On the Road: Laughlin, Nevada, to Santa Rosa, New Mexico

We left Laughlin in the dark on Thursday, October 11, heading for Texas. We hoped to make it to Albuquerque, New Mexico, by the end of the day. That is a distance of 502 miles, which is a long day when you are pulling a trailer.

Our 617 mile route

From Laughlin, we climbed up and away from the Colorado River towards Kingman, Arizona. At Kingman, we stopped for gas, then hopped on I-40, which we would follow east the rest of the day. The area around Kingman is mountainous.

As we headed east, the terrain gradually grew more mountainous, and the mountain slopes became dotted more and more with pine and other trees. As we neared Williams, Arizona -- the gateway to the south rim of the Grand Canyon -- rain set in. Clouds settled around the mountain tops as the rain came down. At Flagstaff, we stopped again for gasoline.

The skies cleared as we headed east from Flagstaff. At Winslow, we detoured onto old Historic Route 66 for a look at the "corner in Winslow, Arizona".

Donna standing next to a flat bed Ford on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

From Winslow, we passed through Holcomb, Arizona, then crossed into New Mexico, where we soon crossed the Continental Divide. We passed by the small towns of Gallup and Grants, then set our sites on Albuquerque. I had found a couple of RV parks on the west side of Albuquerque, and I planned to stop at one of them for the night. However, when we pulled into the first one, we discovered that the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta was underway. RV sites were outrageously priced, if you could find one at all, so we quickly decided to continue heading east. On the eastern outskirts of Albuquerque, we stopped again for gas, then hopped back onto I-40 for another 100 mile stretch to Santa Rosa, where we stayed about 6 weeks ago.

After stopping at the local McDonald's in Santa Rosa for a couple of salads to eat once we were settled for the night, we headed to the RV park and secured a site. It was dark as we pulled into the site. We left the trailer hooked up to the truck, and only hooked up electricity and water for the night. After getting settled for the night, we enjoyed our salads.

It had been a long 600+ mile day