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February 17 - 20
February 21 February 22 February 23 February 24 February 25 February 26 February 27 February 28 March 1 March 2 March 3 March 4 March 5 - 7 March 8 - 11 |
Friday February 17, 2006
We packed up and left Kingsport a little before noon, heading west. I had only planned to get a little past Nashville for the night, but we were moving along and wound up stopping in Memphis, TN. We grabbed a pizza and hit the hay. Saturday February 18, 2006 We woke to find that an ice storm had descended on Memphis overnight. The car had a layer of ice on my side that was close to a quarter of an inch thick!! We slipped and slid across the parking lot, getting the car loaded up. I had to pound on my car door to get it to open! We finally get organized and crept out of town. It wasn't until evening that we discovered we had left our pillows in the hotel room in Memphis. Oh, well... If we hadn’t had reservations for the Grand Canyon, we might have stayed put until the ice cleared, but... The roads were ice covered, but not impassible. We saw a number of trucks and other vehicles on the side of the road. Several semis had jackknifed and a couple had overturned. One had jackknifed to the point where it was perpendicular across both east-bound lanes of traffic. Fortunately, we weren’t completely stopped, just slowed. Three times during the day, we did come to a complete stop for up to 45 minutes. We never did determine exactly what the problem was, but in one case, there must have been a stopped vehicle, then, once it cleared, the trucks that were on a small rise (onto an overpass) couldn’t get the momentum to climb the rise. We saw a couple of trucks just spinning their wheels. One slid backwards over six feet. Needless to say, we didn’t make a lot of progress that day. It took seven hours to drive from Memphis to Little Rock, where the roads started clearing up. Once we found pavement again, we hurried west, finally stopping for the night in Alma, Ark. Lunch was Clif bars and apples in the car... Our average speed for the day was a little over 20 mph... We were exhausted and the car acquired a new name - Mudball... Sunday February 19, 2006 The roads continued clear until we got part way into Oklahoma, then they got icy again. Not as bad as on Saturday, but bad enough to slow down. I think we were able to stay above 30 mph most of the time. It was sleeting in Oklahoma City when we stopped for lunch, but cleared up soon after we left that city behind us. By the time we hit Texas, the skies were clear and blue. We spent the night in Tucumcari, NM. Monday February 20, 2006 We continued onward, stopping in Albuquerque for a trip to Wal Mart for some supplies, including some things we would need for our hike into the canyon, and lunch at Sweet Tomatoes!! After an uneventful afternoon, we wound up in Flagstaff, AZ, for the night. Dinner was at a delightful brew pub just off the campus of Northern Arizona University. We had pizza and beer. I tried a raspberry ale. A bit sweet, but tasty. |