Arizona

   We departed San Diego around 9 am with 2,694 miles ahead of us. We took I-8 east traveling near the Mexican border and at one point could even see the border fence from the road. We crossed into Yuma, Arizona in the early afternoon and soon we were heading north around Phoenix on I-17 toward Flagstaff. We crossed mountains in California and there was a sign marking sea level in southern Arizona, but by the time we got to Flagstaff we were back up to 6,000 ft. From there we picked up I-40 east with the sun fading behind us.

   The temperature was 70 deg when we left San Diego, it climbed to 98 near Phoenix and was back down to 60 crossing the mountains around Flagstaff. On top of the hills we could see far away lightening and we ran through some flash thunderstorms that were also quick to dry afterward. Mary got a couple of pictures through the windshield of Arizona cactus and the rocky hills we were climbing over.

   Just east of Flagstaff is the famous impact crater site and we turned off the interstate driving 6 miles on a small road up to the crater rim. There's a visitor's center charging admission, but it had closed at 5 pm and we missed it by 30 minutes. There was a locked gate blocking access to the top of the rim so we couldn't see into the crater unless we came back in the morning. After some thought we decided to press on because we have ground to cover; we'll save the visit for another trip.  

   We had dinner in Winslow, Arizona on Rt 66 and decided to drive a little further after dark. We saw a sign for Chester Fried Chicken fast food, but the smiling chicken face couldn’t convince us to stop, with what we knew about Chester.

   We got to Gallup, New Mexico and pulled up for the night, noticing that the clock had changed to Mountain time. We'd have those to go through most nights now on the way home.