December 2012 Trip - Across I40 - Part One

I want to have a written memory of our trip to the West on December 2012. It was amazing, words and photos are unable to capture the views, the scenic drives, and the snow covered mountain tops and trees, the wild animals, the joy of the trip… as I write about it I am able to enjoy the memories now and will also recall them with more detail in the future!

In this writing I include some information from Wikipedia (because I would read it to get information about the places we visited on this trip) and some photos from the internet that I was not able to capture.

December 2012 Trip to the West
Alden and Maricarmen

Tuesday December 4 at 4:45 am we left our home; Javier Ochoa stayed to enjoy solitude, care for the animals and feel free!




DId you say you are leaving today?

Car loaded, lots of boxes, we can still sit in the front!

 



Moon phase: Waning Gibbous... Peaceful








Last minute packing



  

Ready at 4:45 am



off we go... the adventure begins!



We drove many hours on these first two days; we stopped at a Wal Mart to buy two new tires for the Geo Prism, which gave us a chance to go for a good walk; we continued driving all day, until 9 pm; we spent the night at a motel in Shamrock, TX. One funny thing was the "Welcome to Texas" sign followed by a note: next tourist information office is 100 miles away!!!

We listened to music, Ekhart Tolle, public radio, stopped to get gas and pretty much ate what I had prepared at home; our goal was to get to Phoenix. The car was loaded with Cassandra’s boxes and our suit cases.

Its Wednesday and we continued driving.  After a good night sleep and not being busy preparing for the trip I had a chance to  notice that my attitude the previous day was "I am driving on a mission to deliver some boxes, and I miss being at home"; and of course as soon as I made this conscious as we entered New Mexico my attitude shifted, it was like waking up!  the scenery was breathtaking; the open skies, the mountains and rocks, the landscape, the light, space and vastness, the beautifully decorated bridges… Oh my ... time to enjoy the trip! No more naps on the road.

Decorated overpass NM

Another view of one of many overpasses in New Mexico

We stopped in Tucumcari, NM to visit the Mountain Cheese Factory and bought lots of delicious cheeses to give as gifts and to enjoy ourselves. Alden’s reminiscence of the time he worked in a cheese factory got him talking to the lady in charge about the changes in the process since 1972.  Their smoked Roma is fabulous! They make Zevz Feta Cheese.

 

Tucumcari Cheese Factory

 Mountain, sky and space near Tucumcari, NM

 

While listening to New Mexico Public Radio, we heard that world-renowned sitar player Ravi Shankar died in San Diego, near his Southern California home. He was 92 years old. Shankar, a master of the sitar, a multi-stringed, Indian classical instrument, helped popularize its use in the west. Shankar was a recognized master of classical Indian music, an art form with roots that extend back more than 4,000 years. Through his contact with musicians of different cultures, Shankar was the first to introduce Indian music to western, mainstream audiences. Over his eight-decade career, he became a worldwide musical icon, especially through his work with the Beatles, and was labeled the “godfather of world music” by no less than George Harrison. His music was being played on NPR and so were other groups using sitar such as the Rolling Stones “Paint it Black” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPVUa29kHu8)    and others http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgawuDVFXFI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4G2RlBKbrM

We also listened to Eckhart Tolle Practicing the Power of Now; this made the trip a “driving vipassana”; His writing is poetry, every sentence goes to the heart and gives a deeper understanding of life.

After several hours of beautiful scenery and going through the Sandia Mountains we got to Albuquerque, just in time for lunch; I remembered where to get off on the freeway and the layout and names of the streets in the area where I went to Ayurvedic School in 1998. We had a very nice lunch at a Souper and Salad. Oh my! Albuquerque is growing fast…

Albuquerque Public Library

Sandia Mountains




Interesting to notice the many casinos along highway 40. Every reservation seems to have one; they build them huge, attractive, with many billboards and lights.  The seem to cater to truck drivers. Highway 40 has a lot of traffic mainly truck, some are loaded with huge machinery, pipes, agricultue equipment, even fabricated homes or other trucks piggy back style. Trucks are colorful, we even saw pink, purple and lavender trucks.

We very much enjoyed crossing the state of New Mexico.

As I write this I think of Alain, the French friend os Jaimie and Susan that came to visit last fall. He is driving his bike across the US from Alabama to Los Angeles... his blog has amazing really unique and interesting pictures, capturing the spectrum of human interests: http://alainenamerique-alain79.blogspot.com/

Then we arrived at the Welcome to Arizona Sign...  the red mountains at dusk, magnificent landscape!

It was dusk when we drove past the Petrified Forest National Park, and really dark by the time we drove down the Tonto National Forest, although we could still appreciate the pines, the snow, and some of the log cabins. The highway was desolate. We descended from 6000 feet to 1200 feet within a few hours and got to Daniel’s apartment in Phoenix by 9:00 pm. We were on the lookout for traffic cameras and glad to see the Garmin has a beep and a note telling the driver there are cameras in the area. Cassandra got a “welcome to Arizona” ticket when she drove last month, $200 dollars for going 12 miles faster than speed limit. Fortunately she was able to take an online driving class.

We can see the lights of Phoenix, it is huge! We call Daniel to let him know will be there soon.

End of first part