Trip Out West - Part 5 Heading to Mississippi

Day 8
We got up early again on Friday morning to start the trip back east. We stopped for gas on the way out of town. We drove past Boulder City and across the bridge at Hoover Dam. We did stop at this one overlook of the Colorado River below the dam on the road towards Kingman Arizona.

We stopped for breakfast in Kingman at McDonalds. It was not very good. The high point of our drive home was getting gas in Flagstaff. That is to say the elevation is above 7,000 feet and was the highest point on our drive home.

Mt Humphreys from Flagstaff

As we approached Gallop, New Mexico, JoAnne just happened to check traffic on her phone. (What kind of traffic do you expect in Gallop?)  We are glad she did. There had been a MAJOR accident on I-40 between Gallop and Grants, New Mexico and the eastbound lanes were closed! But she found we could exit the freeway a couple of exits before the accident site and drive down old US 66 (as in "Get your kicks on Route 66") and we pretty much blew past the several miles to stopped traffic on the interstate. We hit Albuquerque just at the start of rush hour and didn't have any real problems getting through town.

We stopped to eat and get gas around Moriarty, New Mexico. We had pretty good pizza there. There were some pretty good thunderstorms  from Albuquerque to around the Texas state line and the temperature when we stopped was abou 57 according to the car thermometer. We stopped for the night at the Best Western Plus Red River Inn in Clarendon, Texas. We kind of lucked out. JoAnne had accidently reserved a room for the night before (Thursday) which they had as a no-show. Fortunately they had a room for us that may have been the nicest room we stayed in on the trip.

Day 9

Saturday, we were on the road early again, so we didn't find out if the breakfast at the RR Inn was any good.  We did find the Pecan Shed in Henrietta Texas down the road a piece that had everything pecans. We got a decadent pecan roll to share and a drink. JoAnne picked up some other pecan stuff while we were there.

No worries getting through Dallas, although the drivers there are almost as crazy as they are in Salt Lake.  I planned it so we needed gas about the time we got to Buc-ees in Terrell Texas. To say that Buc-ees is just another gas station is like saying Texas is just another state. Their bathrooms are as big as many gas stations.  We gassed up and picked up some candied jalapenos for me.

We stopped to eat somewhere between Shreveport and Monroe Louisiana, made our traditional pit stop at the Mississippi welcome center that overlooks the Mississippi river in Vicksburg, then on to Jackson, and Hattiesburg. We got to Tradition Mississippi in time to read bedtime stories to Joshua and a tightly wound Nathan before they went to bed. (Note: I said to bed, not to sleep!)

Add New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi to the state list