New Mexico Road Trip - Quest Fulfilled, My Final Thoughts

Quest fulfilled?  Technically, maybe not, but 31 out of 35 scenic drives completed exceeded our expectations and for us, it is, Quest Completed.  We drove 4700 miles from high in the mountains to the desert sands of White Sands National Park and explored a whole lot of New Mexico.  We had snow, rain, and warm sunny days; the weather was all over the place on this trip, but that’s what makes a trip interesting.  This was a wonderful trip, and Val and I both agreed, this was one of our very best road trips ever.

We saw a lot of beautiful scenery along the way, but what stuck in my mind the most were some of the unexpected places we found.  The solar observatory in Sunspot, the Very Large Array straight out of a science fiction movie, rediscovering the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad, the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge even though the birds hadn’t arrived yet, the Mogollon Ghost Town, and many more. 

We found some great, off the beaten path restaurants along the way like the Shaffer Hotel in Mountainair or My Mom and Dad’s Restaurant in Chama to name a couple.  We found the food in New Mexico to be very good almost everywhere we went, but I did learn that when they say the food is mildly hot be careful, they do like their food spicy in New Mexico.  I do have one regret though, I wish I would have had one of the green chile cheeseburgers that New Mexico is famous for.  I was a little too wary of it being too spicy for me, but I should have had one anyway.  Oh well, I will next time we're in New Mexico.

It has been a while since we visited Santa Fe, and our five days there reminded us of why it’s one of our favorite places.  The city has a small-town flavor and the surrounding area has so many things to do you always wish you could stay longer.  We stayed in a great place right in the Old Town area with plenty of good restaurants within walking distance.

Val and I both turned seventy-six this year and we wondered whether we still could handle a long road trip, and the answer was a definite YES.  We had to pace ourselves a little differently, but we’re still healthy and still like to travel so it all worked out great.  We are looking forward to more road trips in the future.

Finally, what travels lie in our future?  We have a trip to Michigan in June for a family reunion that I may or may not blog about.  It all depends on whether we decide to add some other travel along with it or just go back for the reunion.  We also have a two-month long cruise called The Tales of the South Pacific scheduled for the fall that will go deep into the South Pacific.  I hope we can throw some short trips in along the way, but we’ll have to wait and see.  So that’s it for our New Mexico road trip and we’ll see you on down the road.

New Mexico Road Trip - The Trip Home

Grants to Flagstaff

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

When I got up this morning and looked out the window it was snowing and the 4Runner was covered in snow, the predictions were correct.  Also, the temperature was 25 outside.  We got up just after eight and after getting ready and doing some final packing we went down and had some breakfast.  After we finished, I brought a couple of things down to the car and wiped the snow off the windows and around the doors so snow wouldn’t come in when we opened them.  There was an covered area in front of the hotel, so I moved the car there to finish our loading out of the snow.

Today we are going to be on I-40 all day as we make our way to Flagstaff, Arizona, our destination for the day.  Val and I looked at traffic and weather conditions and what we saw wasn’t good and while things looked pretty good past Gallup, I-40 between Grants and Gallup was a mess.  The road was pretty clear, but there had been spinouts by numerous big rigs and the highway was closed in several places.  We considered taking an alternate route through the Zuni Reservation that we took yesterday that would get us back to I-40 past Gallup, but we just weren’t sure that back road would be cleared so we decided not to take a chance.

Our route for the day as we travel from Grants to Flagstaff.

We decided to stick to I-40 but delay our departure until ten.  We relaxed for a bit, and then I finished loading the car and we were on the road just after ten.  For a while, the drive was fine, the speed limit was 75, but most everyone was keeping well below that.  One thing we noticed was the large number of trucks on the road.  I have never seen so many trucks; the only thing I could think of was I-80 had closures, and they came down I-25 to I-40, but I really don’t know.

Getting on to I-40 in Grants.  We'll be driving on I-40 until Barstow.

I was monitoring road conditions on Google Maps and saw that after the turnoff to Thoreau, traffic was coming to almost a complete stop for miles.  Thoreau is where we got off I-40 near the beginning of the trip to travel north to Chama.  I saw that Old Route 66 was running parallel to I-40, so we decided to get off and take that.  It turned out to be a smart decision as we could see that I-40 was a truck parking lot past the Thoreau exit.  Not many cars were taking advantage of this frontage road, and we sailed along until 66 merged back onto I-40 and into the traffic jam.  We did get about 5 miles of congestion free travel, but now we were back in it.

