What supposed to have been about a 6 hour trip to Albuquerque took us 11 hours instead! This was the worst day of the whole trip as far as driving is concerned. We left Sedona early and drove to the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. Both were absolutely beautiful. The old trees and blocks of wood were lying on the ground, some partially covered with rock or dirt. One of the pictures shows a petrified log sticking out of a rock. It was amazing! As we were driving out of the Painted Desert, we crossed a bridge over
I-40. We could see the traffic backed up on the east bound lane for miles. Up the road a ways we could see big, black smoke circling in the air. We knew something bad had happened, but we didn’t know what or how it would affect us. When we got through the Painted Desert we found out that there had indeed been a bad accident early that morning involving a Penske truck. No one knew the details, however. Traffic had been backed up for hours, at least 20 miles down the east bound lane. The report we got was that it might take as much as 4 more hours to let traffic through. We decided not to take a chance on how long it would take, so we went back west on I-40 and took another way around, a much longer route than I-40. Since we had dinner reservations at the High Finance Restaurant on the top of Sandia Peak, we needed to get to Albuquerque! But that wasn’t our only traffic problem! We hit at least 5 construction sections of the interstate where we were required to go 45 mph! THEN, on top of all that, we got into a TERRIBLE storm! The rain was coming down so fast we could hardly see, and the wind was blowing so hard that Paul was gripping the steering wheel with both hands trying to hold the van on the road. Needless to say, it was a long, stressful day of riding. Believe it or not, though, Paul and I still enjoyed each other and did not get upset with one another. (I even confirmed this with Paul to see if he was of the same opinion and he was.)
We finally arrived in Albuquerque in time to freshen up a bit, change our clothes, and head to the tram that would take us 2 ½ miles up on top of the mountain where we had our dinner reservations. We got there just in time to buy our tickets for the tram and board flight # 26 to the top! We arrived right on time for our dinner reservations! Isn’t God absolutely amazing! On top of that, it had been cloudy and rainy while we were in the tram, but as we sat and ordered our dinner and began to eat the sun began to come out. Little by little we could see streaks of sunlight filtering through the clouds. At that altitude, we were actually in the clouds! After we finished our dinner we went outside on the balcony overlooking the valley below and had someone take our picture up in the clouds. As we headed back down, the sun was beginning its descent over the valley below. The pictures I took of the sunset were beautiful, but not as much as the actual view we saw as we came down and headed back to our hotel for the night.
I was too exhausted when we got back to the hotel to blog. I got my bath and got right into bed. The next day would be another long day of riding!
I-40. We could see the traffic backed up on the east bound lane for miles. Up the road a ways we could see big, black smoke circling in the air. We knew something bad had happened, but we didn’t know what or how it would affect us. When we got through the Painted Desert we found out that there had indeed been a bad accident early that morning involving a Penske truck. No one knew the details, however. Traffic had been backed up for hours, at least 20 miles down the east bound lane. The report we got was that it might take as much as 4 more hours to let traffic through. We decided not to take a chance on how long it would take, so we went back west on I-40 and took another way around, a much longer route than I-40. Since we had dinner reservations at the High Finance Restaurant on the top of Sandia Peak, we needed to get to Albuquerque! But that wasn’t our only traffic problem! We hit at least 5 construction sections of the interstate where we were required to go 45 mph! THEN, on top of all that, we got into a TERRIBLE storm! The rain was coming down so fast we could hardly see, and the wind was blowing so hard that Paul was gripping the steering wheel with both hands trying to hold the van on the road. Needless to say, it was a long, stressful day of riding. Believe it or not, though, Paul and I still enjoyed each other and did not get upset with one another. (I even confirmed this with Paul to see if he was of the same opinion and he was.)
We finally arrived in Albuquerque in time to freshen up a bit, change our clothes, and head to the tram that would take us 2 ½ miles up on top of the mountain where we had our dinner reservations. We got there just in time to buy our tickets for the tram and board flight # 26 to the top! We arrived right on time for our dinner reservations! Isn’t God absolutely amazing! On top of that, it had been cloudy and rainy while we were in the tram, but as we sat and ordered our dinner and began to eat the sun began to come out. Little by little we could see streaks of sunlight filtering through the clouds. At that altitude, we were actually in the clouds! After we finished our dinner we went outside on the balcony overlooking the valley below and had someone take our picture up in the clouds. As we headed back down, the sun was beginning its descent over the valley below. The pictures I took of the sunset were beautiful, but not as much as the actual view we saw as we came down and headed back to our hotel for the night.
I was too exhausted when we got back to the hotel to blog. I got my bath and got right into bed. The next day would be another long day of riding!
No comments:
Post a Comment