Stage II Complete!!!

After 2102 miles our journey came to a close without incident at our apartment. We came, we saw, we conquered or something like that. We will have the final tallies on fuel costs tomorrow. For now we were happy to finish the road trip at 30 hours and 45 minutes on the road with one night in Amarillo ... Strangely enough only 8 miles from the exact midpoint on our route.

Well, the last 325 miles really wore me down after Tracy called for the righty from the pen. We are both overly tired and excited to start our true journey living together!!

Cheers,
T & C

2-For-2

We made it through the snow and we didn't hit any elk, which is nice. The National Park by Flagstaff is known for elk and a sign warned of their presence for 65 miles. We did see one unlucky elk ko'd on the side of the road. I can't even imagine what that vehicle looked like after the impact. Either way the elk got the worse end of the deal. More light fluries again, but it shouldn't be an issue for our superstar Tracy who hails from even snowier Sota.

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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