Arcadia to Tucson

Tuesday the 27th

Morning came bright and early as the kids clammered to go for their morning walk! With that taken care of we finished up in the room, packed the truck, loaded the bikes and headed for Denny’s and a light breakfast. As soon as we finished breakfast we got gas and once again headed off into the sunrise.

Traffic on the 210 out to Redlands was insane - pushing 80 mph in all four lanes with cars and big trucks making lane changes and generally creating a lot of anxiety. But we managed to keep up and after we got about twenty miles out the traffic thinned out and we could hold a steady 75 to 80 to the junction with I-10.

Once we hit I-10 Tina was able to catch a few Zzzz’s until we got to Blythe where I pulled off for gas. Once we took the dogs for a walk and finished gassing up we went down the street to KFC and grabbed a couple of lunches to go. Then it was back on the road while Tina ate her lunch. Reaching Quartzsite where I pulled off and we switched drivers so I could eat.

As soon as Tina took over I ate then pulled out the NetBook and plugged it in to our power outlet. As soon as it powered up I logged onto the net and opened my email to answer a couple notes and check the map. The power of technology, I found a route around Phoenix, located a pet friendly hotel in Tucson and made a reservation - all without leaving the passenger seat, traveling down the highway at 80 mph. Wayyy Coooool!!

We got to the Phoenix By-Pass and turned south. In the distance were huge dust storms blowing along the hills. As we got further south the air turned a dusty yellow and periodically sand was blowing across the highway. Thirty-five miles later, at Gila Bend, we connected with I-8 and started the sixty mile drive east to I-10 watching blowing dust all the way.

Merging onto I-10 for the sixty-five mile leg to Tucson Tina pointed out how bleak and forbidding the landscape appeared and we talked about what it would have been like for the pioneers coming west. Just as we concluded how fortunate we were in comparison, the dust storms descended on us and visibility dropped to almost nothing. We managed to slow way down only to see a big semi disappear right in front of us. It went on like this for another forty miles until everything came to a complete stop.

We turned off the engine and sat for over an hour before traffic finally got started again. Five mile later we saw the cause of the problem - a big semi had been blown off the road and plowed head first into a sand bank jack-knifing the trailer across both lanes of traffic. We figure it happened some time before we pulled off for our lunch break because it takes time to get big wreckers to the site of the crash and get everything cleared.

With the excitement over - heh, heh - we cruised into Tucson to the Hampton Inn where we made camp for the night. Nice room, Tina gets a king size bed tonight instead of a double. With everything settled we ordered subs from Subway for delivery to our room - dinner, and we didn’t even have to leave our room. Dinner over the dogs got their walk and we settled in for the night.

Distance today, 488 miles. Total for the trip so far, 1,601 miles.

No photos today.