DAY FOURTEEN, part one: Albuquerque, NM to Amarillo, TX

DAY FOURTEEN, part one: Albuquerque, NM to Amarillo, TX


We checked in to the hotel and immediately developed a pecking order for showers. Everyone took the longest showers of their lives. The girls and I literally scrubbed ourselves with our fingernails. Kaylin emerged and announced, “I feel human again!”

As John showered I ordered pizza for our late dinner. When the lady on the other end told me it would be an hour before they delivered them, it didn’t even faze me. Par for the course. An hour and 20 minutes later, at 10:30pm, we had our dinner.

John sat on the computer visiting and revisiting websites to find information about weather and roads. Apparently when we decided to scrap our plans it wasn’t etched in stone. So imagine my surprise this morning when he announced we were going back to the original plan.

Over breakfast we decided to take baby steps with the original plan and continue our quest for home. According to the GPS we are a little over 1500 miles from home. We’ll make 750 a goal for today and tomorrow. We plan to head to Amarillo, see what kind of time we are making and what the roads and weather look like. The plan is to still head to Oklahoma City and see the Memorial to the bombing there. I have a sneaking suspicion Memphis will be scrapped. The plan for now is to find a nice place for dinner to celebrate New Year’s.

We passed the exit that had forced us off the highway last night. We drove for about 20 miles and commented about how of all the roadways we had traversed, this one seemed the least likely to have the need to be closed. But there was evidence of tire tracks into the snowy median here and there. Then we saw a car hauling a trailer facing backwards in the ditch. Then another in the median. Next was the jack knifed semi truck and the van in the median heading westbound. The traffic jam in the opposite direction was horrendous. Thankfully it looked as though no one had been hurt. About 10 miles down there was another traffic jam heading westward. This time a truck with a 2-car hauling trailer was in the median. It had lost one of the vans it was carrying. The van was on its roof. A second car was involved. There were miles of back-up from this one too. Whenever I pass an accident, I always worry about those involved and have a sense of gratitude that I was spared.

Just past Santa Rosa, New Mexico the snow disappeared! The wind kicked up quite a bit. We actually saw a HUGE tumbleweed blow across the highway! John called it a tumble-shrub! And 70 miles from Tucumcari, we rolled over 5000 miles. No cheering. John actually forgot to tell us! : )

Thank goodness for warmer weather, easier travel, and renewed spirits!