Arizona’s Finest at work
I’ve just got to tell this part first, only slightly out of order. When we got to the Bee Line highway (Hwy 89 to Payson – pick it up at Fountain Hills, Shea Blvd.) we immediately encountered the first of many road construction zones. But this one was unique. The road was great – there had been construction, but it was complete as far as I could tell. Perfectly clear smooth road, and we were almost alone on it. Speed limit? 55mph – specially marked for construction. After completing the full 12 miles, the only construction we encountered was where they had built an overpass for the Saguaro Lake traffic. There it really was reasonable to slow down. But for the rest of the 12 miles the normal 65mph would work just fine, thank you.
Well, it turns out that what this really was was a speed trap. It’s the only excuse I can come up with. The road was literally crawling with Arizona’s Finest – I think it was DPS. Really. Sunday morning, virtually no traffic, perfect, wide open road, and a full battalion of cops. What a way to start a trip. Shish. No, we did not get pulled over, but I don’t really know why. I had one behind me at 70mph – I saw him and slowed, and he pulled off and turned around! There were several folks on both sides of the road not so lucky! What a way to start a long road trip – not even out of the backyard! Did not see another cop on the highway all day.
Back to the beginning
We were up at 5 – normal dog feeding time. Slowly got ourselves together – had most stuff assembled in advance. By the time we had triple checked everything and gotten the car loaded it was almost 8. We left and didn’t turn back. So far the only thing we have noticed that we didn’t bring is Pita Chips. 101 is closed, and we prefer to use the ‘high road’ surface streets anyway. Wound our way around to Frank Lloyd Wright – then Shea Blvd through Fountain Hills, then to the Bee Line (see above).
About 9:30 we pulled into Payson. Went to the Café (perhaps Payson Café, not sure) and had a great breakfast, took the boys to the park, gassed up and S-H took the wheel. On to Heber and up to Holbrook to pick up I40. It’s all interstate from there, I40, I25. At Holbrook I took over driving – and at the Continental Divide S-H took over again. Not much to write about – the dogs were cute – we had our pillows in the back, and guess where they wanted to be – squarely on top of each pillow. Never mind that they had a Taj Majal of their own back there.
In Albuquerque I took over for the last leg to Santa Fe. We only stopped to walk the boys, stretch the legs and eat. Took our time, but didn’t do much on the side. This was the longest drive we have on the trip, and there really wasn’t much time for exploring.
Probably the highlight of today was dinner. We went out blind, driving around for 1) a dog park and 2) a restaurant. We found a dog park, although it wasn’t fenced, so we couldn’t turn them entirely loose to run like they love to do. We ran them back and forth between us, about 50 yards, a bunch of times. By doing one dog at a time they don’t run away! We saw two or three possible restaurants on the way to the dog park, and on the way back we stopped at Los Potrillos – a local place that had a line waiting. It was great! S-H had prickly pear cactus something-or-other, and I had pork chops with a wonderful chipotle sauce. Really got lucky, and hope to get back there sometime.
That’s about it for day one – not very eventful, but no traffic tickets, no problems, great weather (hot) (but it’s really nice and cool now!), and a good time was had by all.
1 comment:
Hi. I'm commenting. I read. I enjoyed. I felt like I was there. Hope you have a blast. Keep writing! WLC.
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