A Dark Beginning, One of My Favourite States, Jell-o

Fire Rock Casino, Church Rock/Gallup, New Mexico

On Thursday, Oct. 27^th we were up and moving even earlier. It was 6:45 when we hit the I-40W😊It was 45F/7C when we pulled out of the very full parking lot at the Info Centre so, as always, we are grateful for arriving before the supper hour.

It was an early start in the dark today

Clouds and turbines

When the first turns are out of the way, Gibbs can settle down and it isn’t long before he is asleep in his bed. Like Clemson used to, he has to get up at slow downs to help his Daddy with directions, don’tcha know. ♥  The point of our early departure was so we could zip through Amarillo before the commuters clog up the highway. It worked, even though it was dark, it was easy and quick.

There was quite the cloud cover over us
but behind us the sky was gorgeous
(through the doggy-licked window)

Looks like a sci-fi movie
but it's just our shadow this morning

The drive along I-40W was really good. We encountered no construction zones that slowed us down and within the hour, we crossed into New Mexico. 

We were almost back at our starting time, gaining another hour. We had a slow down after a few miles and the sun rose nicely behind us. Moving into one lane, this time it all happened quickly.

Mostly, the pictures are of the lovely views

It seemed to change so quickly as soon as we 
entered New Mexico

We needed a Rest Area and the first one we came upon had just closed minutes before we arrived. There was a bad accident and the vehicle was right in the entrance lane. Oh, my goodness, I hope the driver survived, it was horrible! Fuel prices were not pleasing here, but we also needed to fill up as well as take a nature break. We pulled into a Pilot, since they were all the same price, and paid $5.43/gal. ☹

Bill can't get over what they must spend on these
billboard signs
In stretches, there are 10 or more trying to draw
tourists in

It was only 9:00 so we were making good time. We’ve been talking though and may now change our destination for today. We’ll find a good place to pull over soon and run through the scenarios. We passed through Tijeras, NM, where one of our regular campgrounds lives. Not staying today and not even sure if it is on our C to C spots so may never again.

I will never grow tired of this
hills and mountains dotted like pincushions

A suberb of residential homes span across
the bottom of this rocky mountain

We were going to catch I-25S and head south sooner but the Jell-o jiggled and we bypassed that. It meant staying on I-40W which meant we got delayed 10 minutes in the city because of an accident. We didn’t see any evidence and the two left lanes didn’t close after all but it was quite jumbled for a while. We realized that it was actually 12:45 for us so I handed out our lunch at 11:45. We were starved! Even Gibbs got a milk bone chewy.

Interesting overpasses in N M

We drove under clouds, sun, hit some rain, some hail and more construction which slowed us down for another 15 minutes. It was a pretty good drive, regardless. I felt a headache, probably from the late lunch, so put my seat back and tried to doze. It didn’t work but I rested at least. We made one more stop for fuel so we didn’t have to do it in the morning. It was a Marathon Navaho station with a lot of very nice things for sale in the store.

a favourite picture from today

Unfortunately, we paid the hefty price of $5.43/gal again. None along the way were any cheaper. Our NEW and IMPROVED (?) plan was to drive to Gallup, NM and stay at the Walmart there for the night. That’s where we were headed when about 10 miles out of Gallup, Bill said, I wonder if that Fire Rock Casino allows overnighters?

More views - first mountain sighting

A downgrade of 4 %

The hail was weird
Bill said, Is that snow or hail?
It was 50F so we agreed on hail. 😁

So, I called the casino, received a very warm ‘yes, we do’, and we turned onto Route 66 and parked, as directed, in the‘near’ empty lot on the west side.  😊 This casino is actually in Church Rock, just on the outskirts of Gallup. It was very cold at the fuel station, only 36F/3C, because of the winds, and not much better here at 39F/4C. We would be warmer if we’d followed the original plan to Elephant Butte Lake State Park, we have a new plan.

More favourites

They almost look like quilt colours!

We got settled, turned some heat on and I made us each a cup of tea. My next and near last job of the day is to get rid of my purse. It was second hand a year ago and it slowly falling apart. Time to go! That’s the 3^rd one this year! I found one in the cupboard and moved things over. That just might mean a new purchase this winter. 😊

Beautiful large sculpted rocks behind the lot
but also a very busy set of train tracks - woops!

We are a fair walk from the Casino but if you time
it right, there is a shuttle bus that comes around

When we stay at casinos, of course we like to support them so we go in to their restaurants for meals. No, we aren’t gamblers, really at all. Supper was at their Navaho restaurant and we filled our faces. I neglected to take something out for tonight even though I thought we were going to have hookups, so this worked out in the long run. A meal out again. 😉 This has been a good day and it will be a quiet evening reading our books. Since we pulled in, 2 other rv’s have pulled in so I’m glad of our time management today again.

Crispy fried chicken breasts, mashed potatoes,
broccoli and a cup of tea

Bill's meal
Steak, shrimp, corn and fries with a cup of tea
Both meals could have been hotter but they were still quite good
and for $25 who can complain?

Walking back to our site,
I caught the sun as it dipped below the mountain
Good night!

Thank you for stopping by. Also, thank you to all of you who helped me with my query yesterday regarding the field of ‘maize/sorghum/milo’ that we passed. I’ve learned something today! ♥