The Long Road Home (Part 1)

My grandmother died on Friday – her and my grandfather were my surrogate parents in college, so I’m driving home to Illinois with my son to go to her funeral. From Phoenix, that’s 24 hours of driving… Ain’t this gonna be fun.

The first leg is not too bad. Cut through the mountains northeast until you hit interstate. It’s a lot of windy road which made my son sick. Then once we got Payson, we just fed him, and he was fine. Then through the Rim Country and you hit the high desert.

There’s a whole lot of flat for a while. Then you hit New Mexico, with the mesa and pueblo which is quite beautiful. Heading through Navajo country (largest reservation in the US) and several smaller rezs, I was drawn to gas and cheap tobacco at one of the stops only to find everything but the gas closed due to COVID-19! You put up twenty signs lauding this place and you didn’t think to put up one that says you’re closed?!

Then we got Albuquerque, which is absolutely gorgeous from a distance, and went to my brother in law’s place. He and his lady were so nice to us.

We even broke out the padded swords and let Uncle and Nephew play for a bit. It’s a good start to the trip. Of course, this is the easy part!