We got on old Route 66 just in time as you can see the traffic stopped in I-40. Trucks as far as we could see.  We have never seen so many trucks on the road, they outnumbered cars by a lot!

Unfortunately, this section of 66 ended just ahead of us so our escape from the congestion ended, but we at least avoided it for a short time.

We were finally clear of the traffic, but the eastbound lanes were still stopped.

I’m not sure how long it took us to get through this, but it seemed like forever, but I would guess only a 30 to 45 minutes delay.  After that progress was pretty good although there were a few minor slowdowns.  As we entered Arizona the clouds started breaking up and the weather improved, but the temperature was still very cold as the altitude varied between 5000 to 6500 feet.

Welcome to Arizona.

We were getting hungry and decided to stop in Winslow, Arizona for lunch.  The historic La Posada Hotel is in Winslow, and we have stayed there several times before, but today we were only stopping for lunch.  Getting off of I-40 was an ordeal in itself as there are several large truck stops grouped together at the exit, and it was a massive traffic jam as east and westbound trucks were getting off as well as trucks trying to get back on I-40.  We finally made it through the mess and drove into town, I have to repeat, I have never seen so many trucks on the road, it was just unbelievable.

Winslow has taken advantage of being sung about in the Eagle’s song, “Take It Easy” and put up a statue with a “standing on a corner sign” on it.  They have also added a statue of Glen Frey since the last time we were here so maybe that was to honor him after his death.

Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.

We had originally planned on stopping at the Standing on a Corner Café, but it was closed so we opted for the Sipp Shoppe, a sandwich and coffee shop.  Lunch was good and before moving on we took some pictures of the “standing on a corner statue” (right across from the Sipp Shoppe) and hit the road for the last leg into Flagstaff.

Flagstaff, our destination for today are in those mountains ahead.

The weather had improved to partly cloudy, and we thought we’d have an easy drive into Flagstaff, but we were wrong.  Just as we got about 20 miles from Flagstaff, traffic came to a complete stop.  There had been a very bad truck accident, and it took us over an hour to get through it.  According to Google Maps, the backup extended 14 miles behind us by the time we got through it.

By the time we got to Flagstaff and found our hotel, we felt exhausted as what was supposed to be a three-and-a-half-hour easy drive turned into a seven-hour ordeal.  We had again eaten a late lunch, so we weren’t hungry for dinner and just retired to our room to relax for the rest of the night.  I did write up the blog, but that’s it.  Tomorrow, although a longer drive, should be easier as we head to Barstow, our last stop of the trip.

The final map of our New Mexico travels.

 

Flagstaff to Barstow

Thursday, November 7, 2024

For the second day in a row, when I got up this morning and looked out the window, everything was covered with snow.  It was 28 degrees outside and still snowing.  Flagstaff is at 7500 feet so it’s no surprise that winter comes early here, but I wish it would have waited a few days.

Our route for the day as we make our way to Barstow, the last stop on our trip before returning home.

Breakfast was available until ten today, so we slept in a little bit and didn’t have to rush around in the morning.  After breakfast, I went outside and got the snow off the car.  Yesterday in Grants the snow was wet and it was pretty easy to get off the car, but today it was powder snow and besides being a little thicker, it was a little harder to get off as the snow didn’t stick together so I had to make multiple swipes to get it all off.  After that finally completed, I went back in to do our final packing.

We woke up to more snow, not a lot, but more than enough for us Californians.

We were on the road by ten and left Flagstaff on old Highway 66 before joining I-40 west just outside of town.  We immediately noticed one big change from yesterday, there were hardly any trucks on the road, where did they all go?  Yesterday we saw more trucks on the road than we have ever seen, they outnumbered passenger cars by a lot.  Despite the morning snow, I-40 was clear and dry and there were no problems at all.

We left Flagstaff on Old 66 before getting back on I-40.

We didn't get far before I had to get out and clean off the hood.  The snow on the hood kept blowing onto the windshield and temporarily blinding us.

