Thursday, 5-15-97

The low temperature this morning, in Needles, was 76. We heard the weather report and decided to get going quickly. It was supposed to get up to 117 degrees, that is not a typo, the weather service was predicting 117 for the high today. We didn’t hang around to find out if the prediction would come true. We used the cab air conditioner for most of the morning. By midday, we were getting higher in altitude and the outside air was cool enough to turn off the cab air conditioner for the rest of the day.

We stopped in Kingman, Arizona to fill the motorhome’s fuel tank. Yea!!! The motorhome got 10.3 MPG from Barstow to Kingman. The price of gasoline in California was routinely $1.35 to $1.40 per gallon. In Kingman I paid $1.18 per gallon.

Our drive along Interstate 40 has been very pleasant today. Because we started the day a little early and because of a small amount of traffic, we were ahead of the timeline of our last trip going this way. The quantity of vehicles on the highway is only about 25 to 30 percent of the level we experienced on our winter trips on I-40. We took advantage of the extra time by doing a little sightseeing. We visited a place we have passed by many times since 1963. We made a trek to the "Meteor Crater National Landmark." The crater was impressive but at the same time it looked smaller than I had imagined it.

Maury and Kay at the Arizona Meteor Crater

When we continued, we eventually caught up with some small thunderstorms. We drove through light rain showers a few times. We also were delighted to see a lightning display in the distance. I would guess the storms were about ten miles ahead of us. We could see the full length of each jagged stroke from cloud to ground. The highway bypassed the storm area.

We arrived in Albuquerque just as the sun was setting and we found our way to the local KOA campground at 8PM. Right after setting up camp, we called or son, Michael, and Kay’s dad to let them know where we were. The air is cool and windy here, so it looks as if we will sleep comfortably tonight.