Day 49: Arizona to New Mexico
I wake up early(ish) so I can do laundry before I leave. I like to leave my host with clean sheets and towels if possible. I am up at 8, shower, and start washing stuff. Hanna is leaving to go somewhere for the weekend at 10 so I try to stay out of the way of her preparations. She has to take some online test before she leaves too. So I try not to distract her as well. I sit across the room talking on the phone and watching TV. Diana called and I am trying to think of things that she needs to be sure to bring to Colorado with her. I can probably outfit her and her friend with snow gear if they is lacking any….Anyway, apparently that is not distracting. Sweet.
The laundry is not ready by the time she needs to leave. Uhh, do you want me to like, throw the keys in the backyard or something when I leave? She suggests that I just go out the garage door. Oh, duh! I forgot you had one of those… We say goodbye and she heads off. I am the most awkward goodbye-sayer ever. I say bye and then start talking again and don’t leave and then talk about how I should probably go and still don’t go… She doesn’t seem to mind and is so to the point about things that she makes it un-awkward. “Anna, I have to go now! Ok, hug, bye!” See, wasn’t that easy?
I watch some more TV until the laundry is done. Or done enough. It hasn’t been in the dryer that long but it feels dry. I need to go! It’s almost 11 and it’s at least 7.5 hours to Albuquerque. I make sure everything is shut off and locked and that I have everything. I walk out the garage door and lock it. And then remember I left my coffee thermos in the kitchen. Damn. I have managed to hang on to that thing and not lost or destroy it beyond the point of use for a few years now. Oh well, I’ll get it back some time or another. She still officially lives in Anchorage.
I finally hit the road around 11. Later than I wanted to but not bad. It is windy. The new truck seems more susceptible to wind than T Rex was. I get blown all over the place. I decide to get some Chick Fil A on my way out of town since I don’t know if they have them anywhere else that I will be. I find one on the way and stop. The roads and parking lots leading to it are a mess. Very disorganized, and a lot of cars everywhere. I get my Chick Fil A and happily eat it as I spend the next 15 minutes trying to get out of the giant mall/food area that the Chick Fil A is in. Someone did not design this well.
15 minutes later, I am back on the highway. My GPS is freaking out. It keeps changing my estimated arrival in Flagstaff drastically. (I have to stop by the car place to give my T Rex title over L) What is going on? As I cruise down the road, my GPS suddenly announces “Severe traffic ahead, recalculating.” Oh. It takes me off the highway and onto a frontage road for a bit before re directing me back onto the highway which is incredibly congested. Apparently I have now reached the middle of nowhere and the highway is the only way to go. At least I avoided a large part of the traffic jam. I still spend what seems like forever stuck in traffic. My clutch foot starts to hurt. So this is when standards suck. Not really a problem in Alaska…. On the up side, the weather is nice so I roll down my window and share my music with the cars around me. I hope they enjoy it. And I have another Tacoma behind me. I feel like we are buddies.
45 minutes (best guess) later, I finally reach the accident. There is a 20ish foot long camper trailer that is completely collapsed and demolished that is being dragged back over the guardrail. It looks like the truck that was pulling it is nearby and no one got hurt. That is good. I guess the wind blew the trailer while they were driving too fast. Who knows? I finally get out of the traffic. Tacoma guy turns out to be a great driving buddy. We drive the same speed and the same way. I follow him for a while until he pulls off at an exit.
As I drive, I get a call. I have found a Tonneau cover in Colorado and have texted the guy asking him if he will hold it for me until Tuesday. We had texted a few times but he decided to call. I answer. “Uh hi, your boyfriend or husband or someone was texting me about a tonneau cover.” Oh no, that was me texting you. Awkward silence. Then he tells me he will hang onto it for me. Sweet! Looks like a nice cover. And it locks! If I had tons of money, it is probably the one I would pick out if I had a choice. He tells me to give him a call Tuesday to pick it up. Yay! I am not toooo worried about my stuff being in the bed between now and then. I have most of my crap shoved in the cab right now anyway. Annoying but it works.
I make it to Flagstaff without further ado. I find my way to the shop and hand over the title and get the rest of the money. I go to T Rex for the last time L and pull off the license plates and my Toy brake light cover. I think it might fit on the new truck. If not, it is versatile enough that I will find something cool to do with it. I pull my skis out of the bed and load them into X-Rex. I then hug my good old truck goodbye and tell it to be good to the new owner. I know, I am weird. The shop guys like my new truck. “Well this didn’t turn out too badly for you did it?” Haha, no, not at all thankfully.