 

Back on I-40

The turnoff to the Grand Canyon

We made good time as the altitude dropped and the snow disappeared as we drove west.  We passed through Williams and the turnoff to the Grand Canyon where the altitude was still 7000 feet, but after Williams, we steadily dropped as we drove west.  We didn’t stop until Kingman, Arizona where we got gas and some snacks to get us through the last leg of our drive.  Kingman is sixty miles from the California border.

We drove on continuing to lose altitude until we crossed the Colorado River and entered California at only 330 feet, a big change from the high altitude we have been at since being in New Mexico and Eastern Arizona.  When we crossed into California, we gained the hour we had lost at the beginning of our trip.

Crossing the Colorado River

Welcome to California

As returning Californians we sailed right through the produce check.

 

A drive across the Mojave Desert and our day was done.

We are staying in Barstow tonight that is only a four-hour drive from home, but to drive all the way home from Flagstaff is a ten-hour drive and at our age we just don’t like to drive that long, and besides that, we are retired so we have no deadline to get home so why not take it easy.

Thanks to the time zone change we arrived in Barstow around four and relaxed for a while until it was time for dinner.  Our hotel is located next to the Barstow Outlet Stores and besides several other hotels there is just about every fast-food outlet you could wish for, so we opted for a quick fast food dinner and spent the rest of the evening relaxing.  Tonight is our last night on the road and tomorrow night we’ll be in our own beds and the road trip will be over.

 

Barstow to Home

Friday, November 8, 2024

We had a little incident at our hotel last night, so we slept in to catch up on our sleep.  Last night around 11:30 Val was asleep, and I was reading when there was a knock on our door.  I got up and asked who it was, and they said it was the front desk, but I wasn’t about to open the door without some verification, so I asked them to call me.  The door was thick, and the sound was muffled so I wasn’t sure what he said, but we didn’t get a phone call, so I asked him again.  At this point, I decided to call the front desk ourselves and verify what was going on, but the phone wasn’t working.

By now, we were getting a little nervous and I considered calling the police, but that seemed a little extreme, so Val found the hotel on her cell phone and called the front desk.  It turned out that for whatever reason, our room was showing up empty and they had assigned it to someone else.  They apologized and said they were straightening it out, so all was well, except for the adrenaline Val and I were feeling.  Why they didn’t just call in the first place I don’t know, but maybe they found the phone not working either, but they did have our cell phone number.  Anyway, it took us a while to get back to sleep so we slept in this morning.

We hadn’t intended to get up too early anyway as our hotel was right next to a shopping center and we wanted to stop by the Columbia Store that didn’t open until ten.  Breakfast ended at nine and we weren’t ready by then, so we skipped breakfast, but didn’t mind as we had a treat planned for lunch and we wanted to be hungry.

We got to the Columbia store just after they opened and looked around a bit and Val found something to her liking, and I almost bought a pair of lightweight hiking boots but decided against it.  The time to buy them would have been before we left on this trip, not afterward.

The last day of our road trip as we drive from Barstow to our home.

It was only a four-hour drive home and since we were going to pass through Tehachapi again, we planned our drive so we would arrive in Tehachapi for lunch at the Red House BBQ.  There wasn’t much traffic, and we arrived at the Red House around 12:30 and found it very busy at lunchtime on Friday and had to wait about fifteen minutes for a table, but it was well worth it, they have excellent barbecued pork ribs that we love.  After a great lunch Val had the idea of buying a rack of ribs to take home with us so we could have them for dinner on Saturday and Sunday as we won’t have any food in the house, and we are pretty tired of eating out.

The desolate drive on Highway 58 between Barstow and Mojave.

 

Leaving the desert and heading up into the Tehachapi Mountains.

Turning into the Red House BBQ

Leaving Tehachapi

Heading down into the San Joaquin Valley

Crossing the San Joaquin on Highway 33 ...

... and Highway 46

As we got near home, traffic picked up a bit as there were a lot of people from the San Joaquin Valley heading to the Central Coast for the weekend, but it wasn’t too bad.  We were home around four and while it felt very good to be there, it was also a little sad that our trip was over, and we wouldn’t be getting back in the car tomorrow to explore another scenic byway.

Home Sweet Home