Get Gas Sooner than Later

Oklahoma Trip #3 Day 3, (Take 2)

4/5

It was a restful night in a very peaceful hotel, in Williams Arizona. First thing we woke up and looked out the window and the sky was clear. (Image in the last blog), and it stopped snowing. We meandered down to breakfast, packed up and headed out.

Today's intended stop is Moriarty, New Mexico. As we set out, Flagstaff, which is higher in elevation than Williams, but it wasn’t snowing. But as we continued through Gallup, New Mexico, skies began to cloud up and started snowing lightly again. As the weather got worse, Will pulled off the freeway into a parking lot, and sure enough, it hailed on us for 20 minutes. Once we were able to see the local mountain top, we continued to Prewitt, such a desolate exit, but we were getting hungry and pulled over and made sandwiches in a dry, empty dirt lot, with loose farm dogs roaming the area. We are sure they were looking for food, but their behavior wasn’t one we wanted to engage with.

I took over driving after lunch so Will could take a nap for his next driving shift. Rule of thumb now, since our last experience staying in Albuquerque was sketchy to say the least, we drive through this sad city. We still had a quarter tank of gas, and it was only 30 miles to Moriarty, I decided to keep driving beyond the city to find a gas station on the east side. Climbing out of Albuquerque, there were no gas stations, but again I wasn’t worried because we had 7 miles to go. It was quite evident that just within the last hour, maybe even 30 minutes, it had snowed. The side of the road had snow, slushed with heaps on the shoulder of the road. I usually made hotel reservations about this time, but since Will was sleeping, and it was still pretty early in the day (about 2:30), making a phone call would have to wait. And then, without warning, or any clue what was ahead, traffic stopped. Came to a dead halt. A two lane highway. Westbound was moving at the speed limit, but we in the Eastbound lane were at a standstill. We weren’t inching up, we were stopped.

The intended stop is Moriarty. We don't want to stop in Albuquerque. Flagstaff was beautiful, no snow or rain. Right after Gallup, it started clouding up and snowing lightly, but clouds looked like they would get worse. Will pulled over into a parking lot and it hailed for 20 minutes straight, until the mountain top was clear. After that, we continued to Prewitt, made and ate sandwiches, and continued through Albuquerque. It was only 30 miles to Moriarty, with over a quarter tank of gas, so I kept driving. And 7 miles before Moriarty, traffic came to a halt. A stand still. Oh, we’re not moving, STOP. We sat, for nearly 30 minutes, not moving. I began turning off the truck to save gas. Google Maps gave no clue why we were stuck except it confirmed the highway wasn’t moving with a solid red line. Possibly something was in the road blocking both lanes. Who knows. We just waited. And my gas was dropping.

After 30 min, two police cars drove down both sides of the freeway lane, telling traffic to get moving…quickly! We went from 0 to 65 in minutes. By then it was about 5:30PM. We called several hotels in Moriarty, NM, and all hotels were sold out because just minutes before we would drive through, a snow flurry came through and travelers who were able, headed to the hotels blew through everyone headed to the hotels. We now had to continue to the next town to find an available hotel, settling in Santa Rosa, 80 miles away. The slowdowns, because of tipped over trucks, made the drive longer. We rolled into the hotel at 9:30PM. Long day. We stayed at Hampton Inn.