I stopped a bit short of Flagstaff for the night, like on the Arizona border short. I drove across the entire state of New Mexico in the dark and I can't take it anymore, I know that I went through the mountains and was surrounded by amazing scenery but I missed all of it. I figure I'll turn in early tonight and get an earlier start tomorrow so I can actually see Arizona by daylight.

I swung into a campground with every intent of spending the night in a tent but they are charging $21. Kind of steep for a patch of snow-covered grass when the HoJo down the street is charging $28. Another warm bed tonight for me. The only problem is the freight train that goes through the parking lot every 10 minutes, you win some and you lose some.

With all of this driving I'm really starting to wonder about who decides what road signs to put up. I can't count the number of times I've gotten on or off a highway and been left guessing as to what the speed limit is until I find a sign miles down the road, meanwhile literally every single bridge out here has a sign indicating that it may ice up before the rest of the road (I know already, they taught that in driver's ed). I'm also a big fan of the "speed limits strictly enforced" signs that every state seems to have at the border. I hope somewhere out there is a state with a sign that reads "speed limits inconsistently enforced" or better yet "speed limits enforced give or take 5 MPH".

I've given up on the radio. At one point west of Tucumcari I couldn't get any stations at all, then it got worse. Much worse. The only station I could pick up was doing a "rock block" of Nickelback. Hasn't anyone else realized that all of their singles are actually the same song with different lyrics?

Assuming I can get a walk-in backcountry permit I will be dropping into the Grand Canyon tomorrow afternoon. I'll be going over the maps and putting together a route tonight.

Here are some more pictures of cattle on the Llano Estacado, seeing as it has been dark since my last post.

Tags: Road Trips