Journey of Our Genesis: Day 3: Amarillo, TX to Flagstaff, AZ

Today's leg was from Amarillo (D) to Flagstaff (E).

The finish line is almost in sight. We only have one more day of driving left to go before the real adventure begins. The trip has been surprisingly easy going. We woke up today a little later than yesterday, because we knew we would be entering the Mountain Time Zone, so we would get that hour back. Again, we stuck to our goal of wanting to get to our destination before 5:00 pm to give ourselves ample time to relax, and for Mo to have a chance to stretch his legs and play. Today we also remembered to dig the camera out from the back of the car, so we actually took some pictures along the way.

From Amarillo to the New Mexico border was the panhandle of Texas I was expecting. Stretches for miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. At one point, we thought we had come across potentially the world's largest junk yard. However, as we got closer we realized it was a gigantic dairy farm. I'm talking about cows in their pens for almost a mile!

This is just a small part of the dairy farm that we thought was a junk yard from a mile off.

Wind turbine fields in Texas. We also saw these throughout Oklahoma, and some in New Mexico.

Mo curled up asleep in my lap as I drive. He liked to try and use the steering wheel as a pillow, and always seemed a little upset when I had to turn it.

We continued on and finally entered New Mexico. This is an absolutely beautiful part of the country. The red rock formations are spectacular. New Mexico was the first state that really had a bunch of road work on I-40, but no real delays. I found it odd that whenever you entered a work zone, there was a sign posted that told you the cost of the project. Talk about government accountability, and then when you left the work zone, it told the comany who did the work and gave a phone number.

The bridges (some of them anyway) were very unique. Albequerque was a cool looking city, and I wish we would have been able to go through Santa Fe... maybe another time. We passed the western continental divide and then started making our way into Arizona. We also caught the edge of wht appeared to be a pretty nasty storm.

This is the storm we got caught in for just a few minutes. Notice how it is just barely over the Interstate. To the right of the picture was where the worst of the storm was.

We had been told to make sure you don't let your gas tank get too low in New Mexico because there were stretches where you wouldn't see a gas station for miles... well I think they meant Arizona. Very few cities along I-40 in Arizona. We did go through Winslow, AZ (like in the song) and then we made it to Flagstaff, out stopping point for the night. Flagstaff is absolutely beautiful and the weather is great too! It is also the only place so far where we got stuck in traffic, just five minutes from our hotel. 25 minutes later, we arrived.

The mountains in Arizona as we close in on Flagstaff.

Tomorrow we should arrive in La Mirada, CA, and hopefully get there early enough to be able to start our apartment hunt! Should be an exciting day! I think we are both just ready to get there and finally have a chance to start our new lives, but just like the miles we've traveled to get here won't be forgotten, neither will the past couple of years. Everybody is the total sum of their experiences, and we would never have been able to do what we are doing now if it wasn't for all the people that have crossed our paths. Los Angeles here we come!