Travel, but US travel so not really for the "Travel" section

So. We are, in a few days, going to start on our epic cross-country drive. All 3,000 miles of it.  I have accommodations sorted out, mostly. (Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas).  But I still need one  more night's stopping place.  We are taking I-40 west out of Texas. Not sure if anyone here might know of a nice place to stop for the night (or possibly two) at elevation in New Mexico or Arizona, but thought I'd ask just in case.  Something a bit nicer than a Motel Six but not in the $250-a-night range, either.  We're doing basically 10 hours a day driving, so by the end of day 4 we're going to need to stop and rest up - somewhere in the  mountains with pine trees (etc.) would be great.  Clean room, good bed, tv, air-conditioning, and something to eat are pretty much the only requirements. (In a safe place.)

We were looking at a Bed and Breakfast on the Zuni Nation but have not heard back from the proprietor in a couple of days, so that's not looking too promising.

So if you can happen to recommend anywhere?

I can't help but that sounds fantastic. Enjoy your trip! 

Flagstaff? Higher elevation, big trees, very nice


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 Places we have stopped for a day and enjoyed while traveling in that area are Carlsbad, NM - visit the caverns, and Winslow AZ - visit Meteor Crater. We have also stopped in Flagstaff AZ but don’t recall what it was like. We also drove through Roswell NM, - didn’t stay the night but looked a quirky town, really ham up its UFO reputation.

Yeah, we are very familiar with southern NM, but not so much with northern.  I was hoping someone might know a nice place (specifically - like a group of cabins resort, etc.), but so far I've had no luck. So we'll stick with hotels/motels on the main route.  We have one night in Gallup, and then are going down to Camp Verde, AZ.  A several hour drive, but they have a dark-skies park there, and if the weather holds it should be glorious to go out after dark in the desert to see the stars. The daughter is a city kid and has never been to a truly dark-skies place.  There are also some petroglyphs, etc., nearby. [Am doing the ju-ju dance to ward off supercell thunderstorms while we are there!]

From there the next day we'll have a 7 hour drive into So.Cal, which isn't all that bad as it'll be interstate highway the whole way in.  I just wish we didn't have to go through Gila Bend. (It is hotter than hades there.)  We'll be leaving before dawn, so should be well into California during the hottest part of the day. Through the Imperial San Dunes (site of the original film of the Ten Commandments back in the silent film era, for old movie buffs).  Our other option is to take the "north" route that would put us to the coast with Los Angeles to drive through. Just getting through LA would add a good 4 hours to the trip, so.... we're on track for what we need.

Ohio, then Oklahoma, then a stop at a friend's in Texas, then Gallup, Camp Verde, and on into town.  I plan to do little other than sleep the following day! Leaving Friday.   If I can figure out how to do it, I'll post some "road" photos.

Places we have stopped for a day and enjoyed while traveling in that area are Carlsbad, NM - visit the caverns, and Winslow AZ - visit Meteor Crater. We have also stopped in Flagstaff AZ but don’t recall what it was like. We also drove through Roswell NM, - didn’t stay the night but looked a quirky town, really ham up its UFO reputation.

Yep, the McDonalds restaurant in Roswell is built to look like a flying saucer.

It all sounds like it could be a great trip, hope it goes well. In the 7 years between retiring and moving to England we did lots of long road trips taking weeks at a time and loved the experiences.

Too far to go in too few days, but we made it. The Daughter is set up in a lovely flat near her work.  If there's a reverse trip, I plan to make it 12 days and not 6! We couldn't really stop to see much, as we had to drive from 10 to 14 hours a day to keep on schedule. Lots of photos taken from the car and rest stops along the way.

I still say that anyone who says there is no more room in this country for immigrants (of any variety) has never traveled in it.

Too far to go in too few days, but we made it. The Daughter is set up in a lovely flat near her work.  If there's a reverse trip, I plan to make it 12 days and not 6! We couldn't really stop to see much, as we had to drive from 10 to 14 hours a day to keep on schedule. Lots of photos taken from the car and rest stops along the way.

I still say that anyone who says there is no more room in this country for immigrants (of any variety) has never traveled in it.

Glad you made it and aren't in all the wildfire smoke back East! I hope it's improved by the time you head back.

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Thanks.  Unfortunately, I flew back on Wednesday right into it. It looked like every wildfire we had been in (where we had to evac out) in SoCalif, so I had a bit of serious anxiety going on. We were delayed a bit getting into Newark, and then sat on the runway for a while leaving on my puddle-jumper home after a few hours in the terminal, due to a ground-stop. Fortunately, I was wearing a nice new N-95 mask, because even with it I could smell the smoke. In the cabin. We could not see the terminal across the tarmac when we pulled in to the gate.  It was not good - very much reminded me of the Cedar Fire.     They were saying it was worse at La Guardia.

However, once we were airborne again it got better. We flew above the clouds - where there was still visible smoke in the air - and when we landed in my home airport it was drizzling. Which was sooooo welcome, as it was washing the air.  Thursday was not as bad, but there was detectable smoke in the air up here so I stayed indoors. (Was too tired to do much of anything anyway.)

She got a really nice flat. The only worry is that there's a lot of trees and stuff (read that "chimney effect" in a fire situation) but there's an alternate way out of the flat that doesn't involve the outside stairs that look over the canyon and she has solid PTSD regarding brush smoke, so if there's a whiff of it she'll wake up out of a dead sleep and be on high alert. (She's a smart kid, she'll get out of there if she needs to.)  It's been raining so much out there that everything is green and lush. But it will die, and become tinder. (Much like the grass in the photo I attached to the last post - we saw more than one grass fire in the distance on the way across New Mexico.)

The guinea pig made the trip out there just fine, too. Better than any other pet I've ever driven cross country. Just sat in the carrier and ate hay and made poop the whole way. Rental car company was decent to us - when I told them we were moving her out there they upgraded us to a Toyota Rav 4 with satellite radio, so we had music the whole way. Love that car, by the way. 40mpg sure saved us some money!

And heaven help the Canadians - it must be hell on earth up there to produce that much smoke.

A few "road" photos. We stopped, of course, to see the world's largest rocking chair. (And pencil, mailbox, car key, wind chime, etc.... it was a good town to stop for a break and amusing.)  And the water tower that was leaning ominously. And the cliff dwelling. And the road that goes on-and-on-and-on.