(Bill writes)
We left sunny but cold Albuquerque NM late Thursday morning. This would play into another change of plans “on the fly” later that afternoon. We cruised through the New Mexico Highlands and crossed the continental divide (at almost 7,750 Ft. elevation!). Interstate 40 is one of the better roads to drive in America, and now we’ve driven a major portion of it from Tenn. To Arizona!
We knew we wanted to make Holbrook Az., Our last stop before Cottonwood, by sunset Thursday night. First, lets get out of NM!
Our Gas and lunch stop was “Big Sky” NM., about 90 mins. out from the Az. Border. We grabbed some “lunchables” for both of us, and a fruit cup for me, gassed up “Midnight” and got moving again. At another pitstop just before the border we saw a few classic cars in the roadstop store! (a 1950 Buick Roadster and a ’54 caddy!)
Finally we crossed the Arizona border,..but it was already close to 3pm mtn. time and I knew we would have to bypass the Petrified Forest this time, because it wouldn’t be worth it to just “drive through” for an hour or so. We did stop in the visitor’s center briefly and could see some of the park from the access road, but that was as far as we got, choosing instead to make it in to Holbrook early.
We got to our hotel and checked in and decided to “low key” dinner as there weren’t many choices in Holbrook. We grabbed some BK and called it an early evening.
We were still feeling the effects of “mountain sickness” Friday morning so we took our time checking out and getting back on the road for the final short day of driving. We did Denny’s for breakfast again, and were not disappointed with the friendliness of native Arizonians.
Our table mate across from us was a kindly gentleman who I guessed was in his early to mid 70’s, and owned ranch property in the Holbrook area. He also had a sizable firearm on his right hip under his chaps work shirt jacket and a black duster hat! He told us “cottonwood was an excellent choice to re-locate to, as did our server, who was from Cottonwood but now lived in Holbrook.
She even knew the apt. complex we were going into and it seems everyone we meet since we got here has nothing but good things to say about our development!
So we get on the road, and as we get closer to Flag(staff) we see the Ginormous San Francisco Peaks looming in front of us and we remember how pretty they were the last time we were here 5 ½ years ago. This time they were covered in snow! Annrose tried to get pics from 2 different stops but it just wasn’t working out. We finally said goodbye to I-40 and merged onto I-17 south (runs North-South Between Flagstaff & Phx.) for about 35 or so minutes, and made our final rest stop of the trip just south of Oak Creek, overlooking some of the Sedona Red Rocks.
We were finally HERE! We got to our exit off I-17 and headed northwest for the final 15 minutes on Az. Rt.. 260 (the Cottonwood-Bridgeport hwy.) and made it into town and to our destination just after 3pm.
We just can’t believe the views both from our front door and behind us from the property’s access road! Once we finish unpacking Annrose will post a few pics, but I wanted to get this last “big” entry posted so that you all know were here safely and are getting squared away.
Our “leasing consultant” Mindi made me laugh when we finally met her in person late Friday when she said” I wasn’t sure if you were going to get here today because I didn’t see a blog post last night!” Special thanks to her & Carri in the office for making the move in painless! We will post again with Annrose’s final thoughts and some pics!
