Amarillo, TX...FINALLY!

Another long day on the road....we left Flagstaff, AZ at 10:30 am after stopping at Petsmart to pick up a new ex-pen since we forgot ours in San Jose. We hit the road and were blessed with another mild day, weather-wise, at least for the high desert. We were on I-40 East (which runs parallel to Route 66) for the whole ride. We crossed into New Mexico by 1:30 pm which became 2:30 pm with the time change into Mountain Time.

We stopped at the Continental Divide to fuel up (after yesterday, we agreed that we'd refuel at a half-tank) and stretch our legs. Then we headed towards Albuquerque where it was now 90+ degrees. We sat in the shade outside of Whole Foods and ate chicken salad while the puppies had some kibble and water. We met lots of nice folks, the pugs tend to attract a lot of attention, while we dined al fresco.

Back into the car and on towards Texas. For a long stretch we were down to just one lane for road work. UGH! Finally, it opened back up to two lanes and after a few more hours on the road we stopped at Dairy Queen for some soft serve and a potty break for the pups. Thankfully, they sleep most of the time in the car, although each one got restless at some point today and spent some time on L's lap in the front seat for a while. Another hour on the clock lost due to the time change as we crossed into Texas and even though we were on the road for 12 hours we didn't pull into La Quinta Inn and Suites until 12:30 am Central Time. After a long, hot day on the road (J did all of the driving today...again! Logging 607 miles at 60-70 miles/hour...) we unloaded, let the puggies run around and play for a bit (and unfortunately, pick up some fleas from the grass outside...YUCK! Hopefully we picked them all off!), we're getting ready for bed so that we can wake up and do it all over again tomorrow. Thank goodness tomorrow we land in Tulsa. Only 365 miles to go...hopefully we'll get into town around 3 pm....let's hope there's no more one lane travels tomorrow.

One third of the way there!

After 14 hours on the road, we have made it to Flagstaff, AZ. We departed San Jose at 6:30 am this morning with the CRV loaded up with the doggies and pulling the U-Haul and headed south. By 1:30 pm we were in Barstow and started to head east towards Arizona. Here are some highlights of our day:

• Regina and Luigi rode the whole way with no mishaps. Good little puppies! They mostly slept and so did L.



• J drove all 750 miles with a little help from the Garmin.



• The weather was suprisingly cool...thank goodness. It only hit 92 once we were in the high desert and that only lasted about 90 minutes or so.



• We got turned around in one place an we weren't sure which way to go. The Garmin was "Recalculating for a Better Route". All of the sudden, this white pick-up truck with a light on top pulls up besides us. We were like, "Uh-oh. Police..." but then, it was just this nice man who saw us stopped and wanted to know how we liked our CRV because his wife wants to buy one! Then he gaves us directions to get us going on our way.... It was SO weird! Definitely one of God's little angels looking out for us.



• A few hours later, we were travelling on I-40 (which runs parallel to the historic Route 66) and the gas light came on. And there was NO gas for about 20 miles! Finally, on the horizon, we see Crazy Freddy's Truck Stop. J turned about 10 shades of white before we pulled off the highway....he was so afraid we'd be walking to get gas! Once we did fill-up we had less than 1 gallon of gas left! Needlesstosay, we will be keeping old Goldie at half-full from now on! You just never know when you'll find the next gas station out on this highway!

So now, we're resting up and will head out to Amarillo, TX in the morning. It is about 350 miles from here to there, so hopefully tomorrow will be less taxing on all of us! We'll upload some pics once we transfer them to the computer!

Hugs and kisses,
The Wrights