Waking Up At Walmart

Day 2 - Flagstaff to New Mexico

This morning I woke up in the back of my car to the hustle and bustle that one would normally expect to find in a Walmart parking lot.  Early morning shoppers bumbled passed my SUV, not even noticing the sleepy girl with her 2 cats inside.  Other travelers in RVs and semi’s had already departed for their own journeys.  9 am was a little late waking, I guess, in Flagstaff.  Regardless, I took my time to get ready. 

Finally, I got back on the I-40 headed east, but it wasn’t more than 5 minutes ‘til I was pulling over to the side of road to take pictures of amazing clouds and mountains.  After going through my pictures, I realize that I am pulling over a little too liberally; it’s taking me forever to get anywhere!

 

My first real stop was the entrance to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.   I didn’t actually take the tour of the ancient forest, because kitty number 1 and kitty number 2 would fry… So I parked at the rest area, in the farthest corner of the lot so as to be in the precious shade.  I think I found the only tree in a 30 mile radius.  Then I walked around and took some photos of the car, some weird statue thing, looked at the gift shop, and helped myself to a fairly clean restroom. 

And off I went.

My next adventure was taking photos of a beautiful canyon right before hitting the New Mexico border.  I struggled trying to find the best way to shoot it from a limited, road-side point of view, and with only a few minutes.   Here’s what I accomplished.

10 minutes later I was taking my self-portrait at the border when the storm of the evening commenced on my head.  That storm was off and on for the rest of the night!  As I drove through NM, lightening was streaking across the sky, and the next moment the clouds parted and the heavenly rays of light shot down in revolt.  At one point a giant brown cloud was looming towards the highway, and I grew a bit weary.  I turned off whatever bumpin’ tune was on at the time to search a local weather station.  No weather reports were on, which told me there was probably not much to worry about. 

I reached Albuquerque as the rain was subsiding.  I was in a lot of pain from driving, so I drove around looking for an adequate place to take a break.  I parked Sally in front of a gentlemen’s club downtown, not really thinking at the time that that’s a little weird. 

I didn’t get a block away when I realized that downtown was equivalent to badtown.  Some creepies started hootin’ at me, and I was being eyed by some dude with a face tattoo.  Girls in mini-skirts and tanned weathered faces shuffled past me, some yelling at cars nearby.  And I was just pointing my camera toward the rainbows in the skies.  After scary-face-tattoo-man came around I made a rushed return to Sally, my sexy SUV, and escaped.

I drove a mile away into the outskirts and found a lovely pizza place that had the best pizza and the best beer in the world.  But my adventure wasn’t over for the day.

I had still a couple hours to get to Catherine's place in Portales, NM, who was eager for my arrival and was constantly calling to check how close I was getting.  Unfortunately, I was at the end of my endurance level and could only drive another hour before I had to stop for the night. 

Most of you don’t know that I deal with chronic pain, so driving all day long is wildly taxing on my body.  So I made a desperate stop to sleep at the next rest area.

That was a horrible evening….