ON TO TUCSON - July 11, 2019

Mesa Verde to Phoenix

We started the morning by having a very good, but typically expensive breakfast of biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon, sausage and fruit at the Far View Cafe. Again, as captives, we paid the $15 per person price, but it was decent food. Next we headed for the park entrance and the Visitor’s Center to make a few minor purchases and get our National Parks Passport stamped (it’s a thing with seniors.)

Now on the road again by 8:30. Our route today is to cross northern Arizona on US 160 to Tuba City, turn south on US 89, and drop past the Grand Canyon to hook up with I-17 at Flagstaff, eventually into Phoenix by 4:30 PM.

Not overly ambitious but we are on vacation, or at least I am. Deb of course is working, between dropped phone calls in the mountains from spotty service and not too bright reservation agents, she manages to solve a few booking problems and discuss some issues with clients.

We stop at Four Corners National Monument, now operated by the Navajo Nation. $5 per person entry for the opportunity to take a picture and perhaps spend some money at the native kiosks surrounding the central point. Bathrooms were filthy but necessary as our coffee intake from breakfast was catching up with us.

At Tuba City we stopped for gas and then headed due south. Curious about the name Tuba City, we looked it up on one of our gadgets. Originally named for a Navajo Chief Tuuvi, it morphed into Tuba City. It is the most populous city on the Navajo Reservation and is the headquarters of the western portion of the reservation. The main headquarters is in Shiprock in New Mexico.

At Flagstaff (elevation 7,000 ft.) the temperature drops to about 87 F outside and clouds start to form. As we hop on I-17 for the last leg of today’s journey it begins to sprinkle. As we pass south across the plateau and near San Francisco Peak, we run into a thunder storm. Rain on the windshield quickly clears the bugs, and the temperature drops to 63 F.

We start our descent into Phoenix from 7,000 feet down to 1,000 feet. The drop in elevation was inversely matched by a raise in temperature. We went from 63 F to 113 F. Although we expected to arrive by 4:30, we failed to account for an extra free hour due to Arizona’s refusal to play the daylight savings game. We gained an extra hour and arrived at 3:20. Good drive.

We loaded into Del and Karen’s home; Deb unloaded her computer into their home office and went to work while I poured myself a cool drink. Around 6:15 we braved the heat and went out for a good hamburger, beef brisket sandwich, pork chili verde (stew) and a chicken salad. Wine and more water topped off the evening.

Back to the house and into the spa pool to cool down. 84F in the spa but still over 100F in the air so it felt wonderful. Added a glass of wine and then back inside for some fresh fruit and ice cream for dessert.

Tumbled into bed in an air conditioned room and a hard sleep. Tomorrow we take the short drive to Tucson for the penultimate day of our journey.