I’m still in Oklahoma. This is a honken big state! I’m starting to feel the heat as I get further west but at least I didn’t have to go through Kansas. There are more hills and green on I40 than I70.
I took Mom’s advice and stopped at the Ok City Memorial. It was quite interesting and so very tragic. I left right at rush hour and that was quite a nightmare, especially with all the construction in the city.
I also stopped at a rest area that had a mini-museum about Will Rogers who was born and lived near here. One fact I learned about him was that he was a very bad speller and I liked that very much.
I’m at a city park by Big Kettle National Grassland which I will
look at tomorrow and then to Texas to visit the place Dick suggested.
Sounds like you are seeing some interesting things. If you are going to stay on I-40 into New Mexico, you will pass within a couple miles of the house I built there. You will pass through Edgewood, then up a hill for a mile or so, then down into a broad valley before climbing another small hill and starting down into Albuquerque. That broad valley is where we were. Our house was about 2 miles north of the interstate along the tree line on the east side of the valley.
Let me suggest that instead of continuing to Flagstaff and down to Phoenix that way, that you instead head south from Albuquerque on I-25 to Socorro, then west on US60 to Springerville and on to Show Low. Then 260 to Heber and Payson before dropping into Mesa on 87. You will be able to see the VLA on the Datil Plains and stay at a neat BLM campground in Datil Wells. The rest of that route is just plain pretty.
If you already have plans for other routes let me know and I will try to suggest things you might be interested in along the way. We have been all over that area many, many times.
Dick has the best way to travel, but one thing he forgot to mention. It doesn’t get hot until you start to “drop down” into Mesa. Enjoy it while you can. But that is also the prettiest route, and a cool place to stay at Datil Wells.