Short one tonight: Mostly Interstate 40 all day, and even through stunning country, that can drain most of the fun out of the trip. Fast, though, and that’s good when you want it.
Started out in Grants, about 85 miles east of the New Mexico-Arizona line. Instead of getting on the interstate, we looped south and west on a state highway and stopped (not long enough) at the Malpais and El Morro national monuments. We crossed into Arizona without knowing it and cut north a little ways to find I-40 again. Then up through Flagstaff and through a mini-snowstorm and down to the Colorado River and into California. Then tomorrow, across the little patch of desert between us and the Tehachapis, over the mountains and down into the Central Valley. Maybe another little detour or two. We’ll see.
[Above: An ocotillo flowering at a roadside rest area about 30 miles east of Needles, California; below, a sign from the some stop. (Click for larger images.)]
