey at 4:48 p.m. We had gotten off the freeway in Tucumcari about 2 p.m. and gone only about a total of 30 miles on I-40 with the detour.


    Being just 47 miles from out destination with reservations in hand we decided to wait it out over dinner in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Surely, they would have the mess cleaned up after our leisurely dinner. Wrong.

   The fun was just beginning. No hotels were available anymore and I-40 was a virtual parking lot for 30 miles. It wasn’t snowing anymore, but it was cold. Fortunately I had filled up fuel in Amarillo as part of the difficulty along the route was that many people simply ran out of gas waiting in traffic and abandoned cars in traffic lanes. That made matters so much better.

During the good times Friday
    At one point when we finally started to move, I nearly plowed into a car in the left lane that I thought maybe had just forgotten to turn the lights on but at the last moment realized was just abandoned. People were very courteous to each other (there was the occasional idiot who drove like a maniac but I’m not talking about him) and made room for people to move over when the need arose.

   People were out of the cars and trucks talking and walking and stretching but some of the waits were 90 minutes at a time. We left dinner in Santa Rosa about 7 p.m. and checked into our hotel at 1:09 a.m. People were being turned away so I was very glad I had a reservation. I guess the traffic and snow made the news, but I was too tired to watch.

    We are thankful to be alive and grateful that in all the mess apparently no one was killed or seriously injured. It’s a pain to be delayed, but worse if you are the one in the accident that caused it.
    Not sure why the New Mexico Department of Transportation fell so far behind the road clearing for a relatively normal snowstorm but in any event we are safe and ready to continue our journey after a harrowing night and a good sleep.

   I love being a part of history, but this little episode I could have gladly missed. And before you say it out loud, I made several errors in judgement this night and I ended the evening by apologizing to Joan for not making better decisions along the way. Live and learn. 

   Earlier on the trip Friday we spotted a couple Monday Night Football Trucks traveling east on I-40 and later one was parked at our hotel in Moriarity so he must have been coming way behind the other two.

   We also noted a lot of Michigan license plates along the route, most of us probably wondering why we had left relatively good weather to drive through this bad weather.

Time out: 8:39 a.m. (CST)

Time in: 1:09 a.m. (next day MST)

Mileage out: 2587

Mileage in: 3218

  Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

  We left Michigan at 5:40 a.m. on Wednesday enroute to Murfressboro, Tennessee to have Christmas with our son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren Wednesday night.  It was 32 degrees when we left but rose through the day to a high of 62.
Opening presents


   We spotted lots of hawks along the freeway looking for food. A highway sign we saw said “Even Santa wears a seat belt.”  Another notable sign spotted in Nashville was “Grandma got run over by a reindeer? Call Morgan and Morgan attorneys.”

   This portion of the trip was uneventful and we had a wonderful time watching everyone open presents.

Time out: 5:40 a.m. (EST)

Time in: 3:45 p.m. (CST)

Mileage out: 1307

Mileage in: 1949

   On our second day of traveling we left Murfreesboro and headed to a new destination for us, Henryetta, Oklahoma. The location worked for the timing of the trip (not knowing what was to come) but was notable for one thing, nothing notable in Henryetta.

   Usually when we stay in a hotel you can find “Things to Do in ??” booklets in your room. Not in Henryetta. But we were just there for the night so we weren’t planning any sightseeing trips anyway.

   I did find out it was named for Hugh Henry who found coal there many, many years ago. It's most notable resident is Troy Aikman, Hall of Fame quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys.

   What we originally thought would be the most aggravating storm of our trip turned out to be mile in comparison to what was to come. Just outside Little Rock, Arkansas we got into a thunderstorm that took us about 90 minutes to drive through. I guess this was the same storm that would hit the east coast the next day.

   We had hoped to stop and see my cousin, her children and grandchildren but the storm and its delays caused us to have to cancel that stop.
Presentation was a problem

   A small airplane on a flat bed truck was the most unsual sighting of the day, but the weather was seasonable and temperatures got up to 65 at the highest. Little did we know.


   Because of the storm delay we stopped for dinner before finishing the drive to Henryetta and the only place we could find was a Pizza Hut in a small town an hour east of our destination. We had what could be described only as a very average meal, served in an aluminum foil pan and presented to us in a sandwich basket (see photo).

Time out: 8:51 a.m. (CST)

Time in:  7:24 p.m. (CST)

Mileage out: 1949

Mileage in: 2587