Today was our longest day on the road, which was partially remedied by the fact that we crossed two time zones (sort of). We left Shamrock around 9:30 and it didn’t take us too long to reach New Mexico and Mountain Time.
The landscape soon gave way to wide-open vistas of rocks, plateaus, desert, and tumbleweeds. The towns got further and further apart. And smaller.
We took a quick detour through Tucumcari, where we’d spent the night 18 years ago on our first cross-country trip. The main road is part of historic Route 66, so it was cool seeing some of the old motels and shops, some of which are still open. Others the ghosts of days long past.
We sort of crossed another time zone when we reached Arizona. Technically, it’s still Mountain Time, but they don’t practice Daylight Savings Time, so right now they’re the same as Pacific. Therefore, when we actually change time zones again tomorrow (Pacific), the time will still be the same.
Even after we crossed into Arizona, we still had many hours of driving to go. Marsha contemplated driving up to the Grand Canyon for dinner at the El Tovar, but it’s 90 minutes in the wrong direction. And they didn’t have any tables available until after 9:00 pm. Now she’s thinking about going there tomorrow instead of straight to LA. So much for the shorter drive tomorrow.
We were almost to Flagstaff when we kept seeing billboard after billboard for Meteor Crater, which is “the largest and best preserved meteorite crater in the world.” We were a little tired after all that driving, but decided to stop anyway. Since our goal is to just get to LA by Friday, we haven’t taken much time for sightseeing and diversions. So, we stopped to check out Meteor Crater.
They have a great little museum all about meteors, how the crater was actually determined to be from a meteor impact (and not a volcanic crater), and how they’ve studied it and used the data to identify other meteor impact craters. And reclassify some that were actually volcanic.
After we checked into the hotel (the nicest Hampton Inn we’ve ever seen; it reminds us of the Wilderness Lodge) and then drove to downtown Flagstaff for dinner. The main road there is also a part of historic Route 66, but the complete opposite of Tucumcari. It’s a thriving thoroughfare with a good selection of old motels still in business, mixed in with chain restaurants, a giant Barnes & Noble, and more.
We loved downtown Flagstaff, which is very quaint and filled with lots of great shops and restaurants. We had an excellent dinner at The Market Place, then checked out an old historic hotel (also a restaurant and bar) from the late 1800s that still had much of its original charm.
The thing that really surprised us, though, was the temperature. It’s been averaging about 99 degrees every day (it’s a dry heat), and cooling down just enough at night to be comfortable. But Flagstaff was borderline chilly. It had dropped to the mid-70s. Warm, but just barely. Especially after we’ve been sweating all day.
Tomorrow is the final leg! We’ll see if it involves a big detour or not.
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