Day 2: Flagstaff, AZ to Santa Rosa, NM

First, a confession: I am an idiot! I stayed in a hotel in Flagstaff that inexplicably only had two outlets. In order to use my laptop and then charge my phone I had to unplug something. I chose to unplug the alarm clock that the hotel provided rather than the lights. In retrospect I can say that I should have unplugged the lights. I plugged the clock back in after my phone charged and re-set the time. I set my own travel clock's alarm and went to sleep at about 9:30pm. At midnight I woke up to an alarm ringing in my ear. Thinking it was my own I turned it off but strangely the sound kept ringing. In my confusion I thought it might be a fire drill so I leaped (literally) out of bed and tried to figure out where my purse was. After my heart rate calmed down enough to think clearly I realized that the alarm was coming from the hotel's alarm clock which must have a default alarm for midnight. Grrrrr . . . due to all the excitement I tossed and turned the whole rest of the night and eventually gave up long before my clock's alarm went off. When I did sleep I dreamed that the boxes containing everything I own kept collapsing into one another because they weren't filled enough stuff. I will give this alarm/sleep thing one more try tonight and if it doesn't work I will take up a new hobby to do at midnight!

I forgot how fun it is to go for a run at elevation - gasp, gasp! Mornings are quite cool in Flagstaff and my run was short so I never really broke a sweat which was lovely.

I hit the road at about 7am (it's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't sleep!). Last night I had studied my map and guidebook and discovered that I could continue on the 40 and quite possibly lose my mind from the boring-ness of it or I could jog south about 30 miles to highway road 53. This was a brilliant plan on my part and it totally made my day to go down the road less traveled. I was literally the only car on the road until I got to the Zuni Pueblo. I felt like Thelma & Louise (me being Geena Davis because she's tall, goofy and gets lucky with Brad Pitt), tearing down a carless country road surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen! These pictures do not do the scenery justice (and I was also too busy gaping to taking pictures):

Highway road 53 goes right through a Zuni Pueblo so I stopped to check out some of the trading posts. Amazing craftsmanship on the silver! Thank goodness I only have 1 neck and 10 fingers! I also stopped at the El Morro National Monument which was way cool. It's also called "inscription rock" because travels have been carving their names in the rock for centuries. There is also a naturally occurring body of water! In the desert! that travelers used as a resting area after traveling for days and days with none.

As an aside . . . I like to talk to people when I travel. Chit chat, lengthy discussions about laziness (today's topic at El Morro National Monument,whatever. It's interesting to talk to people and it certainly makes it easier when you're traveling by yourself. Everyone is from everywhere when you visit national parks and monuments and they want to know what you are up to. The locals at local shops for the most part also like to chat. I've told people who've asked where I'm from (the most confusing question on the face of the planet for me to answer!) what I am doing and without fail they all ask why on earth I would want to move back to Massachusetts! Like the land of the enormous sun and heat and republicans is better? The guy at the monument was from Cleveland, OH! That is supposed to be a better scenario than living in Massachusetts?!?! To each his own!

Highway 53 winds for about 90 miles and then meets back up with the 40. As I said it was such a beautiful drive - the scenery was just incredible and there is nothing like rolling down all the windows and just mosey-ing along gaping at the scenery! About 5 miles before I hit the 40 the weather changed. Huge black clouds moved in and fat raindrops started to fall. In an instant it was pouring - pouring so hard the road looked like it had snow because of the amount of rain. It was wild!! I drove slowly and made it to the 40 where the rain had lessened somewhat but traffic was still moving at a modest 70 mph. Then the thunder and lightening started. It was crazy! It looked like the lightening was striking the cows grazing right by the side of the 40 but I couldn't tell for sure. The thunder was so loud that it sounded just like the storm that hit when I moved to Iowa City for library school. My traveling companion (aka my mom) said it sounded like someone was throwing dumpsters at other dumpsters. This storm was just like it but it was over a lot quicker, clearing up in about 15 miles. I did have to pull over to grab my emergency black liquorice scotty dogs to keep from grinding my teeth because I was panicking about being hit by lightening. After the storm passed I started to think of my crate of worldly possessions and hope that it is protected from rain and other elements as it travels east . . .

I stopped in Albuquerque briefly. The time changed somewhere today and I didn't realize it so I got to Old Town Albuquerque around 4:30pm local time so I wandered around briefly to stretch my legs and then got back on the 40 and stopped in Santa Rosa, New Mexico for the night. I spent a lot of time in the car today so perhaps I didn't really need to push through as far as I did but tomorrow is Texas and Oklahoma and there are some sights I'd really like to see. I am tired but very very happy.

Total miles for today: 463.6

A plea: does anyone use Bloglines?? If so how do you post pictures so they go where you want them to go and not get pushed to the top of the post each and every time?? I can fix it easily in html but it's driving me nuts! Help!