3 days, 905 miles via I-40 and I-44.
I really wasn’t looking forward to this hop. Three long days on the road, almost all on I-40. There would be some scenery, but it would be dusty scenery and we were getting pretty fed up with wind and dust. We left Williams with a fine layer of dust coating everything – including the ice in the freezer. We would also be heading into the eye of the storm, literally, by going to Oklahoma City. Just three weeks earlier it had been hit with not one but two EF5 tornadoes. We would be traveling the stretch of I-40 where a mother and her infant daughter died when their SUV was caught in the maelstrom. But it had to be done.
The reason we took 3 days instead of 2 was that with a 2-day hop we would need to spend a week in Amarillo. No one wants to spend a week in Amarillo. So we opted for 3 days in this hop, with just 1 day of travel on Hop 3 the following weekend. It all works out.
Day 1: Williams, AZ, to Albuquerque, NM
QTE Hop 2, Day 1
This was a long day – 346 miles and two refueling stops. We didn’t need to stop twice for fuel, but we needed two breaks from the driving.
The route is scenic, passing through Flagstaff and, later, the Petrified Forest. It also skirts the southern edge of Apache Nation, one of the largest Indian reservations in the US. But mostly it is just a long haul. Even Grace got bored.
Grace, resting comfortably while traveling
A beaut of a butte
We passed some cliffs with large caves. We couldn’t stop to inquire, but if I was an Indian, I would see them as great shelter from sun and rain.
Indian caves?
Last shot in AZ
The route was elevated. I-40 tops out at over 7,300 feet in Flagstaff and hits the 7.000-foot mark east of there as well.
Proof of elevation
Our overnight campground was the Anerican RV Park in Albuquerque. This is a very nice park – probably on our list of the “10 best” parks we have visited. A nice site, a nice dog park, courteous staff, clean pool, free breakfast. Too bad it was just an overnight stay.
Patience at the American RV Park
Dog park
I was sent out to fetch dinner (which ended up to be crappy Church’s Fried Chicken) and to fill the tank. I took the opportunity to visit Old Town, a small neighborhood of historic buildings in Albuquerque. It is nice, but I will take Beacon Hill any day.
Old Town Mission
Adobe building
Wedding in Old Town
As I was filling the tank, a sandstorm blew in. This was something I had never seen before – like a blizzard, but with sand instead of snow. I could barely see the road as I made my way home and had to wonder what the sand was doing to the air filter. And paint.
Once back at the RV, we endured a couple of hours of fierce winds which seemed strong enough to blow a light trailer away. When I am on the road, trying to haul the RV up a steep incline, I curse the weight. But when 50mph winds are whipping around me, weight seems like a good thing.
The next morning I took a picture of the sand that the storm had deposited on the roadway by the dog park.
Sand from the storm
Day 2: Albuquerque, NM, to Amarillo, TX
Hop 2, Day 2
Another 285 miles on I-40. We had a long climb up to get out of Albuquerque, but it was all downhill from there: the elevation of Amarillo is “only” 3,600 feet.
The route was uninspiring. More dusty panoramas. The most interesting thing about the day was that we entered the Central time zone. That was two time zone changes (Albuquerque is Mountain time) in two days. It also meant, of course, that we lost an hour each day, which was fine for us. If you had to pick a place to have a 23-hour day, Amarillo is a good choice.
Half-buried RV
Our resting spot for the night was the Oasis RV Park, located on the western fringes of Amarillo, just far enough off of I-40 that you don’t get much road noise. It is a brand spanking new resort, with a beautiful pool, nice showers and a very inviting office/clubhouse building. It also has, at the entrance, an RV half buried, butt up, in the soil. I don’t know why. But it is certainly unique.
Oasis entrance sign
Office/clubhouse
We didn’t get a duststorm while in Amarillo, but we did get a hailstorm. For the second night in a row we were rocked by high winds, this time punctuated by the staccato beat of hailstones on our roof and windows. I prayed that the hail would not be large enough to cause damage and I was mostly rewarded – the hail never got larger that pea-size. The air conditioner seems to have taken a beating. Still works, though.
The park didn’t fare so well. A sinkhole opened up on one of its driveways.
After getting battered two consecutive nights we headed toward Oklahoma City, with more than a little trepidation. A sandstorm and a hailstorm… could a tornado be next?
Sinkhole
Day 3: Amarillo, TX, to Oklahoma City, OK
Hop 2, Day 3
The best thing about these 274 miles is that only 264 of them were on I-40; the final 10 miles were north on I-44. And the road was flatter than the previous two days, which helped with mileage – I think we got 9 mpg on this leg as compared with about 8 mpg the previous two days. It also completed these 3 very grueling days of driving.
The twin fountains
We settled in for the week at the Twin Fountains RV Park in the northeast corner of Oklahoma City, not far from the Remington Park racetrack. This was a very nice park, with more trees than I would have expected (but it still was dusty, due to the sandy red soil). The name derives, I suppose, from the two little fountains in the muddy pond in front of the clubhouse.
The site we were given was HUGE – plenty of room for both Patience and the truck. I could even choose whether to park in front or behind the RV. Plenty of grassy areas to walk the dogs. But right next to a very busy road. We tried to keep the windows open the first night but got very little sleep. The other 5 nights we used the A/C and that helped.
Our patio area
The park features a very nice pool – heavily used by children all week long. It also had a very inviting mini-golf course adjacent to the pool, but I never saw anyone use it.
I rented a hotel room this week, primarily to get a better internet connection and to keep me away from the refrigerator while I worked. The room – at America’s Best Value Inn – was a dump and the internet was not as good as I hoped. It was mostly a waste of money, except for keeping me away from the refrigerator.
The mini-golf course and clubhouse
The view from our site