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| Last look at T Rex, debadged of his name tag :( |
It is now after 4 and it is 5 hours to Albuquerque from Flagstaff. I am going to be getting in pretty late. Awesome. I drive down I-40 for a while before taking a turnoff to highway 80. I want to drive through the petrified forest on the way and this is the best way to do it. I can enter off or 80 and drive through the park back to I-40. I drive down a desolate 2 lane highway for about 20 miles before making it to the park. The gate is closed. WTF?!? Apparently it closes at 5. It is just after 5. Boo. I can either backtrack to the interstate or keep going on the highway. I don’t like backtracking and it looks like the highway takes me back to the interstate pretty fast. I go forward.
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| Nooo!! I just missed it :( |
I soon realize that I will not be getting back to the interstate anytime soon and it is starting to get dark. Ughhh not fun. At this point, I get mildly overwhelmed with feelings of loneliness and homesickness. Ugh, lame. The highway is sooo deserted! And I miss Arizona and having a nice base and a good friend to hang out with. And I miss T Rex. And I am not excited about driving through Canada in a few weeks. And I am really paranoid about breaking down now. And did I mention how deserted the highway is? I pass very few cars and there are no buildings for miles and miles.
I drive a ways further before coming to a small patch of civilization. I decide I should get gas. Just in case. I am 99% sure I will be able to make it way beyond my destination on my tank but I am not in a mood to risk it. Gas is cheaper here than it was in Phoenix anyway. The sun is setting as I pull out of the gas station. The GPS says 100 or so miles until I hit I-40 again. It is soon pitch black. The up side to being in the middle of nowhere is that the moon and stars are beautiful. And distracting. I need to keep my eyes on the road so I don’t hit any random animals. Some huge flying thing that I still don’t know what it is flies in front of me. I hit the brakes to avoid hitting it. WTF was that?!?! That was weird.
At this point, I decide to call my mom to talk to her. “Hiiii!!! I am uh, in the middle of nowhere and kinda freaking out.” We talk for a bit before she needs to go. She says she will call back in a bit. Ok, I feel a little better now. I soon lose reception. She calls me back but all I am able to get is a voicemail that I can’t check because my reception is so bad. I don’t get a reliable signal until I am almost to my destination.
While driving on the back road, I find that most people are courteous about their bright lights. A few forget they are on but most are good, with the exception of one car. I see it turn its bights off when it sees me. Good. Then, about 100 feet in front of me, they come back on, completely blinding me. WTF is that?!?! How dumb and rude can you be! Helloo, the human eye was not made for that kind of stuff. Stupid!
I am happy when I finally get back to I 40. Tired of driving, but happy. I mean, X Rex is awesome to drive. Nice and quiet and responsive. I am just tired of sitting. And the lines on the road are starting to be not so clear…. I call Matt to let him know I am near. He tries to give me directions. I fail to comprehend. I finally end up just getting the address. I put it in my GPS. As far as it is concerned, the street does not exist. Uh, can you spell that for me one more time? Nope, still not there. Ugh, so frustrating. I then drop the call. Even better. At least my phone is transmitting my voice to people today though. I text him. “Can ya texy me thr streey” He can figure it out. I hope. I am driving and need to focus. I get the address soon after. Luckily, my phone is smart enough to find the street.
As I come into Albuquerque, I notice that while it is not as elaborately decorated as the Phoenix highways are, it does have cool things with lights. There are some light up sun things, then a light up cactus plant thing, and finally a glowy bridge! I think Anchorage really needs a glowy bridge. I manage to get a really horrible picture of the bridge while driving. There is nothing extraordinary about it. Just a normal concrete bulb tee bridge over a highway. But, it is illuminated with lights that change color. See! This is a good idea! I will need to send this picture to the appropriate people at the AK DOT… I bet this wouldn’t be that hard or expensive to do. People would like it.
I eventually make it to the correct exit. From there, the roads get almost as confusing as the Vegas roads. Luckily, I somehow guess correctly and make all the right turns this time. It is probably not as confusing as I think it is. Me being tired and it being dark is probably adding to the confusion. It is now pushing 10 at night and I haven’t eaten since Chick Fil A. Matt had texted me around 8 telling me that they had a steak for me so I saw no reason to stop. So awesome!
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| Really bad quality picture of the glow bridge! |
As I drive down the road to the house, I see a shooting star. It lasts forever. Sweet! Anddd I am again distracted. The sky is so pretty out here! I eventually reach my turn. I have to guess because my odometer in my truck is a little off because of the oversize tires and I have turned off my GPS because it is useless right now. I end up in some random parking lot. Boo. I consult the iPhone. I am very close. Next street.
I make the turn. It is a dirt road. No wonder my GPS was confused. It tends to dislike dirt roads. I drive to the end and can find no house numbers. By my count, this is the house….. I pull in to the driveway and fumble with my phone to call Matt. A guy walks out of the house. Well, he kind of looks like Matt…. But it is dark. He waves me in. Ok, I guess this is right.
