Such a Fine Sight to See
Although we’ve been billing this grand trip as an adventure by rail, we’ve been getting a lot of windshield time too.
We pointed the Urban Assault Vehicle (UAV) due west out of Albuquerque at 8 this morning, hitting I40 for the 400-mile run to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon where we’ll be spending a few days. And, the rails we’ll take next week to Los Angeles are never far away, running parallel to the highway for much of the route.
The plan is to stop off at the Petrified Forest National Park and the section of it known as the Painted Desert after we get into Arizona. The operative word there is plan. We all know you can’t call a trip an adventure if everything goes according to plan.
About 45 minutes out, both lanes westbound grind to a complete stop. The most frightening thing is there are no cars or trucks coming the other way either. It’s full on Twilight Zone empty highway. There’s no way the sound of your own wheels will make you crazy when they aren’t moving.
For nearly two hours we creep and stop, creep and stop, going less than two miles, not having any idea what is going on. Our view is mostly the back of trailer trucks. More than 7,000 of them travel this route on an average day. As we approach a tiny village in the middle of the Laguna Pueblo we see both lanes are being merged and diverted up an off ramp for a detour due an apparent accident somewhere on ahead.
Miracles of miracles, just as we get to the exit, the cop blocking the highway with his cruiser moves it to the side and waves everyone through. We accelerate down the blacktop with the enthusiasm of kids rushing out of the building on the last day of school.
We finally see the accident site some six miles farther on, a mangled tractor trailer blocking a one-lane construction zone. Traffic eastbound is still stopped cold, both lanes clogged, for another 12 miles.
Across the valley to the north we can see bumper to bumper trucks in both directions on the 18-mile reroute on local roads. I can’t imagine how much longer it would have taken if we had been stuck on the detour.
We enjoy the high desert scenery as we continue west, crossing the Continental Divide (elevation 7,250) in a town, appropriately enough, named Continental Divide.
The crash delay, however, rim-wracked the schedule and by the time we get into Arizona blue skies have surrendered to gray, which quickly turn black. And then it starts to rain, and thunder. We figure the petrified wood has been lying around for a couple hundred million years so it will probably still be there on our return trip Thursday when we also plan to stop at Meteor Crater.
As a diversion, we exit in Winslow Arizona to check out the corner made famous in the Eagles Song “Take it Easy.” Sure, it’s a tourist trap deftly baited for baby boomers. But heck, these are our people.
We find a parking spot just down the street and walk over to Standing on the Corner Park and pose by the statue of a guy with a guitar (which folks claim is of the song’s co-author Jackson Browne), and check out another installed in 2016 of the other co-author Glenn Frye who died that same year. Of course, a flatbed Ford is parked nearby. And, no, we didn’t see a girl, my Lord. The entire intersection is painted like a giant sign commemorating the fact the main street here is part of historic Route 66. There are about a dozen people hanging around and we all take turns getting photos of strangers with their cell phones.
Getting back into the UAV, flashing lights and chimes alert me to low tire pressure in the left rear. Both tires on the right are borderline. We divert to a nearby Circle K gas station and pump quarters into the compressor (there’s no longer such a thing as “free” air), and ease back onto the highway. I’m figuring the air pressure has more to do with the fact the temperature has dropped rapidly from 73 to 44 but I keep an eye on the vehicle’s information system, and the mile markers, the rest of the 144 miles to Tusayan, where we’re staying on just outside the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
After grabbing some food at a “walk-through” window (the inside was closed and we had walked over from the hotel), we head back to the room. Time, as the Eagle sing, to take it easy. We want to catch sunrise over the canyon so the alarm is set for 5 a.m. when we’ll be back on the road again.
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