Tuesday May 28th 2019
The temperature this morning was in the forties. It was difficult to get out of my warm bed. Consequently it was 9:30 before I pulled out of the Route 66 RV Resort. I had planned for an earlier start to get in some miles before the wind got stronger. Luckily, the wind was much lighter today. I only had a few strong gusts to deal with.
Today’s trip was all about ups and downs. The first one hundred miles or so was primarily up as Interstate 40 climbed over the Continental Divide. The next one hundred miles was primarily down hill followed by a few miles of more or less level driving. The last part of the journey was up hill again climbing to the Flagstaff area which is even higher than the Continental Divide area along Interstate 40. I turned off before the road reached its peak. Tonight I’m at 6800 feet more than fifteen hundred feet higher than last night. The Continental Divide was 7,275 feet and the highest point on Interstate 40 just west of Flagstaff is 7,320 feet. Tomorrow night I’ll be even higher at around 8,000 feet.
I arrived in the Flagstaff area at 1:30 Mountain Standard Time. Arizona doesn’t observe Daylight Savings. Today I gained an hour, but I’ll give it back tomorrow when I enter Utah. I’m at the Flagstaff KOA for the night. I picked the campground because it split my travel to Utah fairly evenly, but many of my neighbors are here to visit the Grand Canyon and other area sites. It is just under 100 miles to the Grand Canyon in one direction and about 50 miles to Sadona AZ in the other direction.
The weather in Flagstaff is colder than I’ve experienced since January. The local high temperature was 54 degrees. It is forecast to get down near or below freezing tonight. We are on the back side of the cold front that passed to the east last night.