I get out. It is Matt’s dad. Ohh. Makes since. He had mentioned something about he is staying in different places. I hadn’t asked which one I was going to. Matt comes out and greets me. I am then brought inside and introduced to his mom and girlfriend, Ivonne. Everyone is super nice and before I know it, I have a steak dinner, water, and beer. The beer is New Mexican. The can is a huge New Mexican flag. Nice to see they take pride in their beer! Awesome dinner!
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| New Mexican Beer! |
Day 50: Being Lazy in New Mexico
I wake up around 7:30. I am in the guest room which is in their shop area. It is a nice little room. Overnight, it has gotten windy. The wind is rattling the shop door and whistling in the window. I guess I was tired enough that it didn’t wake me up earlier. I decide to go back to sleep. I wake up again a little later and actually get up. I shower and wander outside and over to the house.
Matt and Ivonne are up. Matt asks if I am hungry. Yes I am! It is about noon so he asks if I want breakfast or lunch. Ummmm. I don’t know. I want food? I eventually pick lunch. Too bad! “We have no bread so you get breakfast!” He says. Oh, breakfast is good too! He finds stuff to make tacos. Oh, that will work! He cooks taco stuff and I stand around uselessly.
I finally ask if I can borrow his drill. He explains where it is. I go and mount my T Rex plate on my new truck. Ok, it’s official now. I finish and head back inside just as the tacos finish. We eat tacos. They are awesome. Matt needs to go pick up some tires. I haven’t seen any of the area since it was really dark when I came in so I go with him. We drive a mile down the road to the tire shop and pick up some tires. It is pretty around here. He lives outside of Albuquerque in Sandea Peak. The sky is really blue here and the area is surrounded by the southern Rocky Mountains.
We get back and I chill out for a while. The plans have changed a few times today already so I don’t know what is happening. We were going to go to Santa Fe in the afternoon to meet Ivonne cousin. However, his girlfriend had changed their plan. Then we were going to meet them for dinner and that changed too. I don’t mind. I don’t have much of a plan really. They have a hammock in the back yard so I become acquainted with it.
Matt needs to pick up his truck from the shop in Albuquerque so I volunteer to take him. I want to see the city in the light of day. On the drive, I conclude that the city is not all that exciting but worth seeing. We get back again. We try to decide what to do. We were going to leave to go snowboarding in the evening but no one is feeling too excited about the long drive. Eventually, Matt asks if I can clear the engine code in his truck. Yes I can! His truck had been hit by a deer and the air box was damaged and throwing codes. A few minutes later, his truck is code free. I help him do a few other things to his truck and admire his ’85 4Runner that he has up on a lift for work. He pulls some meet out of the freezer for dinner. His dad comes out to the shop and we talk about life for a while.
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| I feel better now! |
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| Yesss!!!! |
I wander back inside because it is now dark and cold. No one knows what to do with dinner since the meat is still frozen. Matt is meeting some of his old friends at a local bar and asks if I want to go. Sure!
We walk a short ways to the bar. The stars are insane. It is so clear here! I think they are better than in Lake Tahoe. Anyway, we get to the bar. They serve only locally brewed beer. Sweet. I meet some new people and have a good time. The place closes at 11. Since Matt and his friends know the people that work there, we don’t get kicked out until 11:30 or so. We stand in the parking lot before finally dispersing. It is really windy and it is cold!
Matt and I head back to the house. We have to cross a somewhat busy road. Well, it is not busy at the moment since it is late. We decide to run across it even though we can see no cars coming from either direction. I have reached the far shoulder when I manage to trip myself. I catch myself inches from doing a face plant. Seriously, I did not drink that much.
Anyway, we make it back to the house. There is a note in the kitchen. “Matt-dinner in fridge” Well, that is a summary of the note. It was much longer but I don’t remember exactly what it said. Dinner was a salad. It was an awesome salad but definitely lacking in meat. Which was a little sad but I really can’t complain. We eat dinner and talk in the kitchen.
We end up going out to the shop so as to not disturb anyone. The shop is full of tools and musical instruments. Matt plays the accordion so he picks one up and starts playing. There is a trombone in my room so I run and grab it and attempt to play along with him. Unfortunately, I suck at playing the trombone and have no idea what notes I am playing. He decides it might be better if we switch instruments. I try to play the accordion. I am no better at it than the trombone. I have always wanted to play an accordion so it is kind of cool. Other than the part where I am just making random sounds with it. Matt isn’t any better at the trombone than I was. Maybe switching was not a good idea. Oh well. Around 2:30 he leaves to go to bed.
At this point, it is extremely windy. The wind is howling outside and rattling the door. Ok, this is a little scary now…. I have been watching a zombie TV show while at Hanna’s and am reminded of the zombie apocalypse. Well at least I have lots of zombie killing tools handy… if I wake up. I decide to lock the door and hope no one needs in the garage before I wake up. That at least reduces the door rattling noise. Regardless of all the wind, I am soon asleep.
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| Accordion time! |
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