Sunday, October 12, 2008...Southwest Trip

Sunday, October 12, 2008
Santa Rosa, New Mexico - 78 degrees...partly cloudy (I'll take it)
Miles from Cottonwood, Arizona to Santa Rosa, New Mexico...527 miles
Drove through the following States...Arizona and part of New Mexico
(click on photos to enlarge)

We left Cottonwood this morning at 6:15am with our Native American background music. We will be losing one hour today (time change) so we decided on an early start.

Cottonwood is about 60 miles from Flagstaff...when we left Cottonwood the temperature was 38 degrees and one hour later, when we arrived at Flagstaff, the temperature was 18 degrees. The humidity is so low (18%) that my skin is flaking and I have broken several fingernails...I need some humidity.

My gas mileage from Cottonwood to Flagstaff was about 18mph. The reason...we going up in elevation...up to 6000ft...upgrade all the way to Flagstaff. After Flagstaff to Santa Rosa I averaged 26mpg and the highest I paid for premium gas today was $3.72.

This was taken at 6:15am outside of Cottonwood, Arizona.


One final look at the Ponderosa Pine trees around Flagstaff, Arizona.




Still in Arizona, I noticed along the road these bush-like plants...they had a yellow flower on them.


More rocks along the side of the road. I am in awe of the rock formations in Arizona and New Mexico.



Entering New Mexico and on our way to Gallup.


We stopped at Gallup, New Mexico for lunch.


As I had mentioned before, there are these huge pots along side of the road and in Gallup. We are now half way to Santa Rosa...only 263.5 miles left for today.


Off to Albuquerque, New Mexico...only 138 miles to Albuquerque.


I stopped for gas about 10 miles outside of Albuquerque. This was by the gas station (that was connected to a casino)...NO we did NOT stop at the casino...just gas and potty.

Albuquerque exits...we went through Albuquerque around 2:45pm...this town is so easy to get around when it isn't rush hour.


The overpasses in Albuquerque.





This was along side the highway in Albuquerque.


We arrived in Santa Rosa, New Mexico around 4:30pm...very tired...long day.


Yes, we are staying at a Hampton Inn...yippee!


And we ate at Denny's!


Tomorrow we are on our way to Vernon, Texas...it is a shorter day than yesterday and we lose another hour by Amarillo, Texas (we will then be in the central time zone) ...only 338 miles. We will be in Richardson, Texas visiting my mother's sister and her husband on Tuesday, Wednesday, and leaving Thursday for Liberty, Missouri.