Wow. Just Wow.

With no good connection yesterday, today will be a bit of catching up. From New Mexico, through Arizona and now in YES! California!

I realized I've never been through Arizona and somehow always thought it was a desert. As in flat and scrubby and dry. It isn't, it is incredibly beautiful. Yesterday the wind was blowing so hard I was fighting the wheel the whole way, including going through Tucson and Phoenix (which was sort of like Dallas/Ft. Worth but not quite as awful). But today, there was little wind. Lots of rain. Lots of reported flash flooding. All the doors opened though; road closures became road open. Rainbows guided my way forward. And the Turtle just kept chugging along. Color me stunned.

Fresh jerky? Where?

I am soooo grateful that dust wasn't blowing!
There were lots of scary signs mentioning zero visibility dangers.
No dust. No danger.

New Mexico has mountains everywhere. I knew that.

This looked like it just melted yesterday

My photographer sucks. This was a cool looking ghost town.

More mountains. Everywhere on every side.

Fortunately, we skirted these for the most part.

I knew I wasn't too far from Arizona and suddenly, on the road on the back side of the moon, there it was.

Like that.

This is a place I wanted to stop but I could NOT find the exit for it. 

Here in the desert! Walnut trees, pecan and grapes too.
I'd have loved to have met those brave and patient people.

All the overpasses are decorated differently and in very arty ways.
Too often, trucks were around and I couldn't really photograph them.
One had iguanas (well, they looked like iguanas to me) peeking down from the bridge.

I hope so

I still marvel at the roadbuilding skills along the way

This was a place I also wanted to stop. For no reason I could tell
these balanced rocks just showed up in the middle of nothing like them at all.

This was the best I could get. Traffic suddenly jammed me up.
I was totally mouth agape through this part.

Down into a valley

I saw this truck coming up. Looks like it's ready for its paint job.

He zoomed by us like a road warrior. Very cool truck!

One of the neat overpasses

Ok, you get the idea now, I'm sure.

This is Picacho Peak. There is a park there I wanted to stay in.
They didn't have water on site and charged like it was a Hilton...
I moved along.

Today was just one of those extraordinary days of traveling. Even though it's been completely different than I planned, today felt just good instead of harried and hurried. Traffic was light, probably due to the fact that most of these roads were supposed to be closed. Instead, they opened up, right before I got to them. Literally. 

Flash flood debris was everywhere, but only in a couple of places actually ON the road and very easy to avoid. Lots of dirt on the road where the water had washed it over, some edges of the road were missing (think Zoni beach road a couple of years ago, but not as scary).

How morning looked

How what was ahead looked

I pulled into a rest area to think about what I wanted to do when this happened.
Who am I to ignore the gods?

From far away, these mountainsides looked like they'd been burned.
Instead, it was that the rocks themselves were black.

Every time it rained hard, a rainbow crept across the road until it was blazing

Yes, I'm really driving THROUGH THE RAINBOW!!!

More rain. More rainbow. They all were full, all were double.

More tomorrow on getting into California (because I'm in the library and left my camera in the Turtle. But I will tell you, when I saw the Welcome to California sign about an hour before I expected to, it was a very happy moment. The last supposedly closed road was where I pulled over for a moment to ponder heading on. Then along came a truck and I had my answer. If he was going, we were going!

Have a trial by testing Tuesday. Do something totally by touch.

Ooooopsy!

Why I didn't go to Albuquerque I can't really say. Probably the mountains. But then I find out about the balloon festival there this week. And that Debbie and Lewis are there. After a long morning debating going back, I've decided to go forward instead. 

For right now though, I'll go back to yesterday. 

Getting from Jack's place to the road is not for the directionally challenged. Or for the Turtle really, but with him leading the way, I got in and out with no damage. He and his dog Lucky headed East and I headed West. Two days of lots of talk and laughter. A very good stop along the way.

Lots of this until El Paso

The biggest place to get around was El Paso. Fairly early on a Sunday morning, it wasn't bad. The interstate through El Paso smells like Mexican food and diesel fuel, the food smell winning most of the way. 

New Mexico is beautiful. Shoulda woulda coulda but didn't get to the Balloon Fiesta 

Some history 

I missed the Continental Divide sign so took this one 1/2 mile farther on

The last time I crossed the Continental Divide was in the Rockies when I was a lot younger. Passes were closing due to snow storms; we were going skiing in Breckenridge and eventually got there. This was a whole different crossing, about 8000 feet lower down and about 40 years older.

There is a thing on the roads here called Safety Corridors, where fines for speeding are doubled (not a problem for me). I couldn't figure out what that meant...proximity to Mexico? The underground roadway? No. According to the officials it means:

The goal of New Mexico’s Safety Corridors program is to identify areas of high crash risk and take steps to correct the problem in order to reduce the number of crashes and fatalities on New Mexico’s highways and rural roads. The program’s objective is to develop a formula for effectively addressing crash problem areas by using a data-driven and collaborative planning and implementation process.

Oh. Ok. I saw no crashes. I did see lots of 'Report drunk drivers' signs though, but no one I'd think was a drunk driver. How would I know, I'm from Culebra.

Today I'll head up toward Phoenix, mainly to get around going through Los Angeles. I'll do a lot to avoid freeway insanity but this will work. 

Onward!

Have a meet your mistakes Monday. Do something moving on.

You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine

This morning is moving on time, me to the West, Jack to the East. We'll say farewell at the gate and I'll be the lucky one without the rising sun in my eyes. Maybe we'll see the burrowing owls (I have never seen them in real life, they look adorable in photos and film) or other burrowing critters at a corner of the land where they seem to congregate. I hope so!

This is considered very green for around here

Sometime in the afternoon the rain started moving in. For a place that usually gets under 10 inches of rain a year, this year has been unusual with quite a bit more than the norm. There was thunder and lighting and rain and then more of each. I like a good thunder and lightning storm anywhere, but in the desert there is added drama, watching a storm literally sweep in and around, covering blue sky with grey. There was, right before it all went dark, one beautiful strip of sunset, but I couldn't capture it and while trying, it started raining more. Hands full of computer, camera and flashlight as I went from Jack's cabin to the Turtle, I lost a good one. Sorry!

Later, I was sleeping but woke up to the wind shaking and banging the Turtle around a good bit, loosening something - I'm not sure what - to rattle about. I'm not going out there to see exactly what as it is pitch black and even with a flashlight, I don't think I'm ready to work on a fix at 3 a.m.-ish in the morning. Instead I'll try to think of it as a rocking boat...with a fishing rod banging in a holder. 

Rain dancing

Since I can't capture the yips of the coyotes and figure we've all heard wind before, this wraps up the West Texas section of the trip! Except for remembering to get a photo of Jack in the morning. The daylight morning. I'll post this because there is signal and that probably won't happen again for awhile. 

Have a serene Sunday. Do something sensate.