I really wanted to spend some time in the Santa Fe area. I had picked out some fun things to do (I thought, anyway). But after not feeling good yesterday, Kenny was getting kind of antsy to get moving along. He would rather spend time in Tennessee. So – I changed plans, and decided to put about 400 miles on today and go past Santa Fe, past Albuquerque, and stay farter east in Santa Rosa NM tonight. It’s an old Route 66 town in New Mexico. That should give him a smile. So, good-bye Colorado, hello New Mexico!
We drove back highways to get to Santa Fe, and the countryside was pretty. Nice fall colors. And as we approached Santa Fe, the unique architecture absolutely displayed itself! Every building everywhere was this style – so pretty and unique to any other architecture we’ve seen anywhere.
We found a Starbucks along our route. This was a first. It had a drive up…. but the rest of the building was just a walk-up! All of the seating was outside, and you ordered at the window.
We continued on, and got to Santa Rosa in the late afternoon. Fortunately, a little Route 66 car museum was open for another hour or so, so we stopped in.
THIS is Kenny’s kind of tourist activity! We spent an hour or so looking at the cars, car parts, and Route 66 memorabilia. They had some cool stuff. Even some old engine analysis machines -which Kenny recognized from his high school auto mechanics days.
OH! And I saw Tow-Mater as we drove away!
We got up the next morning, with a whole lotta miles ahead of us. Oklahoma is a really wide state, and not a lot of exciting things to stop and see or do. We were headed for Memphis, so might as well put the pedal to the metal and go. But first, the panhandle of Texas.
We saw several of these “old fashioned” windmill-water towers – and they were actually drawing water. We’d see cattle hanging around the bottom of some.
Texas panhandle lasted less than 3 hours on I-40. It poured down rain as we drove through Amarillo. And the navigation system in my 2011 car didn’t seem to know where the freeways were. Good thing we have an I-pad and I-phones with nav that can keep us on track!
Oklahoma never had a “Welcome to..” sign But they had a ginormous welcome center, so I guess that makes up for no little highway sign.
Oklahoma actually only lasted 5 hours. Not so bad. But that’s because they have the best ever sign and rule on the freeway. It is unlawful to impede the left lane. And drivers follow the rule! I’m pretty sure the speed limit is 75, but if somebody wants to do 85, (which many did) you better not be in their way! There wasn’t anything fabulous to take pictures of, (interstates are so boring!) so welcome to…
It was 8:00pm when we got to Arkansas, and we had covered about 600 miles so far today. I made a reservation in Russellville, which is right along I40, about 90 more miles. Not much exciting there – just a place closer to our destination to flop.
We watched the weather. Hurricane Nate was coming. Are you kidding?! Hurricane number three for us this year! Here was the forecasted path. This was Thursday 10/5. The storm was expected to cross our path by Sunday/Monday. It didn’t look like it was going to hit Memphis or Nashville DIRECTLY, but the weather was not going to be pleasant there. We’d already been in the rain off and on for the last few days. We decided to just go home.
So in the morning, we left Russellville Arkansas and headed south. About 3 hours later, we waved at Memphis as we went by. 🙁 Memphis is in the far teeny tiny southwest pointy tip corner of Tennessee. We crossed into Tennessee for literally less than an hour, and then …
dropped down into Mississippi.
We didn’t stay long in Mississippi either, and soon we were in Alabama. We decided to stay in Montgomery. That would be about half way home – 8 hours today, and 8 hours tomorrow to get home. Woah – Montgomery was a colorful place! We tried to go find some barbeque for dinner. We didn’t feel real comfortable….. so we got McDonalds drive through and went back to the motel. We stayed in a Super 8 just off the interstate, and we had several power company crews staying at the hotel also. They were all heading TOWARD the gulf coast which was predicted to get slammed by the hurricane.
Today we were on the final home stretch from Montgomery. We drove south on state highways, and wouldn’t be back on an interstate until we got to Florida. So, we saw a few fun things along the way, and the scenery was interesting again.
THIS was cool. I had never seen a cotton field in bloom. There were cotton balls blowing around all along the shoulder of the road.
I don’t remember exactly where this was, but I like church buildings in the south!
And this sign just made me laugh. You better know which highway you want!!
Today was Saturday, October 7. The hurricane was forecasted to hit the gulf coast tomorrow morning. We made it to Florida before noon. Just another 6 hours til we’d be home.
We headed east on Interstate 10 toward Tallahassee. We saw literally hundreds -I’m not exaggerating!- of power trucks heading west TO the storm. Power trucks, flatbeds with huge generators, all kinds of support vehicles… they just kept coming and coming.
6:00pm and we’re HOME! YAHOO!! And there was this huge pile of debris in the spare parking spot. This was still waiting for clean-up from Hurricane Irma which hit here a month ago Sept 10. There were huge debris piles everywhere.
We count our blessings that our lives were only slightly impacted by three hurricanes this year. Many people were not so fortunate. But a warning to y’all – you might want to know our itinerary next summer, because we seem to be hurricane magnets.!
Out of the 3700 or so miles across the country from corner to corner, we did 2100 miles from Santa Rosa NM to Sarasota FL, (8 states) in 3 days. WHEW! I’m glad I’m married to a professional driver!!
We keep missing Santa Fe, Memphis, and Nashville. I guess there’s always something to look forward to!