Day 1 - Getting out of town

3/29/11 - Here we go!

We still had a lot to do this morning and didn't leave until 10:50 a.m.  We are both glad to be on the road again.  It's warming up in Arizona, and Joe was barely out of Apache Junction when he said he just wanted to turn left and head straight north.  But he didn't, and we drove on through Superior and Globe.  We stopped in Bylas at a rest stop for lunch and had a short nap -- worn out already! We did have a view of snow-capped Mt. Graham in the distance (elevation 10,720) so we pretended to be in Alaska. 

Then we drove through Thatcher and Safford, crossed into New Mexico and spent the night at a real nice state park about 10 miles southeast of Deming, Rockhound State Park. We haven't looked for any rocks yet, I think that requires hiking.  We drove 286 miles (over our limit, and on the first day!) and I (myself) even drove about 50 miles on I-10 between Lordsburg and Deming.  Pretty straight stretch of road, not too much traffic (lots of trucks), and only one curve and one hill.  I managed to keep it between the white lines (although I think I took up the whole lane).  Joe probably expects more driving out of me in the future, but I'm not too sure about.  I think I can threaten him that he has to do more cooking if I'm driving, and that should take care of that.

Alaska is the page right in front of Arizona in the road atlas, so every time I look at Arizona, I keep seeing that and remembering our wonderful trip last year.  This year's trip won't be anything like that, but we are hoping to see lots of interesting things, spend time with family, and enjoy life on the road.  Right now we think we'll be back home in August, and that does NOT sound like a good idea, so we'll see what happens (when we run out of money).  Joe has to have surgery on his other foot when we get home, but it is not scheduled yet so we have no deadlines.  We have to be in Corpus Christi, Texas by next Thursday, 4/7, to pick up John and Bridgette at the airport, then attend Bridgette's defense on 4/8.  So we are heading in that general direction.