Out the door and on the road at 8:04 AM for a long overdue drive through Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. We headed North on Interstate 17 toward Flagstaff, Arizona, with only a quick stop in Anrthem, Arizona for a Starbucks. Reaching Flagstaff we turned East on Interstate 40 to our first overnight in Gallup, New Mexico. As with most trips, the first day is usually just getting somewhere to start the trip and today that somewhere was Gallup.
We have driven this route so many times that we expected nothing new and weren't disappointed. Two Arrows was still there, but missing an arrow. Two Guns had no guns at all. The Painted Dessert, Petrified Forest and Meteor Crater National Landmark remain remarkably intact. We passed on Apache Death Cave (who needs death on the first day) and $29 each is a little rich to see a hole in the ground.
One town of note along the way was Winslow, Arizona, home of "Standin' On The Corner In Winslow, Arizona" fame. Winslow is also home of La Posada Hotel, which is one of three remaining old railroad hotels in Arizona and New Mexico. The recently brought back to life Castaneda Hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico, is our next Railroad Hotel to try. Our arrival in Winslow marked the change from AM to PM and got us a 6" Subway sandwich to split.
The drive from lunch to Gallup was uneventful, except for the number of trains heading both East and West. And only the number of trains, but the length. Some had three engines in front, three engines in the middle and two engines at the rear. These trains went on forever and most were stacked two high with containers. Receiving on average one or two Amazon delivers a week, I was not surprised at the number of Amazon containers moving both directions.
Our Overnight was upgraded to a King Suite, which turned out to be very nice. Dinner was at Don Diego's and was very good, with a very reasonable price. All in all a good day. Hopefully the first of many. Tomorrow we are headed to Santa Fe for two nights.
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