Denorme Family

6/3/13

Day 3 - New Mexico to Arizona

Left this morning from Albuquerque heading West to Arizona. We stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park where we were able to view and hike through the painted desert and the petrified forest. This was an amazing park to visit and the Denorme family would highly recommend it. After the park we headed into Flagstaff where we will reside for the rest of the week.

Observations:

Found some lava rock in New Mexico
West New Mexico has beautiful landscape with a great mountain range
We crossed the Continental Divide
Had to avoid tumbleweeds coming across the highway
Caleb counted 14 trains he saw just today
Words cannot describe the painted desert
Route 40 from Albuquerque to Flagstaff is a must do drive
90 degrees today but enjoyable with the humidity

6/2/13

Day 2 - Missouri to New Mexico

Observations:

Love Oklahoma's speed limit!
Cows everywhere.
Oklahoma City is a good looking city.
We drove through tornado devastation - very eye opening.
Passed our first 1000 miles of the trip in Hydro, Oklahoma.
Texas is flat.... Very flat.
Texas cows smell when you have 10,000 of them on one acre.
Texans love their Dairy Queen.. We had to partake.
New Mexico has a beautiful mountain range.
We witnessed a thunderstorm in the horizon for 30 miles.... Very impressive.
Great Mexican food in Old Town in Albuquerque.

Key stats:

Little under 1500 miles driven in 2 days in under 22 hours at the average speed of 68 mph through 7 states!

6/1/13

Day 1 - St. Louis (Columbus to Joplin, MO)

In our trek across the country we stopped to visit the Gateway Arch.

Quick note:

Four hours into the trip I noticed a nail in my front tire while filling up on gas. Thank goodness we were in Terre Haute which had choices for tires. Long story short, got four new tires in less than one hour ... We did not miss a beat!