Were outa there!

Santa Rosa, New Mexico....

Its always a big day on the day you have to leave, and this morning we were both awake at 6AM.  I made the comment that it was really 7AM over in New Mexico where we were headed, so we both got up.

Even then it was after 8 when we had all the inside organized and the hoses rolled up.  You have to have the engine running to retract the slides and bring up the jacks, so we kind of waited until the neighbors went to breakfast before we fired up the motor.

Then we just promptly left.  But the fellow did come back as I was walking the empty site as the coach was out in the street.  He wanted to know where the storage lot was that we had rented..... I didn't actually give him a good answer.  I just said up on University over in Mesa........  What does he need to know that for?

We finished packing up the car over in the storage lot and tossed out all the ice from the fridge.  The rig and trailer did fit on the 50 ft lot with about a foot to spare.... We were somewhat worried about that.

As I explained yesterday, we drove to Globe first and promptly got into the snow.  As we turned North toward Show Low, the big electronic sign over the road warned of Winter Driving and Dense Fog.....  Eww..  But the sun was shinning, and the road had been plowed and was mostly dry.

We climbed and the snow became much deeper along the side of the road, but the sun was melting it out of the trees.  No fog ever did present itself.  Our tires seldom went thru any snow but it was wet in a lot of places.

About half way to Show Low, you drive thru the Salt River Canyon.  This is another of Arizona's most beautiful places..  You come to the rim and have fantastic views of the entire gorge and then begin to descend on steep switchbacks.  The trees were green and the snow on their bows looked like Christmas.  The sun was blinding, but there were big billowy clouds over the far side of the canyon..

Once at the bottom, you drive along the river and finally cross it on a bridge.  But Arizona in its budget woes, has closed the rest area next to the river.   That caused folks to park along the road and climb the fences to get into the park part......

The drive up the opposite canyon wall is also several switchbacks.  Looking back to the South the snow was really neat against the red rock walls.  About 20 miles farther we were in Show Low and had lunch at a McDonalds.  Yuck........

The rest of the drive up to Holbrook was uneventful as we descended out of the snow country.  But Holbrook is still 5000 ft so the temperatures never warmed back up much..  On thru the petrified forest and next thing we knew it we were in New Mexico.  That was where the clock changed and suddenly it became late afternoon.

It was 6 PM when we arrived in Albuquerque, but of course now that it is daylight saving time, it wasn't even close to dark, so we made the decision to press on Eastward.  Two hours later it was dark, and we were hungry again, so that's when we stopped here in Santa Rosa.

The only motel that was  pet friendly we found was the Motel 6, but just like Tom Baudette says, they had the light on for us......

Biscuit is running all around the room as I type this....... it could be a long night!!

Retired Rod