Toaster Chicken

His perspective

Gallup got several inches of snow overnight. The morning news listed school closings across the state. Result: we chickened out, canceled Santa Fe and decided to head east toward home, of course following the storm that had snowed on Flagstaff yesterday and Gallup last night.

I-40 in the Gallup area was not in nice shape. However the snow did fill in some of the potholes in the right lane, the only lane that was “passable”. Speeds fluctuated between 25 to 45 for the hundred miles or so to Continental Divide. We passed some instances of cars off the side of the road and an SUV on its top in the median (surprise). All in all though, we moved pretty good, with the road opening up to 2 lanes east of the Continental Divide. We had a mix of rain, sleet, light snow and heavy snow the rest of the day. I-40 went “south” again near Tucumcari, then opened up again, to close back down again to 1 lane west of Amarillo. I followed a tanker truck for quite a while west of Amarillo as he was making good time. Until he decided to pass traffic. The left lane had no ruts or tire marks and was solid snow. The cloud of snow he threw up when he hit the left lane brought me almost to a complete stop. Couldn’t see past the windshield.

The Toaster handled things well. It started to slide a couple of times in the slush with strong crosswinds, so I chickened out yet again and we stopped for the night in Amarillo.

Tomorrow, home

Her perspective

I was really looking forward to seeing downtown Gallup, NM before we headed to Santa Fe this morning. All of that changed when we looked outside our hotel room this morning in Gallup.....snow overnight and still snowing. A LOT!

Knowing that we can fly to Santa Fe in the future, we decided to cut our trip short and head home. Under the best weather conditions, the drive from Gallup to Keller is one long day.

We left Gallup around 9:00 a.m. – I-40 was one lane on and off all the way to Albuquerque. And the snow followed us. Once we got to Albuquerque the snow started and stopped, rain started and stopped, wind picked up, clouds looked pretty ominous.

After we got through Albuquerque the snow picked up again and followed us all the way to our last (unplanned) stop on this road trip, Amarillo, Texas.

Not sure what the weather will be in the morning but we are hoping to head home!

I think I’ve seen all the snow I want to see for this winter – I am ready for spring!