Mom and I left Shamrock, TX yesterday at 8:00 a.m., with high hopes of driving in four different states (TX, NM, AZ, and CA) and traveling just under 910 miles. Can I just say, I was LOVING the weather in Texas. It was wonderful, sunny, warm, with a slight breeze, and DRY! Just the thing us to California girls love. :)
We were making excellent time and thinking it was going to happen until we reached a po-dunk town called Laguna, NM. We pulled into a gas station for a fill up and a driver switch when two big white boys came up to us and said that there is a problem with the right rear tire on the trailer...it was wobbly and not touching the ground...GREAT! They were driving behind us on the freeway and noticed it and were even worried about passing us because they were afraid the tire would blow out. Mom and one of the dudes looked at the tire in question and we discovered that there were some areas where the tread was starting to come apart. So much for our good time, right? Well, then the guy said to his friend, "get the jack!" and he then proceeded to change our tire for us! It was very nice of them. When Mom offered to buy them lunch, he said, 'no, I'm just doing it because it's the right thing to do.' :) Nice knowing there are people like that still out there. So, considering the stop entailed fuel, bathroom breaks for us and the dogs, and the changing of a tire, it was rather quick. We got back on the road. And drove through the rest of New Mexico with out another problem.
As we drove through Arizona, we were starting to get hungry and decided that we wanted pizza. So, I looked into the Garmin and found a place called Alpine Pizza. We called in an order to go, that way we wouldn't have to leave the dogs in the truck for long and so we could keep making good time. Well, I must have been reading cross-eyed because I THOUGHT it was right off the interstate. Turns out, Alpine Pizza was in down-town Flagstaff. Ever notice how narrow roads are in down town areas? Well, you sure do when you're driving a big truck and hauling at 22 foot trailer! Mom was driving and I jumped out at a red light to pick up our food...there is no where to park a truck and trailer in down town Flagstaff. When I came out, Mom had found a small parking lot right next to an alley, so she pulled it and hoped that she could get the truck to the alley without hitting anything (like cars, trash bins, light posts, you get the idea). Mom did a GREAT job, but it was tricky! For a few mins, we were afraid our pizza was going to cause us to get stuck in an alley! We got out of the alley and parked in-front of a Burger King to eat. The pizza wasn't bad, thank goodness. As we were eating, we saw a rock that Mom wanted, so we picked it up before we got back on the road.
The rest of Arizona was not a problem. We crossed into California, and had to go through a check point. How funny, we have crossed into 16 different states and the ONLY one we had to go through a check point was CA?! What a goofy state. When we told the man we only had luggage he told us to enjoy the rest of our trip. Thank goodness, because who knows if they would have let us bring the rocks in...
Wanna know another annoying thing about CA? Trucks have to do 55 mph on the road. For the last three weeks, we've been driving on interstates where the quality of the road is equal to or worse than CA and we were able to do 70 or 75 mph. May not seem like a big deal, but it is when you want to get home!
We pulled into the Best Western around ten. I got some experience backing up the truck and trailer...very frustrating. Makes me think Mom was a champ for getting out of the parking lot/alley in Flagstaff! We got to the room and I crashed, mom watched a little TV. So, the total for that day: over 900 miles and about 16 hours of being on the road (because of time changes, we gained two hours)! We decided we were going to get up earlier so we could get home sooner. We were looking forward to a short day of traveling. We'll be doing just under 460 miles today. :) Homeward Bound!
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