After reluctantly leaving the Grand Canyon on October 31st, we headed south towards Flagstaff. After all the isolation of southern Utah this actually came as a bit of a shock. I mean, it was great to be able to choose between PetCo or PetSmart for dog food, instead of struggling to find anyone who even carried dog food (let alone our Limited Ingredient Diet food), and it was also nice to find a Whole Foods right next to an REI. Flagstaff had everything we needed!
But it didn’t take long for me to miss the quiet and that isolation of southern Utah. The dark skies. The red rocks and sunset hues of the desert. The slot canyons. The lack of people.
Still, Flagstaff seemed like a cool place, and under different circumstances I would have wanted to spend more time there. But after getting our Arizona Gazetteer and the aforementioned dog food we got back on the road to Sedona.
Unfortunately most of the campgrounds north of Sedona were closed for the season, and the one that was open was completely full. We were able to pull up a website called FreeCampsites.net and found a place southwest of town, off Forest Service road 525.
November 1st we went back through Sedona and stopped at the Visitor’s Center. Unfortunately they did not have a spigot for water, so we had to buy it from a grocery store, something we haven’t had to do since Moscow, ID. Well, it was only $.35/gallon.
Driving across Arizona on I-40, and stopping only at the last Rest Station before the New Mexico border for a CrossFit style workout (believe me, few things will garner more points and stares than 10 burpees followed by a lap around the parking lot, then repeating that set 5 more times), we managed to make it all the way to Wingate, New Mexico. There we went south through the town (and past their gigantic high school, which we both initially thought was a prison), and up into Cibola National Forest for a campsite. It was a really clear night. Great for stargazing – but cold! We both were so glad to have those down sleeping bags.
On November 2nd we managed to make it all the way to Amarillo, Texas, although by then my sense of time and direction were both completely jacked up. Arizona doesn’t participate in Daylight Saving Time, so it felt like we were crossing time zones like mad. I had no idea what time it was anymore. I would get up with the sun and go to bed some time after dark, is all.
Along the way we passed through a town in New Mexico called Tucumcari. Route 66 used to run straight through Tucumcari, and we stopped there to pick up olive oil from the town’s only grocery store, Lowe’s. We followed Google Maps to get to Lowe’s. Google Maps, being what it is, sent us along the Business I-40.
Oh boy. I think the town of Tucumcari gambled on the whole nostalgia factor of Route 66. And they lost. The first two miles of Business I-40 consisted of nothing but boarded up gas stations and – I swear I am not making this up – the remains of hotels that had burned to the ground. If you’re sitting on a script for a movie set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and are in need of a cheap location, Tucumcari’s your place.
Pressing on, we arrived in Amarillo sometime after dark and in the rain, so we went to the first place we saw: Denny’s. Our waitress was a fabulous lady named Big Momma. With full bellies we then headed further east along I-40 and camped at the Amarillo Visitor’s Center, along with a handful of RVs and vans. Missing the quiet of Utah? Hell, at this place we were missing the quiet of Flagstaff. The Amarillo Visitor’s Center is right next to I-40 and 2 miles from the Amarillo International Airport. Apparently it’s also a train hub, as the ear-splitting train blast at 3am attested. But it was safe and the bathrooms were clean.
When it finally got light enough to see, we found that there was another Denny’s in Amarillo, and pretty much across the street from the Visitor’s Center. Denny’s two days in a row it was!
You know how some towns have two Denny’s, and the only reason seems to be that when somebody suggests going to one, you can say, “Nah, let’s go to the good Denny’s”?
No? Maybe that’s just on “Family Guy.” Anyway, the west side Denny’s is apparently the good Denny’s. Because when we told the hostess at the east side Denny’s “table for two,” the hostess replied with “smoking or non?”
They still allow smoking in Denny’s. Welcome to Texas.
The sky was completely overcast as we left Amarillo, and the world there is pretty flat. I had to rely on the highway signs to make sure we were, in fact, headed east.
November 3rd brought us to Keystone Lake in Oklahoma (just west of Tulsa), thanks again to freecampsites.net. This was a quiet little spot, very pretty. Tons of waterfowl, like great blue herons and pelicans. I’m not sure if it rained overnight or not. It felt like it, though. When I got up everything was dry but it felt… sticky. So I checked the weather on the phone. I said to Michael, “the humidity is 94%.”
He tried to look outside. “Is it raining?”
94% humidity. Welcome to Oklahoma.
I’m happy to report that by the time we arrived in Fayetteville on the afternoon of November 4th, the humidity had dropped to a pleasant 45%.
We’ll be here in Fayetteville for the foreseeable future, as we’re helping Michael’s parents move in to an assisted living facility. I feel kind of lucky that we’re in such a great position to be there for them. We don’t have jobs to quit or vacation to max out. We’re free to go wherever we want. And right now Fayetteville is where we want to be.