The trip from Saint Robert, MO to Amarillo, TX covered 600 + miles and 10 1/2 hours. All of this was along the old Route 66 on its newer sister route I40 and 44. You could still get a feel for what it would have been like to drive on Rte. 66! Much of the morning reminded us of a class 3 whitewater run due to high wind and intermittent snow, with the cartop cargo carrier adding to our wind profile and the heavy stream of trucks creating their own windstorms. But we were out of the snow by mid morning and the wind by later in the afternoon, as we watched the landscape slowly change from the rolling hills of the Ozarks to flat farmland to expanding plains as we moved through Oklahoma and into Texas. As we skirted by Joplin we saw an area with big piles of logs, presumably from trees blown down in the May 2011 tornado. It has been nice to see places that we have only heard about up to now. By late afternoon we were wishing for some clouds to hide the sun as we drove west! But we made it to Amarillo (no signs yet of any armadillos).
We hope to be in Fountain Hills by the end of the day. Google Maps has us going through Albuquerque then Gallop, through Navajo country, by the Petrified Forest, then toward Payson, AZ, down the Beeline (Rt. 87) and into Fountain Hills. It should take another 10 to 11 hours but we will cross another time zone when we cross into New Mexico, so it should still be daylight when we arrive. But, we may do some touring stops along the way and won't rule out another overnight stay so we can do a little exploring of NM and northern AZ along the way.
Happy Friday, everyone! We need to hit the road!
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