The southern winds......

8:05 am - Friday - April 20th - Grants, NM - 41º F, 29% humidity, wind 16 mph out of the southwest.....clear, blue, sunny skies with a forecast high of 54º F, which we will not experience as we are moving down the road in about an hour.

Because high winds were forecast for the section of the I-40 corridor we are traveling on Thursday around 11 am we decided to get an earlier than normal start to see if we could at least get to Grants, NM (186 miles away) before the winds got too bad.  The forecast winds would be coming out of the southwest, which would mean a cross wind, which makes most large RV's hard to handle.  I don't mind a head wind, or even a tail wind, but any kind of a side wind in the 25-35 mph  range can be exhausting, to say the least.

We exited the Walmart parking lot around 7:30 am and were on I-40 once again heading east.  As I mentioned yesterday Winslow sits at about 4,300' elevation.  Grants, NM, our destination for the day sits at 6,400' elevation, so I thought might have a gentle climb over 186 miles, however, we both forgot about the Continental Divide which was between us and our goal.....

.....which sits at 7,275' elevation, so it was to be like the day before when we had to climb up to Flagstaff in order to slide down to Winslow.  At first we cruised along with no wind, then for a while a tail wind, but then the Interstate turned southeast for quite a while just as the wind picked up, which meant we were taking the wind from the side, and that was the way it stayed for the last 70 miles of our trip Thursday.

We passed by the 'Welcome to New Mexico sign about 10 am, and then suddenly it was 11 am......Daylight Savings Time has struck again! 

We almost got off the Interstate in Gallup, but it was only another 64 miles to Grants so I put on my 'big boy pants' and continued eastward.  By the time we hit the outskirts of Grants, NM the wind was up into the 40 mph range, and it was definitely time to call it a day.  One thing first, though.  We needed to take on a bunch of diesel.  Our fuel gauge was reading under 1/4 tank.  We found a Petro Fuel Station just off the Interstate and pulled in to take on diesel.  I figured we would need around 135 gallons, and I was close.....we took on 137+ gallons at $2.89/gallon (ouch!) for a grand total of $400.  

While I was fueling the Newell the wind was buffeting me around like a rag doll.....yeah, really time to get off the road for the day.  We found a nice little RV park two miles down the road right off I-40 for $19/night, and they had a spot which fit us perfectly!

The winds continued unabated well into the night.  I woke up around 3 am to find they had finally abated so it looks like we can continue our journey eastward on Friday.  What wind there will be Friday will be coming from the west, or behind us.....perfect!

 

We were treated to a beautiful sunset around 8:20 pm......wow, the sun goes down pretty late here and it's only the middle of April!

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