Another amazing day exploring our great country! Woke to 29F weather in Gallup but steadily got improved temps as we trekked across Arizona, gaining another time zone hour on the way. As usual the day continued lots of blacktop, many motel signs and other Americana, but also included a fantastic detour through a national park and an unexpected meeting with long-time friends far from home.

Today we traveled from Gallup NM into Arizona, and through: Lupton, Sanders, Holbrook, Winslow, Winona, Flagstaff, Williams, Seligman, Peach Springs, Hackberry and Kingman.

Two major highlights today – first, the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park (between Sanders and Holbrook). We spent about two hours driving and walking around this amazing park, marveling at the colors and the nearly unimaginable age of the petrified forest (are they trees? Are they rocks? They’re both!). Pictures can’t really do justice to the desert vistas, but the fossilized trees are incredible.  Too many pics for the blog – check out the dedicated page above.

Second – an unexpected reunion with friends Steve & Deeana Lewis – who lived less that ten miles from us for years but we rarely saw until we are 2000 miles from home. They are in their own road trip odyssey and we just happened to cross paths in Arizona today.

Enjoy the pics…look for a semi-familiar slogan, one of the oddest motels you’ll find, beautiful desert nature among the dust, dinosaurs, ‘just a little bunny’, the unexpected meeting, and another brewery….

Another dry day driving – but temperatures definitely shifting to the cooler as we go up in elevation. Snow in Flagstaff AZ yesterday – we go through there tomorrow, hopefully it will have warmed some…

Today’s drive cut across New Mexico, starting and ending with fantastic southwestern fare – green chile sauce for me, red for K, on eggs and then enchiladas. In between we saw more neon and motels (again, not all live), some expansive vistas, trains, some history, a Madonna (NTM),  downtown areas worth visiting again, a well-known river, the continental divide, and hit another microbrewery. We end the day in the Rosalind Russell room at the famous El Rancho hotel, temporary home for many stars during the 40s and 50s when filming in the area.

New Mexico towns/cities today: Tucumcari, Montoya, Cuervo, Santa Rosa, San Jose, Pecos, Santa Fe, Abuquerque, Los Lunas, Correo, Laguna, Budville, McCarty’s, Grants, Prewitt, Thoreau, Gallup.

Longest day so far, but we drove in three states and gained an hour time change – so not in awfully late. Dry day today – all the rain behind us in Oklahoma – and we had a glorious day to drive topless in the sun. Shelby performed great – even on a seven mile stretch of dirt road that was the 1926 route in one section of Texas – and got a chance to use sixth gear on a few stretches of I-40 where US66 coincided.

Route today took us from El Reno through OK (Bridgeport, Weatherford, Clinton, Elk City, Sayre, Texola), TX (Shamrock, McLean, Alanreed, Jericho, Groom, Conway, Amarillo, Wildorado, Vega, Adrian, Glenrio), and into NM (San Jon, Tucumcari).   A lot of pavement, some dirt, and a few other small towns in between.

Today’s pics – look for planes, trains and automobiles, more old service stations and motels, jails – oh Kristen, not more trouble! – giants and giant stuff, a brief nature interlude, and lots of neon!  Plus following another famous actor to bed…

Up and at ’em for day 3 – as mentioned yesterday, biblical-level torrential rain overnight, and then more in the morning as we got started. Great breakfast at a local diner, where we heard from the locals about their streets, property and lower parts of their houses getting flooded. We were quickly out of Missouri once we got going, but Oklahoma clearly got just hammered by the storms, and the flooding was incredible in some places. Three times we had to slowly roll through roads covered with water, and four times had to reroute off of Route 66 because of closed roads or bridges. We actually had to bypass an entire 45 mile stretch of the Mother Road due to closures, and use the Will Rogers Turnpike (I-44).

Route today took us through Joplin MO, Galena & Baxter Springs KS, Quapaw (oh-ga-paw), Commerce, Miami (NTM), Afton, Vinita, Chelsea, Catoosa, Tulsa, Sapulpa, Bristow, Stroud, Wellston, Arcadia, Edmond, Oklahoma City, Bethany and El Reno OK.

Besides a lot of water, we did manage to see some other cool stuff – a drive in theater (ask your parents, kids..), more old (some restored) service stations and motels, a reason not to get into trouble in Galena KS, classic bridges, Shoeless Joe?, Mickey Mantle’s hometown, a cuckoo chicken, neon signs, a blue whale, an old oil tank farm, and a giant thirst quencher.

another long day tomorrow – on to Texas and New Mexico!

Day started out a bit cool, in the 50s, but the sun was out and we soon had the top down and enjoying the drive. We again stuck to the oldest version of the route, which took us through Gillespie IL, Staunton, LIvingston, Edwardsville, Mitchell, across the Mississippi River into St. Louis MO, Kirkwood, Manchester, Gray Summit, St. Clair, Stanton, Bourbon, Cuba (not that Cuba!), Fanning, St. James, Waynsesville, Buckhorn, Lebanon (not that one either!), Strafford, Springfield, Halltown, Maxville and Carthage. Sights along the way included a giant, Kristen under some duress, some old sections of road, some old service stations (some in better shape than others) , an unfortunately named candy outlet, and an oddly juxtipositioned pair of roadside icons.

Rain held off until the very end of the day, when it biblically prevented us from finding dinner, since all the restaurants shut so people could get their cars home into their garages! But our end point in Carthage is the famous Boots Court Motel, opened in 1939, and now being restored back to 1949 vintage. The room we have is the one Clark Gable stayed in twice in the 40s.

another 80+ photos today – hard to cull any, so quite a few here…