Joe Mayer

My first sight upon entering New Mexico on I-40 was construction, slowed traffic, merging into one lane, and all the crud that goes along with that. I was going to stop at the first rest area I came to and message my girlfriend that I’d made it that far at least, but the first rest area I came to was closed for renovation. It seems like there are only about five rest areas on that highway across the entire length of the state, and three of them were closed. One of the others was more like a big parking lot for a casino, so I didn’t stop there. The scenery itself was rather beautiful, although definitely different than what I’m used to in Oregon. Lots of surreal looking rock formations and bluffs, in different shades of reds and browns and such. Aside from the large amounts of construction, I made pretty good time through the state. I fortunately didn’t hit Albuquerque during the rush hour, but even in the slightly post-lunch lull, it was something of a madhouse, and again there was quite a bit of construction going on. Albuquerque looks like it might be a nice city to go back and visit someday, but this time around, I was just trying to make the best time possible, so it was just head through and move on for me.

I finally stopped just a little before I got to Santa Rosa. There had been some clouds building in the sky for a while, and I’m not real familiar with driving a truck, so I was feeling the gusty wind a whole lot more than I was used to. I pulled into one of the few open rest areas that I’d seen and texted my girlfriend to ask her what the weather forecast for that area looked like. She said that it looked like it was just a little line of showers, but it happened to be following along the route that I was taking. I saw that a lot of other trucks and RVs were getting back out on the road, so I figured I’d just head on out and take it slow and easy and do the best I could.

The wind continued and it started raining a lot harder than it had been at the rest area, and by the time I made it to Santa Rosa and stopped for gas, it was beginning to snow. After getting back on the freeway, the snow continued to come down harder, to the point where there was a definite buildup on the windshield where the wipers didn’t reach. Fortunately, it only lasted about half an hour or so, and then it cleared up pretty well, although it continued to drizzle all the way to the Texas border and beyond. I kind of expected to have to deal with heat while I was travelling through both Arizona and New Mexico, but it seems that I had more problems with cold than anything. Still, I’ll go back someday when I’ve got a little more time to stop and check things out.

Last week, I moved from Oregon to Texas, and part of my journey took me across northern Arizona on Interstate 40 (old Route 66). The scenery is wonderful, and although the trip itself was something of a drag for me (because I was in a rental truck with a cat, towing a car), it’s definitely a trip I would love to make again in a somewhat more leisurely fashion. I didn’t stop very often, because I was trying to finish the trip as quickly as possible, but I did stop at Seligman and spent the night in Winslow. Both nice little towns. It was a lot colder there than I really expected it to be, but at least it didn’t snow.

I went to Crescent City this past weekend with my wife. We stayed at the new Hampton Inn there, and it sits just about ten yards off the beach. When the tide goes out, there are a ton of tidepools just past the gravel beach, and I had a lot of fun wandering around looking at all the little creatures out there. We also bought some live crabs from the dock and brought them back home to cook. I’m sure we’ll be heading back there again later this year, and we may even have a new favorite motel on the coast!