On our way to Indiana

We left Mesa at about 9am on Sunday morning, heading up through the mountains north and east of Phoenix to intersect with I-40 at Holbrook, AZ. The road was pretty curvy and through beautiful scenery.

We got into New Mexico and planned to stop at the first rest area, thinking that there would be a welcome center... well... the welcome center was closed and we got to thinking about our trip across from Texas to Arizona a couple of months ago and that we knew that New Mexico had some of the strictest restrictions associated with COVID. We had decided on that trip in December that we would try to avoid staying in New Mexico, though we did stop at a Walmart in Las Cruces overnight (in the motorhome). For whatever reason, it never entered our minds that we were planning to head across New Mexico again, this time in a car, and dependent on services outside of our vehicle!

We needed to stop for fuel, so decided to stop in Gallup, NM. Unfortunately, the fuel station that we selected did not have rest rooms. Oh well, we had planned to eat a sandwich from our packed supplies, but, instead, we'd stop at a fast food restaurant to use their rest rooms -- nope, they were only open for takeout or drivethru and no rest rooms were open! We stopped at two other fuel stations and they had no public restrooms. I was about ready to pee in the street just to make a point (that would have been interesting!) when we stopped at another fuel station and they had open restrooms (actually, locked restrooms, but they gave us the key). As we continued across the state, we came across a couple of rest areas that were open (we stopped at one, and it had two sets of restrooms - one set was open, one set closed). A sign on a casino that we passed indicated that it was open to New Mexico residents only.

We had planned to overnight in Tucumcari, but since we had found the state to be so lacking in welcome to travelers, that we pressed on another 100+ miles to Amarillo, trusting that Texas would show us hospitality. (Note: I have a very good friend and faithful blog reader in New Mexico, and I know that the *people* in New Mexico are welcoming, even if the businesses or the government is not!)

Regardless of the COVID restrictions, New Mexico has some beautiful scenery:

These looked like prows of ships across the flat ocean of desert.

Interesting formations along the road

It got very cloudy as we got further east in the state.

Gibbous moon rising -- it looked so huge but the photo doesn't capture it.

One of my friends says that the translation of "La Quinta" is "next to Denny's" -- we stayed in mid-city Amarillo -- it was nice because we could back the car right up to our room door and bring in all our "stuff" -- which is a lot since Miss Kitty is traveling with us.

We are now in Oklahoma, planning to make it into Missouri today (Monday).

The rental car -- it is pretty loaded as we will be in Indiana 10 nights, and have a room with a kitchen (Residence Inn), so we plan to do some of our own cooking while there. Plus, traveling with Miss Kitty is kind of like traveling with a baby -- she has a lot of items that need to travel with her (the La Quinta had a note in their pet rules that cat owners had to supply their own litter pan - duh!).

We are doing well so far, appreciate your continued prayers!