Flagstaff Full Of Snow

I just handed the Jetta over to Tracy after taking the Albuquerque to Flagstaff shift. The scenery is at its best in Flagstaff elevation 7335 feet. The trees are frosted with snow and there's more than a foot on the ground. The roads are pretty good but we've finally run in to some less than desirable weather. We've picked up some snow outside of Flagstaff and we hope we start to reach lower elevations before nightfall about 30 minutes from now.

We just clicked past the 1650-mile mark and we are both ready to see the California Arizona border.

We've traveled on and near Route 66 and the history of that highway is really interesting. We'll read up more on that when we get home.

The Texas Panhandle left a lot to be desired and we both decided you would have to be one tough SOB to live there during the summer. It truly is No Country For Old Men even if it's not close to where that movie was filmed. The only interesting sight during this portion of the trip was the winged Cadillacs buried hood first right as we left Amarillo. And really that's about it.

We both really like Zona. It's about a 4000 time improvement over New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle.

Only 400 miles to go!!! We'll post a snow update shortly.

T and C

Armadillo Texas! Stage I Complete

We toughed it out and ended our journey at Comfort Inn and Suites in Amarillo, Texas, after 1,042 miles on pavement paradise. Or, as we wearily refer to this city as, Armadillo, TX.

There are literally a hundred hotels to choose from here and we're kind of perplexed at what this area has to offer. I guess it's the Old West and pretty much the only place to rest between Oklahoma City and Albuquerque. And, we learned Amarillo has one good thing to offer: steak houses. As soon as we turned on the TV in our hotel room a 72-oz. steak eat-off right here in Amarillo was taking place on the Travel Channel. Check it out Right Here. Fortuitous timing, I'd say.

Today, we got underway at 7:30 a.m. instead of 7 as planned but we made it to Amarillo right at 11 p.m. So far, the trip couldn't be any better. The Jetta is running great and getting terrific gas mileage. We estimate $125 for fuel at $1.65 a gallon and we'll be pretty close to that. Not bad for 2,000 MILES!!!

Well, we are pretty tired so it's time to turn in and start Stage II tomorrow. We have the time changes on our side as we gain two hours tomorrow zipping through the Mountain and Pacific time zones. With that in mind, we are aiming for a later 8:30 start. More updates from the road tomorrow.

T & C

Kansas for $5.25 ... Not worth it

Well I just handed over the wheel to Tracy after putting in 350 miles to get us to the 700 mark. We are now just north of Oklahoma City and we are glad Kansas is behind us. It cost $5.25 to drive through on 35W and I'm not sure it was worth it ... Boring. I guess there's beauty to untouched prairies and the such, especially for pheasant hunting. From the car view however, it can get boring to look at fast. On foot after reading an entry from Aldo Leopold it's a completely different story I'm sure.

Anyways, we are averaging 67.5 miles an hour. Not bad considering a few fuel stops and food stop along the way. Still aiming for Amarillo, TX tonight and that would put us in there after 11. We will see how we feel once we get in to the Lone Star State.

Show me what?

Show me Missouri that's what. Tracy has logged 325 miles in the first leg of our journey. We plan on stopping for lunch soon and I'll take over driving until dinner.

Put This On Your Blog

Our whirlwind Holiday trip is almost over after bouncing around the cities and St. Cloud for Christmas and the move. Friday morning we are off to California in the Jetta ... a 31-hour journey. We will split it up tomorrow night, but our main goal is to make it home in time to watch the Vikes game on Sunday.

We got Sirius installed yesterday so we'll have plenty of time to learn all the satellite stations. Plus, we can tune in to the Saturday playoff games before we stop at the Grand Canyon, if we make it before the sun goes down.

We've spent the last four nights at John and Katie's and we can't thank them enough for putting us up after all our furniture was moved Monday. We enjoyed seeing all our friends for New Year's Eve. Courtesy of John's new i-Phone and his demands "Put this on your blog, beeotch", check out a few photos. Tracy and I jamming Country Singstar and John and I reliving our man trip to Bed Bath and Beyond earlier in the day before picking up Tracy's car at Circuit City.

We'll update you to burn time in the car if I can figure out posting with my Blackberry.

T & C