Sunday, March 14 2010 - Tempe to Albuquerque, NM

We left Tempe today on the second leg of our adventure. It's a smaller leg, as several of the next legs are. But each leg is important. Somebody once used an analogy of the body to demonstrate that different things are not necessarily better or worse than one another because of their differences. Oftentimes, it's the differences that are most valuable to the body.

For the record, I'm a man. This means that I have odd ideas about packing and traveling and departure times that befuddle most of the fairer sex. At times like these, I try to breathe deeply and remember the Man's Prayer, courtesy of the Red and Green Show:

I'm a man

But I can change

If I have to

I guess.

Actually, change appears harder than it sounds on television, a phenomenon I have no explanations for yet.

In any event, to me, the statement that "we'll leave after worship Sunday morning" conjures images of us driving off into the late-morning sun directly from the church parking lot to the faint soundtrack of Gene Autry or perhaps Johnny Cash. Never mind that this is hardly reasonable, practical, or very well explained to my dear wife. In any event, we ended up driving off from Gena's folks' place around 11am Sunday morning after the final packing.

The drive north to Flagstaff on I-17 was blessedly simple. Mika & Caedmon pretty much slept for the whole two hours. We stopped in Flagstaff to stretch legs, take potty breaks, top off the fuel and have lunch. Part of our goal on this trip is to minimize eating out on our travel days to save money. So we had a 'picnic in the van', huddled over our mini-ice chest and munching on apples, sliced grilled chicken leftovers, mini-round cheeses that our kids adore, and the piece de resistance, a bag of mini-powdered donuts from the convenience store at the gas station. We would have gotten out, but it was pretty darn cold.

The trip from Flagstaff to Gallup, NM along I-40 is always frustrating to me. I dread the Flagstaff-Gallup drive because I have it lodged in my head that it shouldn't be all that long, and it always is long. 187 miles long. Nearly three hours long, even at my near-warp-speed driving pace. Ugh.

It was snowing in Gallup when we arrived. We quickly decided that we could justify pizza for dinner. So much for frugality. The pizza was awful, and helped me feel ill most of the way to Albuquerque.

It was snowing mightily when we left Gallup - to the point where visibility was very reduced and you couldn't actually see the lane dividers on the highway. Or tire tracks of other cars. Kind of unnerving. We were prepared to stay in Gallup if necessary, but thankfully the snow relented about five miles east of town and we had clear sailing the rest of the way.

We arrived at Kirtland Air Force Base just south of Albuquerque about 10:30pm. There, we discovered that somehow we had no proof of insurance or vehicle registration. Talk about embarrassing. However thanks to Gena's cousin's sergeant rank, the guard on duty was willing to let us onto the base. We are grateful for the chance to visit with Gena's cousin, his wife and their two daughters. Monday we'll visit with my folks as they wrap up the final stages of vacating one home in preparation of moving into another one in the next couple of weeks. It's a busy time for them and for us.

We hope things are a tad less complicated for y'all.