Cross Country, Second day...

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Up by 6:00 am... up, showered, Stevie in shower.... Mojave is a noisy town… it always has been… Its a railroad town and the trains started and stopped… it was a bang, bang, bang, as the slack ran in and out… now they are just the dull roar of the diesel… To make up for it they apparently now pick up garbage in the middle of the night… we were both awakened by the crash of a dumpster at 2:30

Stevie is out of the shower, so in a minute off to breakfast, then east 57 miles to the nearest Starbucks in Barstow.

On the road by 7:00...

At Barstow we drove Main Street… once Route 66… Checked out the old Harvey House, now a museum, then continued to motor east… We decided we were beyond Starbucks… A few miles beyond we visited Daggett… a sad little town named for one of Tina’s Great Uncles… We have his gold box and an Indian basket… John Muir died in Daggett… Old Route 66 passes through town but the bridge to the east is out, so that route is not an option….

Back to I 40… We picked up fuel in “Ft Cady”… a wide spot in the road, with a Texaco station, just beyond was a sign saying “Pavement Ends” The desert is full of abandoned dreams… you wonder about each ruin… why was it built, and why did the dream die…

We crossed the Arizona border at 10:30, 569 miles from home… We lost an hour due to the time change.

We took historic Route 66 in Kingman, and stopped for lunch at El Palacio, across from the railroad station… Back on I 40, off again onto Route 66 in Seligman, more gas and a photo of the “Road Kill Café” Back on I 40, we are seeing snow along the road… off again in Williams… lots of snow… Back on I 40 for the fast run east. Back to Historic 66 in Winslow… we stopped at the corner for photos of us “Standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona….”

We crossed into New Mexico at 5:23, 929 miles from home.
A quick stop in Gallup for fuel. It was sunset, and we drove the rest of the way in fast failing light and a “Blue” moon rose…

In to Albuquerque at 7:20, checked into our motel, walked around the “old pueblo” cute, but dead… its all jewelry and art galleries, so has no presence at night… We ended up eating at the hotel… Its getting close to midnight in New York, the TV is on… We will make midnight, then to sleep… we have 550 miles or so to go tomarrow.

Totals for today, 746.7 miles in 12 hours and 20 minutes
1086 miles for the trip (so far)