Slowing Down to a Gallup

 

Leaving the Twin Arrows Casino in Flagstaff -- First snow we'd seen in awhile!

      Friday, April 7, we were the last of maybe eight or nine RV's leaving the RV lot at the Twin Arrows Casino east of Flagstaff.  High winds had been predicted and we had lots of phone calls and emails to return before heading out with a great tail wind.  We finally hit I-40 around 10 a.m.  George indicated we were probably getting almost another mile to the gallon on our diesel fuel.

Windy day and we're all alone in the RV parking lot

      As we'd made such good progress on Thursday, and prefer not to travel during the weekends, we set our sights on somewhere near Albuquerque to spend the weekend before heading on towards Denver.  Everything was fine until we approached Gallup, New Mexico, where accident traffic diverted us off of the interstate through their business area -- miles and miles and miles -- at a turtle's pace.  Valerie had called ahead for a reservation at the American RV Park in Albuquerque, and indicated we would surely be there before 7 p.m. to be escorted to our site.

Eastbound on I-40 with nothing but the wind at our back

      For two long hours we sat in Gallup, and after the first hour, now watching the traffic moving again on I-40 eastbound and wishing we had started out a little later.  We approached some extremely narrow lanes in the business district and finally made our way back out to the highway where we were moving again!

Diverted off the interstate -- at least we had trains to watch.

Back-in site at American RV Park in Albuquerque

      We traded off drivers, despite Valerie's injuries, as George has been fighting severe allergies for the past few weeks and was feeling drowsy.  With the time change leaving Arizona, we were now nearly three hours behind schedule and really don't like driving after dark.  We still should have had ample time, but encountered a lane closure for road work west of Ancoma which slowed us down another hour.

      As we entered the campground at around 6:50 p.m., there were two or three rigs ahead of us, which we learned had experienced the same difficulties we had encountered.  Exhausted and ready for a day of recovery, we got parked and walked the dogs.  After this rough 292 mile experience, we may add Fridays to our list of preferred 'no drive' days.

      Curious to know what caused such a tiresome delay, Valerie found the following news article which indicated a law enforcement officer shooting was involved.  Might be a really good thing we got a late start on Friday!   http://www.kob.com/new-mexico-news/new-mexico-state-police-suspect-wounded-in-i-40-shooting-gallup/4448239/

      Saturday, we took advantage of the complimentary breakfast at the campground, located the local Wal-mart for supplies, caught up on some business and laundry, and planned for some sightseeing on Sunday.